Put through my paces!

Thursday 23^rd April

Today I was certainly put through my paces by Rev. Pamela. We had to do a pastoral visit to Kuluva Hospital. It was not at all like our pastoral visits to hospitals at home, where a minister calls to see 1 or 2 people from their congregation. No, here you visit the whole hospital! There are 4 ‘wards’ at Kuluva. They are paediatric, medical, surgical and maternity as well as a dental wing, out patients and theatres. Each ward is actually a building of its own with 2 wards and 8 side rooms. We went first to the chaplain’s office and he showed us around each ward.

We began in paediatric. I followed Pamela into the building and she started to invite parents, in Lugbara, to gather together with their children. She spoke for a moment and then turned to me and said “Ok you give them an encouragement and then pray for them, I’ll translate”. By ‘encouragement’ she means a little sermon! No warning, no preparation, no time to get out a Bible and browse the stories. It was time to think very quickly about what scripture might be able to speak into the lives of these parents and children at this particular time, explain it and then pray. By the grace of God, he gave me the passage where the disciples are turning people away when they bring their children to Jesus and he rebukes them saying “Let the children come to me”. We talked about how it’s so important that the parents to carry their little ones to him, to pray for them constantly and especially now that they are ill, because he wants good for their lives.

We then moved around the other wards, visiting patients and their relatives in side rooms. We chatted and then I prayed with each of them. Each time we got to a main ward Pamela gathered the attention of the whole ward and their families or carers and then invited me to share another ‘encouragement’. Obviously each ward brought different illnesses and issues, ranging from broken limbs to comas to burns to full blown labour. I am so thankful to God that each time, he gave me a different story or passage to share with them. Then I prayed before leaving each ward. What really struck me is that as I was speaking or praying, the doctors and nurses were listening or had their heads bowed. One nurse came and thanked me. I was so struck by the thought that this just wouldn’t happen at home! I can’t tell you how totally exhausted I was after that. Trying to honestly intercede for someone can totally take it out of you, never mind interceding for a whole hospital! I’m sorry to say that I didn’t get any photos. The chaplain told me at the beginning that, provided the patient was happy, then I was free to get some but the visiting was so intense at times it just didn’t feel appropriate at all.

During the afternoon I got the opportunity to buy some local crafts. The people who work at my guesthouse are part of a project established and run by missionaries, where they make cards. They have to buy their own scrap material for decoration but the knives, glue and card is provided for them out of their group kitty. The cards cost 1000 shillings each which is about 30p. As soon as a card is sold, the card maker receives 500 shillings of that and the rest is put into a kitty. Every few months they receive a lump sum which is then often used to pay school fees or other big financial commitments.

This evening I was invited to a Bible Study at Canon Isaac’s house. It is for the female clergy or clergy wives to attend. We started our evening with the usual Ugandan refreshments, tea and groundnuts (peanuts). There were about 10 of us and we studied Amos 5 together, read it In Lugbara and English and then shared our insights together. As we chatted I realised how much of an issue witchdoctors still are here, and I was told some horror stories about it. So we prayed together that God would deal with those things. The floor is then open for prayer requests. They are written down and divided up so that each of us have something specific to pray for. We then pray all at the same time, out loud. I have to admit that I stopped for a wee moment just to listen, it sounded amazing. They prayed in both Lugbara and English. After our study, discussion and prayer time, we of course ate together! Someone had brought a special iced cake. It was a big deal to them and so they decided to cut it together as a group and I was able to take some photos for them. It was 10 before we left and pitch black so I had to get a torch out to make sure I didn’t break my neck on the way home.

It has been a really long tiring day but one that was totally centred around the word of God, which was just amazing!

Not long to go now!

With love from Uganda,

Danielle x