A Perfect Injustice

This is one of the harder post's for me to write.

We met a couple that was adopting from the babies home that Madison was from and they worked for an organization called A Perfect Injustice (API). API is an organization that works with street children. Their name comes from their belief that street children are a perfect example of injustice. On Monday, Wendesday, and Friday they do a street program in the slums for the boys. They do a school lesson, a Bible lesson, feed them, tend to any injuries, sometimes the boys get to bathe and sometimes they get a clean, new pair of clothes. (the clothes they are wearing are usually the only clothes they have)

Street kids are incredible. Most of them have become residents on the streets due to an abusive home or death of their parents. Once on the street, they hide in the slums because the police don't often visit the slums. When the police are around, they will either beat the kids or pick them up and take them to prison. The boys go hungry, get body lice, are forced to bathe in sewage water, do drugs (to keep hunger at bay), and the smaller boys are sexually traumatized by the older boys. Childhood is robbed, and they never get the chance at a 'normal' life. Somtimes they collect scrapes of metal and sell it to make a little money so they can buy food or water. When I say they make some money I mean maybe 10-25 cents for some scrapes. A little boy when we were there made 300 shillings selling scrap. That is nothing. 2,4000 shillings is equal to one dollar.

We were able to help with their street program when we were there. We were told before visiting to be careful how we touched the boys since every one of them had been raped at some point (usually everynight unless they could find a safe place to sleep/hide). We were told they met in a church in the slums. Let me tell you about this church. There were two walls made of metal sheets and a roof. That's it. There was a bumpy dirt floor. They laid down a blue tarp for the kids to sit on. It broke my heart looking at all these precious boys and knowing (trying to wrap my mind around) the kind of lives they have and the abuse they have suffered. I got to met each one as I wrote out their names on some tape (at the end they give us the tape and in exchange they get food).

The ages of the boys start around 6 or 7 and go up from there

So, first they have a lesson. The boys are so eager to learn. If you ask them how many of them want to go to school, they would all raise their hands. After the lessons we played games with the boys. They were so fun! Their smiles lit up their faces. I enjoyed this time with them. Then they had a full meal of rice, beans, and samosa's (yummy!).


After the boys are seated, they start (and end) each lesson with "God is good all the time and all the time God is good" I believe that to be true and I trust God...and I know people question  this because I have had the same questions...how can these boys believe that God is good when night after night they are abused, they are abandonded by their earthly fathers, they seem to have no hope...and yet...GOD IS GOOD ALL THE TIME. Abbey, the founder of API, has done some awesome work with some of these boys, they DO have hope, they are shown healthy love, God brought the people that I met to Uganda and placed a love for these boys on their hearts....God has not abandonded them. People might ask, how is God good when His children are sufferring like this....I don't have all the right words to say to answer these questions, I'm not eloquent. We live in a broken world, but He has NOT abandonded them, God is good all the time and all the time God is good.

I found out, about two weeks after arriving home, that one of the boys we met, died. This broke my heart to read about. He was climbing on a roof, looking for metal scrapes, and fell off and was impaled by some metal sticking up. He was about 13 years old. API was able to find his family and when they were contacted they said they did not care and did not want to know anything about him and would not be attending any funeral. He died alone, not knowing the love of a earthly mother and father. This breaks my heart!

I have said in other post's that there were 3 songs going through my head while in Uganda. This is the third song:

"Never Once" by Matt Redman
"Standing of this moutain top, looking just how far we've come, knowing that for every step You were with us, kneeling on this battle ground, seeing just how much You've done, knowing every vicotry was Your power in us, scars and struggles on the way, but with JOY our hearts can say, NEVER once did we ever walk alone, never once did You leave us on our own, You are faithful, God you are faithful...carried by Your constant grace, held within Your perfect peace, never once, no we never walk alone...every step we are breathing in Your grace...God you are faithful!!"

These boys are not alone and they are not forgotten.