Due Unto Others member profile - Joseph

Over the next few weeks I would like to introduce you to some of the Ugandan Members of the Africa Renewal/Due Unto Others team.  The first team member that I would like to profile is Joseph.  He is a “clinical officer” here in Uganda.  That is a position that is very much like a PA or Nurse Practitioner in the US.  On one of our first days of meeting with Africa Renewal Ministries, Dr. Martin mentioned Joseph.  He had recently become available from the clinic where he had been working.  Martin really wanted to hire him at Wentz Medical Center but did not have a position or funding.  Joseph is a good Christian man in his 30’s.  He and his wife are celbrating the arrival of their first child yesterday.  I asked Martin how much it would cost to have Joseph help us on our missions as we go out to rural areas in Uganda.  He said that he thought that he could hire him for $600/month!  God just overwhelmed me with the sense that we could double what we were going to be able to do for $3,600 for the whole 6 months.

I asked Martin to go ahead and see if Joseph was interested in the position.  Thankfully he was.  Joseph reminds me some of Johnny Terry.  Johnny was a PA that worked in Urgent Med for a couple of years.  Joseph, like Johnny, is a little quiet, very easy going and has a great big easy smile.  I am sure that many of you (Jamie Slate included) remember Johnny.  I am excited to think that we will be able to see twice as many people on or mission trips because of this addition to our team!   If this was not enough, I think that I am more excited to think that he will be able to lead the team to carry on the work once we have returned to Oklahoma.  This will require ongoing funding, but we will cross that bridge when we come to it.

Joseph’s position is not one that we had budgeted for in our plans before coming.  If anyone was waiting to give towards a specific need of Due Unto Others, here is one.  You can donate by sending a check to:

 RawChurch

1802 North Highway 81

Duncan, OK 73533

Put Uganda/Joseph in the memo

Next profile will be of David.  He is a man of many hats.  He will be our driver, translator, video/photographer and will helping us do some videos or documentaries over the time that we are here.

Thank you for your continued prayers and support of our family while we are here in Uganda!

Jay

a LOT of water & some of it HOT!

I have several praise reports to bring you today, related to water.

1.) I want to send out a big THANK YOU to all of the prayer warriors that petitioned our God on the behalf of Jonathan.  I asked for prayers for him on Monday afternoon.  He had suffered a severe burn on his right arm and on the right side of his abdomen when he pulled a pot of boiling water on to himself the week before.  I was concerned, at that time, that he could get a complicated infection or get scarring on the right elbow that would hinder his use of the arm.  We stopped by to see him on Thursday, and he was still holding his right arm bent.  The bandage was dirty, but he continued to run and play and smile.  I was still concerned, at that time, about his scarring and function.  We took the time on Thursday to pray with Jonathan and his mother again.
I know that you have been praying, and given the results, I think that my Granny Due has been praying for Jonathan pretty intensely! ;]  After a great worship service at Gaba Community Church this morning, we stopped to see how Jonathan was doing.  I'd have to say that what I saw today was a miracle.

Today, he can fully extend the arm, the burn on his arm and abdomen are almost completely healed.  He probably could lose the bandages and be fine!  We had asked God to heal him in a way that no one else could take the credit.  Done!

2.)  This one pales in comparison to the story of Jonathan.  But we have been "suffering" in our apartment with no hot water for the past week.  Since we got home from Hoima, late last Sunday, we have had no hot water.  The apartment complex had switched to a solar system that I think consisted of a magnifying glass and a couple of mirrors heating the water!  Anyway, after taking really quick "polar showers" this week, the apartment complex went back to the energy inefficient way of using a water heater and electricity to heat the water.  Praise the Lord for hot water!

3.) It is coming to the end of dry season.  When we arrived 2 weeks ago, it had not rained in Uganda for a month.  Over this past week, we have had a few small rains.  Last night, it started to thunder and lightning like a bad thunderstorm in Oklahoma.  Today, there was hail and much rain.  To quote the great American philosopher Will Smith it "Got Jiggy with it!".  Normally when you look to the North of our apartment, there is a swamp/marsh area.  Today it is a river.  This picture shows the water from the marsh/river coming through the wall of our apartments and almost up to the building itself.  Uganda has been needing some water, so this too is a praise for the water!

Thanks for all of your prayers!

Jay

The Lab - Bethany Village

This week, I worked in the lab at Bethany Clinic. I diagnosed malaria, tested blood sugar, performed HIV tests, and prepared blood slides. Prior to my week at Bethany, Jared and I trained in the lab at Wentz Medical Center. Gilbert, the lab technician, taught us how to find malaria parasites with a microscope and how to preform tests for HIV, blood sugar, and urine analysis. The team I worked with consisted of Andrew: 2.5 years of lab experience and lab technician at Wentz, Jared: 2.5 hours of lab experience,  Jessica: 0.0 hours of lab experience and frightened by needles, and myself: 2.5 hours of lab experience. Our small team would need to adapt quickly and work hard in order to serve the people of Bethany. 

On day 1 of the medical mission, the lab was not operational due to a lack of manpower and supplies, so I will not talk about it. Day 2, we had a microscope, 100 HIV test strips, and butterflies in our stomachs; we were ready to face the onslaught of patients lined up in front of us. Initially, Andrew did a lot of the work while Jessica and I watched. Andrew told me to look at the blood slides for malaria while Jessica learned how to draw blood. I would check a slide and tell Andrew if it was positive or negative; he would then double check to make sure I was correct.

Jessica was very nervous on her first blood draw (understandable because any of the blood we were working with could be HIV positive), but she was soon drawing blood like she had actually been to medical school.

After lunch, Andrew told me that he would no longer double check me on malaria slides ( I was so afraid that I might miss a parasite and give a false negative, and a false negative would deny treatment and possibly kill the person I was testing).

After an entire day of stress and fear, I found one case of malaria. Finding this malaria reassured me that I had been diagnosing people correctly and was a major boost to my confidence in the lab. The final tally on day 2 consisted of 5 positive HIV tests and 2 cases of malaria.

On day 3, we arrived with more confidence in our ability to work as a team. This new-found confidence allowed us to hit the ground running and we began work immediately.  Jessica drew blood, Jared did finger pricks, and I worked on malaria slides.  By mid morning Jared and I learned to draw blood and Jessica could find malaria with a microscope. Our team gained a large amount of experience and the work we did renewed my interest in the medical field. The final tally on day 3 was: 2 HIV positives and 4 malaria positives.

I personally would like to thank the lab team for their hard work and courage while facing the risk of infectious disease.  I want to say thank you to all of our supporters in the United States for all of their support through prayer and financial aid. Thank you for helping to provide medical care to over 400 people.

Jake

Bethany Village Week Update!

This has been an incredible week for the Due Unto Others team!  You have heard a little about the week from Jill’s post regarding “Time”.  Let me start, though, with our Monday.  We joined the Africa Renewal Ministries (ARM) team at the ARM headquarters Monday morning.  We loaded several big and heavy boxes on a boat and set off across Lake Victoria to Bethany Village.  ARM has a school, orphanage and medical clinic at this location.  On Monday, we unloaded our supplies and started into a health screening program for the kids in the school.  Medical providers included myself, Dr Martin and Joseph who is a “clinical officer” (much like a PA or ARNP in the US).  We saw about 85 kids that day.  We saw several kids with Ring Worm type infections and intestinal worms but not any that were horribly sick.  We got stuck in a traffic jam on the way home and did not get home until about 7:30pm.

On Tuesday, Joline, Jessica, Joshua, and Jennifer Gash went with us as we boarded the boat at the ARM headquarters and crossed the lake again.  On this day, the clinic was opened to the Bethany village at large.  Jill, Jared and Jennifer manned the check in station, giving the patients de-worming pills, and getting their weights.  Jake and Jessica worked in the lab.  They learned quickly from the lab tech, Andrew, and by the time the day was over, they were drawing blood and looking at malaria slides under the microscope. 

Joshua and Joline worked in the pharmacy, dispensing prescriptions to the patients with the help of Moses, one of the local nurses.  Jayne helped me a little and helped with patient flow from the exam rooms to the lab and to the pharmacy.  We saw 150 patients on Tuesday.  The sickest of these was a 35 year old lady named Jane.  She had a 104 degree fever and just looked “ill”.  My sick radar went off pretty quickly with her.  Turns out that she had a new diagnosis of HIV.  I was able to pray with her and counsel her about this, along with my new friend, Faith, from ARM.  Jane told us that she was born again, but had “grown apart” from Jesus.  She made a rededication of sorts that day and we reinforced with her that all she had to do was ask for forgiveness and it would be granted.  Jane was started on Bactrim and vitamins.  We also encouraged her to bring her children the next day to have them tested.  We were pretty tired as we headed home on Tuesday, but encouraged by the lives that we had touched and the wonderful people of Uganda who had shown us much love and appreciation.

Wednesday, our same US team boarded the boat and headed for Bethany Village.  We were a little tired from the two previous long days, so Jill needed her fix for the morning!

The medical provider team changed a little, as we had Dr Joy, Joseph, myself and a clinical nurse on the team.  Henry, Jim's friend that he helped to free from a remand prison here in Uganda went with us.  He is wanting to be a doctor some day and he did an excellent job serving as my translator.

We knew that we were in for a busy day as when we arrived, the whole porch area was full of people and the line stretched out onto the grass. 

I guess the news that we were there had spread around the village over night.  Our team switched jobs a little as Jill moved to pharmacy and Jared joined Jake and Jessica in the lab.  By the end of the day, Jared (at 12 years old) was drawing blood and running lab tests under the supervision of Andrew. 

On this day, we saw about 230 patients.  Thankfully, Jane (my patient with HIV from the day before) was feeling better and all 3 of her kids tested negative for HIV.  I met 2 other ladies, Justine and Margaret, that had new diagnoses of HIV at ages 30 and 37.  I was able to pray with them and counsel them (with help from Faith again) regarding their illness.  They too were started on medicines.  I met a 10 year old boy who was very thin, but his abdomen stuck out quite a bit.  I could feel his spleen and liver with him STANDING.  For those of you not in medicine, it is very rare to feel a spleen.  Usually when you do, a person is thin, laying down and exhaling.  His liver was also enlarged, hanging about 2 inches below the edge of his ribs.  This is likely a result of malaria.  He appeared pale (noted by looking at the inside of his eyelids and lips to judge his paleness, because the dark skin is tough to differentiate).  His mom had a goiter (mass on her thyroid) that I could see across the room.  I was able to make referrals for them to head across the lake to be seen and have lab tests done at the Wentz Medical Center associated with ARM.  I was able to pray with them as well and encourage the mother to make her follow ups that were arranged. 

All together, Monday-Wednesday, we had seen about 450 patients through our clinic in Bethany.  The kids had learned many new skills that will serve the Due Unto Others team as we go out to other rural areas.  We have been able to participate in the lives of 450 people, but they have made an even bigger impact on ours.

Thursday was a great day.  We slept a little later as we have not had an official “off day” since we got here on February 3^rd.  The Gregstons plus Jessica Gash joined Faith to cross the lake one more time.  This time, we would come unannounced and do some home visits to people that we had seen in the clinic this week or that the local nurse knew needed some attention.   We loaded backpacks with supplies and trekked out some dirt roads to find mud huts with people living there. 

 The first place we went was that of a woman, Florence, with HIV.  She had not been taking her HIV meds because she had not been able to go across the lake to the city to get her medicines.  She seemed to be doing ok, but her 2 grandchildren were there.  One, named Eddy, was laying on a mat in the front of the hut and looked listless. 

 One feel of his skin, I could tell that he had a fever.  Again, looking at the inner eyelids, he seemed anemic. 

We negotiated with the local nurse, Christine, to take Eddie back with us to Gaba when we left later that day.  We knew that he needed to be checked out at the hospital and possibly get a transfusion.  Arrangements were made for Florence and Eddy to meet us for lunch and then to ride on our boat back to the Wentz Medical Center in Gaba.  We met an older lady that had fallen 1 year ago.  Since that time, she has been unable to walk. 

We had seen her at our clinic on Tuesday.  She gets around by dragging on her bottom and pushing with her hands.  We had hoped to bring her an “off road” wheelchair, but it was not ready to bring until tomorrow.  She will get it later next week.  Her left leg was shorter than the right and her L hip causes her chronic pain.  I am sure that she broke this hip a year ago.  She was unable to get it fixed, so she can no longer walk.  We prayed with she and her family and tried to encourage them. 

We met a man named John Baptiste, who is in his 50’s, but seems to have Parkinsons.  His tremors keep him from working, so he now lives with his 17 year old son who tries to support them through fishing. 

While we were visiting with John Baptiste, he accepted Christ and prayed a prayer of salvation!!  

We went by to visit Jane.  She was feeling much better with her fever gone. 

She was quite appreciative of the care she had received and was planning to start her HIV treatment in the coming week. In total, we went to 7 homes and we were able to share the love of Christ and pray with the people at each home. 

After lunch, we headed back to Gaba on the boat.  Eddy and Florence did go with us. 

 Eddy had a very high malaria count and a Hemoglobin of 6.0!  Again for the medical novice, his Hemoglobin should be 11-14.  The rule in Uganda is that you transfuse if less than 6.0!  So he did not get blood, but did stay in the hospital overnight getting IV fluids and IV malaria meds.  He will go home soon and get continued injections of malaria medicines in the clinic at Bethany Village.

This week has been exactly like what I felt God was calling us to in Uganda!  That is, helping people in the rural areas that would otherwise have no access to healthcare.  I am not sure that Jane or Eddy would have lasted much longer without some medical intervention.  Those of you supporting us in various ways, add the names of Jane, John Baptiste and Eddy to a list of people that will be giving you a big hug and thank you some day in heaven!

Jay

New names for our Family

Here is a fun update for you.  The Gregston team has taken new names since we arrived in Uganda.  In Uganda, people have Africa names and “Christian” names.  In fact, they really don’t have family names.  It is a little confusing because everyone in the family has different names.  For example, our host is Dr. Nkundeki Martin.  So here is Team Gregston and our new names.

Kabalagala (Pancake) Jay       I chose this because I like to say it real fast. 

Ekisa (Grace) Jill                           Given to Jill by one of our drivers.

Secoco (Turkey) Jake    Jake is the name for an young male turkey.  So this was a natural fit for him.

Matafari (The Brick) Jared           Jared came up with this name for himself.  He decided he wanted a different name because people here have trouble saying Jared.

Chicajo (Sugar Cane) Jayne          Chosen because of how much she likes to eat sugar cane.

We have purchased a van for 31 million!  (shillings)  This is about $13,500.  We hope to have it ready to roll by Monday.  They are adding seats, a luggage rack on top, and some boda bars on front.  These are like “Bull bars” that we use in Oklahoma.  This protects the front of your vehicle from the pesky motorcycle taxi guys.  If you have some good bars, they try to steer clear of you.  This van purchase is the first step in getting our mobile medical clinic on the road!

Time

Time is a relative term in Africa.  I’ve heard that in the U.S. we have watches and no time,  in Africa there are no watches and plenty of time.  As several people asked how they could pray for us as we were departing the U.S. the first thing that came to mind was for our ability to shift into African time, not only physically, but emotionally, spiritually and mentally as well.  The physical adjustment has been smoother than we were anticipating, ironically for the same reason that it is tougher in the other areas.  Since we were so busy, (along with the many others who were the hands and feet of Christ to us during our last week at home) packing not only for this trip but our belongings within our home, we were able to shift our sleeping schedule by sleeping very little our last night before we left.  This fact coupled with purposeful flight sleeping times, not to mention the prayers,  made the physical adjustment fairly painless.   Because of the timing of the sale of the house, we have been in the fast pace of our culture on steroids.  The temptation here is for this accelerated pace, which feels so normal and ingrained more deeply than one might realize, to allow us to become easily frustrated as we wait. The ironic part is the fast pace of our last week in the United States, made our first week here’s theme: “Hurry up and wait.” So as the temptation arises from time to time as we might sit to wait on a driver, be at a standstill for over an hour in traffic, etc, I am reminded of Psalm 46:10  He says, “Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth.”  Verse 11 goes on to remind me, “The Lord Almighty is with us; the God of Jacob is our fortress.” I also must remember these verses as I experienced the opposite of what I’ve just described above today as we were in our second day of the medical clinic at Bethany to the outlying villages.  Here in Uganda, you have “Break Tea” at about 10:30am and lunch about 1pm.  So we closed up the clinic and walked to the home which was providing us lunch.  Meanwhile about 75 people continued to wait patiently to be seen by a medical provider, have lab work done, or get their prescription while the clinic was closed over our hour for lunch.

 

  Jay commented to me, how tough it was to sit and eat knowing so many were waiting on us.    What these beautiful people provided me today was a living example of waiting patiently.  Even with all of it, they extended gratitude to us upon their departure from the clinic.  Humbling!  We will post a diary type blog of day 2 of clinic in Bethany soon!  

Jill   

Calling the Prayer Warriors

Today, we went to Bethany Village.  This is an area across Lake Victoria that is a part of Africa Renewal Ministries.  In this area, there are schools, an orphanage, and a medical clinic.  We saw 80 kids from their schools today as part of a health screening program.  We saw many healthy kids, several with Tinea Capitis (ring worm on the head) and several with cavities in their teeth.

Jill and Jared teamed up to take care of registration.  They took names and ages.  Then they got a weight and height on these beautiful kids.  Each of the students was given 5 tablets of worm medicine, which they are required to take 2 times per year.  They were not too happy, but none of them refused.



We had a traditional Ugandan lunch in one of the homes.  This was probably the best one that we have had to date.  Then we got back to work finishing the 80 patients today.  We have plans to run a clinic for the Bethany Community tomorrow in which we will likely see 200 patients.  Please keep this clinic and the potential health and spiritual healing that could come from it, in your prayers.

I would like you to hit your knees for Jonathan.  He is a approximately 4 year old boy that we met today in Gaba, prior to crossing the lake to Bethany Village.  He has a severe (likely 3rd degree) burn of his R arm and abdomen.  This occurred as a pot of boiling water fell on him about a week ago.  We were able to pray with Jonathan and his mother.  He was given a "free pass" to go to the Wentz Medical Center.  He went to Wentz, while we were in Bethany, and had the burn dressed and debrided.  His mother has a small stand in the market near the clinic, so I hope to follow him on this burn.  It has a high likelihood of getting infected and if that does not happen, it has a high probability of scarring in a way that limits the use of his R arm.  I pray that God will heal him in a way that no one can take credit for but God.  Please join me in this prayer.

Jay