Let it Rain!

It’s unbelievable how powerful our God is! He has absolutely been drawing me in with more adventure and life each day than I could have ever fathomed. It has been a hard last few weeks and I have been doing all I can to just hold on and abide in God… but he is working in this desperate land!
Though I’m just getting around to recording it…Thursday was such an amazing day. The same “mystery camp” that previously was closed off to us has started to reach out to us in the last couple of weeks. I know many of you have committed to pray for the new believers that Jaden wrote about, and God is honoring our prayers for these people. MariAnne and I met with the school’s headmaster and teachers and gave them a first aid kit and some materials to teach the kids on abstinence, having value and being made in God’s image, STI’s, and basic sex ed information (in case you didn’t know we are working on an abstinence curriculum). The teachers were so appreciative and eager to teach the lessen plan; even the scriptures. Afterwards our favorite orphanage leader and teacher, David, met us and asked if he could plan our program for the rest of the day. He took Marianne, Pastor Walter, and I to a meeting he had organized with the orphan’s caretakers and asked that we give words of encouragement and the word of God. We got to encourage the group, laugh together, and pray together. David had taken the initiative to bring them together for the purpose of eight receiving Jesus including himself. We were so excited because he is one of our favorite people in the camp who in the midst of all the corruption, genuinely cares for and loves the children in spite of having so little for himself. Next, a group of teenagers had prepared a skit on AIDS and abstinence that they wanted us to watch. They put chairs in the middle and put on a show for us and the entire community. It helped enhance our knowledge of the culture from the teenager’s perspective to write a more effective curriculum…and was hilarious.
The day ended with a huge downpour. We got in our car and started towards home and got stuck in the mud on the path that was “somehow a road, but more like a river” according to Dennis. After everyone pushed the car it flew into a ditch and to make a long story short…ended up in the bush with a broken wheel. We had the opportunity to walk several miles to the next camp barefoot, in the rain and mud alongside the Ugandans. It really seems like it brought us even more to their level as we got to slow down and just walk with them. They were so shocked to see this; and we were laughing the whole time as we were coated from head to toe. I wouldn’t have chosen to be anywhere else than on that rode in the middle of the rain surrounded by all that beauty. Obango Teck (Praise God)! It was an amazing day. He is sovereign and when we surrender each day to God we witness him moving in ways we wouldnt have imagined. Thank all of you who have been lifting up Uganda in prayer!

-Bethany

More than a statistic

Hello all. I want to tell you about some people I've met, and my heart is that these people become more than just BBC news stories to you - that they will not just be statistics we pass around in the missions community. Because of the 20-year war with the rebel group, the LRA, hundreds of thousands of northern Ugandans live in IDP (Internally displaced person) camps. These camps are over-crowded, and disease-ridden.

The team here does medical clinics in these camps, and often they bring back criticaly ill patients to town for hospitalization. My first day in the camps, I sat by Susan, a seriously ill resident of Opeta IDP camp, on the way back into town. Susan died the next day. We went to a post-burial funeral at her family's village two days later, and there I began to see that Susan isn't just another death in the camps - she was a real person, with two very real and motherless children, and with a mother who loved her. Then yesterday I interviewed many people at Ojwii IDP camp. The first five people I interviewed told me about their sons, daughters, wives and grandchildren who had been abducted and brutally murdered by the LRA. As my eyes started to water and I felt the sobs coming, I somehow held them back. I am here to bring hope, and I wanted to much to show hope. And I guess I knew that if I started crying, I wouldn't be able to stop.

And then there is Morris - the darling of our GRI family here in Uganda. The GRI medical team diagnosed 12 year old Morris as having AIDS. We met him at Aloni camp, and brought him into town a few days ago. Today we had Morris tested for HIV/AIDS. After Morris had his blood drawn, he sat down with Walter (a Ugandan member of our team here) and me in the waiting area. He began to sob. Morris is a little boy with real feelings. So often we read about AIDS orphans and children with AIDS, but have we ever thought about their feelings, and whether or not they are scared to death of this awful disease? I know I haven't. Morris has lost both parents and all his siblings to AIDS already, so he is very much afraid of dying. He told Walter that the kids in school make fun of him because they assume he has AIDS. Again, the tears started coming, but I didn't want Morris to be afraid and to see how worried I was about him. After the nurse told Morris he did in fact have AIDS (later testing this afternoon showed that he is in a very advanced stage), we took him out to lunch. He saw a television for the first time in his life, and was enthralled. Then we bought him a new school uniform and fed him tons of American junk food. I played cards with him, and he laughed and smiled all afternoon. At the end of the day he told us he loved us. No, Morris is not a statistic...he is a special little boy who is scared for his life.

Before I came here I read about life in the camps, but as much as I felt pity, I didn't feel a sense of loss when I read about the death tolls. I feel it very acutely now. Will you join me in praying for the people of northern Uganda? And maybe even join me in crying for these people - they are real, scared, and desperately in need of hope. Please pray that we would share the hope of Jesus with everyone who crosses our path. Sorry to be so verbose, but my heart is so heavy that telling you about all this helps me tremendously. Thank you so much for your continued and faithful prayers

- Kerri (a visitor from the GRI Denver office who has been touched by my two weeks here...)

VICTORY!

What a week!! God is so good!!
Christ gave us victory when He died on the cross and rose again! He gave us victory over anything/anyone we come in contact with on this earth, and victory over death itself! I am so humbled and unworthy to be His child and to have victory. Many days I feel defeated and weak; or maybe just too young to deal with such real life issues.
But...I am/we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us and gave Himself for us!
...HUGE RED FLASHING SIGNS...VICTORY!
As we were finishing a medical clinic in one of our favorite camps this week, Thursday to be exact, I had to go visit an elderly woman, Helen, in a hut with a probable dislocated shoulder. Jeffrey (the translator/medical asst) and I greeted the woman and began speaking with her while working on her shoulder. We then moved inside her small, dark, mud hut as there came a downpour. Helen quickly forgot about the horrible pain in her shoulder and asked me if I knew Jesus and if He had the power to stop evil spirits from visiting her. WHOA!
What do you say to that? As I was responding that I knew Jesus the second question hit me like a brick in the chest. Can Jesus stop the evil spirits? Does He have the power? Do I really believe He has the power? If I tell her yes, what if He doesn't do it? I hate doubt, and here I was sitting on the ground of this tiny mud hut in Africa, doubting the Lord. Had He ever let me down? No way. Never.
"YES!" I told the woman. "He has the power to stop the evil spirits!" Actually I had to scream "Yes" because she was hard of hearing, but that just reaffirmed it to me all the more. YES, Jesus is victorious! So we prayed and she asked Jesus to save her. GLORY! And immediately after finishing the prayer she said, "I believe He will stop the spirits. Please continue to pray for me."
Truly, there is no greater joy than leading someone to Jesus; just pointing the way to the Savior! I have heard somewhere before that leading someone to the Lord is like one beggar telling another beggar where the food is. It is true!
Praise Jesus for Helen! Praise Jesus for victory! And please lift up Helen as the battle will be strong. The enemy doesn't give up easy...BUT WE ARE VICTORIOUS!
Thanks for caring,
Shaunessy

The Heart of a Warrior...

I think this is almost too much for my heart to take. Morris, our Ugandan Angel (excuse me, Warrior - I mean, he has 5 Muno moms now.... what do you expect for us to call him?) just now left our house to stay the night with Pastor Walter. We picked up this 12-year-old orphan boy on Tuesday from one of the camps we go to, to take him to a hospital in Lira. Shau and Rachel presumed he had AIDS and were confirmed today after receiving his test results.
But on the way home to Lira, Walter and Drew were in the back with him, loving on him, talking to him, playing with him, and telling him how much Jesus loves him. While Morris was struggling to understand all of this new stuff these strange people were telling him, the rest of us were praying together that he would understand and accept Jesus as his savior. In the midst of our prayers, we heard Walter praying in Luo, and the smallest, most angelic voice you've ever heard repeating what Walter prayed.
As soon as they finished praying, he opened his eyes to everyone clapping and so excited for him. Then, as requested, he began to sing and teach us a church song in Luo... and the tears started coming.... and they wouldn't stop. I felt an unspeakable joy mixed with an equal amount of sorrow for this beautiful little boy whose parents and brothers and sisters had all died, and whose grandmother didn't care enough about him to come to Lira as his caretaker, but in one minute and one whisper of a prayer, his eternity changed forever because of Jesus' unfailing pursuit of his little soul. In a country of thousands just like him, I felt God say "but this one's mine".
So for the past couple of days, we have had the privelege of spoiling him rotten, and just a few minutes ago, right before he left, he was repeating all of our names, and then said "Amaro Wu", which means "I love you all". I mean, talk about a heartache, seriously - am I still breathing?
So I'm sure that everyone has their own version to tell of this angel who swooped into our lives called Morris, but I just ask you all to join us in prayer for his healing, that his sick body would receive a supernatural touch just as he received a spiritual touch.
(Added by Rachele to let you know of the medical stats...) After we received his positive test results we took him to the clinic to determine what his CD 4 count was... Unfortunately his count is 18 which is incredibly low and representative of full blown active AIDS. 200 is the normal number classifying someone as having AIDS, anything above this figure is considered HIV infection. Please pray for our wisdom in knowing where to send him for treatment and that his body would ultimately handle the treatment and start to see a decrease in his viral load. He has Kaposi's Sarcoma and many other opportunistic infections...but "by HIS stripes we are healed!!" In the west we always speak of the AIDs epidemic, hearing of the millions of children that die, orphaned and sick. It's a whole new reality to the pandemic when you look into the eyes of a twelve year old boy and realize that he is HUMAN. He is a child who deserves none of this. A pandemic is made up of a million tiny individual souls. We must never forget that each one of these children is created in the utmost image of our God. How he must weep on behalf of his people. Especially a child like Morris. But let us fervently pray for miracles, never ceasing in our intercession.

Thank you for your prayers and your hearts poured into these people... your prayers are making a difference.

MariAnne

Thank you

I just wanted to quickly say thank you to all of you that committed to pray for new believers. It is a difficult place to be a "real" born-again believer and your intercession will carry them along. God Bless all of you..

By the way, whenver the internet connection here becomes strong enough, we'll load up some pictures for you all.

Jaden

The rhythm of life...

The halls of PAG, our main referral hospital, are now filled with patients whom we have transported from the camps. It seems that on a daily basis we bring another child or dying women to this place, in hopes that some form of treatment will bring healing and restoration to these broken bodies and souls. Many of you have heard of Sarah and Dillis…our two girls who are critically ill. Their conditions are both turbulent with good days and bad days. Sarah’s father, Peter, we believe is a saint. In the hospitals here it is the family’s responsibility to care for the patient and take care of their every need. Many of our patients have no relatives or caregivers as they have all deceased or cannot afford to leave their fields. Peter has taken it upon himself to care for every one of our patients, with no incentive but the goodness of his heart. From praying with the mother whose child died in the bed next to his daughter Sarah…to making food for Maurice our AIDS orphan who is but twelve…his daughter is in the most critical medical state, yet daily he gives of himself. He tells us everyday that Sarah will be healed; that he is convinced Christ will cure her…it is faith like this that moves mountains. Sometimes at night when we are leaving Peter comes over and prays over us. The phenomenal thing is that Sarah and Peter are from a camp we do not even work in…yet, God had them directly in our path. The other night, after a busy day in the field, we returned in the evening to visit patients at the hospital. Little did we know that it would become an all out dance party and worship fest in the women’s ward. It all began singing quietly around Sarah to entertain her…and before you knew it the whole ward was bouncing off the walls in tribal dancing and worship to Christ. It is only few times in life where you actually feel you are living in a National Geographic photograph, or rather that you are participating in something larger than life. These moments you wish could be framed and frozen for eternity, exemplifying the utter awareness of Christs actual presence in the midst of the down-trodden. The rhythm of the songs moves you, the rhythm of life carries on, the beats ever changing yet always divine and life giving. The fellowship of believers is outstanding in the halls of PAG. Many there have become saved, and their testimony is great. Please pray for Midu, a 30 year old woman who is in the end stages of AIDS, she will need a miracle to respond positively to ARVs and she is not saved. She has three young children staying in the camp alone now. Her past is tumultuous and painful and she is in dire need of a Savior. The stories of each individual here bring you to your knees, and here on your knees is the only place to comprehend that there is one who knows their individual stories and scars better then we could ever attempt to. Pray that the halls of PAG would be a place of revival, a sanctuary for those whom suffer. Thank you for remembering these people by name. It is a pleasure serving them.
rachele

God is Faithful!

“But this I say, brethren, the time is short, so that form now on even those who have wives should be as though they had none, those who weep as though they did not weep, those who rejoice as though they did not rejoice, those who buy as though they did not possess, and those who use this world as not misusing it. For the form of this world is passing away.” 1 Corinthians 7:29-31

This is the verse that Denis, one of our Ugandan coordinators, read to the crowd of alcohol drinking family members at Susan’s funeral in her village yesterday. I was so proud of him as he accused his own people of putting the wrong priorities in place that would keep them from really focusing on what really matters in life. Walter also preached on the hope that only God can bring and one boy, Lawrence, prayed to accept Christ as his mother recommitted her life to Christ. Praise God!!

We then carried on to our most difficult camp of all to have a ministry/education day. We had left our medical personnel at home so that we could finish our work at the office. Somehow our communication was not good and our representatives believed we were coming for a medical clinic that day. When we arrived, more than a hundred people were already waiting to receive medical treatment. My heart was so saddened at that point, but God had other things in mind. Denis and I went to tell the people the situation, which is always difficult.

After they understood that we couldn’t have a clinic, one lady told us that if we couldn’t give medical treatment that day, maybe we could bring our pastor to at least pray for them! Praise Jesus for that opportunity!!! Walter began to lead worship under that mango tree in the darkest place we have ever seen and the results at the end of the 2 hour long service of testimonies, gospel preaching and beautiful singing was 22 people believing on Jesus! God showed up to prove Himself strong among the people that are known country-wide for their witchcraft and poisoning techniques.. He had done this work in a camp that was just throwing rocks at us in the vehicle 2 weeks ago! Apak Obanga (Praise God!)

I want to ask something specific of everyone. I now will list the first names of every person that received Christ yesterday and I want to ask all of you to consider adopting one of these people individually. I would ask you to commit to pray for them and intercede on their behalf so that they may be discipled not backslide in the midst of all of the temptations and problems in the camps. Even more than that, I want to ask that each of you that commit, if you could just drop a quick note on here with your name and commitment for this person, it would be such a great example of Christ’s ministry for all of us.

The names are as follows: Lawrence, Moses, Mazanen, Jennifer, Stella, Caromela, Janet, Grace, Palma, Washington, Calbaten, Johnson, Atim Evelyn, Dorcas, Celina, Akello Evelyn, Eunice, Scovia, Hannah, Sarah, Caesar, Betty and Antonio.

He is doing a wonderful work here, but Satan is also not going to give up easily. Please pray for us as we are humbled before the Father daily. We love you all.

Jaden

MUCH FRUIT

I have something to tell ya'll this morning...IT'S ALL ABOUT THE TRUE VINE!! GLORY!
The harvest is ripe!
John 4:35 "Behold, I say to you, lift up your eyes and look at the fields, for they are already white for harvest!

A few weeks ago I became more sick than ever before in my life. I thought I needed a day or two away from the work so I rode with Jaden to the capital city for 2 days of "rest and relaxation". God had better plans in mind! Through the week of terrible sickness, God drew near to me and I had no choice but to BE STILL AND KNOW THAT HE IS GOD! There was nothing else I could physically do, I just had to be. Praise Him that He healed and refreshed my body and refreshed me spiritually too!
I feel since that time, He has been teaching me to abide in Him. The needs here are so overwhelming and eventhough I try not to do it in my own strength, the daily battle of just trying to give it over to God every minute wears me out in itself.
Jesus says in John 15...
"Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit in itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me. I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing....If you abide in Me,a nd My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you. By this My Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit; so you will be My disciples."
I so long to bear much fruit, and fruit that will last; eternal fruit. These precious people here need the TRUE VINE. They need something and someone that will last. They are desperate!
So we all have been asking God daily to show us how to abide in Him, in order that He would be glorified and famous in this place and that we will bear much fruit.
We are so unworthly, BUT HE IS SO FAITHFUL, and is amazingly showing us MUCH FRUIT!
The harvest is truly ripe... yesterday under a large shade tree in a very remote (and our most difficult refugee camp we work in) 80 people came mistakenly to receive medical treatment but 22 found THE GREAT PHYSICIAN!!
MUCH FRUIT...22 names are written in the Book of Life after yesterday! HALLELUJAH! Praise the True Vine!
Please keep praying. Please keep giving. Please keep going. The harvest is ripe and this fruit is eternal!

Humbly-
Shaunessy

A Typical Saturday?

At breakfast this morning, the day started off with a bang. Pastor Drew, our most welcomed guest made us french toast and fried bananas (an amazing treat here). Saturdays hold the possibility of not working all day, but we were soon to find out that we would be having a very long day.

Jackson came to break the news that Susan, a 27 year old patient of ours here, had passed away in the night. We had just brought her to town from her refugee camp for help two days before but there was no way they could save her. Word was that the blood transfusion was not able to bring her out of the severe anemia that was killing her. This was the second time that I had to then process the burial arrangements and speeches that would have to be made again this week. The first was Grace, a 9 yr old girl from the same camp as Susan, who was not able to overcome the fact her parents had not taken her for treatment at any facility for 3 months. We had suspected either severe malaria or meningitis, but the severe dehydration and malnutrition she was now facing was too much.

We cannot help but fall in love with each patient that we come across, but we always build an even stronger bond with the ones we take to town. Jackson is able to share Christ with them every day when they are here in the health facilities and he also begins to love on them so much. The pain that comes from constant death is not even describable. If only we had the means to save them, i.e. our own health facility.

After making the arrangements for the coffin and burial cloth and for transportation to the village 2 hours away, Jackson and I loaded the body in the coffin and sent it off with Walter and the family to encourage the family in this terrible time. We, as a team, will go and speak our words in the formal ceremony on Monday morning in their home village. It is so hard to take the body of a loved one back to its family when they thought the person would be coming home themself to greet them.

Jackson and Kerri and I then proceeded to Gulu town to pay bills for one of our HIV patients and then to give encouragement and financial support to another of our patients at a hospital in Gulu. After a flat tire on the Gulu road and some help from some guys we flagged down on the road, we made it. Of course there were no tools in the back of the vehicle to get the spare tire off, so we were very MacGyver-ish.. Sharon, from the same camp as Grace and Susan, is also 9 yrs old and suffering from Lymphoma Stage D. It is lymphatic cancer attacking the spinal cord. We took her from the camp while she was having a massive tumor in the side of her face and paralyzed from the waist down. We were so happy to see that the tumor had been removed successfully and the father was there to greet us. He told us that while in our care back at home he had received Christ and he was confident that his daughter would be helped. I also found out that she had started her first three months of chemotherapy and that there is HOPE that she could make it out.

Please lift up Sarah and Dillis here in town. They are two of our young young girl patients who are both suffering from horrible renal and cardiac failure and happen to have the most amazing parents in the world. We are researching diligently the possible diseases that could be behind the infections that have killed their kidneys. We are considering even the idea of kidney transplants in South Africa because of the lack of possibility in Uganda for those transplants. However, the cost and logistics would have to be sent from God only as they would be so tough. Pray that God heals them please!

God is working here I know. Thank you for your prayers. God Bless..

Jaden

Now we are bloggers...

Greetings Everyone... Just so you know, Obanga Tek is Luo (the local language) for God is Great! Thank you to all those who have faithfully prayed and supported our ministry here...we started this page hoping it would give you an easy access way to keep in touch with the work here and the daily happenings in the camps...Hopefully this will be another tool that will enable us to keep you more involved in our daily life and provide you with more specific prayer requests and information...Apoyo Matek (Thanks)