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Friday, April 25, 2014

World Malaria Day/Day 5 of our Spring Break Trip

Sorry for the silent treatment! It's been a little crazy around here (whats new right?!).
Today I thought would be the perfect day to pick back up.
The next blog post is Day 5 of our trip. This just so happens to be significant for today.

Today is World Malaria Day. A Day to bring awareness to the devastation this disease is bringing to a whole continent.
A few facts for you:

A child dies from malaria every 60 seconds
Most of the children are under 5 years old
In 2010, almost 600,000 children in Africa died from malaria
Malaria is PREVENTABLE, TREATABLE, and CURABLE
The Healing Faith team encounters 6-8 positive malaria tests each week
The testing and treatment for a single person infected with malaria costs less than $3
The average cost of a mosquito net is $4 – too expensive for most Ugandan families who live on less than $2 a day

Day 5, we woke up to the sounds of rain... the girls knew that there was a possibility of us not making it out to the Wakisi village.
We planned on checking on the sweet little boy who tested positive and had started treatment for Malaria earlier that week.
The girls were quite upset at the thought of not making it out there.
So we went to scripture

James 4:13-15 Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit”— yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.”

We talked to them about how we make plans, but really God is completely in control, and we need to remember He may have something else planned for us!
It helped a little, but they were still upset, what can ya do?! Kids will be kids:)

We loaded up and decided to try and see if we could make it out there...

We arrived and saw the road we were supposed to drive up in the Super Custom (a type of mini van) and knew it wasn't going to happen. The pictures below say it all:

What these pictures don't show is the big hill the van would have to make up in order to get to the village, and even if it made it up, there was no guarantee on what the roads would look like once we got to the village and whether or not we would be able to get out! So we turned around to the great disappointment of all of the kids.

Today is World Malaria Day.

Today Healing Faith is starting a 7 day Campaign.

The goal of this campaign is to raise $25,000 in one week to allow Healing Faith to purchase a fully-equipped Mobile Malaria Vehicle that will allow the team to reach the villages year round. Malaria peaks during the rainy season – the time when it is the hardest for the Healing Faith team to reach the villages due to poor road conditions. This vehicle will enable them to reliably reach the villages regardless of the weather and will be a huge blessing to their ministry.

Click HERE to donate!

Every person who donates $50 will receive one of our new limited edition t-shirts!

And if that isn't incentive enough...every person who donates ANY amount, will be entered into a drawing to win not just one, but TWO tshirts!! One of our newly designed shirts, as well as one of our Logo tshirts!!

Feel free to share this blog and check out their FB page for updates! www.facebook.com/HealingFaithUganda

Rachel

Tuesday, April 1, 2014

Day 6

On day 6 we took the girls to visit a local orphanage! It is one that I have been to many times, and always recognize a few of the sweet little ones. It is always bittersweet to see them there. Bitter because they are still there, and sweet because I love getting to see their sweet faces and hug them and give them a little love.
Reagan really loved getting to hold all the sweet little ones, and it was good for her to see this side of things. At first she was really happy and playing with the kids, but then I started to see a few faces she made and was wondering what her thoughts were.

Later that evening as we were getting ready for bed, we had a talk about her day. I asked how she felt about the day, and her response was... "At first I was really happy that they had a fun place to play, and I was having fun getting to hold the babies and play with them, but then I realized that this wasn't where they just got to play, this is where they lived...and it made me really sad."
This was the response I hoped for. I wanted her to see not only the beauty of this place but the heartbreaking reality of it as well.

I was able to see Oscar as well, Oscar has a condition known as hydrocephaly and he has been there for at least the past 2 years, a little longer actually. He has always held a place in my heart:) Enjoy a couple of pictures!!

The girls learned a song!

Thursday, March 27, 2014

Day 5

On Day 5 we rested. Mostly for the girls, this was the first time taking young kids on a short term team, we were unsure how they would handle it all. So we planned to have a rest day at this point, and we headed to the Nile River Camp. This place is literally on the Nile River! It's a great spot where the Segner's have formed a friendship with the owners and they are so gracious to them, I am so thankful they have a place like this fairly close to home to take a rest day and let the kids swim and have fun. Living on the other side of the world from all of your friends and family I am sure can get very hard, so a time for rest periodically is probably such a huge blessing!
The kids swam, went on a boat ride, swam in the Nile River (don't worry this part is perfectly safe!), and Jonathan swung off the rope swing into the Nile River! It was a great time to just reflect on the past couple of days and let the girls play and experience this beautiful part of the Lord's creation! I didn't take the big camera, so my iPhone pics and instagram pics will have to do!! :)

A Go Pro shot by Jonathan

Jonathan swinging into the Nile

Jason's reaction to Jonathan's failed attempt at a back flip! haha!

The little bit of tv the girls watched while we were there

Wednesday, March 26, 2014

Day 4

Today we journeyed to the Wakisi Village. I had been to this village once before 2 years ago, I was anxious to come back and see the impact that Healing Faith has been able to have on them...and I was not disappointed!!
As we arrived we were welcomed with a few children excited to see us. Then we migrated to the Futbol field to sing songs about Jesus and play a few games with the children. It was so good to see so many children there and participating! As we finished this, Jason gathered them in front of the school in order to tell them a Bible story. He began by quizzing them about the last story he had told, and I was so excited to see them answer correctly!! Jason did such a good job keeping them engaged and relating the story to them personally. I love seeing their hearts for reaching these people for Christ, yes they are able to offer some physical healing, but their purpose is to offer the healing power of the Lord spiritually!
After doing this, Jason set up a little clinic to check some out that were needing it. There was one little boy that tested positive for malaria that day. I think it was eye opening for the girls to see what a Dr Office visit looked like there compared to home, and to see Jason test and treat this little one along with another serious wound (*****THERE IS ONE PICTURE THAT IS A LITTLE GRUSOME ON THIS BLOG, PLEASE BE CAUTIOUS WHEN/IF SHOWING YOUNG CHILDREN).
While this was going on, we were playing with the children, jumping rope, painting nails, and Reagan played with a chameleon, freaking all the kids out because they are so afraid of them! I hope you enjoy another picture filled blog!!