Throw Away People

This email from our missionary in Uganda really got my attention:

We drove past a garbage pile on the drive out of Kampala last week. Garbage heaps are a common sight throughout Uganda streets. This one caught my eye because a woman was sitting on top of this mountain of garbage. She looked so dignified perched atop a mound of rotting vegetables, plastic water bottles, ripped cardboard boxes. Stuck in traffic with black exhaust fumes billowing and horns honking, it took me several minutes to realize this beautiful young woman had turned grey and stiff – she was dead.
This is not the first dead person I have seen. This is not the first dead person I have seen on the side of a Ugandan road. Yet, the sight of her broke my heart. She seemed to symbolize the "throw away people" we hurry past every day. How fast do we have to go? The whole world rushing by, did no one else notice? Did anyone miss her? Did anyone care? I am still trying to sort through all my feelings.
A recent article in a Uganda newspaper wrote that for every one job opening there are over 50 Ugandans applying. 320,000 young people graduate and begin seeking employment each year in a country where unemployment is at a critical high. 60% of the staffing in the Hospitality Industry in Uganda is Kenyan, because Ugandans lack the training to work in this Westernized industry. The majority of young women living in the displaced person camps in Northern Uganda turn to prostitution for lack of any other way to provide for themselves. Domestic help, often orphaned children in a country where there are no child labor laws, are horribly abused by their employers, verging on slave trade...I fear we Americans take the sense of 'call' far too lightly...We are such a fragile creature. Perhaps seeing that young woman so casually thrown away with the other refuse was a reminder to me of how important the work we are all doing here in Uganda is; that a vocational school training Ugandans to work in an industry that is dominated by another country due to lack of training is sorely needed. I had not really considered that a little school up in the bush of Uganda could have a great impact. I am beginning to reconsider that paradigm …. And to understand that with God all things really are possible.
Maggie Josiah with African Hospitality InstituteAfrican Children's Mission, Uganda, East Africawww.tiptopwebsite.com/maggiejosiah, maggiejosiah@infocom.co.ugAddress: Cornerstone Development Uganda, Attention: Maggie Josiah PO Box 9242, Kampala, Uganda, East Africa

Human dignity and value is greatly affirmed through the actions of God who sent His Son to rescue all from a hopeless eternity. Meaning is found in doing the small things that reinforce God's love while recognizing His image in all people. All deeply valued and deeply loved. There are no "throw aways".