Missional
by Marchauna Rodgers
By Marchauna Rodgers
Luxury. I don’t know about you, but luxury isn’t a word that I
would use to describe my life. I have a good life, but not a luxurious
one. Since returning from Uganda, however, my outlook has changed.
Compared to the average American on the news or movies, I don’t have a
luxurious life. But compared to the faces and names from Uganda, my
life is filled with dozens of luxuries. Luxuries I can often take for
granted.
Here, when you get a headache, you grab a couple of pain killers
and drink a cup of tap water. If it’s especially bad, maybe you grab a
coffee at the local coffee stand. And if it gets bad enough, you go to
urgent care where medical professionals can take care of your headache
and everything.
For the average Ugandan orphan, there are no painkillers
available. Access to water is limited, and in many cases it isn’t
clean. Coffee is expensive and not easily accessible. There is no
health insurance and urgent care is reserved for those who can pay.
So, for something as simple as a headache, there is no relief.
One of the schools we visited in July is Divine Cornerstone
Primary School. It was started in 2009, but the vision and calling for
the school can be traced back to 1996, when members of Faith Baptist
Church recognized the need of orphans in the Busembatia area for
access to education. They wanted to educate those orphans, in the name
of Jesus. It was a long difficult journey, because they didn’t have
any way to pay for what they wanted to do. It became easier when God
connected them with Pennies for Posho (www.penniesforposho.org);
Pennies pays for food for the children, which is fantastic. Pennies
also helps with some other costs. But their scope doesn’t include
medicine. In very practical and brutal terms, that means children die.
In fact, last year enrollment went from 310 to 205 because of “a lack
of scholastic materials, illnesses and diseases.”
More than 100 children are no longer attending Divine Cornerstone
Primary School at least in part because of a lack of access to even
basic health care. It takes a while to understand that when you’re
struggling to buy food, you don’t have extra to buy medicine. But
overtime God opened my eyes and helped me see these Ugandan orphans as
my neighbors.
The reality is, those Ugandan orphans are our neighbors. Matt
22:37, Jesus said, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your
heart and with all your soul and with all your mind . . . and . . .
You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” (ESV) That’s what drove me
to start asking the questions that led to MAMO. What would I want
someone to do for my baby if he had a fever and was feeling miserable?
What would I want someone to do if I had an abscess on my neck and
couldn’t afford to go see the doctor? What would I want someone to do
if my daughter needed antibiotics to save her life and I couldn’t
afford them?
We faced all those questions in Uganda. Each question is about a
real person, with a name and a face. These aren’t arbitrary questions
for me. And for what boils down to pocket change, we saved lives.
A life was saved with 45 cents. Seriously. For the price of a cup
of coffee, we can buy two tubes of antibiotic ointment, or malaria
treatment for five people. For the price of a bottle of water, you can
literally save the life of a Ugandan child. And I live with the
reality that every day children in Uganda are dying from lack of
access to simple things like antibiotics and fever reducer. Every.
Single. Day.
That reality also drives me to do whatever I can to make a
difference in the lives of those precious children. Medical Assistance
and Missional Outreach is becoming a reality. By God’s grace, in the
two months since we returned from Uganda, God has brought together a
board of directors, given us funding for a website, raised up people
to manage the social media, finances, and administrative details. Our
website, www.mamouganda.org, will be live on October 1. We have a
GoFundMe account (you can find it under Marchauna Rodgers), and are
working our 501(c)-3.
Our mission statement is “To care for the medical needs our
‘neighbors’ in Uganda and beyond by providing lifesaving medical
resources and educational support.” We’re planning our first trip in
February 2017.
Yes. This is a lofty endeavor. And we can’t do it alone. We need
help. Because nothing we want to do is free. For about the price of a
cup of coffee, we can treat five people for malaria. For the price of
a bottled water, we can buy two rounds of life-saving antibiotics. For
$20 we can provide a very simple basic medical kit for an entire
school. No, saving lives isn’t free, but especially in Uganda, it is
very cost-effective. And the impact will not only benefit the children
whose lives are saved. By partnering with national Ugandan pastors and
helping provide the resources so they can address the medical needs of
the students in their schools, we can impact the very future of
Uganda.
If you want to help, please visit our website. Visit us on
Facebook. Check out our GoFundMe page. And consider joining us in this
adventure. Allow yourself to step into the shoes of a Ugandan mama or
daddy…picture your child and how hard it would be for you if you could
do nothing to help them when they were sick. And ask yourself, what
would you want a “neighbor,” a “Good Samaritan” if you will… what
would you want someone to do? Then ask yourself, “Can I help MAMO do
just that?”
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