Fatherless & Widows

Isaiah 1; Isaiah 2; Isaiah 3; Titus 3
Click Here To Read Or Listen To Today’s Daily Bible Reading

Scripture

Isaiah 1

17 learn to do right!
Seek justice,
encourage the oppressed. [a]
Defend the cause of the fatherless,
plead the case of the widow.
18 "Come now, let us reason together,"
says the LORD.
"Though your sins are like scarlet,
they shall be as white as snow;
though they are red as crimson,
they shall be like wool.

Observation

In Uganda there are millions of orphans and many widows that are in a desperate situation. HIV AIDs and Malaria has struck every family and death and suffering is everywhere. Pastor Agnatius that led our work in Uganda is working with orphans and in his church he also takes care of widows. I will hopefully soon have pictures of the kids in Uganda on my blog that need a sponsor so that they can have food and an education and grow up knowing Christ as their Savior. Agnatius has a school for disadvantaged kids and some of these kids actually live at the school because they have no relatives that can take care of them.

Pastor Agnatius is a “Kingdom Man”. This is a term that I learned from him as he described someone else. He has used his own resources that had been set-aside for his retirement to help these children and launch this ministry. Property that he had personally owned now has a church and school on it because God led him to give it away to be used for a ministry to the helpless and to the disadvantaged.

The church around the world can help reach these African countries with not only the Gospel but also the church can help fight the destructiveness of AID’s and Malaria and poverty in Africa. The worldwide church can also help care for the “fatherless and widows” in these struggling countries.

On the first day of our medical clinics in Palissa, Uganda I met a young mother and her beautiful 6-year-old daughter. I don’t believe I will ever forget their faces or their story. The Mom shared with me as I was counseling them that they were both HIV AID’s positive and that her husband had abandoned them. She accepted Christ and promised to start coming to the church that Pastor Agnatius pastored in Palissa. Our last clinic the day before we headed back to the United States was at Pastor Agnatius’s church. This woman came to see the team at this last clinic and we found out that she had already begun to minister and reach people for Christ.

It was all planned out by God that this woman would come to Christ through my Christian translator named Grace who is also HIV AID’s positive. I worked with Grace all week and I was amazed at her strength and her devotion to Christ. She had come to Christ after being infected with AID’s by her unfaithful husband who had been with someone in the city and had brought back AID’s to his wife. Grace’s husband died of the disease and she also lost a small child that had HIV AID’s. Grace now struggles to raise her other older children who are HIV AID’s negative. I talked to her son Patrick who is 17 years old. Patrick wants to be either a pastor or a doctor. He walks two hours to school each day. He lives in a small hut that he built himself next to his Mom’s and sister’s small hut on their small piece of property.

His Mom, Grace has asked me if I would sponsor Patrick and pay his small school fees so that he might continue going to school. I told Patrick and Grace that I would pray about it when I got back to the states and if the Lord impresses me to help then I will sure do it. At first I was put off by her asking me, but since then God has let me know that she was completely correct in asking me if I could help. We are blessed with so much in our country and we are blessed so that we may be able to give and help those less fortunate. It is the only reason that we are so blessed.

Application

I will help the “Fatherless and Widows” here in the USA and also in other countries as God places them on my heart and in my path.

Prayer

Heavenly Father, I pray for the orphans and widows of this world. I know that they are close to your heart. You are their Hope, their Strength, and you are their Heavenly Father. Lead me to know which ones to help. Touch my heart and make me sensitive to what touches your heart. I pray for Grace today and I pray for her family. I pray that you keep her HIV AID’s in remission so that she can serve you. I pray that you completely heal her of this disease. I know that you can. I pray for the young Mom and her daughter that also have AID’s and I pray that you heal them. I pray that they grow in Christ and I pray that they have food and shelter and I pray that you use them to reach many for Christ. I pray for pastor Agnatius. I pray that you guard him for the evil one and I pray that you continue to provide resources so that he can continue helping the people of Palissa, Uganda. In Jesus Name Amen.

Today’s "Life Journal" Daily Bible Reading can be found on Line. Click Here!