God woke me early this morning with a blog topic on my
heart. As I lay in bed from 4:30 to 5:00
am, I channeled my inner Due and thought about this topic and how it had
meaning in our lives right now. So I got
up and started writing this blog. I had
gotten about half way through my thoughts when the sun came up over Lake
Victoria. I decided to get my running
duds and go out for a run before it got too hot and to think about how I would
finish my blog. I started out my run
continuing to think about the blog that God had laid on my heart. Then, somewhere between Phil Wickham and
Lecrae, I felt that God wanted me to delay my other blog for a couple of days
and post this one.
As I write this, it is 8:15 am on August 21, 2014. Later tonight, Jamil and I are scheduled to
fly out of Uganda and make our way back to Oklahoma City by August 22nd,
in the evening. I feel that I need to pass
along some important thoughts about Jamil and his stay with us, but first, I
want to remind everyone of Jamil’s life story.
Jamil was born in October of 2001 (at least this is what is
newly acquired birth certificate says) to a young mother and a Muslim
father. His parents soon separated and
Jamil’s mother abandoned him with her oldest brother, Joseph, who lives in
Palissa. Joseph has 10 kids of his own
and makes a meager living. He has done a
great job of caring for Jamil as his own.
At the age of 10, Jamil remembers having only one set of
clothes and no shoes. His clothes had
many holes and he did not have any soap to bathe or wash his clothes with. About this same time, he began to have a pain
in his right eye and that eye began to protrude and cause some significant
disfigurement. As detailed in this testimony blog, Jamil says that he went
to a crusade meeting in the fall of 2011 and met an evangelist that noticed his
eye. That evangelist, Jonathan Kabanda,
took photos of Jamil and began to pray for him.
We met Jonathan Kabanda early in our trip of 2012. After a few days of knowing us and learning
what our team was doing in Uganda, he asked me if he could tell me about a boy
with an “eye problem”. I said sure and
asked Jonathan to email me the photos that he had.
I was shocked to see the problem that Jamil had with his
eye. It was unlike anything that I had
ever seen in my US practice of medicine.
Jonathan, by email, introduced us to Pastor Fred, who is one of the
leaders of the Arise and Shine school in Palissa. Jamil was not currently in school because of
his health problem. In fact, he was
shunned by his village, thinking that he was possessed by some evil
spirit. His family fully expected him to
die because they could not afford to get him the health care that he needed.
Through emails with Pastor Fred, we arranged a meeting for
me to see Jamil and review his records.
Fred drove Jamil two hours, from Palissa to Jinja, where we were
currently staying and putting on clinics.
He was supposed to arrive in time to come to our clinic that day, but
had been delayed and ended up meeting us at a restaurant that we were eating in
that evening. When Jamil arrived, he was
very quiet and likely self-conscious about his appearance. He had on a Navy blue pin-striped blazer and
pink Converse high-tops. Fred had to
continue on to Kampala, but left Jamil with us an adult cousin that would
escort him back home. We were amazed at
how much this small boy could eat! In
fact, we were concerned that he might get sick from all of the western food
that he consumed. Since it was so late,
we bought an extra room at our hotel and asked Jamil and his cousin to stay the
night.
Jamil was from such a small and poor village, we actually
had to show Jamil and his cousin how to turn on the lights and how to flush the
toilet at the hotel. I don’t say this to
make fun of them in any way. I just want
to give you an idea of where he came from, just 2 years ago.
After seeing Jamil, I called our sponsor, Dr. Martin, and
started lining up an ophthalmology appointment the next week. After his appointment with Dr. Agabba, Jamil
was scheduled for surgery in April of 2012.
His surgery was considered a success and after returning to Palissa, he
was allowed to start school. He was 10,
but started in P1 (first grade). When he
returned to see Dr. Agabba in June of 2013, his tumor had returned. This time, it was recommended that he have
another surgery followed by 6 weeks of radiation. By the time he had recovered from surgery and
finished his radiation treatments, he had spent 10 weeks in the hospital last
summer. He again resumed his schooling
and had progressed to P3 when we returned to Uganda in May of this year. He had grown taller. His eye looked better. He was speaking English. And he even was translating for me while I
was caring for patients in Palissa.
Jamil had declared that he wanted to be a doctor. What an amazing transformation God was making
in his life. About the first of June, we
sent him for a follow up CT scan to make sure that his tumor was
eradicated. The results were sobering,
to say the least. His tumor was
returning and now starting to invade the bone of his skull. My next blog will discuss some of the things
leading up to us feeling like we needed to bring Jamil to the USA to try to get
his tumor halted for good.
So this, now 12 year old, boy has been through so much and
has come from very humble beginnings. He
has come from not knowing how to flush a toilet to operating my iPhone. He has come from being very shy and
self-conscious to jovial and outgoing.
God has laid this on my heart and I hope that it does not
offend anyone wishing Jamil well. God
has placed us in the guardianship of Jamil for the next 6 months, and he will
forever be a member of our family. So if
this comes across as me being a jerk, I’m sorry, but I feel that it is for his
benefit. He will be living with us for
the next 5 months, as we try to expeditiously move him ahead in his education,
especially in English and Math. This, of
course, while arranging for him to have all of the healthcare that he
desperately needs. That being said, one
thing is for sure: Jamil has to return to Uganda by February 18, 2015. He will be returning to start the 2015 school
year in a boarding school and the 2015 school year starts around February
1st. Due Unto Others will be paying for
the best school that he can qualify for, at that time. He will need to perform well and attend a
reputable school to be able to be accepted into a medical school, when he has
completed the required years of schooling.
Here is my concern that I share with Jill. It is probably of our own doing through
blogging and facebooking to recruit prayer support, but we are concerned that
Jamil will be too much of a “celebrity” when he arrives in Oklahoma. We want everyone to make him feel welcomed, but it is a delicate balance. Many people have been praying for him, have
seen his progress, and feel like they know him already. Many of you have expressed an interest in
buying him a welcome gift and we feel like we are in a difficult position. As much as we would like to shower him with
the best America has to offer, we already have to start thinking about how he
re-enters Uganda, in a boarding school, on the 1st of February. He won’t be allowed to take belongings with
him to school. Even if he were, there
would be a high probability that it would be lost or stolen. We have already received some hand-me-down
clothes and shoes that are in very good condition. I don’t want him to have received so much
“stuff” that he has trouble being content when he returns to Uganda. I think just doing life with us, as Americans,
for 5+ months is going to make it difficult enough.
So please do me a favor and prayerfully consider doing one
of these things, if you want to give Jamil a welcome to America gift.
1.)
Give him a picture of you or your family and let
him know that you will be praying for his healing and future education. We will have him keep a collection of these
for encouragement when times are tough.
2.)
Commit to earnestly pray that his meningioma
will be totally healed during the short time that we have him here. He has a one-time visa and will not be
allowed to return.
3.)
If you feel that you would like to make a
monetary contribution, it would be greatly appreciated. Please make the gift towards his medical care
or ongoing education. You can make a check
to:
Rawchurch
P.O. Box 694
Duncan,
OK 73534 Just put “Uganda-Jamil” in the
memo.
We have committed to pay for his healthcare to resolve this
tumor. We are not sure what that will
cost.
He is scheduled to see an excellent Christian surgeon, in Edmond,
on this coming Tuesday. Following that,
I suspect that we will be getting an MRI and being set up for surgery. This physician works out of St. Anthony’s in
OKC. Hopefully we can qualify for some
sort of help through a charitable foundation of St. Anthony’s, but we don’t
know. We may have to pay retail for this
surgery. One thing is for sure, the care
has to happen, no matter the cost. This
is a special boy with a huge testimony, already, at the age of 12. I prayed yesterday, when we received his
passport back with the visa attached, that his passport would be filled with
stamps from places that he has traveled to tell people his testimony and to
share the love of Jesus. I trust that it
will.
Thank you for your love for Jamil and for understanding our
concern for his well-being.
Jay
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