Happy Birthday, Judy!

...and she's only 4!

Oh, yeah, and she's only 2 months.

And it's not as simple as that. There are many little Judys around the Wahgi Valley!

Four-year-old Judy lives here on Kudjip Station. Her dad works at maintenance Her mom is the daughter of one of our veteran pastors from the Jimi Valley. Judy (the adult one) has set a president (so far it hasn't gotten out of hand) of baking birthday cakes for her little friends. I got this photo of little Judy, her mom Rachael, her brother Elias, with big Judy when they came to pick up the cake Friday.

Today we went to Pastor Jerry's newest preaching point, where I preached, and we met his new adopted daughter, who is, of course, named Judy. Hers is a bit of a long story. Her biological father died of unknown causes, and his family assumed that it was AIDS. They blamed his pregnant wife for this, and threw her out of the family. Pastor Jerry took her in, and she asked him and his wife Mary to adopt the baby, which they ultimately did. The great irony of the story is that the mom has repeatedly tested negative for HIV.

However, baby Judy now has a loving mom and dad, and 4 adoring big brothers. Titus is the brother in the photo.

Jerry's primary ministry is to people with HIV and AIDS, and includes a hospice where AIDS victims can stay if they are abandoned by their families. Maybe some day I'll devote a whole blog post just to Pastor Jerry. It would be a long one!

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