Labor

Sunday morning about 6:15 am I welcomed a handsome, big baby boy into the world! What a privilege - I have dreamed of doing a delivery for a long time and was so thoroughly delighted with this answer to my prayer! And I believe it was just the beginning . . . I am on-call at the Ferke hospital to assist with deliveries there.

Labor is pain with great expectation, great hope and great joy to come. It is indeed great pain, but when the baby arrives the joy eclipses the pain.

While encountering my own "contractions" God spoke to me through John 16:20-21. With Him, the grief cannot last. Joy is coming. During contractions, we can follow advice given by Ivorian matrons: breathe deep and rest, don't make a big fuss. As believers, we can rest in Jesus' presence with us and the peace He gives us. We have great hope in Him for His daily compassion and mercy AND for an eternity delighting in His presence on a new earth where righteousness and joy will eclipse sorrow.

I am currently working in the wards at the hospital alongside Ivorian nurses. This has been a wonderful experience. I am making dear friends and learning many things. However, it is not without sorrows. In the past few weeks, two young moms (teens) have died. Often, patients arrive when the illnesses have progressed significantly and sometimes beyond hope of recovery. I have had the privilege of praying with patients as well as sharing the good news of Jesus with a patient's son while sitting at her bedside slowing pushing in IV medications.

The hospital is also a campground since the families come to stay here and provide food and care for the sick family member. When I arrive at 6 am to start working, I walk past grass mats on which people are sleeping - sometimes an infant lying alongside the mother is awake and staying quietly beside her.

Almost every afternoon I go over to visit or play Frisbee with my Congolese friend Momi, her house helper Fatou (13) and young daughter Rosa. Momi's husband is a doctor at the hospital and they live a stone's throw from my duplex, which is about a 1 minute walk from the hospital buildings. This week Momi taught me how to make a Congolese meal!

I am sensing God re-igniting the flame for long-term commitment to sharing the good news of Jesus in another culture. Will it be here? I do not yet know. But there sure are a lot of people praying I'll come back!

Hopefully pictures to come . . .