Dear Family & Friends,
“[We] urge you, brothers and sisters, by our Lord Jesus Christ and by the love of the Spirit, to join [us] in [our] struggle by praying to God” (Romans 15:30)
A 14-year-old boy named Musa came to our house the other day. He couldn’t speak English so we had our daughter Miriam translate, and then our friend Denis talk to him… When he was a young pre-school boy, his father, a soldier, was killed by the Karamojong (a violent cattle-rustling tribe). His mother then became the second wife to a friend of his father. Out of jealousy, the friend’s first wife poisoned Musa’s mother and attempted to poison Musa and his siblings. However, because Musa’s step-mother accidentally spilled some food when serving it to them (there is a superstition that if this happens, the food must have poison in it), the friend, Musa’s step-father, became suspicious and forced Musa’s step-mother to eat it. She died a few hours later. Soon after, Musa’s step-father was also killed by the Karamojong. As a result, his sisters were sent to Kampala to be house slaves and he and his older brother were sent to Soroti to fend for themselves. While his brother ended up living on the streets of Soroti, Musa was taken in by the wife of a wealthy man. However, the wealthy man simply used Musa to look after his livestock in the village. After selling all of his animals a few years later, which was only a couple months ago, the wealthy man had no more use for Musa and so sent him away, forbidding his wife to care for him. Since then, he has been moving from place to place to whoever would take him in for a couple weeks. He is a sweet, gentle, caring, intelligent, appreciative, fun-loving boy who desperately wants a family to belong to. His only ambition in life right now is to take care of someone’s animals as long as they take care of him. Please pray that God would make a way for this boy to be adopted into a life-long, loving family.
We praise God for the Soul-Care training that our team received at the Team Beyond Retreat and that our partners received at a following seminar in Soroti. God truly ministered to the souls of each of us, and to the collective soul of our team, including our partners. We thank God for those that came out from Connecticut – Ingrid Davis as the trainer; Katie Nelson as the worship leader; and Christian Davis, Katie Avery and Janet Freiheit as the children’s ministry leaders, along with Mary Wright, a friend from Karamoja.
Our teammate, Beckie Carlson is getting married to “Ruudy” Emmanuel Olupot on April 6 here in Uganda. Please pray for their marriage, as they grow together in their relationship with God, that their life-long union may bless and display God.
We praise God for sending Dave & Veronica Commire and their 4 children (Grace, Daisy, Thomas, and Lucy) to join the Soroti Town Team. Please pray for them as they work on raising 100% of their budget in 100 days and all the preparations they have to do for their move, including selling their house and possessions and going through training.
Stay tuned for our upcoming newsletter!
With you,
Tim & Angie Sliedrecht
