As the sun comes up over the mountains of western Uganda, I sit
on the porch with a French press of Eote coffee enjoying my last Saturday in one
of my favorite places. We have an off
day today, but my “inner Due” alarm clock went off early this morning. My mind started thinking about the mechanics
and logistics of the coming week. When I
last blogged, we had completed 2 out of our 6 clinics and we had 24 patients
scheduled for eye operations.
On Monday and Tuesday, we had relatively light volume
clinics in Ishaka and Sanga. Between
these two clinics we saw about 375 patients and signed up 14 people for eye
surgery. The Due Unto Others team has been to Ishaka several times in the past.
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| Jayne and our Ishaka TOP Crispus. |
We have come to love their church and feel
that we are a part of it. Due Unto was
there in 2014, the days before they launched the church in a tent. Now they are about to celebrate their 5th
birthday! We had never been to Sanga
before. Sanga Community Church is a plant from Rushere Community Church. We had a wonderful time and enjoyed meeting
the pastor and members of the community.
Despite having only myself and one other doctor, we were able to see 225
patients.
On Thursday, we went to a community not far from Mbarara
called Ruti. When we pulled up, we were
greeted by overwhelming numbers of people.
Despite the rain that fell for much of the morning, people stayed around
all day. We were not able to see
everyone, but we did see 325 patients and signed up 41 people for surgery from
this location. In addition, through the
spiritual care part of the clinic, 28 people gave their lives to Christ. We exhausted most of our supply of reading glasses
and had to call back to Kampala to get more glasses purchased and sent out with
Jamil. Ruti is a church plant from Pastor Johnson’s church that we worked with in
Kabale back in December of 2015.
On Friday, we went to Itara. This is a lovely village up in the banana
trees west of Mbarara that we had visited 2 times in the past.
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| Jamil joined us Thursday night. |
The location is quite rural, so I was not
sure if we would have a full day of patients.
The church and Pastor Joseph did a great job of getting the word
out.
We were able to see 300 patients
and sign up another 31 patients for eye surgeries. Through the spiritual care clinic, another 29 patients professed faith in Jesus! What
a day. As we drove back down the dirt roads
between the banana trees, we were already trying to think through the logistics
of transporting, feeding, treating, and arranging follow up for the 110
patients that we have found that need eye surgery.
So this recap gets you caught up on our week and gives you
some insight into why I woke up at 5:00 am this am doing math/planning. We will be receiving about 70 of these
patients on Sunday and the Ruti group on either Tuesday or Wednesday am. As some of you know, we leased a small bus on
this trip instead of just using our old Toyota van. We are going to be able to transport more than
half of our 110 surgical patients to the hospital with our leased bus, rather
than having to send them on a taxi. This
will help us offset some of the bus expense.
It should also make the trip more comfortable for our Due Unto patients. Today, Saturday, we will be taking our friend
Berna to the market in Mbarara to buy supplies to feed this large group of people
lunch and dinner for the time that they are in the hospital. Berna and her team from Divine Harvesters Church,
have been gracious to help us with this task each time that we have hosted an
eye surgery camp in Mbarara.
Needless to say, as we work through some of these logistics,
eye surgeries are on my mind, but at the same time Heart surgeries are on my
heart? I agree, this is a strange phrase
and title of a blog, but let me explain.
There are two different children that we know in western Uganda that
need open heart surgery.
The first is a young girl named Precious. We met Precious in Ishaka back in 2017. We noticed her because of the loud murmur
that she had on exam. Over the past 2 years, Precious has undergone echocardiogram
and evaluation by the heart surgeons at Mulago Hospital in Kampala. They feel that she is now big enough that she
can undergo a repair for her Ventricular Septal Defect (hole in the heart
between the ventricles). A VSD allows
blood to flow the wrong way as it pumps.
This is inefficient and is not something that can be sustained as Precious
gets older. Even though Mulago is a
government hospital, the open heart surgery, for Precious, will cost 18 million
shillings. At the current conversion,
that is $5,000 US dollars. This is
obviously a lot of money, but it is also life or death for this young girl. Over the past year, both of my grandmothers, Jo
Gregston & Toady Due, have passed away.
As part of their obituaries, the families requested that in lieu of
flowers, that donations be made to Due Unto Others. If you
gave in memory of either of them, your donated funds will go directly to
the surgery for Precious. I feel that
this is the best way to continue their memory in the heart of a 3 year old
girl. This will still leave us about
$2,500 short. If you would like to donate
towards this specific need, please let me know.
The doctors are now just waiting on the green light of available funds.
The second child that has “heart surgery on my heart” is Dickson. Dickson is a 15 year old boy in Rukungiri
Uganda. One of our friends and medical
partners, Dr Jonathan Kintu, brought this need to my attention. Dickson is in need of a heart valve
replacement due to complications of rheumatic heart disease. After having rheumatic fever, Dickson has growths
on his Mitral and Aortic valves and these valves need to be repaired or
replaced. Dickson has suffered slowed growth, exercise intolerance and
shortness of breath due to this condition.
Dickson has been seen and evaluated at the Uganda Heart Institute and
has been booked for heart surgery in November.
This will only be carried out if he has the funds to cover the cost of
the surgery. This surgery is slightly
more than the one for Precious at $5,880. Again, this is a big number, but if we work
together, just think of what God could Due for this boy, through us. I have said it before, the only thing better
than God answering your prayers is for God to use you to be an answer to
someone else’s prayer. They have been earnestly praying for God to provide
funding for the surgery. The following is a letter that was put out by the Dickson's church. I can't imagine being in the father's position.
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| Dickson |
If God has blessed you in a way that allows you to give towards
these two critically needed heart surgeries, please email me. DueUnto@gmail.com
You can give by check or paypal.
Due Unto Others
C/O Jay Gregston
5900 Mosteller Dr #122
Oklahoma City, OK 73112
Please pray for efficiency and miracles at the eye hospital this
week. We have these 110 patients
scheduled and we are supposed to fly out on Thursday evening. We will likely have to lean more heavily on
our Ugandan team to finish the project here on Thursday and Friday.
What ever you Due!
Jay
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