You never know

Don't brag about tomorrow, since you don't know what the day will bring. proverbs 27:1

This has been a good week, lots of planning and organizing for the coming months by the team.

So you think you are getting to know what you are here for.

Then comes this last Tuesday.

Ron gets a call at 5 pm. One of the church planter students is at the nearby clinic, is in labor, but needs a ride from the clinic to the hospital to get a C Section. Off he goes with directions to a clinic he has never gone to before. When he gets there he doesn't really know who he is picking up. After looking around he finds "the group" which is 8 of the students and wives including the mama having the baby. They talk briefly, remember Ron is still learning Swahili and none of the group speaks English, and then they all pile into the back of our big Toyota Landrover.

With a brief stop at the center to check on the other kids, they all stay in the car and head off to the hospital Ron has never gone to before. Now it is dark and in Africa the roads are very rough and narrow and there are no signs or street lights. And Ron has a car full of people laughing and trying to tell him where to go, all in Swahili, while the mama is in labor. He finally calls a friend for directions and locates their destination.

At the Mt Meru hospital he lets the whole crew out and finds a corner to park in. Then he walks through all the wards and can't find any of the people he dropped off. Again no signs, no English. So he waits and walks and then bumps into one of the students. They 'talk' and he thinks the mama is staying the night and another mama is staying with her. This is Africa and she is admitted to the hospital; no insurance, no money, and no medical history since they usually have their babies at home.

On the way home the rest of the bunch are all talking and laughing and having a great time. Ron said one of them even said in Swahili 'I am so tired of laughing that my head hurts'. Ron understood that! These people are so relational and happy that this group of students who have only been together for 2 weeks are helping each other through this whole experience.

Oh, Ron got a message at 5:30 the next morning saying that the mama had a 7 pound baby boy without a C Section at 1 in the morning. That was about 4 hours after he dropped her off at the hospital. She came back to the training center with the little one that morning, both doing great.

. . . so we really don't know what the day will bring here in Africa!!