Uniquely Ugandan: September 2019

By Eric

Team Meeting

Earlier this month, I traveled to Malindi, Kenya for the annual World Renew (WR) East Africa Ministry Team meeting that lasted 3 days. WR has teams in Uganda, Kenya, and Tanzania, with about 8-10 staff members in each country. The meeting is a time for staff to connect with others in the region, receive updates from the WR US office, and to hear the latest policies and work that WR, as a larger organization, is in the process of taking on. As a staff of WR, I was a participant in the meeting.

East Africa Team Meeting at Malindi, Kenya

This group from the community participated in a "work for food" project funded by WR. The people dug a water catchment/shallow well to serve as a water source for the community (see picture below) and were reimbursed for their work with food by WR.

This is the water catchment/shallow well. In the center, there is a shallow well 14 feet deep.

This is one of the community gardens we visited as a group of WR staff

The 3rd day of the meeting involved us visiting four different WR projects happening near Malindi, Kenya. We visited a village savings and loan association (VSLA). WR helps facilitate many VSLA's around the world. VSLA's serve as a sounding board for many other community development projects.

This group demonstrated for us what a "typical" day at the savings and loan association works

My favorite part of the meeting was the day we visited these projects. Two of the projects were farmer field schools, where a group of farmers from a community has a plot of 2-5 acres. The farmers practice new agriculture techniques together as a group; this garden is a showcase for other farmers in the community. I also met up with an old friend! Bishop George is a leader of the Pentecostal Assemblies of God church denomination who I worked with when I was in Uganda during 2015. I hadn't seen him since that time. We had hours of inspiring conversation about development and farming during our drive from project to project.

Bishop George and myself

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A Scare

This past week we had a scare with our little baby "bubs". On Wednesday, Lauren was in Kampala for her routine 2-week checkup. The doctors thought they saw a problem and wanted to perform a minor surgical procedure, which they scheduled for 11:00 am Friday. This was a surprise and it was very alarming to us. The procedure the doctors wanted to do is not recommended in the US after 24 weeks of pregnancy (Lauren was at 25 weeks), as there is a risk of the procedure causing pre-term labor. I took the bus down to Kampala on Thursday so that I could be with Lauren for Friday. We asked some of you and friends here to pray for us. One friend from Gulu recommended getting a second opinion from a doctor they knew. When we called this doctor, the doctor said she did NOT recommend this procedure and said if things were as bad as the other doctors thought, that Lauren should fly back to the US immediately. She did give us another place we could go to get another ultrasound by someone she recommended. It was Thursday night, we had an ultrasound scheduled with this other technician at 7:00 am Friday morning, just hours before the surgery. We really did not know what to do! We prayed and went to sleep. Friday morning, we went to the second ultrasound technician. When she did a scan, she did not see anything abnormal. She told us what the others thought was a "gap" was actually just fluid. She spent a lot of time doing the scan and pointed out that things were very normal. This technician has a lot of experience, so we believed her and trusted that God was answering prayers. We called off the operation. Next week, we will go for another checkup with yet another recommended doctor to confirm that things are still continuing as normal.

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Life Updates

We plan to come back to the US on October 22nd for Lauren to give birth on Christmas Day (that's the due date). We are excited about having a break, spending the holidays with family and friends, and hopefully seeing some of you! And of course, meeting our bubs! :)

My parents have arranged a little house for us to rent while we are home for 3 months! We are so grateful to them for their work in doing that and are excited to be living about 1 mile from my parents, while also taking trips periodically to Lauren's parents 2.5 hours away in MD.

Lauren is feeling great and gets to feel "bubs" kick and move several times a day. I guess that is the advantage of being the mom. :) One funny fact, every time an ultrasound technician scans the baby, they say "this baby is active"! I guess we will have an active bubs on our hands next year!

Bubs is laughing!

Now bubs is thinking!

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Can I help?

Many times, we are bombarded with requests for money. There are many needs and challenges here, some due to real needs and problems, others due to lack of character and hard work. Sometimes, we become "hard" and forget to really respond in a Christ-like manner. However, I was encouraged this past week when Ceasar and I were out raking grass for the garden. A lady walked up to us with a baby on her back. She asked Ceasar if she could help us gather the grass in exchange for money. She needed money to take her sick baby to the hospital. Many times, people just ask for money, rather than offering to help work. I was so happy to have her help us for 45 minutes and then gave her the $1.75 it took to get to the hospital. I was so encouraged that she didn't just ask for money, but asked how she could help.