Hey Lighthouse Family!
The day finally arrived where we got to spend the day in the medical center with Dr. Paul and the staff! What an encouraging and humbling experience to be invited into life and ministry at the medical clinic on SOS campus. The medical center is an equipped facility with nurses, doctors, clinical officers (similar role as PA or NP), lab technicians, and a pharmacy. Their stated mission is “to see Christ reigning in the hearts of all people” and “to improve the health of all people through the provision of compassionate, quality healthcare that points to Christ as the ultimate Healer and Savior.”
Our morning started with the chance to sit in on a “CME” or “continuing medical education” put on by one of the nurses who works at the medical center. Dr. Paul explained that each week the staff rotates in educating one another on common diagnosis or conditions that they may see in their community. This CMEs are just one of the avenues that the center is using to train up their staff in an effort to maintain the highest quality of care as a means of demonstrating Christ’s love to the community. The other days of the week they have staff devotionals and are reading through a book together titled “Health, the Body, and the Church”.
The last thing we got to see before we started seeing patients was a gospel presentation by one of the clinical officers, Zesekiah. He shared with all of the gathered patients outside the clinic and then one of the nurses pray over them. It was so sweet to see the staffs prioritization of sharing the gospel first and foremost to remind the patients, along with their own hearts, that ultimately God saves, heals, and sustains.
The rest of the day we split up to shadow different roles at the medical center. We were all impressed by how the clinic runs like a well oiled machine with nurses greeting and triaging, clinical officers and Dr. Paul seeing patients, then the lab and pharmacy efficiently completing ordered tests and delivering prescribed medication. It was fun to see the ways that God used our different specialties to bless the community here even though we had limited discipline specific resources.
One of my favorite stories from the day was when Grace was helping out Dr. Paul as he met with patients. The clinic staff had found bags of donated reading glasses (a limited resource here in Kubamitwe) and Grace was on the spot helping get people the right strength glasses. One of the patients that they were seeing shared how it had become very difficult for her to read. Grace was able to get her a pair of readers appropriate for her eyes and the women exclaimed with joy after putting them on, “I can read my Bible again!”
The love of Christ overflowing through the staff and to the patients was so evident in the time they took to care for them with dignity and respect even though it was a busy morning. The staff was incredibly warm to us visitors and we were able to hand off all of your generous donations of medical supplies as a small gift.
We wrapped up our night meeting another of the missionary families and being invited into their home for dinner and family devotional time. In this, along with our experience at the clinic today, the constant refrain of ministry here at SOS seems to be love. I am so grateful to be a recipient of and to hopefully contribute to this beautiful culture of receiving Gods’s love that we might pour it out on others.
Thank you for your continued prayers. We head into the village tomorrow for community outreach, something Adrienne got a little taste of today, but we will leave that for the next update:)
Jenn DiBacco and Team Uganda
