wholeness, again, among the saints

Pat and Pamela arrived for team meeting tonight:  Pat after 3 months in Kenya and the US on a short HMA break; Pamela after 18 months in the US working with Redeemer Presbyterian Church in NYC.  As we sang and prayed, I sensed the same wholeness that came with Scott and Caleb's return, the relieved comfort that something is back in place as it should be.  Our team relationships extend through space and time, renewable with shared memories and hugs.  We had set aside this week's team meeting to reflect on ways God was moving by prayer and partnership to invest in emerging Ugandan leadership as we work together to show the compassion of Jesus to the poorest.  Very encouraging to recount the concrete ways this vision has taken on flesh, and also challenging to pray for the next steps.  

The next month looks, well, FULL, as we pray and partner on ahead. We will enfold entirely new people into our lives for short periods of time, and we will be pursuing stability and sustainability and leadership transition in our ministries.  Scott turned in his last Kwejuna Project quarterly report; we are no longer functioning to channel the money between EGPAF and the district.  One of the nurses we sent for nutrition training is stepping up to take initiative to train other staff.  Next week the first of two consultants we hired to advise us on Christ School will arrive, a Church of Uganda-affiliated professor of education (with a PhD from University of Minnesota).  The process of praying for a Ugandan headmaster, and accountant, has already been set in motion.  In important ways we see our role changing.

Changing, but not ending.  There will still be gaps to fill.  Today I was referred a 1 year old whose nonspecific viral-crud sort of illness had left him suddenly unable to walk.  I found an otherwise healthy child with a floppy, immobile left leg, a clinical picture consistent with polio.  So that triggered a series of phone calls and forms and lab samples that will tell us if a wild-type polio virus has infiltrated once again, a sobering reminder that the battle for health still needs vigilance and effort.  At our weekly staff meeting the in-charge presented data compiled by a national survey of health facilities, and on many axes we still have miles to go, much work to do.

So tonight we pause to look soberly ahead at the road before us, and to thank God for all the saints with whom we travel this path.