Jul
2005

30
Uganda – July 2005 Wrap Up
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Wow! What an unbelievably busy trip. With a fabulous team of 39 people MUCH was accomplished! Here is a list of just a FEW of those accomplishments:

Plumbing & trenching for the church bathrooms was done

The new store was painted & wired. A beautiful mural was painted by Dawn and other team members.

The preschool & women’s sewing center were painted. We also supplied the preschool with 120 little chairs, some desks and much needed school supplies. The women’s sewing center was also given fabric and sewing supplies.

We hand picked corn at the Hope4Kids farm. Robert & his crew also did some wiring of buildings there.

Our medical team spent 4 days of medical/dental outreach in rural areas with makeshift exam/treatment rooms and pharmacies. They also worked at the clinic on site giving free medical care to all who came. Over 2300 people were served.

Pastor George held a 4 day leadership seminar. He and Pastor Brad also preached in the crusades held nightly.

Pat & Don along with Emily, Sage & Bethany held band classes teaching the trumpet and clarinet.

Donna led a group teaching postcard making to women.

We tested and fitted over 750 pair of reading glasses.

On orphan day every orphan received a pair of flip flops. We also gave out 233 goats, 58 mattresses, 50 sets of sheets & blankets, 50 mosquito nets and many gifts of school supplies, clothing, Bibles & personal items.

We visited the local hospital praying for the sick and handing out beanie babies.

The list is too long to mention everything that was done.

Many relationships were built within the community. Homes were visited. Needs were met. People came to know Christ. People who thought no one cared were prayed for. Many lives were touched by this loving, compassionate team.

In Matthew 25 we read (Message Bible)

“I was hungry & you fed me,
I was thirsty and you gave me a drink,
I was homeless and you gave me a room,
I was shivering and you gave me clothes, I was sick and you stopped to visit, I was in prison and you came to me. . .
. . . Whenever you did one of these things to someone overlooked or ignored, that was me-you did it to me.”

If you have the desire to make an impact please consider going on a mission trip with Hope4Kids.
 

Jul
2005

28
Festival of Hope – October 2005
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Hope 4 Kids International is sponsoring a “Festival of Hope” in El Mirage, Arizona on October 29, 2005. 

We are looking for

  • dental hygienist
  • physicians
  • nurses
  • Spanish translators
  • beauticians
  • clowns
  • Anyone!

If you are interested in helping with the festival email Tom Eggum.
 


Uganda Team Update
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I got this last set of updates from Rachel while she was in Amsterdam on Tuesday night.  Hopefully they are home safe tonight.  Rachel plans on sending a final update and more photos when she is home and rested.  Please check back in a few days.

Also, YOU should consider going to Uganda or elsewhere with Hope 4 Kids.  We are hosting numerous trips in 2006 and have another trip to Uganda in November.

Here’s a link to the application!
 


Uganda Team – Tuesday, July 26, 2005
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Today was a hectic day of tying up loose ends.  There were more orphans to meet.  More goats and mattresses to give out.  The mural was finished on the store.  Painting of the preschool was finished.  There were many goodbyes to be said. 

Bonnie, Elizabeth, Katie, Pat & Diane left today.  It was so difficult to say goodbye to our American & Ugandan friends.  Many tears were shed.

We packed and are ready to begin the long trek home.

Thanks for your many prayers!

I will send a followup and more photos when I return to the States!

 
 


Uganda Team – Sunday, July 24, 2005
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Our final Sunday in Uganda!  What a day!  Most of us attended the main church.  There was much celebration and dancing.  The clarinet and trumpet students performed two songs with Pat & Don.  Bethany and Sage conducted as they played “Merrily we row along” and “up on the housetop”  with “When the Saints go Marching In” as their grand finale.  The  church cheered to see the students had picked it up so rapidly!  Bethany & Sage also wowed them with their beautiful “American Idol” voices.  They were joined by one of their African sisters.  Photos to follow as soon as I get to a place to send them.

Robert, Brad, Carla & Elizabeth attended Pastor Peter’s rural church.  Pastor Brad preached.  The little church packed.  Pastor Peter’s wife had just had a baby boy and Pastor Peter announced they had decided to call him “Robert”.

Marilyn went to two Catholic churches with a local priest.  At the second church they were expecting the bishop.  The people were all there to see him.  It was announced that he could not attend today BUT there was another important visitor. . . their American sister, Marilyn.  She greeted them and told about the projects we have going on.  After church she was whisked away to a beautiful luncheon.  She said she was glad the bishop hadn’t shown up as she got his lunch!

The rest of us had lunch on the grounds of Pastor Wilbur’s new home.  A woman from the US has funded the building of it.  It’s not completed yet but it’s going to be a very nice brick home.  His wife proudly gave us the grand tour and told us what each room was going to be.

In the afternoon there was a baptism in the hotel swimming pool.  53 people were baptised.  Elizabeth & I attended a women’s ministry where I volunteered Elizabeth as the speaker!   Then the women introduced themselves and told of their marital status, children, their hopes for the future,  etc .  It was a great afternoon of just getting to know our Ugandan sisters.  And to find that their dreams are so similar to our own.

In the evening we were able to invite some guests to the hotel for dinner.  A bus full of children and adults arrived much to the delight of everybody!  We had a fabulous dinner by the pool.  After dinner the hotel was  filled with children laughing, chasing balloons, receiving gifts and sweets and bubble gum.
 

Jul
2005

22
Uganda Team
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The team sent more photos today.  You can find them in the photo album.

Rachel has had problems with the internet connection at the church office.  So Diane Sullivan sent the “Thursday update” and photos from an internet cafe in Tororo.
 


Uganda Team – July 22, 2005
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A very sad day for all of us.  We attended a funeral of Jennifer and her baby.  She was 8 months pregnant and fell on the way to the clinic with three of her children.  A C-section was performed and both Jennifer and the baby died.  They tell us that her husband is old by African standards and there are eight children left behind..  The pastor said that when he first came here that Jennifer was one of his first converts.  She has been an important part of the True Vine Ministry team.

Her funeral was standing room only in the big church.  She was loved by the entire community.  Her children were some of the first children in the village to steal Tom’s heart.  It is so difficult to understand when a mother dies.

Pastor George gave the blessing at the grave site where there were hundreds of people surrounding the burial site in a small field next to her home.

Rachel was with her orphans who know that their mother is sick with aids.  It was very difficult for these children to witness what might happen to their own mother in the near future.

It is hard to describe how God can be with us in such a great way in this location where He is needed so badly.  We all feel closer to God than we have every experienced in our entire lives.  Our faith is renewed and strengthened with every day we spend here.
 

Jul
2005

21
Uganda Team – July 20, 2005
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Another full day!  Our rural teams were back out pulling teeth, treating people and fitting them for reading glasses.

Pastor George has been holding a leadership seminar and has around 70 in attendance.  He says they are hungry to learn & to grow.  He has been talking about small group leadership.  He had 63 books which were group Bible studies for the new believer and understanding the Christian Faith.  The book was also geared toward Christian growth and discipleship.

In the evening Pastor George and Pastor Brad have been speaking at a local crusade.  Bethany & Sage have been singing at these crusades.  People call them the “choir from America.”

Our word for the day was a quote from Mother Theresa. 

“If you can’t feed 100 people, feed one.” 

Sometimes we get so overwhelmed by all the needs we have to stop and remember that we can change lives-but just one at a time.

We are putting the finishing touches on our new store.  this will be a general store and will sell soap, food, clothing.  This is also where the orphans will come for their food allotment.  Carla headed up the painting. Robert’s electricians began the wiring.

The music lessons are coming along nicely.  A little crowd of spectators gathers while they learn.

The ground is being prepared for the  Hope4Kids office/suite .

Things are moving along!

Thank you for your continued prayers.

 
 


Uganda Team – July 19, 2005
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Donna found you cannot purchase postcards here so she got real creative and dreamed up a project.  Stephan helped her find card stock in town.  The women of the church came and cut them into postcard sizes.  She has them designing and creating postcards for us with crayons and markers.  She then offered our team members the opportunity to buy these original creations. 

All the money will be presented to women’s ministry.  It will be used to pay the sewing and knitting instructors and for their outreach in the 13 districts.

Don, Sage & Emily taught trumpet lessons in their little tent again.  They now have three regular students and several drop-ins!  Today they played “Hot Cross Buns”.

Bethany & Pat found a shadey spot in front of our new store to teach clarinet lessons.  They were also teaching names of notes.  The students are very eager to learn.  They played “Hot Cross buns” also and then wanted a new song!  When they mess up they laugh and say, “Let us start afresh!”

Two teams were sent to the rural areas.  One went to Busia.  When they arrived a little building in the middle of a field had been prepared for them.  It was all set up for their clinic.  Exam rooms were separated by banana leaves and bamboo.

Matt tested people for reading glasses.  The chart is John 3:16.  Each line is progressively larger with the strength of the glasses off to the side. 
They were calling the glasses “language converters” because when they were first tested people couldn’t see or struggled to read-as soon as they received their glasses-they could read!!

Rusty worked in the pharmacy and optical.  Bonnie & Seth were also in the pharmacy.  Marilyn did vaccinations while Debbi worked with Dr Hillary .

Here is the report from Candice who was on the Marumba rural team:
The Marumba team brought Dr Charles, Harriet & Eliger this time.  After a short walk some of us began inventory.  The dental was set up under a tree. 
The clinic began straight away!  As I explained before the clinic building was only half complete and the roof complete up to about a three feet wide gap running the length of the building.  This made things very interesting when the skies opened up.

The dental team “Dr”Mark , “Dr” Brad & “Dr” Michele had just injected a patient needing an extraction and even the patient grabbed her treatment bench and ran for cover.

To protect our medicine we immediately packed them up and ran for our bus while Raianne , Dr. Charles and Annette stayed behind in a dry corner. 
Matia predicted it would rain for an hour.  we waited and when it didn’t stop decided to open up the pharmacy from the bus (which was also leaking from the roof).

15 teeth, many people and hundreds of prescriptions later we packed up to find dinner delivered to us today.  After this honor we boarded our bus and proceeded to say long goodbyes only to get stuck in the mud.  With the help of the village men using strength and wood for traction we were headed back to our hotel.

I think the general theme for us so far at the rural clinics is that you WILL face challenges!  Remember when all is said and done Who carried you through it.

 
 


Uganda Team – Monday, July 18, 2005
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Today was a full day!

People were lined up at the clinic waiting to see the mzungos (white foreigners) & to receive free health care.  Our midwife, Debbi teamed up with the Ugandan midwife.  Brad and Carla assisted the dentist-pulling teeth, etc.  Marilyn worked in the optical dept.

A team went to a rural area to give medical treatment.  Candice Price was on that team and here is her excellent report from there:

Monday morning the rural med team along with Annette & Gertrude from our clinic set out for a village located just north of Lake Victoria called Marumba.  On the way we stopped at a rural hospital and picked up Doctor Charles (a 32 year old opthalmololgist) and his assistant, Harriet.

When we arrived, benches and tables from throughout the village appeared in the 20X10 half-completed shack.  This was now our clinic.  One family donated a straw mat to use as a partition for privacy and a woman gave us her dress to hang as a curtain.

Raianne , Dr Charles & Gertrude saw patients.  “Dr” Kelly & “Dr” Josh & “Nurse Gaylord” (Matt’s name) tested visual acuity using a chart with the Bible verse John 3:16.  We dispensed over 100 pair of reading glasses.

Patients took their prescriptions to Candice Laurielee and Annette who dispensed Ibuprofen, antibiotics, antifungals, worm and malaria pills. 

Annette also did inoculations.

At 4PM we packed up and stopped at a group of huts belonging to the family of one of our Tororo brothers.  They escorted our entire team into the hut. 
We sat on couches and chairs and ate fresh fish, rice, salad & cold coca cola.
This was such an honor.  We were all taken back by the generosity of this family.
We have much more to do tomorrow at this clinic with treatment of dental infections and some people returning for injections.

Clearly this was a day the Lord had made! This was an immense privilege as we worshipped Him in this service to His children.

Pat & Don brought trumpets and clarinets to give music lessons.  They were assisted by Emily, Bethany & Sage.  The instruments will be left here in Uganda.

Brad sat in with one of the church choirs and received much applause as he learned to sing along with them.  Others continued to organize, practice puppet shows & played with the children.

Robert presented his electricians with uniforms, caps, gloves, power tools, etc.  They were each given their own tool bags filled with tools & supplies.
  They were so pleased!  They put on their safety sunglasses and strutted proudly around the site.  Keith & Stanley instructed them on the use of some of the tools.

True Vine Ministries has 13 rural churches.  Some don’t have buildings. 
They meet under a tree or in a rented “house”.  Hope4Kids is looking for churches in the US to sponsor these little churches.  Our church, Gilbert Family Church has stepped up to sponsor one of them.  Pastor Peter is the leader of this little country church.  Today Elizabeth and I came across him.  This usually bubbly man looked so tired and sad.  I asked him if he was feeling okay.  He said his daughter was very sick and hooked to an IV at the clinic.  We immediately went to pray for her.  She is a sick little girl.  In the photo Pastor Peter is trying to get her to eat.  Please put little Jane in your prayers.

 

 
 
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Hope 4 Kids International is 501c3 faith-based non-profit committed to help children around the world that are suffering from extreme poverty through Dignity, Health, Joy & Love.

www.hope4kidsinternational.org
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