On a sweeter note...

Jolene and I love to bake together. We experiment and improvise and have a blast doing it. Well now Wes has joined in. His mother will be proud! I just wanted to give you all a little peek into how we spent our Sunday (yesterday) afternoon. I wish you all could enjoy the cinnamon rolls with us. All of us, American and Ugandan alike, are enjoying them today. Come visit soon!!!

Shaunessy

"Long Live GRI!"

Barrio in this local language means 'Land of Giraffes.' Oh how I wish that every time we drove into this beautiful village we would experience giraffes crossing the dirt road, but not anymore. The elderly people in the village say they can remember when giraffes and many wild animals lived in that area, but now do to farming they are no longer in that area. Okay so that was a side note.

Barrio camp/village is an amazing place. This was my first time to visit an HIV Vulnerable Group there since returning from America. I was brought to tears as we approached the church where we meet and our vehicle was swarmed with people singing. It was one of the warmest welcomes I have ever received in my life! First of all, my heart leaps every single day when I hear Ugandans praising the Lord in thier local language and dancing like there is no tomorrow! But in this instance these people seemingly have no reason to dance and sing. They are HIV positive and have been given a death sentence. Yet, they love to praise Jesus. Their hope is truly in heaven! We have 260 men, women and children registered with our HIV program in Barrio. WHOA! And each month more people are getting tested and joining.

The chairman, pictured above, of this group in Barrio got up to do his incredibly formal welcoming speech and started it by saying "long live GRI." The people all hollared and cheered. Thank you for supporting our work here! It is reaching those people who are hurting and desperately needing the hope of Jesus Christ!

After many formal introductions it was my turn to speak, as the guest of honor. Once again my eyes filled with tears as we talked about having courage to press on. We discussed Joshua 1:9. God commands us to be strong and of good courage because he will never leave us. As the group contemplated this verse many said they could press on courageously, knowing their promises for heaven. We laughed and praised God as we talked about having new bodies, free from disease in heaven. What amazing promises God has given us!!

I then was able to give out 4 blankets to babies born in the past few months. We prayed for the babies.

I love these groups and believe so strongly in what God is doing through GRI here in Uganda! Please keep praying and giving!

Much love,

Shaunessy

A Drama Unfolds

This is a picture of girls who have graduated the Priceless program in Onoro Primary School.  They are in the middle of a drama competition, which is part of the follow-up program being managed by our Priceless Director, Jolene.  We want to reinforce what they have learned in the Priceless program as well as evaluate their level of knowledge.  Events like this draw a large 
crowd, so it also becomes a great learning experience for other students as well as the many parents, teachers, and community members present.  This particular event had nearly 300 people in attendance at one point.

In this particular act, the girls are portraying a scene at a bar where a boy is pushing a girl to come home with him.  Later on in the play, she agreed, but then found her life became much more complicated as a result.  She contracted HIV from her encounter and was dealt with harshly by her parents.  She eventually died in the play.  Even though it is portrayed in the form of an entertaining drama, it is a grave matter and one that is important enough to hammer on again and again.  In this setting, it allows the girls to get creative.  They are judged by Priceless teachers on their content and how much of the Priceless curriculum they incorporate into each drama.  At the end, each participant receives a small gift of pencils and notebooks for school, and the school received Bibles and a small netball in the name of the winning team.  

We also share scriptures with the crowd and teach them the underlying reason for this program...that God values us enough to send His Son to die so that we could have new life in Him!  Because of the priceless value we have in Christ, our right response is to love and respect our bodies.  

The events are a fun, rich time for all.  I pray the truths portrayed in the dramas stick with people in a way that words alone cannot.

-Wes

She Chose Life

WHOA, it is good to be back in Uganda! I have had a blessed and busy past few weeks! I have to share this with you all, it has really rocked my world!

Pictured here is Sidonia Atei. She is a mother living with HIV enrolled in our HIV Vulnerable Groups. I remember her from one of my first days treating patients in Uganda back in 2006. We treated her for many months with no improvement. We then encouraged her to go get tested and found that she was positive. In addtion, a few of her children also tested positive. Last fall she came to me crying and told me that she was pregnant and asked me to perform an abortion for her. She said this baby had to be a curse because first of all she already has a hard time providing for her many other children and secondly she thought the baby would have HIV and die at a young age. She cried and cried as I told her of God's love for both her and this unborn child knit together in her womb. (Let me note that it takes alot for a woman to cry here in Uganda.) So that day she agreed to keep the baby and to trust God. We prayed and she dried her tears and began smiling again. That day my heart was so broken and the entire drive home from the camp I was thinking of ways we could practically show these women that their babies are not a curse but a blessing from the Lord and that He has a plan for each one of them, even if they test HIV positive in the future.
So upon my return, her shining smile was the first thing I saw. She ran to the vehicle and hugged me back and forth many times while doing the wonderful high pitched hollar that all the women do here. She even started praising the Lord and dancing. All the other women joined in. She then handed me her healthy fat baby that had been born early December. I held the baby and we all cried (and the baby blessed me by urinating on me as usual) and praised God. She then told the entire Vulnerable group the story about how I told her to keep the baby etc. What a blessing it was for me that day to be able to give her the first blanket made by the women in America and tell her that women so far away were praying for her and the baby. WHOA!!!! I cry just thinking of it now. God knew how special that day would be! The baby had been wrapped in a dirty towel full of holes. The mother was so proud of her new blanket and her new baby! I was proud too that my God was so big; big enough to plan all of this and big enough to dry the mother's tears and give her a healthy, fat baby. We then all prayed for the baby and asked God to protect it from HIV. Keep praying and keep making blankets for these little ones!!

MUCH LOVE,

Shau

YOUR PRAYERS WILL HELP

(By Jack):

It's a day of happiness again. This was the day we picked Sharon and Morris from their village call Anyomolec in Otwal, Oyam district, Northern Uganda. Both are orphans living with no hope for the future. Their parents pass away since four years ago. Morris was One year old by then. No education for them, Sharon tried schooling for one year but she couldn't continue due to sickness and domestic problem. She takes care of her younger brohter Morris. Cooks for their own, walk Morris about 6km to Otwal health centre where we have our doctor whenever he is sick. They are so lovely kids that one can't stay without the other. They don't have parental love, Can you and I love them and bring back hopes in to their livies?
They need our prayers, Sharon has cronic cough which has not responded to drugs for long.
Thanks to all the GRI staffs for the help they are giving to these kids.

PRICELESS update

(by Jolene):

The follow up for the PRICELESS program is in full swing. It has been extremely challenging figuring out how to incorporate a follow up program that will work for such large numbers of students at a time. The goal has been something sustainable and continuous that the graduates can use as a source of encouragement and reminding.

For the first couple/few months, the students are working in smaller groups on dramas for a competition that we will host at each school as the students are ready. The students were challenged to remember as much of the curriculum as possible and create a relatively short drama to represent everything they learned. The competition will be judged based on how much content they were able to capture, how many in the group participate, and how good the drama is overall.

The hope is that, through the weekly meetings, the kids will build stronger relationships with each other to form accountability relationships and since the topic of abstinence will continually be brought up, it will cement their commitment. The teachers go from group to group to help them as they are working on their dramas as well as to share some encouragement from the Bible and pray with each group. Hopefully the continuing contact with the teachers will help the students feel safe and comfortable enough with the teachers to go to them if they are ever in a tough situation. Also, the more exposure to The Word the better.

Since the weekly meetings are essentially chaotic by design, it has been difficult to gauge how successful the meetings really are. I have been around to observe the follow up at 4 of the 6 schools. One of the teachers is really struggling and I am having a hard time figuring out what to do about that. The rest of the teachers are having a great time with it and say the kids love it. After doing the observing, I believe it. The dramas are coming along quite well. The kids are remembering even some of the obscure facts that they learned and are finding really fun ways to incorporate them. I am SOO impressed!!

Another unintentional outcome is that a lot more students are hearing the PRICELESS message than the ones who have completed the program. As the students are practicing their dramas, groups of other kids from the school are forming around them completely absorbed in the dramas ... and we haven't even started the competitions which the community will be invited to watch.

I am excited about how things are going. Thanks so much to Marianne and Bethany for working so hard on a solid curriculum that the kids found interesting enough to remember!!! Many prayers of thanks for the wonderful teachers that I have to work with. And many prayers still to be offered for continuing to find programs that keep the students active without causing too much activity on the part of teachers/muni.

A New Day: update on Sharon & Morris

Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a longing fulfilled is a tree of life. Proverbs 13:12 Praise God that the hearts of Sharon and Morris are now filled with hope! The children are staying with the mother of one of our field staff, Bonny, and are quite joyful! After hearing of their situation, Bonny's mother offered to keep the children with her, even for an entire year, to prevent the children from returning to their grandmother. Praise the Lord for He hears our cries...never will I leave you; never will I forsake you. Hebrews 13:5b Wes and Jackson continue to work on gathering the necessary paperwork for the children's application to Otino-Waa orphanage. It appears that the next section of housing at the orphanage will be completed in a couple of months allowing space for more children. Sharon is currently on new medication for the tuberculosis and cannot be accepted into Otino-Waa until she is "in the clear" regarding the TB...we assume that would be in a couple of months. So, it looks like the timing is perfect, however there are many children being assessed for acceptance into the orphanage. We need to continue to pray for God's hand in the situation.
Again, thank you for your prayers! Sharon and Morris are like two new children now...smiles never-ending. (The pictures were taken at their new home).
Love to you all, Keira