Thursday, May 26, 2011

Impressions of a mission trip

Well after eight days the team from Colorado has gone home and the Ogongora clinic has a new roof. It was such a blessing to work with these four guys but we did not get enough time to fellowship. I hope there will be days next time we are in Colorado. But for now let me share some highlights.

1. Louis tossing down a saw blade which was supposed to fit but did not and then saying. "I hate a Africa." If you've been here you have undoubtedly felt the same emotion when the simple task becomes an all day chore.

2. Rich banging his head on the truck rack for the 10th time in one morning and then smiling in the grace of God.

3. Grady looking stunned at the poor conditon of the wood he had to work with. This was the first thing he saw in Jinja. But three days later we had 45 trusses loaded in the truck ready to move. Who said it could'nt be done? Not God!

4. Mark telling me that if he doesn't get up off the ground in five minutes then we should come help him. Then changing his mind and say "Just leave me there."

5. The smoke pouring out of the motor on the new saw while we were at the clinic, knowing that the nearest replacement is 250 kilometers away.

6. Richie tearing the saw apart the next day, taking brushes and bearings from an old angle grinder fitting them to the saw and it now works better than ever!

7. Watching a small shower turn into a full blown storm on the last morning. Everyone was soaked to the skin but remained upbeat and some of us even danced in the rain!

8. Seeing the enemy attack the project to the point of our despair but God turning it into great victory as we looked for His intervention. He is so good!

9. Seeing the comraderie grow between the visiting team and the local workers as we struggled through communication problems, heat, rain and lack of tools. The guys from Ogongora learned a new style of truss making which they are now excited to try else where.

10. Louis getting stranded on the highway while taking a pregnant woman to the hospital in Soroti. If he hadn't taken her she would have died.

11. Grady's hat. A unique combination of the Hoss Cartwright ten gallon and the Pancho Villa sombrero.

12. The tears in Pastor Stephen's eyes as he saw what God did through four men committed to Him. We can never say thank you enough for God bringing us Grady, Mark, Rich and Richie. For He is good to us!

Sunday, May 15, 2011

Past the Point of no Return

Well, they'll be here tomorrow. At 7:45am the team from Colorado arrives to rebuild the roofs and ceilings of the clinic at Ogongora, Amuria District. This is the first team doing construction away from Jinja and trying to get everything ready has been a real challenge as I just don't have that type of mind.

After 13 years in Jinja I still have the Mzungu mindset of running to the 7/11 or hardware store. That won't be possible in the village So I hope it's all ready.

Now the team is past the point of no return. They are in the air heading to London. No turning back now.

What does it take to go on a short term mission? To use your hard earned vacation time from work to build something you will never use, for people you can't even speak with.

Some say it takes a sense of adventure but that's not it. You can have adventure and danger at home easily enough. Just try putting together a swing set for your kids and doing it right in your wife's flower garden.

Some say it takes a sense of duty to mankind to want to see medical care in a remote area. But that duty could be satified just by sending a check to an organisation. Or putting money into Santa's pot outside the supermarket. So it can't just be duty.

It must be love. Love for Jesus and for his people. A desire to know just how high and wide and deep is God's love for us. To experience the joy of fellowship in heaven in a small way here on earth by singing songs in a language you don't know with people who love Jesus as much as you. To demonstrate to a community what the love of Christ compels us to do.

I look forward to tomorrow. This team and our team here in Jinja are past the point of no return. No turning back from the decision to follow Jesus wherever He leads.

Ps. Before I could post this on Sunday I developed malaria on the way to the airport and have been out of commission since. But thanks to God's mercy I'm getting well again

Tuesday, May 10, 2011

How not to impress the wife

For some reason that I will never understand, my wife thinks I'm a pretty great guy.

I'll explain. Monday we had plans to go North to take the microscope and centrifuge, that I had repaired, back to the clinic. As we were gathering medical supplies suddenly the car died. 10:00 am Monday morning was not the best time to have this happen. Or the place, Main Street. There were regularly scheduled riots for Main Street slated to start at noon. I managed to get the vehicle to finally come to rest on the street the market sits on. This is typically where regularly scheduled riots go when main street gets too crowded or filled with tear gas. This was not good.

So I hopped out to look under the bonnet and everything looks fine. So I start to mess with wiring since to my diagnostic brain if there ain't oil on the road or a visible part broken or missing it must be in the wiring. As I'm trying to fix the car and dissuade those rioters who have arrived early that I am not purposely trying to block their route, Bev is on the phone to Steven, who is at James the mechanic's with the truck to get it fixed, telling him to come rescue us.

Steven, who has malaria and has had only thirty minutes sleep since Mary had a c-section on Friday producing Pheni Michael Collins, (when asked about the his son's name he said "Pheni you should ask") arrives with a mechanic who listens to my description of the problem tinkers for 5 minutes then says "It's electrical." They leave to get an electrician. So as the traffic is getting heavier I finally find the right wire, start the car and head to the mechanic's. He agrees with the diagnosis wraps the wire and off we head for Soroti.

Now we are far behind schedule and can't get to the clinic by dark so we opt to stay in Soroti at the Desert Island Resort. Wrong name! It is not in a desert, or near water or by any means a resort. The only recreation available is the one channel tv in the cottage we rented. But it was cheap and comfortable. And I stand corrected since the waitress told us that you get two channels NTV on #2 and NTV on #19. Both in hifidelity monochrome!

So we got up early the next morning to get to the clinic early. But the car starts and dies. So I put in all new wiring for the trouble spot and three hours later we reach the clinic. Bev, God bless her, thinks I'n the best mechtrician ever! Then after leaving the scope and fuge at the clinic we travel 20 k's back to the paved road and everything electrical quits! No smoke, engine still runs but no air conditioning, no fan, windows won't roll down and it's hotter than Texas in August. So we cruise the 30 k's to Soroti praying and asking everyone we know to pray. So why risk driving? Because it is better to be in the middle of a riot and close to parts than peacefully sitting in the middle of no where waiting for someone to bring you a part that you don't even know you need.

If this weren't a bad enough way of how not to impress your wife, earlier I had warned Bev how tricky these murram roads were and how easy it is to roll the car. She was doing sixty! On the way back I had almost rolled it twice doing eighty! Somehow she was losing confidence in me. So we got to Soroti and found that the wire I had repaired had come loose. I resecured it and everything worked! Boy, was my wife impressed! Give credit to Bev. She sticks by her man.

Open your eyes, Sweetie, we're home.

Thursday, May 5, 2011

Rebuilding Time... No Worries

There is a time for everything Solomon wrote and one time is a time to build. But now we are in rebuilding time.

First rebuilding is the ministry here at the church in Jinja. JB left at the end of February and Moro Steven took over his pastor's duties. Teaching on Sundays and being the lead conselor and pastor. I was worried how Steven would handle the new responsibilities. Jesus told us not to worry and He was right. God has been answering our prayers by equipping Steven with wisdom and a desire to minister that I had not seen before. Perhaps these things had always been there but had no place to be used but now that God has told him to lead, Steven is doing so. It is so obvious a work of the Holy Spirit empowering him that I can't contain my excitement.

The other area of rebuilding is our clinic in Ogongora. We have hired an R.N. Jonathan who has a real heart to meet the health needs of the community. And as a born again christian he is helping to meet the spiritual needs of his patients as well. We also hired a Laboratory Assistant, Vicky. Only problem with her is that the microscope for the clinic was broken. But it is fixed now and will be delivered next week. With lab services available again the clinic should really start to grow.

But the clinic needs new ceilings as the old ones have literally collapsed. Time to rebuild them. As I was worrying how this would get done God was already bringing together a team from Colorado to rebuild the entire roof and ceilings. They are due to arrive in ten days and get the buildings back into shape. God is providing the funds for the project from various directions so again I need not worry.

The final rebuild is Bev and I. As things change here we are being led to spend more time in outreach. After our team's trip to Pajule the church body is excited to reach out further. Our "Outside The Walls" evangelism ministry is just taking shape but we are hoping to lead teams from CCJinja to our village church plants for 3-5 day evangelism programs. This would follow along the same lines as our Pajule trip. The ministry will also focus on various evangelistic outreaches in Jinja town. We already have 30 people signed up to participate.

I'm looking forward to what God has in store for all of us. Rebuilding Time! No worries!