In the spring of 2021 shortly after moving to Moroto full time, Rebekah and some of her children decided to hike up Mount Moroto and see the waterfall. They had a beautiful time on a beautiful day. On the way back down they “stumbled upon” a mountain village that had been raided and many of the people killed. There was a terrified and very aged grandmother and 5 little children, some of whom had never worn clothes in their life. The grandmother begged Rebekah to take the children and she did.
One of the children was a little girl named Morning. Rebekah gave her a customary second name, Joy. Morning was so traumatized by what had happened in her village that she cried all the time. When she wasn’t crying she was mute and expressionless. When she got upset she would sometimes cry for hours and even days. Mama Lisa would hold her for long periods of time and let her cry. Mama Lisa would give her a cookie or a piece of bread or a candy but Morning would never accept it from her hand. But, if Mama Lisa set it down next to Morning and walked away, when she came back it would be gone. Many times Mama Lisa would whisper or sing to Morning and she would finally calm down and stop crying. Mama Lisa was the only one who could calm her most of the time. We would hear Morning’s familiar cries and screams and we would say, “Mama Lisa, your girl needs you.” For 3 years Morning never spoke a word. Slowly she became more involved with the other children and eventually rarely had a crying spell. We would all hug Morning and greet her regularly and she wouldn’t acknowledge us at all. But God. One morning, Papa Matthew walked out of the house and Morning was there. He smiled at her and said, “Good morning, Morning!” She smiled and said, “Mzee (old gentleman) picture.” Papa Matthew nearly fainted. Those were the first words she had spoken in more than 3 years. He quickly pulled out his phone and snapped this photo. Only Jesus! Today, Morning Joy is a happy, playing, well adjusted girl doing well in primary school and never has crying spells any more. She comes bounding up all smiles and gives great hugs. Only Jesus! www.missionmoroto.org #missionmorotostories
