Meet Peter Mutabazi. As a child in Uganda, he grew up with shelter, food and clothing scarcity. But more than that, he grew up with safety scarcity. He feared for his life from a father who threatened him, frequently called him “garbage” and “useless.” To survive, he ran away from home to live on the streets of the capital city, Kampala.

“I was treated like a stray animal in most ways — as you say, we were street rats because that’s the way people looked at us,” said Mutabazi, who would get by on as little as one hour of sleep a day. “As early as [age] 4, I had kind up given up on life. … I think every morning, I felt like, ‘I wish I didn’t have to wake up. I wish I woke up and was gone.’ That was my wish every day because of the misery I was going through.”

He was eventually taken in by foster parents and it changed his life. He learned to speak seven languages. When he reached adulthood, he found himself in position to give back to vulnerable children. He wrote a book titled, “Now I Am Known,” and started a mission of the same name,  giving at-risk, foster children the message Mutabazi desperately needed to hear when he was in their position.

But Mutabazi still had unresolved feelings toward the father he fled that required healing.

“My hatred toward my dad, it was so, so bad that I wanted to harm him,” Mutabazi said.

Mutabazi gave his life to the Lord and realized that he couldn’t go down that path.

“I can’t live my life this way,” he concluded. “I have to forgive my dad.”