Perseverance

Wow the time has really flown by and there is only three weeks left of ministry. The time here has been incredible with many high points.

I have really settled into life here. There has been so much joy to be found in serving this community that have very little of anything.  How quickly I am used to the medical clinics:  the primitive environment and challenging ways of working to fully embracing it and seeing how it changes lives. I am seeing the same few people each week and despite the language barrier relationships are being built.  Bridget whom I work with says its perfect timing that I should be here now to treat the ones coming with hand injuries or infections. I am learning so much. A lady with a severe infection came and we literally had to cut her skin to release the infection, I know at home I would have been operated on instead but praise God she is also doing well.   

The children are becoming family and we get to see them daily. Little Madelina who is 3 but severely malnourished has been responding well to love and attention. She also has a learning disability maybe due to malaria although we are not sure. I met with another missionary who is an occupational therapist too and we have implemented a rehabilitation program for her and this week she started to eat herself using her hands, which are really uncoordinated. It was amazing to see this, we all got covered in food but it was an amazing achievement. She is such a beautiful girl and brings so much joy.  When we to the baby house I think we receive as much as they do. They are hungry for love and attention and are satisfied with so little.  In

I am seeing God in so many things big and small. Just being able to walk alongside those suffering, give some one water when they need it, or when a 4 year old girl asks you to pray for her eyes because she knows the love of the father to pray for her to be healed. Today I with some others baptized some of the men at the bible school here, what a privilege and honor it was, to see them committing their lives to the lord. It was fun in the sea here in Pemba, we were nearly knocked over by the waves!!

Daily giving up the comforts of life to fully rely on God has been so worthwhile but extremely hard initially.  If I am honest the initial shock of living here has been hard to deal with. Our accommodation still better than many in Mozambique but still really basic ……tough, the bathrooms were flooded with water for a week, which was gross but also then rife with mosquitoes. When it rains the water comes through the ceiling and sand/mud is everywhere, nothing is clean. We live on rice and beans, which has been hard on our bodies. We are so used to the comforts of home and when they are gone all that is left is God. We can choose to be glad with any suffering, as Christ suffered. We are to share in it or choose to miserable and count the days until you have that comfort back again. I have had my moments when I have moaned but I have pressed in and persevered against what my flesh cries out for and through it I have found God is sufficient even when there is no other comfort to rely on. I think this is so why those who have very little but know the love of God have all they need and can seem joyful. Wow what a lesson, I am learning that without out perseverance we cannot become closer to being Christ like! I have deepened my reliance on God, going to him first for all things.

I am excited for the next few weeks here as I feel I am through the main challenges and now I can rest and enjoy it all the more.