Life is busy for Janine LeGrand. This long-tenured SAMS Missionary works tirelessly to improve the healthcare of the people in the Masinda-Kitara Diocese in western Uganda. Janine is constantly educating people about practicing good health in her job as the Diocesan Health Coordinator. Think basic information like clean water practices, good nutrition, and sanitation. But where Janine makes the biggest impact is showing the love of Jesus through her personal interactions throughout the area. Recently she hosted the members of the Diocesan Office (the Secretariat) to her home to strengthen bonds and show them some of the ways she prepares healthy food.
Her diocese has a close working relationship with One World Health (OWH). The U.S. OWH Medical Team was about to do one of there regular medical visits, and Janine’s team of volunteers were busy organizing the sites where the teams meet patients. Partnering with three parishes, Janine’s team, the OWH Team and workers from Masindi Kitara Hospital saw well over 1,200 people across 5 days. This gives Janine and her team ample opportunity to visit with people and pray with them. They also share the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
The Lord has used many experiences in Janine’s life to prepare her for the mission field. Born in Los Angeles, Janine attended UCLA but left after a year to pursue her interest in feeding people sustainably through fish farming in Hawaii. There were fish farms in Hawaii and her parents had recently moved there, so it seemed a good fit. Here fish farming work led her to earn a degree in Zoology and she began teaching science in Hawaii. An opportunity opened up in Japan and she taught there for three additional years, but she felt herself becoming burned out on teaching. She retrained first as a vet lab tech and then in medical assisting. Through these experiences God placed a burden on her for the mission field.
Janine works with people to also fit them with reading glasses. It began with an emphasis on church leaders, but she opened it up to the community when she was able to acquire enough glasses. What a huge difference it makes when a person can read the Bible again, or when an accountant can see well enough to keep the books. In addition to fitting people with glasses, she continue to distribute health messages through church leaders, WhatsApp and text messages. Her health education information is now being sent to schools in the area as well.
Janine is always looking for ways to innovate where health education, nutrition and creation care meet. With deforestation becoming a much bigger issue and burning bans being enacted in some areas of Uganda, Janine has been working on a design for a solar stove that people can use to cook healthy meals without burning wood, and doing so inexpensively.