Bainbridge resident travels to Uganda for third time

Published 6:08 pm Tuesday, January 6, 2015

African Well

This photo was sent from Pastor Stanley Phillips of the villagers in Jinja, Uganda, thankful for the money contributed by Bainbridge people, especially those from Southwest Baptist Church, to build a well.

In July 2014 Words of Truth Teaching Ministries, Inc. of Bainbridge, left for Budiba, Uganda with a total of 18 people. This was the third trip to Uganda made by Pastor Stanley Phillips, to minister at the orphanage and school that God put in his path in 2012.

Since 2012 WOTTMs, directed by Pastor Phillips, along with much help from his wife April, has taken a total of 48 people to Uganda to do mission work in Uganda.
Most of the teams were made up of medical personnel, teachers, preachers and students.

WOTTMs has built school rooms, a four stall latrine, and a much needed well at Budiba. At this time WOTTMs is currently planning to build a multi-use building that will be used as a church worship center and classrooms for the Christian School.

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Pastor Stanley says that the plan for the July 2014 mission trip was to go to the orphanage at Budiba and do a type of vacation Bible school with the 300 plus children, finish some much needed medical work, and do a hygiene clinic.

However, upon arrival from the airport to their house in Jinja, Uganda, Pastor Stanley learned about a village that was in desperate need of medical help. This village was a three-hour bus ride through very rough terrain and then a long walk just to get to where the children were.

The following account is reported in the words of Pastor Stanley Phillips as he wrote it.

“After prayer, we hired some Ugandan nurses and a Ugandan doctor and informed our team that God had redirected our plans. We had medical supplies left at our house from our March trip; so after a night of rest we loaded up and headed out to minister to these people in faith. Why faith? Because we did not know where we were going, what we would find when we got there, how we would deal with what we would find there, or even if we would make it here on the raggedy bus!

After arriving we knew that we were over our heads.  There were hundreds and hundreds of children, teenagers and adults who were sick from all types of illnesses. There was this one boy who had fallen out of a tree and his back was broken, one boy that had broken his femur months before and it was evident that the bone was not together. There was a lady that had been bit by a very poisonous snake and her hand was about to rot off. Another woman had a skin disease that looked like leprosy.

I cannot begin to list all the sickness there!

Then there were the children. Many children that had some type of stomach bacteria that was killing them. After one day there we knew that we were way over our heads. I was overwhelmed, and I remember going off by myself to pray and I wept because I felt so helpless.

It was there that God reminded me that whatever is over my head is still under His feet, and at that moment God strengthened my faith and I knew that God would help us.
I met with the Ugandan doctor and asked what should we do and he said that we needed to bring the worst back with us to the hospital in Jinja. I said OK in faith, because I knew that in Uganda that you do not get medical care without cash up front and I did not know if we had enough cash to pay for all these people that were sick. All I can say is that God provided.

We loaded every one up and began the long, hot journey back to Jinja where we took the sickest ones to the hospital. The next day we went back to this same village and the doctor asked one of the children to bring him some of their drinking water.

He took the water and told me to smell the water and when I did I almost got sick on my stomach. The doctor said, “Pastor, the water is making them sick.” We asked to see the source of the water supply for the village. The water supply was back-water from Lake Victoria that was over three miles away, one way.

The doctor gathered the people together — over five hundred people of the two thousand people in the village sat and listened. He said “Your children are getting sick from the water. “ As I looked into the eyes of those parents, they looked empty and helpless.

Before I knew it, I said in faith, “Well, we will dig them a well.” And all the people cheered and began to praise God.

On the way home I thought, O Lord, what have I promised these people? He said to me, “It was your lips that said it, but I will provide it.”

The next few days we spent at our orphanage at Budiba doing what we thought God had sent us there to do and God blessed those days. After returning home, God has worked in many ways to help WOTTMs complete the well, and today the people are drinking clean water.

I want to say thanks to Polka Dots on the square for your awesome support. Thanks to all the people in Bainbridge that have purchased our Ugandan items from Polka Dots; thanks to all the churches, businesses and individuals that have given to help WOTTMs Inc. of Bainbridge to reach hundreds of people in Uganda with the Gospel Message of Jesus Christ.

It has been said, “People do not care how much you know or who you know until they know how much you care.”  Our goal is to tell people how much we know about the one we know. His name is Jesus and my prayer is that in a few months that I and some others can sit at the well that many of you helped us dig in the village and tell thousands about the “water of life.”

If you feel led to help WOTTMs Inc. continue to minister from Bainbridge to Budiba Uganda, please send your tax deductible gift to Words of Truth Teaching Ministries, Inc., 150 Ten Mile Still Road, Bainbridge GA 39817.WOTTMs is a 501-C3 non-profit ministry.

I want to say a special thanks to my entire family that helps me with WOTTMs, my board of directors, a very special supporter of our ministry and Southwest Baptist Church, where I am blessed to be the pastor.