Today is the first time in two weeks that I was able to sit down before 6:00 p.m. and do nothing. Almost two weeks ago one of our teenagers had been in so much pain in her shoulder that we had visited three different hospitals in Kampala in as many days, supposedly the best, yet no results, just more antibiotics and painkillers. We had been told about a special orthopedic hospital in the north of Uganda in a small town called Kumi, where a doctor comes twice a week and then travels to two other countries and does this every week, an orthopedic surgeon, that’s all she does. I called many hospitals in Kampala and all said they don’t do shoulder repair. When I called and talked to the receptionist in Kumi Orthopedic Hospital she told me that the surgeon does not do shoulder replacement, which is what I thought we might need. We said we want to come anyway and have a look. It was a long drive for a big risk of “sorry, nothing we can do…” but we were desperate. We were told to just show up with no appointment and see what happens basically.

In the meantime, the night before, I put out a FB post calling for help from all friends who would know anyone anywhere in Africa where I could take our girl and make her well again. An American orthopedic surgeon in Malawi responded to my cry and asked for the x-ray scans and all the info on her. His team then discussed the situation and came up with a diagnosis. Wednesday, the next day, we received the diagnosis as we were headed for Kumi at 6:00 a.m. on a six hour drive in the pouring rain.

After looking at the x-rays and poking and prodding Sida, her diagnosis was the same exact one as the American ortho surgeon who had first answered my cry thru the internet. I never told her what the American surgeon had diagnosed. This was a confirmation to me that it was the right diagnosis. She set Sida up for surgery first thing in the morning, the very next day and we had no appointment, and Sida came thru with flying colors. We stayed for the next four days with only our one pair of clothes, which we were wearing, and nothing else. We had to buy soap and toothbrushes and paste etc… and wash our clothes each night to put them on again the next day.
It was well worth it because Sida has been able to bend her arm for the first time in a month. A biopsy was done on her bone and sent to Kampala. We will drive back up on another six hour drive next week for the results and take her stitches out and her arm brace off. She has been smiling since the surgery and not in pain anymore. We pray that once the brace comes off that all will be good. She will still need physical therapy.

At the same time, last Tuesday our little Peacey had her left cheek so swollen she looked like a chipmunk. We couldn’t even take her to the dentist until she took anibiotics for three days to bring the swelling down! We took her to the dentist and she had two molars pulled and didn’t even flinch. We had to go to the mall to “hang around” for five hours while we waited for Sida’s results at the first hospital in Kampala who could do nothing for her. Then while Sida and I and our Social Worker, Christine, took off for Kumi, our boy Sebit went to pick up his new prosthetic leg only to be told it wasn’t ready.

So we have literally been all over Uganda just on medical missions for our amazing kids. We are so blessed to finally be in a place that we can get the help we need. In South Sudan children are dying every single day from these same problems. Infected teeth can become so abscessed without antibiotics in remote villages as to cause so much infection that small children can get so feverish they can die.

I had just gotten back from Kumi on Saturday and learned that our pastor’s daughter fell so sick with typhoid fever a few days prior and it became so urgent that we had to take her to the hospital Sunday morning. She got worse and worse. Sunday morning in church we did major warfare prayer for our children against sickness and even today, a week later, we all oiled up our hands with anointing oil, three year olds to 63 year olds, and we all touched every wall and fence and gate and window and door and told the devil to leave and we anointed our compound for Jesus. We are fighting back hard against all this sickness. I have gotten Diarrhea every month since being here. It’s ridiculous.

Ruth had gotten so unresponsive to any communication that on Thursday night we rushed her to the best hospital in Kampala because she was breathing yet non responsive mentally, her mouth clamped shut and she hadn’t eaten any food or drunk any water in five days. She refused to open her mouth and hasn’t talked or really looked at us like we were there in front of her, sort of staring at the space in between. They immediately hooked her up to a feeding tube and IV’s and meds. We went back to see her the next day were told that if we had waited even two more days then she would have had meningitis.

We prayed over her and I kept my hands on her face and kept speaking to her spirit to wake up. I reminded her that she hears the voice of Jesus and to only listen to His voice. We just kept calling her spirit to wake up. I basically did a deliverance on her because the doctor said there is no reason she should be refusing to eat or even not focusing on us. He had to look in her mouth earlier and she refused so he threatened her with a shot needle and she opened her mouth. So we aren’t sure what is going on. This is so unlike her. She might be very afraid of throwing up again because she threw up so much over a period of days and is afraid that food will do this to her again. But why she is not talking we don’t know???

We really believe it is spiritual and are treating it as such and have gone into warfare mode, all of us, young and old. We worship we with all our heart , minds, strength and we pray with such violence as to take heaven by force, especially our young children. They actually LOVE to pray. One of my little girls, who is ten, woke up this morning and got on her knees and prayed without being asked to. These kids are serious.

This morning we went back again and anointed Ruth with oil. I then played the video we took of all the kids worshipping and interceding for her last night. They were seriously praying. I put my phone in her hand and made her hold it and watch it. She still won’t talk or eat or drink and doesn’t fully focus on us but she is better today than yesterday and actually watched the video. Yesterday she couldn’t even keep her eyes open or hold my hand. Today she held the phone and her eyes tracked with the video. I left her with my iPod full of her favorite music because she is one of our worship leaders even though she is only ten. She is amazing. I told her that she needs to be in our church holding the microphone and leading the church in worship and not lying here in this bed. We got her to sit up and forced her to bet alert. A tear came from one of her eyes, like she really wanted to come awake. She is a fighter. I had a three-hour drive back home but right when I left I put the iPod next to her and turned it on. By the time I got to Luwero her father texted me that she has had her eyes open the entire time, the longest ever, three full hours, enjoying the worship music.

I praise God for His provision and His concern for each one of our children as we praise Him and Him only. Each time one of our kids has gone into surgery, many have come out under anesthesia singing worship songs to Jesus and praising His name. They are not even conscious yet! This is what we pour into our children and this is the only reward I want, to see these children be so filled with Jesus that He lives and moves and has His being IN THEM as proven by their subconscious acts of worship. Both Sida and Ruth came alive when worship music was put on.

In the midst of all this craziness with medical, we took all of our children to Kampala by bus, three groups on three consecutive days, and all now have their Visas! Working thru the Uganda Immigration system is a real mental strain until you figure it all out. Everyone tells you something different and you find yourself running all over town trying to jump when they say jump. They didn’t cut us any breaks and we had to ay full price on all Visas. These last two weeks were so extremely intense mentally, physically and financially that I at times felt like I was walking in circles trying to figure out what I was doing, my mind so tired. One night I drove right past our road on the highway because my brain was on the next thing. Then I turned around and was in the wrong lane. If my Social Worker hadn’t been with me, I would have kept driving.

In all of these trials, God gave me the supernatural strength I needed to do it all and I am still running my race at breakneck speed so that these kids will see the glory of God in their lives, all the days of their lives, in the land of the living. The strength I needed could never have been done under my own power. It was too much. God says that He never gives us more than we can carry. If it becomes too much He always makes a way for us. They see miracles everyday because we have no other choice but to trust God and believe that He will keep caring for us. He is all we have.

These kids see that all of these things that have happened to us by His hand are truly miraculous and they smile every single week when I remind them of God’s hand on our lives. I REFUSE to let a week go by without reminding them. If we don’t keep these things before our children, they will forget God and forget His power in their lives. It happens in every generation. It will NOT happen in this one if I am alive and breathing. I am committed to the future, not just the here and now. I told them I want to hold my grandbabies, their children, and tell them of the miracles that I have seen God do in our lives. This week I felt very overwhelmed but God keeps reminding me that He has this. He keeps reminding me of His word to me, “No casualties”. That’s what I hold to.