Thursday, June 19, 2014

Oh Let Me Count the Ways!


We have just finished a great clinic day in Ishaka, in SW Uganda.  We held the clinic on a piece of land where Ishaka Community Church will be located.  They had set up 3 tents for us.  After a few hours of seeing patients, it got cloudy and started to rain.  Everyone scrambled to get out of the rain and then to keep the roofs from collapsing.  This was an adventure, but did slow our clinic flow a little bit. 

 

People, fairly frequently, ask me how they can specifically help Due Unto Others in the work that God is doing in Uganda.  Today, I would like to share a few of the special “That One Person” friends that we have met over the past week or so.  I will write about the others in the days to come.  See if God might speak to you about specifically helping with one of these cases.

 

Emmanuel is a 5 year old boy that lives in Bwambara.  He has a clouding and enlargement of his left eye.  This has been slowly growing over some time.  He can no longer see out of the eye.  It causes him some pain, but is not debilitating, at this point.  His underlying problem is likely an eye tumor. 
 
 
Pastor Elisha had met Emmanuel and his family when making some home visits in the village.  He invited the family to our clinic that we hosted there, earlier this week.  Emmanuel reminds me our little friend, Joseph of Mytianna, who passed away in 2012 after a bout with a facial rhabdomyosarcoma.  What is also uncanny, is that Emmanuel’s father reminds us of Joseph’s father Elya.  We have made arrangements for Emmanuel to travel to Rukungiri on Saturday for an initial evaluation.  He will likely then be referred to the regional hospital in Mbarrara.  If this can happen early enough on Saturday, we might be able to attend his appointment in Mbarrara.  We will be in town that day with a day “off”.  The estimated expense for Emmanuel is $500 (US dollars).

 

The next opportunity to change a child’s life is Pamela. 
 
She is 10 years old and also lives in Bwambara.  She has recently dropped out of school because she can no longer manage to walk to school and carry out her normal activities there.  We feel that this is related to her heart.  She has a loud murmur and needs to have it evaluated.  The Due Unto Others team, in association with the Rukungiri Community Church, has made arrangements for Pamela and her mother to travel to Mbarrara on next Tuesday (June 24) to have an appointment with the cardiologist, get an x-ray and an echocardiogram.  If she has a surgical problem with her heart, we will then need to bring her to Mulago Hospital, in Kampala, for a heart surgery.  The initial work up for Pamela will be about $100.  Any additional expenses will be determined by what her diagnosis is found to be.

 

The last “That One Person” for today is Polite. 

 
She is a 4 year old girl that fell into a pot of hot posho (think malt-o-meal that is really dry, bland and sticky).  She suffered a burn on her right hand and forearm, up to the elbow.  She has significant scarring of the right hand, to the point that she cannot close the hand.  We have seen tremendous progress with Kevin and Shakib when they were treated at CORSU hospital in Entebbe.  We are making arrangements for Polite and her mother to travel the 8 hours to Gabba, hopefully next week.  They will spend the night at Wentz Medical Center and then be taken for a consultation at CORSU the next day.  I suspect that she will need 2-3 operations to get the hand at least semi-functional again.  Polite was not even seen in our clinic in Bwambara.  As we were packing up to leave and meeting with the parents of Emmanuel, Jayne was playing with and loving on the local kids, outside of the church.  She noticed Polite’s hand and brought her in for us to see.  The trips from Bwambara to Entebbe will be a little costly, but our estimate for Polite’s care is around $800.

 

I am constantly reminded, by God, that one of the only things better than God answering your prayers is for Him to use you to answer someone else’s prayer.  If you would like to give towards one of these cases, please contact me at dueunto@gmail.com.  Even small amounts will help us to make a difference for these kids.  Please continue to pray for each of these beautiful children by name too.  This is a great opportunity for the Body of Christ to show His love.

 

This past week has been quite fruitful for us finding TOPs.  I have several more to tell you about in the next couple of days.

 

Preparing for “Due Season”,

 

Jay

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