Sorry this is wayyyyyyyyy past due! life just got a tad bit crazy! I am now blogging from my new home in Silver City, NM. But thats a whole other post! so on to Africa...
Waking up the morning of June 8th, i had no idea what i was in for. This was definitely the most emotional day for most of our team. After breakfast and devotionals, we found out that we would be going to visit a clinic, a cemetery and walk through a village with the care givers to take care of their patients. I thought i was ready for all of that but HECK no i was not!
When we arrived at the clinic, there were people surruonding the building. It was "Mothers Day" meaning that they were seeing mothers and their young children. The clinic was packed. You could hardly move around inside. This one clinic, supported 9 different villages-approximately 51,000 people. They had 1 doctor who was only there for short times and 3 nurses. It was so hard to see. Everyone was starting at our team while we were given a tour of the clinic. I felt terrible. These people are sick and are waiting to be seen while we get a tour of the clinic. I just wanted to get out of there so they could be helped. The clinic was understaffed and under-supplied. We complain for wating 30min or an hour at urgent care while these people waiting since 5am till the end of the day may not even get seen and helped. So frustrating! I have a whole new perspective on many things. One thing that i became more educated on was on medicine. There are all those commercials on tv with Bono and other celebrities saying 20cents a day can buy this pill that will save someones life of what not. Seems simple. But what good do these pills and medicine do if these people have no food or water to take them with?? Yeah does them no good.
After walking through the clinic we passed by the cemetery again. There were way too many unmarked graves there. Some of the children who past away had yet to receive birth certificates so there is no proof that these children ever existed. They just came and went...not acceptable at all. That hit me really hard. I was sick to my stomach with sadness and anger. Why would God let this happen? was all i could think about. I didnt understand. Then, while sitting in the van heading to the village, i remembered the verse in Job. "Gods voice thunders in marvelous ways; He does great things beyond our understanding."-Job 37:5 So i will most likely never understand why God is letting this happen but now that my team and I have been here and experienced this, it is our job to spread the word and make a change. Thank you Jesus for Helping Hands!!
Next was on to the village! We were able to walk around with some of the care givers from Helping Hands. They go out to these villages to take care of their patients who may not be able to make it to the clinic. We walked from one house to the next. Some were made out of tin, some mud and clay. They were all super tiny. So hard to see, makes you really appreciate what you have. We were able to pray with them and for them. One man that we prayed for, when my team and i rested our hands on him, you could feel him kinda of pull away from our touch. Then, as we began to pray, you could feel him relax and kind of give a sigh of relief. He knew we were there to help him. It was such a moving moment. one that i will never forget. While walking from house to house (which were not close to each other)
I was able to just talk to God and process everything that i was seeing. I felt like i was doing good and holding myself together. Then, Peter came up to me and asked how i was doing and BOOM! here come the water works. You would think by now that i would realize that holding it in is not the best but no. I was jut overwhelmed with everything. and the thing that was really pressed on my heart was knowing that some of the children buried in that cemetery wont be remembered. In a few years, no one will know who they were and that kills me. I had a very "eye-opening" morning that day.
After all that, we went back to the house for lunch and to kinda regroup and process everything that we were feeling and thinking about. NOw is the time for the church to step it up and do something. DOnt be one who just sits back and does nothing. DO SOMETHING!
Transitioning from the mornings events to VBS with the kiddos was not as hard as i thought it would be. I swear the kids were even more excited to see us that day and they just brought so much joy to our team. God knew what we needed. Definitely the best VBS day by far.
Everyone on the team opened up to the kids and the kids opened up to us. There was so much love going on that none of us wanted to leave. Every single person had a smile on their face the entire time. God was helping to mend our teams hearts that were broken from earlier that day. Those kids showed us a love that is just indescribable. The craft that day was making the lil telephones with string and plastic cups. They loved it!!! Then we taught them how to play the game telephone. Oh man, funniest and cutest game of telephone ever!!! SO much fun(:
Well, thats all for now!!! Hopefully i will be able to blog tomorrow!!!
Love you all!
-peaces
-em
Quotes for the day! (i dont have anymore from Africa so here are some random ones!!)
"See, my family enjoys eating weird things. Were like, youre weird so were gonna eat you."-my brother Chris after eatin some chicken fish. haha
"What are those? are they no bake cookies?"-me
"No..i just didnt cook them all the way..."-Chew hahaha
"A bible thats falling apart usually belongs to someone who isnt."-idk who said that but i love it!
"Im not very intimidating, but i can hurt your face."-Andrea hahaha talking to the 5th and 6th graders lol oh man, i love you girl!!!
