Pastor's Blog
A Humble Wake-up Call Posted 3.11.2010
This is one week I am glad to have in my rearview mirror. As I write I am seeing “normal” on the horizon for the first time in a while. It is nice to feel decent for a change, I am hoping it continues. This week, I couldn’t help but let my mind wander to rural Uganda. That’s the place where I could put a face on what I’m thinking, I could have thought of just about anywhere in the world. Suffering is universal. Sub par medical care is just about universal. What do those folks do?
With my mini-ordeal behind me, I emerge ready to recruit for the medical mission in Bombo. Are you free in late August? Yes, it is a long plane ride (or two). Yes, it will take some investment of your travel dollars. Yes, I understand that you may not have a medical background. But we do need everyone. Everyone. If you can hold a hand and pray. If you can take a blood pressure. If you can inventory supplies. If you can walk a patient to a doctor. If you can diagnose scabies. If you can administer anesthesia. If you can wash a wound or pull a tooth or label a prescription – there is a place for you in Bombo.
Of course we always need quality medical professionals, but the team is bigger than that. We need folks who can have some compassion and not bring answers to Bombo. People who bring a listening ear and open eyes to discover the work God is doing there already.
But you have to be willing to get exhausted. And dirty. You have to have some shots. You have to work with a team. You have to eat different food and sleep in a dingy room. You have to go with the flow of Ugandan life. You have to be a good guest.
Bombo Pentecostal Church is doing a fabulous work in that community. We are their tool. They are not our tool. We listen to them. We do what they want. We serve them. After we leave, they will pay the price for living for Jesus among a Muslim population not all that thrilled with a healthy Christian church in their midst.
Medically, we cannot cure everything. In fact, there are many things that can’t be cured in a week-long clinic. But we can influence and teach and love the people. We promote hygiene. We model Jesus. But the reality is that we learn more than we teach. We grow more than we give.
So will you go? OK, will you at least think about it and pray about it? As I laid in bed this week, I couldn’t help but wonder what my friends in Uganda would do in my condition. I have to go. We have to go. Even if we help just one. May the compassion of Jesus fill our lives and lead us to make a difference – somewhere in our world.
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