Hope

The past couple of days since I visited the Kikagate Refugee Camp, I’ve kind of been stuck in a sober, disheartened mood . The situation I saw seemed so desperate, the people so destitute, and the world so oblivious.

I was still harbouring these sentiments at the end of the OFF, as we left to return to Kasese to complete the work that we’d been doing last month. As we passed through Queen Elizabeth National Park, we saw elephants, many of them in fact. And as I was admiring the elegance and beauty of these enormous creatures, I was reminded of God, who created the elephants, and me, and the people in the refugee camp.

A short time later, as we were approaching Kasese, I saw a rainbow in the sky. It was pretty cool because I could see both ends of the rainbow (unfortunately, as you can tell by the picture, my camera wouldn’t let me take a picture wide enough to capture the whole thing). Anyway, I was just reminded of Noah and the covenant that God made with him after the flood. I looked the passage up and God says in Genesis Chapter 9, “Whenever the rainbow appears in the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant between God and all living creatures of every kind on the earth.”

It was a great reminder of God’s commitment to us, his children, as well as a great reassurance to me that, despite what appeared to be such a hopeless situation in the refugee camp, God hadn’t forgotten about those people. He knows about them and even more, he cares for them and he’s got a plan for them too. And while it still hurts to think about the suffering that these people endure, it is encouraging to remember that even when it seems like the world has turned its back on these people, God will always be there for them. And that’s worth more than anything else that anybody or organization can provide.