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

Buy A Donkey

Okay, so really the phrase is spelled ‘Baie Dankie’… but that is exactly how it sounds! It means ‘Thank You!’ in Afrikaans, and always makes me laugh hearing people say it to one another.

Anyways, I just wanted to send a BIG ‘Baie Dankie’ to my Grandpa, who for his birthday asked for donations for the soup kitchen, and to feed people here. I have been able to buy more meat for the porridge, carrots, and potatoes. I have also been able to get apples each week for the kids at Lebensschule, who in many cases are not fed outside of what they are given at school. Many thanks also go out to my family who gave money… it will be put to use feeding people for months to come!! Thanks again!

Here is a picture of some of the kids we served this week – they all run to the tent straight from school to get their bowls filled with soup:

Also, the rainy season officially began last week! It has been a glorious relief from the intense heat, and I have been thrilled for the moisture in the air. It has rained nearly every day since it started, bringing clouds with it, but the rain only lasts about an hour before clearing off. Reminds me of Colorado rains. Because it rains hard and the sun returns quickly, there are rainbows almost every day. This is a picture of one I saw outside my window on Wednesday… isn’t it beautiful!Much Love,
Mackenzie

Repaving Roads

"True compassion is more than flinging a coin to a beggar. It comes to see that a system that produces beggars needs to be repaved. We are called to be the Good Samaritan, but after you lift so many people out of the ditch you start to think, maybe the whole road to Jericho needs to be repaved."

-Martin Luther King, Jr.

I read this quote earlier this week and haven’t been able to stop thinking about it since.

Jesus showed compassion by teaching people, feeding them, listening to them, touching them and countless other acts throughout the gospels. We are commanded to ‘put on’ compassion (Col 3:12). So what does this look like in the context that I currently find myself in? That is the question I have been wrestling with.

I want to help ‘repave the roads’ of Rehoboth. The ‘system’ here seems to have produced a lot of things, but souls filled with the life and joy of the Lord because he is seen as the treasure he is is not one of them. While I know that I will not be here long enough to see the entire road repaved, I desperately desire to be a part of laying a few bricks, that will hopefully spur a few more to do the same, and so on and so on.

So what does compassion look like? I could just give the children outside the shop here a dollar or a piece of bread or an apple. The hunger in their bellies would be temporarily satiated, but what about the hunger in their souls? In some instances, I walk away, frustrated at my lack of ability to communicate with the person… at my missed opportunity to share the bread of life with them… and I know that our interaction was not in vain, but to leave any sort of lasting impact on these people, I must be giving them something that can fill them more than just temporarily. That is the compassion I long to show to the people of Rehoboth: the compassion of Jesus, that unites acts of mercy, grace and kindness with life-giving, truth-soaked, soul-sustaining words. Please pray for wisdom and discernment, as I seek to learn how to best do that in this town.

A bit of this... a bit of that

Here are a few random things I have been up to over the last week or so:

- Last Saturday the girls on my team and I got to head back to Windhoek for the first time since orientation. It was such a fun day. WH is a bigger city, as I have mentioned, and we got to spend time at a mall, involving eating ice cream at 10:30 am (hey, we were excited!!) Overall it was a fun-filled, refreshing get away, which I was very thankful for!

- Ruth Rowell, who has been here with her husband and two youngest daughters, returned to the UK to be with one of their older daughters who has been ill since they left. She is missed by all already, and we are praying for a safe, speedy return.

- Kristen and I have continued to spend time with the girls living at the hostel at Rehoboth High School, and it has been SO good! Below is a picture of Taimi, myself, and Fabiola, who I have been able to spend great time and conversation with.

- Things at the hospital are continuing to go well. I really enjoy my time there, and the babies we have been caring for are starting to get to know us, which is really fun. I added a few more pictures, with little stories as captions if you want to check them out, click the slide show on the right.

- Also, Kristen will be headed back to the good ‘ol U.S. of A. on Tuesday of this week to join friends and family for the wedding of her brother Matt to his fiancée Shea. Pray for safe travels, and an enjoyable time while she is away… she will be missed!

Well, I think that about rounds it up. Hope all is well with you.

Much Love,
Mackenzie

Slowly but surely...

I think I've figured out how to get a web album, and have tried to upload some pictures onto it. Right now, they are just ones from the hospital, but I'll try to put up more as I go. Hopefully if you click on the mini-slideshow to the right it will take you to the cite!