Babies can change the world

After writing last weeks post 'When I am inadequate', it got me thinking about maternal and infant health and their impact on the world we live in. I'm a sucker for stats, especially when they have pretty charts to go with them, so I went to my favourite stats guy, Hans Rosling, for what is always an entertaining and informative look at the state of the world through data. If you are interested check out www.gapminder.org for videos of presentations done by Hans and a whole bunch of other information. In particular check out Religions and babies for a look at population growth in the world and what part religion plays in the number of babies born.

    

Basically in a nutshell (for all those who don't care for stats and won't ever look at the video), the video looks at the fact that the highest population growth happens in those countries that have the lowest income and the highest child mortality rate and highest number of births per woman. Despite the high child mortality rate, these countries populations continue to grow at a rapid pace due to the large families produced. The fourth Millennium Development Goal talks about reducing child mortality by two thirds from the year 1990 to 2015. Hans suggests that this is the first of four factors that will help in reducing world population growth.

Factors to decreasing world population growth:

1. Children survive childhood (if children survive childhood the birth rate actually reduces)
2. Children are not needed for work (and the deepest poverty where children are required to work in the home to help provide for the family)
3. Women get education and join the labour force (I'm not sure how accurate this is but I have heard that for every year of secondary schooling a girl has, she will produce one less child)
4. Family planning is accessible

Now why all this info? Basically because last week a baby died. She was not a statistic. She was someone's daughter. And every one of the almost 7 million children under the age of five who died last year were all someone's son or daughter. And every one of the children in our HOPE schools here in Uganda and DR Congo are also someone's children. Around 2000 children we are able to reach through providing an opportunity to receive education. Around 2000 children who are not at home digging in the garden. Around 2000 children who will play a part in the reduction of world population growth, which will also see the sharing of global resources more equitably.

Why do you care? Because you have an opportunity to do something to help. Our HOPE schools rely on funding through sponsorship and donations from those who take an interest in what we do.

So, as always

Be blessed

bron

P.S. My amazing friend, HOPE Partner and part of my family here in Uganda, Pastor Willy Tumwine, is in South Australia for almost five weeks and if you would like to catch him speaking his schedule is below (contact through the website for more details).

 

30th Sept	10am	Murray Bridge Christian Family Centre
30th Sept	2pm	Hills Christian Family Centre, Nairne
7th Oct	10am	Mt Gambier
14th Oct	10am	Southern Gateway Community Church, Victor Harbor
14th Oct	6pm	NOVA, Murray Bridge Christian Family Centre
21st Oct	10am 6pm	Coast and Vines, Willunga
28th Oct	9am 11am	Seaton Christian Family Centre
28th Oct	3pm	Australia HOPE International AGM, Murray Bridge Christian Family Centre

When I am inadequate

As a Christian, worship of God is not only an integral part of my life but is the core, the essence, the centre of my being. Worship, simply put, is to give worth or value to something or someone. In this case, God, the Creator of the universe, my Father, Saviour and Advocate. Now in Christian tradition, worship, at least in a corporate setting, tends to be wrapped up in music and singing. Usually the songs will be about God and his attributes, or our response to Him and his attributes. But in reality worship is bigger than just singing songs on a Sunday.

In the book of John, Jesus says,

"But the time is coming - indeed it's here now - when true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth. The Father is looking for those who will worship him that way. For God is Spirit, so those who worship him must worship in spirit and in truth."

In the book of Romans, Paul says,

"Let them (our bodies) be a living and holy sacrifice - the kind he will find acceptable. This is truly the way to worship him. Don't copy the behaviour and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think.

Standing in a room at one of the local hospitals the other night I was confronted by this idea of worship. Because really, in the middle of a bunch of Christians, singing songs and telling God how good he is, it is not that hard. But praying for a lady who had just lost a two week old baby and couldn't go to the burial because she herself was facing surgery, that requires a little more faith to worship an Almighty God.

The room smelt of bleach, blood and stale sweat. In fact there was blood on the floor around the empty bed on the other side of the room. Medical supplies littered a cabinet in the middle of the room and medical staff constantly passed in and out to get them. There were no nurses to help her to the bathroom. There were no kitchen staff to bring her food. There were no blankets on the bed. She even had to buy supplies like cannulas, syringes, gloves to be treated. Her hope attached to her family staying with her and spending the money so that she could have the help she needed.

We helped this lady to the bathroom. Although she was very close to passing out, we had to walk her through the throng of people sleeping on the floor of the next ward to the outside pit latrine. The smell of urine and faeces was overpowering, hardly hygienic. While visiting we could hear the cries of women delivering babies coming from the next ward.

And we were there to pray for her, to bring what comfort we could. We prayed for healing and peace, for joy in despair, for hope in darkness.

And in the midst of this I saw God, who had not abandoned her or me, and gave Him praise, because in that moment I was inadequate but He was more than enough.

Blessings

Bron

The Lord is my shepherd;

I have all that I need.

He lets me rest in green meadows;

he leads me beside peaceful streams.

He renews my strength.

He guides me along right paths,

bringing honour to his name.

Even when I walk through the dark valley of death,

I will not be afraid,

for you are close beside me.

Your rod and your staff

protect and comfort me.

You prepare a feast for me

in the presence of my enemies.

You honour me by anointing my head with oil.

My cup overflows with blessings.

Surely your goodness and unfailing love

will pursue me all the days of my life,

and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.

by David

How are you, my wife?

Family means different things to different people. This is true of where I live in Australia, but coming here to Uganda, and even broader than that, my experience of a small portion of African life, has taught me that the concept I have of family is fairly small. After all, when someone asks about my family, I immediately think of my parents and three siblings. Beyond that, I do have other family but wouldn't think of calling my dad's brothers, Dad. But here uncles are only on the mother's side and aunts only on the father's. Your dad's brothers you call, Dad and your mothers sisters you call, Mum. Confusing? YES! Added to which your brother, father and grandfather before you get married are your husband, and corresponding to that your sister, mother, grandmother are your wife (this is not some messed up incestuous weird cultural practice, so chill, let me explain).

Some of my Australian and Ugandan family together in Uganda in August 2011

My friend Joel was explaining this to me the other day as I sat with him at an Introduction/Give away function. Never mind all the traditions associated with them that I don't understand. There is one part of the Give away where the brother of the sister who is going to get married, feeds her cake and vice versa. Similar to the way a husband and wife would when they cut the cake at a wedding. The reason for this is for the brother to say goodbye to his 'wife', as his sister, once she is married, will no longer clean his clothes and cook him food (let me assure you that my Western views of marriage are severely tested over here). Joel goes on to tell me that when he rings his Grandma, he will greet her by saying "How are you my wife?"

Eating lunch at the Introduction/Giveaway function where someone gave me their oluwumbo, hanging out with some friends at the pool that I didn’t know anything about and my hair after taking out the braids and before washing.

So with all these confusions (and it gets more confusing when cousins also are brothers and sisters), I still see something beautiful in the way families relate here. Yes, there is much dysfunction, but when it works it's amazing. Someone the other day was telling me that children (and marriages) are community affairs. Children are for the community. So if you see a child misbehaving, you are free to discipline them. And if you see a man beating his wife, you would get involved because what he is doing is not good and if you see it it's your responsibility to do something about it.

But I was also talking to another friend the other day. Her parents were killed in the Rwandan genocide. She was five. Her older sister took her to safety in Tanzania where she spent the next ten years. Then she came, at the age of fifteen, to Uganda. Alone. In a country where people weren't speaking her language. Somehow she managed to get through to Senior Three, which is the third of six years of senior schooling. Now she runs her own business, a small shop where she is earning enough to live on. Her family now? The church that we both attend. The friends she has made here in Uganda. We are her family

I was also talking with another friend who was telling me about his life growing up. At the age of ten he had been abandoned by both his parents (who were not together any longer) to the care of his aunt who provided little more than a roof over his head. No sense of family or love. He started working in a washing bay washing vehicles to support himself through school. And now as a grown man he is still working to provide himself a living and to be able to follow his dreams. He told me that through it all he has known from a very young age that God is his father and the one taking care of him.

I happened to go to the opening service for one of our HOPE schools here in Mbarara, where several of our sponsored boys are. The boys are no different from any others, can't sit still, don't pay attention, always making noise. But two of them gave testimonies, both with similar content. These boys used to live on the streets or in intolerable home situations. One of the boys told how he used to steal people's saucepans to break down into scrap metal to sell so that he could buy food. Sometimes he would take the very hot saucepan while it was sitting on the charcoal stove cooking dinner. These boys lived desperate lives. But they were rescued and they now have a family. They no longer steal. And the way they danced during the short service showed a real, true joy.

In Psalm 68, it says that God is a Father to the fatherless, a defender of the widows and that He will place the lonely in families. I myself have experienced that here, far from my family and friends. God has been faithful to me. He has given me a family to live with and a church filled with people who have accepted me even though I may seem very different to them.

As an organisation Australia HOPE International may be building schools and sponsoring kids but we work with partners who are building family and that is the business that God is into. It doesn’t matter where you are in the world, there is someone who needs to be part of a family.

Maybe you are the family they need.

Be blessed

bron