okay so here we are, t minus three hours till leaving for the airport and six hours till flying off, on our way through Dubai to Tanzania!
this week has been exciting, stressful, overwhelming, fun and very chaotic! but such is expected in this time. i am packed and ready to go, first some emails, then dinner, then a team prayer time and then we are off!
seems like time has gone by extremely fast, just thinking that before you know it i’ll be back home in canada..... so crazy! i am excited and nervous. not sure what to expect! i’m excited to have an african birthday! one of the girls today actually took me out for lunch and then bought me a mini cake where the waiter had written ‘happy birthday’ in chocolate sauce on the plate around it! so precious! i feel truly blessed to be here and am looking forward to whats next, even though i’m not entirely sure what that means!
i will be trying to update when possible, have patience and grace with me as internet will be a bit of a challenge over the course of the next 8 months. but i am committed to trying my best!
lots of love!
till next time....
Sunday, September 26, 2010
Monday, September 20, 2010
week eleven
it is very difficult for me to talk about this past week. so much has happened and since we are closing in on our last few days here in Perth everything seems in chaos! in the midst of classes and prayer for finances, there other issues of packing, preparing, cleaning and organizing. so i will try my best and give an idea of what this is all like!
okay, so topic of the week in lectures, evangelism. not going to lie, a little challenging to pay attention at times as i have been dealing with some personal issues.but this was the top we had lectures till wednesday then on thursday our class went out to downtown to do what we had been learning about. i think our lectures were more a preparation for our hearts in why we do what we do. i appreciated our speakers’ thoughts on salvation and evangelism. he had said ‘salvation is knowing and loving God’ and ‘evangelism is inspiring others to know and love God’. so simple, yet holding so much more. so thursday morning that is what our school did. it was a different style then i’ve ever gone out to do. we were in the main market area of downtown and as a group sang worship songs (yes someone was playing the guitar!) and had moments of people sharing what was on there hearts to basically whoever would listen! it was neat to see people stopping to see what we were doing, some stayed to listen and then talked to someone from our group while others walked by muttering annoyances at us. at the end we spent ten minutes asking anyone we felt if they wanted prayer. it was neat to see how responsive some people are to accepting prayer even when they weren’t sure what they felt about God. others were not responsive at all and were very deliberate in saying ‘no’. either way it was a good morning and lots of people received prayer for personal issues or physical.
friday our class went to the ‘natural family planning centre’. very interesting! we learnt different methods of contraception without the use of implanting anything into your body! we also learnt what some of these methods do. like the pill for example actually doesn’t ‘prevent’ pregnancy it will just ‘blow up’ in a sense a fertile egg. (there are different kinds of birth control pills but this is the most common) but ya, i’d be happy to chat more on these methods if anyone wishes!
as for other things going on this week, i have been able to prepare a bit more for outreach. gone and bought a few things i need. i’m still in need of more things, like labour room shoes (they have to be cleanable and no holes) some skirts (as it is the only thing we will be wearing for the entire time in Africa) and a few other odds and ends. but in a way i am feeling more prepared for leaving. getting excited too! (which is a very good thing!) we leave sunday the 26th. our plane heads out at 10:30pm. so please be praying for this week that i will be able to get more ready and not feel overwhelmed! also a praise report i think everyone has gotten there fee’s in! which is HUGE! even this mornign there were still four people needing a total over $15 000 and by lunch the need was down to $4000 for only one person! so God is moving and since lunch i think more has even come in! so Praise the Lord for that! our God is BIG!
till next time!
ps as of two o'clock monday all the money needed was in and everyone has there plane tickets! over 15,000 in one day!!!!!!
okay, so topic of the week in lectures, evangelism. not going to lie, a little challenging to pay attention at times as i have been dealing with some personal issues.but this was the top we had lectures till wednesday then on thursday our class went out to downtown to do what we had been learning about. i think our lectures were more a preparation for our hearts in why we do what we do. i appreciated our speakers’ thoughts on salvation and evangelism. he had said ‘salvation is knowing and loving God’ and ‘evangelism is inspiring others to know and love God’. so simple, yet holding so much more. so thursday morning that is what our school did. it was a different style then i’ve ever gone out to do. we were in the main market area of downtown and as a group sang worship songs (yes someone was playing the guitar!) and had moments of people sharing what was on there hearts to basically whoever would listen! it was neat to see people stopping to see what we were doing, some stayed to listen and then talked to someone from our group while others walked by muttering annoyances at us. at the end we spent ten minutes asking anyone we felt if they wanted prayer. it was neat to see how responsive some people are to accepting prayer even when they weren’t sure what they felt about God. others were not responsive at all and were very deliberate in saying ‘no’. either way it was a good morning and lots of people received prayer for personal issues or physical.
friday our class went to the ‘natural family planning centre’. very interesting! we learnt different methods of contraception without the use of implanting anything into your body! we also learnt what some of these methods do. like the pill for example actually doesn’t ‘prevent’ pregnancy it will just ‘blow up’ in a sense a fertile egg. (there are different kinds of birth control pills but this is the most common) but ya, i’d be happy to chat more on these methods if anyone wishes!
as for other things going on this week, i have been able to prepare a bit more for outreach. gone and bought a few things i need. i’m still in need of more things, like labour room shoes (they have to be cleanable and no holes) some skirts (as it is the only thing we will be wearing for the entire time in Africa) and a few other odds and ends. but in a way i am feeling more prepared for leaving. getting excited too! (which is a very good thing!) we leave sunday the 26th. our plane heads out at 10:30pm. so please be praying for this week that i will be able to get more ready and not feel overwhelmed! also a praise report i think everyone has gotten there fee’s in! which is HUGE! even this mornign there were still four people needing a total over $15 000 and by lunch the need was down to $4000 for only one person! so God is moving and since lunch i think more has even come in! so Praise the Lord for that! our God is BIG!
till next time!
ps as of two o'clock monday all the money needed was in and everyone has there plane tickets! over 15,000 in one day!!!!!!
Monday, September 13, 2010
week ten
a continuation from last week in regards to lectures.... the postpartum time and then into some other things such as breastfeeding, spotting signs of a respiratory infection and what to do for a child thats had diarrhea. it was sad to learn how many infant deaths there are because of dehydration. in fact its the second leading killer among infants. the first is respiratory illness’s. so sad because theres mostly always preventable.
we also had a field trip to the hospital this past friday! so much fun! we learnt resuscitation of infants and had a tour of the facilities. including the labour ward, the operating ‘theatre’ (room, theatre is what they refer to it here and on outreach), the nursery and the postpartum ward. it was a privately run hospital and very nice, nothing compared to what we’ll see on outreach! but it was neat to see and defiantly got us more excited to be leaving in two weeks. we even got to see a placenta! which i’m sure to many sounds disgusting, but for us who have been learning about these and much more it was nice to finally get to see ‘a real live one’ haha! it was pretty neat to see the ‘home’ of a baby! and we were even given gloves and got to touch it!
this week has been full, with the deadline of outreach fee’s creeping in on us every spare moment we’ve had has been devoted to prayer. we’ve seen huge progress and many people have been provided for, as of friday however our school as a whole still needed just over 30,000.00AUD. we’ve seen God move, we know he is bigger than anything we can imagine, so we wait on him to see what he’s gonna do!
so yup that has been the week, we’ve started a little more with some outreach prep which has been informative as well as a little overwhelming. crazy to think, i will live in Africa for six months. i’m excited, just not sure what to expect.
till next week
we also had a field trip to the hospital this past friday! so much fun! we learnt resuscitation of infants and had a tour of the facilities. including the labour ward, the operating ‘theatre’ (room, theatre is what they refer to it here and on outreach), the nursery and the postpartum ward. it was a privately run hospital and very nice, nothing compared to what we’ll see on outreach! but it was neat to see and defiantly got us more excited to be leaving in two weeks. we even got to see a placenta! which i’m sure to many sounds disgusting, but for us who have been learning about these and much more it was nice to finally get to see ‘a real live one’ haha! it was pretty neat to see the ‘home’ of a baby! and we were even given gloves and got to touch it!
this week has been full, with the deadline of outreach fee’s creeping in on us every spare moment we’ve had has been devoted to prayer. we’ve seen huge progress and many people have been provided for, as of friday however our school as a whole still needed just over 30,000.00AUD. we’ve seen God move, we know he is bigger than anything we can imagine, so we wait on him to see what he’s gonna do!
so yup that has been the week, we’ve started a little more with some outreach prep which has been informative as well as a little overwhelming. crazy to think, i will live in Africa for six months. i’m excited, just not sure what to expect.
till next week
Tuesday, September 7, 2010
'a day in a midwife'
here is a link to a video of an example of 'a day in a life of a midwife' it takes place in India and was the BAS last year!
its also on facebook but for those of you who don't have fb hopefully this will work for you to see it! also please be praying for our school as outreach fee's are due today for everyone!!!!
http://vimeo.com/14688854
its also on facebook but for those of you who don't have fb hopefully this will work for you to see it! also please be praying for our school as outreach fee's are due today for everyone!!!!
http://vimeo.com/14688854
Monday, September 6, 2010
last years BAS in Tanzania!
'our bathroom at the base'
the base
one of my staff with a newborn
a typical 'waiting' area...... pretty crazy eh?
week nine
week nine
well its official, there is less than a month left here in Perth!!! i still can not believe i will be living in Africa for six months. and just as it is beginning to smell of summer here! i’m currently outside as i write this, its a lovely day here in Perth, and i’m enjoying the sun from across my house in the field just outside a stadium, where currently there is a soccer game going on! lots of crowd and cheering! pretty entertaining and smells good too. like a carnival with hotdogs and all the greasy good food you only eat there or maybe at a goldeye’s game!
so this past week, hmmm..... well our lecture topic was a bit mixed up but in general it was the postpartum time. (time after delivery) so we’ve covered the care of the newborn as well as some of the physical care of the women. next week is a continuation of this past week. but i did enjoy the care of a new born lectures. it is exciting to think that i’ll get to play such a vital role in the welcoming this new life into the world. i loved the quote of our lecture leader ‘for the newborn to be able to feel the hands of Jesus through our hands’ makes me feel very privileged and honored to be doing this job. also learning about cutting the cord, and doing the first examination to make sure everything is ‘normal’ in the baby. it seems like it will be the ‘take a breathe’ moment where the chaos of the delivery is over and the baby is out and stable and resting upon its mother and you get to check its eyes, ears, ten fingers, ten little toes and listen to them breath, among other things! i’m not sure exactly how this will go down on outreach, i know for the girls going to India it will be a hectic time and even in Tanzania in the hospital i think they’ve mentioned that some women are in and out the same day, if not hours after delivery.... i actually have a few pictures from one of my school staff from her time last year there and i’ll get them up so you can see kinda what its like!
other than lectures, lets see, what else has been going on..... well we’ve been hearing many neat stories of God’s provision in finances for students in our school, one girl received just over 2000 in one day, just from various people donations! it makes me so much more aware that there is no way i could do what i’m doing without the help of you at home and around the world that have supported me financially and through prayer. you all really are partners in what is going on here in Perth and what is going to happen in Tanzania in three very short weeks! thank you again!
yesterday some of us girls decided to go to ikea! (yes they have one here and not in winnipeg!!!) it was so much fun!!! we ate breakfast at the buffet as it is cheap! and then took our time (as you have to when walking through ikea) and went through each display, posing and taking photo’s, even having a dance party in one! me and Naomi then went to the mall and got our haircuts.. a little scary but the guy i had was really trust worthy and was actually from Kenya, (just north of Tanzania) so we had a nice chat about Africa and a bit on how he got here to Australia. then we went to Naomi’s house and hung out. also most exciting, i got to drive! a little strange especially to go around a round-a-bout and turn left not right, but i did pretty good! it was fun to get behind the wheel and drive, made me feel more normal! haha!
well there are people out of the stadium now (half time?) kicking around a football and its slightly going into the tree’s above my head and for the sake of my computer and brain i may have to relocate!
take care have a good week!
well its official, there is less than a month left here in Perth!!! i still can not believe i will be living in Africa for six months. and just as it is beginning to smell of summer here! i’m currently outside as i write this, its a lovely day here in Perth, and i’m enjoying the sun from across my house in the field just outside a stadium, where currently there is a soccer game going on! lots of crowd and cheering! pretty entertaining and smells good too. like a carnival with hotdogs and all the greasy good food you only eat there or maybe at a goldeye’s game!
so this past week, hmmm..... well our lecture topic was a bit mixed up but in general it was the postpartum time. (time after delivery) so we’ve covered the care of the newborn as well as some of the physical care of the women. next week is a continuation of this past week. but i did enjoy the care of a new born lectures. it is exciting to think that i’ll get to play such a vital role in the welcoming this new life into the world. i loved the quote of our lecture leader ‘for the newborn to be able to feel the hands of Jesus through our hands’ makes me feel very privileged and honored to be doing this job. also learning about cutting the cord, and doing the first examination to make sure everything is ‘normal’ in the baby. it seems like it will be the ‘take a breathe’ moment where the chaos of the delivery is over and the baby is out and stable and resting upon its mother and you get to check its eyes, ears, ten fingers, ten little toes and listen to them breath, among other things! i’m not sure exactly how this will go down on outreach, i know for the girls going to India it will be a hectic time and even in Tanzania in the hospital i think they’ve mentioned that some women are in and out the same day, if not hours after delivery.... i actually have a few pictures from one of my school staff from her time last year there and i’ll get them up so you can see kinda what its like!
other than lectures, lets see, what else has been going on..... well we’ve been hearing many neat stories of God’s provision in finances for students in our school, one girl received just over 2000 in one day, just from various people donations! it makes me so much more aware that there is no way i could do what i’m doing without the help of you at home and around the world that have supported me financially and through prayer. you all really are partners in what is going on here in Perth and what is going to happen in Tanzania in three very short weeks! thank you again!
yesterday some of us girls decided to go to ikea! (yes they have one here and not in winnipeg!!!) it was so much fun!!! we ate breakfast at the buffet as it is cheap! and then took our time (as you have to when walking through ikea) and went through each display, posing and taking photo’s, even having a dance party in one! me and Naomi then went to the mall and got our haircuts.. a little scary but the guy i had was really trust worthy and was actually from Kenya, (just north of Tanzania) so we had a nice chat about Africa and a bit on how he got here to Australia. then we went to Naomi’s house and hung out. also most exciting, i got to drive! a little strange especially to go around a round-a-bout and turn left not right, but i did pretty good! it was fun to get behind the wheel and drive, made me feel more normal! haha!
well there are people out of the stadium now (half time?) kicking around a football and its slightly going into the tree’s above my head and for the sake of my computer and brain i may have to relocate!
take care have a good week!
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