Good Shepherd Vocational School

Gulu, Uganda; Wednesday, May 27



Our five-hour drive from Kampala landed us in the heart of Gulu at the Good Shepherd Vocational School. Alex, the Head Master of Destiny and the visionary for Good Shepherd, gave us a tour of the grounds. The students who attend this school have been affected by AIDS or rescued from Kony’s army. Since the students have either been too poor/sick or trapped in the Bush with the LRA, they have not received an education. This school gives them an opportunity to live. It gives them a second chance. They are taught one vocation for six months in order to equip them for a job in welding, sewing, or hairdressing. Most of the students live in distant villages and walk several hours to get to the school each day. Their determination has developed in them a hope that cannot be crushed by their diseases, painful memories, or current monetary situation.

How can that be? How can a widowed woman with AIDS, who has several children, no job and no money have hope? How can she sing and dance and smile the way she does? I have seen these people’s reason for despair. If there was ever a dark moment on this trip, it was in the stories of these Gulu people. Unfair tragedy has ruined their lives and left deep scares. What do they have to hope for?

But I saw a light in them that shone brighter than the sun, where fear was not welcomed. As I sat in a stuffy wooden meetinghouse, my chest tightened and I could not hold back the tears as I watched these men and women praise God with all of their being. Their songs were filled with hope and grace and mercy. Their feet kicked up dust that filled the small house as they danced and jumped and lifted up their hands. Their smiles grew as tears fell from their eyes. These people have found their hope in Jesus, the very thing that I myself have done. It is through this one relationship that life is sustained and redeemed. If anyone would have a reason to reject Jesus, it would be these people. But they have seen Jesus for what he truly is, the Savior of the World.