Church

So at some point in my life I felt the pull to be a minister. I won’t bore you with details, but my belief in the strength of the church universal and my hope for a role within the church has grown. It is with that growing sense that I have felt a desire to help with the church at Angel House. The church at Angel House is just that, a local church consisting of the staff and kids of Angel House. The kids provide the music and prayers with help from the staff and sometimes the missionaries. A different kid leads the service every week, letting everyone know when it is time to pray or sing, or that awkward time every week when it is time for me to preach, but I don’t realize it because the rest of the service is in Swahili. There is even an offering, though I still am not sure what is done with the money. There are kids that seem to get into it and get more out of it than others, as is typical anywhere, but regardless it is always a lively affair.

I think what strikes me every week is the simplicity of the service. There are multiple choirs based on the ages of the kids and they all sing, every week. Very rarely though do the kids need the song books since the songs are ingrained in their minds through repetition that has only enriched and not dulled the music of praising God. All the songs are accompanied by the percussion of water containers and sticks, which I will learn to play before I leave.

 

It is simplicity and purity in worship that is accompanied by a desire for the truth of God. My first sermon I ever preached at Angel House was bad. I don’t just say that to be modest, but I mean that my translator messed up most of what I said, and it was only five minutes long even translated. I just wasn’t used to any part of it; yet even with all the mishaps the kids loved it, because it contained a statement or two of God’s truth. They desire God’s truth in worship, in prayer, and in Word in a way that only comes about when the distractions of the world are put aside. I do not want to portray perfect kids, because they aren’t, but they hunger for the mystery of life that only God holds, in a way I have not seen many other places.

In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

On Earth as it is in Heaven

This Sunday I am preaching on the second greatest commandment, “Love your neighbor as yourself” and while I think there are some things the kids could do to better follow this command, I can’t help but think that they are in many ways far beyond us.

The kids at Angel House are blessed and when you compare them to many other children around Tarime they seem like they have all they could ever want. Despite that most of them could fit all their belongings in one, maybe two, big suitcases. This past Friday however they showed how much they really had and how much they were willing to give. We had eight new kids who had shown up with either the clothes on their backs or maybe one extra set of clothes if they were better off. As always money is tight in nonprofit work and we knew from previous generous donations that our kids had more than one of some things. So we asked. Who had shoes, blankets, towels, or clothes that they could share with our new kids?

The response from these kids was amazing. It happened during a house meeting, with all the kids sitting together. Possessions starting forming a pile on the floor. Some kids were shy about it, while others were excited to be able to help out. Some gave one thing while some gave many, but to watch them bring stuff in to meet basic needs of their new brothers and sisters made me think about Acts 2 and what church basics used to look like (they didn’t used to start with a secretary or building fund). By the time everything was done we were left looking at a pile of shoes, sheets, blankets, towels, and clothes that was big enough for every new child to have what they needed.



While I can never do justice to the vision I saw that Friday evening I hope that we can learn something from these kids. Kids who probably all together could not fill an average America house, but can still take care of their brothers and sisters, their neighbors. Can we?

Health Care Reform!

Malaria symptoms include: fever, headache, body ache, vomiting, diarrhea, dream-like state of mind. Severe cases also include hallucinations and foaming at the mouth. Things that are not malaria: third degree burns on the leg, the common cold, a severely sprained ankle.


The health care system really is not as bad as many countries and there are four major hospitals here in Tarime. However, each has strengths and weaknesses. My first run-in was when I took Joseph Charles, Chu Chu, and Edward to the Tarime Dispensary. The Doctor is extremely polite and it is open twenty-four hours! However, every time we send children there they have to spend at least a day getting fluids. The staff has chosen not to send our kids there unless we have to because they feel it is a waste of time. Also, I am not a huge stickler for cleanliness but they did not use gloves to take blood and they mixed Edward and Chu Chu’s blood samples when transferring them to the light bulb in the corner that was heating the blood. UGH!! The Government Hospital is where most people go because they have a Labor/Delivery section and it is cheaper than most. I had the fortunate opportunity to experience Jenn Williams while she was in labor. They had three women to a bed all of whom were in labor. No men were allowed in the building and every so often they would check and see if she was ready to give birth. However, she had to vomit and endure the pain all alone. I decided that I would fly home to give birth if I ever got pregnant here. The Catholic Hospital is where I now take all of our children. They are clean and efficient. However, they do not ever touch the patient. They ask what the symptoms are and write lab tests down. When the lab results come back, they prescribe a list of medicines that match the symptoms or the lab results. The lab tests include: mbs (which gives the amount of Malaria bacteria in the blood), sometimes a urine sample, sometimes a stool sample. They only take a syringe amount of blood to test for Typhoid and HIV. No matter what the symptoms are the patient is always tested for Malaria. I was absolutely shocked the other day when I took a child, who I knew had a common cold, and they tested for Malaria and it was NEGATIVE. The look on his face was priceless!

The only hospital in town that we go to as Americans is the Goodwill Hospital. They are good. Holly and I go about once a month to get weighed to see how much we have lost being here. Most of them speak English and realize that we are used to a specific amount of medicine. I took Eric yesterday to get his third degree burn looked at. Of course, it is infected. However, the doctor wrote the list of medications and the nurse giving out the medications read them and said, “Oh! You have Malaria.” Really???

I write about this not to go off on a tangent; although I did anyway, but to inform you all what it is like here. Everyone assumes that when you are sick it must be Malaria. I know that it is because the death rate for Malaria is extremely high and it is safer to assume that than to allow a child to die. I have become extremely aware of how much this country needs Health Care Reform and only wish that I had the expertise or training to do so. It breaks my heart to take a child to the hospital only to be told that it is Malaria, knowing very well that it is not. Last month I took seventeen children to various hospitals for tests and treatment. I pray that one day they will really be healed and there will be no more suffering.