Watching the Sawdust Fly

10 days in Uganda serving with our friends at The Remnant Generation. 

What a phenomenal, life changing trip this was. This is the beginning of a partnership with people who know what it means to care for people in the margins.

The Remnant Generation is a Uganda based non-profit that focuses on serving young girls and teens that have been sexually abused. Unfortunately, in Uganda, a young girl that is sexually abused is labeled as broken and no good. They are often not allowed to return to their school and families push them away. This doesn’t make any sense at all, but it is the current reality.

The Remnant Generation provides a safe place for these girls (and often their infant child) to heal, to learn practical skills and to be cared for. The Remnant Generation staff makes sure each girl is reminded that she is loved and is extremely valuable.

Care is provided for the girls in various ways: child protection and safeguarding, access to health care, programs to learn practical skills, access to education, family reintegration when possible and what they call the Princess Shelter, where young expecting mothers can carry and deliver their baby safely.

Annabelle and Isaac Ssebakijje are the co-founders of The Remnant Generation, and they work together with an amazing staff to provide as much care for as many young girls as possible. You know when you see someone who is thriving and passionate about their work; someone who is doing exactly what God has called them to do? That is a perfect description of Annabelle and Isaac. They were blessed with caring hearts and a desire to care for those in the margins. And they are doing it very well.

When we come across people and organizations that are loving their neighbors so well, we try to find ways to work with and serve alongside them. Pulpit Rock is looking for ways to support them financially as well as find some practical ways to help them care for their community.

Our Love Your Neighbor team has already found a way to serve alongside them.

The Remnant Generation opened up a boys shelter in September of this year. Their original idea was to bring boys in off the street, give them a safe place to stay, put food in their stomachs and share the love of Jesus with them. But, being the loving, caring people they are, they also brought in some young girls that were rescued from a nearby brothel. Their shelter is a fenced in property with 2 homes on it: one for the boys and one for the girls.

Annabelle and Isaac were able to get some mattresses for the boys and girls to sleep on but couldn’t afford beds or other furniture. We all know what it’s like to want to do so much but be limited by budget or access to goods.

Cue our Love Your Neighbor (LYN) Team. When our LYN team hears of kids needing beds, our ears perk up and we’re eager to jump into action.

After some initial planning, this trip quickly turned into much more than going to Uganda to simply build beds for kids.

The LYN team was able to fund and set up a full woodshop at the boys and girls shelter. We worked closely with all the boys and girls to teach them woodworking skills while building bunk beds. The goal had shifted from just providing beds to teaching the kids a skill set that would help them earn money in the future.

To our amazement, each kid was eager to jump in and learn. After the first 2 days of setting up the woodshop and teaching basic skills, our team showed up mid-morning on the third day to find sanders and saws humming and every kid working on a piece of wood. Several bunk beds were in process and the kids’ minds were overflowing with ideas about other furniture to build.

We simply helped them fine tune their plans, gave them some woodworking tips and tricks, sat back and watched the sawdust fly.

By the last day, the kids had nearly finished 6 bunk beds (12 total beds), multiple side tables, chairs, stools, a bench, a shoe rack and even started on a standing closet to store clothes.

From seeing all the ways The Remnant Generation is caring for young girls, to watching the kids get excited about woodwork, this trip exceeded all expectations. We are eager to see what lies ahead and look forward to what God has in store for Pulpit Rock and The Remnant Generation.