after a week of being sick,
i'm better now!
almost 100%
:D
malaria occurs so frequently here that it's spoken of almost casually.
"lisa has malaria," "manuel has malaria."
still, it doesn't make the experience any less unpleasant.
i came home from home-based care last friday with a sudden massive headache. i went to sleep immediately, at around 1:30pm-2:00pm, and woke up at 8pm. -_- by then, i felt i had somewhat of a fever and felt unusually tired/fatigued. no vomiting. no diarrhea. 'ok. so i might have the flu. couldn't be malaria.' i went back to sleep after having talked to my nurse housemate about the symptoms for a while.
i woke up saturday morning with the same piercing headache and my body burning up. i still felt extremely tired, even after having slept for that long. my housemate needed to go into town, so i stayed at home in bed sleeping. at some point, i felt i really needed to get up and move around -- 'maybe i feel tired because i've been sleeping so much.' i saw dirty dishes in the sink. 'hey, i'll wash the dishes.' i walked into the kitchen, turned on the water (we have running water now!), and started scrubbing dishes. after two dishes, i felt too tired and found myself panting and went back into the dining area to sit down. after a couple of more attempts to finish washing the dishes, i just went back to sleep. ^^;
carlos actually came later that night and tested me for malaria (or the most common strain of malaria around here). negative. but we speculated the results might come out negative; the doxycycline i had been taking for malarial preventative medication may mask the results. carlos and my housemate agreed that i should take the medication for malarial treatment: 4 tablets of malarone for 3 days (which i had luckily saved!). i was somewhat skeptical; i'm not big on taking any medication in general. i decided to wait another night and see if the symptoms would die down. bad move. sudden chills.
nana, my 80-year-old next door neighbor, came over next morning to see how i was doing. she's a retired nurse who's been practicing in maforga for a very long time. she touched my face and immediately said, "you have malaria. you need to be on treatment. " "couldn't it be a flu?" i asked. "flu in mozambique = malaria." good point.
she took out the malarone i had beside my bed and handed over the tablets to see me take them down. "after 12 hours, you'll feel better." and like clockwork, i did! i felt better enough to eat a banana, although.. i felt like throwing up the banana for the rest of the day -_-
come monday, i didn't feel as tired! come tuesday, i was sitting up/walking around!
wow.
i probably had one of the milder forms of malaria. i probably had one of the shortest spells of malaria.
still, i wouldn't want to go through it again.
i guess it just.
comes with the package.
t.i.a.
sorry for all the worries i've caused.
and thanks for all of your prayers!
Sunday, March 15, 2009
Wednesday, February 25, 2009
zimmmm! (days 1 and 2)
zimbabwe.
the first word that came out of my mouth as we crossed the border:
beautiful.
zimbabwe is a beautiful country. it almost reminds me of switzerland. well, what i imagine switzerland to be like. villages and towns are surrounded by vast mountain ranges overlooking valleys of green.
zimbabwe is also completely different from mozambique. most people know how to speak english and know how to speak it well. in the past, zimbabwe boasted of its high standards in education compared to those in other african countries. villages, houses, and roads are also very structured; rows of identical living compartments are ordered as "court 1," "court 2," etc. in the past, people in mozambique who had severe illnesses or injuries would cross the border into zimbabwe to receive medical help.
all that has changed. zimbabwe now faces economic and political disaster. inflation has done so much damage to the currency that zimbabwean dollars are worthless. the most recent bill printed out was marked "one trillion zimbabwean dollars." you can't even buy a mango with that. only south african rands and us dollars are accepted as valid form of currency. "forex" -- they call it. schools are closing down everywhere, and children are seen loitering in the streets or are stuck in an even sadder case -- they're in their uniforms walking from town to town in search of a school that would accept them. teachers are getting paid, but in zimbabwean dollars, so teachers are quitting. those who stay demand that parents pay hundreds of dollars for a term's tuition; might as well make it a million. hospitals are also closing down everywhere even though cholera is spreading. the government has also stopped giving out arv's for new cases of patients with hiv. people are crossing the border into mozambique because there is no food in zimbabwe. people are starving. people are dying.
it is so hard to imagine that such a beautiful place can have so many problems underneath.
i had a chance to briefly visit a few places in zim with a group of visitors from hands hub in south africa who came to see the projects in mozambique and those starting up in zim.
day 1 [2.15.09] : good bye, mozambique!
sal.
herman and marc, the troublemakers of our party.
kept on pulling pranks!
day 2 [2.16.09]: home-based care in mutare
carlos.
julia greeted by school girls.
this vovo (granny). she is blind but takes care of 8-10 children in her home (some shown two photos down); most of them are children of neighbors who passed away. everyday, the kids go out to beg for food or money. while begging, one of them got bitten by a dog and has an infection that is being left untreated.
waiting.
daughter and mother.
emily, one of the hands staff, showed us around her childhood home in zimbabwe.
home-based care volunteers in mutare.
billion zimbabwean dollar bills found in the trash.
money, money, money.
"we had to carry bags of billion dollar bills to buy one piece of bread!"
we all came back trillionaires!
overlooking our "catchment" area.
Friday, February 13, 2009
denial
last friday was my first experience in encountering something so real but so…
sad.
tuesdays and fridays, i go on home-based care in a community called nhembia. the people in this community live relatively far from each other and grow their own maize on their mashambas (gardens). if they don’t have a bicycle or money to catch a shapa (local taxi), people must walk tens of kilometers to visit a market to obtain anything else.
a home-based care visit in nhembia with a volunteer named marcelino led us to the home of a thin and gaunt middle-aged lady. she greeted us, bringing us a mat for us to sit down on. she talked a little, but didn’t say much; it was apparent that she was very sick. every word was interrupted by what seemed like a chronic cough.
“is she positive?” i asked.
we don’t know, marcelino said. she didn’t get tested.
“did you go to the hospital?” marcelino asked her.
no, she said. no money for transport. a ride to the hospital costs 12 meticais. less than 50 cents.
i wanted to give her something, but realized i didn’t have the change on me. we decided to take her to the hospital after marcelino and i finished our visits to the other homes.
in the afternoon, we drove her to the hospital in gondola, another community that is somewhat more developed. she was immediately tested for hiv. positive. the doctor also conjectured that her cough was most likely tuberculosis – not surprising seeing that she was hiv-positive.
the doctor was about to give her arv’s and the protocol to test for tuberculosis until the lady told marcelino and the doctor that she will not take arv’s.
there was no way that she could be positive. her husband didn’t die of hiv/aids. how could she have hiv? she refused to take the medication even though the results clearly showed that she was positive, even though the medication was free.
we sat her down and told her that her cough won’t heal properly if she doesn’t take the hiv medication. we told her she would remain sick and eventually die of illness caused by aids. we told her we can’t help her if she doesn’t try to help herself. nothing worked. she wouldn’t listen. she went home only with the tuberculosis-testing kit.
‘so, are you just going to… die?’ i couldn’t help thinking to myself.
another patient died the same way, marcelino said. marcelino had been visiting this patient regularly, but he passed away last tuesday. i remembered i had also seen this patient a couple of times; i had driven him to the hospital once only a couple of weeks before. he’s dead.
coming back from this trip, i couldn’t help but feel a little saddened, helpless, and confused. what can we do to make her understand that she will die quickly and painfully if she doesn’t take this medication? what can we do to change her mind?
as these thoughts rushed through my mind, another volunteer simply said,
“it’s just like the gospel.”
we can try to prove and persuade that this gospel we hold is truth, but at the end, it is up to the people to decide to believe it or not.
"...Keep on hearing, but do not understand; keep on seeing, but do not perceive. Make their heart of this people dull, and their ears heavy, and blind their eyes; lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their hearts, and turn and be healed."
-Isaiah 6:9-10
sad.
tuesdays and fridays, i go on home-based care in a community called nhembia. the people in this community live relatively far from each other and grow their own maize on their mashambas (gardens). if they don’t have a bicycle or money to catch a shapa (local taxi), people must walk tens of kilometers to visit a market to obtain anything else.
a home-based care visit in nhembia with a volunteer named marcelino led us to the home of a thin and gaunt middle-aged lady. she greeted us, bringing us a mat for us to sit down on. she talked a little, but didn’t say much; it was apparent that she was very sick. every word was interrupted by what seemed like a chronic cough.
“is she positive?” i asked.
we don’t know, marcelino said. she didn’t get tested.
“did you go to the hospital?” marcelino asked her.
no, she said. no money for transport. a ride to the hospital costs 12 meticais. less than 50 cents.
i wanted to give her something, but realized i didn’t have the change on me. we decided to take her to the hospital after marcelino and i finished our visits to the other homes.
in the afternoon, we drove her to the hospital in gondola, another community that is somewhat more developed. she was immediately tested for hiv. positive. the doctor also conjectured that her cough was most likely tuberculosis – not surprising seeing that she was hiv-positive.
the doctor was about to give her arv’s and the protocol to test for tuberculosis until the lady told marcelino and the doctor that she will not take arv’s.
there was no way that she could be positive. her husband didn’t die of hiv/aids. how could she have hiv? she refused to take the medication even though the results clearly showed that she was positive, even though the medication was free.
we sat her down and told her that her cough won’t heal properly if she doesn’t take the hiv medication. we told her she would remain sick and eventually die of illness caused by aids. we told her we can’t help her if she doesn’t try to help herself. nothing worked. she wouldn’t listen. she went home only with the tuberculosis-testing kit.
‘so, are you just going to… die?’ i couldn’t help thinking to myself.
another patient died the same way, marcelino said. marcelino had been visiting this patient regularly, but he passed away last tuesday. i remembered i had also seen this patient a couple of times; i had driven him to the hospital once only a couple of weeks before. he’s dead.
coming back from this trip, i couldn’t help but feel a little saddened, helpless, and confused. what can we do to make her understand that she will die quickly and painfully if she doesn’t take this medication? what can we do to change her mind?
as these thoughts rushed through my mind, another volunteer simply said,
“it’s just like the gospel.”
we can try to prove and persuade that this gospel we hold is truth, but at the end, it is up to the people to decide to believe it or not.
"...Keep on hearing, but do not understand; keep on seeing, but do not perceive. Make their heart of this people dull, and their ears heavy, and blind their eyes; lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their hearts, and turn and be healed."
-Isaiah 6:9-10
Monday, January 19, 2009
doom
is my best friend.
i hate bugs.
did i ever tell you that?
you would think that i would get more tolerant after being exposed to giant spiders, scorpions, and a bajillion gazillion of others, but i think i'm getting even more creeped out. i have a feeling i'll come back to the states even more bug-phobic.
a lot of my meals are comprised of fruit -- mangoes, pineapples, bananas, etc. i have this irrational fear that when i bite into a slice of pineapple, i'll somehow get worms. and today, as i opened my organic waste bin to throw away the pineapple waste, underneath the lid, i noticed long white spots covering the black background of the lid: WORMS!! MAGGOTS!!
seriously, gag reflex.
but other than these rather frequent gag reflexes -- which i would be able to handle --
i realize this phobia is seriously debilitating:
a couple of days after dara and laura left, i was washing dishes at around 10 at night when i see something scurrying down the side of the wall. at first, i thought i was imagining things, but as i turned my head completely towards the wall, this giant, round, tan-colored bug literally the size of my hand falls from the countertop to the floor. i screamed, ran out of the kitchen into my bedroom closing all the doors behind me, and immediately went to sleep with my mosquito net well tucked in. i finished washing the dishes the next afternoon.
ever since i discovered the reason behind the wrinkle-free clothing people wear around here, i'm scared of wearing any clothes that hasn't been thoroughly ironed. apparently, flies lay their eggs on wet clothes while being dried outside. if the clothes aren't ironed or heated in any other way, the eggs can burrow and incubate under your skin upon wearing the dried clothes. i went to the supermarket to buy an iron "for personal use," but i realized that i can't use it with the generator.
sorry this entry contains some graphic and unnecessary detail, but alas, i had to vent. or... gag it out to someone, as africans... don't quite understand this fear:
last night, i was cooking pasta for a group of girls on the mission. i opened a brand new package of pasta noodles, and as i poured them into a pot of boiling water, i noticed black spots floating in the water with the pasta. my first thought was, "huh, i didn't know this pasta came with herb seasoning. bravo, mozambique." but as i processed this nonsensical thought in my head, i looked closer into the pot, and the black spots had legs on them. i looked back at my half-poured-out pasta package, and in it, there were black critters crawling all over -- in, through, out the dry noodles.
i quickly threw the package on the kitchen countertop, stared incredulously at it, and stood there for a few minutes thinking, "how did they get in there?" "isn't this a brand new bag of pasta??" "this is ridiculous! gross."
but one girl who came into the kitchen to see what i was doing looked at the package and said in a matter-of-fact tone, "just put the macaroni (they call pasta macaroni) into a big dry bowl, and they will come out. then you'll be able to eat the macaroni."
true, i say.
half of me was feeling ashamed to be still wanting to throw away the entire package of pasta, but the other -- and more convincing -- half was wanting to throw away the entire package of pasta anyway.
"you realize you're going to africa," i hear my sister chanting in my ear.
"you're not supposed to fear anything; only God," i hear my friend reading me a verse from Scripture.
while i would normally instinctively roll my eyes and mutter to myself -- "like i don't know" -- at such comments as the above, today, as i was reading a book borrowed from a neighbor, i stumbled upon something that was really...
convicting.
"Some love to munch on food; so they spend lots of money on snacks. Others like to adorn themselves at all times. And there are some who are so hygiencially minded that they are continually obsessed with a sense of danger. What is all this? It is loving of one's own life. Many love their own life so much that they cannot bear the slightest suffering or to come too near the sick. To put it quite frankly, they are under bondage to their body. Yet Paul said this: 'I buffet my body, and lead it captive!' (1 Cor. 9:27) If we allow our body to dominate us, that is sin. Our body should be under us, not above us. Many sacrifice morning prayer because they want to sleep. Many sacrifice the time for reading the Bible because they want to eat. Many cannot serve God because they covet snacks and indulge in adornment. Lack of control over these areas of the body is sinful... "
so true! WHY do i even feel compelled to write an entire entry on BUGS. or more accurately, my Fear and Disgust of bugs.
"...Hence if we succeed in controlling sin, we merely suppress it for a time; or if we fail to suppress it, we consider sinning to be unavoidable and plunge into despair and a wringing of our hands..."
exactly! i say spiders and scorpions are enough.
"Yet I need to ask you in the presence of the God whom I serve: When our Lord Jesus went to the cross on our behalf, did He have in view for our future the kind of experience we too often go through today? As He was being crucified, did He envision our current living as that which would be success in the morning but failure in the afternoon? Is the work He has fully accomplished on the cross not enough to enable us to serve Him in holiness and righteousness? Did the Lord shed His blood on the cross because He only saw the penalty of hell without seeing as well the pain of sinning? Does the blood He shed on the cross only save us from the sufferings of the future but leave the sufferings of today for us to bear? Oh! At this point I cannot help but shout, Hallelujah! for our Lord has accomplished all at Calvary! While He was on the cross, He thought not only of the penalty of hell but also the pain of sin. He foresaw the sufferings due to the power of sin as well as those due to its penalty. He has a salvation which enables us to live on earth as He once lived earth. In other words, Christ's work of redemption has not only prepared a position and ground for us to be saved but also provided a position and ground for us to be saved to the uttermost. We are well able hereafter to live differently from the manner that we now live. Let us say Hallelujah, because today there is a gospel of glad tidings for saints as well as for sinners." -- Watchmen Nee, in The Life That Wins
this needs to stop.
me, i mean.
shega.
i hate bugs.
did i ever tell you that?
you would think that i would get more tolerant after being exposed to giant spiders, scorpions, and a bajillion gazillion of others, but i think i'm getting even more creeped out. i have a feeling i'll come back to the states even more bug-phobic.
a lot of my meals are comprised of fruit -- mangoes, pineapples, bananas, etc. i have this irrational fear that when i bite into a slice of pineapple, i'll somehow get worms. and today, as i opened my organic waste bin to throw away the pineapple waste, underneath the lid, i noticed long white spots covering the black background of the lid: WORMS!! MAGGOTS!!
seriously, gag reflex.
but other than these rather frequent gag reflexes -- which i would be able to handle --
i realize this phobia is seriously debilitating:
a couple of days after dara and laura left, i was washing dishes at around 10 at night when i see something scurrying down the side of the wall. at first, i thought i was imagining things, but as i turned my head completely towards the wall, this giant, round, tan-colored bug literally the size of my hand falls from the countertop to the floor. i screamed, ran out of the kitchen into my bedroom closing all the doors behind me, and immediately went to sleep with my mosquito net well tucked in. i finished washing the dishes the next afternoon.
ever since i discovered the reason behind the wrinkle-free clothing people wear around here, i'm scared of wearing any clothes that hasn't been thoroughly ironed. apparently, flies lay their eggs on wet clothes while being dried outside. if the clothes aren't ironed or heated in any other way, the eggs can burrow and incubate under your skin upon wearing the dried clothes. i went to the supermarket to buy an iron "for personal use," but i realized that i can't use it with the generator.
sorry this entry contains some graphic and unnecessary detail, but alas, i had to vent. or... gag it out to someone, as africans... don't quite understand this fear:
last night, i was cooking pasta for a group of girls on the mission. i opened a brand new package of pasta noodles, and as i poured them into a pot of boiling water, i noticed black spots floating in the water with the pasta. my first thought was, "huh, i didn't know this pasta came with herb seasoning. bravo, mozambique." but as i processed this nonsensical thought in my head, i looked closer into the pot, and the black spots had legs on them. i looked back at my half-poured-out pasta package, and in it, there were black critters crawling all over -- in, through, out the dry noodles.
i quickly threw the package on the kitchen countertop, stared incredulously at it, and stood there for a few minutes thinking, "how did they get in there?" "isn't this a brand new bag of pasta??" "this is ridiculous! gross."
but one girl who came into the kitchen to see what i was doing looked at the package and said in a matter-of-fact tone, "just put the macaroni (they call pasta macaroni) into a big dry bowl, and they will come out. then you'll be able to eat the macaroni."
true, i say.
half of me was feeling ashamed to be still wanting to throw away the entire package of pasta, but the other -- and more convincing -- half was wanting to throw away the entire package of pasta anyway.
"you realize you're going to africa," i hear my sister chanting in my ear.
"you're not supposed to fear anything; only God," i hear my friend reading me a verse from Scripture.
while i would normally instinctively roll my eyes and mutter to myself -- "like i don't know" -- at such comments as the above, today, as i was reading a book borrowed from a neighbor, i stumbled upon something that was really...
convicting.
"Some love to munch on food; so they spend lots of money on snacks. Others like to adorn themselves at all times. And there are some who are so hygiencially minded that they are continually obsessed with a sense of danger. What is all this? It is loving of one's own life. Many love their own life so much that they cannot bear the slightest suffering or to come too near the sick. To put it quite frankly, they are under bondage to their body. Yet Paul said this: 'I buffet my body, and lead it captive!' (1 Cor. 9:27) If we allow our body to dominate us, that is sin. Our body should be under us, not above us. Many sacrifice morning prayer because they want to sleep. Many sacrifice the time for reading the Bible because they want to eat. Many cannot serve God because they covet snacks and indulge in adornment. Lack of control over these areas of the body is sinful... "
so true! WHY do i even feel compelled to write an entire entry on BUGS. or more accurately, my Fear and Disgust of bugs.
"...Hence if we succeed in controlling sin, we merely suppress it for a time; or if we fail to suppress it, we consider sinning to be unavoidable and plunge into despair and a wringing of our hands..."
exactly! i say spiders and scorpions are enough.
"Yet I need to ask you in the presence of the God whom I serve: When our Lord Jesus went to the cross on our behalf, did He have in view for our future the kind of experience we too often go through today? As He was being crucified, did He envision our current living as that which would be success in the morning but failure in the afternoon? Is the work He has fully accomplished on the cross not enough to enable us to serve Him in holiness and righteousness? Did the Lord shed His blood on the cross because He only saw the penalty of hell without seeing as well the pain of sinning? Does the blood He shed on the cross only save us from the sufferings of the future but leave the sufferings of today for us to bear? Oh! At this point I cannot help but shout, Hallelujah! for our Lord has accomplished all at Calvary! While He was on the cross, He thought not only of the penalty of hell but also the pain of sin. He foresaw the sufferings due to the power of sin as well as those due to its penalty. He has a salvation which enables us to live on earth as He once lived earth. In other words, Christ's work of redemption has not only prepared a position and ground for us to be saved but also provided a position and ground for us to be saved to the uttermost. We are well able hereafter to live differently from the manner that we now live. Let us say Hallelujah, because today there is a gospel of glad tidings for saints as well as for sinners." -- Watchmen Nee, in The Life That Wins
this needs to stop.
me, i mean.
shega.
Sunday, January 11, 2009
land of mangoes and flying ants
oh my.
i think i've been experiencing internet withdrawal symptoms these past few days:
heavy breathing, jittery fingers, and constant anxiety for the next fix.
haha, jk, except for the anxiety :p
the transformer on the missions ground broke last week = no electricity, no running water, no refrigerator, no refrigerable food items, limited internet access, etc. apparently, fixing or replacing the transformer is too expensive, so after a week of experiencing all of the above, our house finally got hooked up to a generator! still no running water, but...
i can see in the dark!! i can read at night!!
:D
And i can charge my computer and phone! which means, i now have access to internet again!
hah. it feels good to be connected with the rest of the world again :)
but enough talk about this electric outage mumbo jumbo.
it's been so long since i've last updated, i feel i can't catch up on any point that's occurred/i've experienced these past few weeks.
but i'll try.
people:
1. carlos = rubatano project coordinator/hands at work service center coordinator. aka my "boss." he's probably one of the most eccentric people i've ever met and probably one of the most sincere, caring people, too. he and his family have been so welcoming.
2. maforga missions family = the people with whom i'm staying. they've also been extremely welcoming. there are so many people here with incredible testimonies.
3. home-based care volunteers = local volunteers who visit homes of the sick and orphaned in the communities. amazing. that is all.
4. dara and laura = fellow footprinters/nurses. they've been so helpful since my arrival in maforga. i think i've actually grown too dependent on them and their "big sister"-type figures -- i don't know how i'll fare with their absence. they're leaving... tomorrow morning!
notable experiences:
1. christmas eve dinner at church. the photo on my christmas entry makes the dinner look extremely peaceful. that night was quite chaotic, actually :P
2. christmas day. a group of us visited a local prison on christmas day, and i don't know what it was -- this visit completely changed my perpective about christmas.. or what the rest of the world made it to be.
3. home-based care in maforga/nhembia and gondola. we need to pray.
4. volunteer day. i love the volunteers here :')
general lifestyle:
1. getting Darker. taking doxycycline doesn't help.
2. getting Heavier. i've been eating a lot of MANGOES! :D they're everywhere! under trees fallen and left uneaten, in tubs on the side of the road sold for a couple of cents per bucket, in the kitchen of every house we visit. whole mango, mango fruit salad, mango juice, slices of dried mango, mango mango mango. mmmm.
3. getting Sick. one bad spell of food poisoning. i suddenly woke up one night and started throwing up/having the big D for the rest of the night. that day, we celebrated a special occasion by going out to eat pizza -- my favorite food -- and i ate a Lot. it's actually funny when i think about it now -- cause of sickness: food poisoning or food gorging? i haven't experienced anything too drastic, though: no malaria (yet), no car accident, etc. so i'm still relatively healthy :)
and people have been asking:
4. getting more Tolerant? of bugs?
(^ flying ants flying during christmas eve dinner presentation)
Never.
Thursday, December 25, 2008
Saturday, December 20, 2008
dear friends and family,
sorry for the delay in my updates, but after over 3 months of training in south africa, i’m finally in mozambique!
flying through fields of cotton candy. 'twas beautiful.
finally arrived! beira airport.
beautiful view from the seafood restaurant along the coast.
driving westward towards chimoio.
if you haven't noticed yet, i love the sky :)
although i’ve heard much and seen much of the people, projects, and surroundings through pictures and stories, mozambique is definitely not what i had expected it to be. i was imagining a more lush, tropical-forest type of environment, but this place has generally been… flat and brown (?). maybe it’s because of all the mud and rain. the rainy season has just begun a few days ago, actually. it was supposed to have begun over two months ago, so this delay has caused a drought and famine in this place. people are literally starving.
the poverty is so blatantly visible here, much more so than in south africa. driving along the main road, you can see run-down huts made of mud and tree branches, children with tattered clothing and no shoes walking miles at end, people physically struggling to ride their bicycles as they're hauling loads of home-made coal to sell in town all for $3.
it has been less than one week, but there is already so much to say.
but all in all,
it is good to be here :)
thank you for all who’ve been supporting and praying for me. these past three months have been the longest but shortest three months in my life as of yet, and every moment has been amazing. the stresses of “the airport incident” are still fresh in my mind, and i thought i could never redeem myself from it (hehe). but that’s what’s so amazing about it all: it’s not about me or what i do, because at the end, God’s grace is enough, and it’s more than enough to get me through.
more than anything, though, these past three months have been such a time of peace. people here have been saying that God meets people in africa like no other place; i didn't really understand what they meant, but i think it's somewhat true. and it's not necessarily because of what i've been physically seeing or experiencing. the words in Scripture have never been so clear in my life; they're alive, and they're truth, and i think i've only begun to understand that.
so thank you,
for sharing this experience with me.
:)
Come and see what God has done: he is awesome in his deeds toward the children of man.
-Psalm 66:5
Come and see what God has done: he is awesome in his deeds toward the children of man.
-Psalm 66:5
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