(Parents please read this post before allowing your children to read it)

As you can imagine the past two days have been emotional for me. Having to say good bye to Rodgers and following through until he was buried. I learned that he had just asked for some porridge and when they came back with the porridge, he was dead. It didn’t seem apparent that he struggled at all. I am thankful because it seems even Rodgers didn’t know death was upon him. Thank you Father God in heaven for taking him unaware.

Here in Uganda there are no funeral homes or anything like we have back in the states. If a family has money a body can be preserved for a couple of days, but for deaths like Rodgers where there is no money to preserve the body, the burial is done quickly. Rodgers died at 8:00pm on Sunday night and he was buried yesterday before dark. Not even 24 hours passed from his death to his burial.

All during the day yesterday I was trying to prepare myself for the funeral, not knowing the customs and culture here. He was going to be buried in the village where his father was buried. This village was a long way from here, so a truck had to be arranged to bring the body.

I continued to think I was prepared for whatever lay ahead when we reached the destination. Yet, nothing could have prepared me for when they lifted his body out of the bed of the truck. He was wrapped in the new blanket I bought him and the mattress I bought him was his casket. At that point I had to totally trust the Lord to get me through the rest of the funeral as I realized he was not going to be put in a box. He was going to be put directly in the ground and the things I had given him were the only protection.

We walked about a mile or so back into the bush. Beautiful lush green valleys and mountain ranges. His grave had been dug in the middle of a cornfield with green beans growing under the corn stalks. I though how ironic that Rodgers had lived most his life hungry and yet he was buried in a place bountiful of food.

Although the day left me drained emotionally, I rejoiced as the gospel was shared. I know God works in mysterious ways and although we did not see evidence of the gospel being accepted, I believe God used Rodgers death in a mighty way. Now it’s time to press on and help those who are still here.

There is a little girl named Gloria who is 4 years old who is now in the hospital recovering from a brutal attack from a 34 year old man with Aids who raped her after being told by a witch doctor that if he had sex with a small child, he would be cured of Aids. She was injured severely and has a long road ahead of her not only in recovering physically, but emotionally. She will now live life in fear of Aids taking her life.

Gloria is one of many children who have been violated at the commands of these evil witch doctors. Gloria is not an exception, this is common practice here. Child sacrifice here is rampant. Children are not only violated like Gloria, but they are killed in various ways as a sacrifice for the evil practices here.

Please join me in praying for our children to be protected. Most of them have no parents looking after them so child abduction is often gone unnoticed until the body of the child is found. Please be in prayer for Gloria. She needs us interceding for her.

Love to all,

Joy Breedlove

Missionary – East Africa