Where Are They Now

by Alisha Stensaas

Sharon (my ministry assistant) and I have had the privilege of teaching thousands of children over a ten-year period. These children have come from all over Uganda as well as other African and Middle Eastern countries and India. We have had children from every religious background. During those years, over 300 children have accepted Christ as their Savior.

While we teach, I often ask myself, “Where are they now? What has become of them?” At night I can see their faces, and I relive their stories in my mind, conversations we had, the moments they put their trust in Christ to save them, and some who have died along the way. I am thankful that no matter where life takes them, one day we will meet again in heaven.

I also think of the ones who like King Agrippa even after hearing the Gospel refused to become a Christian. How our hearts would break for these children when they willfully chose to reject the truth. I wonder where they are? Did the Gospel come across their paths again? Did something happen in their lives to make them remember what we taught them? Did they later choose salvation or are they still lost? Those thoughts break my heart, but I quickly remember the many who did get saved and wonder where they are now. We have been blessed to cross paths with three of them again in this life.

The first was Christopher. He was a boy we taught at a school for the disabled in Kasese. Christopher’s whole body could fit inside a box. He struggled every day with pain and helplessness and was angry at God for his situation. While at school, he asked another student, “Teacher says, ‘God loves us,’ but if God loves me, why did He allow me to be this way?” The other student passed the question on to me. I did not want to give him some superficial answer and prayed about how to answer him. Before I could return to the school, he became ill and went home to his village in the Rwenzori Mountains. Since we knew any sickness could be fatal for him, we determined to go into the mountains to find him. It was quite the trek and adventure, but the Lord truly helped us and we found his home! He was there and still alive. I told him I had come to find him and answer his question. I said, “Suppose God gave you perfect health and a strong body, you went to a good school, got a good job, succeeded in life, had an easy and wonderful life, and then you died and spent forever in the Lake of Fire without God. Or suppose God allowed you to be born with this crippled body, daily in pain and helplessness, but because of that disability it forced your parents to send you to the special school for the disabled where you met us and learned the truth about salvation. Your life may be short and very difficult, but you chose to get saved and then you spend forever in heaven with God. Which one would you want God to choose for you?” He sat for a moment thinking about what I had said and then replied that he would choose his current situation. On that day, Christopher trusted in Christ to save him.

That was many years ago. Recently, we discovered that one of the young men we currently work with is from the general area where we found Christopher. They are trying to start a church in that area and asked if we would come and visit. We contacted Christopher’s brother and discovered that Christopher is still alive and doing well at 21 years of age and that Christopher was a short distance from where they are holding services. His brother agreed to push him in his wheelchair. It took an hour, but it was so good to see and talk with him again.

The second was Helen. Sharon and I were in the capital, Kampala, a city of four million people, shopping at a supermarket. There was a woman also shopping who kept looking at us. The lady checked out about the same time as we did. As we started to walk down the street, the woman came running up to us and said, “Excuse me, but did you teach in Kabateraine Memorial School?” (Kabateraine was the first elementary school we started teaching at in the town of Mbarara.) Her face was familiar and when she told us her name, we knew exactly who she was. She was one of our first P7 students in that school. She was the friend of a young lady we helped to raise named Nice. Nice had brought her to me saying that her friend Helen wanted to get saved. I was currently discipling Nice, and we had just finished the lesson on soul winning. I told Nice to try and give her friend the Gospel while I was there and that I would be there to help her along. She did her best and then handed the conversation over to me. I went back through the plan of salvation with Helen, and Helen understood and put her trust in Christ. That was 12 years ago. Now that young girl is a grown woman living in Kampala.

The third is Innocent. We met Innocent when she was a young deaf girl in the same school for the disabled that Christopher attended. I shared the Gospel with her and left her to think about it because it was a lot for her to take in. She had been deaf since she was eight years old. Her mother attacked her father with a machete when she found out about the father’s “other woman” who later became the stepmom. In somewhat of a retaliation, when Innocent got sick with a fever, the stepmom refused to take her to the clinic, causing Innocent to go deaf. After taking time to think over what we discussed, Innocent was so ready to be saved. I did not have to ask her much. She started right in telling me everything about salvation and what it was not. She told me she knew she had to choose to trust in God to save her and that praying, being good, and doing good things could never take her to heaven! I was in shock. She was the first deaf person that I had the privilege of leading to the Lord. During her school years, she was such a blessing, helping us learn signs that the children would understand (they had a mixture of Ugandan sign language and signs of their own), helping me deal with other students about salvation, etc. After leaving elementary school, she attended a high school where we also taught. We recently heard from her, and she has taken a job as a teacher at a Deaf school near the capital city, Kampala. Her desire is to teach the deaf children the Gospel as she is teaching the other subjects. She is the perfect person for the job!

These are the only three with whom we have come in contact since being their teachers in school. I still wonder what has become of all the others, but these three have encouraged me that the seeds we sow today will reap a harvest later on. Truly, he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ (Philippians 1:6).

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