Monday, July 5, 2010

Uganda
















Yesterday we got back from our trip to Uganda and by all accounts it was an amazing time. Our purpose (which we feel was God’s purpose) was to bring the love of Jesus to the people of northern Uganda through a holistic approach. We did this by meeting their practical needs with medical care while at the same time meeting their spiritual needs through discipleship and evangelism. Here is how it went.
For the first 6 days, this was our routine. We met with the Restoration Gateway workers for devotional time at 7:30 AM and then had breakfast and met as a team for worship, devotions, vision casting and practical stuff for the day. We then had an hour or two of free time before an early lunch and then off to a local village for a medical clinic (three days in Mon Rowsh and three days in Kamdini). Dr. McCall had bought a semi truck and had it reconfigured so that its sides could be lifted up by hydraulics and we drove that to the sites and held clinic inside the truck. The first clinic was out in the middle of nowhere along a dirt path, as Dr. McCall jokingly says is 50 Km past the great commission! I was the only doctor but we had two nurses and we would see 50 – 60 patients before it got dark. There was all sorts of pathology and very challenging as we had no diagnostic capabilities. We did bring medicines and medical supplies for wounds and other needs. While that was going on, the rest of the team was busy with a lot of other stuff. They kept the throngs of people organized, had teams praying for healing (more on that later), gave testimonies, shared the gospel, played with the many kids (including soccer, face paining, teaching them songs, doing Bible story skits) and developed relationships. It was amazing to see how everybody pitched in to do their part, using their giftings and talents as none of this was scripted beforehand and we were the first to use the truck. Then, once it got dark, we hung a screen from the top of the truck and showed the Jesus film in their own language of Lwo. After a time of invitation, we would pack it all up and head back, getting in at 10:00 PM.
Needless to say that by the end of those 6 days we were exhausted but God did some amazing things which is what kept us going. Medically what we could do was limited but we were able to truly help a lot of people and they felt really blessed because we were there. Those we could not help medically or could not get to due to time constraints, we prayed for. And God was gracious as our team saw Him heal 10 – 12 people and three major healings. One was a man who had an old hip fracture and could barely walk with a crutch. He left without the crutch walking on his own and left us the crutch. Another man could not hear or talk. He left with partial hearing and speech, but even more importantly left with a new life in Christ. A third lady came in having not walked in 5 – 10 years and left able to walk with only a little assistance. Praise be to God! A number of other people gave their lives to Christ as our team shared the gospel with them. Several of our team developed relationships with some of the older teenagers who spoke English and were able to go over some discipleship lessons with them. Four of them even walked to the RG site on Sunday and wanted to be baptized which we did. The Jesus film is very powerful and after seeing it, many others responded to the gospel message (well over 100). I’m sure some were not real decisions, but we tried to get as many names as possible and Winnie from RG will be following up on them.
The last few days we slowed down a little and spent most of our time at the RG site doing various things to help them. This included working on broken equipment, shredding the grass, teaching them how to do Excel spreadsheets, developing relationships with the Ugandan workers, encouraging the long term team staff and catching the vision God has for RG and northern Uganda. Our team was really incredible. I could not have hand picked it any better. We had 5 older adults (all from out lifegroup) and 5 younger adults and we needed each one to do all that was needed, including their individual skill set. We all got along famously and nobody complained about the long hours. We reviewed the prayer points we had sent out and all were answered!!!

1 comment:

ellen said...

Praise God from whom all blessings flow! Amazing answers to prayer! We are so glad, and so honored to pray for you all!