Miracles & The Pearl of Africa Part 1

It's hard to believe! We got to go to Uganda!!! 

As we headed to the airport 24 hours after Logan was released from the hospital, my heart and mind were swirling with emotions, thoughts, and fears! Am I CRAZY?! Seriously, what will people think of you!?! Will the children be okay? And on and on the list goes...! We arrived at the airport in good time. I felt naked without having the children along to get through security, being asked the same question a million times, or making sure we were all present. Once the plane began take-off, it was all I could do to sit and rest in whatever lay ahead! I whispered in Conrad's ear, " I guess the only way I'm bailing out now is if I made a scene!" (Now I'm glad I didn't surrender to the temptation :)!) 

After a 9 hour flight to Instanbul, Turkey  (a one hour layover), a 5 hour flight to Kigali, Rwanda

( a 1&1/2 hour layover in which we weren't allowed out of our seats), and then a 45 minute flight to Entebbe: we finally arrived in Uganda around 4:45 a.m. local time. We had no clue who we were looking for other than a man by the name of Edward. Thankfully, as we exited there stood a man in a sea of other taxi hawkers, holding a sign with our names on as well as the guest house where we were staying. The guest house was an hour away from the airport. With Edward were two other men. Zed, was the driver and a delightful older gentlemen by the name of Bishop Steven. We asked a thousand questions on our way to the house! It was dark but our minds were still zinging with the sights and smells of a new country. Bishop Steven with his hearty laugh and zeal for life was an excellent introduction to Uganda despite his age of 72!

We got to the guest house in Kampala around 6 where we proceeded to crash for a few hours before journeying another 4 hours south. We were ready to go again at noon where once again we were picked up by Zed and Edward. We swung into this and that place to pick up a local doctor and a passenger. Stopping at the Equator, we got a demonstration of how the water runs clockwise north of the equator, counter-clockwise south of the equator, and straight down on the equator all within 10 feet of each other! What an amazing Creator we have!

Edward, Conrad, Zed, Dr. Ronald

What an incredible privilege to experience it with my soul-mate!

The kids loved the mzungu!!!

We met the rest of the team at a motel that evening. Our bed was crawling with ants that night. After saying something to management they came and fogged the room never changing the bedding, etc. This was good preparation for what lay ahead for the next day at the refuge camp!

  It was rainy that morning. The dirt was liquid rusty red. Hearing the coaster come, people started coming out of their huts to see what we were doing. There was a couple thousand children at this camp. They were hungry, dirty, and hopeful. We started out in the church. The church was in much worse shape than most of our garden sheds here! But that little church throbbed with the worship of lovers of Jesus! They were overflowing with joy as they worshiped Him who is worthy! When they were there, they forgot their pain, the circumstances and the dire needs that they had! In the front of the church, were at least 60 children crowded together on the rough dirt floor.
My eyes clouded with tears as I saw my own dissatisfaction with plenty and their delight even in the little. I realized how powerfully they in their culture, condition, and Christianity; they delight the heart of God! There were many more people outside of the church that were unable to get in because it was full. Evangelist Nelson gave a rousing call to repentance in which quite a few chose to surrender to the lordship of Jesus!
After the service, we went out to play with the kids and get set up for distribution. The children were covered in dirt! But their hungry eyes said so much more! They giggled over the bubbles. Even greater was the thrill when they were allowed to blow them themselves!
Fellow team members Linda, Julia, and myself were soon called away to join Doctor Ronald and Nurse Richard. We once again found ourselves surrounded with many children who wanted to touch and stare at the mzungus (white people). A lady came up to me with a tiny baby who was coughing and wheezing in her arms. I tried to communicate with her to wait for Doctor. Later I noticed she had walked back to her hut never seeing the doctor. My heart felt heavy! For I knew without medical intervention her child would die while mine who had a similar condition was hospitalized in the U.S.A. for three days gets to live life well!

Child Wearing

 The children wanted to crowd around the medical "station" so Julia and I began to play "Drop the Cabbage Leaf (hankie)" with them. They were thrilled with this! The white people were for real! This brought about gales of laughter. When a child came up with their sibling on their backs and wanted to play, we would hold the babies for them if the little ones didn't scream in terror at "the ghosts". It was common to see quite little children holding a younger sibling. The youngest I saw was probably a 4 year old with a 6 month old baby on the back. This was my first introduction to infant care in Uganda where there are no pampers or cloth diapers only a soiled, smelly towel or rags for body fluids.

Those Eyes!

The eyes have seen things little people should NEVER have to see! A lot of them had come from places of civil war and have seen and experienced physical, emotional, and sexual abuse. Do you hear the cry of the children? Will YOU?!

These Eyes

Despite their little, the children were still kids! They knew how to be mischievous. They had fun. They knew how to live!

The children crowded around me! I often had five or six kids to each hand! I had gotten blood drawn which left me with a huge bruise on my arm before we had come. Their little eyes got as large as saucers when they would see it! Someone suggested that maybe they thought I was turning color...

There was one little one towards the end of our time there that clung to me! I had to wonder what his story is! Was one of his parents one that committed suicide in the nearby lake so they wouldn't have to watch their child starve? Had he known love? Did he sense that I cared?  The whites of his eyes were yellow and his shirt was full of holes. There was something different about him...was it the sheer desperation to which he held onto me? My heart aches for him...Who will love him? 

David Platt said it well when he said, "Orphans are easier to ignore before you know their names, before you see their faces, before you hold them in your arms~once you do, EVERYTHING changes!"

Refugee Camp Dwelling

Growing Pain

We babysat the last weekend in February growing our family from 6 to 14! We made a splash when we went to Cabela's with our crew. There were lots of paper airplanes made, games played, hikes, and bath bombs done.

April and I got to go on a mommy/daughter date to Timeless Cafe. It was a lot of fun filling out questionnaires and then talking about our answers. She is at the stage where she is a lot of fun to take places and chat!

The first weekend in March found Logan battling high fevers sustained at 103* even when giving Tylenol and Ibruprofen every 3 hours. He puked on Monday and again on Tuesday and had basically stopped eating and drinking. I decided to call the doctor on Tuesday since we were planning on leaving Wednesday at midnight for Africa.  They checked him out and discovered he had low oxygen levels. This coupled with his know food/liquid intake caused him to be admitted to the hospital yet that afternoon. We were hoping he would still be released yet that we could go with the team.

It is one thing to see an adult in a hospital bed. It is totally different to see your baby there, hooked up to oxygen and IV!!! This was very difficult! We found out Wednesday afternoon that they were not going to release Logan. Now what? We cried for our baby. We cried for the hopes and dreams that were wrapped up in the luggage and the Uganda trip.
We discussed the options of Conrad going without me etc. but circumstances just weren't what we would have liked and Conrad had spent time praying and felt that he should stay home. We wrestled with "Why?"

Feeling better. 

It was soo good to see him perking up.   

He didn't like getting all the tape pulled off and IV removed.

Logan was finally released two days later! Two days after the team had gone. Two days of more bills...

Waiting to go home! It was a relief to see the light in his eyes again!  

Together Again!!!

After we were home, Conrad began to pray and seek God's face again as far as what He desired of us. We were strongly urged to still consider joining the team. Golden Rule Travel had talked to Turkish Air to find out that they would honor the ticket price even though they were non-refundable and non-transferable. I'd told Conrad I'd support whatever he decided and went to take a nap although I was quite sure that we were staying. When I woke, he says excitedly, "We are going!" I do think God must have been grinning when I had to bite my tongue :)  So we arranged to fly out of JFK 24 hours later...