Great Stories: Jenna in Uganda

There are those of us who talk about living great stories, taking risks, and stepping outside of our comfort zones. And then there are those who just do it.

Jenna Funke, a dear friend of mine and a co-graduate of Belhaven University is one of those. Jenna recently traveled to Uganda on a short-term medical missions-trip. She graciously agreed to share a bit about her experiences there.

Tell a little about yourself.

I am from a small town in SC and am currently in graduate school getting my Masters in Occupational Therapy. I love working with children and hope to get a job in a pediatric hospital when I graduate. I also have a passion for horses and sharing love with other people.

Where did you go and for how long?

Uganda – We stayed in Masindi, but traveled to a variety of temporary clinic sites in Kasongoire, Kisuuga, Kimengo, and Bwayale, which were nearby. We also spent half a day each at Family Spirit Orphanage and Family Life Project. I was in Uganda for 13 days.

Describe Uganda:

The area of Uganda where we were was very rural. A lot of the people that we saw were farmers and worked in the fields. Uganda was very dusty, but a lot more lush and green than I was expecting. Most of the small villages we were at spoke the national African language, their own tribal language, and English.

We had some translators that spoke English and multiple tribal languages, and some of our patients actually even spoke English. It is very common for the kids to know English, because that is what they are taught in school. The living conditions are pretty poor. Most families live in a small hut and do not have access to clean drinking water. The healthcare system is also very poor.

With what organization did you go?

I went with the Medical Campus Outreach group from East Cooper Baptist Church in Charleston, SC. We partnered with Palmetto Medical Initiative, who is in the process of establishing a clinic in Masindi, Uganda. Over 100 people went on the trip; about 80 were healthcare students.

What was the purpose of the trip?

The purpose of the trip was to provide medical and spiritual care to the people of Uganda in the more rural areas.

What kinds of things did you do while you were over there?

We had eight days of clinic and saw about 200-250 people each day, and close to 2,000 people during the entire trip. I worked in the therapy clinic six of the eight days. While in the clinic, I worked with a team of 3-4 students and a therapist. We provided education on muscle exercises as well as proper body mechanics for work.

We made numerous hand and foot splints with material donated to our group. Some of the more interesting cases that I got to work with were a child with hydrocephalis, a man who had a stroke three years prior, and even a young girl who needed speech therapy, even though no speech therapists were on the trip. I also got to help manufacture a seating system out of random scrap material for a child with cerebral palsy.

On one of the clinic days, I was able to participate in the children’s ministry program. During this time, we spent the day playing ball or various games with the children who were waiting for their parents to be seen by the medical team. We also provided a short Bible story on “Daniel and the lion’s den.” This was a neat opportunity to really feel like we were getting to know the culture. The children in Uganda were very eager to try to teach us the language. It was also interesting to watch the children play and see how they interacted with and cared for each other.

During the other clinic day that I was actually not in the therapy clinic, I had the opportunity to be on the evangelism team. This was a really neat opportunity for me to grow spiritually. I really have not been stretched too many times to share my faith with people I do not know. It was amazing to see God at work in the lives of the people as they came up to us to ask for prayer.

We tried to ask almost everyone that we prayed with if they knew of Jesus Christ and if we could tell them more about Him. Most of them were open to hearing the Gospel Story and a few even wanted to know Jesus personally as their Savior. This day in clinic was probably one of the most challenging, but rewarding of all the days.

What is your favorite memory from the trip?

This is a hard question to answer. I guess my favorite memories were seeing the joy on a patient’s face after we were able to provide treatment that resulted in immediate benefits.

What surprised you most?

I was surprised at how many cases we saw of preventable disabilities. It was very sad to see a patient who, if he or she was here in the US, would not be in the same condition, or who would have started receiving therapy much sooner and have had the opportunity to make progress. We saw a few patients who made bounds of progress with just the one treatment session, but also others who we could not do much for because they had already developed such severe contractures.

What was the most significant thing that you learned?

One thing I learned that had an impact on me was how important our care was for the people of Uganda. On our first clinic day, I struggled to understand exactly how the role of an occupational therapist fit into short-term missions, since we only saw the patient one time. One of the occupational therapists in charge of my group told me that she thinks giving individual quality care and sharing the love of Christ with them makes more of a difference than sharing our OT skills.

Some of what we give medically might have a long term impact, but the bigger picture is what we share spiritually - Christ’s love. I think that learning that God can use me to help further His kingdom by giving me the ability to help therapeutically was one of the biggest things that I learned on this trip.

What is one other thing that you want to share?

If you want to learn more about our daily happenings on the trip, check out the PMI blog. At the end of the day, individual team members wrote small clips about the clinic experiences.

*Photo Credits: Jenna Funke

Friday Linkage

It's Friday! Here's some interesting links for the weekend. Enjoy!

Tony Woolief is an occasional contributor to World Magazine, among other things. I recently discovered his thought-prodding blog, Sand in the Gears. Start with this article.

Real Simple produced a fun color quiz. What's your color personality?

Ann Voskamp's writing is always beautiful and terribly intimidating. I've been thinking about journals in general (and my journals from high-school in particular) lately and her series on journaling is fueling the fire.

As I drove north to meet my family up in northern Michigan this weekend, the red and orange hues of Michigan fall overflowed the landscape. If you don't appreciate the "Pure Michigan" ads, then you just aren't from Michigan.

P.S. For those of you who were wondering, the Shakespeare Challenge is temporarily on hold, due to massive amounts of required reading material for my grad classes. Tragic, but true.

What Do You See?

This blog has been a little neglected lately. I'm hoping that posts will come with a little more regularity now that school has started up again in full force. (Or is that wishful thinking....?)

The other day, I was talking with a former physics major about that mysterious and elusive degree. I wondered out loud what kind of person would choose to major in physics.

"Everyone sees the world a certain way," she said. "You know someone will make a good physics major when they see the world in patterns."

Now, I'm definitely not a physics major and when I look at the ocean I don't see the patterns of light waves (like my mom, a former physics major, apparently does). But the conversation did make me wonder how I do see the world. I spent the next three days staring at random objects trying to answer the question.

Then, one afternoon, it occurred to me. I see the world in stories. Maybe it's just an English major thing. When I look at a clock or a car or a grain elevator, I wonder about the stories behind it. Who made it? Why is it there?

I saw a harvester working in the fields at sunset last night and wondered about the driver. When would he quit for the evening and go home? What was his family like? What made him choose farming?

When I see students walking through the school parking lots and wonder about their degree, their goals, their relationships. When I see the outline of the buildings of downtown, I wonder about the lives that play out inside their towering steel structures.

And now I'm wondering.....how do you see the world?

Review: Pagan Christianity by Frank Viola and George Barna

Pagan Christianity by Frank Viola and George Barna (Barna Books, 2008) addresses current issues in the modern church. Viola analyzes today's church in light of a New-Testament church model. He also examines the extra-Christian influences on the church throughout history.


Viola makes the point that many traditional aspects of today's church are simply the results of pagan influences throughout history. Viola believes that these non-Christian influences have undermined the integrity of the modern church. Viola believes that the modern church could solve many of her current issues by simply adhering solely to a New-Testament model.

Viola walks readers through a fairly comprehensive history of the church in order to demonstrate his point. He demonstrates why he believes specific current church practices such as the church building, church leadership structures, and the traditional order of worship are simply remnants of pagan influences.

While thoughtful readers could certainly benefit from considering the issues that Viola raises, his choppy style and lofty tone are difficult to overlook. Furthermore, his arguments are hard to follow, are occasionally based on inaccurate interpretations of historical events, and often only make sense if the reader agrees with Viola's initial analysis of the problem.

His all-encompassing statements, his vilification of opposing arguments, and his overly exaggerated examples make many of Viola's points hard to swallow.

Mark Driscoll provides a fairly comprehensive analysis of Pagan Christianity here.

Jessica Muto provides another insightful review at her blog Shiny Mess.

Friday Linkage

Here's the week's gleanings.

"90...Say What?!" by Chelsea Munneke and "Expect Ingratitude, Practice Gratitude" by Heather Koerner, both of Boundless, were just good. They were sweet and light, but both carried a message that I won't forget soon.

Donald Miller wrote a compelling three-part series entitlted "Toy Story 3: What We Can Learn From a Great Story." Here's the beginning.



In the archives of Worldmag.com, I discovered "The Right Time for Babies" by Tony Woodlief. Make time this weekend to read this one. He has some convicting and convincing points that are especially relevant to young Christians.

Yes, I know there's no Thursday post about Shakespeare. I confess, I'm a couple of scenes behind. But I'm still making my way towards the goal post....I hope to finish All's Well that Ends Well by next Thursday.

I'm also trying to come up with a way to effectively track the Shakespeare reading here without turning this blog simply into a repetitious series of posts about Shakespeare. I'll keep you posted (no pun intended).



Finally, see the cute little box on the right? Simply by typing your e-mail into that box, you'll receive Halfway Down the Stairs updates by e-mail! Isn't that convenient?

What are you doing this weekend?

Colors on My Mind

I like to test color combinations on smaller projects, like notecards, before using the color combinations for photo-album pages.

As I was scrapbooking last week, I felt in desperate need of some color inspiration. I was especially looking for ways to incorporate red and neutrals in a trendy, fresh way.

Pottery Barn's Chesapeake Collection combined light green, light blue, and red against a backdrop of sand.


I combined blue, red, and the sand color on one card.

I was happy with the result, although I think a series of red stripes behind the blue might have worked better than the red waves.

Where do you go for color inspiration?

All's Well That Ends Well, Part II

All's Well That Ends Well moves quickly. Did you finish Act II? Here's the gist:

Scene I

The King sends his soldiers off to the war with Italy. Helena arrives at the French court and announces that she possesses a cure for the King's illness. She then strikes a deal with the king: if her cure succeeds, he must let her take the husband of her choice.

Scene II

This scene is rather brief. In it, the Countess sends the Clown to France to get news of her son from Helena.



Scene III

Helena cures the king and he allows her to choose her husband. She chooses Bertram, much to his dismay. In order to delay the marriage, Bertram decides to run to France, leaving Helena with his mother.

I can't help but be irritated at Bertram in this scene. His snobby attitude seems uncalled for and certainly is unlike the Countess' behavior. But I suppose the plot demanded it.

Scene IV

Parolles tells Helena that, since Bertram must leave for a time, the marriage must be delayed.

Scene V

Bertram says goodbye to Helena. He bids Helena to take a letter to his mother and leaves, refusing to kiss her. After Helena leaves the stage, Bertram swears that he will remain from home as long as Helena lives there.

The plot thickens. If you're behind in the reading, check out the recap of Act I.

For Thursday, on to Act III!