Mathew 18:20

For where two or three come together in my name, there am I with them.
-Mathew 18:20

Where do we gather in the Lord's name?

This past week we (meaning myself and many of my friends here in Uganda) found ourselves in an not so unique situation. I suppose for me it was unfamiliar territory, but for the rest it unfortunately and fortunately isn't so uncommon. A significant portion of our Bible study attendees all had patients at the local hospital and were dedicated to spending time there seeing to their needs, providing meals, and loving on them through their hard times.


I was included in this group. I had recently found a girl in need. I won't go into full details of her situation, but I will give you the short version. On my way to work I found her unconscious lying in the middle of the road. Upon getting her help we discovered that she had come down to Jinja, from northern Uganda, for a promised house girl job. The people who brought her here took her things and abandoned her in the bus park. She had been living on the streets for over a week with no food and because of her tribal background she was unable to communicate with anyone. We also discovered that she very likely had psychological problems and may have been a rape victim.


She was a sweetheart. Her smile would light up the room. She was a child of God who I fell in love with quicker than I would have imagined. When I found her she had no hope. In Uganda having no hope means something a bit more drastic than in the States. I honestly believe that had the Lord not led me to her and surrounded me by people who could help me through the situation that she would be dead today and if not today very soon.


Anyway, as we discussed Bible study for the week we realized the obvious solution was having it at the hospital. A great horde of white people came and crammed into the Women's Ward. There were families gathered around patients in beds across the way and several of our patients sat and listened in, some understanding some just enjoyed listening to the songs and watching us as we browsed through scripture and discussed adamantly in a foreign tongue. It was a glorious night. It was such a blessing to see the smiles on the faces, of all within earshot, as we sang praise to our Lord and Savior.


Some highlights for me of the night were; the head doctor who had just gotten off duty fetching his Bible and joining us, another Indian doctor coming in and asking to have a photo taken on his phone of him and the girl playing guitar, and the following day hearing that our favorite nurse was upset she had missed out (we promised we would be back and inform her with plenty of notice so she could attend).

I can't imagine what heaven will be like, but I know that it will be similar to our night in the hospital.

Where do we gather together in the Lord's Name...Al-Shafa Medical Center!

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I suppose I should give a conclusion to the girl I was caring for. We found a lady who spoke her language and organized a tribe mate and a social worker (who works for a friends organization) to escort her back up to northern Uganda to her home. She was sooo excited to be going home and I can only imagine the reunion with her family. I still think about her daily and pray the Lord is working in her heart and that she has the support she needs to deal with the difficult life she will continue to face in Uganda. Please join me in these prayers. Pray for Charity.

Operation Christmas Goat

I'm sorry to say that I have not been able to blog as much as I had hoped when I arrived back. Turns out that I am crazy busy with work...shoulda known better.Since getting back I have picked up three new projects. I am again working with many of the ones that I spent this past summer with. Sam, the foreman, and all the boys have come back on and are working with me in the construction of a chapel on the same land the playground was built. I also, was charged with helping complete the well we had started this past summer. It is a solar powered well and it was my job to construct a concrete box for the batteries and control consoles. Also, included in this project was setting up the solar panels in a way that would prevent theft or vandalism. I hope to post more on both of these projects in the future, but for now on to the last, which I hope is as interesting and entertaining for you as it was for me.

GOATS!!!!

As you all are aware Christmas season has just passed and here at Amazima that meant a new addition to each household. As an organization we are constantly looking for ways to help the families we serve become more self sustaining. This year we decided as Christmas gifts to give each family, with a child in the program, a female goat. We instructed them not to just take them home and eat them, but rather let them grow and mature until they are able to bear children (or as they are called for goats "kids"). Then they can eat the new ones or sell them or do whatever they like with them.

Anyway, this seems like a simple enough idea...not at all the case though. We needed to come up with 120 goats in about 3 weeks. There are no auction houses or sale barns here so we used the old "ask around" strategy. We would find 3 here and 1 there, but it wasn't going so quick. I decided to implement an incentive. These always worked in the states to speed things up. I told the boys I was working with that I would give them a small bit of money for each goat they found increasing the amount if they found them at a lower price (ranging from $0.20 - $0.70).

One of the up sides to this strategy was getting to see many new areas of Uganda. I trekked deeper into the villages than I had ever before. Many times I was anywhere from 1/2 hour to 1 hour from a paved road. The crazy part about that is that it couldn't have been more than 5 miles actual distance, but due to the winding paths and off-road nature of it all it took forever.

The boys efforts helped a bunch and between the 3 of them they came up with close to 40 goats. We also ran into the problem that 120 goats or anywhere near that amount is a ton of stinking goats. The feeding ground was limited on our property and we had to build a pen for them at night. Another problem we faced was a few of the goats developed a cold and spread it to all of them. We had close to a hundred sniffling and sneezing goats. This doesn't seem so bad until I researched and realized a common killer of goats is pneumonia. We only lost one, but I was a bit worried for a spell.

Despite the stress and setbacks I still am very fond of goats and hope to someday raise at least of few of my own. Even though I'm in an apartment currently, I am tempted to buy a few and keep them out on the Amazima property. Maybe I could pay somebody a bit to tend to them.

All in all Operation Christmas Goat (this is the official name I gave this project) was a success.

A few interesting goat facts

1) Goats are great swimmers and were often kept by sailors for their milk and lack of fear of water

2) Goats have rectangular eyes which help them see at night

3) A group of goats is called a trip

I've got many emails requesting a goat Haiku so for all you fans of Japanese poetry about goats here you go.

I get a bad rap

Many say I eat tin cans

They say that I'm dense