Monday, August 23, 2010

Back to School



It is my first day of my last year of nursing school, and I am overwhelmed with emotions. It is going to be a hard year, there is no doubt about that. I am confident, though, that God has already given me the strength and wisdom to get through it!

Being back in America, I am once again bombarded with the differences between the land, one thing I cannot get over is our ungratefulness amidst our vast opportunities. I was confronted with it at school today. My goal this year is to be different than that. As I heard the grumbling and complaining of my classmates, I cannot help but think of my friends back in Ntagacha who are desperate to find money for school fees so that can get an education. How many girls in that village would love a chance to go to nursing school!

When I think of the sacrifices we make here to go to school, I think of another friend who left his wife and sons for 18 months to pursue a degree. There are countless fathers who go hungry to sent their children to school, and countless mothers who would give anything for their children to have the opportunity.

What a blessing I have! What an opportunity I have in front of me! And as I continue on my path to being a nurse, I also think of the beautiful Tumaini Medical Center that I have spent hours praying for and dreaming in. I long to be there and I long to make a difference in that land. Now, though, I will be content to learn everything I can and hopefully bring a positive attitude to a few other people along the way.

Pray that I will be able to make a difference, and pray to that I will have the strength to finish well. I know at the end of this, the journey is just beginning!!!

Saturday, August 7, 2010

One Hundred Miles Ahead


(Written in the airport on the way home)

One hundred miles ahead, one hundred miles behind
Head in the clouds, Ntagacha on my mind...

I cannot believe that I am on my way home. Where has this summer gone? How can I be headed home when I feel like I have left home behind? Truly remarkable- this summer. Truly amazing all the changes I have seen in these few short months. I am overwhelmed when I think of the beautiful things unfolding and the projects accomplished at the City of Hope this summer.

One of the most remarkable things I saw this summer, was a family being restored. There is nothing more beautiful. A friend of mine had had trouble with his wife for awhile and finally she left him in pursuit of a more peaceful life. This summer, though, things changed for them. They worked out their differences and she returned him with their two daughters. I will never forget the overwhelming feeling of joy I felt my last Sunday when I turned around in church to see him there dancing his heart out and praising God for his blessings. He is a new man and he has not wiped the smile off of his face since his wife returned. He is a new man! God is the restorer of mankind and the mender of relationships!

I have another dear friend who lost his father last summer. He was in high school, but because of the passing of his father, he did not have the school fees to return to school and instead became the man of his household. Because of the City of Hope, though, this fall he will finally be able to finish his education. He has been given hope, where he had no hope.

There is story after story about this summer and the lives that were changed. A grandmother raising a dozen grandchildren who were invited to come and pick out new outfits and shoes, a girl being sent away to a school where she can realize her dream of becoming a seamstress, a young man learning to drive the tractor so he can support himself in the future, cows bought to provide milk and income for the orphaned children.

My favorite day of the summer was when we had a party for the elderly people of the village. We slaughtered a cow (a big deal), cooked kilos and kilos of rice and set up under the beautiful acacia tree. We invited all of the elderly people and had a party. There was singing and sharing with one another. The best part was the all-out Kuria dance party. I danced like I have never danced in my life, and I still got shown up by an 80 year old woman with a cane :) At the end of the party we handed out a blanket to each one. This was the start of a beautiful connection with the community. In Malachi 4:6 it says, "He will turn the hearts of the fathers to their children, and the hearts of the children to their fathers." That is a beautiful thing.

I am utterly amazed by the awesomeness that is the City of Hope. I am even more amazed that I have been chosen to be a part of such a groundbreaking work.

I returned to Tanzania and fell in love all over again. A people, a land, a village, my Tanzania. This trip, for me, was far less about work projects, and far more about people. It was my time to reconnect and rejuvenate relationships, and I did just that. Hours spend with grandmothers drinking chai, children harvesting corn and young people learning Kuria.

I felt more alive this summer than I ever have in my life. In Ntagacha, I just feel so right. I cannot stop thinking of the opportunities and adventures that I have had and those that await me. I cannot forget the wonderful people I have met. These past five weeks have been life changing at best and I am oh so excited for the future. It has been chapter two of my book...and I can firmly say that there are many more a chapter to be written. Once again...these have been my dreams from Africa.

For more information about the future of the City of Hope...visit http://www.teamworkcityofhope.com/content/dwtemplatepages/images/9102-FUNDRAISING%20small.pdf

Wednesday, August 4, 2010

What Does Love Look Like?






(These are the updates I had meant to post during my trip, but because of the lack of internet connection...I am putting them up now)

I was thinking today about love. Not because my heart is bursting with love for Tanzania, and not even because I just got engaged (though that certainly makes the word more real). I was thinking about love, because to me, that is what ministry is all about. Love.

I am blown away by the kids. They work from the moment the sun rises to the moment it sets. They set about doing their field work, school work and chores with joy and intent. They tell me they do out out of love. Love for each other, for the community and love for the future God has given them.

I wondered then what love looks like for me right now and it came to me...love looks like serving with out expecting in return. Love looks like being thankful, even if I do not feel it.
Love looks like making sure the team has food, washing dishes with the girls with a smile of my face.
Love looks like making beds. Today love looked like walking to the spring with the kids to fetch water for their baths.
Love has looked like drinking chai with grandmothers and dancing in church with little kids. Love has looked like giving out candy, painting ceilings, teaching English, harvesting corn, giving away clothes, buying bananas, jumping rope and praying.
Love has looked like learning Kuria, giving hugs and acknowledging countless little tugs at my arms.
Love looks like squeezing Boke's hand on the way the hospital. Love looks like anything I have done this summer out of love for the Father.

Love looks like life.

Ntagacha's Greatest Need


As Mwita and I began planning for the next DVD to be made for the City of Hope, we asked people what is Ntagacha's greatest need? As I pondered that question for a while, it became very apparent...Ntagacha needs its hospital to be opened!

This especially became apparent to me the other night. After dinner I was doing my daily routine of going down to play with the children as they prepared to end their day. As I walked into the dining hall on little boy pointed out a few drops of blood on the floor and then before I knew it Boke walked up to me, his nose dripping with blood. He said that he had fallen and his nose had begun to bleed. As I took him up to the house to assess, we soon found that he was bleeding out his mouth as well and we were concerned of a possible nose break.

Though my heart was broken for him, I knew I had to set right to action. After icing and compressing his nose for about half an hour without any slowing, I decided we needed to head to the clinic. A few of us hopped in the van and headed down the road. We decided to stop in a nearby village at a small clinic. We took Boke out of the car and ducked into a tiny doctor's office. The sun had begun to set and as the doctor assessed Boke, Tabitha and I took turns holding the flashlight for him to see.

We waited at this clinic for another half hour, and decided that this doctor did not have the equipment and medicine necessary to stop the bleeding. We traveled down the road Tabitha holding a tissue to his nose, myself holding a tissue at his mouth and Elsa holding the flashlight I began to worry. We were traveling down a dusty, bumpy dirt road and by now it was completely dark. Boke's eyes were beginning to droop, his pulse was racing and his hand was getting hold. As I squeezed his hand tightly I began to pray like I never had before.

After two hours since the bleeding had started we arrived at the doctor's office and he was called to come. Soon he came on his motorcycle. Thankfully he knew just what to do and he had the right medicine to stop the bleeding. He took Boke into his care and assured us that we had done the right thing, that we should go home and collect the boy in the morning.

Driving home, I finally began to breath again. I was full of thanksgiving, yet heart break.

I began to think about what if this was a different child. We were the only ones that own a vehicle in the village. What if it was a different child and his only transportation was a bicycle, or worse on foot. If it was any other child, it would have taken to long, the blood loss would be too much, it would have been to late. Oh Lord, I cried, we need this hospital.

Though it is moving along, we still need the government to finalize their end, and we need money for the housing of the nurses and doctors. We have come so far, but we still have far to go.

This hospital, though, truly is Ntagacha's greatest need.