Missionaries
Richard and Sue Van De Ruit
October 2009
Greetings from Uganda!
It is time once again for some updates on our African Adventures or should I say Kingdom Adventures?
The Lord has surely been good to us and a lot has happened over the last few months.
We went to South Africa 2 months ago to get some tests done on Caleb & Rachel to determine how they are processing information in order to help them with their education. The results were challenging to say the least. Rachel was discovered to have pre-seizure epilepsy. Both Caleb & Rachel have challenges in processing visual & auditory information. We were informed that Caleb might need to have 2 years remedial schooling in South Africa or in Europe as well as having 4 weeks of Auditory & Visual Integration Therapy to help how he takes in and processes information. Caleb would on top of that need a couple of months of neuro-treatment to activate certain parts of his brain. Rachel, we were advised, needed to see a neurologist to determine the line of treatment regarding the pre-seizure epilepsy. After this she would need the same therapy as Caleb. We were quite in the dumps about all this. However after prayer we all felt the Lord impress upon us not too make hasty decisions which gave us a sense of peace knowing that He is in control.
After 2 weeks in the Cape we spent two more weeks in the Limpopo Province (northern South Africa) on the farm of friends. They arranged for us to see a neurologist in Jo’berg and also a neuro-cognitive therapist for a second opinion on Caleb. The results were quite amazing. The neurologist could find no evidence of epilepsy and diagnosed migraine instead (she did have a lot of prayer between the 2 investigations). The therapist (Mariska, a lovely Dutch lady) in Jo’berg diagnosed the same as in Cape Town but gave us an amazing line of treatment which we could do in Uganda. This comprises of 6 months of physical exercises to stimulate certain parts of his brain and we have already seen a lot of progress in his ability to read & write. Mariska has offered to send us more exercises each month and to follow his development.
We have decided to continue with this treatment and if needed to revisit the treatment which has been suggested in the Cape. The exiting part is that we can stay in Uganda!
On other fronts:
It was a scary time 3 weeks ago with the riots in Kampala in which a 100 people were injured and 15 were killed, some as close as 400 meters from our home. In the midst of this Sue delivered the baby of friends of ours whilst the sound of gunfire provided background ‘music’. We praise the Lord for his peace which we all experienced.
We have 2 new staff members to help us in the area of registration systems/data collection and processing and training coordination for the north east of Uganda. Last week we had the wonderful pleasure of spending time together at our annual staff retreat with Dave Adams a pastor from Cape Town providing spiritual input. We had a lot of fun and fellowship together and praise the Lord for the unity and commitment we have to each other within our team. We will put more about our team in the next newsletter.
The church we have started in our home has outgrown our living room. We are now meeting at the nearby club facility with about 40 adults and 15 kids. It is so exciting what the Lord is doing in our midst and the people he is gathering. We are running Veritas training with 12 folk from the church on a Wednesday evening. We have also approached 4 of the men in the church to pray about being part of a leadership team.
Next few weeks will be busy with visitors from the UK. Friends and Sue’s sister will be with us.
We value your prayers for us especially for wisdom in discerning God’s will for our family, ministry and work with the Shepherd’s Fold.
Thank you for standing with us in the work the Lord has called us to do in this beautiful country,
Warm regards in Christ,
Richard, Sue and the Kids
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