Umu April 2013          







                 Umu (Blessing) Feb 2014



This is what the work is all about...the Children!!

February trip to Moshi, Tanzania: February 22, 2014

 Psalm 40:1 “I waited patiently for the Lord; and He inclined to me, and heard my cry”.

How this verse has rung in my head as we look at God’s grace in allowing us to return and serve Him in Moshi Tanzania. Now we just need to be patient a bit longer to realize this transition.

We are now home in COLD North Dakota after a whirlwind 10 day trip to Tanzania. We were able to take Dr. Missy Seibel, a local pediatrician and her husband Nathan with us on this trip. They definitely got a work out. Nathan had a “foldable” guitar and wow did he entertain everyone. I can still hear the hymns that the children were singing as he strummed. Dr. Missy did all the physicals on the children and Kent did some answering questions and rechecks on some of the problems. There was a virus going around but mostly the children remain very healthy!

We left Bismarck on Friday Feb 7^th around 3 pm and arrived in Amsterdam on Saturday morning at 10 am. Missy and Nathan took in the Rijksmuseum and Kent and I went to the hotel to relax a bit. We were off to the airport again at 7am on Sunday arriving in Moshi at 10:00 pm a bit late.  The day flight from Amsterdam to Moshi is about 9 hours and always seems quite long. The plane was packed with people going on Safari and those climbing the mountain. We got our visas pretty quickly and were astonished to find all 12 of our suitcases waiting for us. We were also amazed at God’s grace in finding NO ONE in the customs area so we simply walked out with our 12 suitcases all intact! I must say it was quite the juggling act getting all the suitcases plus the 4 of us plus the driver, in a Prado (land cruiser) and with only 4 cases on the top and headed for the Rafiki Village.

On Monday we literally “hit the ground running” after about 3 hours of sleep. We had about 60 children’s physicals to do and about 20 adult physicals in only five days. We saw the children that had some complaints first and these were the ones with a respiratory virus. The children loved Dr. Missy and she also enjoyed seeing the children and how healthy they were and how smart they were.

On Monday Kent went in to town to make contact with KCMC (Kilimanjaro Christian Medical Center) to

get the paper work started for his working there two days a week. He really didn’t make much progress on Monday as the whole hospital administration has changed AGAIN. Monday evening, we were able to make contact with our old friend Marycelina Msuya and she was the key to success for our visit. While Kent and I met with her on Tuesday afternoon, she asked Kent if he would speak at Grand Rounds on Wednesday morning for a 40 minute presentation. OH MY…… Kent did not even bring his computer!! But he did have a very complicated case that he remembered involving an African student who came to the USA for advanced study not knowing he had AIDS.  So we rushed back to the Village and Kent wrote the case history while I made a power point presentation complete with images downloaded from the internet! Got to love technology!! Kent gave the presentation on Wednesday morning to over 300 doctors and students and it was a smash!!!  It was again God’s Grace that gave Kent this opportunity to be introduced to the medical community at KCMC.

After the presentation we were able to meet with the acting head of the hospital who sent us to the dean of the medical school and also to the International office where we were able to get all the proper papers to fill out for a medical license in Tanzania. They are now all filled out and being hand carried back to Tanzania to be filed. God’s timing is perfect!

The rest of the week was very busy with more medical visits and even some fun with the children. Nathan and Missy had friends who sent cord bracelets for all the resident children as well as the day students and they even had a choice in which colors they wanted.

We were busy but all enjoyed our week. On Sunday it came time to return to the United States. Kent and I were sad to leave but happy that we have made such good progress on getting the medical license and seeing what we really need to take with us as we move to our new home. We will be living in a wonderful new duplex with our living room facing the wonderful Mount Kilimanjaro….when it decides to emerge from the clouds. We do have two bedrooms in our home so will quickly be ready for guests. Of course you can all come and stay in the wonderful Village guest house (or with us) and work with the children if you choose to do the weekend training with Rafiki Foundation.      

We were sad to leave the children and Moshi but know that God has plans for us to come back in only 8 ½ months. There is much to do here before we go so you can pray that we can focus and get it taken care of in the allotted time. We need to complete our fund raising, remodel our home in Florida, sell our house in Bismarck, Kent needs a medical license for Florida. In addition, we need to drastically reduce our STUFF and decide what we need to move to Florida. Then I think of all the “little stuff” like banking transfers, driver’s license, insurance, power of attorney, what to do about a phone, what to do about lawn care……. Oh well, we know that God will direct our paths and help us with these little decisions too.  Thanks for your prayers and begin now to prepare for your visit to Africa!!!

I (Kent) have had a really busy week since returning from Africa and getting back to work. A lot of people ask about how the trip went and this makes it easier to introduce what we are hoping to do out there in Moshi at the base of Mt. Kilimanjaro. We discovered while getting oriented to the medical school that it actually has close to 800 students in six different years of training and also hundreds of district medical officers in training (this would be the equivalent to US nurse practitioners and physician assistants but most of them are men-they have a rough life ahead running clinics in the small towns and the bush). Peggy has mentioned making a commitment of working two days a week at this large institution (teaching and making rounds, making as many friends as possible and looking for opportunities to lead Bible studies/introduce whoever the Lord brings along to a deeper walk with Him). Further up the mountain is a town called Machame where the Chagga tribe is located. They have become very prosperous because the altitude and the soil are ideal for growing coffee. There is a hospital there also founded by very dedicated German missionaries in the previous century. We made a trip up to meet the hospital administration and see what opportunities may be there for ministry both medically and spiritually. We would also like to cement the relationship with this hospital as it is the most convenient for the medical care of our children at the Rafiki Village. There are a wonderful opportunities open in both areas since there is a large nursing training school plus a district medical officer training program. I made a commitment to providing one day a week there part of which would be spent teaching a Bible study to those who would be interested. The students are a vast mix of Pentecostals, Lutherans, Catholics and Muslim but there is a very open door there for the Word of God. We need the Lord’s guidance for exactly where to start.

How good it is to wait patiently for the Lord since He knows best how His work is to be accomplished. A simple decision about Grand Rounds;(which only our old friend Marycelina could make very unexpectedly), resolved our concern about meeting all the major functionaries of the hospital and medical school in Moshi. It was momentarily terrifying to enter the lecture hall with the traditional arrangements of rows and rows of seats extending clear up to the ceiling and there in front of me, they were all peering down at me! Peggy saved the day by bringing along her computer to the lecture, because even though we had the presentation on a stick drive, it was in power point 2007 and their computer at KCMC only had 2003. We just changed out computer feeds to the digital projector. It was astounding to see that there was not a single empty seat and some people were standing.

The reader will note that the previous text mentions 3 days a week for my planned activities. For now I am just going to look to the Lord about how the other three should be spent-I noted in the Rafiki village that there were endless little things that could be done like leaky faucets, generator exhaust leaks, maintenance on lighting fixtures and poor fan operations for example, in addition to being responsible for the medical care of the resident children. I mention these things because it emphasizes the need for someone who has skills to do all this. Is there someone reading this who is looking to supply a really needed service in retirement? Just think of the opportunities to join a team who day by day gets to experience God’s provision in serving orphans, widows, students, the sick and dying. We are counting on His promises like 2 Cor 9:8, “And God is able to make all grace abound to you, that always having all sufficiency in everything, you may have an abundance for every good deed”. We are counting on your prayers and the response of the “Everlasting Arms”.