For Everything there is a Season...

So much of our lives are about seasons. As I sit here in the UK reflecting on this past season for Synergy, it is certainly one of expectations having been exceeded in many ways, yet also it highlights a need to refocus our vision and strategy in order to see our talented young players achieve in every area of their lives.

On the field we have thrived, securing a fourth championship and third straight promotion, to take the one spot available in our region to Uganda’s Big League, one division under the Super League, Uganda’s top tier. This success has in fact left us with the option of registering as a professional football club, complete with professional contracts for all our players.

However, this is where the trappings of success could so easily take us down the wrong road. And I have seen it before, where projects whose beginnings were built upon a strong Christian foundation with a clear gospel message end up being watered down to become success driven ventures that end up doing no more than paying lip-service to their Christian roots.

The Team before our Regional League Play-off Final Victory

That is why at Synergy and River of Life Church, we deliberated and prayed long and hard about what to do next, and whether to even take our senior team forward into Big League.

What we continued to come back to was our vision: To see young people fulfill their potential in sport, and their wider lives, through all the activities that we provide.

To sell the team on to another owner, or simply forego our place in Big League would not fulfill this vision. If anything it would undermine much of the hard work we have done to build relationships with, and invest in, our players. This is work which has seen them change in attitude and character, and has seen a good number take positive steps towards becoming Christians. Equally, we are wary of a professional status which could easily see our focus shift away from our grass-roots ethos and heavily draw upon finances that we don’t even have!

So what to do for the season ahead...

Thankfully Big League does not necessitate professional contracts, enabling us to remain an amateur outfit, but still take the place our lads have worked so hard to win. That means we will continue the journey with our players, hoping that success will not only be seen on the field of play, but also in our players wider lives as we continue to invest in their mentoring, discipleship and educational opportunities.

 

Football-wise, we may not be able to take them much further than where we now stand, but our hope is to see doors of opportunity open for our players to be scouted by bigger clubs as we move through the year.

I have always hoped that some of our players will become professional footballers, but my bigger hope remains to see them changed as individuals by the love of Jesus. As we look to the season ahead, I pray that both of these things may be achieved for at least some of our players. If it is, then we will have accomplished what we set out to do and yet another new season will begin!

In August we will be undertaking a football marathon to raise funds for Synergy. If you would like to take part, please contact me on tim@riveroflifeuganda.org. If you would like to sponsor us please go to this page:
https://www.justgiving.com/synergy-football-marathon-2014
or text SNRG77 £5 (or another value either £2, £3 or £10) to 70070. 

THANK YOU!

Wasssup Ma Jigger?!

Our visiting pastors Sam and Jenny are now safely back in the UK, but we had a wonderful time with them, despite the aforementioned plague (or similar) suffered by all but Sarah and Jono.  Whilst they were still with us, we managed a brief trip to Lake Nabugabo (which was really when Sam and Jenny started feeling unwell).  What started as a nice relaxing day was followed by a night of vomiting for Jenny, which then lead to a morning of torrential rain.  No problem, right?  We just drive home!  No.  No, in fact the road was totally flooded in one direction, and in the other direction, a deep pit had been dug across the road (for drainage).  However, this is just the sort of thing that gladdens the hearts of young men, as our intrepid three set out to build a fantastic (and very manly) bridge, so that we could drive to safety.  Cue pause of awe, whilst we admire their power and tenacity..... 

As well as visiting the Baby Unit, Sam and Jenny were able to visit the Nutrition Unit at Kitovu Hospital, giving out some sweet knitted hats that had been kindly donated.  The Nutrition Unit is actually currently struggling since an important source of their funding stopped in June (when the “contract” ran out).  Obviously the Unit can’t simply stop looking after patients, and yet these patients can’t meaningfully contribute to the cost of their stay, as by definition the children on the Nutrition Unit are some of the most vulnerable in Uganda.  Many of them come from families of subsistence farmers, who are increasingly going hungry as crop fail due to the unpredictability of rainfall.  Poverty and lack of food is compounded by the issue of families being forced to separate in order to seek work elsewhere, families lacking knowledge on the best methods of feeding children, not to mention the devastating impact of HIV on the health of children in Uganda.

Kitovu Hospital not only help these children when they are acutely unwell, but also offering excellent training for the carers (mothers, fathers, grandparents, whoever) on the best way of feeding their children.  The Unit cares for around 300 children each year, and really helps to save many children from the brink of death.  All children are tested for HIV, so that appropriate care can be arranged if indicated.

Sarah well remembers little Morris, whose parents had separated some years before.  His dad had gone to the capital to try and earn some money for the family, leaving Morris in the care of his step-mother.  This woman not only neglected this sweet little toddler, but also physically abused him, as evidenced by a poorly healed old fracture of his arm (which apparently he had never received treatment for).  The little fellow was extremely sick on arrival, freezing cold (32 degrees), his swollen malnourished body covered in deep abscesses.  It took 3 days before he even regained the strength to brush away some of the flies that swarmed around his wounds.  Yet, within 3 weeks, he was back on his feet, and found his smile again, due to the work of the Nutrition Unit.  Kitovu was able to involve child protection services in order to ensure a safe plan existed for this little lad’s future care. 

If the Nutrition Unit is forced to close, it will be to the serious detriment of the poorest of the poor around the Masaka region, and little children like Morris will suffer.  So please, if you feel you can, get in touch, and we’ll tell you how you can help. 

As we prepare to head back to the UK for the summer, it seems a timely moment to contract a parasitic infection.  Usually we would leave this up to Tim, ever thewilling volunteer, but this time Sarah stepped up and took one for the team.  Jiggers are these horrible little beasties (fleas in fact) that crawl into your feet head first, and create eggs, whilst simultaneously breathing and defecating out of a tiny hole in your skin.  The eggs then enter the dust and infect more people.  So gross.  Anyway, luckily our next door neighbour Tom is a seasoned Jigger remover, and was on hand to scratch away at Sarah’s foot with a hypodermic needle, and release this disgusting bloated creature from its cozy burrow.  Turns out that after labour, this really doesn’t seem like such a big deal after all!

Wassssup Ma Jigger?!

Miracles Do Happen!

We must start this blog on a low note, before we move to cheerier topics.  We had hoped that our tales of chicken woe had come to an end, but alas we must now report that more poultry sorrow abounds.  A late night visitor (in the form of a wild cat-like beast) snuck into our chickens’ peaceful domicile and put a brutal end to our dear friends Mabungi and Bruce.  So Kibibi is the last chicken standing!  Of course, we mustn’t have him lonely, so two new chickens join him in the coop: “Gundi” (“whatzizname”) and “Omudongo” (“Good for nothing” - no eggs from her yet!).  Whilst these may seem like bad names, anyone working in paediatrics will have seen numerous children with worse names (“Klamydia”, anyone?), so no need to call the RSPCA quite yet, folks.  Surprisingly, our reputed chicken-murdering dog Sierra has taken very little interest in our new acquisitions, nor much interest in our dear cockerel Mr. Loverman, who has returned prodigal-son-stylie, probably hoping to spread his seed to our unsuspecting newcomers! She has however been making friends with Noah!

The human wing of Hotel Crow is currently also very busy. Jono has arrived from London via Burundi and will be here for 2 months. He is helping with Synergy, making Noah giggle, and has increased the combined mental age of the household to approximately 54, (Sarah = 33, Tim = 10, Jono = 10, Noah = 1!!). We also have  Forest Hill Community Church assistant pastors Sam and Jenny here on a pastoral visit for 10 days.   What could have been terrible timing to have a packed house, after Noah decided to do a profuse vomit reminiscent of “the Exorcist” followed by fevers and an upset tum, has turned out to be fine and fun. Having said that, since then Tim has spent a morning curled up in foetal position on the floor of a latrine in a clinic with Giardia and Typhoid, whilst Jenny and Sam have also enjoyed  some "Bombo Belly" (our Ugandan equivalent of Delhi Belly!). Jono, in typical teenage lad fashion, has compensated for the resultant lack of appetites by eating enough to fuel a small army! 

On the baby unit front, the usual continuous stream of sick babies and some deaths have been more than offset by an astounding story of healing!  A previous graduate of the Unit, now a month old, came back extremely sick, with fevers, seizures and episodes of stopping breathing.  Luckily a couple of the doctors from maternity were around to help with the resuscitation, and gave Sarah a call, because there was no improvement after 30 minutes, and yet they didn’t feel quite comfortable about stopping their resuscitation.  The story we’d been (incorrectly) given was that the baby had properly stopped breathing after being given a drug to stop fits.  So since he looked quite good (well, you know, for a baby that isn’t breathing – maybe “good” is a bit of an over-statement), we decided to try something that we hadn’t tried before, and asked an anaesthetist to put a tube into the baby’s windpipe. 

Now, we wouldn’t have dreamt of this had it not been for the fact that we wondered if there could be something reversible, e.g. after-effects of the drugs, which might then be able to leave the baby’s system.  We haven’t got a ventilator, so it’s not possible to have the only nurse on shift completely tied up with one baby when there are many other sick babies to care for.  So as you can imagine, we were pretty peeved to later be told that actually the baby had been having prolonged periods without breathing even before the drugs.  Peeved isn’t actually an adequate description – frankly we all felt quite sick about the situation, wondering if we’d basically given a mother a tiny bit of hope (not much, mind you) when really there wasn’t any.  Anyway, mum and grandmother opted to help us “bag” the baby overnight (basically pushing air into the lungs regularly), so we left with our hearts in our stomachs.

The next morning, Sarah went to the Unit feeling dread, expecting either to be told the baby had died, or (worse) that he hadn’t, but that he hadn’t improved, so we’d probably need to tell the mother that it was time to stop bagging and let him die.  Having prayed, she knew that God might intervene, and all might be well.  But was it likely?  Not at all.  But sure enough, there was our little baby breathing by himself (having had 14 hours of dedicated “bagging”), and having had a good breastfeed!  He did try a silly stunt a little later that morning, and stopped breathing again briefly, but now nearly a week down the line, he’s going from strength to strength, and we’re all AMAZED (including his very delighted maama).  Woop woop!!