September 10th, 2007 at 15:56 pm by Jamie
Tags: Uncategorized
Praise the Lord! The new STAO building is ALMOST DONE! The construction workers are plastering concrete over the exterior, and then it will be completed! We hope that this project, which has been in construction for over three years, will be done by the end our trip. The building is comprised of three gorgeous apartments, each with four rooms. It has a red aluminum roof that slants and peaks over each of the neighboring apartments. The windows have curly designed bars for security, and there will be electricity in every room.
Sam, with his amazing construction management skillz, has been doing an incredible job purchasing materials and paying for labor. You can always see him walking around the big piles of concrete or bricks alongside Sula, the job site manager. Despite all of the financial difficulties (there have been a lot, and have been VERY stressful), Sam has said that everyday, God has provided just enough money to get through the day. God has been so faithful!
We will be purchasing a sewing machine for the building, which widows can use to generate income. We are also planning on buying some computers, allowing STAO to generate income from educational classes.
Thanks for reading, and please pray for God anointing on the building, and give thanks to him for His faithfulness!
Jamie
Hello friends,
as the time is nearing to leave here i’m getting super sad! this country feels like a part of me now, and the people are like family! These last few days we’ve been seeing the beautiful nile falls and today we tested 130 children.
Out of these 130 kids 5 were test HIV positive. We feel blessed that the numbers were this low, but, hurt for those who were positive. The village we went to today was about 30 minutes from STAO and we also tested kids at a neighboring AIDS orphans ministry. The doctors were really patient and efficient with their time and good with the kids. It was so good today to see each member of our team have a special interaction with the children and adults. all of us differ so much in our ministries and together it is so great to see us move as one body of Christ and so united.
Our health is so good ( minimal bouts of stomach pain =) ) But, Gods been so faithful to our team and we give the praise to him for our safety. The Holy Spirit has really moving the other night as satan really tried to attack our home. We had some really tough spiritual warfare in the girls room. But, praising God for His power and sovreignty made the demons fleeing. Continue to pray for spiritual protection! Thanks sooo much!
One last note, I’m sure you’ve heard a little about Sophia, she tested positive and was being abused by her caretaker! WEll, i went to visit her father and she hasn’t seen him for two years. I told him about the abuse and that sophia wasn’t going to school and that the lady wouldn’t taunt her saying don’t you wish you could be smart like my kids. Also, she would feed her own kids and not sophia! This was heartbreaking for Sophia’s father to hear. HE sent her away because his wife left him and he was crippled. Sophias HIV ended up being a blessing and now Sophia is safe and at STAO! Praise God! but, her 14 yr. old sister is not in school and hasn’t been for awhile due to school fees…but, i’m going to pay for them as she is taking care of her father and 9 yrs old deaf and mute sister!
Her father was sooooo love and gentle with the children and this warmed me to the depths of my heart…. His prayers had been answered….all along he thought his daughter was in school…and now she is….this is his only dream that his daughters get to rise up and get good jobs! He truly blessed me and i was able to pray with him! I can’t even express how happy i am! This made coming here soooo worth it! God’s so good and helps direct us in ways we could never know! He’s so good! Continue to pray for this family as they continue to try to pay for basic needs! Thanks so much for all your prayers! I love you Ritchey family! =) and everyone unrelated to me! We really miss you! God Bless! DAnielle
Hi everyone, just wanted to post a quick update that I made it home safe and sound last night, despite an unexpected diversion to Nairobi, Kenya on Thursday due to aircraft troubles. I am missing STAO, Uganda, the kids, and the team a great deal. Being home feels good in many ways, but unsettling in others. I think those latter feelings are even stronger knowing that the rest of the team is still there. Still, I’m rejoicing at the unbelievable news of 0 positive HIV results among the STAO kids. Seriously. Amazing.
Kate asked me not to write much here about my experience returning home until the rest of the team does, so I’ll do my best to honor that wish. I will be posting some pictures and videos soon, though!
Dear friends,
Another day of HIV testing at STAO has brought both challenges and joy. Today, fifty foster children sponsored by STAO were brought in for testing and with yesterday’s MIRACLE of 100% negatives, the team and I prayed for nothing less than another miraculous display of God’s power.
Only one of the fifty tested today was confirmed HIV-positive. The team hid our disappointment well as we prayed for 11-year-old Sofia and held her hand, not allowing our tears to worry her or even hint that her status was a death-sentence. And in reality, it’s not.
Sofia will go for further testing and will hopefully be put on ARVs immediately. With these drugs, she should be able to live a full and vibrant life. Pray with us for Sofia - that she would know God’s love and redemptive power in an undeniable way. Pray that though her body may be weak, Jesus will be strong in her and that He will strengthen her spirit. Pray too for access to scarce ARVs and that she’ll be able to go to school soon.
Praise Jesus with us too that of 150 kids tested, only 1 has been positive. Though it is difficult to grasp why our all-powerful God would allow even one positive result, I cling to fact that “as far as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are His ways our higher than our ways, and His thoughts higher than our own” (Isaiah 55:8-9).
Thank you all so much for praying for us and with us. We feel your prayers from here.
Love,
Melissa.
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.
Sorry about the lack of a blog post yesterday, that was entirely my fault. I had come to Jinja with Pastor Nelson and Pastor David to find the man who built the original STAO Uganda website (www.stao-uganda.org), and it took a lot longer than expected - eating up the time I’d allocated for blogging. Nelson wants me to make some changes to their site, but so far we’ve had some trouble getting the FTP access information, and the hosting service website isn’t terribly helpful. I’ll probably have to figure that out when I get home.
I also spent part of yesterday (as well as today) visiting homes in a village adjacent to Mafubira called Sakabusolo to fill out some of the STAO surveys (”participatory assessments”). I’m really glad I got time to do that (it’s mostly been the healthcare team). It was the best chance I’ve had to meet villagers and widows (some who currently benefit from STAO and some who do not) and hear their stories.
It’s truly sobering to see how so many of these people live. A widow, 6 children, and a mud hut in the middle of nowhere… no access to medicine, with no income or consistent access to food via farming… None speak English, and at least one that we met only spoke Swahili - creating yet another barrier to her ability to provide for her children in this place. The emotions I feel and intellectual reactions I have are all over the place. Sometimes I think, “there must be a way out of this.” But when you realize the sheer number of people living this way, and you consider the huge imbalance of young people versus old… it starts to feel very hopeless for many of them.
Helplessness is a feeling I’ve had in great abundance the last two days. Ironic, in some way - as our mere presence brings visible, palpable hope to nearly everyone here… even if I myself question what I could possibly do for them.
The notion of a STAO clinic (the driving purpose behind the surveys) is something I’ve really clinged to in response. It is one way in which I think most of the people I met on these visits can really be helped in a significant way. And perhaps with that burden eased, some will be able to lift themselves up, or at least lift up their children - for whom there is always hope.
Here we are, halfway through our trip! We’re standing a point where we can look back and see how far we’ve come as a team—we can greet and carry casual conversations with the locals, we’ve learned how to cook some of the cuisine. Praise God for bringing us this far.
I’m still trying to get used to this whole “blogging” business…it feels weird to share my thoughts to possibly the entire population of internet-users. So, pardon my awkwardness.
As Victor mentioned in his post, the healthcare team has been going to the neighboring villages of STAO to do a participatory assessment. This has been extremely exciting and difficult at times. But I feel that it’s giving us good exposure to the needs and struggles of our brothers and sisters here in Uganda. The culture here is so beautiful; everyone we pass will ask us how we’re doing, and those we approach to survey are always welcoming. In doing these assessments, I really feel that God is aligning our hearts to His heart for STAO. We’ve been praying for moldable hearts that are open to see His people the way that He sees them.
Today we continued our surveying and also sang at a youth conference held in Jinja. It was amazing to see so many other youth our age gathered together to learn more about our God. It felt amazing to worship our God TOGETHER—the God that is the same God in Seattle as He is in Jinja, the God that knows each of us by name, the God that created our inmost being, the God that sees us in the depths of our brokenness and extends His mercy to redeem us from our sins.
Please be praying for our final two weeks here. Pray for plenty of time to spend with the kids, and for time to complete the HIV testing, the second building, and the surveying. God has been so good to our team. Thank you for being part of this journey!
It’s a lazy Saturday here in Jinja. Laundry is hanging out to dry (please don’t rain, please don’t rain), the market is bustling, the sun is out, and orange soda sits in cool refrigerators tempting passers-by. After a week of working, playing, planning, praying, this lazy afternoon is a welcome reprieve.
It seems as though we’ve been on a rollercoaster ride (or maybe more appropriately, a boda-boda ride!) of emotions. Much has happened this week that has hung heavy on our hearts: We have met widows who could easily have been our peers; we have met children who know unbearable pain and unspeakable tragedy; we’ve met education and healthcare systems that are nothing less than infuriating; we’ve come face to face with how small we are in the seemingly endless problems of a country and a people who live on next to nothing.
Yet more than anything, I’ve been met with an overwhelming joy and a boundless hope in the people I’ve come to know. Yesterday, I spent an entire day with the kids at STAO. Being left alone and defenseless with 30 rambunctious 3 – 12 year olds was an intimidating thought, but with pressing matters to attend to, the rest of the team left me to entertain our favourite little mob!
What an incredible blessing it was! All we did was play all day. We read bible stories, sang songs, played hopscotch (I lost a lot despite the fact that my legs are longer than theirs! Sigh..), and just rolled around and giggled a lot. More than anyone I know, these kids know what it means to have an untouchable joy and to be loved by a God who cares for them. We read about Jesus turning the 5 loaves and 2 fish into food for a multitude, and these precious ones, who know what it means to be hungry, were just absolutely amazed and so excited to hear about their provider Jesus. Their wide eyes and huge smiles were such a sight as I reminded them that the Jesus who provided that miracle was the very same One who loved and cared for each and every one of them. Their individual stories are heartbreaking, yet their hope abounds.
On a lazy Saturday like today, I thank God for the ways He brings joy when all around seems tragic. He comforts the mourning, feeds the hungry, gives power to the weak, and loves those who have never known love.
Webaleh, Yesu. Webaleh, Yesu.
whoo hoo! my first post! i expect profound and witty comments.
…what a draining yet inspiring 2nd week it has been in uganda. praise God. physically, we are all doing well, with the exception of a few minor aches and wounds but continue to pray for physical health and safety please.
i am biased to write about what the healthcare team has been up to, so i shall. a typical day is nonexistent at stao. the 5 of us-jessica, shawna, danielle, dale and i-have been working on a participatory assessment to identify the medical conditions and needs of 6 neighboring villages around stao in preparation for a future clinic based at the orphanage and a traveling clinic to meet the needs of the even more destitute. it has been trying for us because our western mindset is so wrapped around results and to-the-point answers and the first day of home visit surveys left us frustrated and rather demoralized. however, with pastor nelson’s approval we have begun to revise the survey in hopes of clarifying obscure topics. it is humbling to realize that pastor nelson and stao KNOW what is needed and that we are not here to force feed our opinions or administer our own tactics; therefore, the blessings of pastor nelson is appreciated for it allows us to find a happy medium culturally, for the ultimate purpose is the same: to serve stao in the best possible way while showing God’s love for the children of stao and the people of mafubira.
however, african time often leaves tasks unaccomplished…which is another difficult but sobering reality to wrestle with…for the 5 of us are unexpectedly asked to take sick orphans to the medical clinic for treatment, drugs, blood tests, etc. as was the case yesterday. we are beginning to understand some aspects of the healthcare system here in uganda, and the more we see, the more we are infuriated. much corruption exists and treatment often goes to the highest bidder, so for a bunch of orphans to enter a private clinic…you can almost visualize the distain they receive. heartbreaking yet completely real. yesterday, we took two young boys to a private clinic. these two brothers were from child-headed households and started living at stao after we arrived so they are amongst the poorest of the poor in mafubira. stao’s headmaster realized they had many chiggers burrowing under their hands and feet (tiny parasitic worms) which caused immense pain and swelling. the doctor decided he would test them for HIV and syphillis and prescribed ointment for what he stubbornly deemed ATHLETE’S FOOT. given the situation, we were all very frustrated and wanted so desperately for the doctor to understand that they were indeed parasites, not fungus. however, he would not believe, so the headmaster grabbed a safety pin from out of his pocket, popped open one of the blisters and pulled the worm out. sorry for the details, but indeed that was the only way for the doctor to believe us.
but God is God who seeks justice and loves the poor. as helpless and small as we felt yesterday, i was uplifted and reminded that He was there and i was so proud of my teammates for showing such love and compassion. now, we are little more prepared to deal with the healthcare situation here in uganda. we must not use our western standards for comparison for that will only frustrate us more, but we must understand that what happened yesterday is a reality for millions of ugandans and if conditions are to ever improve, it must rise from within. our job, right now, is to love the kids and be with them in times of physical pain and discomfort.
sorry this is dragging on, but there is so much to be said. of course i cannot give every last detail but i will briefly comment on the team as a whole. morning devotions are a blessing to us all as we continue on with Luke (who was a physician) and nightly de-briefs are a way of sharing thoughts, feelings and suggestions. the SIG group has completed the piggery so hopefully after church tomorrow we can go visit the newest members of stao. the education team is essentially holding summer school for the stao kids, and they absolutely love it.
the healthcare team’s goal for the following week is to finish revising the survey, get more responses (300 is the goal) from the 6 villages, and begin HIV/AIDS testing for 150-200 kids along with HIV/AIDS prevention and care education.
the time is passing by so quickly and so much needs to be done. but i am always reminded that time is for God to use.
continue to keep us in your prayers as we miss you all, but as for today’s rest day, we are going to kick back with some mashed potatoes and fried rice and maybe crowd around dale’s laptop to watch ocean’s 12 together. or maybe a chick flick. who knows.
God bless,
victor
