Settling in

We are starting to get settled in now and feel bad that we have been slacking on the blog entries and are just figuring out the best way to stay in touch with everyone while here.  There is no internet, but we have been learning how to use the mobile networks and though data is expensive, it seems to work well.  Surprisingly, the service is better than where we stayed in Harare, the capital city.  There is a cellular tower about 1 mile away from the hospital and our house, but it’s just 3G and noticibly slower than in the States.  EcoNet, the company who owns and operates the tower, has a large generator to keep the tower operational even if there was no power for a month (which is par for the course, no joking) and they have donated a refrigerator to keep vaccines and other medications cold so they don’t go bad.  We are lucky that the power outages – load shedding – is much more prevalent during the rainy months in the summer as more people are indoors.  Remember, it’s winter here now.  We haven’t had any loss of power yet, but we are prepared with candles and flashlights because we know it is inevitible!  [UPDATE:  as I'm posting this, we have no power...]

Because we have been trying to figure out our routine still, we’ll just catch you up on some of our experiences so far.  Hopefully the future blog posts will have a bit more focus.

As previously noted, we spent the first week in Harare trying to get some logistics figured out and allowing some work to be done at the house we are in now.  Also previously noted, and worth mentioning again, is how much we enjoyed connecting with Washington and Alice and how wonderful it is to see their servant hearts in action!  They are such an example to us!

Medical mission in Harare

Current building on the church site.

We moved to our new home at Nhowe Mission Brian Lemons Memorial Hospital at the end of last week and on Saturday I went to back to Harare as part of a medical mission and evangelism effort in an area of town where people live on less than $30/month and at the site where there are plans for a new church building as they have a young, growing congregation.  The drive is a little less than 2 hours, thanks to a speed limit of 120 km/h (though the multiple random police road blocks trying to eek out a few dollars wherever they can does slow down the voyage).  It was extremely well put together and it was my first experience with medicine in Zimbabwe.  There were 8 other cuban doctors there as Cuba and Zimbabwe have an exchange program.  There was also an informational session with a few different speakers and so interesting to hear what the general population knows about malaria and HIV, or rather, lack thereof.  The public education on these diseases an area that needs improvement.

Most of the patients were there with new onset hypertension or new onset diabetes.  The first patient I saw, with the help of one of the Cuban doctors who has been in Zimbabwe for 3 years, had a RBS of 21!  What the heck did that mean?  The abbreviations, the units of measurement, and the medications are all very different!  I learned quickly that RBS was random blood sugar and that normal fasting glucose was below 7 and random should be less than 11 (I don’t even remember the units right now).  I also learned that there is no diphenhydramine (Benadryl) or pseudoephedrine (Sudafed) at all in Zimbabwe.  Oral nifedipine is also the most common second anti-hypertensive behind hydrochlorothiazide (not common in the U.S.).

Monday was the first day to work at the hospital with Dr. Mundiya (a.k.a. Jonathan).  About 90% of the patients in the hospital are pregnant, post-partum, or newborns.  All medical decision making is directed by the financial impact on the patient.  Well, most of it.  The other factor is whether the medication or test we might want to order is available at our hospital.  There are only 4 IV antibiotics available: benzylpenicillin, gentamicin, erythromycin, ceftriaxone.  While rounding with the nurses, an order is written (yes, no computers here – I actually forgot to sign the note/orders a few times that first day in Harare since a physical signature is almost a thing of the past in the U.S.) and it won’t be done until the patient has paid for it.  That is exactly the opposite of the care in the United States.  Wednesday we rounded and I was surprised to see that almost every investigation ordered the previous day was not done.  Jonathan noted that day was an exception to the norm, but it portrays the system that cannot afford to provide free care for everyone and if they don’t pay up front, then they likely won’t pay at all.  And you might be thinking that payment up front isn’t even possible for most healthcare in the United States, but the cost of a night in the hospital is $6 and you can see the prices for lab work in the picture.

Click on the picture and it should get bigger.

Also, to put this in perspective, Zimbabwe’s economy crashed hard in 2008 and they have been using the U.S. dollar since then.  Inflation was so bad that they actually had to print $100 trillion notes and that wouldn’t even buy a loaf of bread so people found more use for the bills as a means to start a fire.  I actually had to look up how to say the final exchange rate in words:  one U.S. dollar was worth more than two decillion Zimbabwe dollars.  “The country’s central bank could not even afford the paper on which to print its worthliess trillion-dollar notes.  …shopkeepers would frequently double prices between the morning and afternoon, leaving workers’ pay almost valueless by the end of the day,” as describe by an article from The Guardian.  Just imagine that you had a few hundred thousand dollars saved for retirement and ALL of your savings were gone when you woke up one morning!  So with the U.S. dollar, some things are cheaper, like a loaf of bread for $0.90, but gasoline costs $5.56/gallon and I just saw a box of Kellogg’s cereal for almost $10!  In fact, most things in the grocery stores are at least as expensive as in the States if not more, but produce like bananas, tomatoes, and avocados on the street are much cheaper.  Even living here and seeing it with my own eyes, it’s difficult to understand how anyone can live on $30/month.

$9.59

Regarding the cost of healthcare, Jonathan noted that there are some people in the surrounding communities that think the hospital should be providing free care since it is a Chrisitian mission hospital.  That obviously isn’t sustainable and Jonathan went to the local chief and explained that they could provide free healthcare at the hospital, but that when resources run out, there would be no healthcare at all!  The chief agreed that minimal costs in order to keep the lights on was reasonable and it sounds like the hospital does make a big difference for the quality of life of the people around here since the next nearest hospital is 70 kilometers away by vehicle on extremely bad dirt roads…  but vehicles are nearly non-existent for most rural Zimbabweans, which only adds to their culture of very poor health-seeking behavior.

So getting back to the first day at the hospital, the very first patient I saw was this cute little girl with limb abnormalities and a heart murmur.  Possibly syndromic so we recommended that she go to the next bigger city for an echocardiogram.

The next morning she was still in our hospital because she didn’t have transportation.  There was another patient during that first day who had improved to the point of being discharged home, but she was also still in the hospital the next day because she was unable to pay her bill.  It is literally a hostage situation until the patient’s family can bring the money to bring her home.  Interestingly, it was the same way in Congo when we were there with the Tenpennys in 2014.  Obstetrics and neonatology is an enormous part of this practice and I have learned a lot already, including a Cesarean delivery that first day due to meconium and fever - rather, pyrexia.  I am very thankful to have had a refresher on C-sections last month before leaving Mankato!  There are two newborns with fever in the hospital, too, one for 11 days!  Neonatal sepsis is a big deal in the United States and there are multiple guidelines involving numerous expensive tests, but here we just assume the worst and cover with antibiotics without any investigations at all.  A bit different for my neonatologist friends, eh?

After this first week, I am still very much orienting to the different culture and systems processes in place, but after the daily devotional this morning at 7am, Jonathan told me that he would have to leave early today.  I was thinking to myself, “I wonder if that means 12pm or maybe 2pm…”  Then he said he had to leave in 10 minutes!  It wasn’t even 8am yet, so I took the reigns and completed rounds with the nurses, managed a patient in labor who was failing to progress and started showing signs of fetal distress (no strip, of course, just the Pinard horn…  nope, not even Doppler), and performed 2 minor procedures.

Pinard Horn to listen to fetal heart tones

In the middle of all this, I participated in an interview for a new nurse and admitted a 70 year old lady with the following vital signs:  HR 156 bpm, BP 96/58, RR 48, and temp of 36.9 C.  No pulse oximetry – that machine was in a different building.  She had a dry cough for the past 4 weeks and denied any other medical problems.  Her current symptoms had been going on for the past 3-4 weeks, as well, including her tachypnea.  She was with a niece and they agreed she could stay in the hospital after a little deliberation and the nurse who was helping me translate said that during their discussion they commented on selling a cow to pay for it.  For my medical colleagues, what would you do to treat this patient without any imaging or labs?  Oh, and her heart was regular and lungs clear with decreased right lower lung sounds.  No edema or JVD, though she was started on furosemide and spironolactone for CCF (congestive cardiac failure) during an admission last month at a different hospital.   She had HIV, malaria, and tuberculosis tested last month that were all negative.  She had a chest x-ray last month, as well, but didn’t have it with her.  (Actual film x-rays here, but no lightboxes that work, so we just use the window.  Such limited resources.)  I did discuss the patient by phone with Jonathan about whether she should be transferred to a proper ICU with those vital signs and he told me that there were 14 formal ICU beds in the COUNTRY!

Sorry for so much medical talk during this post, but that is the reason we’re here, after all.  That, and trying to live like Jesus everyday.  Perhaps the next blog post will be about our first experience at church on Sunday as this is already quite lengthy, but I was asked to preach on Wednesday night and while I am not a preacher by trade, I pray that I was able to share some encouraging words.

====================

I wrote the preceding thoughts late last night and didn’t post it as I wanted Kara to read it first.  And by “late,” I mean 10:00pm.  We go to bed early and wake up around 5am every day with the bright sunshine.  It gets dark around 5:30pm and the main light in our kitchen/living room/main area doesn’t work so we end up eating as it is getting dark, maybe playing a few hands of Phase 10, nightly family devotional (that we copied from Washington and Alice’s family – actually, their 4 children are grown and they are now foster parents to FOUR university students who grew up as part of the Zimbabwe Orphans Project or ZOP), and then after we get the kids to bed, we wind down with a book or studying to refresh on some of the medicine that I haven’t thought about since medical school!  It’s not uncommon to have lights off by 9-10pm (some of you might know that is ridiculously early for us).

Wow, that was a tangent, but that probably doesn’t surprise most of you.  So, what I was getting at is that I wrote that last night and I asked Jonathan to call me if he went into the hospital at all during the night.  Just as we were waking up this morning, my phone rang – around 5:30am – and there was an emergency C-section due to fetal distress.  We also had an elective C-section with tubal ligation that was scheduled for yesterday due to being breech but it was postponed until this morning as Jonathan was gone yesterday.  Well, as we were closing the skin from the first one, Dr. Mundiya looked at me and said, “Now I will assist you with the next one.”  Ha!  Now, I had a great experience in medical school and did much more than first-assist during many C-sections and I also had a lot of exposure in residency, but my obstetrics rotation in medical school was 8 years ago!  Well, the surgery went great and this was all without suction, cautery, or even cardiac monitoring!  First week on the job and I've already done my first C-section!

After the surgeries we went to see the woman I admitted yesterday and the labs were back.  All unremarkable: white blood cells 9, hemoglobin 10, electrolytes normal.  Chest x-ray showed right pleural effusion, as suspected clinically, but otherwise fine.  Jonathan thought it was possible that she had tuberculosis as it is a very common disease in Zimbabwe and she was pyrexial last night to 38.1 C.  He noted tuberculosis as one of the most common reasons for parapneumonic effusions here.  He did a quick thoracentesis without stethoscope or ultrasound – simply percussion.  He pulled off 20-30 cc straw colored fluid and the only things we can do are gram stain and chemistry.  It was a pretty good Saturday morning.

Some friends from Kansas arrived to Zimbabwe last night and they are really the reason this hospital even exists.  Dr. Steve Lemons, his son Chris (same age as me), and another member of their church’s mission committee, Roy Van Zant, should be coming out to Nhowe in the next 1-2 days.  We are certainly excited to see them, but also excited because I was awarded a discounted SonoSite M-turbo ultrasound machine through a grant program for mission hospitals and Steve will be bringing it with him.  It would have been useful to have prior to the first C-section this morning to identify an anterior placenta, and also for the thoracentesis.

Our house.  And the only clouds we've seen since we've been here!

Movie night.  Did you know you can download Netflix movies?

Chewing on sugar cane

Best therapy there is for autism

My office for writing this blog post today.

First Post from Nhowe

*** This blog post was actually written three days ago!  We're still trying to figure out the cell phone and internet system here.  We don't have wireless here at the hospital, so all of our internet time uses data on our phones and I ran out before I could actually post this.  Hopefully we can get things figured out soon and can post more often. ***

Before arriving in Zimbabwe, I was thrilled to hear that the house we would be staying in would have a couple security guards each night that would look after the several houses on the hospital campus, keeping us all safe.  This was especially comforting to me as I had feared for our safety after hearing of a couple break-ins to the house we were planning to stay in.  After being in Zimbabwe for a week, and getting accustomed to the culture, I had to laugh a little when on the first night of our stay at Nhowe, we discovered that our security guards were in our own garbage pit, digging out things they wanted. The two guys who I was fully trusting to keep us safe were actually stealing from me!  (Well, taking my trash, anyway.)  Poverty.  A country with no money.  Starvation.  People are left to do what they need to do to survive and it is very sad.

Before going to Nhowe, we spent a week in Harare, sorting out details of our stay.  One of the things we needed to do was buying a car we could use, but it had to be functional for the hospital to use after we leave.  Buying a car takes a lot longer in Zimbabwe than it takes in the US!!  We were so thankful to be staying with an elder and his wife, who not only drove us all around town for whatever we needed, but they helped us work out the car purhase, provided nice beds, running (warm!) water, and cooked us some amazing meals.  It was a great transition to Zimbabwe.  We will always be thankful for Washington and Alice!

We have now been at Nhowe for two days.  Everyone has transitioned well and I honestly can’t think of a single bad thing to say.  The "Guest House," where we are staying, has been fixed up beautifully and we really feel at home here.  We have quite a bit of unpacking to do to be completely settled, but getting our beds made and clothes put away was a good feeling.  I have even cooked my first two meals here!  The first night was spaghetti with green beans and tonight was fried corned beef, raw fried potatoes with onions, and white rice.  I will be thankful when I can get more comfortable shopping and cooking here.  Living 45 minutes from the nearest store is not something I’m used to planning for!

The kids are doing well.  Maida and Skogen feel back at home again and have enjoyed showing Klaasen and Torsten around.  They spend most of their time outside.  The boys love to dig in the dirt and make tracks for their cars or play soccer.  Maida likes to sweep the sidewalks or rake the grass.  I think she’ll start joining into the soccer (‘football’) games soon, too.  Today she made a hideout out of the freshly cut grass (that was way over her head before it got cut, so the clippings were able to be stacked pretty high!).  Klaasen has done great with the move here, but still really struggles with the social interaction piece, which is very common with autism.  We are trying to help him through social situations, and people here are really understanding, but I know it’s hard for him.  He wants to play with the other kids so badly, but just doesn’t really know what to do once he gets their attention!  I’m praying these six months will be a wonderful experience for him and that he will continue to make improvements while we’re here.  He’s come a long way, but like we saw at the airport in Harare when we first arrived and he got upset, slapping me on the face, he’s got a long way to go.  While that is an example of his struggles, he also provides unintentional endless entertainment as he doesn’t display normal “expected” behaviors so he always keeps us on the edge of our seats, not knowing what he might say next to his new friends.

Erik is planning to travel back to Harare tomorrow where he will partcipate in a free clinic day that one of the churches is hosting.  He is very excited to be able to jump in and help wherever he can and will have a great time tomorrow learning more about medicine in Zimbabwe!  The free clinic is actually an outreach ministry to plant a new church in one of the more poor districts in southern Harare, and we are just fascinated by the vigor of the church here in Zimbabwe.  Saturday includes short public health talks about HIV, malaria, diabetes, hypertension, healthy diet, and then a clinic with evangelism and feeding everyone a hearty meal.

We’ll try to update the blog more often, but for quick, more frequent updates, please follow us on Instagram.  Many blessings to all of you and a huuuuuuge thanks to everyone who has supported us!  We feel so blessed to be here.

We've made it to the right continent! We just have one more flight to get to Zimbawe. Who knows when we'll have internet again, so I'm plunking out a quick up date on my phone.

Our travel has been seamless and wonderful! We had a day long layover in London and it was fun to take a break from the aiport and airplane. The kids loved exploring another country! We're super excited to explore several countries in Africa soon!

Today is the Day!

It seems so surreal, but today is the day! Thank you so much to everyone who has been an encouragement to us and who has been a part of our support system in numerous ways as we have planned and packed for this adventure. We are all experiencing a bit of mixed emotions as we part with all things familiar and leave for the unknown, however, the peace and confidence in our decision to follow God's lead to Zimbabwe, is amazingly unmistakable. Please continue to pray for us! Our travel time, including four planes and three layovers, will be 36 hours. Once we get to Zimbabwe, we will be spending some time in the capitol city, Harare, where we will solidify things before moving on to Nhowe Mission and the Brian Lemons Memorial Hospital. With sporadic internet, along with the electricity coming and going so frequently there, we may not have the opportunity to update as often as we'd like, but hopefully enough to let you all know all the great things that we're experiencing. Much love to all of you and thanks again for all of you who have showed continuous support and unconditional encouragement. God's blessings.

14 Days

Our departure date is quickly approaching.  Many new and surreal feelings accompany as we pack up our life here in America and plan for Zimbabwe.  Hopes and dreams, but fears, too.  There are so many mixed emotions as we go through all of the motions of this move.  We fly out in 14 days and in some ways 14 days doesn't seem long enough, but at the same time it seems like an eternity away.

I've said it before, but I never imagined myself as a missionary.  I just never had the desire to move my family across the ocean, giving up all that is comfortable and familiar to everything unknown and strange.  God has unique ways of working on hearts, though, and for the past three years, we have prayerfully relied on God's guidance as we fully committed to life as missionaries in Africa.  It is so hard to believe the time is nearly here for us to go.

Our house is full of boxes, our counters covered in check lists.  I'm not quite sure if I'll ever feel completely ready or prepared for this big adventure!  There is still no question in my mind, though, that we're doing exactly what we're supposed to be doing.  I can't imagine the devastation that we would have felt if we would have said, "No," to God's calling and nudging us to Zimbabwe.  Between Klaasen's recent diagnosis of autism, my passport issues, fundraising hold ups, loved ones not being supportive, my dad's health issues, and most recently, our medication mix up - there has been plenty to hold us back.  I am so thankful for the solid foundation we have to stand on and the confidence that is so evident in following God's plan.  I hope our children will forever be blessed through this trip and all they will encounter there.  I also hope that many of you who are following our journey will be blessed by what we share!  Thanks so much for the prayers.

We are so humbled by all the support and giving of prayers and money for our upcoming Zimbabwe mission.  20 days ago, our overwhelming needs to accomplish this upcoming trip seemed like an unattainable goal.  Over and over and over throughout the last month, though, God has shown us what He is able to do when we truly give it to Him.... several received our prayer magnets and have expressed interest in praying for us as we prepare to go and as we're away.  One group of men even committed to getting on their knees together several times a week on our behalf while we prepare and during the six months we're away... a dear couple at our home church asked to help with the storing of our belongings while we're gone for the six months... the congregation we grew up in held a special "Mission Sunday" highlighting our trip and took up a special contribution for our financial needs.  Several were in attendance, including an old friend who hasn't been to church in years and welcomed the invitation to attend church for our special day, rekindling old friendships in the process of worshiping together... elders of other church congregations have approached us, showing interest in supporting us in anyway they can... family members have stepped up and volunteered their time to help pack and clean as we prepare to leave, others have expressed interest in keeping our dog while we're away... a sweet little girl who attended church with her grandparents, brought a dollar bill she had earned earlier in the week. Much to her grandparents' surprise, she didn't want to put her dollar in the regular children's collection that day, but instead after hearing of our plans to go to Zimbabwe, we she cheerfully and confidently gave all she had to our trip... friends have offered their vehicles and basements for transportation and storage... a family member has shown her support by reaching out to her friends and church family, voicing our cause and passionately asking others for their support... our family photographer asked to publish our information on her site, promoting our trip and helping raise awareness and support...   messages of encouragement have filled our inboxes with words so rich in support and love, carrying us through moments of doubt or fear... 

"Now to Him who is able to do immeasurable more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us." - Ephesians 3:20

Thank you so much to all of you!  This isn't just the "Scharrer's" mission, this is YOUR mission, too.  We're all doing this together.  Thank you for joining us!

If you've come to our blog for questions on our specific mission or on giving, please see the tabs at the top for more specific information or feel free to contact us and/or leave a comment.  Just  a quick wrap up for some questions we've received recently...

Our family of six will depart for Zimbabwe, Africa just after May 1st of this year.  We plan to work at the Brian Lemons Memorial Hospital, which will also include work with the church, school, and orphanage there.  Erik is currently an Emergency Medicine physician at the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota and will jump right in to work at the hospital at Nhowe Mission.  Kara and the kids hope to connect in all areas of Nhowe Mission with God-driven hearts to serve wherever they are needed.  It's our goal to raise $30,000 by May 1st.  If you are moved to give, please see the "Donate" tab above.  Prayers are always welcome.  Without prayer as our lifeline, we would not be able to fulfill the Great Commission.

Yesterday afternoon as I laid on the floor in our living room, my eyes scanning all of our belongings around the house, I wondered how in the world I was going to be able to get all of it packed up.  Packing, along with a to-do list 400 miles long, has really been stressing me out lately.  Thinking about packing, I decided to pray for some friends of ours who are getting ready to depart on their missionary journey to Africa, too.  They have had some recent unexpected health issues come up that have put a little more stress on their trip.  As I prayed, my thoughts wandered and I wondered what, if anything, was going to go wrong for us as we prepare to head out into the mission field...  Less than three hours later, my phone died.  Like died, died. I tried five different chargers, taking it apart and putting it back together, hitting it, blowing in the cracks... nothing worked.  Later after the kids got home from school,  I went to turn on the TV (my babysitter in desperate times) and the television wouldn't work. Just completely, 100%, would not work no matter what I tried.  Erik came home from work later on and got on the computer to do his notes, discovering that the computer wasn't working properly.  Instead of notes, he spent several hours trying to fix the computer (and never got it fixed).  Well, since I didn't have a phone alarm, I had to set the old-fashioned alarm clock last night before bed.  The old trusty alarm went off at 6:25 this morning and I pushed snooze, as always.  I laid there a little longer, thinking of the kids and their schedules that day.  I glanced up a little while later and the clock still said 6:25.  I thought to myself that it felt like the longest minute ever!  I fell back to sleep while waiting on the snooze alarm to go off, but  I woke up in a panic 25 minutes later and the clock still said 6:25. Ah! The kids surprisingly were able to jump out of bed and quickly work together to get things ready for school.  I went to start my car with the automatic start a few minutes before leaving and discovered that automatic start remote wasn't working, either.  After dropping the kids off, I drove home from school, thinking how odd it was that every electronic-type device that I rely so heavily on to make our lives run smoothly, had gone kaput within the last 12 hours.  It shouldn't have been any surprise that when I went to make myself a cup of coffee, the coffee maker wouldn't work, either.  

The devil is so evil.  I truly believe that when God's people try to do good, the devil works overtime and tries to butt in every time.  He doesn't want us to succeed. He wants to make doing good harder and he wants to  make us fail.

For we are not fighting against flesh-and-blood enemies, but against evil rulers and authorities of the unseen world, against mighty powers in this dark world, and against evil spirits in the heavenly places. Therefore, put on every piece of God’s armor so you will be able to resist the enemy in the time of evil. Then after the battle you will still be standing firm.

Ephesians 6:12-13

**** I just need to point out after publishing this post that for some odd reason, it is publishing in a weird format.  I thought I'd point it out because maybe it's not so odd, after all - he just won't stop trying to get in the way.  Hopefully you all can still read this post and hopefully you all will pray for us.  

Simba

Around the age of two, male lions are kicked out of their pride.  These male lions roam alone, or with other male family members, until they find another pride to challenge. The roaming male lion must fight the male lion of the pride, often fighting to death.  Whoever wins the fight gets the pride.  If a male lion takes over another lion's pride, this male lion will kill off every cub in the pride since they are not biologically related, and then start building his own family with the pride.  "The Lion King," taught us all about the circle of life and gave us humans a glimpse of what life is like for other species.

Meet Simba! Ironically, Simba was a young boy who found himself in much of a similar situation of that of a lion pride.

The hospital chaplain,
Farai and his wife and son

Simba was born HIV positive (as many of the children in Zimbabwe are) and was suffering from Tuberculosis, along with severe malnutrition.  He was one of the sickest patients that had been at the hospital in a very long time.  With the hospital's proper care and nutrition, Simba regained strength and everyone rejoiced when he finally had enough strength to sit up on the side of the bed!  This sweet boy made a lot of improvements during his few weeks at the hospital.  He was a joy to everyone and although he was the sickest patient, he was also easily the smiliest patient at Nhowe.  

It was a shock that no family came to visit him during his few week stay at the hospital.  The hospital chaplain, Farai, showed some concern about this, especially since Simba was very malnourished.  Farai, along with Carl from our mission team, were able to visit Simba at his home after he left the hospital.  What they found there was that Simba's father wasn't around anymore and Simba's mother had remarried another man.  She and his step-father had two other children together.

Simba at home a few days after getting released from the hospital.  He was still so weak and obviously not getting the care or nutrition he needed to survive.

    While Simba was just skin and bones, his half-brothers were plump little healthy boys.  Similar to the lion prides, it was quite obvious that Simba's step-father did not want this stepchild in his home (his pride).

Simba and is family outside their house

  Aside from the medicine side of Nhowe, the hospital also serves as a spiritual oasis and God-centered community.  The employees start each day at the hospital with a devotional. Patients are continually taught the Good News through their care.  For some, this is the first they have ever heard of Jesus!  In a place like Zimbabwe, one of the poorest countries in the world, God is really truly their only hope.  Farai works not only with the patients, but with the patients' families, teaching them and showing them how to live a christian life.  Unfortunately, for Simba and his family, this instruction came a little late.  Just two days ago, about two months after we first met Simba, we received word that Simba had died of malnutrition.

Maida had tears as I revealed the news to her, "But he was better!  He got well!  Why didn't he live?"  It's a mystery to us all how anyone could starve their own child to death.  It's heart-wrenching to think about what Simba went through in his short life as he sat literally starving to death, watching his family eat.  It is a blessing, though, that he spent some of his last few weeks of life at the Brian Lemons Memorial Hospital where he heard the Good News, where he was prayed for, where he was loved, where he was fed, and where first saw Jesus through the medical staff caring for him.

Simba won't be our only loss as we continue our work in Zimabawe in May, but his loss will serve as a reminder to us how precious one life is and how important it is to spread Jesus' love through all walks of life.

The Lord has told you what is good.  He has told you what he wants from you: Do what is right to other people.  Love being kind to others.  And live humbly, trusting your God.  - Micah 6:8

There were two distinct things that stuck out to me as we discovered Zimbabwe together for the first time..

This is the view out the back door of our house!

Just off the airplane, we had
finally made it to Zimbabwe!

One, was watching Maida and Skogen see a different culture for the first time.  I will never forget what that was like and I would encourage everyone to travel with your kids!  Especially go see and learn about other cultures.  In the process, you realize how big, but really how small the world is.  You also see things through children's eyes, which usually is a lot more fun!  Maida and Skogen greatly surprised me in how they embraced everything around them at all times during our stay.  They also were wonderful examples to me, leading me and teaching me, which I never saw coming.

Out and about in Harare.

Two, I will always remember how natural Zimbabwe felt and how "home-ish" Nhowe Mission felt.  The only other thing I can compare these feelings to is church camp.  Did you grow up going to church camp in the summers?  Erik and I still go back to our church camp every summer with our kids for what is called, "Family Camp."  It's a place where you feel so comfortable, at ease, and like you're with your second family.  That's what Nhowe felt like: a second home, a second family.

Maida eating a snack, standing in the doorway of our house.

 We are beyond excited to head back to Nhowe in May and give all we've got to serving there.  It will especially be fun to introduce Klaasen and Torsten to our "second home" and it will be fun to see Maida and Skogen play tour guides for them!

The little neighbor boys blowing up a football.

Maida and Skogen with a few of the orphans at Nhowe Mission.

Building Confidence in our God-Sized Dream

I came home from Zimbabwe, touched immeasurably by what we saw and what we experienced
there, however, I haven't yet been able to appropriately put it into words.  Hopefully a blogpost about our travels will be coming soon (maybe by Maida or Skogen!), but as we enter into 2017, the year we've been planning and dreaming of for the last three years, I thought I'd just give a quick update.

Our time at Nhowe Mission was very reassuring.  It was also very necessary for our planning process.  Now we have more of an idea of what roles we'll play, what the living conditions will be like, and what kinds of things we shouldn't go over without.  Even though it will be hard to leave home, and it's proven rather difficult to save and fundraise the amount of money we need to go for our committed time frame, I have confidence that we can do this and God will be glorified through it all!

There are times when I doubt, though.  There are times when I feel like just buying a house and settling somewhere instead of going to Zimbabwe.  There are times when others doubt our decision and moments when I get so drained trying to defend our family's dream or just wish that others were an encouragement to us.  Today I picked up the book, "You're Made for a God-Sized Dream, " by Holley Gerth.  I've read the book several times and seem to pick it up time and time again, always hearing something I didn't the last time I read it.  Today as I read, I jotted down quotes that jumped out at me.  As I was reading through the book and then again later through the quotes I jotted down, I realized that I have a deep need for more confidence and faith in our God-sized dream to serve in Zimbabwe.  I also need to believe that if God can move me into mission work (which, I never saw coming!), then He can for sure move others to support us financially and prayerfully.

During in our time in Zimbabwe, we interacted with many different orphans of all ages.  These sweet children and college students really spoke to my heart.  Here they were with sad, hopeless beginnings and almost absolutely nothing in life currently, but they were truly thankful that God created them and have placed them exactly where they are in life.  They believed in their purpose.  It was so inspiring!

I was also inspired by the ladies of the congregation we attend here in Minnesota.  Before we went over to Zimbabwe, they had a God-sized dream of making 40 quilts for the 40 orphans at Nhowe Mission.  These ladies worked very hard putting together these quilts and I know it wasn't easy at times!  The week before I left, their sewing machine stopped working and they still had one quilt left to sew.  I was inspired by the determination and problem-solving the ladies did to get that quilt done.  They put in many hours, dodging several obstacles, to fulfill their God-sized dream and it was our pleasure to see what a gift and blessing the quilts were to the orphans.

Our God-sized dreams aren't going to be easy, but if we're reflecting Jesus' light, they will be fulling.  What are your God-sized dreams?  Here are some of my favorite quotes from Holley Gerth's book.  They have inspired and encouraged me today.  Maybe they'll encourage you, too...

"I understand God-sized dreams because I've lived them.  And once you have a taste, there's no going back to life as you knew it before.  
You may say, 'But I don't have big dreams.'
Exactly.
 The size of the dream isn't what matters.
I believe everyone has God-sized dreams.  It's not about how big or how small they are, because he creates each one to perfectly fit the size of your heart.
Your dream might be to move across the world and start a nonprofit organization that cares for orphans - what looks like a grand adventure in the world's eye.
Or your dream might be to stay right in your small town and raise your kids so that they grow into strong mend and women - what looks like something fairly ordinary in the world's eyes.
Both matter equally.
And both are God-sized dreams.
It's not about what you do as much as how you do it.  It's about pursuing life with passion and purpose and going with God wherever he leads."

"No one else can fulfill your purpose.  No one else can make that dream happen.  There is no plan B for what God has destined to come into being through you."

"God doesn't plant desires within our hearts to let them wither and die."

"God-sized dreams make their way into our hearts, homes, nights, and every other area.  Sometimes they feel like an insistent knocking on a door within us.  We can't get any rest until we let them inside."

"The moment that changes everything is when we decide to fear God more than we fear what may happen."

"It's about the God who gave it to you.
It's about the kingdom he's building in this world.
It's about the holy body of Christ."

"Negativity is far easier than perseverance.  Criticism is simpler than encouragement.  Saying the world is going to end can be far more convenient than daring to make a difference in it."

"This is the promise that empowers us to take risks for the sake of Christ.  It is not the impulse of heroism, or the lust for adventure, or the courage of self-reliance, or the need to earn God's favor.  It is simple trust in Christ - that in him God will do everything necessary so that we can enjoy making much of him forever.  Every good poised to bless us, and every evil arrayed against us, will in the end help us boast only in the cross, magnify Christ, and glorify our Creator.  Faith in these promises frees us to risk and to find in our own experience that it is better to lose our life than to waste it."

"It's not because of who we are but Whose we are." 

"Your life matters even more than you know, and you are making a difference even more than you see.  You, my friend, are a warrior.  Every day you dare to dream, you fight back the darkness and add a little more light to the world.  When you keep your heart open, the kingdom wins.  And you, my friend, are on an adventure that's going to take you to places beyond what you could have even imagined.  Places with joy, tears, glory, grace, and most of all, more of Jesus with each step you take."

It's Official!!!!

I won't name any names or anything, but we're all immunized and two of us took it like champs. :)  Tickets have been purchased and it is official!  In one week from today we will be landing in Zimbabwe, Africa.  I have been to many different contries in my life, but never with kids.  It adds a whole different stress!  I am excited, though, to introcuce Maida and Skogen to another culture and another place.  It is going to be eye-opening and life-changing.  I can not wait for all the adventures that await!  I'm very hesistant, though, to leave Klaasen and Toresn behind.  I have hired nannies to help, but my parents will also be pitching in, too.  It's so hard to have your heart in two places at once and especially difficult when communication between the two places is sporatic and unpredicible.  I have done everything I can on my end to make sure things run smoothly while I'm gone and God is going to have to take care of the rest.

Erik, the kids, and I will spend 15 days in Zimbabwe at Nhowe Mission, taking in all we can as we plan for our longer stay.  I'm hoping to serve and help as much as we can and be an encouragment to everyone there.  I have never been there, so I have no idea what to expect.  I think Erik has it a little easier because being a doctor (and being there previously), he's able to just jump in and serve with his skills and comfort level.  Being just a mom, though, and especially one who will have two kids tagging along, I just don't know what to expect!  It will be a learning experience and it is my prayer that God will be our guide and lead us to what is needed or where we could be of help there.

Kara

On Erik's first trip to Zimbabwe, a Zimbabwean carpenter taught Erik the meaning of Jehovah-jireh.  We have taken the phrase and extended it throughout our mission plans.  "The LORD will provide," has taken on a much bigger meaning as we plan to take four eager little hearts (with eight great big eyes) across the ocean to one of the poorest countries in the world.

Last month we took this phrase and used it to design and print some t-shirts to help fund our trip to Zimbabwe.  To our surprise, the t-shirts were way more popular than we ever expected and we sold out of them in just a few days!  We now have the t-shirts for sale online until September 22nd.  100% (minus the shipping and handling fee) of the cost of the t-shirt goes to support us in Zimbabwe.  It is so much fun to see our friends wearing these shirts out and about!  The shirts have also served as a teaching tool and conversation piece when we've been stopped and asked what "Jehovah-jireh," means.

To order a shirt, click here.  Thanks so much for supporting us!

“Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes?Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they?Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life? “And why do you worry about clothes? See how the flowers of the field grow. They do not labor or spin.Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these.If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith?So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them.But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own. Matthew 6:25-34

I never dreamed of being a missionary and if you would have asked me 10 years ago, there was no way I would have agreed to move my kids across the globe to one of the poorest countries in the world.  However, on a trip to the Congo in 2014, God began to change and mold my heart in ways I would have never imagined.  

On February 4, 2014 as I sat at our dining room table in the missionary's house in Congo, I wrote: 

"Tonight as I sit in front of a computer screen that seems so foreign in this setting, and with internet that is only really available at night when there isn't as much energy required to run lights for the operating rooms, I am overwhelmed.  My heart has been touched and I am slowly processing everything I have seen and done.  

I have fallen in love with this culture, with these people, and this hospital.  I find myself awake before necessary in the morning, eager to start the day and what lies ahead.  I long to know about the patients, their families, the hospital, the town, and the missionaries.  I love watching my husband in his element and I am so thankful for the gift God has given to him to practice medicine and save lives.

Amazing."

Congo was just the beginning.  From there my heart was touched and molded even more as we returned to the states.  There was no way I could not go back to Africa, where I seemed to leave a little piece of my heart, and serve more long-term. I can't think of a better teammate than my husband and I can't imagine better little helpers than our children.  I have never heard God's voice or felt directly "called" to do something, but I have seen and felt first-hand the transformation of God's hand and there is no where else I'd rather be or nothing else I'd rather be doing than fulfilling the Great Commission.

This website is still a work in progress, but I hope you check back soon.  We will plan to use this as a way to communicate to others our prayer requests, fundraising opportunities, and keep everyone updated on the status of our trip before and while we're there.  

~ Kara

"Whenever He asks us to do something, it is almost always out of our comfort zones.  It usually doesn't make sense ("Hey, Noah, build an ark").  It most often involves a lot of change ("Hey, disciples, leave everything you know and follow me").  It always stretches our faith ("Hey, Esther, go before the king to save your people even though it may cost your life").
What makes you afraid?  I don't mean the, "Eek! A spider!" kind of fear.  I mean the idea that pops into your mind that makes you heart start to pound and your skin begin to sweat, and yet you are strangely drawn to it anyway.  That just might be your God-sized dream.  The moment that changes everything is when we decide to fear God more than we fear what may happen."
You're Made for a God-Sized Dream
by Holley Gerth