Friday, August 19, was declared by our DTS leader (my husband :-) to be a day of feasting and rejoicing in the faithfulness of God during the last three months of the lecture phase of the DTS. Our God, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, had commanded his people in the Bible to have feasts and celebrations throughout the year to commemorate different things.
We had many reasons to celebrate. While finances are always a big challenge here, this DTS we had not gone hungry one day. In fact, due to God's abundant provision and the careful frugal planning of our staff, Rachel, in charge of the kitchen, we had left over finances. (She was feeding us, a team of 42 people, on just over a dollar a day per person.) We had enjoyed good health! Our hearts were made glad by the baptism and testimonies of 5 of our friends who had been baptized last week! Lives had been changed. Marriages and families had been strengthened. All of our guest speakers had been able to come and had blessed us with godly teaching. We had every reason to celebrate!
So while the students cooked almost all day, we staff decorated the lecture hall. Using tablecloths, fresh flowers, balloons, sea shells, and candles we prepared the room for the feast.
Happy faces lit up the room as staff and students gathered for the meal. The couple pictured is our YWAM leader and his wife who also staffed the school with us, pouring out their time and energy to disciple the students.
Ready for more details? The menu: Grilled chicken (the 10 chickens were purchased alive....so they had to be slaughtered, plucked, and then grilled), French fries (again...all the work of peeling, cutting and frying done by hand), rice cooked in coconut milk (coconuts bought, then cracked and the meat/pulp manually scraped out and soaked in hot water to capture the flavor), one or two prawns per plate, cooked greens (leaves of the mandioca plant), and orange Fanta (the city was out of Coca Cola or other flavors).
We ate by candlelight with classical piano music playing (that may have been a first for students from the villages!). After the meal, we put on African praise music and the students danced wholeheartedly! During the meal, we had rolling a power point of 500 photos taken during the school, reminding us of the events of the last 3 months. We had also invited the 3 volunteers who had watched the children during the classes so that the mothers could also participate in the classes. We thanked them for their labor of love. The picture below, I was handing them a thank you card.
And it was just like our God to put the icing on the cake. One of our students was expecting a baby any day and had been with labor pains for the past 24 hours. She had been having contractions on and off for the past week. We had prayed often with her for the baby to come at the right time! Friday morning around 8:30am I took her to the local clinic/birthing center. The clinic was being renovated so we were told to go to another clinic further down the road. We waited a bit more at home first and around 11:30am she wanted to go as the pain was increasing. So I went with her and stayed with her for the next three hours as she labored painfully. Meanwhile another woman arrived breathless at the clinic, having walked the whole way to the clinic (between 1 to 2 miles), and half an hour later gave birth to a little girl....right there in the bed next to where Rosa lay. The newborn struggled as it had inhaled some fluid and for several minutes I was scared that she was going to die right there. She stopped breathing a couple times and the nurse midwife was bagging it and tapping its chest. I was praying! Anyways, the baby lived.
Another staff, Rachel, came around 2:30pm to relieve me and stay with Rosa. Rachel is a midwife so I was more comfortable to have her there, although I didn't want to leave my friend. But I had my own children I needed to look after as well as decorate for the party. I went throughout the rest of the afternoon with Rosa heavy on my heart. The nurse/midwives here often verbally abuse the women, showing no compassion and shouting such things as "You stopping screaming or your baby will die!" Any Christian midwives reading this.....there is a huge mission field here for training Christian compassionate midwives! The workload here is heavy!
Anyways, like I said....the icing on the cake. At 5:40pm, about 1/2 an hour before we were ready to sit down and eat, we got the message: A little baby boy had been born! Mom and baby were well! A huge sigh of relief...... running to give the message to the father..... happy shouts, hugs of congratulations, impromptu dancing, hearts beating! Let the party begin!!! Only our God could have orchestrated the birth of this special baby to be right before our "festa" to multiply our joy!
The next day we brought Rosa and her little one home to the YWAM base. Thank you Lord that all is well!
This morning Victor left with a car load of students, bringing them to the village first on their list for their 2 months of practical outreach time. Pray with us for them as they transition into serving and ministering to the people in the villages. Pray with the DTS staff who are leading these outreach teams.
