2019 Trip Wrap-up
The 2019 Uganda trip is now over, and everyone from our team has returned home safely. We are grateful for the amazing support we have received over these past several months, from financial donations to prayers to help with missed flights to timely words of encouragement to transportation to and from the airport; and the list could go on and on.
There is a great deal of work involved in sending a team of 21 people halfway around the world to care for others. But as I reflect on what was done, I am much more reminded that the work is not over, and in fact, now is when the hard part begins.
It’s easy to focus on the “big experience;” the bustling clinic days filled with photos, memories, and stories of what happened – and rightly so. Our desire is to leverage our team’s ability to draw a crowd of people that would not normally engage in a Christian church environment. And draw a crowd we did! Returning to the same place year after year has given our team a reputation in the local community, to the point that when the first of our team walked up to the nearby coffee shop, they were greeted by the waitress exclaiming “Oh good! It’s time for the clinic again!” The security guards at a nearby mall also recognized who we were and what we were there to do, and greeted us warmly. This led to early morning crowds like we haven’t seen before, and forced us to close the gates at (or even before!) noon in order to see all the patients that had already arrived.
“The work is not over, and in fact, now is when the hard part begins.”
And now, although the “main event” is past, we remain focused on our initial and primary goal – to support the work of the local church.
This means that although we have returned home, we continue to communicate and work with New City Church leaders and volunteers as they coordinate both medical and spiritual follow up visits for patients; counseling for those we encountered who are in personal crisis; and discipleship for those newly introduced to the faith. We are working to connect patients in need with capable providers within the local medical community to provide follow up care, surgery, and additional testing as much as we are able. And we would ask that your partnership with us would continue, not only looking ahead (already!) to next year’s trip, but also throughout the intervening months. Would you continue to pray for New City Church, that its Gospel impact would continue? Would you continue to pray for the souls that were impacted by the good news that Jesus loves them, that they would be discipled well through the local church? Would you continue to pray for the sick patients that are waiting for needed procedures and tests, that they would look to Jesus, the great physician, to meet all their needs?
Thank you, again, to all who supported our team this spring. We continue in this work, compelled by the love of Christ, and confident that He who began a good work will be faithful to complete it!