sorry we have been MIA!! it has been a busy few weeks for us and we have been busily working on putting together our newsletter to send out. I was looking for a way to post it here but I am not sure that is possible. please email us at mrandmrswilkens@yahoo.com if you would like to receive the actual newsletter but I can try to post what is written here.
here is an excerpt from the letter:
Hello!! We are writing with great excitement of what God is doing in our lives and the lives of those around us! We have spent
the last 9 weeks as a class learning and exploring God’s nature and
character as well as learning how to be a God fearing midwife!
Lots of anatomy and putting doll babies through pelvis models and
practicing how to give great prenatal and postnatal care. And we
are excited to start putting into practice all that we are learning.
Time has been flying by and we are preparing in less than 3 weeks to leave to our first outreach location of India! We will spend 12 weeks in India and then move on to Tanzania for 3 months between mid-December and mid-March. Then we will go by train to Zambia, our last outreach location, for the last few months. During this time we will be working in government hospitals alongside staff, sharing in the overwhelming workload they face each day, oftentimes without enough equipment or medicine to properly treat patients or even save lives. We hope to walk in humility, to gain experience in midwifery and to educate mothers on how to prevent problems in labor and delivery including life-threatening dangers such as hemorrhaging. But most importantly we will be sharing the love of Jesus by bringing hope to desperate situations.
Time has been flying by and we are preparing in less than 3 weeks to leave to our first outreach location of India! We will spend 12 weeks in India and then move on to Tanzania for 3 months between mid-December and mid-March. Then we will go by train to Zambia, our last outreach location, for the last few months. During this time we will be working in government hospitals alongside staff, sharing in the overwhelming workload they face each day, oftentimes without enough equipment or medicine to properly treat patients or even save lives. We hope to walk in humility, to gain experience in midwifery and to educate mothers on how to prevent problems in labor and delivery including life-threatening dangers such as hemorrhaging. But most importantly we will be sharing the love of Jesus by bringing hope to desperate situations.
We have been struck by the statistics of pregnancies in these developing nations. The very idea of
pregnancy runs contrary to what we experience in America and the first world. Pregnancy for most in the
developed world is a joyful time of expectation as parents wait for the arrival of their new addition.
Mothers in developing nations often wait in fear as they will have known someone whose delivery ended
in death of either the mother, baby or both. It is a reality they cannot ignore.
600,000 women a year die worldwide in childbirth. Four million newborns die within the first month of life. When a woman dies in childbirth, her newborn baby is less likely to survive. Most maternal and newborn deaths are caused by the mother’s poor health before or during pregnancy or due to inadequate care in the critical hours, days, and weeks after birth. An amazing 90% of these deaths can be prevented through bringing education to the mothers and through training healthcare workers to know what to do to prevent this. We are not naïve enough to believe that we will not experience the loss of some of these precious women and newborns. We have heard the stories and seen the tears of those who have gone before us. But we are struck with God’s heart to fight for the lives of the least of these. Even if its one mother or baby at a time. Our family has been given an amazing opportunity to be a part of fighting for these lives and to be a part of sharing God’s love to some of the poorest women and children on earth.
We would love to partner with you in prayer as we go into these areas. We will be updating our blog with stories of what we are encountering and the work that God is doing. We are looking forward to this time with anticipation and excitement.
Here is also the YWAM promo video for the Birth Attendant School if you haven't seen it. (just so your aware, It does have a sensitive scene concerning an newborn that did not make it.) Its a great video though and its filmed at the first hospital we are working at!
http://youtu.be/KK1pmSWZ2RU
Blessings!!
600,000 women a year die worldwide in childbirth. Four million newborns die within the first month of life. When a woman dies in childbirth, her newborn baby is less likely to survive. Most maternal and newborn deaths are caused by the mother’s poor health before or during pregnancy or due to inadequate care in the critical hours, days, and weeks after birth. An amazing 90% of these deaths can be prevented through bringing education to the mothers and through training healthcare workers to know what to do to prevent this. We are not naïve enough to believe that we will not experience the loss of some of these precious women and newborns. We have heard the stories and seen the tears of those who have gone before us. But we are struck with God’s heart to fight for the lives of the least of these. Even if its one mother or baby at a time. Our family has been given an amazing opportunity to be a part of fighting for these lives and to be a part of sharing God’s love to some of the poorest women and children on earth.
We would love to partner with you in prayer as we go into these areas. We will be updating our blog with stories of what we are encountering and the work that God is doing. We are looking forward to this time with anticipation and excitement.
Here is also the YWAM promo video for the Birth Attendant School if you haven't seen it. (just so your aware, It does have a sensitive scene concerning an newborn that did not make it.) Its a great video though and its filmed at the first hospital we are working at!
http://youtu.be/KK1pmSWZ2RU
Blessings!!
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| our team of students and staff (minus one student) |
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