I was just in Uganda 4 months ago and as we were leaving our good friend Paul handed all of us a box of co-Arinate a strong antimalarial medicine. We have to many experiences with American doctors miss-diagnosing malaria and by the time they did recognize it would be so bad. I had never had malaria but after being home about 12 hours I became very sick with chills, aching joints etc. I made it through Christmas morning with the family but by noon I was sitting next to the wood stove freezing.
Long story short 36 hours later I began the treatment and have just now early Saturday morning taken my last set of pills. I can not tell you how great I feel, I just want to praise Jesus. I know this is TO MUCH INFORMATION but please bear with me. I had not urinated for over 3 days and I had been drinking 7up and water and eating dry toast only. I began to fear my kidneys may try and shut down and I was afraid to tell my wife knowing I would be off to the hospital. I know all you medical guys hear fingers on the chalk board, but honestly I was just trying to trust the Lord and press through. At about the 4 day mark normal body functions prevailed. I was so excited, telling my wife at that point, got the crossed arms and the shaking head stare. Praise God its good to be alive, to the story at hand.
During my first few hours of sickness I posted a story about Rose because it was so important I just wanted to get it from my heart out to the world. Now that I have all my faculties I will tell it again. Thanks for enduring.
I’m home from a short trip to Uganda east Africa. It was just myself and two fireball college students, Bethany Hartzler and Stacey Shaw. They would be taking video footage for a proposed orphanage. We left Kansas City on Dec 15th in a snow storm and missed our flight from Chicago. I had never been part of a missions trip without spending time together in prayer before leaving. That was what we were doing, because the girls had just finished school and drove into KC picked me up and we headed for KCI airport.
Funny thing the night before we left my wife and I had gone to wal-mart for some last minute things, when our friend Mary whom we had run into a few minutes earlier walked up and handed me some money. She said “I had to come back, the Lord spoke to me and told me to give you this money, just use it as the Lord leads.” We were so short on funds and we could not afford a hotel and after we got the news that we missed our flight I remembered the last minute gift.
The Lord knew we needed the time to pray and get on the same page and we all knew He was with us. 24 hours later we were off again to Amsterdam, then Nairobi, finally landing in Entebbe. My suitcase with all my clothes did not make the flight, but showed up on Wednesday. I think we knew with what seemed such demonic opposition, the Lord Jesus must of had a big plan.
We stayed with missionary Alma Jones and we were working with Richard and Debra Kaaya and Paul Basulawa. As we toured the Kaaya’s primary school we found about 30 out of 250 students which had not gone home for Christmas break seeing they had no home to go to. The girls began to shoot some footage while Debra began to tell us some of their stories. Bethany was drawn to a little girl in a yellow dress. Her face was stern, giving the impression that She had been through a lot considering She wasn’t much more than an infant. Here is Her story.
Rose is 3 years old and She lives with Her Mother and Grandfather. Her Mother is 15 years old and by doing the simple math we know the Mother was 12 at the time of the birth. We found out that the Mother had conceived during a rape. I will mention at this point that the Mother has mental illness. In America this would make a classic liberal case for abortion but thank God not this time. God seems to have thundered from heaven with this little girl that ALL life is precious and worth living. She truly lives up to Her name Rose. Precious Rose you have captured our hearts, you are beautiful.
We had pastor Kaaya take us to buy some food, and We delivered it to Her Grandfather. He was so grateful and began to tell us how Rose at 3 years old did the washing and cleaning, seeing that he was old and the Mother was just not mentally capable. My heart is hard, I admit it I have been all over the world and I have seen things that made me vomit, close my eyes turn away and cry, and here I was just numb, yeah numb that describes it.
The next day we took some beanie babies, bracelets and candy to the 30 orphaned children. Rose was there and we noticed She drifted off by Herself. When She was asked what was wrong, She said that She was just putting back part of the candy to share with Her Mother. What a display of love this little girl demonstrated. Finally the hardness gave way and my heart did not hold back tears, I cried. I thought how Rose was conceived in rape and hatred. I thought of the prison of emotional pain that Her mother lives with yet They are a picture of pure LOVE. Rose will serve as a reminder of how fearfully and wonderfully we are made. We are created by God, not by our circumstances, nor are we limited by them.
Abba Father this Christmas 2007 I have been given a fresh look at the gift of life and have again found it precious. Raise this precious Rose up for all to see the handy work of your creation. Let Her be a reminder that you are the Spirit of Adoption and you are the father of the fatherless and the defender of the widow. In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen
My crazy thoughts 