Looking Back, Looking Forward
It’s that time of year again, and we are gearing up for our annual clinics in Kampala, Uganda! Our team this year consists of TWENTY-ONE members, with half of the team joining us for their first time.
We are very excited for this year’s clinics, and the team is well underway with trip preparations, planning meetings, and getting to know each other. We will be serving the Zana school children on March 27th and holding our main clinics from March 28-30th on ABU’s campus again this year. We look forward to once again joining our local partners from ABU, New City Community Church, and Zana Presbyterian Church in an effort to reach the surrounding community with not only medical care, but more importantly, with a visible demonstration of the love of Jesus. In addition, several members of our team will be arriving early to enjoy some team building days and time zone acclimatization ahead of the clinic days, as well as having discussions with our partners about the future of our efforts (more on that in a moment).
While we are eagerly anticipating our upcoming trip, we are also excited about the progress we’ve made over the past year. During our clinics in 2018, we identified over 30 patients that would benefit from follow up services that we could provide. Since that time, many have had life changing interventions including operations, dialysis, and follow up testing. Eight patients have completed treatment and been “discharged” from our system, including one patient who was treated for (and cured from) active tuberculosis! Some are still in process awaiting surgery, and we are providing long term medications and follow up care for six patient who have chronic conditions such as severe hypertension or diabetes. We are extremely thankful for our hard working Ugandan counterparts who are shouldering the burden of coming alongside these patients and following them on a continuing basis!
“The work is not over, and in fact, now is when the hard part begins.”
With all the progress that has been made, we continue to look expectantly to the future as well. We continue to review and refine our process of identifying and assisting patients, with hopes of providing medical care with excellence for those in need. But being holistically concerned with people’s heads, hearts, and hands, we also continue to pursue areas of need as they are made known to us. One of these needs in particular has risen to the forefront over the past 1-2 years. We have come to recognize a dangerous cycle that occurs all too frequently in Ugandan culture, in which many young women, unable to gain employment either due to lack of education or lack of opportunity, are expelled from their homes and forced to choose between a life of prostitution, subsistence living on the streets, or agreeing to an opportunistic, polygamous marriage in order to meet their daily living needs. We are currently exploring ways that we can work with our Ugandan partners to help to break this cycle by providing education and/or opportunities for employment for these young, vulnerable women.
With all of this going on, we find ourselves thankful for God’s provision thus far and excited by the opportunities before us, while at the same time recognizing that many challenges lie ahead. WE COVET YOUR PRAYERS! We need wisdom to determine the best course of action, discernment to anticipate obstacles before they arise, grace to overcome cultural barriers and potential miscommunication, safety in travel, financial provision for the work to be done, and above all, we desire “thanks be to God, who in Christ always leads us in triumphal procession, and through us spreads the fragrance of the knowledge of Him everywhere.” Please pray that we would be “the aroma of Christ to God among those who are being saved.” (2 Cor 2:14-15a).