Standing in the gap, vol 3: not the end of the story

The valley of death is rough, but it isn't the only view from the gap.

There are few bigger pleasures in life for me than making sick children smile. And yesterday, smile they did!

• Baluku, the malnourished boy who we put on TB meds after noting the older sister with a dramatic spinal TB protrusion
• Kabugho, Baluku's older sister with the dramatic disfigurement from TB - I remember her initial diagnosis admission and referral to Kampala and remembered that she had become my friend during that admission and had brought me an avocado as a discharge gift.
• Byamukama, the malnourished toddler who came for weighing and as he swung in the basket scale, I looked smiled and cooed at him in lubwisi and english and he shot me half a dozen ear to ear grins that were life changing at that moment :)
• Simon, who has a hole in his rear end the size of a tea saucer (his rear end isn't much bigger than a tea saucer) where an abscess from an private clinic injection gone bad was removed, but who reaches for his sweet and after we caused him a great deal of pain and anguish in changing his dressing still found it within himself to smile at Travis and I...likely because we were heading out of the door on our way home.
• Masika, a malnourished developmentally delayed girl with microcephaly AND sickle cell disease, who managed a little slobbery grin when I took her picture sitting on her mom's lap.
• The 17 year old mom who was sitting on the bench when I arrived on the ward with a 750g premie born 3 hours earlier (EGA 20 weeks based on mom's self reported LMP, but clearly would not be breathing and alive if 20 weeks were accurate...) tucked inside her dress for warmth. When I asked if it was a boy or girl, she reported girl and smiled when I said "ah! Webaleh."

Then there was the middle aged woman who Biguye (the lone clinical officer at the health center) was seeing last week when I stopped into the Outpatient Dept. to ask him a question. She looked strong and healthy and was in her last month of the 6 mo. treatment course...a result of Biguye's wise clinical judgement and functional diagnosis and TREATMENT, totally outside of the realm of influence of any of us World Harvest staff.

Also the Antenatal Care seminar that the In Charge Midwife, Rose, applied to the district for funding for and got it and was fully underway with posters and handouts when Pauline and I did inventory of our Nutrition store the other day.

The Christ School crisis last weekend when a teacher was locked inside his house by students, and the strong calm that Deus handled the situation with, the wise spiritual input and presence of Eric; riots averted.

The presence of 2 teachers at the Bible Study the Anna's are doing for the female CSB Orphan Sponsorship students, and their friendship with and encouragement to the Anna's this week.

Speaking of Pauline, meeting with her and Lamech and Baguma (our Agricultural and Nutrition Extension Officers) the last few days (speaking of standing in the gap...) and hearing their view of the gap. It is so encouraging to have wise, insightful, experienced coworkers in the gap. Pray for them too, they feel the effects of the gap probably just as much as we do as they are seen as extensions of us in the community.

And that bring me back to the subject of prayer...

I hope you get the picture: We are FEW, the expectations and needs and resulting challenges are MANY, but God is at work, giving us the HOPE we need to continue on.

But PRAYER is needed. The minute we think we can do this on our own, we fall flat on our faces...We are in desperate need for you to join us in putting Bundibugyo before the Creator and Sustainer of the Universe in these ways:

• Pray that people will to turn to God with their needs/hopes/desires and not only to us
• Pray that God will bring health and wellness to Bundibugyo through the Ministry of Health
• Pray that corruption will be brought down
• Pray that Christ School would have the resources it needs to raise up Christ-like leaders for the future of Bundibugyo
• Pray for unity, and spiritual growth and encouragement among the church leaders and therefore in the churches as well
• Pray for the provision of clean water for the district since the water system which is precariously positioned just below the surface of the road will get displaced when the road is paved
  
• Pray for the gospel to encourage and sustain Pauline, Lamech and Baguma Charles, the Nyahuka Health Center staff, Deus and the rest of the Christ School staff, in their work
• Pray that the culture of fear and jealousy will be replaced with hope and love
• Pray that we would see Bundibugyo and every interaction we have everyday in light of God's movement of redemption in us and this place.
• Pray that God would give us opportunities for rest and rejuvination.
• Pray that God would help us discern how he would have the few of us spend our time, energy and resources, on a daily, monthly and yearly basis as we look to the future.
• Pray that God would send us "fresh blood" so to speak, just the right new teammates we need to do the work He has called us to and has set before us.
  
• most importantly, pray that the GOSPEL will reign in power here, in all of us