This mission's accomplished, but there's still work to do

It's safe to say that the team has a feeling of pure elation when we look back at the week at Iambi Lutheran Hospital. We have encountered God at every corner. We have seen Christ in the faces of our partners here. The Spirit has interceded when needed and given us far more than we could ask or imagine from this week. As the team reflected each night, we gathered at the "cabin" - one of the guest houses where we lodged. And every night we couldn't believe how the gifts assembled around the room met the needs of that day in mysterious, almost miraculous ways.

When Dr. Ngowi, the hospital director asked if there was anyone who could help them develop a website, Mike said, "I have a website that we can pull the code from and just insert the information for Iambi in. Ashley said, "I'd love to work on that." The two of them worked side by side with the hospital staff all week to develop a site they felt good about.

Julie is a nurse educator and worked with the yet-to-be-opened nursing school staff to catalog books, talk about the needs in the skills lab, and discuss training.

Bob worked in the lab all week learning what they do and how they do it. When the new equipment came off the container, he spent much of the day today making sure it worked and then sat back and watched the joy of the lab techs as they worked with their new instruments.

Gaspar was invaluable all week long. As a native Tanzanian, he helped the team thread the cultural needle when things got lost in translation. He served as a wise adviser when we were plotting the plans for where materials would go once they came off the container. Much of what we did this week would not have been accomplished without him.

We also could not have had nearly as successful a week without your prayers and the support that was provided by so many at Zumbro and in the Synod office leading up to this trip. What a blessing it is to see the Church being God's hands working together from across the world to serve our neighbor. 

Many things were accomplished this week, but so much more work was discovered as we visited with people. So many more requests were made for our ongoing partnership as the hospital staff got to know us. And our hearts were broken so many times when we again were reminded of the things we take for granted at home - like running water and sterile environments in every area of our hospitals, proper education for all medical staff, and people to fix equipment readily available when it breaks.

There's a lot more to do. But for now, we can celebrate that this mission was accomplished and celebrated by everyone here.