My Journey

I have been thinking about writing this blog for the past week.  Every time I think about what I must say the saying "a necessary evil" pops in my head.  So then I started asking myself  "Just what is a "necessary evil?"   "What evil could be necessary?"  Could any evil really be necessary?   So I have decided that what I need to say is really a "necessary dislike"!  I truly dislike having to write about what I MUST write about.  But here it is anyway.....FUND RAISING. So here it is...short, sweet and to the point. There are two financial needs which a missionary needs.  The first need is for personal support.  This support covers items such as food, clothing, insurance, medications, dental work, etc.  The second financial need is for "workfunds".  Workfunds are used to pay for anything needed for the mission work.  In my case this would include medications for mobile clinics, fuel for local travel, Tanz...

The season has changed quickly in the past 3 weeks from the wet to dry season.  This is the fall/winter season here.  The trees have quickly lost their leaves and the temperatures have become cooler.  Of course, cooler here is not really cold; the nights can get in the mid 40's and then the day temps will get up to mid 70's for about 3 or so hours during the early afternoon.  In the early evenings, cool breezes come down from the mountains. As the Oklahoma Christian University students left, we welcomed a group of 20 from Harding University in Arkansas.  This group is largely nursing students with a few nurses and doctors with them.  Janice Bingham, the nursing instructor and coordinator for this yearly group, lived here at Chimala for 5 years in the late 90's.  Her experience as a missionary here is of great benefit as she brings her students here to both learn and help here at the Chimala Hospital.  It is a great blessing to have these annual ...

On May 4th, nine students from Oklahoma Christain University (OC) in Oklahoma City, OK arrived here in Chimala.  Three of these students have been here before, but the rest were newbies.  It was very exciting for me to see the returning students and to meet and get to know the new comers. The students always bring a sense of excitement and adventure with them when they come.  The goals were for the students to get to know a little about the culture, become familiar with all the works of the mission, hold VBS at several of the small village churches and complete a project which would help one of the works at the mission.  The bus ride from Dar Es Salaam to Chimala Mission is a hard 12-14 hour drive by bus.  We left Dar at 5am and arrived at the mission around 7:30pm.  During the trip, the students were able to see miles of plains, mountains and small villages.  They also had a small glimpse of some of the animals of Tanzania as we drove thr...

Wow!  Has it really been so long since I wrote about the adventures and challenges of Chimala Mission?  Days seem to run from one to the other so quickly.  I will try to give you "high-lights" as the last 3 weeks could fill a couple of chapters in a book! We have been blessed with presence of 2 Hong Kong medical students since the 11th of April.  They have graduated from school, but have not yet completed their residency.  They have been very active in the patient care at the hospital.  Many times Grace, Tony and I are doing rounds at various times of the day/night.  I hope the hospital doctors and nurses will be encouraged by their attentiveness and professionalism.  At night, Grace and Tony came to my house and helped me in preparing new charts for the hospital.  The registration department has not been updated in many years and the hospital has been encouraged to do so by the government.  We had about 700 student portfoli...

Not far from the house I live in is a fish pond where this interesting creature was found.  He was pretty much dead when I took these pictures.  The guys who caught and killed this one told me there were several more of them in the pond.  I sure hope they stay in the pond and don't wander to my place.  I wouldn't want him on my porch any more than I welcome the snakes! I am always on the look out for snakes and luckily have not had too many close encounters.  However, I recently met a young man who was not so lucky. This young man, age 22, was working in the shamba (which means farm) when he was biten by a snake.  He believes it was a cobra.  I met him the day after he came to the hospital.  I was informed that after he was biten, he was treated by a local medicine man.  I have heard lots of things about local medicine men which are not often good, however, I believe this one probable helped to save this man's life.  The medic...

I have now been living here at the Chimala Mission for 3 months!  In many ways it does not feel that long; but in other ways it feels longer.  I know many of you can relate.  I love that I am able to stay in touch with family and friends so easily.  It must have been much harder for missionaries before cell phones and internet.  Skype is great.  I am able to not only talk for FREE!, but I am able to see my family which helps us feel closer.  I miss things like my church family, my dog, American food choices, and good roads to drive on. However, I am so happy to be a part of a new family.  I love my new "missionary family".  The Wagner family and I have really become great friends, family and co-workers.   I spend much time at the hospital and shop area.  I have become acquainted with most of the staff in these two areas and have made some good "rafiki's" ("friends" in Swahili).  I am planning to begin spending more time ...

There are many people who know the history of the Chimala Mission and in much more detail than I do.  The Chimala Bible College was originally started up on the mountain.  I was able to make my first trip up the mountain to see the old remains.  The following pictures are what is left of the original Bible College.  The picture above was the main building.  Even from these photos, I can just imagine how nice it must have once been. As I understand things, when the mission moved from the mountain down to Chimala it had a negative effect on the Tanzanians in this area.   The decision has been made to re-establish our presence on the mountain.  This will open up an additional opportunity for us to help with the church there and set up additional mobile clinics in an area which is in need.   The road up to the mission is really bad.  Mostly ruts and rocks.  It was a really rough ride.  At one time, the truck st...