Gratefulness Abounds

We are home and look back on this year’s trip with gratefulness and awe of the changes we are now seeing in Uganda. Here is only a partial list of the amazing events that happened on this trip. Thank you for all the prayers on our behalf.  They were answered in abundance, and we will be forever grateful for your partnership.

• Three conferences filled with district nursing leaders, midwives from hospitals and city healthcare centers.  The conferences were well attended, the attendees were receptive and engaged, and the desire to improve care to save mothers and babies in childbirth and improve stillbirth bereavement care was shared by all who attended.  We had 5 leaders come to us at the end of the day and ask us to come to their districts to do trainings at their hospitals and health care facilities.  The work will continue………..

• We got 300 pounds of luggage and supplies to Uganda and distributed without problems.  This may sound minor, but we have arrived without luggage before and waited days to get it.  Our schedule was so jam packed this time that having it all arrive with us was a total blessing.

What a joy it is to be grateful for progress, momentum, saved lives and bereavement care that aligns with the rest of the world.  God is good on letting us see some of this harvest after years of teaching and training.

• After attending the International Stillbirth Alliance conference in Utah and seeing the memorial service there, Treasure had a dream. She proposed having a Baby Loss Remembrance Service in Uganda for families who have had a stillborn baby but have not had adequate closure surrounding the loss.  This would be the first ever service in Uganda and Birth with Dignity was happy to sponsor it.

On a beautiful Saturday, March 18^th, women and some family members came to Treasure’s church to acknowledge the baby they loved and carried.  It was a small gathering with 8 mothers and supportive family gathering to sing, listen to stories, and be encouraged to talk about their beloved child and mourn their hopes and dreams for their baby.  It was a wonderful service, and many women did not want to leave, still sitting in the quiet well after the service was over. Women were happy to share the name of their child, the details they can remember of the glimpse they saw of their baby, and they all want to see a place and time when mothers get to spend time with their babies to make memories after their loss. We gave out wooden blocks to each attendee as a keepsake of their baby and they used the blank sides of the block to write a message to their baby, put their birthdate and name on it and any quote or Bible verse they wanted as a remembrance. 

This memorial remembrance service may have been the first in Uganda, but it certainly will not be the last.