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:

Jackie Tinnell

Howdy!! My name is Jackie and I am a full time student at Texas A&M University WHOOP! Along with being a full time student I am also the Children's Ministry Assistant at Brazos Fellowship Church, working with children is something that I have always loved to do. I am married to a wonderful Godly man (Albert) who has filled my life with so many blessings. I am also a mother of three precious girls ages 3 (Aven), 13 (Hailey), and 15 (Chelsea). I am also blessed to have five amazing step children ages 15 (Samantha), 16 (Caleb), 18 (Brittney), 19 (Isaac) and 20 (Andrew). It has been on my heart for many years to go on a mission trip, well this year I get the opportunity!! God has provided me with the strength, support and love of so many people and I cannot wait to share his love with others in Africa. I know He has HUGE plans for our team and I cannot wait to see what they will be!

My husband and I!

Our little princess Aven Marie!

Hailey Ann

Chelsea Lynn

Old Picture, only one with all the kiddos but Little A she did not arrive till a few weeks after this picture was taken. From Left to Right Isaac, Chelsea, Me, Hailey, Albert, Samantha, Caleb, Brittney, and Andrew!

The Starks - Better Late Than Never

Kristi and I are so excited to be going on this trip with the Brazos Fellowship team.  Not only are we getting to go and serve with an amazing group of people; but we’re also getting to go and see our dear friends, Jason and Kari Segner, a.k.a. “The Segnets.” 

Kristi and I have two amazing daughters, Abby & Avery.  They are a ton of fun and it has been amazing to see them grow and develop.  We feel truly blessed to be alive at this moment in time and to be living in this country.  When our girls are sick, we can go to one of the many pediatricians in our community.  We have at least four pharmacy options within one square mile of our house.  Life’s little bumps and bruises are simply not that big of a deal here at home.  Unfortunately, that’s not true in most parts of Africa.

That’s why Kristi and I are going.  That’s why Kristi and I are so proud to support Healing Faith and the ministry that God has put on Jason and Kari’s heart.  I truly believe that the work Healing Faith is doing is making an immediate and eternal difference in the lives of the people of Africa.  To be able to go to Jinja, and to see in person the work that God is doing in and through Healing Faith is such a privilege.  I can’t wait to see what God has planned for our team and our friends. 

 

Until next time…

Jonathan Stark