I am in Jinja writing from an internet cafe- sharing a plug with another Muzungu (white person) who is from Penn State...I wanted to share this past week some of the reality that we experienced here in Uganda that was VERY sobering...actually beyond sobering, it was downright horrific.
On Friday, the women on the team, myself, Sharon, Jan, Dori and Gracie Holbrook (who has been here for four months living with Tom & Sharon and helping around GSF and with tutoring the secondary students) - we all went into to Jinja to visit Caroline Jacobson's ministry here; a crisis pregnancy center. She explained her ministry and working with pregnant teens and at risk women to keep and care for their babies; making sure they are getting nourishment, medical checkups, and help during delivery. The conditions she described where these women live- in mud hut slums, being beaten regularly, and given an allowance of 80 cents a week to live off of by their husband- it is horrific. What Caroline is doing is so needed- especially the weekly food staples so that the mother and baby can eat. As well as "mama kits" for delivery. Here in Uganda, when a woman goes to the hospital to deliver her baby- she must take all her supplies with her. The water basin, towels, scissors to cut the cord, and someone to assist her because there will be no help. She waits outside the hospital on the grass with a blanket waiting to be called into the hospital for a cot. When she is called into the hospital, it is a huge long room with cots lined up on both sides- at least 30 on each side. On the cots are women in various stages of labor waiting until delivering to be rolled across the compound to the "delivery ward". There is no pain medication, no sanitation, no help. Many of the woman are alone if they cannot afford to bring an assistant or family member with them. Again, it was beyond shocking.
After delivery, the women and babies are brought into a post delivery room, again like the pre-delivery room; 30 women on each side- no sanitation, dirty, no air conditioning, flies...you can perhaps start to get the picture? But some woman are on their cots with babies- newborn that they are feeding or sleeping with- other women are in the next cot with no baby...meaning their baby did not make it through delivery. It is mixed all the way down the aisle- babies crying, the lucky mothers, and women lying alone on their sides staring at the wall, the unlucky ones.
We were very disturbed by what we saw and chose not to go see the baby ward, which we were told was worse than the delivery wards. Three to four babies in a crib, no sanitation, stench, dirt...we chose not to go there as we didn't think we could handle any more. The mental pictures will forever stay with me. Thank GOD that HE is at work here. HE has brought missionaries from all over the world to run schools, orphanages, crisis pregnancy centers- and HE has called congregations from all over with a heart for missions- Westover- to support the missionaries in HIS work. Helping the least of these with the very basics of life. And helping tell those who have never heard the gospel- HOPE exists and they are NOT alone in the trials of life.
I have been encouraged by how many Ugandans I have met who are believers- who smile and JOY shines through their eyes. Yet, there are so many more living in poverty, slums, and just struggling to survive. It breaks my heart to think how they do not know Jesus Christ; they do not know our Savior and they exist each day as the last, in darkness, sickness, hunger, abuse...alone.
Thank you Westover and ALL supporters of missionaries - those who are on the front line & in the trenches- sacrificing to share our Saviors LOVE and HOPE with a dying world.
When I have more time- I will share our experience at a Secondary School in Nyenga during their open house. After that visit, I personally had to go lay down on my bunk when we got back to GSF and just cry. It seemed so overwhelming. But the Lord comforted me that HE is in control, HE loves ALL his children and wants them to know HIM. It hurt so to see the school, to see the kids and the conditions and think that they don't know HIM- how do they survive without HIM? But HE is working...through missionaries here, through changing hearts that witness the need here. But more on the school and what happens at the school as soon as I can get back on and blog...we are moving on from the coffee shop.
On Friday, the women on the team, myself, Sharon, Jan, Dori and Gracie Holbrook (who has been here for four months living with Tom & Sharon and helping around GSF and with tutoring the secondary students) - we all went into to Jinja to visit Caroline Jacobson's ministry here; a crisis pregnancy center. She explained her ministry and working with pregnant teens and at risk women to keep and care for their babies; making sure they are getting nourishment, medical checkups, and help during delivery. The conditions she described where these women live- in mud hut slums, being beaten regularly, and given an allowance of 80 cents a week to live off of by their husband- it is horrific. What Caroline is doing is so needed- especially the weekly food staples so that the mother and baby can eat. As well as "mama kits" for delivery. Here in Uganda, when a woman goes to the hospital to deliver her baby- she must take all her supplies with her. The water basin, towels, scissors to cut the cord, and someone to assist her because there will be no help. She waits outside the hospital on the grass with a blanket waiting to be called into the hospital for a cot. When she is called into the hospital, it is a huge long room with cots lined up on both sides- at least 30 on each side. On the cots are women in various stages of labor waiting until delivering to be rolled across the compound to the "delivery ward". There is no pain medication, no sanitation, no help. Many of the woman are alone if they cannot afford to bring an assistant or family member with them. Again, it was beyond shocking.
After delivery, the women and babies are brought into a post delivery room, again like the pre-delivery room; 30 women on each side- no sanitation, dirty, no air conditioning, flies...you can perhaps start to get the picture? But some woman are on their cots with babies- newborn that they are feeding or sleeping with- other women are in the next cot with no baby...meaning their baby did not make it through delivery. It is mixed all the way down the aisle- babies crying, the lucky mothers, and women lying alone on their sides staring at the wall, the unlucky ones.
We were very disturbed by what we saw and chose not to go see the baby ward, which we were told was worse than the delivery wards. Three to four babies in a crib, no sanitation, stench, dirt...we chose not to go there as we didn't think we could handle any more. The mental pictures will forever stay with me. Thank GOD that HE is at work here. HE has brought missionaries from all over the world to run schools, orphanages, crisis pregnancy centers- and HE has called congregations from all over with a heart for missions- Westover- to support the missionaries in HIS work. Helping the least of these with the very basics of life. And helping tell those who have never heard the gospel- HOPE exists and they are NOT alone in the trials of life.
I have been encouraged by how many Ugandans I have met who are believers- who smile and JOY shines through their eyes. Yet, there are so many more living in poverty, slums, and just struggling to survive. It breaks my heart to think how they do not know Jesus Christ; they do not know our Savior and they exist each day as the last, in darkness, sickness, hunger, abuse...alone.
Thank you Westover and ALL supporters of missionaries - those who are on the front line & in the trenches- sacrificing to share our Saviors LOVE and HOPE with a dying world.
When I have more time- I will share our experience at a Secondary School in Nyenga during their open house. After that visit, I personally had to go lay down on my bunk when we got back to GSF and just cry. It seemed so overwhelming. But the Lord comforted me that HE is in control, HE loves ALL his children and wants them to know HIM. It hurt so to see the school, to see the kids and the conditions and think that they don't know HIM- how do they survive without HIM? But HE is working...through missionaries here, through changing hearts that witness the need here. But more on the school and what happens at the school as soon as I can get back on and blog...we are moving on from the coffee shop.
