The Life I See That Is Jinja..

First, I apologize for taking so long to post. Since arriving into Entebbee, driving through Kampala, and on to Jimja, it has been a non-stop whirlwind!!! We get about around 6am, every day, have breakfast, review our itinerary, and go! We are on the move continuously until late intoj the evening, have dinner, and team meeting with a testimony given very evening and, maybe, to bed by 10 pm or so. The girls on the team, which range from age 16 to 19, have taken to nick naming me "mama Jo-Jo", which I find incredibly endearing!! These girls have servant's hearts and are wise beyond their years! Our days are filled with working at the orphanage, Amani's Baby Cottage, playing with the children, loving on. The babies, and visiting with the "mamas" who work there every day. All the mamas that work at the baby cottage live in the nearby slums. We continue on to visit organizations like Serving His Children which brings in malnourished children, along with their mother to rehabilitate and get the babies healthy, while educating the mom's on nutrition, protein and food values, etc. this particular organization was started 3 years ago by a tweny year old girl named Rene. Today they house 2 nurses on staff, can accommodate 18 children and their mother, treat babies with TB, HIV,several malnutrition, and have regular Bible studies. It's amazing! To date, the survival rate is 80%, compared to approximately 60% of comparable nutritional/rehab centers in the area. They are growing some of their food and have a famous goat that seems to be producing milk in record amounts! She is very precious and quite a character. Today, we visited a special needs facility and will be taking. Those children swimming in the morning, then working at the new Amani Baby Cottage site in the afternoon. So far, It has been a blessing, hard, exhausting, and overwhelming. I am looking forward to being able to share more, post pictures, (the limited Internet will not allow me to at this moment, arrrgggh!) and write about individual stories shared by the people here. In the meantime, I strongly encourage you to go to www.heal-ministries.org and seethe posts that our founder, Tina Weir has posted. She has stories and photos. Also, Lisa Syler's blog at lollipopandpearls.blogspot.org has been able to load some as well. Thank you for your continued prayers! Love, Jodi

 <a href="http://amazima.org"> <center><img src="http://i226.photobucket.com/albums/dd166/orangecj78/Amazblgbdg-1.jpg"/></center></a> 

Jodi June 5, 2012 7:14 PM

Hi everyone! 

Well, just about 36+ hours and counting! Tomorrow evening will be spent with our H.E.A.L. Ministries Team, packing for the orphans and the single moms of Jinja, Uganda. We will be making up about 30-35 purses and putting some shampoo, conditioner, soap, Kleenex packets, and other personal effects in each one to bring as gifts. If anyone has some gently used purses they would like to donate, I will gladly fetch them up from you!! For the kids, we have gummy bears, chewable vitamins, and the like. We also have over 1500 beads to pack for making hemp and beaded bracelets with the children as an activity, in conjunction with a VBS study. I believe that will be held within Katie Davis' organization and children. (If you haven't already, I strongly encourage you to read her book, "Kisses from Katie") At around 6PM tomorrow, we will be attending a dinner for the 10 team members and their families for a going-away meal and prayer time. Please feel free to join us in prayer from where ever you are!

I must admit, along with some stomach issues, a migraine, and some sleeplessness, I have had about a day and 1/2 of complete meltdowns! I already have a slight disorder I deal with daily in regards to leaving home along with some anxiety issues. I work through these each and every time I have to go to work! Jim has been so understanding and loving in helping me work through this. Also, thankfully, I have an amazing doctor who is, not only incredibly in-tune and up-to-date on these things, but also kind, understanding, supportive, prayerful, intelligent, and through God's sweet blessings, our friend! He and his family have played an imperative role in our walk, and growth, in the Lord. Thank you guys!

All that to say, I am not only grateful for modern medication, :) but I am also not sure where this particular fear and anxiety has crept in from. I DO know however, that II Timothy 1:7 tells us the "For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind." (NKJV) Therefore, it's pretty easy to ascertain that this fear and anxiety is coming from the enemy.  Of course, he will try and throw whatever cog in the works he can. Yea for us that the enemy is already defeated and has NO power over us! I'll just continue to name it and claim it and will not cave to his lies!
Whew! That actually did me a ton of good to actually write it "out loud" if you will, and see the scripture! Thank you for enduring me through my self-help-scripture-study!
I will try to be diligent in my writings and post as many pictures as I can. Thank you for sharing this journey with me! I love you and am blessed by your friendship!!

Counting the Days!

In exactly 12 days from now, and at about this time, I will be boarding an airplane from Nashville to JFK, then onto London. In London we will spend the evening with a 13 hour layover, then on to Africa. Our itinerary was changed a bit, so I am not certain where we fly into arriving in Africa, maybe Kenya or Nairobi, then to Entebbe, Uganda. I believe it's about a 2 1/2 hour drive from Entebbe to Jinja, where we will spend the majority of the remainder of our days and time.

I am all up-to-date on shots, had the Yellow Fever, Hepatitis A and B, and am currently taking a 4 dose, 7 day oral vaccine for Typhoid Fever that will last 5 years. The trip, preparing, packing, planning, all is starting to be realized and with it, comes some anxiousness about being gone for 18 days.

My husband will have a lot on his plate, taking care of all the animals, our niece, Izzy, the house, yard, etc. all in the name of the keeping up with our American dream, while I am experiencing the furthest thing from that, in a third world country. I will actually be living like the 80% plus, of the rest of the people on this earth. I will be living the "norm". That should shed a new light on my perspective, to say the very least.