Off to Africa again!

"Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you, and behold I am with you always, to the end of the age." Matthew 28:19-20

Time to update the blog again because I'm on another trip to Africa!  I'm going with a ministry called Four Corners - they do a lot of work in Uganda and south Sudan.  They are located in Opelika, Al and have partnered with my church, BrookHills on previous mission trips.  Most of the 15 on my team go to Brookhills also and are in some type of medical field.  We have 2 pharmacists, 5 nurses/nurse practitioners, a doctor and several helpers involved in registration, triage, pharmacy teaching and vision clinic.  We plan to do 5 days of clinic in 5 villages that 4 corners has partnered with and visited previously.  

We are in route to South Sudan right now. We left Birmingham thursday morning the 14th, had a 6 hour layover in Detroit, then a 10 hour flight to Amsterdam. At this point the only glitch was someone getting stopped for hand wipes at the Birmingham security check point. We did leave Detroit about 1.5 hours late due to a mechanical issue.  This caused us to have about 25 min to run to our gate in Amsterdam and board. The airline had waited for us and we were so thankful!  We knew it would be a stretch for our bags, but it took a while for the plane to leave, so we assumed they made it too.  The flight to Uganda was about 10hrs total, but that included a stop in Kigali, Rwanda to drop off some passengers. We arrived at the Entebbe, Uganda airport about 1030pm local time (230pm CST).  After going through customs, we noticed a sign listing all of the people whose bag did not make it to Uganda - which included 24 of the 25 medical supply bags we brought.  Luckily, we packed most of our personal stuff on our carry-on backpacks, so we had what we needed for the night.  Our concern then shifted to the plans for Sat and beyond.  We were supposed to leave Uganda on Saturday morning and fly to S Sudan.  Our team leader, Patrick, worked all night to come up with a solution.  We learned the bags never made it out of Detroit and would be taking the same route thru Amsterdam and arriving late Sat night.  The airline company flying us to S Sudan graciously agreed to come in on Sunday to take us to S Sudan with our bags.  Otherwise we would have had to cancel our Monday clinic! We will have to miss Sunday worship with the local believers, but we are thankful for the solution.

So today, we have had a little adventure in Uganda.  We found a new hotel to stay at and most of us spent the afternoon at the Zoo. Apparently it is the tourist hot spot here in Entebbe.  We saw a few camel, monkeys, white rhinos, lions, ostrich, zebras and various other animals.  The weather was really nice and sunny.  The zoo and our hotel overlooks Lake Victoria which is beautiful. Even thought we want to be in S Sudan right now, we are making the most of our delay and getting a little extra rest before clinics begin.  

I am so blessed to be a part of this team and excited for what the Lord has in store for us.  I am surrounded by others that are passionate about spreading the good news of Jesus to the ends of the earth. We know that God called each of us here for this time and purpose.  Therefore He will provide us the power to enable us and receive the glory through us.  We desire to be used of God in His redemptive plan and to serve as representatives of His kingdom  by reflecting His character.  

Specific prayer requests:

-Travel mercies; That all the medical supply bags would make it through customs; favor with the S. Sudanese authorities.

-Team unity and harmony; that we will demonstrate the love of Christ in word and deed

-Sunday worship services at Okari, Mundri and Miri Kalanga; encouragement for the local believers

-Monday clinic at Matta, Tuesday Clinic at Witto, Wednesday Clinic at Buagy, Thurs clinic at Wiroh and Friday clinic at Lanyi

-Opportunities to find "Persons of Peace" among the Moru people so that the gospel will continue to be spread after we leave

Dr. Brobst's blog: 

http://www.donbrobst.com/2013/03/remember-africa/#more-4205 

Lord willing we'll be in S Sudan tomorrow thru next Saturday and will likely have no Internet access.  I'll try to keep blogging, but may not post them til I get back to Uganda.  

Thanks for sharing this journey with us and we appreciate your prayers for us, but especially for the Moru people! 

"I think the key irony of short term mission is that it turns out not to be merely the journey of thousands of miles to a distant land, but the journey to the center of our own hearts - it will invite us to a deeper work of transformation." Gordon Aeschliman

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