Greg's blog Uganda Day 5

Uganda Day 5

Today we went to church at Kapelabyong, which is also in the Teso region of Uganda. Apparently they knew that we were coming as every local leader was there, including the region’s member of parliament (aka MP) who came to greet us. These people are some of the folks who benefited from the Feed the Forgotten campaign a few months back. It was really a blessing to me to go to visit with them and meet some of the people who we had been praying for.
Vince Giordano from Children’s HopeChest was asked to preach and shared a powerful message from Psalm 91. The message was very timely and I believe that his words brought hope to all those were there. After the sermon Vince invited people who would like prayer to come down and our team along with the local pastors prayed for those in need. It was a very cool experience! There was a language barrier but somehow it all worked. Nate a Pastor at Vintage 21 in Raleigh, NC was asked to dedicate a baby, which quickly turned into 7 babies, it was a special moment and something we all will remember for a long time.
I had the opportunity to pray for a women named Grace. She was brought to me by the local pastor and because she didn’t speak English he asked on her behalf for me to pray as she had been diagnosed with a tumor and didn’t have the ~$350 needed to pay for the surgery to remove the tumor. I really felt the prompting of the Holy Spirit and began to seek more information. I knew that we had the money to pay for the surgery but I wanted to be sure that we had all the information. I prayed for her and asked the translator to remember her so that we would be able to locate her after church. Church ended and I went to find Grace. Joseph our country director and David the country sponsorship coordinator spoke with her, and after consulting with her husband and pastor decided that we would pay to have her and her family come to Soroti to see the doctor in town and asses the need. I am anxious to hear the diagnosis.
At every site we have seen the needs have been great, however this was one of the worst that I have ever seen. Through dollars that you gave we were able to provide food for 40 days for 170 orphans . I promise you it was one of the most humbling experiences of my life. Passing out food to children (some as young as 3) and having to tell them that we could only give them 7 kilos was heartbreaking! I am not sure what to do with the pain and struggles that these children live with. Thankfully we had enough to provide all of the most vulnerable children food, and we were even able to provide for several child headed households. Their stories are particularly hard and my prayer is that God will provide hope to the hopeless and provide wisdom as we look for sustainable solutions for these children.
We spent the evening at Joseph house with his family and David’s family it was wonderful to be with them to have some great Ugandan food and just enjoy being together. They are special people and have a heart for the orphans of Uganda.