Day 8: Jesus Cried Today

Six years ago I returned from Uganda and every day since my mind, heart and soul have been with the Ugandan people. For a week and a half I experienced a sliver of their struggles and challenges. One week ago I left America to go to Africa to discover how Jesus is suffering so that we could return his love for us by loving his children in Uganda. Yesterday, I found him suffering in classrooms that were too crowded for hope. Today, I found Jesus suffering in medical clinics without doctors, overcrowded treatment rooms, malnourished children, malaria, and HIV. The Kiyinda-Mityana Catholic Diocese oversees 17 medical centers for 500,000 Catholics. None of those clinics are considered level 4 which requires an operating room and a full time doctor. Without an operating room, babies can’t be delivered by c-sections, the one oxygen machine for mothers during delivery was broken, no ultrasound scanners, there is not separate rooms for men, women and young patients in a facility that treats 500 adults with HIV every month. Over the past two centuries the Catholic Church has led the progress of education and health care in the United States. Two years ago I read about the founding of the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota by nuns. The Kiyinda-Mityana Catholic Diocese is trying to comfort the suffering of Jesus Christ in Uganda. The needs are great and the support is little.