Why We Fight

 

One of our Bundibugyo teammates wrote to Jennifer this week to help her think through a presentation she will be doing in church this week.  She asked Jennifer to articulate the vision of why we work in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (aka, The Nursery) of Bundibugyo Hospital.

This is what she wrote back…

… off the top of my head I look at NICU work as being the hands of Jesus to the most vulnerable and marginalised.  This world is broken since the Fall, so hard and wrong things happen particularly in childbirth (specifically mentioned in Genesis) to everyone, but those in the poorest places have the least capacity to withstand those struggles. In Uganda, neonatal deaths account for almost half of childhood mortality and in fact are in the top five causes of death in the whole country, all ages. Jesus came with a concrete mission to reverse the curse, to defeat evil, to bring life. He did that by the cross and resurrection, and He invited his followers to participate in the same. He modelled welcoming the “least of these” and teaching that “of such is the Kingdom of Heaven” as he gathered children.  We try to imitate Him and embody His light and salt approach by moving out to the hardest edges, walking into the places where hope is hard to find, where evil seems to be winning. In Uganda one of those places is the maternity and NICU service, a place that should be full of joy and yet too often holds not just suffering for the sick baby but the worst kind of sorrow for the whole family. By being present we show that God does not shy away from suffering, is also present, sees, notices, cares. We touch, treat, weigh, measure, listen, advocate, teach . . .PRAY . . .because God cares about these “least of these” infants, it is part of His Kingdom coming that Life gets the upper hand over Death, and it helps people see that God’s work in the world is different than the way things normally go. There is actually hope.  Most NICU stays are a week to a month, so we get lots of time with the moms.  They hear the prayers, they see the help, and they dare to hope that God is at work in saving their child. Of course many do still die, but in my experience the parents still find a lot of meaning and comfort that we enabled them to make every effort to save their loved child, and we can offer them hope of eternity together.

Jesus preached and healed, and sent his followers out to do the same. 

It is our holy privilege to do that in Bundibugyo.