Tanzania Bound!!!

Every since we confirmed the news, I have not been able to wipe this smile off of my face! The Chachas are going to Tanzania for two weeks in May!!! I wrote several posts ago that if home is where the heart is, then home for me is spread all across the world, and that little village of Ntagacha definitely houses a big piece of home!

Though I am so excited to reconnect with family and friends and I can't wait to get a big group hug from those kids that I love so much, even more than the fresh mangoes, warm sun and beautiful sound of Swahili, I am excited to see me dream realized-- a working, functioning, Tumaini Medical Center, and as a registered nurse I will be able to help provide the medical care that this village so desperately needs!

Over three years have passed since I sat in that hospital and prayed and dreamed for it to come to reality. Over two years since I had to take a little boy with a nosebleed that would not stop over the bumpy, dusty road to a clinic 45 minutes away. Years since I walked those corridors, sat on the concrete steps and cried "Lord we need this medical center." It's been years and now it's here! We have a wonderful doctor named Ben that Mwita and I had the pleasure of becoming friends with (he treated our stomach aches and illnesses). It is here and I cannot wait to be there!

Though two weeks will be a whirlwind trip, I know I will enjoy every minute of it. From the hustle bustle of the Nairobi airport to the long, roving bus ride across the Rift Valley, from the smiling faces, to the bumpy dirt roads, the fresh pineapple to the rain pattering the tin roof. From the bubbling sound of Swahili, to the children singing their hearts out at night and I cannot wait for every site, sound and experience that Ntagatcha has to offer!

It's been over two years since we have been there. Two years since Mwita and I have seen the family we love. Two years since we have been to the place that we met, grew, learned and fell in love. It's been two years too long!

We are Tanzania bound and not looking back!

Train Tracks

There is a park just down the road from us that feels like a little bit of home to me here in Lynchburg. It is one of the very first places we explored when we first moved here. For some reason that makes it feel familiar. I love walking there, strolling over the hills and feeling the wind in my hair.

My favorite place in the park is where a huge train track bridge juts out over the river hundreds of feet below. It looks to big and powerful looming over the rushing water beneath.

When I take a walk in the park, I always go to that spot hoping, wishing, waiting that the powerful engine will come charging across...it never happens.

One day I was taking a walk and I heard the whistling of the train in the distance! I raced to the spot where I could see the bridge, sat down and waited. The air was full of the sheer power of the train, the tons and tons of metal grinding over the track. It was so loud that it filled the whole valley, it made me shiver. I waited and I watched.

I sat in that place, my eyes glued on the bridge until I realized that instead of getting louder still, and closer, the sheer whistles and mighty roar where slowly getting quiet. I sat there until it was a small hum in the distance.

The train must have taken another path, there must have been another track in the valley near the river, I missed it.

I sat there disappointed, I had so hoped to see the powerful show. But as I sat there I realized the lesson I had learned. And during a time of change for not only me, but many of those I love as well, I realized what a timely lesson it was.


Even though the train did not come roaring across the bridge as I had expected, I could not deny the untamable power of that engine as it's metal wheels clanked down the track. The sheer power made the whole valley hum, I could not see, but I could feel it, I knew it was there.

How often is God like that in our lives. We have a track mapped out for how we think He will guide and intervene. We sit, wait and watch until He comes across the bridge just like we thought He would. But so often He takes a different way. We can't see Him, but we feel Him, we feel His power and we know that He is there. He is just roaring across a track that we did not know existed. He is cutting new paths through the mountain and new tracks by the river. But His presence is undeniable. It gives us shivers as we feel His power, it gives us hope, because we know that He is near.

You can't see Him, but you feel Him, you trust, know and believe that He is near.