Answers to Prayer

Every Thursday night, the missionary staff, as well as the heads of the various ministries of the hospital, meet together for a time of praise and prayer.  It is a blessing to come together and hear what God is doing and what is on people's hearts for prayer.  We spend time thanking God for the ways He has answered our previous prayers, and then we break into groups to pray for ongoing and new requests. 

One ongoing request has been the need for rain as this season just has not been good for crops.  Many peoples' crops are struggling from not enough rain or too long of a time between rains.  We live among a people depending on what comes from their fields to make it from year to year. 

The number of patients filling the hospital wards is also an ongoing request along with a very overworked staff.  For the past several months, our family has been held up in prayer as our TEP (work visa) had been denied and then, as we put in an appeal, we were going month to month on extensions. 

Well this week we have some HUGE praises!  We've had some wonderfully soaking rains (actually every day since our last prayer meeting) and our TEP was granted just yesterday!  After 5 months, we are so grateful that we now can move into our house and settle a bit more knowing this is where God has us for now.  We know many of you were praying along with us and we thank you for lifting us up faithfully.  We don't know why this took so long, but there was reason, and we trust His ways in all of this.  We're looking forward to our next prayer meeting!

Two weekends ago, Christopher and a couple of the nurses went for a rock climb up a famous rock in this part of Zimbabwe called Pulpit Rock.  It was a great time to get to know these two guys better and enjoy the beauty around us.  We are thankful for the friendships that have begun and look forward to new memories ahead!   Here are a few of the pictures from the day:

The guys before the hike!

Pulpit Rock

Yes, they climbed straight up!  Not for the faint of heart!

At the top and what a view!

What a musha (village home) looks like from above.  Often extended families live close to each other.  So one family is in one circled area, and maybe the grandparents or a sibling and his/her family live in the nearby circle of homes.