Students for International Mission Service (SIMS)

Erika Berry kept glancing at the gas gauge and back at me with worried eyes. “Good thing I can’t see the gauge from here,” I thought. She whispered to me that the gas light had been on for miles and that the needle was far below the empty mark. It was still many miles before we pulled into a little gas station in the middle of nowhere in Uganda, Africa.

Erika and I decided to go to Uganda together for one month to work at Ishaka Adventist Hospital as medical students. We had many other experiences that distressed us, but we are extremely glad we went. We did enjoy all of the experiences, even the worrisome ones.

We had the amazing experience of helping to deliver babies, normal and cesarean section. We also had the humbling experience of helping to save a baby’s life that could not breathe on its own when it was born. We had the scary experience of presenting about HIV/AIDS and sex to 400 prison men, with only one guard to look after the two young American students. We experienced answers to prayer: funding for our trip and donations of equipment that the hospital needed. It was a wonderful trip. We even managed to take a little time off from working to go on our first African safari. I feel truly blessed by the experience, and they have written to say they felt blessed as well. I am glad to have taken this opportunity, and I recommend everyone should do as much volunteer work as they can. “It is more blessed to give than to receive.”

[Outlook 2002]

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