Hello!  I feel a bit of pressure to post an exceedingly profound, vivid blog entry right now, because so many things have happened lately.  My apologies to the team and to you readers if I can’t give an adequate account.  *Note: most exciting news will be at the END of this post.

I’ll start by listing a few things our team has been involved in lately, and then I’ll write about a couple things in more detail.

• Healthcare team finished writing a new 3-page questionnaire to conduct in Mafubira
• Pigs arrived at the sty!  There are SIX, and one is pregnant.
• We “performed” at an Acquire the Fire youth conference.
• HIV Testing of the kids at STAO and surrounding area.
• Brandon traveled back to Entebbe – he will leave for the States on Friday, I believe.

Regarding the performance at the youth conference, we arrived at a large, dome-like building and immediately felt the energy of the room.  A sizeable group was singing and moving with such soul and excitement that we knew we were going to dampen the mood.  Let me give a little context; we found out about our 30-minute stage slot only the night before, and thus we had little planned… basically just a song order (not to discredit Rachel, who did an awesome job mobilizing us).  It was time.  We were motioned to come up and I heard something about “Mzungu” this or that.  Everyone on the team exchanged anxious glances and sauntered up on stage.  All in all, our singing went well, the crowd seemed to like us because we were well… trying… to offer something. 

After our descent from stage, it definitely got a bit awkward.  Jamie, Sam, Kate, and I were summoned back up to serve as a Q&A panel.  The MC basically presented us as filthy rich, intelligent, pious Americans: “If you saw their houses in America, you would feel lucky to sleep in their washroom!”  Ughh… then I fielded a question about my views on pre-marital sex.  Being in a room saturated with Christian conservatism, let’s just say I tried to play it “safe” (no pun intended).   

On to the big news, we began HIV-testing with the kids today.  This involved grouping them together, sending a child into the makeshift doctor’s office one at a time, comforting him/her as the needle pricked a finger, and then giving them a lollipop as a minor consolation.  Given that many of these kids are orphans due to their parents having HIV/AIDS, we as a team braced ourselves for the life-threatening results.  Could we handle it emotionally and spiritually to see these beautiful kids wrestle with such sobering news?

We tested 96 kids today.  Number of HIV-Positive cases: ZERO. 

Hallelujah!  Ameen-ah!  It is true that some may have the virus in its dormant stage, but… honestly, this is good news.  It was soul-warming experience for our team, as many have been fasting and praying intensely.  Please continue to thank God in your prayers for these results, and pray for the children who have not yet been tested (perhaps over 100 more).  I remember during the testing, a small girl began screaming in terror and pain as the doctor pricked her finger.  Weighted down by the despondency of that situation, I found myself outside the office door on my knees.  A slow, desperate prayer was uttered amidst the swarm of STAO kids running around.  I wanted to see the kingdom of God manifested somehow, and, now I think I’ve seen it.  

Dale

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