Global Aid Network Mission Reports

As reported by Rick & Kathy R:

“Water, Water, everywhere but not a drop to drink”…  Can you imagine drinking surface water found on the side of a dirt road?  Or what about a getting a drink from a river or creek that also collects run off from farm animals?  These are only a few examples of how many of the people of Uganda get their drinking water.  Is it any wonder that the life expectancy in Uganda is one of the lowest in the world.  A major contributor to poor health is bad water.  On this trip our team had the opportunity to literally “get our feet wet” in helping to educate the local village people around Noah’s Ark the importance of drinking good water. 

First we started by testing their available water sources.  As you can see in a couple of the attached pictures the water test definitely showed that the water sources were very inadequate for human consumption.  But we didn’t stop there.  We also brought them water filters and taught them how to use and maintain them.

Oh! By the way, did I tell you that while we were working with the water filters, Pita received a call that another baby approximately one year old was abandoned and was picked up by the police and was in need of a home?  Several hours later we were introduce to baby number 107.  They named her Bernice.

Being here and seeing how God uses this Godly couple is a very humbling experience.  I guess the slogan for Noah’s Ark says it all…” From a nobody to a somebody”.

As reported by Rick & Kathy R:

 Tuesday and Wednesday the team spent both days teaching hygiene and sanitation to the teachers and children at New Horizons Primary School.  This was another first for our team.  Prior to leaving the USA our team had received the GAiN Hygiene and Sanitation Notebook for review and on Monday evening our team went through the selected modules that we were to present.  During the training on Tuesday and Wednesday we had the opportunity to use pictures, games and songs to illustrate proper hygiene habits.  In addition, we demonstrated the water filters systems we will be installing I homes.   Both the teachers and the children participated and even the next day they were singing the songs they had learned about the importance of proper hygiene.  In each classroom after the hygiene training the gospel message was presented and several made decisions to follow Christ.  What a blessing it is to be here in Uganda and experience the heartfelt thankfulness that these people demonstrate toward us.  We came to Uganda to be a blessing to them but we will leave Uganda having been blessed.

As reported by Rick & Kathy R: 

Greetings from Uganda!

The remaining part of the team arrived at Entebbe on Sunday afternoon.  After another 2 ½ hour drive back to Noah’s Ark met up with the advance team.  That evening the team shared a meal with Piet and Pita and heard a short overview of how Noah’s Ark began.  On Monday the team had a special treat.  The previous week the children at the primary school (ages 5-12) had been learning of their Ugandan heritage.  The students along with their parents had decorated their classrooms and the parents had contributed cultural items so the students could learn about their heritage and culture.  As our team rotated from classroom to classroom they learned about Ugandan dress, music, herbal remedies,  weaving to make baskets, ropes and mats, a model of a typical family compound and even a sampling of traditional food and dance performed by the parents.  It was quite amazing the amount of work they had put forth.  That evening it was another birthday! Ester had turned three.  So it was cake and with a little help from the GAiN team ICE CREAM!  A real treat here.

More to come!

Rick and Kathy

Reported by Rick & Kathy R.: 

Greetings from Uganda!

The advance team left JFK airport on Tuesday April 28^th at 11:00 PM bound for Entebbe, Uganda with an overnight stopover in Dubai.  The team had the opportunity to fly the first leg of the trip on the Airbus 380 the largest commercial aircraft today.  This was a first for all of us.  From the starlit ceiling when the cabin lights dimmed to the sound of chirping birds when the cabin lights simulated sunrise this aircraft was truly state of the art.  After the overnight in Dubai we arrived in Entebbe at 2:45 PM on Thursday April 30^th.  We were greeted at the airport by Pieter B. the founder of Noah’s Ark and Brad S.  Brad was a volunteer that came with us last year and felt called to relocate and work at Noah’s Ark.

 After a two hour trip by car from the airport in Entebbe passing through the capital city of Kampala we arrived at Noah’s Ark Children’s Home.  We were greeted by the children calling out “Auntie…Uncle..!”  Within seconds everyone had a child in their lap giving and receiving hugs.

Friday we spent most of the day making preparation for our ministry days.  Saturday was another day filled with the experience of shopping for the grocery items for the team as well as traveling though out the area trying to find a simple rubber hose to attach to a propane tank.  Just the simple task of grocery shopping and purchasing a six foot piece of rubber hose reminded us how difficult life is in a third world country. 

Saturday evening our team had dinner with the children.  It was a special time… a birthday celebration.  At Noah’s Ark every birthday is a BIG DEAL!  This evening was no different.  The honoree was Reny a Dutch woman who had been at Noah’s Ark for the past seven months helping care for the children.  When I asked Reny how long she planned to stay …she replied, “ I don’t know”.

It was close to the end of the birthday celebration when in walked Pita with a new member of the Noah’s Ark family.  Earlier in the day the Kampala police had called Noah’s Ark to ask if they could come and pickup a four month old baby boy whose mother had died from AIDS and father was also on his death bed.  Pita returned several hours later with the baby boy.  This brought the number of children to 106.  Pita introduced the new baby to everyone at the end of the birthday party.  Pita said that is name would be Isaiah meaning “God is My Salvation”.

All of this and we had only been here for a couple of days…More to come.

Reported by Marilyn E:

What you see first are brown curls bobbing as the small girl bounces from place to place, dancing to a melody only she can hear. Then you see the adhesive patch over her right eye and—observing more closely—the nearly white left eyeball. She is one of the 40 children from a school for the blind who unexpectedly arrived at today’s vision clinic. (We learned later that this precious little girl lost the sight in the one eye due to cancer and it is very likely that the disease is spreading to the other.) We’re still not exactly sure why they came—perhaps they heard that dental care might also be available—but once they arrived, we scrambled to gather enough information to offer what we could. In most cases we could do very little except offer our love in the form of hugs and small candies, even as we struggled to hide tears at this tragic situation. Two of our dentists left their posts to play their guitars and sing for the children. You didn’t need eyes to sense love.

One small boy who in North America would be legally blind, was examined and fitted with the strongest lenses in our supply thus enabling him to make out dim shadows across the room. His brilliant smile could not be hidden as his friends and teachers greeted him with applause.

This is why we came.

Reported by Bob E.:   

Our registration records prove that over 1000 children received personal attention in the vision and dental clinics over the past 24 hours, but numbers cannot describe the joy in the hearts of Global Aid Network team members who hugged and smiled, tested small eyes, comforted and treated frightened dental patients, made eyeglasses and offered healthy teeth and vision instruction.

Words of the textbook are now visible to a little girl, and several small boys with rotting teeth are finally without pain after the American dentist extracted this cause of potential disease. A woman in beautiful national dress hugs a Global Aid Network worker who assures her that her daughter’s glasses will allow her to clearly see a sunset.

Busses were almost two hours late this morning; how would we get everything done with such a delay? What was delay to us was God’s appointment time. Dr. Tony, one of our optometrists, had this extended and uninterrupted time to answer deeply the spiritual questions initiated by several interpreters.

Our bodies are weary and sleep beckons. Tomorrow will be full with more opportunities to serve.

Before going to breakfast this morning, that all team members arrived safely with no missing luggage and eager to get underway. After checking in to our rooms, we were taken to lunch on the beach, then back to the school to for orientation and to begin setting up for the clinics. We will have a short time of “sharing” together mid-morning, then to lunch and back to the school to finish setting up for the opening of the clinics tomorrow a.m.

The dentists and doctors on our team have made plans for dental clinic, cleft lip surgeries, and vision clinics for the week.  It is expected that fourteen patients, mostly young children will receive surgeries primarily for cleft lip. 

It appears that we have sufficient interpreters this year, which, of course, is a critical issue.

Communication with our local hosts about starting the clinics tomorrow in an efficient and smooth flowing manner is greatly appreciated. The large size of our team, the number of work stations, and the number of students we are scheduled to see this week have potential for producing a certain level of chaos, but with proper planning we hope to reduce that element to the very minimum!

From a June 26 report submitted by one of our ministry partners in Zimbabwe:

Greetings in the name of the Lord.  I trust our good Lord is keeping you strong by His grace.

Two days ago I returned from Zimbabwe. I went there to register a humanitarian development program, and to appoint leaders for this program as well [and others in] our ministry.  We want to help meet the physical and spiritual needs of the suffering people.  In partnership with GAiN-USA, we have been involved in humanitarian projects for the last four years through distributing food, seeds, fertilizers, school materials, and so on.  As a result, the Lord is using our ministry to plant hundreds of churches.

But the condition in the country is not good.  One American dollar is exchanged at 25 billion Zimbabwe dollars.  If you have $40, that is one trillion. I don’t think you can buy even a chewing gum with one billion.  When I arrived at the airport at 9 PM on Sunday, the airport was unusually quiet.  About 40% of the electric [light] bulbs at the terminal are out.  Most of the street lights are not working.  Except for some patrolling police, I did not see people walking in the streets, even in the downtown.

     I was told that groups of youth roam the streets, and if a person is stopped and cannot recite the ZANU-PF slogan or sing the party song the right way, they are put in jail. In some areas, if people are found walking they were forced to attend Mr. Mugabe’s rallies for hours.

The country used to be very beautiful: the purple jacaranda flowers, hard-working and friendly people, one of the best infrastructures in Africa, wonderful climate and fertile soil, best education in Africa, and even Mr. Mugabe was known as one of the best leaders in Africa.

But now, due to rigid policies, wrong decisions, lack of accountability, and arrogance, things have completely changed for bad. Many people live in fear and have lost hope. They are only waiting for God’s intervention. As the people go out to vote (there is nothing to vote) tomorrow, June 27, please pray for God to reign in the country, for peace, and for justice.

Our ministry workers are generally ok except one volunteer and several film-team members who have been put in jail for the night and released because they were stopped in the street for they were not able to recite ZANU’s slogans.

However, God is doing great things. There are many stories of God’s grace to tell. This is just one of them:

Matthew is one of the film team members in Zimbabwe. He planted a church in Hurungwe in 2006 using a film about Jesus. Since then he focused on training and building-up new believers. The people who were trained were then put into eight groups, and each group was asked to plant a church. As a result, 17 more churches have been planted in the area.

Our ministry in Zimbabwe is one of the fast-growing ministries in Africa.

Below are three glimpses into some of what is happening through the North Africa team:His eyes had been tested and glasses prescribed. The small boy sat in front of Jim, a retiree who has committed his life to trips such as this one. After Jim placed the corrective lenses in the Harry Potter-like round eyeglasses and fit them to the child’s face, he looked up in wonder at Jim…and then placed a big, wet kiss on Jim’s forehead. A kiss implanted forever in Jim’s heart.

DAY ONE:
Tired but rejoicing. We checked approximately 300 children for vision needs. Unfortunately we had some mix-up in record keeping re those who needed glasses so don’t have an exact count, but made some executive decisions to get that straightened out. We now have a flow chart that will help everyone—local volunteers as well as the GAiN team—keep better records and control. However I’m told by some who have been on the project in the past, that this was the least chaotic first day they’ve experienced.

We had a number of university students, and a few high school students, serving as translators. The university students, especially, were terrific. We had a couple of dental students/interns who examined all of the students, noting those who needed the most care. We were told, rightfully, that students’ parents must give permission before any dental work could be done, so there was concern that they might not be able to treat any students until Tuesday. As it turns out, a number of parents were present so the dentists were busy the whole day.

The surgical team repaired two cleft lips, one a 3-month old whose parents drove four hours from a neighboring country to get to the hospital. The second child was 6-months; his parents had walked three hours to the hospital. Surgery went very well on both.

We don’t have a very good internet connection so reporting may be sporadic.

DAY TWO:
Swimming in kids today! Several eye issues addressed. One young boy with 20/350 vision (didn’t even know that was possible!) walked out wide eyed, seeing and smiling. The mother couldn’t stop hugging little Marti (who had made and fit the boy’s glasses) before leaving the room.

Two more serious surgeries accomplished by the doctors, but all seems to have gone well. Dr. Rizzuti was called back to the hospital tonight; pray that all healing is complete. (Update: needed mostly to reassure parents that everything is normal.)

Dentists were nearly overrun with children! Finally decided to send only the most serious cases to our over worked crew and even with that, the team arrived back in the staff room almost 2 hours after everyone else.

Two of our crew–musically talented guys–had 50 kids uproariously singing E-E-E-I-O and Do Re Me and the Mickey Mouse Club Song!

Pray for more interpreters & other support personnel (go-fers), good relationships with school personnel.

The team is gracious, hard working, positive and fun!