Medical Clinics, February 5-7

The first week of February, we hosted 3 medical clinics in villages outside Mbale. Two of our national teammates from Kampala, Darla and Ellen, came to run the clinics. Ellen is a Doctor and Darla was a nurse for several years in the states before coming to Uganda. They also brought a visiting nurse, Rachel, with them. We went to a different village each day. At each site we were met by a large crowd of people already waiting to receive medical attention. Some people traveled a very long way to get there.

The nurses visited with the people first to see which ones needed to see the doctor and which ones could be treated or given medication and information right then. If they needed to see the doctor, they then went to registration and filled out an information sheet and waited to be seen. Many people had malaria tests and/or urine analysis done. We also had a simple pharmacy set up with many common medication needs.

Possibly the greatest part of each clinic was the spiritual counseling that took place. Many of the rural church leaders went with us each day. When people had received their physical help, they then received spiritual counseling and prayer from these leaders. There were many people who were greatly blessed by this and many that took steps toward Christ because of it.

The first day, I helped with registration all morning and then helped in the pharmacy (counting pills) in the afternoon. The next day, as a veteran of registration, I did that again in the morning. In the afternoon, I learned how to do malaria testing and helped with that. Then on the third day, I was given a quick lesson on testing urine and the spent the rest of the day doing malaria testing and urine analysis. I was glad that I got to move around each day and see what each different station was doing.

The clinics were basic in nature, but the people were very excited to receive the help that they did. It was such a blessing to be a part of something that reached out to very real physical and spiritual needs of the people here. God was glorified and many people, including those of us working the clinics, were blessed.