Amecet n'ainapakin (Shelter of Peace) is a ministry of Youth With A Mission (YWAM)in Soroti, Uganda. We are reaching out to HIV infected and affected children. We also are caring for new born babies, who lost their mother after the delivery. The third group of children we help, are children who need a safe place, they mostly come via the police. In this blog we want to share with you our stories, our pictures, our needs and blessings!

Sunday, July 20, 2014

Baby's and one more week with Michael!!!



There are always new things happening in Amecet! Often so much that it is difficult to keep up with the blog at times. 

 
Right now we have our 3rd set of twins! Apio Mary and Achen Betty came on Tuesday. Both weigh a little over 2kilos and lost their mother while giving birth to them. 






Friday baby Samuel (left picture )came who also lost his mother during his birth. He is premature and only weighs a 1.5kilos.










 Then just today (Sunday) Simon Peter arrived. He also weighs only around 1.5kilos. Both are being fed by NG tube and being kept in the medical room. We ask that you join us in praying for both of these little guys.  That they would tolerate the milk and that all their bodily functions would be working properly! They are both quite susceptible at this point of their little lives.
  
We have also seen the return of Tom and Lazarus. Both have been here before. Please be praying for both of these little guys as well. That they would both continue to gain weight and be healthy. It’s wonderful to see them smiling and laughing once again.

 
   





                                                                      As we are saying hello and welcoming all of the above children, we are about to say a bitter/sweet goodbye to someone very special. Many of you know Michaels’ story. He is an amazing little boy who has a smile that lights the whole room up. We have prayed for quite some time now that God would bring an equally special family along for him. And now Our Faithful Father has done so! Michaels’ God given mother will come to get him around the 29th. They will leave for Kampala where they will stay a couple weeks to get his passport and visa. Please be praying for this transition for all who are involved. There will be many new things Michael will be experiencing for the first time. Although we love Michael very much and a bit sad to see him leave, we are equally excited. His opportunities will be endless! We know that God’s hand has been orchestrating this from the very time Michael was brought here. We will keep you posted with Michaels’ situation!


Saturday, July 5, 2014

The story of Max

     As you know, we have many volunteers coming through Amecet. Saffron stayed together with Lucy for a year in Uganda and for 3 months in Amecet. Tonight is their goodbye party. Just want to share how proud I am of these girls. The story of Max is written by Saffron and moved me to tears. because Amecet is there for the children. But these children do so much for us auntie's!

 THE STORY OF MAX

    Tonight during evening worship, with the children, I looked over at a small 12 year old boy named Max and nearly cried seeing him singing along worshiping God. This is a HUGE thing for Max and here’s why.
  Getting picked ...up from the post office to go to Amecet, Max was in the car just lying there with not much life in him. I was later to discover that he was in the last stages of AIDS and was brought to Amecet to die. He also had meningitis at that time too and as a result of that he developed dementia which then left him with a mental age of a baby. From here onwards it only got worse, he soon slipped into depression refusing to eat, drink or take his medicine, which he has to take to try and keep the AIDS under control. We then put a tube into his nose that went to his stomach so we could at least give him fluids and his medicine, however he was still refusing to eat. He then started to scream during the night out of fear and couldn’t sleep. So we asked an AIDS specialist doctor to come and see him, who then put him on anti-depressants and sleeping tablets. Seeing him like this was one of the hardest things I’ve had to witness and we all thought and prayed that God would take him soon because his value of life was not something that I would want anyone to go through. Well God had a different plan for Max and weeks later I started to witness the miracle that this boy is. It all started off with a smile, which doesn’t seem much but when you saw how this boy was, it was huge. Then he started to laugh at the toddlers or someone dancing to music, and then it went to him drinking a little bit here and there to him starting to eat the odd bit of food. Soon Max was eating and drinking like a normal 12 year old boy, which gave us the hope and encouragement we needed. Then one morning I was sitting with him saying the word ‘Yoga’ (which means hello in his language) and out of nowhere he said it back to me, to say I was shocked was an understatement. I had never heard him speak before. Word by word he was saying a little bit more and with this new communication we was able to communicate that if he started to take his medicine we would take his tube out (he hated his tube) and soon enough Max was taking his own medicine. I cannot tell you how much of a miracle this is alone, he use to fight you when you gave him his medicine and you would sometimes be sitting there for 30 minutes to an hour trying to get his medicine in him. Max now speaks more than he did when he first came to Amecet. The photos attached show was Max was and how he is today.
He is now able to sit on his own, eat, drink, take his own medicine and talk. And let me tell you he is one bossy boy but he is our little miracle. And tonight Max started us off in worship.

   I’m writing this to tell you that when I see Max I see Gods unfathomable love for us. We had lost hope in Max of ever getting better but God didn’t. God knew the miracle and testimony this boy would be to so many of us and he loved a little boy like Max enough to not lose hope but to perform one of the biggest miracles I have ever witnessed. So when we lose hope in ourselves or in others know that God doesn’t, His love is beyond our own understanding so what seems impossible to us is possible to God. You are NOT unreachable or redeemable, have faith and He will pull through, just hang in there Gods got you.
 

Thursday, July 3, 2014

Sharing His love



            There is really never a dull moment in Amecet! We have been quite busy over the past couple of weeks. We were able to resettle 7 children back home. Among them were Grace, Sabina, and Lawerence. This was quite helpful because we had become very full. We also had at least 10 different children’s cases from the police. The more we spoke of being full, the more children showed up! We even had 5 extra children show up all in 1 day!
Lawrence with his grandmother
Sabina and her sister

Last week we had 3 babies that had developed pneumonia. We turned our medical room into an IC room. And after a week of treating them, we are happy to say that they are all better and back in their own beds. We were becoming quite tired and looking forward to a good night of sleep.  

baby Rose

Sunday a lady carrying a baby came to our compound. When I saw the baby, I was really shocked. I thought perhaps the baby was already dead. He was at least 2 months premature and had some characteristics of a child with some physical disabilities.

 When the auntie released him to our care, I noticed he was actually still breathing. I quickly called the doctor who serves on the children’s ward at the hospital. We then rushed him there, so the doctor could review him. Afterwards we quickly brought him back and placed him in the incubator. Then began starting him on IV meds and gave him an NG tube so we could feed him. His family had only given him warm water over the past 2 days. He began picking up a bit. During the night we kept a pretty close eye on him and he remained in fair condition. But by morning his heart rate and oxygen levels began dropping rather quickly. So we decided to get him out of the incubator and hold him.  Just to show him we were close. As soon as we began doing this, his heart rate and oxygen levels began picking up straight away. It once again showed us how important it is to give our love to these children. Baby Emmanuel, (God with us) died that afternoon. But we really believe God placed him in our care so we could share His love with this special little baby.

Dominique holding Emmanuel