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!

Go Tarheels

Look who's popular even halfway around the world...

 

This is Michelle, one of our staff's daughters.  She is absolutely adorable and was wearing Mike's hat and watch around earlier this week.  Guess it's true... Carolina girls really are the "best in the WORLD!"

Sweet Sunday

Today has been a sweet day.  Each Sunday morning, a handful of our sponsored children meet us at the Children of Grace compound for church.  This week, Paul was unfortunately not feeling well so just Mike and I walked with the kids to church.  The service is held outside every week at the pastor's home just around the corner from the CoG compound.  They have a beautiful yard and it is such a joy to worship the Lord amidst His amazing creation!  And no, that is not astroturf in their yard.  Uganda really is THAT green!

After the service, we walked back to the compound and decided to spend a little more time with the kids.  It was a such a special time!  We took them into town to grab a light lunch of rolex.  Here's how wikipedia describes rolex, for those of you who are unfamiliar... "Rolex consists of a fresh omellette, finely sliced tomatoes and cabbages, chopped onions and green pepper rolled in freshly made Chapati, hence the name Rolex ("rolled eggs"). Though it may be considered a snack, many find it adequate enough for a quick lunch or supper.  Rolex is usually sold by street food vendors, who set up their charcoal stoves, metal hot plates and chopping boards in popular eating and night life areas."  Yum!

We found a shady place to sit and enjoyed our lunch and read a few Bible stories.  What a treat to talk with these kids about the gift God gave us in Jesus and how He should be our greatest treasure!

These are precious children and a joy to be around!  After driving them home, we continued to reflect on what a gift it was to us to spend time with them today.  The sermon this morning happened to be on the passage in Matthew 19 where people begin bringing little children to Jesus and the disciples rebuke them and try to turn them away.  But Jesus shows His love and compassion for these little ones in His words, "Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these" (Matt. 19:14).  What a gift to play a small role in pointing these kids toward Christ!

It has been easy over the past week to feel bogged down with the more monotonous tasks we are working on here.  Much of our time has been spent in the office working on things that need to get done for Children of Grace to run well as an organization.  All of these things are good but it can be tough to see how we are making a difference.  While trying to offer ourselves grace knowing that we have only been here a few short weeks, we are longing for connections with the children we came here to serve.  And God is gracious!  He provides little glimpses and reminders of the ways He is working all around us.  Oh how I long to trust Him with the faith of a little child!  How easy it can be to lose sight of His many blessings and the chance to be involved in His work.  May we be faithful day by day with the work God has given us here in Uganda.  And may we count it a blessing to have even a small role in bringing these children to a greater understanding of who Jesus is and the full life He offers!  Pray that even when we feel uncertain of our purpose here that we might learn to TRUST the ONE who called us to this place. 

Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for He who promised is faithful.  -Hebrews 10:23


* We'd also like to wish a VERY happy birthday to my Daddy and precious friend, Meredith!  Wish we could be there to celebrate with you today!  Miss you and love you both!

Our first full week

We have officially completed our first full week here in Jinja.  With a week of work under our belts, it is exciting to have a better idea of what daily life here will look like!  Most days have begun with a morning jog before going "into work," which really means heading over to the office ten feet away.  We will have a little further commute when we move into our own place in another week and a half but it will still only be about a five minute walk.  Every time we've gone running, several bota bota drivers (the Ugandan word for their motorcycles/scooters) signal to us asking if we want a ride.  The concept of running or walking for exercise is definitely a little foreign here.  Our time in the office this week has been spent getting acclimated to the ministry of Children of Grace and starting to wrap our heads around our roles here.  Mike has spent time sifting through different policies and procedures in an effort to streamline them and familiarize himself with the various programs that CoG is currently running.  He has also been on a few visits to "the field" with some of the child mentors to see the work they do and help with various errands.  Jess has been working with Schola, the Ugandan clinical health worker on staff with CoG on numerous different medical projects.  This has involved helping with reports from the past few months, updating information about our children in the CoG database, seeing kids for various medical complaints on a "walk-in" basis at the office, helping with teaching for some of our sponsored children with chronic conditions, and planning for upcoming teaching in a nearby village about clean water and sanitation.  We have definitely been staying busy at work and feel good about the things we've been able to grasp after our first week.  We are especially enjoying the staff and feel so privileged to be a part of this team!  Below is a picture of Mike and Kareem, one of the child mentors before heading out on a rainy afternoon to help some of the kids with their community service projects.

Our evenings were low-key during the week as we are still trying to adjust and have been exhausted after long work days.  This weekend has been a lot of fun though!  On Saturday, we went on a lovely walk and then went into town to run some errands with Paul, purchased some furniture for our apartment, ate lunch out, and came back to the house for some reading and relaxing before dinner.  Later, we ate dinner with Paul at a restaurant right on the Nile, which was beautiful and then headed over to The Keep, another restaurant in town with entertainment on the weekends.  Saturday nights is karaoke night, which was hilarious!  We grabbed dessert and enjoyed visiting with some new friends and even sang a song ourselves... a classic Journey ballad, what else?!  Here's us by the river where we ate dinner on Saturday night.

Paul headed to Kenya with some of our staff for a couple of days, so we have been holding down the fort here today.  We walked to church with a couple of the boys that come by most Sundays to go to church with the Gibsons.  It was a beautiful morning and this church is held at the pastor's house.  When the weather is nice, which it usually is, they have the service outside under the trees.  There was a light breeze this morning, the sun was shining, and it was gorgeous!  It's a joy to worship alongside Ugandans as well as some other Mzungus!  After church, we ventured out for our first time driving ourselves here in Jinja.  They drive on the left side of the road here and have very few traffic laws, if any, so it's certainly an experience!  We grabbed lunch and then went for a boat ride at the "Source of the Nile," a popular tourist attraction that we figured we would go ahead and see.  It was absolutely wonderful!  Today was the perfect day for it and we rode in a boat by ourselves just with our guide, Moses.  The Nile has an amazing array of wildlife within it and on its banks and Lake Victoria is amazing.  Here are some pictures from our adventures on the river.

We also took our first trip to the market and grocery store to get a few things for the week and snapped a few photos driving through town.

It's been a lovely weekend but we are excited to get back to work tomorrow!  The Lord is definitely at work all around us and there's lots of big things coming up this week.  Our prayer is that He would use us in mighty ways even in these early days here.  Look forward to updating you again soon!

We're here!

Well actually, we've been here for five days now. The trip here was incredibly smooth and uneventful. Praise the Lord! We were thankful to get here safely with all our belongings in tow. We have felt covered in prayer as we are settling into our new life here in Jinja.

First impressions:

• Uganda is truly beautiful! Lots of green everywhere and blue skies every day (well, almost every day... it has been raining all day today but it has made for a relaxing Sunday).
• The traffic in Kampala (the capital) and on the roads between there and Jinja is crazy! And they definitely do not have emissions standards quite like Northern Virginia... the pollution is unbelievable but the scenery is amazing!
• The people are kind and welcoming.
• Jinja is the perfect sized town with a few really great restaurants, a market with tons of fresh fruits and vegetables, and grocery stores but without all the congestion of a big city.
• Lake Victoria and the Nile River are absolutely gorgeous!  What a gift to be able to see them on a daily basis!

What we're up to:

• We are staying with the Gibsons on the Children of Grace compound until our apartment is ready in a couple of weeks. They have been wonderful and we have loved getting to know them better!
• This week we have been getting over the exhaustion caused by our travel and a few nights of minimal sleep before our departure.
• Starting tomorrow we will begin to really get our feet wet and jump into the work we will be doing with Children of Grace.
• We have started making lots of friends already! The connections here are crazy...it's a small world after all. There are plenty of Mzungus (the Ugandan word for "white people") working here in Jinja for other non-profit organizations and it has been a great blessing to already have a sense of community while so far from home.

God is good! And our transition has been smooth so far. Thank you for all your prayers... we are incredibly blessed and can't tell you what a difference your prayers make!! Miss you all!

Just a few more days...

We have had a busy but blessed past several weeks as we've prepared for our departure! At 6am on Tuesday morning we will leave Raleigh to fly to Uganda for this exciting adventure! We would love your prayers for safety in our travels and peace as we begin to settle into our new lives. And for those of you who are interested, here's a recap of life since leaving Arlington...

• moved all of our possessions into Jess' parents garage
• celebrated our one year anniversary
• spent a few days at the beach for Mike's family reunion
  
• joyfully liquidated Mike's car
• fixed the air conditioning in Jess' car, which broke in the middle of those 110 degree days
  
• Jess had laser eye surgery to correct her horrible vision for good
• visited with friends in Raleigh and Charlotte
• ate like it was our last day to live (we're thinking pizza and ice cream will be less readily available in Uganda)
• spent numerous hours making phone calls to insurance companies, banks, cell phone companies, etc. trying to wrap up loose ends here before moving overseas
• shopped at costco, sam's, and walmart for necessities for the year
• celebrated our nephew's first birthday
• spent time with Jess' family at the beach (complete with a visit from her brother from NYC)
• raised every bit of the support we were hoping for (praise the Lord!!)
• said some very tough goodbyes

What a joyful time this has been! It has been bittersweet as we've had more time with those near and dear to us recently than normal and yet, that is making it more difficult to leave them now. We are incredibly blessed by the amazing people in our lives and that is what we are going to miss the most! We have been blown away by the way God has provided for our monetary needs for the coming year and have been overwhelmed by the generosity of so many of our friends and family. What an amazing sacrifice and gift that enables us to serve the children of Uganda through you! We are so thankful for the chance to share our journey in Uganda with you and covet your prayers as we seek to glorify the Lord in the work to which He has called us.

Below are a few photos from these past several weeks. Enjoy!