Kifumbira Medical Mission 2009

Many of you have heard me talk about a fellowship that I attend in one of the slums in Kampala. Every Sunday and Tuesday evening there's a group of us that meet in a field under an avocado tree for Bible study and praise and worship.

Some of our recently added fellowship members are a few young guys who live in the slums and are students at the national hospital studying lab technology. One of the guys is the leader of a student organization called Rachel Ministries. This organization is a group of students, doctors, nurses, pharmacists, dentists who also love the Lord. They not only fellowship with each other, but organize themselves to do medical missions throughout Uganda.

They decided that since a few of them are now attending this fellowship and live in the area that this slum should be one of the areas reached. So, a joint medical mission between our fellowship under the avocado tree and Rachel Ministries was organized.

Yesterday, over 50 doctors, dentists, and pharmacists came to the slum to give medical care to over 500 people. Not only was medical care given, but the gospel was presented with many receiving Christ for the very first time. Also, it was fun to see some of the women who are served through our fellowship come out to serve others. Several of them got together and cooked a delicious lunch for the medical team as well as our team from the fellowship. They even had enough food that some of the older widows and the most desperate children were able to be fed.

This is one of the little girls I met during the mission. She is an AIDS orphan and is also suffering from AIDS. When her parents died, the girl was taken in by neighbors who are her current guardians. However, she has not been receiving any medical treatment and is not attending school. She is really sick. The doctors couldn't do much for her and referred her to the Pediatric AIDS department at the national hospital. So, I will be spending my day there tomorrow with her in hopes of getting her started on free ARVs and getting her treatment for the many sicknesses tormenting her. Then over the next few weeks I'll be watching to see if she gains enough strength to begin school.

Pray for us to not have to wait long at the hospital. Pray that she is not too sick already to start the ARVs and that she will quickly regain strength and health. Pray that she will soon be able to go to school and have a childhood as close to normal as other children.