Welcome to Uganda Ogen Rwot Emmanuel

I have been busy the past three days....not the normal busy...but serving God busy on His plan...not mine.

See, reports were due Monday. Gulu decided that we didn't need power for three days...so instead of sulking...Team Gulu did something about it.

Like naming babies.

We found out another mother, Ochira Brian's mom, was hospitalized in Gulu Referral for TB. So we packaged up some food for her and went to take it over. We didn't find her but we found her daughter Kavin. Pray for Mama Ochira's health and recovery...it is very hard on the family financially.
On our way out and in the van, Mama Laker either heard our van or saw it's "beauty" and walked over by us. I saw her behind the fence, got out of the car and ran over to her. I was so happy to see her so I just hugged her totally forgetting to shake hands...but I think she is used to it. See, if we didn't have a language barrier I really think Mama Laker and I would be great friends. There is just something about her that makes me just love her and want to chat for hours with her. She has grown LEAPS and BOUNDS since she accepted Christ in the beginning of November - it is unreal. ALL glory to God!! Anyways, she told us her sister in law had a baby at Referral. Then she also told us she lost her brother that day, too. As one enters the world, one leaves. We then left to go visit Mama Kwo-Tek. When Mary and I went back to the office to try to do work we were just faced with no power. We started to wonder what we could do...then we realized we could get some food for Mama Laker's family....

So we did.

We looked around the maternity ward for her....up and down....and on our way back down she found us. And we met her family. While we were there, there were two ladies who were walking arond selling infant clothing and ministering to the ladies. They ended up sharing the Gospel, praying over the mom's and babies and teaching how to walk right with God. It was super cool. I then asked what was the name of the baby boy...to that, they had no clue yet. The father, Mama's brother, turned to me and asked me what would I name him. I thought for a quick second (actually thought, hmmm....Christopher - ahem kinda like Christine - lol) and all I could think of was Emmanuel. So I told him Emmanuel. The sister of the mom smiled and said she felt in her spirit that his name should be Emmanuel...confirmation...check...the kid is now Ogen Rwot Emmanuel (Have Faith, God is with us). Sweet.

Thank you all for praying for Josephina. Mama Kwo-Tek is doing much better!!! She is eating, walking around, taking her medicine, smiling and LAUGHING!!! She was craving pineapple yesterday when we visited her so we brought one with us today. We also brought Kwo-Tek today and he was so relieved to see his mother doing better. Glad we waited a day to bring him. Poor kid was kind of freaking out....but now he can rest well.

Pray also for Mama Opio Erik Rose. She had her appendix removed last month and the pain is still bad. She ran out of medicince so we had to get some from town. Along those lines, pray for the clinic to get all the supplies it needs. See, it was built just a few weeks ago and already it can't help the people. The stores are not sending the proper medicines...heck ANY medicines to the clinic. So people can't get treatment eventhough they are supposed to. All because the medicine has not been delivered. I personally was getting frustrated with the clinic so I went there to talk to them. Met the head nurse, Sophie, and she gave me the low-down. Their hands are tied. Very frustrating process. Pray for the effectiveness of the clinic to take hold as well as all the medicines to arrive....a lot of sick people are not getting treatment. PG that ECM is there and able to get medicine for the kids and parents.

Another, along those lines...Pato asked me if we are supposed to help the sponsorship children only or their whole family in light of all the help we are giving parents. I explained to him that the child is our number one priority but we HAVE to make sure the family, especially the moms, are ok. See, if the moms are gone that leaves our children as orphans....and we don't want that. So we need to take care of them as well. It is a fine line but it is a line I will walk to make sure the child has as much of a family as she/he can during these days of transition so they can try their best to have a healthy, productive, loving life. That's what mom's give.

Some information on the differences between American hospitals and Ugandan hospitals:
- you bring your own food....you can cook right outside
- the hospitals remind me of open air malls....no walls in the hallways. Still weird
to me
- waiting is the name of the game.
- it is soo much cheaper here....insurance definitely hikes our prices!!

I had to have a talk with Odi, my dog. The dog has been very confused lately. He thinks it is perfectly fine to bark LOUDLY at all hours of the night because he either wants to leave the compound or just wants to talk to his friends. It has kept me up for three nights. Tonight, we talked. I told him how rude it was. He sat down. He hasn't barked....yet...if that dog knows what is good for him.....

Lastly, I want to mention how neat it has been to use different resources for ministry, such as emails, blog and facebook. So many people are able to keep tabs on what is going here and feel like they really are part of the ministry - because they are!!! Every prayer, every dime goes straight to Kingdom work....How cool?! I bet the inernet world never expected to be used so mightily for a ministry!! HA! :)