Our Day with Welcome Home

Yesterday we were able to visit a ministry called Welcome Home. Its a wonderful orphanage that is ran by a wonderful lady named Mandy. She has put this amazing place together for all these children who need homes and teaches them through school and the Lord. There was about 74 children in the orphanage ranging from infant to 8 years of age. 
We were welcomed and given a tour of the place. Then we split up and went to different rooms and classes. From there we got to see first hand what they do there and how the children learn. The class that I went to first they told the children a story of how God created the world. As they told the story the kids were clinging and wanting to be pick up. Mandy had told us from the beginning not to give our attention to just one child because they well wear us out and its not fair. We were also told not to take pictures or tell stories of the children out of respect for they're lives. As I remember this I try to put the little girl down that I was holding and she starts crying and clinching harder. I felt bad but I still put her down. I tried giving my attention to others. Noticing that most of them did cry when we put them down. Then we went to another class where they taught them songs and using visual aid to teach them numbers and what things are called. We then learned they also teach them other languages such as Dutch because they have Dutch people interested in adopting them. So they can know the language before they move with they're new parents. We got to play with the little babies that were just learned to crawl and walk. from this point we went to toddlers class. this where they wanted us to sing to them some songs while they waited for their lunch. These kids were so smart they would drink out of glasses and not spill. They would eat an entire bowl of food with a spoon and yet did not talk much at all yet. So amazing to see how well developed they're skills were. 
The teachers put the kids down for a nap and then showed us all their crafts that they made. So we were able to shop and buy from them. they also fed us lunch which was so sweet of them.
We then went on to the visit the children's hospital there in Jinja. We were all shocked at how poorly kept everything was there. The moms of the children are expected to take care of them by feeding them, bathing them and bring their own linens and wash them while staying there, and also keep up with the medication the doctors give them. The rooms were over crowded with multiple people to a bed and over 20 to a small room. With needles for push pins on the bulletin board and trash everywhere it was hard to take in. 
We all went back to Welcome Home where we then got to play with the older kids who had gotten out of school. We spent the rest of the afternoon with the kids playing. 
It was an awesome blessed day to see, learn, and love on all the children.

Our God is Stronger

In this post I am going to try and give a perspective that I feel God wants us to have when seeing the pictures you have seen of everything happening on this trip, hearing the stories of the poverty and the lives of the people of Jinja. I also want to lift up Healing Faith and Imani Tumaini Upendo and try to express to you the tremendous impact these organizations are making in our world. I am not a seminary graduate, I am not someone who believes himself better than anyone, if there is anything I know for a fact it is that I love my wife and that we are so thankful to be children of the Lord and thankful for His grace and mercy.

Seeing the lifestyle here first hand has opened my eyes to what is here, it is hard to really know until you walk the villages and talk to the people. These people live like nothing I have ever seen back home. I know there are people who live in poverty back home, but it is not like this. And even those that live in tremendous poverty back home still have access to much more than these people do. In USA we have access to a much higher quality of education, water, health care, safety, food, shelter, security, etc. than they do here in Jinja. Regardless of your stance on these items individually, this is a fact.

When is the last time you had to walk 3 miles just for water? On top of that, it is contaminated and will give you worms in your stomach after drinking it. Or when was the last time you stayed anywhere that did not have power for miles and miles and the only form of lighting at night was candles? Or worked a full day for $1? These are just a few examples but there are many more. Some that would make you sick to your stomach.

Let me now transition to some lyrics from a song you might recognize…“Our God is greater, our God is stronger, God you are higher than any other, our God is healer, awesome in power, our God….our God. And if our God is for us, then who could ever stop us, and if our God is with us then what can stand against?“ (read those lyrics one more time and soak them in…say them out loud if it helps) These are lyrics from a Chris Tomlin song, chances are you have worshiped to it. This song is using our words to express how grand our God is, but do we really believe this? I only ask this because when seeing the situation here it is very easy to be overwhelmingly emotional, sad and even think “how could we live in a world (subconsciously knowing created by our God) that has people living this way?” Let me ask this another way, ask yourself…”do I really believe that God is working in all circumstances for His glory?” I want to reference a scripture at this time:

Colossians 3:1-4

3 Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. 2 Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. 3 For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. 4 When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.

We have to wrap our minds around this truth. This is not life, our life is hidden away with God. That is true life. Right now God has put us on this earth for a very short, and temporary time. We can’t forget that God is in process through all things.

With this being said, ask yourself again… “do I really believe what God says…do I really believe that God is working in all circumstances for His glory?” If you don’t see this life as a short, temporary life which is a tiny part of an enormously eternal life with God, I challenge you to do so. I am also challenging myself as I write this. If you don’t trust that He is at work in difficult and overwhelming emotionally sad circumstances, I challenge you to do so. It is hard, I know, but He wants us to understand this.

I want to finish with sharing how much I respect and admire the Segner family for answering the call that God gave them and moving their family to Jinja and truly impacting the people here. In the action of selling all of their possessions and moving here alone I knew they had done something radical.  But now, after spending a week with them and actually seeing the works they are doing (all in the name of the Lord and not for themselves) I am very moved. Their kids are 2(Pierce), 4(Hadlee), 5(Everett), and 7(Karson)…wow…would you do this if God called you? Jason and Keri Segner are truly “healing” the people of Jinja, not just physically, but spiritually as well.

-Charlie Lima

One Drop at a Time

I heard the analogy: "Treating the sick and hurting in Africa is like trying to drain the ocean with an eye dropper."  I must admit that the hopelessness in this statement so perfectly described how I felt as we were driving to Jinja from the Entebbe airport (that drive is an adventure in and of itself - a story that someone needs to tell.  Maybe later...).  Charlie Lima perfectly described the scenes witnessed driving through the small communities that line the highway as "instant replay of one huge tragedy." Like the mile markers on the Texas roads back home, the highway here, over and over and over again, is dotted with communities that are fully engulfed by the urgency of the African plight.  Yet despite all of this, the Segners are here.  Healing Faith is here.  Despite this hopelessness, we embark into the villages. Today we went to the Wakisi village, mostly comprised of orphans, many of whom's parents have been lost to AIDS. This village has around 150 kiddos.  The elders of the village must be outnumbered by the kids 10 to 1.  We de-wormed the kids and treated many of them for jiggers (a nasty little mite that burrows into the feet and lays a large ,worm-like egg sack).  All the while, Jason Segner treated the elders in the village for injuries and diseases, including common colds (not so common here as many will die from the infection), eye infections, malaria, a foot that wandered into the path of a swinging axe, chicken pox, and even leprosy.   Despite the witnessed joy that our visit brought to the village, despite the witnessed medical care provided by Jason, despite the laughter heard as the children played and danced with the rest of the team, my hopelessness lingered.  I wondered, will the villagers take the medicine provided by Healing Faith? Will they follow the simple instructions from Jason to drink more water?  Will they clean their wounds and properly re-bandage afterwards...?   After the chaos, Jason Segner smiles and tells me that the village looks so much better.  I learned that he had been there a few weeks before and had treated most of the elders for an upper respiratory infection that had spread through their ranks.  Jason was happy to report that that infection seemed largely cured.  The elders took their medicine, followed his advice, and got better.  Hopelessness gone. Maybe treating the sick and hurting in Africa is like trying to drain the ocean with an eye dropper.  If so, Jason and Kari Segner and their ministry Healing Faith have a firm grip on the eye dropper.  Each village visit may remove but a few drops of this ocean; but today I saw with my own eyes that the hurt feel better, the sick are healed, and the laughter is contagious.  I feel so blessed to be here and to be a part of what God is doing in and through the Segners and Healing Faith. Hopelessness be gone!  There's no room for you in God's army! Jonathan Stark

Visit to Lombogo Village

What an amazing day! We were blessed with an opportunity to assist Kari and Jason with a partnership they have with Welcome Home - another ministry here in Jinja - to visit a local village about an hour outside of the the main part of Jinja. We were all very excited about our visit to Lombogo Village, and as we closed our debriefing tonight, I am reminded again about the many blessings and opportunities the Lord provided us today!

As you can see, I was only a little excited for our day to start...

We arrived in the village around 10:30 this morning and were welcomed with a beautiful ceremony from the kids. They had practiced several songs and chants for us to tell us how much they loved Jesus and how glad they were that we were here! The staff at Welcome Home had worked with them to get their welcome ready for us, and it was a huge blessing and a humbling experience to see how much time and energy must have gone into that!

One of the Welcome Home staff members, leading the children in songs, chants, and prayers!

Once the welcome was done, everyone on our team introduced ourselves, and the children and adults who were there were so excited for each of us to be there. We, then, pretty immediately got to work on several different tasks -- giving all the children (approximately 300 in this village) de-worming tablets, washing and checking many of the children's feet for jiggers, and playing (jump rope and soccer, or futbol) and singing songs with the kids.

Dawson, leading the kids and us in a time of songs and worship!

Jump rope is an intense form of entertainment!  :)

Overall, it was pretty amazing to see how tough these kids are! Each child over the age of 1 or 2 (depending on their size) had to take anywhere between 3 and 5 tablets to assist with getting rid of their worms. I'll be honest -- these pills did NOT taste good...not that I tried them...but you could totally tell by the look on some of their faces. That being said, they were COMPLETELY trusting of us and what we were giving them and asking them to do -- kula (chew) and mesa (swallow) {I probably did not spell these words correctly...but our wi-fi connection isn't as awesome as in the states so I'm unable to simultaneously google the correct spelling in Swahili -- this village was a mixed-tribe village that spoke mostly Swahili}. Each child was marked with a heart or a cross so we could keep track of who had already received the medicine.

Jonathan and me, giving de-worming tablets to children

Jenny, prepping de-worming tablets for us to distribute

While some of us were giving children tablets, others were washing the feet of children so they could be checked for jiggers. To learn more about jiggers, feel free to google or wikipedia it (still can't pull up another tab). They are somewhat similar to the chiggers we know in Texas...but worse -- more painful and cause larger infestations and often infections. Luckily, this village didn't have a big jigger problem...but the village we are visiting tomorrow does, so blog readers will get to read a lot more about removing jiggers tomorrow...so stay tuned!!

Tressie, washing children's feet!

Kari Segner, taking care of jigger checks and removal

Here are a few other photos from today...

Dawson and his new friend Edgar

Charlie chatted with a few of the village men, with the help of Alex from Welcome Home who translated

3 of Jason and Kari's kids - Carson, Everett, and Hadley - joined us for the day! They all were a great help! Here's Everett with his sweet smile!

This was definitely an impactful day for us! We learned so much about the love, excitement, and compassion of this community. They were so appreciative of our visit, and we were so appreciative of the love they showed us -- through song, time, and conversation (even though it was somewhat limited by our language barrier). And to think, this was only our first actual day "on the ground" here in Uganda! God is definitely up to BIG things here -- with Healing Faith, all the ministries the Segners are partnering with, and with so many other teams and ministries in this area! It is a true blessing that the Lord  has chosen us to help do His work and show His love to others!

Lots of love all the way from Uganda! Please keep us in your prayers each and every day! We need all the love, prayer, and support we can get!

In Him,

Abby

Well, WE MADE IT!!  We are sitting in Arise Africa Guest House resting until dinner.  I am so overwhelmed with emotion at this amazing journey we have begun.  So far the trip has been fairly easy, however there was a bump in the road!
Katie and Buck are not here just yet, they decided to fly from Ft Worth to Houston and connect with us there instead of having to drive.  Unfortunately the weather was bad and their flight was delayed!  They got on an earlier flight, however their baggage didn't make it, so by the time they figured out what to do about that they missed the check in for our flight.  Thankfully this airline was so accommodating and nice that they moved them to the exact itinerary just a day later.  Please pray for them because we were boarding the plane as they told us they weren't going to make it and I was unable to give them specific instructions.  Katie has traveled quite extensively so I know she has an idea of what to do, and above all I know the Lord has them in His palm.
The flight from Houston to Dubai was LOOOONGGG!! 14 hours!  We were all ready to get off that plane when it landed!  The airport was so nice!  All of the clocks on the walls were Rolex!
We found the shuttle we needed to get on and waited for it to get there, then we walked outside.....suffocation!!!  It was hotter than any Texas summer and Dubai beat the Texas humidity by a long shot!!  Seriously felt like we were swimming! lol!
The hotel was really nice! We checked in (which was a crazy long process!) then went to dinner!  We thought about taking a taxi (which was a mercedes btw! crazy!) but he wanted to take us on a tour, and we were all exhausted and hungry.  We found a really nice place to eat right across the street from the hotel and literally walked for 2 minutes and I was so sticky!  But the place was beautiful, the food was good, we stuck out like sore thumbs cause we sat in the non smoking and didn't partake in the hookah, and cool thing there was a live band!  We didn't realize it till he stopped singing halfway thru our dinner cause he was in with the smokers, but it was cool!
We woke up early had breakfast and then jumped on the shuttle to the airport, ran to find our gate, got there and 20minutes later we boarded!
This flight was much shorter, only 4 hours and 45 minutes! We got off got our visas and then had the awesome job of getting 21 bags!  We got em all, didn't have any problems the whole time with customs and walked outside to meet up with Jason, Kari, Jonathan and the Skows! Yay!!
Got to go grocery shopping and got to see Kari in action bargaining for the exchange rate, and then began the long bus ride to Arise!
When we got here, we unloaded all the luggage and whoops! We accidentally took someones bag! We were only supposed to take 21 bags but accidentally took 22! Sooo we will hopfully be able to send that back with the guy picking Katie and Buck up.
Ok, I know that was long, but I covered alot!  I don't have time to upload any pics right now, some of us have put some on Facebook.  But we will be uploading some tomorrow I am sure!
Love you all and thank you for your continued prayers!!

~~Rachel

It's finally here! We are at the airport about to board the plane to Dubai. It feels so surreal. Abby and I were talking on the drive to Houston about how ready we are to get to Jinja and serve His people. So far we've had a lot of time to talk about how we feel about leaving the country and it's been a great way for us to get to know each other a little better and get to know each others hearts. Please continue to pray for us as we travel! Thanks so much! Tressie

Katie & Buck

Hi guys! We are probably the biggest procrastinators of the group; we're blogging for the first time and also finishing up our packing tonight before we leave tomorrow :) Who would have thought you would need about 50 trips to Wal-Mart and Target to get the supplies for a 2 week trip? We love God, we love Brazos Fellowship, we love the Segners, and we love Africa! For all those reasons we are very excited to be going on this trip (our first time to serve abroad together too, which is neat). Hopefully we'll be able to do some good, show some love, and be used by God, but all in all we will probably be more blessed by the people we're serving than they are- God made a bunch of beautiful people when He created Africa! Can't wait to get there! ....and whoever is reading this, we REALLY appreciate the prayers! Its a special and humbling feeling, experiencing the hedge of protection that God puts around you, and knowing its the direct result of so many amazing people's prayers! ....Here's us: