The Wooddale team has arrived for their annual Mozambique short-term mission trip. This is the 4th year that I have been able to be around when the team has arrived and done their work of serving the poorest of the poor in Mozambique.
The day after each team arrives we take a day that we call, "Cultural Learning Day" and Val and I drive the team around to each of the project sites to meet all of our workers and to experience the vision of Pastor Jeronimo coming to fruition. First we go to ElShaddi and see the progress of the school building and 3 large classrooms of exuberant children coming to total attention as we walk into the classroom ready to greet us. Once they have said their good morning in Portuguese, they go on to sing a song or two just to capture our hearts just a tiny bit more. There is a library now and it's supply of books are growing each year. The first time I came to visit in 2006, the main building was only 3 rows high in the building process and now, WOW, it is completed and we are ready to move on to the next building. The plan is that eventually with donors and enough funds we will build a campus with classrooms for grades K-12, a kitchen, a sanctuary and a cafeteria. So we continue to pray for all this to come in our near future here.
After a short visit across the road to the teaching farm our next stop is the Ray of Light pre-school in Mafarhinia. The smile on these children can not be compared to the children of the village or the children in public schools. There is just a significant difference between the privileged to be educated and light and dark when Jesus is taught in school. One day the children learned that they should pray before they eat and the next day a parent came to the school to say that evening as they began to eat the meal of rice the child began crying and crying. No one could figure out what the problem was. So they stopped eating their meal and calmed the child to have him speak. He told them that they needed to pray before eating, he proceeded to lead the prayer for the meal and they continued on. This family now prays before meals thanking God for their food. In the two pictures can you tell which picture is of a student of our private Christian School ElShaddi?
In this same area but across the street is our pre-school kitchen where a hot bowl of porridge is prepared each day. The Mafarhinia church, the newly remodeled Tessa Grace Nutrition center and our medical clinic that was started by a woman from my church at Maranatha Bible in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. A picture of Robin Perry hangs on the wall to commemorate her work in Mozambique. A strong woman remembered by those who live in the area of the clinic and by those who loved her for her love for the children.
As I stood in the clinic waiting for the team to take their Mozambican led tour, I took a seat and watched the people waiting for their turn to be seen. In the waiting room, on one side of the room sits 45 spaces made up of a combination of chairs and benches. And on the other side where I sat, there are 10 benches. The clinic each month sees between 2,000 and 2,500 people by one nurse and two days a week for 4 hours a doctor comes in for those who need a higher level of medical attention. The left side of the room was full. Each time a person walks out of the examining room, they see the pharmacists and receive the medication for a minimal costs. Then the next person would get up and go to wait on a bench in the hallway by the nurses office for their turn. As each seat emptied, everyone would move over one seat at a time to find their place in order to see the nurse. Some days you can wait almost the entire day and not see a nurse or a doctor because time runs out. So you have to come back the next day. I sat there watching as each person moved to the next seat and wondered, "What are the thoughts going through their minds right now?" They have to move 45 times to get to the first seat. No one budges and those who are too sick to sit in the seat lay on the veranda outside while a family member takes a seat to keep their place.
All of the medications are donated by Americans. Sometimes we have enough for the month and sometimes we run out. There is never enough money to deal with all that we have to do here. Antibiotics, milk for babies, vitamins, gloves, nutritional supplements, tylenol and the list goes on. We need it all each month to serve just a few of the many who are sick and dying.
There is more to the project tour and someday I will share about that too but for today I just wanted to tell you about waiting here in Africa to see a nurse at our medical clinic. One dream of one lady that serves many.
Are you waiting for something? Are you in a hurry today? Slow down, take a moment, think and pray for our friends here in Mozambique.
"If there is a poor man among your brothers in any of the towns of the land that the LORD your God is giving you, do not be hardhearted or tightfisted toward your poor brother." Deuteronomy 15:7
Obedience.... Kathy (BigMamma)
No comments:
Post a Comment