Special People - GSF Missionaries

My last 'Special People' blog is on a group of people who have been my family throughout this year. As you know I have been serving at Good Shepherd's Fold Orphanage over the last 11 months. During this time my team mates and fellow missionaries have become very special to me. 

For a reminder......

(and just because Robb's blog about GSF was so amazing I have stolen (with permission!) part of his recent blog which can be found here if you'd like to read more of his stories...http://myemail.constantcontact.com/Snapshot.html?soid=1102157695494&aid=Mj-mLbwHQ6c) 

........here is a snapshot of GSF, who we are, what we do and why these special people are so dear to me.

Setting: Good Shepherd's Fold: 120 acres filled with a farm (pigs, cows, goats and occasionally monkeys), a school and six orphan homes surrounded by sugar cane fields and one of the larger rain forests in Uganda in one direction and Lake Victoria (the second largest lake in the world) in the other direction. Only 30 minutes from the source of the Nile.

The Cast:

Claudia -  A lady from Colombia, South America who has lived and served at GSF for 14 years. She has adopted three Ugandan kids already and has four others that stay with her. She handles all the adoptions for Good Shepherd's Fold and does much of our accounting.

Mark & Amy - A couple with three kids who have previously worked with international schools in South Korea and Singapore. They have been serving at GSF for 4 years and handle all the farm management, child care, house mothers (ladies who stay with and take care of the orphans), maintenance team and handle the intake of orphans.

Robb & Sheila - They have been here since April and have three kids. Robb directs education for GSF, heads up Mercy Ministry for GSF and deals with all the older students whether in high school or university. Sheila will help with organization at the school and donor communications. 

The Interns - GSF currently have 4 American University students serving here for the summer. Emily (post grad), Janie, Claire and Ashley will be here for 8 weeks and will help out in various ministries here.

Focus: Good Shepherd's Fold started out solely as an orphanage to deal with the AIDS crisis. A veteran from Vietnam who lost his legs saw the orphan crisis created by AIDS. He opened up his home and started caring for the kids. However as it matured he thought if we provided care for certain destitute mothers or fathers their kids might not end up in an orphanage. Mercy ministry and Social Work have therefore become bigger focuses at GSF. We constantly walk a fine line between trying to empower a local community to care for their own destitute and realizing that many of the communities we are dealing with are so poor that they simply cannot provide all that is needed to even meet basic needs. We therefore offer a feeding program for mothers with young children (and the elderly) that are malnourished so that their children do not end up at GSF because the mother cannot feed them. 

Additional examples of these sorts of situations that we have dealt with in the last two weeks are:

1.  A father who was recently paralyzed (see my recent blog last month about taking this man to the hospital) by a stroke and cannot move 1/3rd of his bodies but has four children under eleven. The eleven year old takes care of his father and cooks for all the kids. His wife left him after he had the stroke and at that point he bought poison to kill himself and his children as he thought they would starve to death anyway. Fortunately, some community members brought him to church and a pastor helped to give him hope through faith in Christ. While trying to encourage the community to do what they can GSF is providing medical assistance to see if the father's condition can improve and hopefully the kids can stay with their father.
2. A mentally insane mother who locked herself and her children into their mud hut. She was found still covered with blood from childbirth several weeks after giving birth and human waste all over the floor. The children have been taken to GSF while counseling services and mental health experts attempt to treat the mother.
3. A grandmother who is attempting to take care of her abandoned grandchild in her tiny mud hut but has a problem with rats continually biting their feet at night. We have yet to come up with a solution.

I have been blessed this year to have been able to serve alongside this group of people. They have taught me all of their American ways (including inviting me to a wonderful Thanksgiving party, teaching me new recipes, new words and amazing ways on how to pronounce the 'A' sound in a variety of words!), loved me, fed me, driven me around, encouraged me and been a spiritual and emotional support through all the ups and downs that we have faced in this journey that we have been on this last year. They have taught me about living in Africa, about what it means to be a missionary, how to cope/manage and pray through good and tough times. They are incredibly hard working, dedicated, honourable, kind, loving and great examples to the GSF kids. 


As I prepare to leave GSF please continue to pray for these guys and all of the hard situations they face including the difficult decisions they have to  address each week. Just the above 3 examples show what tricky decisions have to be made each week in order to serve the community in the best way that GSF is able. 

Mark & Amy, Claudia, Robb & Sheila - all very special people, with a very special place in my heart who have become a huge part of my daily life.  I will miss seeing each of them every day.
Thank you guys for everything. 

L-R: Amelia, Hope, Claudia, Anna, Bobby, Emma, Maggie

Back L-R: Titus, Megan. Front: Amy, Caralina, Mark

L-R: Teddy, Avery, Avalyn, Sheila, Hayden, Robb