Mourn with those who mourn

Death has loomed over our community here in Nakaale for the past couple months. In late August, the week before I arrived, two people died: a young man named Luomo Gabriel, who suffered horribly before he died, and an old woman who was a relative of one of our translators (links are to the blog of a summer pastoral intern, David Landow). Now, in just the last two weeks, we've faced three more deaths. The wife of our employee Markson was beaten to death (Chris Verdick describes this in his blog). The son of the "Big Man" Mose Athio died last Sunday after years of alcoholism, and today the Mose's wife also died of alcohol-induced liver failure. The Mose has now lost five of his seven children and his wife.

Markson is not a believer, as far as we can tell - please pray for the death of his wife to be a spiritual wake-up call for him. Pray that we will know how to minister to him. The Mose is a believer who faithfully attends church despite his age and poor health. Please pray for him at this time as he mourns two family members. His wife died last night, and as of this morning he had not been told the news. His family requested that Pastor Dave Okken visit him and inform him of his wife's passing.

Martha told me this morning that the wife of Mose Athio, Nakiru, was a very strong, capable, beautiful woman. Soon after her marriage to Athio, she took to drinking heavily. Death is a horrible thing to face, regardless of the causes. But to hear of people dying of alcohol abuse, being beaten to death, being stabbed to death -- the circumstances are simply heartbreaking.

As missionaries, we're not here to wipe out Karimojong culture and "Americanize" these people. But we do hope to have a positive influence and change some aspects of the culture here, because they are so destructive. The amount of drunkenness here, and the violence that erupts from this drunkenness, is staggering. Lord, help us to be a light in this dark place.


~Emily

For all you prayer warriors...

We're now in Mbale, with plans to travel up to Karamoja on Monday. We've had a great time in the cities, enjoying civilization and spending time with loads of quality people, but I'm feeling ready to get back "home" to Nakaale. 

I'd really appreciate your prayers. Some doors are opening here for longer term work for me, and I need wisdom and prayer to know how to go forward. I want to stay in Karamoja! It seems like my dream job is right in front of me, but going down this road will mean at least two more years here in Uganda. I would love to spend the rest of my life here, but realistically I need to take things one year at a time. So please pray that I wouldn't rush into any decisions, but would be wise, patient, and responsible as I think about the road I'm headed down.

You can also pray for our Mission right now as we deal with some really discouraging trials in the Nakaale church, particularly with regards to church members taking second wives. In some cases the men who have taken second wives were men we'd hoped would step into church leadership roles eventually; they're now ineligible for church office. This has been a hard blow to our mission and we'd appreciate your prayers during this time. We know the Lord will raise up a people for Himself from among the Karimojong, but it's a long and bumpy road and right now it seems like there's little fruit for our labors. Please pray for the Karimojong church members - that they would have a sincere faith, that they would understand the life Christ calls them to as believers, and that they would not cave in to cultural pressures. We can't do these things for them. We're praying and waiting for the Holy Spirit to do his work among our brothers and sisters.

Thank you for standing alongside us as we struggle to bring the Gospel to this dark place. Your prayers and encouragement mean more than you know! God bless you all,

In Christ,

Emily