My Heart

For the past three weeks I have spent every morning working at Jinja Hospital, a government run hospital here in town.   As part of our visa application process I was required to obtain my nursing license in Uganda.  This required me to have an interview in Kampala several weeks ago where I was then told that I would need to spend eight weeks in a local hospital for an "orientation" to nursing here.  While this was an unexpected step and felt like a big time commitment when I was already in the midst of my work at Children of Grace, the Lord has given me joy in this opportunity.  It has certainly been eye opening but also a great chance to love on the patients and the staff during my time there.

My first two weeks were spent in the surgical ward and I was blessed to work alongside an American nurse named Roma who volunteers there four days a week.  It was such a gift to work with her at the start of this orientation and to have someone to teach me the way she does things in the midst of a system that is much different than home.

Much of our time together was spent doing dressing changes for two precious little girls, Hadeja (4 years old) and Mwajuma (2 years old), who were burned in a house fire while they were sleeping at night.  Both girls were burned on their faces, backs, and arms and Mwajuma also had burns on her legs.  Thankfully, Roma has supplies to use for dressing changes that she has had donated that are much better than the things available here, which was extremely helpful for their healing.  Through working with them every day for nearly two weeks, a bond was certainly formed and they have stolen a little piece of my heart!  It was such a gift to watch them improve as they went from very weak and in tons of pain to being able to get up and move around on their own.  They are still there now and I have had the chance to go back and visit them since switching to the medical ward last week.  They are continuing to grow stronger each day!  Their burns have improved greatly and I'm just thankful for the chance to have gotten to know them and to serve these sweet little ones.

About a week into our time with them, Roma brought them little dolls that she bought in town.  They were beside themselves and I walked in that morning to see huge smiles on their faces!  Mike and I were also blessed to be able to get them each a pair of shoes so we could take them walking outside for some fresh air after being cooped up in the hospital for weeks.  I am learning so much about what it means to be faithful in the small things.  Praise the Lord for the way He works in both the big and small things every day!  And praise Him that He has allowed me to be a messenger of His love and to share His compassion with people here in Uganda!  I encourage each of you to consider what it means to be faithful to Him right where He has you.  The truth is, the only difference in our lives here is that we are serving people in a different place with a different culture.  We haven't become superheroes now that we're "missionaries" and I still have to be on my knees daily asking God to use me for His glory here!  It could be easy for me to think I've done very little in my time at the hospital.  For two full weeks, I mostly just did dressing changes for two little girls.  But, I know God can use the compassion and love we showed those girls during that time for something greater.

In my time here, I have been reminded of the call to serve our Savior and be part of bringing restoration to a broken world.  These girls' story has even more to it with the mom being HIV positive, a little disconnected from the pain of her baby girls, and pregnant with her third child at a young age.  They now have no home after it burned down in the fire.  And the father is barely involved while he potentially has other wives or children.  While I can't fix all of these problems I am thankful to have had the chance to show them His love and I know I can trust that God is in control and wants the best for them

Here are the girls who stole my heart...

 

One of the most hilarious part of this whole experience is that the hospital nursing administrators were insistent on me fitting in with the other nurses and dressing like they do.  Of course, following in the footsteps of Florence Nightingale they find it only appropriate to wear white dresses and little nursing hats.  I had to have these dresses made before I started at the hospital and we've gotten a few laughs out of the deal.  They did not make me a hat though, so I managed to sneak by on that one (although the other nurses at the hospital have definitely questioned me on why I'm not wearing a hat).  Haha!  Enjoy!

We miss all of you back at home but are so thankful for your prayers and support!  Please let us know how we can pray for you!