This week has been a blur of classes, clinicals, music, tea, chapel, homework (not as prominent as it should have been), and finding God all around me. It all started Sunday, when I was able to attend one of the three churches we are provided rides to, and it was absolutely incredible. The church is called God’s Family Life Center, and from the second I walked in the door I could feel the Holy Spirit moving and felt so welcomed by everyone around me. The worship was amazing, passionate, gospel-ish, with dancing, clapping, and endless joy. I felt so comfortable worshipping, and it truly blessed me. The pastor was also incredible in His passion for the Lord, and his knowledge of scripture. He knew the Bible backward and forward, and he quoted different verses all throughout his message, even though it was based on one specific passage. It was so great to hear Truth spoken so plainly, and to be greeted by everyone so openly! Everyone gave hugs when greeting each other, and there’s nothing that helps you feel more like part of a family than by receiving a hug from someone you’ve just met. It actually turned out that there was an outreach service that same night, and I ended up going with a couple other students. If the first service I attended hadn’t made me fall completely in love with this body of believers, that night certainly did the trick. It was once again an amazing time of worship, testimonies, praise dance, prayer, anointing, and overall glorifying God through song, dance, and spoken word. Even though this is the first church I’ve attended, and they suggest maybe trying all three and then picking one that you want to consistently attend, I’m pretty sure I’m just going to stick with what I’ve got…because I already can’t wait to go back on Sunday!
Monday is a heavy class-load day, so it was basically filled with lectures, all of which are going very well so far, and then that night a bunch of us did a Turbo Jam kickboxing video, as well as a P90X Ab Ripper workout video, which almost killed me, while feeling great at the same time. Exercise will hopefully remain a consistent activity while staying here. Tuesday and Wednesday were long days because they were two back-to-back clinical days. Normally we go on Tuesdays and Thursdays, but Thursday was a national holiday this week (Heritage Day), so we switched it up. Tuesday I was in the Prevention of Mother To Child Transmission (PMTCT) clinic, and I definitely learned a lot about HIV/AIDS and the risks of pregnancy, available treatment, and prevention methods implemented in the clinic. There was not a whole lot I could do as far as interactive patient care, but I did some record keeping, history taking from a few patients, and got to learn many things from the nurses working there. Wednesday I went to the ARV (anti-retroviral) clinic, which is in charge of monitoring HIV/AIDS patients, keeping their blood tests up to date (which include CD4 count, viral load, full blood count, and liver function tests), as well as providing medications to those receiving treatment. Due to the holiday on Thursday, things were CRAZY in the clinic because everyone who would have come on Thursday was added to Wednesday. Because of this, there wasn’t much I could do to help besides simple record-keeping, as the patients were basically herded like cattle, as fast as they could go through the clinic. The second half of the day, in order to learn as much as possible from the experience rather than just doing paperwork the whole time, I sat in a room with a doctor and was able to observe her as she saw each patient individually and learn from her as she talked me through everything. It was truly helpful getting her perspective on the matter and learning from the experiences she’s had. One thing she told me that really stuck was that within the clinic where we were working, 90-95% of the people have HIV/AIDS. Now, they don’t necessarily know this, since many people haven’t been tested, but she was confident that this statistic was correct. Well, regardless of the exact percentage, the point is that HIV/AIDS is extremely prevalent here. In fact, the doctor also told me that KwaZulu-Natal (the province we’re staying in right now) has a higher rate of HIV/AIDS than any other province in South Africa. I know I am going to learn so much, but most of all I know I’m going to be broken down by the devastation and suffering around me caused by this horrible disease.
After those two clinical days, Thurday was a day off from classes, which was much needed. I basically slept in, played guitar for quite a while, did absolutely no homework, a group of us went out to dinner at a pizza place (because some of us were craving pizza - and I ended up ordering one with bananas on it...it was amazing!), and then I had chapel worship practice, followed by an awesome gospel jam session…which consisted of blasting gospel music in the chapel room, while we danced around, singing and clapping our little hearts out…it was fabulous. Friday, just like Monday, is a heavier class-load day, so I was busy with that most of the day. However, tonight a bunch of us went out to a youth outreach to support Fox Fire, a ministry associated with African Enterprise (the facility where we’re living). Fox Fire is composed of college-aged students who dance and sing, and in their performance present the gospel. Well, we didn’t really know what we were getting into, but it turned out to be a bunch of different groups singing, dancing, and doing drama, but there was one choir in particular which sang at the end, and it basically blew my mind. Some of the most incredible singing I’ve ever heard, and it truly brought joy to my soul and put the biggest smile on my face for the longest time. Right after the performance I asked Phillip, our wonderful driver, how to say, “I am happy” in Zulu, and he told me it is Ngiya Jabula. I kept repeating that phrase all the way home. Music continues to be a central and powerful force in this trip, and I wouldn’t want it any other way.
Today was “Durban Day,” so we all loaded into cars and went to Durban to shop and enjoy the beautiful beach! We all loaded up on souvenirs for family, friends, and ourselves, and then headed over to the water. It was a wonderfully sunny day, and I think we all enjoyed being introduced to the Indian Ocean…it was quite crowded, and there is only a small portion of water that people are allowed to swim in, so it was ridiculously crowded...also, we always seem to stand out when all of us travel as a group, but it was a very relaxing day none the less. Anyway, homework awaits! So until next time, I hope and pray God blesses you and fills you with His endless joy!
This week has been a blur of classes, clinicals, music, tea, chapel, homework (not as prominent as it should have been), and finding God all around me. It all started Sunday, when I was able to attend one of the three churches we are provided rides to, and it was absolutely incredible. The church is called God’s Family Life Center, and from the second I walked in the door I could feel the Holy Spirit moving and felt so welcomed by everyone around me. The worship was amazing, passionate, gospel-ish, with dancing, clapping, and endless joy. I felt so comfortable worshipping, and it truly blessed me. The pastor was also incredible in His passion for the Lord, and his knowledge of scripture. He knew the Bible backward and forward, and he quoted different verses all throughout his message, even though it was based on one specific passage. It was so great to hear Truth spoken so plainly, and to be greeted by everyone so openly! Everyone gave hugs when greeting each other, and there’s nothing that helps you feel more like part of a family than by receiving a hug from someone you’ve just met. It actually turned out that there was an outreach service that same night, and I ended up going with a couple other students. If the first service I attended hadn’t made me fall completely in love with this body of believers, that night certainly did the trick. It was once again an amazing time of worship, testimonies, praise dance, prayer, anointing, and overall glorifying God through song, dance, and spoken word. Even though this is the first church I’ve attended, and they suggest maybe trying all three and then picking one that you want to consistently attend, I’m pretty sure I’m just going to stick with what I’ve got…because I already can’t wait to go back on Sunday!
Monday is a heavy class-load day, so it was basically filled with lectures, all of which are going very well so far, and then that night a bunch of us did a Turbo Jam kickboxing video, as well as a P90X Ab Ripper workout video, which almost killed me, while feeling great at the same time. Exercise will hopefully remain a consistent activity while staying here. Tuesday and Wednesday were long days because they were two back-to-back clinical days. Normally we go on Tuesdays and Thursdays, but Thursday was a national holiday this week (Heritage Day), so we switched it up. Tuesday I was in the Prevention of Mother To Child Transmission (PMTCT) clinic, and I definitely learned a lot about HIV/AIDS and the risks of pregnancy, available treatment, and prevention methods implemented in the clinic. There was not a whole lot I could do as far as interactive patient care, but I did some record keeping, history taking from a few patients, and got to learn many things from the nurses working there. Wednesday I went to the ARV (anti-retroviral) clinic, which is in charge of monitoring HIV/AIDS patients, keeping their blood tests up to date (which include CD4 count, viral load, full blood count, and liver function tests), as well as providing medications to those receiving treatment. Due to the holiday on Thursday, things were CRAZY in the clinic because everyone who would have come on Thursday was added to Wednesday. Because of this, there wasn’t much I could do to help besides simple record-keeping, as the patients were basically herded like cattle, as fast as they could go through the clinic. The second half of the day, in order to learn as much as possible from the experience rather than just doing paperwork the whole time, I sat in a room with a doctor and was able to observe her as she saw each patient individually and learn from her as she talked me through everything. It was truly helpful getting her perspective on the matter and learning from the experiences she’s had. One thing she told me that really stuck was that within the clinic where we were working, 90-95% of the people have HIV/AIDS. Now, they don’t necessarily know this, since many people haven’t been tested, but she was confident that this statistic was correct. Well, regardless of the exact percentage, the point is that HIV/AIDS is extremely prevalent here. In fact, the doctor also told me that KwaZulu-Natal (the province we’re staying in right now) has a higher rate of HIV/AIDS than any other province in South Africa. I know I am going to learn so much, but most of all I know I’m going to be broken down by the devastation and suffering around me caused by this horrible disease.
After those two clinical days, Thurday was a day off from classes, which was much needed. I basically slept in, played guitar for quite a while, did absolutely no homework, a group of us went out to dinner at a pizza place (because some of us were craving pizza - and I ended up ordering one with bananas on it...it was amazing!), and then I had chapel worship practice, followed by an awesome gospel jam session…which consisted of blasting gospel music in the chapel room, while we danced around, singing and clapping our little hearts out…it was fabulous. Friday, just like Monday, is a heavier class-load day, so I was busy with that most of the day. However, tonight a bunch of us went out to a youth outreach to support Fox Fire, a ministry associated with African Enterprise (the facility where we’re living). Fox Fire is composed of college-aged students who dance and sing, and in their performance present the gospel. Well, we didn’t really know what we were getting into, but it turned out to be a bunch of different groups singing, dancing, and doing drama, but there was one choir in particular which sang at the end, and it basically blew my mind. Some of the most incredible singing I’ve ever heard, and it truly brought joy to my soul and put the biggest smile on my face for the longest time. Right after the performance I asked Phillip, our wonderful driver, how to say, “I am happy” in Zulu, and he told me it is Ngiya Jabula. I kept repeating that phrase all the way home. Music continues to be a central and powerful force in this trip, and I wouldn’t want it any other way.
Today was “Durban Day,” so we all loaded into cars and went to Durban to shop and enjoy the beautiful beach! We all loaded up on souvenirs for family, friends, and ourselves, and then headed over to the water. It was a wonderfully sunny day, and I think we all enjoyed being introduced to the Indian Ocean…it was quite crowded, and there is only a small portion of water that people are allowed to swim in, so it was ridiculously crowded...also, we always seem to stand out when all of us travel as a group, but it was a very relaxing day none the less. Anyway, homework awaits! So until next time, I hope and pray God blesses you and fills you with His endless joy!
The smile on my face just got bigger--hearing about your week up close and personal AND reading about it and seeing pictures.
ReplyDeleteLove you,
Marmie
Beautiful. So happy to hear your joy in serving our Great God. Praying for you and sending our love~
ReplyDeleteYaaayyy!!! I knew you'd love that church! And I love reading your blog. I can't stop smiling. I even get tears in my eyes because I am reliving my experience through your words. HOW AMAZING IS SOUTH AFRICA???
ReplyDelete