WELL, HERE WE GO AGAIN! =)
As some of you may know, I am headed back to South Africa on September 7 to study abroad with APU. I will be doing Community Health Nursing (working in AIDS clinics, doing home visits with a hospice organization, helping at children’s development center, and working at community hospital) in South African communities. I have not had the chance to do nursing outside the country before so I am very excited.
In preparation for South Africa ,this past May I had to complete 90 hours of clinical for the public/community health in order to apply to become a Public Health Nurse (PHN) when I graduate. It was an awesome experience to work with pre-mature infant home visits. I had an amazing clinical instructor who took us into families homes to assess the children, complete developmental tests, and talk with the families of these beautiful children. I LOVED my time. We also completed some classroom time, did community assessments, and discussed teaching projects that we are going to do in SA. Public/Community/Global health is amazing and I am so excited to get the chance to combine my LOVE for the world and my passion and love for nursing. =) PRAISE THE LORD =)
So for those of you who do not know, this will be my second time to South Africa! Summer of 2007 (summer after my freshmen year of college) I was able to be part of a 10 person team to Paarl, South Africa. It was a humbling, amazing experience. The Lord moved in ways I had never seen or experienced. We worked in three different communities that make up the rainbow nation of South Africa: the Zulu/Xhosa (tribal African people), the Afrikaners people (Dutch/European white people) and the Coloured communities (the people who are mixed raced). Our focus was to foster and promote a spirit of reconciliation. This beautiful country has been torn apart by racism and the wounds are deep. I have a huge passion for reconciliation and working in this country has refined that passion.
And here we go again, back to South Africa. This trip has different focuses, different team members, and we will be working in the Eastern Cape mostly. I am so humbled that I get to join in on the legacy of those who have gone before me to this place. I am so humbled that I get to work in communities that may not have gotten the health care and education that they deserve. I am so humbled to just go back to place that is so near and dear to my heart.
Another reason why this blog is called here we go again is because the Lord just continues to take me up on the offer that I gave him. Like Isaiah, I said “HERE I AM LORD, SEND ME!” and well God said OK! And sent me to the Himalayas this summer! It was a surreal experience that was broken up into three different ministries. The first stop was in Kolkata, India. As soon as I stepped off the plane I was bombarded with the sights, smells, and temperature of this crazy unique city. We were able to serve in the Mother Teresa homes Daya Dan (home for children with mental and physical disabilities) and Prem Dan(home for men and women who are mentally ill, physically or mentally handicap). Please pray that the Sisters (Missionaries of Charities) will continue to find their strength in the Lord to serve these people who are so desperately in need of love. We worked at an organization called FreeSet ( http://freesetglobal.com/ ) which is a beautiful business in the middle of the red light district (Sonagacchi) of Kolkata. We were able to sit with the women who are no longer in brothels or being trafficked and help make bags with them. Finally, we worked with a program called Good News which is an organization that goes to some of the major slum areas to pick up children and provides bible stories and a place to learn English and math. The places we partnered with are bringing peace, hope, and joy to an extremely crazy, chaotic and seemingly hopeless place.
Our main ministry focus and time was spent in the misty northern Indian city on the hills and in the clouds: Darjeeling. While we were in the beautiful Himalayan Mountains that were covered in tea fields, our goal and mission was to encourage the church that is definitely the minority in this region. We worked with the Assemblies of God (AG) Church of Darjeeling to go to home churches, Christian schools, and church plants throughout the mountains. A beautiful opportunity we were given was to put on programs at a few different schools where only about 5% of the children were Christians. The AG Church has a Bible College that trains up young men and women to become pastors; these pastors will then move into a village not of their own that does not have a church to be a full time missionary to the tea estate/village that the Lord places them in. We were able to travel to these churches to preach, share testimonies, and pray for the Lord to deliver and heal. My favorite memory was when we were able to go to one of the pastor’s homes and sit and drink tea with him and his family. Over the course of the evening all of the Christians in the village made their way into the very small home. We, the diverse body of Christ, worshipped, laughed, prayed and ate together and the joy of the Lord was evident in that place. May we continue to pray for the churches and Indian missionaries of the Darjeeling area because God is moving and working through his people to do the miraculous: turning hearts of stone into hearts of flesh, turning anger into compassion, and turning lifelessness and sorrow into deep rooted joy. I am so thankful that God let me see his Indian side and that I was able to worship and pray with our brothers and sisters in India.
The final portion of our trip was in a small landlocked Himalayan country that I am not going to share for the safety of our host and all those believers who are being persecuted for their faith, but please feel free to ask me personal what country it was!
I am at a loss for words on how to describe the picturesque and breathtaking beauty of this country. Our purpose there was to encourage the persecuted church, learn all we could about Buddhism and the countries culture and have every moment we could be filled will intercession and worshipful prayer for the country. Our host is one of the most amazing people that I have ever met and it was so humbling to meet and get to know such a prayer warrior, joyful worshipper, and successful business woman. For many years teams from APU have been going to this beautiful yet Jesus needing place to pray for the country, for our host and her ministry, and the church, I am so humbled to be part of the continued work in this country. My favorite memory was getting to be part of the church in this closed country(and by “the church” I mean one of the only churches that meets in the country). The youth of this Himalayan country are rising up with the strength and confidence to proclaim the name of Jesus to their friends and family so that they will be drawn into a loving relationship with the Lord. May we continue to pray for our brothers and sisters in the Himalayas that are being persecuted for their faith and their radical counter cultural attitudes. May the lives of these believers be living testimonies in this beautiful country that our God delivers, heals, and transforms souls.
Friends, I am here to tell you that God moved on this trip, His glory was revealed to His people, and I was able to see Lord heal and heard him speak. Our God is alive and active. He is in the business of transforming lives. Yes, physical healings are amazing but I think what is MORE amazing is when a man who used to abuse his wife gives a testimony at a church in Darjeeling that he now looks at her with a heart of love and compassion. It is amazing to hear a woman in a small tea estate in the mountains of Darjeeling say that she used to be depressed and wanted to end her life, but now that she knows Jesus and has hope, a purpose and joy. Hearing the pastor of the church in a persecuted country encourage his congregation to stay faithful to the Lord no matter what obstacles come because the Lord is on their side is a beautiful miracle. It is miraculous for the children in Kolkata to know that they are loved and valued in spite of circumstances. Our God is so faithful and loves his church so much. I am so thankful to serve a God who is so much bigger then America and I am so honored that I was able to taste and see a glimpse of the goodness of our multi-cultural God
So, here we go again. I humbling walk forward with joy and excitement to see what the Lord has in store for me in South Africa . I cannot believe that the year 2010 has been filled with such amazing God filled adventures . Friends, may you say to the Lord, Here I am send me. Because the Lord desperately wants to use you. Whether that is in the bay area, in azusa, or in the world, may you be obedient to where he calls you! Be an ambassador of the Kingdom. Be one who draws others into a reconciled relationship with the Father! Love you all and more updates to come!
2 Corinthians 5:14
14For Christ's love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died. 15And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again.
16So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view. Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer. 17Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! 18All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: 19that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men's sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. 20We are therefore Christ's ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ's behalf: Be reconciled to God.
Ethembeni is a hospice home visiting organization. Tuesday I was able to go up to Haza which is a very rural part of the town Mpopemeni. We handed out food to people who had very little. Then once they have been given food they are encouraged them to come to bible study after. MAN O MAN that was a powerful time with the Body of Christ. These men and women affected by HIV have had lives transformed by the father. I understood very little of what was being said but I FELT and I knew that they were testifying about the goodness of the Lord through their pain. Thursday I had a chance to do home visits to patients that were in town. After giving the food we would do bible study and pray in her homes. The verse that the lord continued to lay on my heart was Ephesians 3 and though these patients were wasting away in their physical bodies I pray that their inner beings will be renewed so that they can grasp the intensive love that God has for them. It was powerful and many tears were shed: tears of joy and tears of pain and sadness. But there is joy and passion that is rooted in the Lord. I am so thankful that I was able to be in a room full of Zulu men and women and experience the Zulu side of our God. He is so awesome and so big. And one of my favorites parts was getting to end my day at the family center. There are about 50+ kids that have all had parents that have been affected by HIV/AIDS meaning many of them are orphans who do not have one or both of their parents because they have died of AIDS. These kids have so much joy and are so amazing! I got to read stories, sing song and dance my heart out with these babies! I loved it. 
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.