Week One =) wow =)

Week One: OMG THIS IS REAL LIFE!

So wow.

That just happened!

I am going to break down what the week looked like!

Friday we arrived at the most beautiful place ever! African Enterprise Campus is amazing. This is where we live. Amazing!

Saturday we had our first south African history class and it was so interesting. I love our professors here! Then we went to the birds of prey exhibit down the road. So scary but such a testimony of the beauty and creativity of the LORD.

Sunday: =) I had the amazing opportunity to go to church at New Life Centre in Northdale. New Life is a church with primary Indian South Africans and it is a place where the spirit dwells and is active and moving. I am excited to get to know the congregation better.

Monday: well we spent the WHOLE day in class. I am taking Nursing Ethics, Community Health Nursing History and Culture of South Africa and Intro to Zulu. So I wake up at 6:30 then breakfast at like 730ish then Chapel, then class, then tea time (SO GREAT) then class then lunch, then class then tea, then class, then dinner then class. NO JOKE!

But it is awesome because we are in Africa.

Tuesday: FIRST DAY OF CLINICAL! I was at Mason Clinic in Haniville. SO AMAZING! This clinic has a chronic unit, an HIV/AIDs building, and an Acute Clinic.

I spent my Tuesday in the acute clinic. Patients would come in and get assessed my the Zulu Sister (all nurses are called sisters) and then we would treat as necessary. There are no doctors at this clinic. The nurses in SA are trained basically as a combination between an RN and a Nurse Practioner. It was such an eye opener and a great introduction into health care and clinics here. We had everything from common cold to TB patients to little babies with pneumonia to HIV+ patients needing additional medications and women figuring out if they are pregnant. Unreal experience.

Wednesday: we had a MUCH NEEDED Sabbath. We have this day off as nursing majors and I used this day to rest, read, and explore this beautiful campus! O ya and NBD (no big deal) We saw four zebras on our afternoon run =) TIA(THIS IS AFRICA) .....PTL (praise the lord)

Thursday: Back to Mason Clinic. Today I was in the HIV/AIDS portion of the clinic. We hadded our the patient’s ARV (anti retro vial) medications that are used to counter the effects of HIV. Unreal experience. The most powerful part of the day was being involved in the testing of a 18 month old baby boy. His mother is HIV+ and he was in the clinic to check his status. So sobering to have been playing with this beautiful boy and then to have finger be pricked, his blood placed into a rapid tester and wait for the results.

One line is negative.

Two lines means positive.

By the grace of God, only one line showed up. We rejoice. However, we know that the battle is not over for this dear one. We pray. We treat. We encourage. We continue to do what the LORD calls us to do.

Friday has a similar schedule to Monday CLASSES! But I love it! TIA=THIS IS AFRICA.

Saturday was spent in DURBAN at the Beach swimming in the Indian Ocean =)

God is good.

God is Faithful.

So when we were in Johannesburg I was praying that the Lord would give me something to claim as my theme passage for the trip and He said Ephesians 3:16-21. And then when I arrived at AE my dear friend Kelsey had written me a note that I was meant to open my first night here and guess what passage was written in it. Yup, Ephesians 3 =) And then on Sunday I went to a church in the evening with a friend and the special passage during worship was Ephesians 3. So my friends I guess the Lord is trying to tell me something ;)

Know that I love and Miss you all and would LOVE LOVE LOVE to hear from each of you! God is faithful!

Ephesians 3 is also my prayer for you all. Be Blessed.

I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, ¹⁷so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, ¹⁸may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, ¹⁹and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.

²⁰Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, ²¹to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.