“Our mother left us when we were Babies. Our father dumped us at our grandmother’s and left after he had got tired of us. I am now staying with an uncle and the wife. He has lately refused to pay school fees for me. He keeps telling me to get married and take responsibility for myself and my two younger siblings. Everybody hates me.”
Akello Sarah told me this story of her life with a face of an abandoned kitten. See, Akello is only 15 years old at the moment. Our paths crossed one of the conferences we’ve recently had in Karuma. She is currently dropped out of school in her senior three and working in her own uncle’s place as a House maid. On the flip side, I got to meet her at this conference in her capacity of the church’s youth leader. So young and yet so brilliant in whatever she did, I was baffled. This actually is the reason I got to talk a little more with her, trying to find out what drives her. What I discovered instead was a lifetime of wounds inflicted by almost every one and everything in her life.
“I am a mistake, an accident. That’s what my uncle says. Auntie says that it would have been better for everyone if my mother had aborted me.”
Jesus knew his identity. He came from and was going to God. He is God as He said, “I and the father are one”. Jesus knew who he was in God’s sight and also the sight of man. He however, accepted and appreciated what he was in man’s presence yet he did not let it take His focus away from the father. He did not have to through His weight around just to prove Himself and His authority. He was not moved by circumstances in His life because of the quiet confidence within and the knowledge of which it is that put Him on earth.
The psalmist said, “I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made: your works are wonderful, I know that fully well.” (Pslam 139: 14). To so many youths like Akello, in the places we work in these words are a mystery. They do not have a clue what they mean in their lives and surely cannot claim that they know this, let alone fully well.
Fortunate for Akello, Henry a partner of YEA in Masindi offered to take care of her as she goes through her secondary school. The joy on the uncle’s face as they agreed on the terms said it all. It was surely best she gets moved. Not so many in this situation are that lucky though. One of the major causes of the high HIV prevalence rates in teens, teenage pregnancies and marriages and school dropouts in Uganda is the lack of self worth. Low self esteem is a constant description of a typical Ugandan youth.
It is this gospel of self worth and confidence in Christ that we need to focus on in a lot of our trainings. The basis that they are special and personally designed by God will mean a great deal as they see it reflected in our own lives. With our effort we can help the youth realise that Christ came to give them life and life in abundance. To help them know our father and the great love He has for us. Both children and the youth can respond with full commitment to Him and discover their place in His Heart. As it is said, “To know God’s word and delight in it, is the best foundation of living”.
“You know how when you were a small child, you were taught the Holy Scriptures, and it is these that make you wise to accept God’s salvation by trusting in Christ Jesus.” (2 Tim 3:15)
