"Behind the Scenes: The Impactful Opening of Supreme Court Nominations and My Unexpected Contribution"
Amigos Internacionales • October 13, 2020
I watched with interest at the opening to the Supreme Court nominations and clearly saw what obviously became a planned effort to put a face with a cause. Democrats (right or wrong) and we all have opinions, spent a great deal of my tax money on extremely large portrait pictures on people that were affected by health issues. Well, not wanting to be outdone, I decided to put up my own picture for my cause. I only wish I had tax money freely at my disposal to pay for supersizing it and placing it in the Senate hearing hall. And here it is….
Let me introduce you to him….He was born in September at 27 weeks. If it weren’t for the heroic actions of the Natal NICU unit at the hospital he was born at, his life and the life of his mom, may have been lost. Why is this so significant to me? The details are this…we heard over and over again that the pictures from the Senators had little chance of survival if the Affordable Healthcare Act went away….and that may be so….however, I would like to point out that due to these same Senators hundreds of thousands of people will not have the opportunity to have any health care because of their policies. You say, please explain…based on the Lozier Institute written in January 2015, entitled “The Reality of Late-Term Abortion Procedures”, this little one in the picture above could have been subject to a procedure that to quote the article is a “dilation and evacuation”. In other words, “gruesome surgical techniques involving crushing, dismemberment and removal of a fetal body…weeks before or even after the fetus reaches a developmental age of potential viability outside the mother.” Wow, pretty harsh…even with the Affordable Care Act in place, I’m not sure that anyone that has “dismemberment and removal” could get health care in that state. Many of these children involve “an administration of a lethal injection into the fetal heart in utero to ensure the fetus is not pulled out alive or with the ability to survive.” At yet these same Senators fight tooth and nail to overturn the death penalty by lethal injection. How does this make sense?
So, as you watch the Supreme Court Selection proceedings and you see the pictures behind the Senators and speak of the people that may lose their health care…Please remember this little one and the hundreds and thousands of others that will not get the chance to purchase healthcare of any type…and remember those Senators and the hypocrisy that is evident in every word they say….
The good news? This little one just celebrated his third birthday and played his first 4 and Under Soccer game. He is full of life and hopefully will get the opportunity to purchase healthcare…which I’m sure will make those Senators sleep well.
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In a small rural village in Tanzania, a man sits quietly outside his home. His body is thin. His shoulders are tired. And rising from his back is a painful tumor that has slowly stolen nearly everything from him. His name is Zakaria. For years, Zakaria worked as a boda boda driver, carrying passengers from village to village on his motorcycle. In East Africa, a boda boda is more than transportation. For many families, it is survival. Every ride meant food. Every mile meant provision. Every long day on rough roads meant another opportunity to care for his wife and continue moving forward. But suffering often enters quietly. What began as a hitching pain in Zakaria’s back slowly became swelling. At first, it was manageable. Like many men trying to provide for their families, he pushed through the discomfort and kept working. But the pain continued. The swelling grew. And over time, the tumor became impossible to ignore. Today, Zakaria lives with constant pain and uncertainty. The disease has robbed him of strength, dignity, income, and peace. The motorcycle he once depended on has already been sold in a desperate attempt to find healing. And yet, in the middle of suffering, something unexpected happened. Hope arrived.
In many parts of the world, turning on a faucet is so ordinary that it barely deserves a second thought. A glass fills. A child drinks. A mother does the dishes. A shower runs before work or school. Clean water is simply there. In Northern Uganda, that reality still feels distant for thousands of families. In many villages scattered across rural East Africa, water is not found in a kitchen sink or flowing from pipes beneath the ground. It is carried in yellow jerrycans across dusty roads and narrow footpaths. It is gathered from muddy ponds, shallow holes carved into the earth, or stagnant pools shared with livestock. Sometimes it is brown. Sometimes it smells foul. Sometimes it makes children sick. For families with no other option, it is all they have. The water crisis in East Africa is not only about thirst. It affects health, education, safety, opportunity, and dignity. It shapes how children spend their mornings and how mothers spend their days. It determines whether girls attend school consistently or remain trapped in long daily walks carrying heavy containers of water under the scorching sun. At Amigos Internacionales, this reality is not theoretical. Staff and partners have sat beside families in remote villages. They have watched children scoop water from contaminated pits after rainfall. They have seen entire communities transformed when clean water finally arrived. That transformation is why water remains one of the most urgent and powerful parts of the MissionPoint model across Northern Uganda.
For seventeen years, Bridgette has carried a burden no child should ever bear. What started as a small red spot on her face when she was just a baby grew into a massive vascular tumor that doctors across Uganda refused to operate on. Too risky, they said. The tumor could bleed too much. She might not survive. Come back when she's older. Come back when it's smaller. Come back, come back, come back. Bridgette and her mother, Rose, heard "no" for seventeen years. But today, something has finally changed. Bridgette is now on medication that is actively shrinking her tumor. Dr. Paul Mulyamboga, Amigos Internacionales' Director of Medical Services and founder of Doctors on Mission, is monitoring her progress. When the tumor reaches an operable size, he will refer her to Mulago National Referral Hospital in Kampala for the vascular surgery that could change her life. There's just one problem: surgery can only happen if the funding is already in place . If we don't raise $12,000 before Bridgette's tumor is ready for surgery, she will have to wait again. And after seventeen years of waiting, we cannot let that happen. How It Started — A Small Red Spot
Baby Godfrey couldn't eat without pain. His family couldn't afford surgery. The Bethel Smile program gave him free cleft lip surgery at 4 months old.
Free Medical Camps in Burundi: What Happens When a Doctor Walks Into Gisuru | Amigos Internacionales
Inside the Gisuru medical camp in Burundi — surgeries, eye care, and spiritual ministry delivered by volunteer doctors. See the full impact report from 2025.
East Texas journalist Jennifer Scott traveled to East Africa to cover Amigos Internacionales. Read the full Tyler Morning Telegraph feature from April 2026.
Learn how church missions in Africa, through partnerships with Amigos Internacionales, can bring lasting change to communities in need. Get involved in education, healthcare, and development projects.
Discover the resilience of refugees in Northern Uganda and how Amigos Internacionales is providing medical care, education, and empowerment to help rebuild lives.
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