As we started our clinic at the Ishaka Community
Church clinic, I was working at
registration, close to Joseph’s station where he was seeing patients.
One of his previous patients had returned with her lab results from the next tent over where lab, pharmacy and spiritual clinic were located. Her name is Grace.
She is 66 years old and her blood
sugar level was 570. {Normal is up to
110.} Joseph called me to take her paper
to Dr. Viola from the district health facility who was assigned to work with us
by the government. She was very
receptive to the need to admit her to the government hospital in Bushenyi which
is about 7 to 8 kilometers south of Ishaka.
She wrote admit orders on Grace’s form.
Pastor Sam sent an interpreter, Alex, to show Ronald how to find this
hospital. I wasn’t sure if I should go
or stay. I asked Joseph and he told me I
should go. The volunteers from Ishaka
Community Church (ICC) were quick to take my place in registration and keeping
the crowd moving through the clinic. So,
we left in the “Ministry Machine” to head to the hospital. I asked Alex to ask Grace if I could pray for
her. She said yes and we prayed. I then felt prompted to ask her if she was
born again. She told Alex no, but she had
come to the clinic to be saved. I then
asked if Benneth her daughter was saved. The answer was no, but she also wanted
to accept Jesus into her heart as Lord and Savior. Pastor Sam had been
preaching and sharing with the crowd as they were waiting to be registered and
seen by the medical and spiritual team in the other two tents. So I was blessed to lead them in a prayer to
accept Jesus as their Lord and Savior via Alex who translated.
Of Course, the Lord needed no translation as
he heard their hearts’ cry to become Lord and Savior of their lives. I asked if they had a bible in their local
language. They did not. So upon reaching the hospital, they were each
given one.
Alex and Ronald helped us get Grace into the door of the
registration building at the hospital.
We were told she was to be admitted, and we needed to take her to another
part of the hospital compound. As she
was being helped by the guys out of the first building, she told Alex she now
could not see. We got her settled on a
bare plastic mattress hospital bed.
At
this point I knew we must take Benneth to get some provisions for Grace’s
stay. As we have mentioned before, if
you are in the hospital here, the patient’s family is responsible for the
patient’s food, bedding and laundry.
Before we left, I wrote a note to Grace in English in the cover of her
Bible and gave it to her. She immediately
held it up toward heaven and began praising as she prayed in her native
language.
Even though I did not know the
words, I knew by the Holy Spirit the authenticity of her prayer and
praise. We prayed over her once again
before leaving with Benneth and her baby.
They told us that they had traveled 5 Kilometers to get to ICC from their home. As we traveled back through Ishaka to the North, we counted from ICC to their home and it was more like 9 kilometers. I assume that they traveled this distance on foot.
As
Benneth retrieved what she needed from Grace’s home, another lady named Scovia
came inside the small dirt floor home with her baby. Alex asked her about her faith. He then asked me to share Christ with
her. She too wanted to ask Jesus to be
her Savior and Lord. Then she asked
about her baby. She told us she was
3. She looked to me to be about 9 months,
but with a full mouth of teeth. So I
instructed her to come with us so Treasure could be seen. A second lady entered the house, also named
Grace. She too was a neighbor. Alex talked to her a bit and told me she was
already a born again. I asked if she had
a Bible. She did not and cannot read, but
her children can.
When Alex told her
about Grace, Benneth, and Scovia accepting Christ she said, “REALLY!” We shared with her about the importance of
discipling them as new believers. Pastor
Sam and Alex will follow up and visit this area soon.
We then left and returned to the
ICC clinic.
Jay saw Treasure, Scovia’s
baby, and determined she was malnourished because she had stopped nursing at 2
months. Treasure was then given cow’s milk. We gave
her some vitamins and realized Treasure has been followed by the nutrition
center in Ishaka.
Shortly after lunch, Ronald,
Alex, and I went to take Benneth, her baby, and provisions for Grace back up to
the hospital. Someone had been sweet
enough to lend her some material to lay on.
She was sleeping. (I made sure I saw her breathing.) They had started the IV medication she
needed. We checked on her again as we
passed though Bushenyi on our way back to Mbarrara. She was awake and looked better. We found out
that Grace had heard about the clinic from listening the night before when Dr.
Jonathon had been given an hour on a radio talk show to share that the free medical clinic would be at
the future site of the Ishaka Community Church.
She put dry cell batteries in her radio so she could listen to the radio
the night before. She was excited to
meet him and he prayed over her as we left.
Another women in the bed across from Grace asked if we would pray for
her before we left also. She was in the hospital
for the same reason as Grace. Her name is Jane.
Dr. Viola let me know, after the clinic, that she
would check on Grace, and she would be her patient. Dr. Viola will make sure she has needed
supplies and transport home once her sugar levels stabilize. She will also educate her on how to
administer her insulin injections herself.
Day 2 at Ishaka will have to be a
blog on its own. But, I must share that
as I got to know Dr. Viola better, I discovered she lives in Mbarrara where we
are staying. So, at the end of clinic
Friday, she accepted our invitation to ride back and stop to check on Grace on
the way. She joined us for dinner and
while talking we discovered her husband is an ophthalmologist here in Uganda. Do you remember Jay's "VISION" of Mud in Your Eyes? This fact too
will have to be a blog on its own.
All I can say is God is always at work!
Such a blessing as He reveals glimpses of what He has been doing!!!
Thank you for your continued prayers and support! To God be the Glory!!!Jill
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