Pembury Baptist Church

First off please pass on my thanks to everyone who has been praying for me - God has certainly been answering those prayers! Barely a day goes by when I don't have a sense of the enormous blessing I have received out here.

I am now settled into a church in Kampala city centre called Calvary Chapel. It is quite a large church (they have 3 services on a Sunday each with several hundred people attending) but I have found a few people who go regularly and now that I am attending a Bible study every Wednesday, I am getting to meet many more of the Ugandan members of the church (there are quite a few ex-pats attending and the pastor is American; don't want to end up just knowing ex-pats!).

At Hospice I'm much more settled too although there are always days when things don't go at all to plan! I see some very sad cases with patients - only today I heard about a patient who is at risk of starving to death because she has a large oral tumour and the necessary interventions are too costly for her. We are incredibly blessed in the West in terms of health care and one of my prayers is certainly to see the Ugandan government provide more funding in this area - health care is very low on the list at the moment!

I am personally struggling with the best way to respond to the poverty and suffering that I see - just a few weeks ago I walked past at least 3 beggar children on my way to church and I admit I found it very difficult to reconcile my lack of action with my faith. One wise Christian friend of mine said that she thinks this is the difference between those who can stay in Africa and those who have to return home - there is definitely an internal struggle about how to respond as a Christian to the huge need out here! I know there is no simple answer and what I need is a Godly heart and wisdom, both of which take time!

In the context of the above, my material blessings have been above and beyond anything I could have expected. In my last email I asked for prayers for a new place to stay ... God has answered this in the most abundant way possible! I am currently house-sitting for a lady who has been in the UK for the past 5 weeks. This means I have been living here rent free and all my meals are provided because she has 3 girls (plus some catering students) who work at the house - I've been thoroughly spoilt! When she gets back I am moving to another house whose family is going back to Holland for 3 months. I visited it about 6 weeks ago and it is absolutely beautiful with a view over Lake Victoria (the house I am staying in now also has a view over Lake Victoria - beautiful!). I have also been blessed with the use of a car (just getting used to driving around at the moment ... it can be quite stressful especially at rush hour and some of the roads are very
bad!).

God has also blessed me hugely with friends; it is amazing to think that I came out here knowing nobody and how much I wanted to return to the UK in my first week! Admittedly all my close friends are ex-pats; it has been harder to get beyond the superficial with Ugandans that I've met than I had expected. I have become friends with a few Ugandan medical students though which has been great (although quick word of warning - if you invite Ugandans out for dinner you are expected to pay, something that I was not aware of!!!)!

However, my best friend out here has undoubtedly been God. Somebody prayed this over me before I left the UK and it has certainly been true - my growing relationship with Him is the biggest blessing I have!

Here are some prayer requests:

1. My new house has 4 bedrooms and currently only me to occupy it ... would be lovely to have some housemates!
2. For wisdom in how to best use my time - as I get to know more people it is easy to get caught up in ‘busyness'.
3. That I will continue to wrestle with God in how to respond to poverty and suffering - not to grow hard hearted but not to become overwhelmed either!
4. My church out here is about to start a new service in Lugandan (the most common language in Kampala) - it is an exciting time but we need faith that it will be a success!
5. I am starting to think about getting re-entered into the Liverpool medical school system - that this will go smoothly!

I am thinking of you all back in the UK ... hope the weather is treating you nicely. Wwe have entered‘winter' here - it is about 24oC!!! But cloudy / raining!