March 14, 2006

  • Lusaka

    March 10, 2006

     

    I am starting to write this update from the Intercontinental Hotel in Lusaka on March 5th.  We decided to take a few days away for a much needed break, as well as pick up my nursing license. Unfortunately, although I passed the test and results were posted, the certificates had not yet been signed by the Registrar….so I will have to return again in a couple of weeks to pick up the official document.  I’m telling you, nothing is simple in Africa and everything takes more than one trip!!! The hotel here is beautiful and I’m sorry but I forgot my camera.  We had a breakfast buffet this morning on the large veranda overlooking the pool with palm trees and beautiful landscape….very nice.  Almost makes you forget where you are.  We came with Tim and Mary, another missionary couple from Hilary’s orphanage up on the Hill and we are having a very nice time.  We even went to a movie at a real movie theatre last night.  It’s funny how many things we take for granted living in the US…..over here we had to drive five hours to see a movie!!!  Elephants we can see however!!!!  As a matter of fact, I don’t know if it’s been newsworthy over in the US, but three people got killed last week by an elephant…..in Livingstone!!!  The elephants are coming up out of Zimbabwe around the lower Zambezi where Victoria Falls is and wrecking havoc on Zambian villages and crops.  The people killed were a mother with a baby on her back and a man who were just walking on the street.  Imagine telling someone how your family member or friend died and instead of saying because of this disease or that one, you say “he was killed by an elephant.”  Well…enough of that.

     

                A getaway was needed.  I know what you must be thinking….“yeah Renee, we read your last update.” J But I want you to know that Sal needed the break probably even more than I did (Scary, huh?) because the numbers in the clinic continue to grow.  There were 963 patients in January and 993 in February, not counting the 300 plus seen at the outreach in Kabuyu.  The totals also do not include the patients to Livingstone and Zimba.  Just last week, 12 people went to Livingstone Hospital on Thursday for the HIV clinic, and if all show up that are scheduled next week, there will be 20!  We need the lorry these days to accommodate all the patients.  I’m not sure what God is doing, but there seems to be a stirring within me to share the Word with the HIV patients.  So upon our return from the hospital, we had a time of sharing, praying and I handed out the rest of the Bibles that I had.  Tonga Bibles are out of print here so I’ll have to wait awhile to replenish the stock.  How can you receive healing if you don’t believe……and how can you believe in something if you don’t know it exists?  You see, I believe that Jesus already purchased our gift of salvation and healing with His broken body and shed blood.  It’s wrapped up with a bow waiting to be opened by those who BELIEVE.  All we have to do is believe….believe that He is the Son of God….believe that He was sent by the Father to die on a cross so that our sins would be forgiven….believe that He rose from the dead to overcome all the power of the enemy…believe that by His stripes we are healed….in essence believe His Word.  Psalm 103:3 says “Praise the Lord O my soul and forget not all His benefits---who forgives all your sins and heals all your diseases.”  Salvation and Healing were both paid for…they are both part of the atonement. It seems easier however for most of us to believe we can be saved than to believe we can be healed.  I guess that’s because one is physical and one is spiritual.  We often believe in things we can’t see or explain faster than in things we can.  We see people suffer…we see people die and sometimes that kind of seeing gets in the way of our believing.  I don’t just want to see with my physical eyes…I want to be able to see with the eyes of my heart like the song says:

     

     

     

    “Open the eyes of my heart Lord

     

     Open the eyes of my heart

     

     I want to see you

     

     I want to see you

     

     

     

     To see you high and lifted up

     

     Shining in the light of your glory

     

     Pour out your power and love

     

     As we sing holy, holy, holy.” 

     

     

     

    Thank you all for your prayers and words of encouragement.  I don’t know why I was to send out that last update.  It was a weak moment of flesh for me and frankly it was not something anyone would want to bare….but there was a purpose in it.  Someone needed to hear it…someone needed to know we are just ordinary people walking in obedience to God’s call.  It is my desire to take you along with us on this walk with the Lord, but in order to do that I must be honest in my sharing.   I want you to experience everything we are going through right from these very pages….that includes all our breakthroughs, all our victories, all our sufferings, all our prayers, and all our emotions (fear, anger, joy, compassion, sorrow, frustration, helplessness, kindness, expectation, anticipation, etc).

     

     

     

     Do you still want to take this journey with us?