The Best Gift I ever Got------------------a repost Dec 2007

Dear Friends,------------------------------------------------- Christmas 2007

I am always amazed by the wonderful surprises God has in store for me: A year ago I knew I was coming to Uganda as a Lay Mission Helper, but had no idea what that would really mean in my daily life and no idea who I would be with or what I may be doing the Holiday Season of 2007.

Only 10 days before Christmas and it is already a magical mystical season: Though I am certainly not dreaming of a White Christmas in this very mild climate of sunshine and refreshing rain showers, I have already enjoyed several “Magical Moments of Christmas” .Last Sunday, visiting friend, Bert Self, did a photo shoot of Baby Michael and me, which as you can see turned out very well. Besides adorning us in reds and greens & decorating with a splash of twinkling lights, I put Christmas music on to set the mood. Well, as the “Shoot ”progressed and I cradled Michael in my arms for just one more photo, a song that I had had never consciously heard or knew was being sung by Barbra Streisand, entitled “The Best Gift I Ever Got”. Are you familiar with it? Well it has become my favorite holiday song, along with “Mary Did You Know” .

-------------The Best Gift I ever Got-----------------------------

--------The best gift I ever got, didn’t really weigh a lot.---
--------It didn’t have a ribbon round,
--------And sometimes made a terrible sound.

--------The best of all it seems to me, it wasn’t neath the Christmas tree
--------And yet I guess I’d have to say,
--------That it made all the other gifts twice as gay.

--------The best gift that I’ve ever known, I’ve always wanted most to own.
--------Yet in my dreams of sugar and spice,
--------I never thought it would be so nice

--------The best gift that I’ll ever get, was sometimes dry and sometimes wet.
--------Was sometimes pink, but oftentimes red
--------As it lay so innocently in it’s bed.

--------The best gift of the year to me, the one I hold most dear to me.
--------The gift that simply drove me wild
--------Was a tiny newborn Child. ,

Having Michael in my life has been the icing in a yummy year of coming to St.Francis Hospital- Mutolere---Kisoro, Uganda. I love my life here and each day find more ways to serve the people of Uganda as a medical missionary - working in the Public Health Dept. Specifically, my work with Hope Clinic is caring for those infected and affected with HIV-AIDS. We have already used 500 of the 800 donated HIV Rapid Test Kits in villages so remote and difficult to reach - the journey to and fro often so perilous (rocky roads when there are roads) I feel like a Pioneer.
.
Besides the Outreach testing, I give Immunizations to the many newborn and young babies that attend our clinic. We weigh each child monthly, evaluate their growth, counsel on nutrition when indicated, immunize for BCG,TB, Polio Measles, DPT, and give Vitamin A and Deworming Pills

A few home visits (I’d like to do much more) and Quality Assurance Team Meetings for ARV’s (Anti Retrovirals), compiling data and doing statistics monthly, keeps me on my toes.
We must not forget AIDS Orphans Saturdays, when over 100 children come for a day of two meals, learning skills of sewing, typing, mat and bowl weaving and preparing meals. We(and I include myself) have a great deal of fun, playing volleyball, dodge ball, jacks with stones as the jack and the ball , as well as singing and dancing both Traditional and modern (Is Calypso modern?) All of these children (ages 5 yrs. to 16years ) have lost one or both parents to AIDS and are either being raised by a grandmother or the eldest child in the family.

In the beginning I felt pretty useless, especially, as I have only mastered “greetings” in Rufumbira, the local language. But God had a plan and my job seems to be to remain open to His plan, which has paid of quite well as my life has become more fulfilling daily.

Baby Michael will spend a few days ( and night!) with me over the holidays. The future is unknown as I continue to allow God to make clear what He wants for Michael’s life. But to have a newborn in my home and my heart for Christmas is, indeed, beyond my wildest dreams

---------MAY YOUR CHRISTMAS BE A TIME TO REFLECT
------------ ON THE SIMPLICITY OF HIS BIRTH
---------AND THE MAGNITUDE OF HIS PURPOSE.

Michael's brown eyes against my blue orbes--what a combo!