It was a typical day with breakfast at 7:00, devotion at 7:45 and on the road at 8:00. Lorine did the devotion on Proverbs 16:9 and talked about God’s plans vs our plans and shared some personal testimony. Becca prayed and then we separated into two teams headed in different directions. Becca, Michael, Nathalie and Lorine were scheduled to go to Soroti Primary Development School and the remainder of the team began the hour-long trek to the church.
As a side note, this is the same school that Pastor Morris attended as a child. Currently the school has a student body of 1,000 children but only 800 were present today as it was market day and some of the kids had gone to market with their families. When the team arrived, the children had a program planned which included singing the National Anthem of East Africa and the National Anthem of Uganda. The headmaster also gave a speech. Michael and Becca gave a short teaching on Creation to Salvation and also taught the children a new song. The team then handed out 800 mosquito nets!
So, we need to back up a little bit before relating the other reason why the team went to the school. Last year when Nathalie was on mission with us in Lira, she had several conversations with the nurses and found out that most teenage girls in Uganda miss multiple days of school each month due to a lack of feminine hygiene products (sorry, is this too risqué for church?). I will say that each time we say those three words, it makes Lee blush, sooo, we say it a lot. Anyway, God put it on Nathalie’s heart to do something to help. After the mosquito nets were distributed, all the students were dismissed except the girls (200 girls). A three-month supply of feminine hygiene products was given to each girl (in a black plastic bag) with the promise of additional supplies to be provided every three months for an entire year. I can’t tell you what a huge difference this will make for these girls.
The school team rejoined us at the church around noon. We all rotated through the various “jobs” at the church again, counting pills, handing out mosquito nets, praying/evangelizing, testing for reading glasses, etc. It was a long day and we didn’t arrive back at the hotel until 6:30 pm.
Some stats for the day:
# patients seen: 1,375
# nets distributed: 1,200 at church/800 at school
# flies in outhouse: uncountable put close to one million
Some words/terms I learned this week:
Smoky vision – can’t see far away
Irish – means potatoes
Somehow – used the way we would say somewhat or kinda.
Debbie