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| She's flying! Being weighed before her immunisations at Kuluva Hospital this week. She loved chatting to the nurses, before they jabbed a needle in her thigh! |
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Thank you for your emails in response to our last update, we were really encouraged by various stories of thankfulness in difficult situations and uplifted by your prayers and news.
Life here has returned to the normal routines of homeschool and work, after our spell with COVID last month. |
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Ebola Outbreak in Central Uganda
>From Tom’s work perspective, all health workers in Uganda are currently living under the shadow of the threat of Ebola. The cases so far are all a long distance from us here in Arua, but the President is currently speaking as we type, quoting 58 confirmed cases and 19 confirmed deaths (with some additional cases and deaths as ‘probable’ – most likely due to Ebola). For health workers it is a particularly worrying time, with early symptoms of Ebola being identical to most of the conditions they will treat in their health facilities. Only later in the disease (after the health workers have potentially been exposed), do they develop the more severe ‘wet’ phase of the disease, with bleeding, bloody diarrhoea etc. The current virus strain is the Sudan variant, for which there is no currently-approved vaccine, although 2 vaccine candidates are arriving in Uganda shortly to begin formal testing. Whilst this variant has no vaccine currently, it also has a lower fatality rate than the Zaire strain, with 20 cases having already recovered and been discharged home. Please pray that the outbreak can be stopped over the coming month or 2 without it taking hold in the capital Kampala, and pray for God’s protection over health workers across the country, but particularly in the 5 central/western districts where case have been confirmed.
The threat of a serious Ebola outbreak has come at a time when the administrative demands of the job have also increased, so for the very short time Tom is not visiting health centres (aside from board meetings at Kuluva Hospital) but assuming no cases are confirmed in this district may soon be visiting again with appropriate precautions.
If you happen to read this in the next 12 hours, please also pray for Tom as he speaks at 4 consecutive church services (!) at Emmanuel Cathedral very close to where we live. It is St Luke’s Day in the local church calendar, a day annually given to health issues and Tom will be looking at 1 Corinthians 10:23-31 and how we can glorify God through making good food choices and caring well for our bodies. |
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| Hibiscus, cocoa, brick dust and mud tea anyone? |
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A Happy Start to the School Year
We’re thankful that the three older boys have settled well into their new school years, with very little objection to doing the work compared to at other points in our time here. Amara and Joel also join in - Amara is in her element in the middle of the chaos, trying to eat their school books and grabbing whatever stationery she can get her hands on.
It sounds cliché but these last few weeks have flown by and we’ve both felt in our separate roles here that life has been a bit relentless. Being home with five children all day, with disturbed nights has brought a familiar feeling of weariness to Verity, with limited patience to last the day. It’s a reminder that we need to rely on God’s strength and be filled with His love, to pour out on the children and others we meet in the day.
We’re very aware of the huge privilege it is to spend so much time with our children and it’s such a joy to watch them playing together, across their ages. We continue to be thankful for friends in the ex-pat community here, who we do life alongside and for the neighbourhood children who continue to play football and Lego with the boys in the afternoons. |
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| Morris, with his letter of thanks he typed for us during our visit. |
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How to Divide our Time?
Verity has continued to get out on regular walks in the neighbourhood but has been feeling increasingly keen to engage with local Ugandans on a deeper level. She’s struggled to get much beyond just greeting neighbours and chatting to the ladies at the local market and one of the ladies she had become quite close to, has moved away (wonderfully, because she has reconciled with her husband who she was previously estranged from). She’s looking forward to joining in a week-long training in Wise Choices for Life- a bible-based, life-skills and reproductive health programme for young people, at the start of November and for the potential to use this training in partnership with local schools and churches in the area.
It was a real joy for Verity and Amara to have a last-minute opportunity this morning, to visit a secondary student whom we support at his school. He’s visually impaired and Verity spent a good time with one of his teachers learning about the machines they use and ways that they study, as well as discussing how children with disabilities are viewed in the culture here. The teacher was a very inspirational, kind-hearted lady and it was really uplifting to spend some time with her.
It can at times be hard to find the balance in our separate roles, to enable us both to be engaging in reaching out to the local community. Tom’s job covers such a wide spectrum of things and his to-do list at work is never ending. The boys also need to be home-schooled and looked after full time. We would appreciate your prayers as we try to carve out some time this week, to work out how best to split our time, listening for where and how God wants to use us both in His mission here in Arua.
Over the next couple of days, we’re also looking forward to the chance to connect with Joan Busolo, the CMS Africa Director, as she comes to stay with us. |
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| This beautiful Amata Tomasina moth paid us a visit this week. |
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Not even Solomon in all his splendour was dressed like one of these...
We’ve encountered so many beautiful insects in our time here and were visited by this little beauty the other day. The detail in the design of such a tiny creature was stunning to see and reminded us of the great care God has for his creation. If he has given so much thought to the design of this little moth, how much more does he care for us, his children. We need to remember this when life here seems overwhelming and confusing and the devil has us questioning why we’re here, reminding ourselves of the scale of God’s love and care for us and the plans he has for us. Our prayer is that you would be reminded of this truth too and know afresh the depth of his great love for you.
“Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?
“And why do you worry about clothes? See how the flowers of the field grow. They do not labour or spin. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendour was dressed like one of these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith?
Matthew 6:25-30 NIV
Blessings
Verity, Tom, Ezra, Eli, Simeon, Joel and Amara |
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