As some of you know, last summer in Peru God gave me the wonderful opportunity to help at the local clinic in Conima every Sunday. Through my experiences there He instilled in me an excitement for medical missions that has only grown since then. Soon after returning to the U.S. I began praying about where I will serve this summer. While visiting with a couple that I look up to & love dearly, they lent me a book called Operation World that has statistics & information on every country in the world. As I read about many different countries, I wrote down the names of countries that returned to my thoughts often - countries rich with medical needs, overcome with spiritual darkness, trapped in war, infrequented by missionaries, unreached with the gospel. I wrote down the country's names on sticky notes and posted them on my bulletin board. More & more sticky notes filled my bulletin board as I read about countries like Sudan, Afghanistan, Indonesia, Morocco, Uganda, Rwanda, Iran, India, Haiti. As I prayed about the countries whose names hung above my desk, the list slowly grew smaller until 3 names remained - Sudan, Uganda, & Rwanda.
While narrowing my list of countries I was also searching by many different means for chances to use my nursing skills & love for the Lord to serve for the summer. Time after time I would get excited about a potential opportunity only to find out later that it wouldn't work out.
During my search for a God-appointed opportunity, Sara Hamilton Kiwanuka returned to her hometown in Pflugerville to raise funds for the Rafiki Africa Children's Home, an orphanage in Uganda that she & her husband started. Sara is a UMHB nursing graduate so while in the area she visited her alma mater. This visit was around the same time that advising began for spring 2011. During my advising appointment, my advisor asked me how my trip to Peru went and whether I was planning another mission trip soon. When I told her about my search for a place in Africa to serve she immediately asked, "Do you know Sara Hamilton??" She told me about Sara, gave me a brochure about Rafiki Africa Ministries, and told me I should contact her. I thought it sounded pretty cool but figured it probably wouldn't work out. Only a week later at the hospital my clinical instructor, Ms Meeker, told me she had something for me. She pulled out the same brochure and said that she thought of me when she heard about Sara & the orphanage. I thought that was a pretty weird coincident. But it got weirder when one day in class I asked Ms Hubbard about malnutrition & B12 deficiency. We got to talking about how I want to practice nursing in a third world country, and she asked me, "Have you heard of Sara Hamilton? She is doing the same thing. She has an orphanage in Uganda. I can get you one of her brochures from the nursing office if you would like." I couldn't help but laugh. Okay! I figured it was past time to contact Sara.
I found Sara on facebook and sent her a message asking if she might want any help at the orphanage over the summer. I didn't hear back for a little while and assumed that was another dead end until I returned home for Christmas break. I hadn't been on facebook for a month and had received a return message from Sara in that time. In short it said she would enjoy having help over the summer from someone with a medical background. Sara & her husband, Joseph would be in Pflugerville until the end of December so we arranged a time to meet. The meeting went wonderfully, and we got to talking for over 4 hours! After much prayer on my part as well as many others and a feeling of direct guidance from the Lord, I have decided that this is where the Lord is leading me.
I will be spending the summer in East Africa, both in the outskirts of Kampala, Uganda as well as a rural village in the Rift Valley of Kenya. I will fly to Uganda mid-May and live at Rafiki Africa Ministries Orphanage assisting Sara in attending to the children's medical needs, beginning their medical records to facilitate future adoption, and assisting with some short-term medical clinics in slum areas. On July 29 I will say farewell to Uganda and fly to Kenya where I will meet a team of fellow UMHB nursing students. Our UMHB team will then travel to a very rural village where we will host a medical clinic. We will leave Kenya and return home on August 10.
God has amazed me in how He has brought my summer plans together, and this is just the beginning!
