Lew: Reflecting on Rwanda

One more thing from Rwanda: The last day we were in Rwanda, the day Mal flew home, we met with a Ugandan woman named Baraka. Starting her education as a nurse, she realized that the need was really for counseling and began an organization called Gates for Hope. Now she trains people every year to address trauma issues. The International Justice Mission (IJM) supports her as she counsels children who were freed from sex trafficking. Her story and her passion were extremely inspiring. I can’t say I have ever met someone quite like her (although we only met her for about an hour…). She identified the fact that men need trauma counseling maybe even more than women because they are the ones causing a lot of the trauma towards women. But she confessed that because there is just no support for her work, and because of its many challenges, she had considered giving up many times. But she persevered and now is really making a difference and will continue to do so. We got a chance to encourage her and pray for her after the interview! So keep her in your prayers.

Today we met with William, who is the relief coordinator for Pilgrim ministries. He is putting us in touch with the staff that relate to trauma, and we will also be doing working with them in Soroti, which is in the north east, but south of Gulu where we are going tomorrow. We are also setting up a time to visit a refugee camp for people from the DRC and the plan so far is to spend two there. So keep praying for us please, we need it.