God's preparations...

Last year, a church met with two people from a mission-sending agency to talk about the work their organization was doing in Africa. They had been connected through a national campus ministry conference being hosted in the church's hometown. This church had been inspired and convicted in part by Bono of U2 (www.one.org)to respond to the poverty and HIV/AIDS crisis in Africa. They liked what they heard about the ministry and work being done in Kenya and decided to visit this past March. The week they schedule their trip, a previous member of the congregation contacted them and informed them she had been called into full-time mission work in Kenya with this same team they were about to visit. It was reaffirming for both sides. About 3 weeks ago, that church announced to their congregation their decision to partner with the ministry in Kenya, as well as individually support the missionary!

The mission agency is New Mission Systems International. The ministry is AfricaHope. The church is Crossroads Christian Church of Newburgh, Indiana. The missionary is me. And one of the people in that meeting last year was Angie, the other nurse going to Kenya! As I found out how the pieces of this story fit together, it became evident to me that God has been working on his plan for my life for a long time…bringing many separate areas of my life and connecting them all together. It’s pretty cool…and so reaffirming:)

Africa...it's large...

I had no idea!!!

Village Life...

Chapatis and chai...Kenyan style



My time in Kenya in 2005 was short. I was blessed to be able to visit a village after church and get a glimpse of how the Maasai live, but that's all it was...a glimpse. The NMSI Summer Intern team that has been in Kenya since the end of May has spent a large amount of their time out in the bush - teaching, building relationships, sharing The Word, and living with the Maasai. It's an experience that I'm very much looking forward to. The AfricaHope team leader in Kenya, Ashleigh, wrote a blog about their experience staying in the village of Morloo. Check it out...welcome to the Maasai village of Morloo...

http://ashleighleenerts.blogspot.com/2009/07/village-called-morloo.html

Bridge Over Troubled Water...

Praise and worship with Simon & Garfunkel? I'm usually not a lyrics person...music speaks to my heart. I've heard this song many times, but these lyrics caught my attention lately. I can picture Jesus saying this to us...


When youre weary, feeling small,
When tears are in your eyes, I will dry them all;
Im on your side. when times get rough
And friends just cant be found,
Like a bridge over troubled water
I will lay me down.
Like a bridge over troubled water
I will lay me down.

When youre down and out,
When youre on the street,
When evening falls so hard
I will comfort you.
Ill take your part.
When darkness comes
And pains is all around,
Like a bridge over troubled water
I will lay me down.
Like a bridge over troubled water
I will lay me down.

Sail on silvergirl,
Sail on by.
Your time has come to shine.
All your dreams are on their way.
See how they shine.
If you need a friend
Im sailing right behind.
Like a bridge over troubled water
I will ease your mind.
Like a bridge over troubled water
I will ease your mind.

~ Bridge Over Troubled Water, by Simon & Garfunkel

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GYKJuDxYr3I

Project MedSend...

In 1991, a survey showed that 33 mission agencies had 30 mission hospitals and clinics without a single health professional to minister to the sick and dying arriving at their doors. At the same time, some mission boards had 49 doctors as well as other health care professionals ready for service who were merely working to pay off their school loans. Project MedSend was formed at the request of Christian Medical & Dental Associations to prevent the delay of prospective missionaries from reaching their fields of service by overcoming the barrier of educational debt.

I worked full-time while I was in graduate school so that I was eligible for Vanderbilt’s tuition benefit. They covered 70-80% of my tuition costs (which was wonderful!), but I still graduated with about $7,000 in student loans. I applied for a Project MedSend grant in January, and found out last month that I was one of 45 they had selected this year! They will take over payments for my student loans when I go on salary with NMSI next March, and will continue to pay it as long as I am serving on the mission field! This grant is such a huge blessing, and reaffirms yet again that God has plans for me in Kenya!

P.S. – One requirement of Project MedSend before you leave for the field, is to attend a workshop about community health care in developing countries. That workshop happens to be another workshop at ECHO that I was planning to go to in October! Coincidence?…I think not:)

Florida escape...

Firsts from my recent trip to the CGO
(Center for Global Outreach for NMSI, my sending agency)
in Fort Myers, Florida:

- shot a cork gun

- went grocery shopping for a stranger
- danced the rumba
- went square dancing!

- modeled a friends beautiful hand-painted scarves

- visited a Florida winery
- sang karaoke!

- learned how to cook sukuma wiki and oogali (Kenyan dishes)!


There was also picnics and walks on the beach, putt-putt on a pirate ship, a Korean dinner party (thank you Shane & Helen!), road trip & concert in St. Pete, and so much fun fellowshipping with friends. I vividly remember once saying that I would never live Florida. Now, I long for this community when I’m away…I think it’s how God created us to live…sharing life, and loving and helping each other. Sadly, it’s hard to find many other places…





Gavin Degraw concert!!!

ECHO...

If you haven’t heard me talk about ECHO before, now is the time:) ECHO (Educational Concerns for Hunger Organization) is an absolutely amazing organization in Fort Myers, Florida that is fighting world hunger through agriculture. Angie (the other nurse that’s going to Kenya with me) and I were able to spend a week at the HIV/AIDS, Agriculture, & Nutrition workshop at ECHO in May. Through my nursing training, I’ve always known nutrition is important, but I can’t say that I realized the magnitude of its impact until recently, and how big of a part agriculture will play into the medical work Angie and I will be doing. I never thought I would be learning about agricultural techniques (‘crop propagation’ is now in my vocabulary), have thoughts about being a farmer (well…maybe gardener is a better word), or pick leaves off plants and eating them right then and there! :) I have now added to my prayer list that God lead an agricultural person to AfricaHope to help us out!


















Moringa = the miracle plant!
I had never heard about Morniga until I went to ECHO. I don't know how that is because it is amazing. Among some of the amazing things it does include: fix malnutrition in children faster than conventional Western medicine, purify water, and when added to the diet with a grain called Amaranth can take away almost all HIV/AIDS symptoms because it makes those people that much healthier through nutrition that their medications work that much better! I'm convinced that Moringa is the tree mentioned in Exodus 15:25 :)

Harvesting Moringa off the ECHO farm


We then dried it, ground it, and sifted it...and now have Moringa powder to add to our food.



Artemesia...
This handy dandy plant can almost "cure" you of malaria when you drink it in tea form 3 times a day! It is recommended that you combine it with Western meds, but still...pretty cool! Too bad it tastes horrible :(

Random picture...dirty feet after a day out on the farm!





One night we cooked dinner off of plants from the ECHO farm. This was our spread and lovely salad...pretty impressive!











I have a bunch more fun ECHO pictures on Facebook if you want to look...this is just the beginning:) Enjoy!