So much to be Thankful for....

Happy Thanksgiving! I know it is not exactly thanksgiving yet but my team and I
celebrated thanksgiving yesterday. My first thanksgiving on a beach! Pretty
amazing. The base is full of families and singles from Tanzania. We introduced
them to a little bit of American history yesterday by including them in all our
thanksgiving activities. A nice breakfast, followed by a day at the beach, then a
dinner with dessert! It was a treat for us to have dessert and for all of them to be
able to go to the beach! It was great fun to watch them play, swim, and see there
kids just soak up every minute of play time while we were there. I will try to get
some pictures up soon!


These weeks here seem to be flying by. We are starting on the down hill slope of
our time here. Only seven weeks left. The news this week is extra exciting. There
are many staff at the hospital that have been asking us several questions about
being different, what is different about you they ask. They hear us praying, they
know we believe in Jesus, and they even are starting to let us pray for them!
There is one doctor in particular who has shown extra interest and been asking
extra questions over these past few weeks. This past week one of our teams had
the privilege of being at lunch with him the day he decided to become born again.
This was awesome! Places are changed by one individual. This doctor was
letting God open up His heart and wants to change. He wants and now has
Jesus! We are so excited to be able to continue to disciple him in these next
weeks of being at the hospital and are so eager to see the ripple effect of God
working in this doctors life.


It is hard to top the first testimony of this week but I did experience a view of
Jesus that was beautiful. There are about 30-40, sometimes more, women that
need to have full assessments done every morning in the ward I was working in
this week. This is the antenatal ward, the women are in latent phase of labor
waiting to go into active phase to be moved over to the labor ward. With only two
doctors you can imagine how long these checks take. I was assisting a doctor on
thursday morning with the women’s checks and we were about half way through
the women. It is a series of different checks, one of which is listening to and
counting the fetal heart tones. Most of the time we as students are asked to listen
to the heart of the baby with a pinard. It is a cone shaped piece of equipment that
works like a stethoscope. On this one particular mamma, I could not hear the
heart sounds. Not an uncommon occurrence because the pinard is not as easy
to use or accurate for all mammas. So I reached over to get the doppler machine
to listen to the heart sounds. As I put the machine on the women’s belly, I
immediately found the heart tones. I looked down at my watch to start my
counting when I caught a glimpse of the mamma out of the conner of my eye,
she was crying. There was this short moment when the business, the room, it
was all quiet. This women, possible for the first time was hearing her babies heart
beating. She was experiencing this life that had been growing inside of her. It
was this beautiful moment of love. Later that day as I continued to remember this
mamma and her baby I couldn’t get over the love that was flowing out of her the
moment she knew she could hear the life that was inside of her. It was this
instant picture for me of Jesus. These women endure and go through a lot of
harsh treatment and situations to have these babies. They suffer and have
severe pain. They watch as other women around them go through so many
difficult situations not knowing what is going to happen to them and there baby.
This mamma was fighting for this life. She was enduring and suffering just to hear
that little heart beat. To know that life was coming, to hear that heart beat gave
her hope and a drive to push through to delivery. It was just such a clear picture
of Jesus. He endured, He suffers, He watches in horror as we do things to each
other that are deadly, scary, and painful. He waits for those little moments where
He can hear our heart beat. He is waiting to hear the little heart beats of His
children. The heart beat of one of them walking in a talent that He gave them, or
one of them receiving healing, or one of them coming into His kingdom, like are
doctor friend. We can know that life is coming. Life will be brought forth from
Jesus. He is determined to see our life brought forth into restoration and
completeness. So we may be dragged through, or drag ourselves through, many
unnecessary painful experiences, worry, and fear, but in the end He is
persevering, He is life, and He is determined in His love for us.


You are blessed to be a blessing.