The team had a good flight from Entebbe to Amsterdam. Not all team members live in the same city or state so Amsterdam is where they all depart. There was a five hour layover in Amsterdam, at least for the people flying into Dallas. I don’t have the intinerary for each person but the Dallas flight arrives at 1:40pm.

In the next week or so Craig will write a wrap-up for the trip so don’t forget to check the blog for that.

It’s been my pleasure to bring you the daily updates. I hope it has been a help to you all. I want to say thank you to everyone for the suppport you’ve given the team. Knowing everyone has been praying for them I’m sure has been a comfort. Not only through pray but also by giving them encouragement. Thank you all for being part of the Mercy Trips support team.

God Bless

Sorry for the late post today. It’s been a busy day, our 4th grandchild was born so writing on the blog got pushed aside.

The team left Entebbe today and will arrive in Amsterdam at any time now. Almost everyone was feeling better today. Jeff was still wasn’t feeling all that well.

I’ll update as soon as I hear from Craig that they’ve arrived in Amsterdam.

Until then………

The team is in Entebbe. My last contact with Craig was at 4:30pm and noone else had gotten sick. Hopefully everyone will get some good sleep and be better tomorrow. No more news to report for now. I’ll post again as soon as I hear anything. Pray for wellness.

The team arrived in Kampala and for those that were feeling good they ate pizza. Last message I got 7 people were sick.

When they were leaving Kampala there was a traffic jam so as soon as they get through the traffic jam they will be on their way to Entebbe where they will spend the night.

I’ll keep you up to date to how everyone is doing and when they get to Entebbe. Continue to pray for the sick team members and pray the rest don’t get sick.

Until later…….

There are 5 team members that are sick. Thought this was going to be the first trip were everyone stayed well. The first call I got 3 people were sick then this morning I got a text message that 2 more were sick. Hopefully that’s all. I wondered if it was something they ate since it was more than 1 or 2. Pray for those that are sick that they recover quickly and pray noone else gets sick. I’ll give an update later today.

Other than one water project not being quite finished the team accomplished everything else they set out to do.

Dustin will give an update for the village/outreach team tomorrow. They finished with evangelism at a school today. I’m looking forward to hearing what he has to say.

The final total for number of surgeries done on one trip is 40. That broke the record. Most of the supplies brought for surgery were gone by then end of the last surgery.

By the end of each trip Craig ask the team members to tell one thing they miss the most. Missing their family is a given and is always on the top of the list so Craig changed things up a little bit this year. He told them they couldn’t repeat what the person before them said so they had to think of something else to say. Also he asked them to tell one weird thing they saw on trip. To make it easy to type and read #1 willl be what they miss and #2 will be the weirdest thing.  Here goes……..

Bonnie- 1. drinks with ice. 2. The soccer game where the african team let the americans win.

Christine 1. family. 2. woman carrying a mattress on her head.

Beth 1. her own room 2. a sign that said “you can trust us for the future” but the bottom of the sign was missing.

Camilla - 1. her own cooking. 2. a motorcycle with 4 people on it.

Victoria - 1. flat iron for her hair. 2. unmentionable surgical procedure.

Sarah - 1. Chick-fil-a. 2. toddlers walking out to the field carrying a full size hoe.

Jeff - 1. decent roads. 2. newborn triplets.

Trina - 1. her own cell phone. 2. gecko in the OR

Judi - 1. NCIS. 2. mother carrying one baby on her front one baby on her back carrying a sack of grain on a bike.

Michelle - 1. low humidity. 2. they had to stop the van one day because there were bulls fighting in the middle of the road.

Mari - 1. Rosa’s. 2. in town they saw a goat in the middle of the road and the van went around it but if people were in the road the van would honk.

Dustin - 1. couch & tv. 2. guy on a bike with his friend on the back and the friend was carrying a dresser.

Shai - 1. fan. 2. heat (the OR was really hot)

Craig - 1. Dr. Pepper. 2. seeing local people caught up with a soap opera that’s from Mexico.

Some very odd things wouldn’t you say?

Today at the hotel the team was given a cake saying “Thank you 4 coming”. The people from the hotel told the team thanks for the work they do and it gives the people in the village hope.

Tomorrow the journey home begins. The team will leave the hotel at 9am and go to visit an orphange. After they leave they will go see the baboons then on to Jinga for lunch and shopping. Then it’s on to Kampala where they will have pizza for dinner then spend the night in Entebbe. A full day.

Until tomorrow……….

Today the spring well was dedicated. Over 500 people will benefit from this water project. Everyday the people of this village will be able to walk to the well and fill up their jugs knowing friends from Odessa came to help them in the spirit of the Lord. About 100 people attended the dedication. Dustin gave a mini sermon and the people of the village gave thanks to everyone.

The surgery team just missed getting to the dedication but they at least were able to visit the sight and see the work that had been accomplished. Tomorrow will be the last day for surgery and they may break the record for the number of surgeries done on one trip. So far they have done 32 surgeries( I’m not sure what the record is) tomorrow they will probably do 6 more. Thank you Lord for giving the Mercy Trips team the opportunity to serve so many people.

Beth, a physical therapist, worked with 28 people that have back issues. This was the most she has worked with so far. I know from experience how wonderful it is to have help from a physical therapist.

The team wants to share a few things they have been blessed by this past week. (The word “here” in the following sentences means Uganda) 

Christine - the openness and love the people freely give.

Camilla - the response she gets when she waves at everyone and their face light up and they wave back.

Bonnie - to work with all the people on the team.

Victoria - being here and being around a group of people with the same ambition and drive and fitting in with the team.

Jeff - seeing how much people can do with so little.

Beth - takes for granted what she has at home compared to how little people have here.

Judi - when she walks into the hospital and the people like to touch her and say thank you.

Trina - by meeting Judi and finding out about Mercy Trips she can use her experience in the OR to help those in need.

Shai - Western or African, they have the same kind of heart.

Mari - they whole experience, the people are so receptive, listen and respond to the gospel.

Sarah - looking around the OR she can see the evidence of God’s provision for the people.

Michelle - how good God is. He did not let her fear overcome her faith. She was able to experience life, hospitality, joy and was glad He brought her here.

Dustin - in talking to pastors here that have no seminary training they are able to study God’s word and take it literally. Pastors here show you God’s word is all you need to believe.

Craig - seeing a very diverse team fit together and work together. He never knows how it’s going to work out with teams from different backgrounds, how God sends different people to be on the team and it’s good to see them all joking and laughing like a big family at Thanksgiving.

Helen (Dr Patrick’s wife) blessed to have ladies here. She works with groups that usually have lots of men so it’s good to work with the ladies. She’s laughed more in the last week than she has in the last six months.

Dr. Patrick - is in a constant state of blessedness. When he and his family came back to Uganda to work they felt alone. God has sent people to join them and help them accomplish their goals. God is at work in all the team. Thank you to the church, family and friends he knows God is working on them being without their family while being here doing His work.

I’m not in Uganda but I feel blessed to have so many people willing to travel with Mercy Trips and help Craig accomplish the task he feels the Lord has given him.

Continue to pray for the team as they finish up their mission. Their journey home will begin soon and it will be a bitter sweet experience.

Until tomorrow…………..

Like I said the other day, sometimes I don’t quite understand what Craig is telling me so here’s another thing I have to clear up or correct. After re-reading my notes I realized I had omitted one thing the village/ministry team did last week. The last hut they visited had a very sick child. They wanted the mom to bring the child to the outreach clinic on Saturday. She never showed up.

Jeff and Moses (driver) went looking for the sick child today. The baby, 1 1/2 yrs old, was with a brother (9 yrs old) and some adults. The child is very sick and needed to be taken to the hospital but none of the adults wanted to do it so they let the brother take care it. The brother can not admit anyone to the hospital so Jeff and Moses went looking for the mom. The counsel of the village was contacted to help find the mom. They found her at work and made her come take care of her baby. She said she hadn’t been taking care of the baby because he had been so sick. The father had left the family when the baby was very young. The mom and baby were taken to the hospital where the baby was treated for severe malnutrition. Along with that the baby needs a circumcision, to put it mildly.  Pray not only for the baby but also for the mom. The mom works to take care of the children but yet can’t take care of them herself.

Jeff said it was very surreal to be involved in the process of helping the child.

One of the wells was completed today. It will dedicated tomorrow.

Bonnie, Beth and Christine went with Dr. Patrick today to the site of a hotel Dr Patrick is building. The hotel is located near the hospital and future medical team will be able to stay there so they won’t have to travel to Mt. Elgon at the end of each day. As they arrived at the site the local school let out for the day. All the kids came running to them shaking their hands and smiling. Christine said it was like a sea of blue when they came running out of the building.

The surgical team did 6 cases today. One lady that was scheduled to have surgery got sick before they operated on her so they sent her to Mbale to have an endoscopy. When she got to the hospital in Mbale the power was out so she had to go back home and will have to go back tomorrow.

What’s one thing we take for granted? Electricity. We complain when it goes out for a little while but in Uganda I guess it’s the norm. What’s another thing we take for granted? Being able to take off work and take our kids to the doctor. I can’t imagine what it must be like for people that cannot take care of their children.

Please pray for the people of Uganda. Pray for healing for this small child. Pray for the patients that await surgery, for the women that’s needs an endoscopy before she can have surgery.

Thanks to all of you for support for the team. Until tomorrow……..

Sorry for the late post. My son and I were traveing and all our flights were delayed so we got into Dallas late.

The team had a good day at church. During Sunday school Mari worked with the kids and helped them make the witness bracelets. The kids did a good job listening to Mari as she taught the lesson. Christine said she heard some of the kids repeating the words that Mari was saying. The kids got to make one bracelet and take the materials to make another one so they could share the story with others.

Michelle gave the lesson in womens  Sunday school class. As she was coming to the end of her lesson she realized there was still time left in the class. She didn’t know what else to say to last til the end of the class. She said she heard the Lord say to her “ask for testimonies”, so she did and the women began giving their testimonies.

Dustin’s sermon was very excitable and the members of the church loved it. Dustin said he’s associate pastor in America but in Uganda he is full pastor.

After church they went and had a picnic at Sisyi Falls, then climbed up the falls. When they got to the top of the falls it started raining and it rained the whole time they climbed down. Needless to say it was muddy muddy muddy.

Pray for the team as they continue their mission. This will be a busy week for them.

Until tomorrow…….

When Craig is giving me notes for the blog I try my hardest to make sure I’m getting everything correctly. I apologize if I don’t get everything quite right. The medical team was joining the outreach/village team today. I thought they were doing ministry work today but they were all working together doing a medical outreach clinic. That said here’s how the day went.

The clinic was set up at a school and several rooms were used to see the patients and different areas outside were set up also. In the clinic they treated 584 people. Deworming medicine was given to 1300 kids, immunizations were given along with vitamin A.  They ran out of medicine and some people came in late and when they couldn’t be seen by the doctors they were a little upset.

Jeff and Dustin were in a room giving out mosquito nets. The people receiving a net had a piece of paper with a number on it showing how many nets they were supposed to receive. Some of the people were trying to change the number so they could get more nets. One person crawled in a window took a net and went out the window before Jeff and Dustin even knew what was being done. Afert that Victoria went in and sat on the nets while they were waiting to be distributed. They distributed 500 nets.

A few comments from some of the team members…

Shai - taking care of the patients today took him back to the days of his internship when he saw patients that didn’t have surgical problems.

Trina - this is the 1st time for her to experience anything like this and she is blessed to be able to help.

Michelle - not being a medical person it is hard not to help everyone, craig told her even being a medical person it’s hard also.

Jeff - all the people at the window today wanting nets, he heard a little voice say, I love you.

Victoria - amazed how crazy people were about getting the nets.

Christine - amazed to see the extent the people will go to to protect their family. It’s sad having to turn people away.

Sarah - when they are driving down the road (little dirt road) the kids would run out when they saw the outreach team coming, she felt blessed when the kids came to greet them.

Adding a note to her comment. The road is very small with the huts close to the road. When the kids come out they are saying “jando” (hello in swahili). There are lots of kids saying jando at the same time almost in unison, Craig said it was really cute. The clinic officer said the kids wave and the mzunga’s (americans) wave back it shows good fortune because they know the mzungs’s are there to help. Sarah said it made her feel like they (the americans) were a symbol of hope.

Dustin - added it’s great to provide hope and it also represents the hope of Christ.

Beth - was playing the hookie pookie with the kids and says it works in any culture.

Bonnie - the kids don’t think it’s anything about a woman with gray hair trying to do anything to entertain the kids.

Judi has respect for the previous team members that have worked in the pharmacy because it’s not easy. Since she’s always worked at the hospital this is her first time to experience this.

Mari - interesting to see parents make the kids take their medicine. (the deworming medicine apparently taste bad) The parents have to make sure this kids are chewing the pills up.

Camilla - it’s hard not to be able to serve all the people. She was taking temperatures of the kids today and if any of them had a high temp she made sure the child got in to see the doctor right away.

Now to end on a funny note…

Craig - the americans usually are the ones taking pictures but today a guy came over and stood by Craig and the guys friend took a picture of them. Craig felt a little like a celebrity.

Tomorrow the team will have a day of rest. They will attend church, Craig will teach Sunday school and Dustin will give the sermon. After church they will have a picnic at Sisyi Falls and then climb up the side of the falls take lots of pictures and hopefully be rejuvenated for next week.

Hope you all have a great day tomorrow. I will be traveling tomorrow so the post will be late.

Until tomorrow………..