After a three-year hiatus, we are returning to Bombo, Uganda in August for our thirteenth “annual” medical mission. It will be hard to reboot the clinic, which began in 2008. In that year we were overwhelmed by 1,480 patient visits. At our last clinic in 2019, we survived 5,782 patient visits. Of course we were overwhelmed, but God’s presence and power was evident. In our 13 clinics we have seen 68,586 patient visits. We have performed 381 general surgical cases. We have seen 3,477 decisions for Christ. And we have fallen in love with the people of Bombo.
For legal reasons Bombo Pentecostal Church is now PAG Bombo (we need to start using that name). PAG stands for Pentecostal Assembly of God. All of their churches now use that tag in front of the city in which they meet.
So this year we return to PAG Bombo to relaunch the medial mission. By March, we have usually done lots of recruiting and casting of vision for the clinic. And that didn’t require much heavy lifting since it is (was) an annual thing. But there are some folks around here who have never lived through a medical mission summer. And we haven’t done any recruiting. It is time.
I want to challenge you to consider joining us on this late-summer adventure. Medical skills are an asset, but not a requirement. There is plenty of grunt work going on behind the scenes for whom us non-medical types are well suited. The clinic opens for church folks on Sunday afternoon. On Monday morning it opens for the community and closes on Friday around noon. You will sleep well at night (well, except for the jet lag part).
The clinic this year is turning a bit of a corner. We are intentionally working toward raising local leaders in the church to lead what we usually do. They are going to provide someone to be my shadow. They will learn what I do as the chief administrator of the clinic. Yes, my knee will allow more mobility, but it is time to train the next generation. And the same is true of the supply container and triage and the pharmacy. We are in discipleship mode. And to be a part of that is exciting.
All I am asking is that you consider joining us in Uganda in late August. And I’m also asking that you begin now to pray that God will put together a cohesive team that can well-represent our church in loving and caring for the sick in Uganda. Need to stretch yourself? I’m here to hold your hand as God does the stretching. We work very hard, but we have a lot of fun.