Rubaya Medical Clinic

On Monday (Feb 7) we held a medical clinic in Rubaya, a village about 20-30 minutes away from Mbarara. There has been a very successful group meeting there and the intention was to meet human needs, share the gospel and help the potential church. Registration was done entirely by the two guys who are the strongest leaders in the group, one a younger man and the other an older gentleman who is also the LC (local political leader). In a matter of ony a few days they had registered 250 families.

There were supposed to be 5 groups of 50 families each, but pretty much everyone came at once. May have made things a little crazy at times but fortunately everything worked out anyway (which is good, not only because it's good for things to work out well, but also because you could plan on people all coming at once more than coming at designated hours anyway). This particular circus had four rings: health education, Bible storying, medication distribution, and kids games.

For the women who attended, Kari and Vicki (with Evas, a Words of Hope counselor, translating) taught health information sessions, providing insight into how to better take care of themselves and their families. Such sessions can be even more beneficial than just providing treatment as one of the greatest health issues in Africa is a lack of knowledge. One of the medical students, Achilles (pronounced phonetically), told me that one of the hardest things for him when he's on ward at the hospital is that most of the people dying there are dying of things that they could have prevented.

For the few men who came (by far the smallest group in attendance) Jim, with Naboth (also a Words of Hope counselor and a local Bible Baptist pastor) translating (and holding the shade umbrella...for himself, not so much for Jim), did Bible storying and evangelism. They also provided some counseling and prayer for those who accepted Christ.

As for the kids, Andy and Niki provided games and salvation bracelets/powerbeads (whichever name you happen to prefer). There were tons of kids, saddening in that for there to be so many kids there meant that their families could not afford their school fees. Fortunately these kids were able to hear how Christ died for their sins (which, quite frankly, is better than anything they'd be learning in school anyway) and have some fun with a few bazungu.

After the first health information session Mike and Chuck handed out some medications, including multivitamins and worm pills, to the individuals who had preregistered. Each person was given enough medication for their entire family. Though everyone had come at once, the medications were handed out by registration groups and so utter chaos was at least slightly abated. There were over 100 families represented who had not preregistered, and medications were left with the younger of the two group leaders mentioned earlier.

While clinics like these may not fit fully into CPM missiology, they certainly have their benefits. They allow us to live out our mandate to care for those in need (if you aren't familiar with Matthew 25:31-46, get familiar...it goes through my mind constantly here). People hear the gospel and get saved. Legitimacy is added to the group that is meeting there. In another village, Nakinombe (pronounced Nachinombe..."ki" is pronounced "chi"), a medical clinic and a food distribution garnered so much favor for the church in the local community that when the church decided to build a building the community came together and helped them. I pray that the clinic will do much to help further the work in Rubaya.


Some of the kids listening to Niki and Andy explain games. What Andy and Niki discovered, much as I did a few years back teaching baseball in Ukraine, is that sometimes it's easier just to start playing and help the kids through the rules as you go.


Some unexpected entertainment. This guy had these little wooden figures on strings and he'd sing a song and make them dance by moving his toes. Kinda different.


Some more kids. They were everywhere, especially when the nearby school let out for lunch.