Christmas at Lebensschule

This Tuesday we celebrated Christmas at Lebensschule. It was a blast, and very fun to see the kids excited and the teachers working hard to make the day special.

Steph, one of the girls on my team (who we are sadly saying goodbye to this weekend!) was able to buy a new outfit for each of the kids. This was quite an exciting thing for them as many of them have only a couple articles of clothing.

Here are the kids opening their presents:

This is a picture of Steph and I with some of the kids in their new outfits… so exciting :)


This is a picture of me with the teachers who work there

I was able to give each kid a jar of peanut butter to take home for the break with some money from my family (Thanks!) Many of the kids eat only what we feed them at school, so access to food is a struggle for many of them when school is not in session.

Here is Clinton with his jar!

On Thursday I got to go to Kwakwas Primary School where Kristen has been teaching. It was really fun to see where she spends her days, and they had a special Christmas Program on Thursday. The school is sponsored by Coca-Cola among a few other places, so they each received small gifts as well after a special visit from ‘Father Christmas’. You should check out Kristen’s blog at the link to the right for more fun pictures.

Hope your Thanksgiving was wonderful. I know I am truly grateful for how far the Lord has brought me, and that He continues to sustain me daily!

Much Love,

Mackenzie

Pictures

We had to say goodbye this morning to two members of the 'original 6' U.S. girls. Cathi and Alli (front row in blue and back row in brown) headed to Windhoek for de-brief, and will be flying out tomorrow. We will miss them dearly, and Rehoboth certainly won't feel the same without them!














Last weekend we had the fabulous priviledge of going to one of two 'cinemas' in all of Namibia to see High School Musical 3. We were able to take the Rowell girls, as well as two of the Rineer's girls (Christy is pictured here). We had quite the day and loved the movie :)


















This is Luzelle and Fabiola, who live at the hostel at Rehoboth High School that Kristen and I have been spending time at. They are awesome girls who are totally interested in learning more about the Lord, and a huge source of joy in ministry here!













This is Nadiene. She's about 3 and has Tuberculosis. We brought some pipe cleaners last week to occupy our down time and she wanted to make some glasses... pretty cute :)

Perspectives

My perspective on how things are going here changes on a daily (sometimes hourly!) basis. Some days I feel like things are really great: like God is near and at work in the people around me, and that he is growing me in really refreshing ways. Other days are a bit harder, and include feelings of hopelessness and heaviness, frustration at language barriers, and inability to share life giving words with people I meet. And while I certainly don’t enjoy the up and down roller coaster of these feelings, I have found beauty in one thing: my feelings are only my perspective of what is going on around me. Truth tells me that God is near whether I feel him or not. God is at work in the hearts of people here in Rehoboth whether I see the fruit of it or not. God is working out his Sovereign purposes here, and it is a privilege to be a part of it, and even get glimpses of it as he sees fit to reveal it to me. And so in times when my feelings don’t align with truth (which is more often than I wish!), I plead with the Lord to give me a Kingdom perspective: his eyes, his heart, his wisdom, his responses… and I will continue to plead for these things as long as I am on this journey of sanctification.

Turkey Day and Theatre Room

Last Saturday evening my team celebrated Thanksgiving a little early, but definitely in as traditional of a fashion as we could arrange. They don’t sell turkey here, so we went with chicken instead, but were able to have green bean casserole and pumpkin pie thanks to my mom who sent the supplies for us! It was quite a feast, and we had wonderful fellowship around the table talking about how grateful we are for who the Lord is, and what he has done in each of our lives.

From the left: Bernie (who joined us last week from the Republic of Ireland and will be in Rehoboth for 6 months), MollyBea, Me, and Alli:

It was a wonderful evening, and though it could never replace being at home and sitting around the table with my blood family, God has been good to provide a family-like feeling among us here.

On Wednesday, I got to spend some time in the ‘theatre room’ (or operating room as we would call it) at the hospital. I started helping a doctor at his clinic in town this week, and he welcomed me to help in the ‘theatre’ where he operates 3 days a week. I was a little leery of what the conditions would be like given the questionable hygiene and sanitation of the rest of the hospital, but was quite impressed by the sterility of things there.

Here I am all scrubbed up and ready to go:

*Only if you’re medically interested: One of the surgeries I saw was an old-school appendectomy. Quite interesting to watch them pull out the intestines looking for the appendix, as in the States it would all be done through a scope. All of the surgeries were considerably more bloody than they are in the States, as there are no cauterizing instruments used, only blades and scissors. One thing that really made me chuckle was the involvement of the surgeons in the process… they did everything! From putting in the IV, to anesthesia, to helping transport the patient to recovery after the procedure was finished, the surgeons did it all. Never seen that happen in the U.S. ;)

I hope you are doing well!

Much Love,

Mackenzie

Okahandja

On Tuesday morning I woke up extra early and headed to Okahandja, a town about 2 hours North of Rehoboth, with a woman named Crystal, who works for an organization called ‘Orange Babies’. Orange Babies sponsors 5 orphanages and many other projects throughout Namibia, and is headquartered in Windhoek. So after making the journey to WH to get supplies, we headed further North to Okahandja, where we helped run a little ‘clinic’ at a settlement camp for displaced Namibians. Orange Babies has been distributing food and formula to parents in the settlement camp, and to ensure that the parents are not selling the food, the children who receive it are asked to come to a clinic once a month to be weighed, measured, and generally checked out. I got to help out with this process, seeing over 200 kids in a few short hours. I gave out vitamins and de-worming (kills intestinal parasites, etc.) medication, which will hopefully help the kids gain weight and absorb more nutrients.

Here is the table of deworming meds right as the clinic opened:

And here is the after picture:

Needless to say my hand was stained red afterward from opening so many of those little bottles! Trying to force little kids to swallow medicine they don’t want to took me back to my Peds clinical days, wiping the medicine off my face, out of my hair, etc. as it was spit back out at me by one little mouth after another :)

I had to say goodbye to Martin, who I’ve grown to love, this week at the hospital. He was being taken to Windhoek, by who I assume was Social Services. It was harder than I thought it would be to say goodbye to his precious face, and not knowing what he was headed to made it all the more difficult. But it was good to have the opportunity to pray over him before he left, that God would protect his vulnerable heart, that he would come to know and love the Lord at an early age, and that he would walk with Him all the days of his life.

Kristen returned to Namibia yesterday, after being gone at her brother’s wedding for the last 10 days, and what a welcomed return it was! It certainly wasn’t the same without her here, and it was so fun to have her back and get to hear all the stories of fun had by the old YAMS crew in Texas!

Happy early Birthday Dad… wish I could be there to help you celebrate!!

Much Love,

Mackenzie