Hello everyone!
It is that time of year again where we embark on another African adventure or cultural exchange love and service. Uganda Mission 2013 team has been busy getting ready for the trip, collecting supplies, fundraising, sharing with family and friends, for a few months now. All of this includes the daunting packing task of the supplies. This year we had 22 tubs packed and found out we were on a turbo prop plane that may not be able to take them all, so madly repacked, sent some supplies with the gracious Jacques of AIDspirit and prayed...a lot! Brenda and Dr. Doug were given the task of going to the airport and sweet talking the manager of Alaska Air (I had to work my last shift before leaving tuesday out of town in Bridger). Abundant favor was with us as the manager paved the way for the tubs to all go on the plane and we arrived at the airport at 4 am to see this happen! Needless to say I did not sleep at all that night and barely the night before and still felt I forgot something! It was a very calm airport seen and I am grateful. The trip to Seattle, Amsterdam and Entebbe was good and all did well. Dr. Doug Parker even treated 2 people sick on the plane! As if God only new how his job has just begun! Terry Fettig of AIDSpirit USA travelled the same day on different flights and we all arrived to an exuberant Roger greeting us! He was especially happy to see his "teenage friends", Coram, Canon and Shandra and of course Maggie and his teacher Ranae. I missed him so much and was worried as he had suffered leg wounds and a bladder infection recently. The adoption process is going forward with a delay snag however many people are moving heaven and earth to expedite things and we hope to bring him home in Feb!! Pray for that! After a night sleep, all travelled to Kampala for the usual changing money, meetings, shopping etc. We changed it up a bit this year as two other couples came in succession the next two nights in a row...so we stayed in Entebbe for the see them in and also visit our friends at Calvary Chapel Entebbe and their Lake Victoria Island Medical Ministry. (Quite the initial emersion shock to the sickness and poverty and more on that from team in next post!). We met up with Sr. Vincentina from Kalongo as she was resting near entebbe from a bout of severe abdominal pain they have attributed to great stress. She is an OB/Gyn physician and director of the Dr. Ambrosoli Memorial Hospital we partner with. Rest will do her good. I am sure the hospital will greatly need and appreciate Dr. Hinshaw as he travels with his wife with us to the farm and then directly to Kalongo to serve. (We will catch up with them later in the trip). I already spent time at CORSu the rehabilitation hospital and specialty orthopedic and plastics surgery hospital near Entebbe. Alice, the women's leader on the farm has severe knee pain, they deemed it "wear and tear" from hard work but she can hardly walk. They gave her a cortisone injection and we hope it will help. Ssozi, the young man with sickle cell and the severe leg ulcers hadhealed after his skin grafts in April but is now re infected. The one area is deep and he was admitted to the hospital for wound vac, further treatment and probably another skin graft. Bless his heart for the years of suffering! I met Dr. George and the accountant and sad to me is they all know my name well after our problems and issues with the 3 persons I sent them for care from abroad...long story but all is good and they are happy to assist our patients and we have the payment system down now so the patients will not be held "hostage". I guess I made quite the impression and am humbly grateful to them and happy we all can meet face to face. I think I must sound meaner on email than I really am...ha! God grant us all grace! Well I am happy to have all team members here safely in Uganda! We had one missing tub out of the 20 and it was a medicine tub - however, all they stole was Doug's shoes and jacket! We had a problem with the hotel accommodations and had no reservations for the second night so had to split up a little but it was fine although as team leader bothersome to me. Time to slow down and plan A-Z anything can happen..ha and know the good lord has us in the palm of his hands! We have some major power shopping to do for tools and material in the market centers of kampala which will be another shock to the newcomers and then on to more peaceful work at the Family Empowerment Canaan farm where the team will work on finishing the Emmanuel Clinic construction, solar power, lab, and more! We will do a Love Pack and VBS at Kanjuki school, introduce new craft projects, teach and train a lot, gardening, water projects and more.. We especially look forward to music and more music with the ugandans and our team! Stay tuned for the team!! I hope we have better internet service this year on the farm so we can keep you posted often. Most importantly, we want all our family and friends to know how much we appreciate their love, support and prayers, it carries us daily and moment to moment on this life changing journey! Thank you and bless you!
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