What? Where's the post??

I realize the serious lame-ness that is our lack of posting.. to be honest when we first got here sorting out internet took about 3 weeks and then week 4 we found ourselves out in the middle of a village with little internet and this week we are collecting the goods to upload and share. I truly apologize for the lack of communication and hopefully after this week we will be back on track with weekly postings. I hope you all have not gotten too bored waiting around for us to POST!

Great things have been happening and we can't wait to share.. so just give us a little more time and we will spill it all!

blessings!!

ps. Continued prayers appreciated for our friend and spiritual father Joe Manahan. He has been battling brain cancer and could really use some prayers for healing. He has had a few close calls but the Lord continues to bring him back and restore his strength. We are believing God for a complete healing of his brain tissue and restoration of his body!

My mouth will tell of your righteous deeds,
of your saving acts all day long—
though I know not how to relate them all.
I will come and proclaim your mighty acts, Sovereign Lord;
I will proclaim your righteous deeds, yours alone.
Since my youth, God, you have taught me,
and to this day I declare your marvelous deeds.
Even when I am old and gray,
do not forsake me, my God,
till I declare your power to the next generation,
your mighty acts to all who are to come.
Your righteousness, God, reaches to the heavens,
you who have done great things.
Who is like you, God?
Psalm 71:15-19

Just getting Started...

Habari!
First off sorry for the lack of posting in our first 2 weeks here. We have really just been getting our feet firmly planted on African soil and plugging away at lectures. Some of the things we are learning include: suturing with application, how to recognize obstructed/prolonged labor and how to manage it, how to manage post-partum hemorrhaging which (major cause of death in these developing nations). This always is the interesting part of this school because we are learning for the most part to be delivering in places where hospitals and doctors and C-sections may not be readily available. While we always want to recognize problems early and refer, refer, refer, sometimes it is not a valid option and you may have to try to save the life yourself. We are learning invaluable information. Most of this information is provided by the World Health Organization (WHO). We are lecturing and studying right out of the WHO manuals on how to manage these crisis situations. We also have another valuable text that is basically a resourceful guide of how to manage these issues in a developing nation. This coupled with The 1st world Midwife textbook of Maggie Myles and we are getting a pretty well rounded education.

Some of this last 2 weeks were also spent building relationships at the hospital and the YWAM run clinic where we will be working part of the time. We were waiting for our work visas to be granted and as of this last Friday they were granted and stamped in our passports!! Praise God. What an amazing opportunity we get to work in the hospitals of these developing nations alongside women who do this everyday! Tomorrow (Weds) is our first day at the hospital and in the rotation I am in the Labor ward! Off and running! Over the years the Birth Attendant School has had the privileged of welcoming thousands of babies into this world. This week and perhaps tomorrow will be our 4000th delivery.  Our team has 4 more deliveries to go and 2 are currently happening out at the YWAM clinic!
We also get the opportunity to go out in teams and work for a week at a time with the YWAM run clinic about 20km outside of the city.  The clinic is run by a midwife there that has been working in  developing nation over for years now.  She and her husband lead the YWAM base and there is also an American doctor who has been there for years as well with lots of experience in tropical medicine. Beate, the midwife, came and taught our lectures on labor and delivery in Perth.  Spending a week being taught by her I can hardly wait to go out and deliver babies side by side with her. She is just such an amazing wealth of knowledge and so humble! Most of our team is drooling at the chance to work for a week with her and she wouldn't even begin to think of herself that way. In total, we each get 2 weeks with her in her clinic. I am also very excited for Bruce because he will have the opportunity to work under Dr. Joel 2 days a week during our week there. Next week is our first week and we look forward to it!

The kids are doing well with homeschooling and have overall adjusted to Africa so much quicker and easier than India. We are thankful for this but also know that India being so hard on us really prepared us a lot for our time in Africa.  The kids continually amaze us with how well they adjust to new situations and we could not be prouder of their behavior! They are just great kids and we are blessed to parent them! We also love watching them learn and grow and explore the world around them.  They have blended well with other kids from other cultures and don't let language barriers stop them from making friends and having a great time!

Abigail with Abigail from the YWAM base.

This last day off on Saturday we ventured out to a beach resort that was discovered by a few BAS girls of the past. For a few dollars, (less than that for the kids) you are able to enter this beautiful beach resort and use their facilities including a pool and private beach and just gorgeous places to relax. Ummmm YES PLEASE!
I will leave you with a few pictures from our time there. The kids loved to pool and cried when we had to leave. We are really thankful that there is a place to get away a little and relax. It was something we didn't have in India. Yes... I know what you are thinking.. we are truly suffering for Jesus! :)

Karibu Tanzania!

Happy 2013!! We are safe and sound in Tanzania. The traveling went extremely well. We are actually amazed at how easy it was. Thank you for your prayers because we know God's grace is why it went so smoothly.

God bless the Catholic church who is putting us up again. We are staying at a friary (which is a place where friars live if you didn't catch that by the name).  What exactly is a friar you ask? It's like a monk but instead of living in a monastery a friar lives and works to share the Gospel and serve in his community.  So it's like an evangelizing monk. The friary feels a lot like a cabin retreat center and we love it. I can already tell that after certain days of craziness it will be so good to come back home to this place as a sanctuary. It's also very clean and a great place for the kids and Bruce to have exploring outside time. (see pics below)

We have already begun our lectures here and have continued our clipping pace from Perth.  We are still trying to sort out internet and phones and will update more as we are able. Our team is also praying and believing for our work visas so we can get into the hospital this week to start delivering more babies!

Blessings to you and your families in this new year!! Here's some flora and fauna of Tanzania.