Chapter 224: Where Africa Enters In

Now that I've caught you up on the last 7 years of our life, I'm going to rewind just a tad to where the whisper of Africa began calling our name... 

 Like I mentioned previously, it has always been our goal to actively pursue getting to the mission field once Derek was done with school. Therefore, throughout the years we were continually doing research on different medical ministries throughout the world that seemed like they may be a good fit for our gifts and personalities. While we didn't have a set region, people group, or organization that we felt strongly pulled to, there were a few criteria that helped shaped where we saw ourselves (namely: a rural area with a warm climate, working in a clinic but also alongside community development efforts and church planting work).

As we sought out different places to serve, one thing we noticed was that sometimes it was difficult to place mid-level health practitioners (such as Physician's Assistants) in developing countries because the scope of their practice had not been clearly developed yet in those regions. So, when some friends of ours mentioned that we should look into a ministry with World Harvest Mission in Bundibugyo, Uganda, who was currently using a PA, we decided to scope it out. After reading their blogs, learning about the people, and the work that WHM has done in this region over the course of the last 20 years, we felt like this might just be somewhere we could see ourselves serving. So, we contacted WHM and set up a vision trip for January 2012.

Visiting Uganda was the first trip to Africa for both of us. If you ask each of us to give our impressions from the trip, you would probably get two very different perspectives on what we thought! Derek says that everything felt very "familiar" to him, meaning similar to the conditions he lived during his four years in Belize. He is a minimalist anyway, so the idea of living off the land, making your own energy sources, and coming up with alternative means of providing for everyday life, excited and energized him. You could tell his gears were already turning with how he would do this or that the minute we got there...

making coffee w/ his Leatherman

 washing clothes by lamplight- what a trooper!

Me, on the other hand... well, I'll say this: there definitely is a hunger for adventure and abandon that runs in my blood. However, now that I am a "Mommy", there is also the element of constantly thinking about how I am going to provide for the daily needs of my husband and children. And I'm not that ingenuitive (making my list for Wal-Mart sometimes overwhelms me!) While life in rural Africa did entice me with its slow pace, extremely relational culture, and simplistic means, it was somewhat of a "reality check" for me. If I wanted to serve a healthy plate for dinner, I would have to plant the food several months in advance (and make sure nothing ate it). If I wanted my kids to drink milk, I'd probably have to learn how to milk a cow. If I needed to get money out of the bank, I better hope the bank had money before making the several hour drive to get to the ATM! If I wanted special items that could only be bought in the supermarket, I'd have to make that list 6 weeks in advance and hope they had it when I made the trek...

my initial thought: "How do I potty-train when my kid could fall in?"

One thing we would both agree on though, was that we could see ourselves fitting in on the team as well as in the community. Despite the challenges that would be there, we felt supported, encouraged, and that we would be able to be open with whatever we were struggling with at the time. The team functioned as a family, relying on each other, holding each other accountable, prayerfully interceding for one another, and just doing life together. Our neighbors in the community were welcoming, warm, friendly, and gracious to help us. It was a definite realization that we were in need of their services and friendship to help us thrive there, just as much as they were in need of what we could offer them (more on this in Chapter 225: Mission Uganda).

making new friends...

learning the "ins-and-outs" of market

 the fellas making pizzas...

Returning home from the trip, we spent several days in prayer and contemplation about where to go from here. I don't think either one of us came off the trip with any kind of romantic notion or "rose-colored glasses" about what life would be like living in rural Africa. I would dare to say that neither one of us had this intuition that "Yes! This is it! This is exactly where I've always pictured us!" But, at the same time, there weren't any major red flags, the criteria for what we had been looking for fit with what the team was doing there, we felt in unity with the mission and values of the organization and the goals they were working toward in the area, and ultimately we felt like our family could spiritually grow there. And, so, in a step of faith, we said...YES. WE'LL GO.

Stay tuned for Chapter 225: Mission Uganda to hear more about what the team is doing there and what we will actually be doing once we join the team in Bundibugyo!