My Journey

Today, I post my last post to this blog site.   I am extremely sad to have to do this.  Chimala Mission, especially the Chimala community, have been my family and friends for the last 6 years.  I came to Chimala believing God wanted me to help this community with the talents He has blessed me with.  Chimala Mission was an existing mission where I could help both the mission and the community.  My plans were to be there in this work for many years, even possibly the rest of my life. Unfortunately, the situation at the mission changed and my plans were then not my own.  I am back in Oklahoma where I will put my life back together and find a job.  I will also see what God holds for me next.  Even when things go badly wrong or we get knocked off our path, God is in control!  He will and can change an unfortunate event into something Great!  We, you and I, with the help of God provided much great assistance to the Chimala community....

Wow! What a week.  We have spent time in fellowship and encouragement; learning or remembering how to truly “rest” in God; and have walked in many places where Apostle Paul ministered as a missionary.  Let me try to adequately tell you a little of this wonderful trip. THANK YOU’s... . Before I continue with my story tho’, I would like to thank my Memorial Road church of Christ family for their financial support for this experience for me.  They truly care bout their missionaries and know how to do missionary care.  (I am aware that many others contributed for this retreat and to you I offer my thanks as well).  Also, Joy Crouch deserves a BIG SHOUT OUT as she has made it part of her ministry to put these retreats together every other year to make sure the single women in missions have a retreat and learn to care for themselves.  If Joy ever contacts you requesting support for this part of her mission, please help her out.  She not only plans the re...

October 21, 2018 Athens, Greece retreat notes I left OKC yesterday to come to Athens for a single women’s missions retreat.   We had our first retreat of this kind two years ago and I found the experience to be quite up-lifting, rejuvenating and eye-opening. This is such a small world that the lady next to me on the first flight knows many of the same people I do!   It was a very nice trip visiting with a new friend. This morning I arrived in Athens to a beautiful day!   The first bump in my road occurred when my luggage did not arrive.   Out of 3 bags, 3 bags decided to stay in Philadelphia! So same clothes for 3 days!   Ugh.   Arrived at the hotel and, of course, spent the afternoon napping.   At 4:50pm, I met up with some of the other ladies who had arrived, and we went to church services. What a great Lord’s Day!   There were visitors from many different places.   A couple who I knew many years ago (11, to be exact) were vis...

I am writing a separate blog just for a farm report.  It seems many people do not know that I have also been using most of my Saturdays to oversee work on our farm on the mountain.  A tree farm was started there about 5 years ago and for the last 2+ years, I have been assisting with this work. When the farm was first started over 100,000 trees were planted.  These were both pine trees and eucalyptus trees.  Unfortunately, two years into the project, there was a horrible fire on the mountain which killed over 90% of these trees.  During the last two years, we have planted more trees and worked hard to ensure the growth of the ones we had left.  Below are a few pictures of some of our current trees.  We have around 20,000 now and some are big enough to start trimming off the bottom branched to help with their upward growth. These are a few of  the first trees which were planted. These trees are about 3 years old.  You can see...

Lately, I have been studying what the experts are saying about short-term mission trips.  I am most interested since we have been hosting so many visitors.  Most of the visitors we have are medical or nursing students.  As such, they are here to have a learning experience.  They are young minds eager to learn both culture differences and how medicine differs here from their home.  Watching them interact is great as is seeing the differences through their eyes.  Most of the experiences they have are positive and make lasting impressions on their lives.  However, some experiences are not happy ones, but they, too, make lasting impressions and sometimes those experiences will impact their lives in a long-term way.  These students and their experiences are rewarding to both the long term missionaries and the Tanzanians they  spend time with.  But the real reason I have found it important for me to study what the experts are saying abou...

The work and improvements have continued this month.  Our new Digital X-Ray machine has arrived and been installed!!  This is a great improvement for our hospital and community.  We praise the Lord above and our Christian brothers and sisters who provide us with support.  With God all things are possible!  and he is using us to help this community. There were 5 big heavy boxes which were off-loaded during the night with a big lift.  We then closed our x-ray department for removal of the old, remodeling and installation of the new.  We were without x-ray for 15 days.  But now look what we have!  Next we will need to install hospital-wide internet and purchase computers for all the doctors offices and wards.  This way all x-rays can be seen anywhere in the hospital by any doctor.  Of course, with installation of hospital-wide computers, we will be able to begin converting to computer documentation and reporting as well....