Getting ready for Tanzania

Today is a rest day as we transition to doing medical camps among the Maasai people. We ate dinner last night with Gospel workers who are going with us, the wife is a primary care doctor and is in the process of getting her medical license in TZ. It was refreshing and encouraging to hear their stories, how God called them to be here.

I would encourage you to check out one of the organizations we are partnering with in this work: Send Relief (send relief.org). They are an NGO providing humanitarian and disaster relief around the world (including North America). There are two unique things about this agency that I appreciate it: 1) they do important development work like micro business development, water initiatives, health initiatives, justice initiatives like working to get people out of sex trafficking and hunger relief. 100% of gifts made go to the work- the administration costs are funded through another organization. 2) They work closely with Gospel workers so that these efforts are aligned with building up the Kingdom. It goes back to an earlier issue I touched on: the greatest need people have is to know Jesus and have their greatest spiritual need met. And along side this they need mercy in the form of food when they have none, clean water when they have none, a sustainable income when they have none. Sendrelief.org functions to bring these two important tasks in alignment.

Thank you for praying for our under-the-weather students- they came to life late yesterday afternoon and we were able to all go to dinner with the Tanzania crew last night. I think they will be back to full strength by the time we leave for TZ. While I missed the day in Kibera, I spent a few hours with one of the leaders for Sendrelief.org and heard story after story of where and how they are providing humanitarian relief in service to the Kingdom. (Many of the workers she referenced were colleagues I had worked with previously- it made my heart happy to hear of how God is using them!). It also gave me some ideas of where I might be able to join in different projects.

My whole reason for returning to the States and becoming a nurse and now a nurse practitioner was to invest in medical mission efforts. My heart has always drawn me to vulnerable people- first in Philadelphia, then among the urban poor in the Dominican Republic, and then the recovery community in Vancouver. I would appreciate your prayers in several areas: 1) while I have finished school, I still need to take the board certification exam as soon as I can once I am back (in other words need to study) 2) for wisdom and discernment in how to invest in Gospel mission as I also get started in a new profession. I have some local initiatives I want to be involved with, as well as finding ways to connect with work going on internationally. I am thankful for all I am experiencing and learning while I am here and feel an excitement about how God will work through it to open up a path for me.

Finally, today is a rest day/packing day as we will leave early tomorrow for Tanzania. We will have to cross the border (immigration/passport/visas and customs) and need to get to the hotel by 11:30. My team is 7 people, but we have a number of local workers joining us so it will be a pretty large group crossing- which could mean delays. After lunch, I believe we will head out to the village to set up for camps. Sunday will be worship day. Monday to Wednesday will be medical camps, and travel back Thursday. We are excited for this second phase of the ministry.

A last minute urgent need: apparently our visa situation has changed and we need a different visa to get back into Kenya next week so we are hurriedly trying to take care of the situation- pray it can all work out!