A single mother of nine children had died of AIDS leaving the children completely abandoned and orphaned. Nine siblings left orphaned and living in abject poverty in a one room mud house in rural Uganda. The father had abandoned them years ago and now they were left to fend for themselves. Sickness and starvation were two distinct possibilities. Pastor Joseph’s heart would let him do nothing less than go and see if there was anything he could do. (more…)
The phone was ringing; it was 2:56 AM … the words had to be repeated several times before I could comprehend what was being said-”Papa, Papa, this is Patrick, sorry to wake you Papa, but Pastor Joseph passed away in the night !!!” The rest of the conversation was short as Patrick and others were hurrying to go to the village. Apparently Joseph had become violently ill during the night; and by the time they could get him to a hospital, he was gone.
From time to time you have the rare privilege of meeting and working with a person of extraordinary spirituality; one who has learned how to walk with God closer than most and who served Him with an uncommon humility. From the first time I met this little African man (he only stood about 5 feet tall) – I thought I had met Jesus in skin.
Pastor Jospeph Sekyanzi, a humble servant of the King of Kings, a man who, because of the bigness of his heart and his love for Jesus, took in kids who were abandoned and gave them a home and loved them and raised them as his own and taught them to love Jesus deeply. On the day of Joseph’s death, I was told that the children never stopped singing, praying, and worshiping – these children are truly amazing!!! (more…)
As I am about to head home, and as I pen these words, I find myself strangely emotional. How intense but amazingly fulfilling these two weeks have been! Along the way, I think I have experienced every conceivable human emotion from joy, laughter and peace to grief, stress and frustration. I think the only emotions not experienced were raging anger and stark raving fear (but wait, the week is not over).
Pastor Joseph was amazingly loving, deeply spiritual and one of the most humble servants I have ever known; but he never wrote anything down and did not share much, if anything (especially problems and issues), with his wife Edith or with anyone else.
No record of exactly how many children we were helping, of which children went to which schools, who he may have owed money to, what he had promised to whom, who had been paid for what, etc etc. So when my friend died, tons of information died with him. So, the week was a sort of triage treasure hunt filled with one surprise after another, which then called for one “battle field decision” after another. The challenge was to discover and reconstruct all of the above, get all of the children back in their respective schools, with all of the supplies they needed (which had to be figured out and done in a matter of a few days!); and then, before departing, make sure there was a transition plan in place that would get us through the next three to six months in a reasonably stable fashion.
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A sweet - but very deep - grief … I had pushed my way through the barrage of hugs and excited greetings of the children. I had entered the small house and had just sat down in a not so comfortable chair still being swarmed by the younger children when I looked up and our eyes met. They were the eyes of Sister Edith the wife of the late pastor Joseph. She was coming towards me and the customary kneeling became more of a collapse as she fell at my feet, the weeping embrace that followed seemed to suspend time.
Overall, Edith and the children are doing well but their grief and the magnitude of their loss is profound. There is a sadness in their eyes that I am confident that the God of all comfort will soon replace with Joy and gladness; but for the moment the grief process is very real – please pray for them. (more…)
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