Word in Deed Ministries

PBAU-Gregory School of Pharmacy-Partnership with Word In Deed Ministries

Reflection Essay-Uganda 2013

There are some events in your life which redirect the path you choose to take. The first morning upon waking up in our hotel in Uganda a young Ugandan named Gerald explained, very philosophically, what he thought about life to me like this.  Your life is like a stream which is meant to flow. Of course there will be pebbles and rocks in the stream. This will deter the flow of the water and create some rapids but afterwards the water continues to flow. We all want to flow freely without any turbulence but when we get to calm waters is when we should take a deep breath and realize what those difficulties in our lives have taught us. Without challenges we would be nothing and the fabric of our lives would be plain. Proverbs 3:5-6 states “Trust in the LORD with all your heart, on your own intelligence rely not; In all your ways be mindful of him, and he will make straight your paths.”

The preparation for this trip was intense. In addition to all of the other classes in our last academic semester, trying to arrange how we would serve a population none of us have ever seen in a place we have never visited was at times stressful. As a team I believe from the beginning we were very connected. I have been on a couple other medical mission trips but have never had the same level of teamwork and understanding as this group. I also believe this group has been the most spiritually-based of all the groups I’ve travelled with. We pulled all our resources together and between us sixteen people and more than thirty bags we were off and ready to go to Uganda. There was still hesitancy though. What if the bags were taken at customs or didn’t arrive? What would we do then?

Thankfully we all arrived safely and with all of our supplies to Entebbe airport. After that long flight and the inability to sleep for over 24 hours I was still ready to go. If there was a word to describe this trip it would be “thankful”. Thankful to God that my dreams have come true to go to Africa, thankful for the people I was with and those we were blessed to serve, and thankful that everything went better than we could have expected.

After reading Kisses from Katie I think we had an appropriate introduction to much of the culture and what we would expect. There is however a huge contrast between what you can read in a book and what you experience in real life. For example, many people see humanitarian ads on television but become desensitized to it. The book did give our entire group something to focus on and ways in which mzungus are already providing aid in Uganda. Since many of us desire to continue with missions in our own way this book shows us how this can become a possibility.

The following day was our first clinic day. We did not know exactly how this was going to function but I believe we all managed it really well. As we continued through all four clinic days it only became more and more organized, especially with the constant advice and guidance of Dr. Sourial. We were full of energy to experience this new culture and make an actual impact in the lives of these people. I remember during the first mission trip meeting we had Dr. Nornoo had told us that many times we could only place a bandage on these people but it is the spiritual strength that we give them that is the most important and lasting. I would agree. As you go through many of the patients, the ailments could be easily solved. Education and better access to healthcare would solve most of their problems. Although through all the hundreds of people we saw and the fact that most came through with numerous illnesses I would agree with another comment Dr. Nornoo made that they’re not “poor” people. They were not poor in spirit and many times not absolutely poor in material possessions. We in the Western world are the poor people. Matthew 19:24 states, “Again I say to you, it is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for one who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.” I also think of the 8 Beatitudes and how blessed these people are.

The main example I would focus on is the boy named Moses. He had a perforated bowel and had not been using a colostomy bag for a month or so due to financial restraints. He could not get surgery to repair his intestines since this would be considered “elective”. This is the same condition my father had a few years ago and I remember how hard it was on him and yet Moses is only a little kid. When we saw him again on the third day of clinic with Dr. Moses (who coincidentally had his namesake), Sam and I knew without any doubt that we would pay for the cost of his treatment. We arranged for him to go to the hospital and you could begin to see relief in his father’s face. I had not seen Moses smile yet and he looked like the life had been taken out of him. When we visited him again in the hospital after he had received surgery he was not awake yet. To make a long story short I ran to five different banks and supermarkets to try and exchange American dollars to Ugandan shillings. This was extremely stressful and unsuccessful. Considering I had to leave the room Moses was staying in because I felt tears about to come, the thought that if we couldn’t pay for his treatment he would possibly be discharged prior to recovering was a lot to handle. While writing this reflection I saw a picture of him on Facebook for the first time in the hospital bed with a huge smile on his face. The operation and recovery had both went great. I am so thankful to God for all of this. That alone was worth the entire trip. 

Upon leaving in London a few of us sat around discussing the trip and what was to become of our future. Every one of us already had decided that this was only going to be the beginning. We had grown both spiritually and emotionally and have created much stronger relationships.  If there is a way to measure the success of a trip I would say it is this: Days after arriving back in the United States we are still talking about what is next and how we can continue this journey of missions in the future.

Chris Schiel, Gregory School of Pharmacy, Palm Beach Atlantic University

May 28, 2013

 

 

Tags: Gregory School of Pharmacy, Kisses from Katie, Palm Beach Atlantic University

This entry was posted on Monday, August 26th, 2013 at 2:25 pm and is filed under Kampala, Uganda. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.