Intense Week, Continued....

Pastors & Parties!

As soon as we got home from Gulu, we "hit the ground running." First, on Friday, John Onek (pictured left), the pastor we are training from Sudan, came to our house to do the final training session of the AGC Membership Manual! Yeah! Then John went to the Congo border to pick up one of our friend's children from boarding school. Then that night, we had a going away party for Kim & Sam Trenwith, our friends from New Zealand~ they leave on Tuesday to go back home. :-( It will be so hard to say goodbye to them!

The next day, we went to Nebbi to give the pastors we have been training there, along with John Onek, the exam over the AGC Membership Manual... they were so serious about the test and had really studied and given 100%! It was awesome to see how much they care about this training and how eager they were to pass so that they can begin the official pastor training program in January with us! After the exam, we taught the guys some old fashion Christmas carols! It was so fun! They did not really know the songs, but they tried so hard to learn them & were so passionate singing them in their Ugandan accents~ it really was a precious thing to witness! Plus, we laughed a lot! And as soon as we started singing, the kids crowded at the doors and windows to listen and dance along! It was a precious time for sure!

Sunday, we had the chance to go to the ORA (Orphans & Refugee Aid) Christmas party for all of the orphans they sponsor here in Uganda! (ORA is the organization Kim & Sam are here with). It was a sweet time... the kids performed songs & dances for us, which were actually pretty funny... not as impressive as the kids with HEALS that we wrote about in the Gulu blog entry, I must say! But they were sweet! John & Sam also had yet another opportunity to "lead worship" together for these kids... They had some songs planned, but the kids didn't really know them, so they just improvised and learned very quickly how to play along to their Lugbara songs! It was great! My favorite orphan I met is Norman~ his love language is definitely physical touch, which is mine too, so we got along well! He played with my hair & held my hand every chance he got!

And just for a taste of Ugandan cooking... these pictures are of how they cooked lunch for the day! Pretty awesome how they make a stove out of a few branches and a hole in the ground, isn't it? And how about that meat? They really know how to improvise... palm branches as a counter top! We didn't actually get to eat the lunch... instead, Jesus had it planned for us to have possibly the most intense day of our lives...

Our Most Intense Experience Yet...

Sam & Kim were on the way back into town to take their 2 little boys, Zak & Leejay, home for naps. They weren't on the road but for a few minutes when they came upon a horrible accident. A huge truck had blown a tire and turned over... people were stuck under the truck, screaming & crying for help, blood everywhere, chickens and goats were dead all over the place. Kim immediately called John & I to come and help carry the people out of their car and also stay with the boys. Kim (pictured right) is a nurse in the ER in New Zealand, so it was such a "God-incidence," as my mom would call it, that she was there to help these people. I don't know what would have happened to them without her. She almost didn't come with Sam to take them home. Jesus definitely ordered her day.

When we arrived at the hospital, there was absolutely NO DOCTOR to be found ANYWHERE. And there was only 1 nurse, who you could hardly even call a nurse. So Kim stepped right in and started IV's in everyone, cleaned up their wounds, relocated one woman's ankle, and even made a splint out of a cardboard box! She was amazing! And the facilities were unimaginable.... these people were laying on a concrete floor with no pillows or blankets, and they were shivering from being in shock. So we found an old, dirty towel hanging up & used it as a pillow for one woman, and John found a vinyl covering to use as a blanket for another woman. Because it was a Sunday, everyone was off work. The operating room was closed, the x-ray room was closed, there was only 1 nurse to be found in this huge hospital, we couldn't even find a decent IV pole. I felt so helpless... all I could do was PRAY, call all of the doctors we knew in Arua to try to get some help, PRAY MORE, hold an IV up for a woman and tell her she's going to be okay, and PRAY. The only other hospital here ALSO had NO DOCTOR, because the doctor on call was sick. Our friend, Dr. Mbarak, couldn't help us because he only has a clinic, and these cases were too severe for him to handle with his limited facilities, and he's not allowed to come operate in the public hospital, since he isn't affiliated with it. We did not know what to do.

Meanwhile, John was running all over this huge hospital trying to find even one doctor... He finally found one, and he told John that he "wasn't feeling good and couldn't help us." John gave him a good talking to and reminded him of the oath he has taken as a physician, and the doctor FINALLY came into help us after we had already been there for 1 whole hour!!!!! Once he came to see the patients, we questioned how much he really even knew. Kim was suggesting things, like... shouldn't we give this person a muscle relaxer or pain reliever before we relocate her ankle? Or shouldn't we have a splint ready to put on it as soon as we do this? And the doctor was like, "Oh yeah, that's a good idea..." We couldn't believe it! It was unreal.

Kim and I went back to the hospital today to check on these people and make sure they got medical attention, since we knew they wouldn't get into surgery until today with everything being closed yesterday. One woman was just going into surgery and another STILL had NOT EVEN BEEN SEEN BY A DOCTOR, and this was 21 HOURS LATER!!!! We kept saying, "I know this is Africa... but this is ridiculous... it is inhumane." Why is it like this here? Maybe it's because the doctors don't get paid hardly anything, or maybe it's because there's no sense of urgency in this culture... I have no idea. But please pray that we never get sick here! Please pray that God would put a hedge of protection over the people of Arua, especially on Sundays when every one is off work, EVEN IN THE ER!!! Please pray that God would bring good physicians here.