Bible Study: mission hospital

Today i went out to kamuda to pick up members of our bible study to bring them to the main hospital in soroti because one of our members is going to have surgery tomorrow. Somehow we packed about 23 people into the 10 seater van, with an average of over 2 to a seat, i'm glad that as the driver i did not have to share. There was excitement in the air and a sense of camaraderie, and beautiful sounds of singing from the youth as we drove the 16 kilometers from kamuda to soroti. We found our patient quickly and we encouraged her and prayed with her and for her. While we were still praying with her we got a request to go pray for someone else. We decided to divide the group up into 4's and scatter out over the entire hospital to pray or to help wash clothes or cook, or what ever was needed by the patients.

The other leader Paul, and myself had tried to find our patient, Apio, on friday last week b/c we heard she was in hospital, but when we reached we found she was not yet there, but we ended up praying for every single person in ward two, which is the female surgical ward. we prayed for broken legs and arms, for "removed spleens," for infections in the feet, for swollen abdomens, different length legs and "bent ribs" for people from old, old ladies, to strong young ones. It was an experience, at least three of them had accepted Christ, and more were encouraged as our sisters in the Lord. All that to say, it was nice to go back to the same ward today and see how they were progressing and to encourage our new sisters in the Lord. It was good to see the one with the "removed spleen" eating rice and meat today. She's a a young widow with many children.

But back to the original purpose of this post...Please pray for Apio Mary as she has her surgery tomorrow. I wish I could answer what they are operating on, but i'm still not sure...a lot gets lost in translation...but at least i think it involves some pain and puss around the hip area from a fall that happened several years ago...that's why i'm still not sure. but anyway, she needs our prayers.

Father Heart Weekend

So I've been a bit busy, but let me at least give you a picture of what my days have been holding. Two weeks ago I took a group of former child soldiers from Morungatuny to the Father Heart Encounter. Most of these youth were abducted in 2003 and have stayed in the bush from any length of time, from 1 day up to about 3 years. All are traumatized by the experience, no matter the length of time.

Even though most of their trauma happened many years ago, many still have fear and shame built up inside of them. Here's a picture one of the boys drew this last trip of himself before and after the Father Heart Encounter. At the top of the photo it says Alau Patrick is not feeling well because of the LRA War in Teso. And it says God is able on the left side:

And here's the after picture, on the top it says Alau Patrick is feeling well, on the left side it says God has saved me, and the right side it says, because God is able:

It's really amazing to see the transformation that happens in just three days of feeling and learning about God's Father love for them. These pictures help explain it a bit better than words.

Then I thought I would throw this next picture up also as after a 4.5hr bus ride from Jinja to Soroti, the youth loaded this truck for another two hour journey to their home sub-county, and then some live another hour's walk from the sub-county headquarters where they will be dropped by the truck. It's a long journey. This is them as they loaded on to the truck. They were still surprisingly happy. The guy in the bottom right of the picture is a local salesman trying to sell Passion Juice to the travelers.