Help Packing a Container for Lesotho

Our things are packed up our things for Lesotho. Although we will be in the USA till next February, we packed up our things in Uganda to be stored and then shipped to Lesotho in January. We are blessed to have the opportunity to ship a 20 foot shipping container to Lesotho. We've had help from friends and family. It began with packing some things in boxes, others with padding, and then thinking it over like a big puzzle.
After packing a bunch of heavy items, our friend Ralph came over and helped me build a frame and box to enclose them and to pack on top of. Adam tested out our work by sitting on the couch on top of the box.
We've packed from bottom to top to utilize the space well. Part of it has been roped off and part was enclosed by a partial wall. In front of that sits the washer, dryer and stove. We enclosed them in another wooden structure in order to have a place to pack recliners. Mattresses and other flat lighter things went up on top. It was a lot of trying different things to see what fits best. After months of planning and two solid weeks of packing, it is DONE! We sealed the doors, put on the locks, and now it sits in Mbarara, awaiting the truck. From Mbarara it will travel over some pretty rough pot hole filled roads to Kamapala to sit at our mission compound until January. Then it goes back on a truck to Mombasa, Kenya, by ship to Durbin, South Africa, and again by truck to Maseru, Lesotho (roughly 4 week trip).
We trust God that some day in February we will see our container with our personal and household things and have the fun of unpacking. By the way, some have asked us if we know where we will live in Lesotho and the answer is in Maseru, the capital city, but we don't know yet the house. We'll post something once we know (most likely later this year).

New Full Time Pastor at UBC Mbarara and Last Day in HIV/AIDS Clinic

This past week was an exciting as well as somber one. On the exciting side, we have now voted as a church family to extend a call to Mr. Enoch Kategaya to be our full time pastor. Enoch has been a member of our church for several years and works with the Words of Hope HIV/AIDS home visit program. He recently completed his bachelors of Social Work Social Sciences at Makerere University (Kampala). Enoch has a clear calling from God to the pastoral work of leading the UBC family. Having grown up in our church he has been a part of the youth programs, the university student program, and the Runyankore congregation as well. I look forward to walking alongside Enoch over the remaining month as he takes over as pastor. Please join us in prayer for Enoch.

Wednesday was my last day at the ISS Clinic (ISS stands for Immune Suppression Syndrome) at our hospital. As I finished seeing the last patient I sat alone in the room and reflected on what God has done since 1997 and spent some time in praise and prayer. It was early ’97 that I came to realize that unless someone did something for people with HIV/AIDS then many, many would continue to die. At that time the hospital unofficial policy was to let them die as we had limited resources and needed to spend it on those that would live. By God’s guidance and power I began to treat inpatients with respect and compassion and in late ’98 began an outpatient clinic.

We began one afternoon per week with a volunteer counselor. It soon grew to two days a week, and then three. By then we had arranged to have a 20 ft shipping container donated (see picture) to use as clinic. We then were able to get funding through the US Ambassador’s fund and our mission to add on to the container. Then in 2006 we were able to get funding through JCRC (Joint Clinical Research Center Kampala) to build a larger structure to accommodate the large number of families we were treating. Over the years we have enrolled 15,000 clients and now care for 8,000+ with 3,500+ receiving free anti-HIV drugs. It has been a great working partnership with several groups that has helped us provide compassionate care to families (Ministry of Health, JCRC, UCSF, Mulago Mbarara Joint Aids Program, Family Treatment Fund, Canadian African Prevention Trials Network).

As I think back about the early days it was one of death and dying. I saw many of my patients who had become friends die as there was not affordable treatment. Gradually over time the cheaper drugs came available and the clinic became one of emotional highs and lows as I saw some patients recover and get better through treatment and others still die. I survived spiritual and emotional challenges by daily depending on God’s grace so I could provide hope for those living and hope to those facing death. It was during that time that God gave me a vision to begin a home visit program in order to have more time for spiritual care. That program (Words of Hope) now serves thousands of clients and their families in the Mbarara District. We have great team of 5 Ugandan counselors and two missionaries that go out Monday-Friday to encourage, train, and love people with the love of Jesus. Many have come to faith in Jesus, groups have been discipled in following the teachings of Jesus, and even three new churches started. Glory to God!

17 Baptist Church Leaders Get Trained

This past week our church hosted pastors from 16 different churches in our association for continuing leadership training. Ten hours a day for 5 days they utilized their Bibles and a book “Foundations of Faith.” It was an interactive training whereby many questions were asked and answered via group discussion with the final authority being the Word of God. This is the second in an 8 part training series that the association is doing to provide quality biblically based training to our church leaders. One of the criteria for continuing in the training is that they must show that they take this material and knowledge back and teach it to their church members. In January they studied “Following Jesus.” This meeting began with some exciting testimonies on how members in their churches were excited to be taught from the Bible what it means to follow Jesus and his way. With each church contributing a portion, it costs approximately $57/pastor/weeks training. Our special thanks to the saints at University Baptist Church in Houston Texas for generously providing the funds to enable the association to do four training sessions like this one.

Words of Hope Home Visit Update

On Thursday Enoch and I headed out of town to do home visits of families affected by HIV/AIDS. Our first home visit of the day looked to be a bust. The person we were planning to visit had moved! (This happens often due to financial and social reasons.) There were several people in the yard and so Enoch asked if we could talk with them. By the time they were all seated on the grass, we were faced with the elder M’zee (oldest man), his 70 year old mother, his wife, a friend, 4 youth, and 6 children. Enoch and I introduced ourselves and with the permission of the M’zee we shared a bit about HIV/AIDS and answered several questions. Then we talked about ‘hope’ and the reasons for lost hope. This gave us the opportunity to share the hope of Jesus Christ through sharing the story in John’s gospel, chapter 3, about Nicodemus’ visit to Jesus at night. Again, after many questions, we asked if anyone would be interested in placing their faith in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. The man’s wife stood up to say ‘yes’ that she wanted to do just that. It was great! What we thought initially to be a ‘bust’ was what we call a ‘divine appointment’ to be there and share the hope that comes through knowing Jesus.
The really cool news is that we saw the same thing happen later that day as we went to visit Robert and he had three neighbors with him. We began to visit with him and his neighbors and had the opportunity again to share the truth of God’s word. All three of his neighbors heard and said they wanted to put their faith in Jesus. The really cool thing is that they had been watching Robert’s life and had seen a real change in him and a genuineness that they too wanted. His life witness was a key factor in their decision.
Enoch and I will head back to these two homes next Thursday for follow up to see how they are doing and to share some more basics of the life of following Jesus.

Adam's graduation and Holland Tulips

We just returned from a crazy 13 day trip to Michigan to see Adam graduate from Hope College (BS Biology) and see some of our family. We are really proud of Adam! It was great to see him graduate after 4 years of intense work, and a lot of fun with his friends too. He plans to work in DC with AmeriCorp for the next year working in HIV clinics. We also had some time to see Larry's parents and Sally's mom. Needless to say they are proud grandparents...
The grad coincided with the internationally famous Holland Tulip Festival. There were hundreds of thousands of tulips blossomed, and the famous Dutch wooden shoe dancers.

Picture of Lesotho

We're headed to Lesotho in February 2009.

Our New Blog

Well, we've decided that a weekly blog would be the best way to let you all know what is happening in our life right now. This hopefully will work out as we are not the best at mail newsletters. (: We should have some pictures up soon as well as an update.