Being Exalted Among The Nations

Ps. 46:10 "Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth." Greetings from Uganda and Liberia, Africa! What a privilege to join with people of all nations to exalt the name of Jesus. We are one in His name...what a bond we feel with believers here in Africa.

Our experiences have been many...a few....last Sunday we joined with Pastor David and Sarah Waisana's church in their village. We celebrated with them as we were able to bless them with money to buy church land. No inhibitions---just an extended time of pure praise of singing, dancing, and bowing down in worship to the Lord who has answered their prayer after 12 1/2 years of praying!!! How blessed we were to be the instrument in answer to their prayers!! We cannot begin to convey to you how very, very grateful they are!

Monday, the women went with Helen and some of the ladies from Jimmy and Helen's church to purchase some groceries, an experience in itself, in preparation for a cooking class which we had later that afternoon. Jodi, Brenda and Karen helped the ladies make pizza, banana cake bars, and apricot crisp! What a joyous time we had eating our creations!! I might add, it all did turn out amazingly well too! We were so blessed as we listened to their stories as they shared their hearts. We were able as a team to bless their Women's ministry! Again, their gratefulness is overwhelming!

The men have aggressively been dedicated to working with the water well. After many days of hard work, they came back Monday evening....dirty, tired, BUT JOYFUL to say, "Mission Accomplished!" as the well was pumping approximately 2 gallons per minute! PTL!

We left Uganda 5:15 am in a heavy thunderstorm for our destination of Liberia. After several stopovers in Nairobi and Accru, we arrived in Monrovia, Liberia, over 8 hours later. Flights and customs have gone amazingly well so far and we thank you all so much for your continued prayers.

We were greeted by Eric and Pam ( Jay's cousin) and their family of four, plus three Liberian children they are fostering. They are doing mission work here, with the vision of making their home in the bush of Tahn, north of Monrovia,....in God's timing. Their vision is to provide a house to aid Liberian orphans and help mothers who need help with their little ones. We have been so blessed to hear their heart and see their obedience to God's call on their lives, including their four children!

Our team is very blessed to be staying in the guest house on their compound about one block off the beach of the Atlantic!....a special blessing to enjoy God's creation as we see so VERY much poverty everywhere!

This is Friday as I write and our flight heads for home Sunday early evening. We thank you so very much for your prayers...

Justin and Jodi, Jay and Brenda, Leon and Karen

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Connecting With People

We were excited to deliver blessing bags to several sponsored kids at Fountain of Hope School. We also were amazed at the progress and growth at the school! Our dear friend, Robert Siyto, was gone but we had a special visit with Sarah, his wife.

These are the kids we connected with to give blessings bags:

Justin and Megan Souter's sponsor child, Geoffrey.

Jodi, Brenda and Karen with Michelle Hiett's sponsor child, Kevin.

Brenda with her sponsor child, Teopista.

This is one of Robin Souter's sponsor children, Emmanuel. His brothers were home sick with malaria.

David and Sarah Waisana joined us for dinner and shared about their ministry. They also blessed us thru their music and dance. Brenda even got to join in by playing the drums for them!....watch out Errol, your job on worship team may be in jeopardy!:) Our Sunday School class raised some money and our team added to it and blessed David and Sarah with funds it purchase land for their church. To say they were excited was an understatement! We then were able to help them FaceTime with Deena Craighead who has a special place in her heart for them and who spearheaded the fundraising project.

 

Today(Friday) the men went to NGM Farms to work on the water well. We will post about that later. The women joined Lyzette and her team at the Jinja Main Hospital maternity ward for Charity Day where we blessed each new mother with a gift. This is our team of ladies which include Rebecca and Morgan, house guests of Paul and Pam, Brenda, Zyna, Jodi, Lyzette, and Karen. Esther joined us at the hospital. Zyna and Esther are on Lyzette's staff.

These new mothers are the two cases Lyzette was called to the hospital for. They are both just children themselves, ages 14 & 15, both having been raped. Their stories broke our hearts. Words fail to convey what we are feeling.

 

 

Jodi and Karen showing off the cleaned and freshly dressed little baby that Karen had helped with.

This new mother accepted the Lord as her Savior while Esther and Brenda were talking with her and bringing her a gift. We prayed with her and left her a Bible since she has a friend who could translate for her.

While we had some time we wanted to share and update you on today's activities. We will share more when we can.

 

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Safe Arrival!

After traveling to Oklahoma City in a snow storm and having a two hour flight delay on the first leg of our trip, things starting going encredibly well as we made up time and even arriving early in Amsterdam and Entebbe. We traveled as far as Kampala and stayed in a hotel the first night. There were many errands Paul did the next morning along the way as we made our way to Jinja and we even had chicken on a stick for lunch after being mobbed by the many local vendors shoving pop and chicken and goat on a stick in our windows before arriving at the compound around 1:00 pm. We were so exhausted that some took naps and others spent time visiting and catching up with our friends that stopped by to welcome us.

They had been praying for rain for many months and they were happy that we brought a good old Oklahoma thunderstorm with us. It rained, got very windy and lightening and thundered for about an hour and cooled down. After a wonderful dinner, Edgar and Peter shared their heart about the direction that that Next Generation Ministries is headed and Ezra lead us in some Spirit led worship. We then had a wonderful time of sharing with each other and then turned in early.

This morning we had our much anticipated veranda time together having devotions and prayer time and visiting. The women went through the totes and got things organized for Lyzette and the guys (with the exception of Justin who is not feeling well) went to the farm to start work on the water well.

Thanks for your continued prayers as we minister as God leads.

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Wednesday we traveled to Budondo, the home village of Olivia, the young lady who is paraplegic ( find her story on Women in Chrisis blog).  We greeted Olivia and her family then set up in her backyard in the shade of banana trees, with Kayla doing triage in the front yard.  We were  told that some had been waiting in the yard all night to  be at the front of the line.  These felt they were entitled to be seen first and did not understand our triage system, causing Kayla a good deal of frustration.  We treated malaria, rashes, and all the common maladies - headache, chest pain, joint pain, "ulcers."  We also checked out Olivia's sore on her coccyx and provided dressing supplies for long-term treatment.  The locals were not cooperative, so they received a scolding from Paul, and they collectively asked for forgiveness for their bad behavior.  We then distributed care packages of beans, peanuts, salt and rice.  We had supper with Jeff and Lysette as our guests.
Thursday we were in Bugembi to see members of David Wassana's church.  These people were appreciative and cooperative, and we were able to see many patients this day.  We referred a couple of lipoma tumors to come to Paul's house for removal in the evening for veranda surgery.  Toward the end of the day some of the drunks in the bars surrounding the church became loud and beligerant, so we left without taking time to visit.  The owner of the church property had been allowing bars to build all around the church, trying to force David to buy the land at inflated prices.  This was to be the last use of this building as the church is moving to a new location, starting next Sunday.  David gave us a tour of the new church site, which is now a framework of poles.  We prayed over this site and its pastor before returning to the compound. 
 
We had Pastor Jimmy and his wife Helen as our guests for supper tonight.  We enjoyed hearing their story and visiting with them. 

Friday, we went to Nyenga Prison to minister to the prisoners, guards and the guards family.  Raul brought his worship band, and we brought food for a holiday meal which prepared at the prison.  We sang, ate, saw all complaints of inmates, guards and families.    Jeffrey Kasigwa and his wife Lysette joined us for supper, and we enjoyed learning about Lysette's vision for reaching out to OB patients through her Women in crisis Ministry.

THE KAKIRA SUGAR PLANTATION

We had two long days in a slum that lies within the plantation.  We were in Pastor Gideon's church caring for everyone that could come to us.  Monday, we had what really appeared to be a middle aged lady that displayed several signs of demonic possession.  It is a really long and interesting story, but, a bit long for this blog.  We'll have to get everyone up to speed on this when we get back.

We treated many people during our time there.  It had to be well over two hundred!  One surgery was interesting to those that watched.  (it is kind of funny that some of the people that were waiting to be seen, seemed to disappear after we cut into a man's neck)  We have another patient that is scheduled for surgery at the hospital tomorrow at Al Shaffa.  They will do that one as it will be much more than we can do with what we have.

Tomorrow, we will go to Olivia's village.  It will be pretty primitive, just like most of the places we go.  It is off the beaten path, is where there are the most needy, and it is right up our alley!

The infected leg is twice the diameter of the normal leg and is very painful to touch

Update on little William:  He is still on antibiotics but the xray of his leg looks pretty bad.  We have electronically sent copies of his films to a couple of physicians in Oklahoma and we don't have a response back yet.  We are concerned that he may have osteonecrosis, which would necessitate removal of his leg.

Large mobile mass that has been present for over two years and continues to grow larger

After the surgery, there is no mass, the neck looks normal and the surgical team is as happy as the patient

Just outside the church is a still, dirt and refuse with the children playing

Dr. John applying a sling to help mend a broken collar bone on a child.

Malnutrition is all too common

This picture speaks for itself

Keep praying for our patients, the people of Uganda, and for our continued good health.

SUNDAY AT PASTOR DAVID'S CHURCH

We were able to get some rest and were up early to go to Pastor David's church in Bugembe.  Anyone that has attended an African church service, especially in this area, know it is quite an experience.  Everyone seems well and we announced we would be back to have a clinic there in a few days.  They are making plans to move the church to a different location later in the week.  It sounds like it is a good location and fewer problems with the land lord.

After church, we went to the source of the Nile.  All of us but for, David and Desiree have seen it.  The origin of the Nile is still pretty impressive to view.  We had a little down time, for a few hours and were called and notified that we had patients that had come to Paul and Pam's house and were waiting on us.

Two were not very pressing but for one very young boy who had a horrible looking leg.  We injected 500 mg of Rocephin (antibiotic) and took him to the Al Shaffa medical complex.  He very likely has damaged muscle and may have infected bone in his lower leg.  The physician, "Sarah" was wonderful and was in full agreement with Dr's John and Don, the child needed to be admitted and placed on broad spectrum antibiotics.  We (you) paid for his medical needs.  There is a possibility that he might need to have his leg amputated due to osteomyelitis (infected bone).  That will be a tough thing for a 2 1/2 year old.
Pray for him, please.  His name is William.

Tomorrow we will go to Kakira sugar plantation.  We will have clinic there for two days as there are many, many people living in slum conditions.  The local pastor there needs our support.  We worked out the tentative schedule for the rest of our time here.  We will not get to attend Pastor Jimmy's church next week as there was a pressing need to go to a village on that day.  There was no other time available.  We will miss the experience with Pastor Jimmy, but it is why we are here.  To show the love of God and take care of people.  There will be no more "days off" until we step on the plane.

A LONG DAY AT BUGEMBE

Saturday gave us an opportunity to stop at one of our now, favorite pharmacies.  We ended up buying about 400 courses of treatment for malaria.  We also got some malaria rapid tests to try as well.  Since there were no instructions with the test kits, we had to just figure it out on our own.  They worked very well.  We are now able to diagnose and treat malaria!  Once again, we had to drain an abscess or two, treat cellulitis, and many common illnesses.  Many would be surprised to see how much we take for granted in the U.S. having access to just the most common over the counter medicines.  These people do not.  Most of the people we were seeing have little or no access to medical care d/t distance and cost. 

We set up under a couple of shade trees, opened up our containers and packs, and spent the next few hours dealing with whoever came to us.  It was a really busy day.  At the end of the day, we passed out over 150 kilos of beans, rice, salt, and ground nuts.  There was not enough for everyone, but everyone that truly needed food were able to leave with some.  The kids got "sweets on a stick" (large suckers) and they were pretty excited.  We also got the see the NGM farm, which was not far away. 

WHERE THE DOGS TURN AROUND

Hello everyone. As usual we forgot how to get into the blog. Finally got it figured out. We made the trip without any problems. This time we spent the night in Kampala with friends of Paul & Pam's. Was nice not having to make that long drive over rough roads & getting in at 3 or 4 am. We also got to eat at our favorite eating place in Kampala, Java Cafe. Didn't do much the first couple of days except try to get organized, which meant going through the 13 totes and 1 suitcase that we brought plus some of the old ones. An attempted schedule was made which will certainly change as time and opportunity provides.  Finally got things together to do our first day of clinic on Friday at the village where the dogs turn around, Luwanika.

The village where the dogs turn around had many sick adults and children.  A brief summary of some of the things would include: abscesses drained, one minor surgery, a broken arm set and splinted, malaria treated, and last but not least, spiritual needs met.  We distributed well over 150 kilos of food to the most needy which included, rice, beans, ground nuts and salt.  Even the kids were given a rare treat of frozen sherbert from a bicycle vendor.  (they never get it because they cannot afford it)

A few pictures to tell the story:

Working in tight quarters in a pole structure with tarps overhead

The children love Dr. John in Luwanika

Part of the waiting room

Many times prayer is both the first AND the last choice for some conditions

Deep abscess with granuloma formation near the achille's tendon

Kayla and Desiree get to know some of the kids

Setting and splinting a forearm fracture

We will see her again in a few days and get an xray and see if this can be cast

We all thank you for your continued prayer and support.  You are here with us.  There are many more places yet to go and we are only getting started.  Blogging this will be a bit difficult d/t time and fatigue.  We will do our best.