Our last day at Kangulumira Health Centre 4 and although we had had two deliveries the day before (they’d had 9 total for the day…crazy!) we were all praying for one last delivery.

You see it was our last day of ministry for the 2011 Birth Attendant School.

We arrived and right on our heals was Fauza. She was acting in a way that made me think it might be urgent to check her so I called Meghann to check her before we even changed into our uniforms.

Joy of all joys – only a lip of cervix on the right side. A fat lip though – and a bit unusual – but nevertheless – we expected a delivery. Hooray!

We changed and prayed. We thanked God for Fauza and prayed safety over her and the bub.

Meghann walked with Fauza for nearly 40 mins before Fauza seemed to be starting to push. This was her third pregnancy – …the first had gone fine and she’d delivered fine. The second she’d had some sort of an obstruction and had needed a c-section. Sadly the baby had died.

So here we were excitedly hoping it was time to push. Just as we were deciding to move Fauza into the delivery room – the midwife Dianah arrived for her shift. She checks everyone when she arrives so, of course, she checked Fauza.

The lip of cervix was still there and it was starting to swell. Warning bells went off in my head. This is bad news for mum, bad news for bub and bad news for one final delivery.

We prayed. We helped her breathe. We prayed some more.

An hour passed and Dianah instructed me to check her again.

I found the biggest, most swollen lip of cervix I’ve ever felt – more than 3cm thick. I told Dianah – who decreed that Fauza needed to be referred. I whole heartedly agreed.

Then we began the hurry up and wait game. We told her family – who sent for her husband – who since He’s a good muslim – was at prayer. He’d come after.

Fauza started to bleed. Not a lot – but no bleeding in labour is good. The baby’s heartrate stayed good.

We prayed.

Dianah suddenly decided she would try giving Misprostyl (and happened to have some). She gave it. We prayed – Fauza breathed.

Now at this point the story gets a bit sticky because nothing was translated. Basically – Fauza’s family got mad at Dianah and started yelling at her – while we were all standing in the delivery room. I have no idea what was happening or why everyone was so upset but I can tell you the tension in the room was horrible.

After 20 mins – still no husband – so still no transfer. Dianah checks Fauza again and happily cries out, “my drug is working!” (I’ll save my distress at the lack of sterile or even clean technique for another day).

Praise Jesus! We keep praying and after a few minutes Dianah declares the cervix to be gone and Fauza to be fully dialated.

Now comes the pushing – things are still horrible between the family and Dianah. Fauza is tired – and Dianah is determined to see her baby come. I’ll skip the details but suffice to say at a few minutes before 1pm a baby boy is born.

He’s sluggish and slow to wake up (takes a bit of resuss) but eventually he cries.

Everyone takes a deep breath and we thank God for his life.

Moments later another woman rushes in saying she’s ready to deliver. As I check her Dianah comes over and tells me:

“It’s my baby.” Confused I ask her what on earth she’s talking about. So she explains, “they don’t want the baby so they said I could have it”. Dianah is THRILLED. She told me the day before how much she wants a baby (in fact she told me I should have one so she could have it…) and now here is a family offering her a baby.

Stunned I tell her congratulations. Then I ask her what she’ll name him. She grins and says to me, “you pick. what should I name him?”

I laugh and pray and ask God and the first name I hear is, “Harold”. The other girls in the room laugh and Dianah looks at me strangely and tries to say Harold. “Hair-ol?” I repeat it a few times and she starts to get the hang of it…Harold.

She takes Harold to Fauza to breast feed and she and the family are suddenly alright.

I don’t know if she really gets to keep Harold or not (or if that will really be his name) – but I know I won’t forget him (or his mum…or Dianah…or that day).

ps. Harold means “leader of an army”

Category: BAS, Birth Stories by Rachel, on 20 May 2012 at 3:56 No Comments yet, we would love to hear from you. »

For approximately 9 weeks now I’ve been in charge of 19 people.

16 of those people are students on the Birth Attendant School. (they’re amazing)

1 of those people is Aline, my friend and fellow student on my Birth Attendant School in 2007, who came to help and serve and teach just when we thought no one would come and I would do it “alone”.

1 of those people is Menno – whose name means “strength” and that he has been

(there were 3 more…I “lost” them. 1 went home sick -she’s ok now, don’t worry. 1 went home pregnant – and her husband went with her)

the last person is me.

Though maybe I’m not really in charge of me, maybe God is in charge of me…

For that matter, maybe God is in charge of all of us and he’s just been using me?

True.

All this to say – being in charge? It weighs on me. It sits there – constantly on my shoulders – unrelenting. Like I can’t quite breathe deep.

Don’t get me wrong – I LOVE my job. I love it. I love the moments, the blessings, the laughter, the tears, the joy, the sorrow, the boring moments and the exciting ones. I Love it.

In theory I really like being in charge too. But the responsibility? The constant answering questions? The constant making decisions? The ultimately being responsible? Like I said, it weighs on me.

And it teaches me. I’ve learned so much more on this school about prayer. About giving my cares to God. About handing over my frustrations. About caring more about what God says or wants than what people say or want. (I’ve failed in this area too)

The being in charge has taught me (a little bit) about not worrying. The verse that God has given most frequently? Luke 12:25 “Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life?”.

So I’m learning. I’m learning to listen and nod and smile and laugh and let things go. I’m learning to talk about the awkward and address the things I don’t want to address. I’m learning to release – to give away – to be generous with. I’m learning to serve and bless even when I don’t feel like it. I’m learning to ask questions – wait for answers. I’m learning.

In 4 more days I take all these people and we get on a plane together and head back towards my home in Australia. In 5 days we get off the plane -and two of my dear friends pick us up from the airport and I’ll take a deep breath because they’ll be in charge again.

I wouldn’t trade the last 9 weeks for that deep breath. (but I’m still looking forward to it)

Category: BAS, Faith, Outreach by Rachel, on 20 May 2012 at 3:30 No Comments yet, we would love to hear from you. »

It is something I have been wrestling with for quite a while, trying to figure out how I personally can use my passion for photography to glorify God. And I have been wanting to start taking portraits of people that tell a bit of their story, and maybe accompanied by their actual story, but I haven’t made it that far. Yet. This will be a work in progress but to start it off here is a photo that I want to share with you.

This is Hellen, she is with her dad, about to get immunized

As you can see under the photo the little girl is named Hellen, I didn’t get the name of her dad. I took this photo last week when we were on the Buvuma Islands, we took a boat to a different island do to baby checks and immunizations. Of course Rachel and her students did those things, I just took pictures. Hellen was already crying when she arrived where we were set up. She calmed down only to start screaming again later. And this is only what I saw of her story. I wish I new a bit more. This is one of my favorite pictures from that week and I hope to share more with you soon.

Category: Photography by Menno, on 17 May 2012 at 19:48 1 Comment »

Last week we went to Lingira Island to work with YWAM out there. Monday morning we left at the end of the morning to go to Jinja, there we had lunch and then went to the national office of YWAM Uganda. There we were going to meet our contact, Catherine. We arrived at the office and Catherine got the last things we needed and got a car to bring us to the boat. We took the YWAM boat this time, maybe a six meter long boat. It was only six of us and then Catherine and Brian (her son) and the captain. It took us maybe 1,5 hours to get to the YWAM base and it was a great boat ride.

David and Catherine run the YWAM base there and they are amazing. They worked very hard to make us feel welcome and it worked, I think all of us wouldn’t mind to stay longer. On our first full day there we went to a village that was about 1,5 – 2 hours away so back in the boat and off we go. That was our first time and not long after we left we realized we forgot to put on or bring sunscreen. That was not a good idea, it is mostly sunny so about 3-4 hours in a boat without being able to hide from the sun is not good. I got sunburned, Rachel of course did not. But it was a great day, we landed and then walked to the village where we were going. As we were walking we attracted all the kids of course. We arrived at a TBA’s house (Traditional Birth Attendant) and there set up shop. First we did the story of Noah for the kids (I was Noah) and then teaching on nutrition and that was followed by immunizations and baby check’s. On the way back we saw a hawk dive and catch a fish at maybe 10 meters from our boat, so cool! And I recognized Lingira Island and knew we were almost home. We have an amazing dinner (everyday) and then soon went to bed.

Wednesday the girls went out again but this time I stayed home to work on the internet of the base and to build a website for them. Getting the internet to work to a bit longer than I thought but at least they had everything they needed (going to town to buy something is quite the undertaking if you are that far out.) Unfortunately I never got the internet very stable, sometimes it worked other times it did not, that was disappointing.

The girls had a great time, first went to a different island and then came back to Lingira a bit early to meet with local TBA’s and with a HIV/aids group, 6 people decided to follow Jesus that day!! Praise the Lord.

Thursday was already our last full day and we went to yet another island, we arrived and sat down under some trees next to a 15 meter long boat in the middle of the village. That boat was not going any where. We started with some songs again but then I got distracted because some guys were fixing fishing nets and one offered to teach me. So that morning I learned how to fix a fishing net, it was great. The girls did more immunizations, baby checks and we weighed babies.

When we came back I gave the internet another chance and it was working! So I was able to setup a simple website for them, check out ywambuvuma.wordpress.com I just added some more pictures.

Friday morning I hiked up the hill of Lingira Island before breakfast and took some photos, it is so beautiful out there! Pictures will follow but not sure when, we are running out of internet data so maybe when we are back in Perth. After breakfast we had to clean up and leave because we were taking the public boat back to Jinja. This boat was a bit bigger maybe about 15 meters and there are people that carry your bag and you to the boat! haha, that was quite the experience, this short African man pics me up and carries me to a boat! There are photos don’t worry.

All in all we had a great week. We saw 2 eagles (at least I did, I have photos), we had amazing food, we saw people starting to follow Jesus, we played SKIP-BO almost everywhere, and we had such a good time hanging out with David, Catherine, Brian and Nancy (their kids), Mike.

Sorry it got a bit long, I’m excited.

Category: BAS, Outreach by Menno, on 13 May 2012 at 21:22 3 Comments »

It had been a lovely quiet day at the Kangulumira Health Centre 4. There was one woman in labour (not far along) and it was immunization, family planning and circumcision day. We were outside under the mango tree helping with immunizations.

Steve, one of the “vaccinators” (I think this is an awesome job-title…’what do you do for a living?’ “Me? I’m a vaccinator.” haha…) Read More…

Category: BAS, Birth Stories, General by Rachel, on 6 May 2012 at 0:23 1 Comment »