Tom's story update

Just an update on Okutot and storying – we’ve been “out of town” for a while (most of Dec) – we have a retreat with KACHEP every four months, the last was in the Jinja area (at Mto Moyonyi on the Nile River – discussed Jim Collins’ “Good To Great”) and we have been a bit fragmented with coming and going – but the last time we storied was pretty cool – “David & Goliath” is always a favorite among pastoralists, telling as it does the story of a shepherd boy who cleverly defeated a great warrior leading an enemy raid – the first time I told this (recently) was at a spraying event in Kasyapus (walking distance from Nabilatuk) and the shepherds got very excited and said, “that’s exactly how it is with us” and laid out a large number of parallels – so, I was pretty confident of a good response, but how to connect it to Jesus (the ultimate goal of all our work)??
 - well, Jesus was not only Son of God and “Son of Man” but “Son of David” – and he did at the cross, and will do at his 2nd coming, what David did here: go into battle for us – then I remembered something I learned about the military (and police) from my brothers: they put their bodies in between the enemy and their homeland (“In Harm’s Way,” as it were) – this is a fundamental act of substitution – not only does the champion represent the nation but he offers himself as a potential sacrifice for those in whose place he fights – Saul was supposed to be the champion of Israel but neither he nor any other soldier was willing to go out to face Goliath, the possibility of “sacrifice” was far too great – David’s question was to the point, “For who is this uncircumcised Philistine, that he should taunt the armies of the living God?" [1 Sam 17:26] and his counter-taunt to Goliath was meant for Israel “after I cut off your head, then all the world will know … and all Israel will know …” – the ones who didn’t fight only saw the giant but the kid who did, saw the God who had delivered him from lion and bear – Jesus did this for us, though on that occasion, unlike David, he won by dying rather than by killing, so that “all the world would know ...”
 - we’re getting good responses to events but not yet getting the depth of response that comes from putting it all together – part of that is because we’ve been inconsistent for the last number of months; the other part is, when we are consistent, we only go once a week – hard to build on such thin foundations
Tom
PS - We're back in Karamoja -together with Simon and Carina Gruber from Pioneers Germany- we'll take an overnight in Okotoot in a couple of days as we finish off the meeting room foundation for KACHEP. We pray that next month a small team from USA (Wis, Fla) will join us to finish up this last Nabilatuk project....

Team (minus one) plus visitors head back up to Karamoja

The team left Jinja at 7am, alas allowing me to rehab in Jinja. Tom and Miriam are joined by Simon and Carina Gruber, whom will be with us for 2 months on a survey visit. Ideally, they would join us in the ministry. They have worked with Campus Crusade in Germany, Simon with a theology background and Carina a newly qualified (January) PhD veterinarian. They've both been in Uganda before and came across our team description thru their sending agency, DMG, and Pioneers. Pray that the Lord would reveal to them the plans He has for them, pray that they eyes and hearts would be open to the Karamojong. Meanwhile, I keep getting stronger- even venturing out for church and lunch with the team on Sunday- a break from my seemingly constant sleeping, staccato-ed by food so I can keep my medicines down. Unfortunately, Monday I regressed a bit- so Miriam had me tested again. It was positive. With all the meds I've been on, I would've thought the antigens would have cleared...but, will follow up with a microscopic test that looks for parasites. Thanks for your prayers. Jean

Valentine

Loving is not just looking at each other, it's looking in the same direction.  ~Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, Wind, Sand, and Stars, 1939

The Early Medieval acta of either Saint Valentine were expounded briefly in Legenda Aurea. According to that version, St Valentine was persecuted as a Christian and interrogated by Roman Emperor Claudius II in person. Claudius was impressed by Valentine and had a discussion with him, attempting to get him to convert to Roman paganism in order to save his life. Valentine refused and tried to convert Claudius to Christianity instead. Because of this, he was executed. Before his execution, he is reported to have performed a miracle by healing the blind daughter of his jailer.

Since Legenda Aurea still provided no connections whatsoever with sentimental love, appropriate lore has been embroidered in modern times to portray Valentine as a priest who refused an unattested law attributed to Roman Emperor Claudius II, allegedly ordering that young men remain single. The Emperor supposedly did this to grow his army, believing that married men did not make for good soldiers. The priest Valentine, however, secretly performed marriage ceremonies for young men. When Claudius found out about this, he had Valentine arrested and thrown in jail.

There is an additional modern embellishment to The Golden Legend, provided by American Greetings to History.com, and widely repeated despite having no historical basis whatsoever. On the evening before Valentine was to be executed, he would have written the first "valentine" card himself, addressed to a young girl variously identified as his beloved,as the jailer's daughter whom he had befriended and healed, or both. It was a note that read "From your Valentine."

All a happy Valentines Day!

Jean

- the following is a little heavy on the medical (in so far as I was able), since a good number of you all would want to know (forewarned is forearmed)
...
- got to the clinic this morning and Jean was looking a lot better, she could actually walk to the toilet and pass urine (the ultimate test in this case) on her own - she said the doctor told her, with her symptoms, she
should have died - well, that's my girl, never do anything by halves

- so here's the story - a couple of weeks ago, we had several vet students come for a 2 week training - about the same time, Jean had an unusual infection (which as far as I know, she didn't tell me about - ha) - it
seemed to pass but Monday, a week ago, she realized she had a temperature (showing a local woman how to use the thermometer; used on herself; whoa!)

- as per her usual, she plowed on through the week with the training - she later confessed she was a little woozy toward the end of Thursday afternoon - the students returned home Friday morning and Jean basically cratered                                                                              

- she stayed pretty low to the ground for several days - Friday, while I was returning from dropping the students on their various conveyances, Miriam (team member from Germany) took her to the local clinic to test for malaria, brucellosis and typhoid (all negative) - the main problem was she ate and drank very little and was having cyclic episodes of increasing pain, fever, and less-than-Jean types of "personal interactions" (extending up to our drive to Kampala)

- the clinic suggested ciprofloxin, flagel and doxycyclene (big guns firing in every direction; oh, and also, please repress any urge you may have to correct my spelling on these; I'm working on pronunciation at the moment) and lots of ibuprophen and paracetemol - these we did but without any sort of general trend 'upward' - Miriam got her on a saline drip and we brought her down to Jinja on Monday to see a doctor there

- the doctor saw her informally and listened to the story, Jean was weak but lucid and quite "herself" - the doc thought "tick bite fever" was a strong possibility (so, continue the doxy) and we took Jean to Calvary where she had another bad night - that evening, a local missionary nurse (20+ year veteran of East Africa, has a Masters, don't know the proper designation) tested her for malaria again and it was positive - given Jean's heart condition, she can only take certain malaria meds (pure artemecin products vs. the various combination drugs, or malarone; not quinine or heavy doses of larium, etc) - so, continuing the other antibiotics, we added malarone - our nurse noticed that Jean would blank out every so often for 10-20-30
seconds, then blink back in and connect with us again

- Tuesday morning, she wasn't really better so, Miriam put her on a dextrose drip, we talked to the nurse and doc again and decided to take her to "The Surgery" in Kampala (of the locally famous Dr. Stockley) - we put her on a mattress in the back of the truck and Miriam rode with her, managing the drip (and adding a saline bag on the way) - the nursing staff put her on a drip (continuing to today) - again, Jean was (very) weak but lucid - they did a blood test of a much more exhaustive kind (whose name escapes me): not anemic, practically no parasite count, low platelets - in the afternoon, Jean had another of her 'episodes' (thankfully; they are painful, and not only for her, but had not yet happened in front of an actual medical professional; so we appreciated her 'showing off' on this occasion); they catheterized her and continued pushing fluids through the night and doxy; opting for artemecin instead of malarone

- Wednesday (today), we were told she had vomiting and headaches in the night, the drip was continuous (catheter remains so far) and she's still not taking food or fluids in any real amounts - they ran more blood tests which all came back "normal" or "expected" - so they removed the catheter and cut
her loose

- she's back in Jinja now, resting, she's able to take some things orally and we can always put her on another drip if we have to - problem is, with all the heavy duty antibiotics (sans actual testing) early in the story, any
real diagnosis became pretty much impossible - we know that some form of malaria is/was part of the problem at least, even though not the initial issue - so she's on doxy for a month and artemethra (artemecin) for a week - badda bing-badda boom - we'll put this one in the "ambushes involving gunfire-Ebola (or was that Marburg)-legionnaires-cerebral malaria (and other CDC Biohazard Level IV occasions)" file - you know, hadn't had any of those for seven years of marriage, was beginning to think I was having a positive
effect on her ... oh, well - God is good/All the time/God is good

- thanks for all your prayers - several of you were instrumental in getting the word out (without naming any names, like, Michelle) - Many Thanks - please feel free to forward this to interested parties (and family
members) - I confess I don't have all the email addresses I should or would like to have -

Tom

Urgent Request!!!!!

I have a fairly urgent request for you. Jean was here last night and in lots of pain and high, high fever. Evelyn Frost came and tested her for malaria and Jean tested positive. Evelyn put her on malaria meds last night and Jean seemed to get much better. Tick fever also is suspected although not known.
In the night, Jean was pretty good, but just this morning she got much worse. Now she is only semi-conscious and is out of her mind most of the time. We suspect cerebral malaria but do not know for sure. She is on drip in the back of their truck being rushed to The Surgery in Kampala this very minute. She is very, very sick and really needs prayers.
Would you put something out on the Karamajong, Kaabong,and beyond and ask for prayers? And you pray seriously as well. It's very serious, Sarah.