Using the unlikely…

It seems, in God’s Word, that He often uses the unlikely to serve His purposes. It makes sense though- then the Glory isn’t shared… It’s God’s alone. Why would He send a stuttering man named Moses to speak to Pharaoh? Why would He send a young Jewish girl named Esther to marry the king? Why would He send a city girl named Rashel to rural Africa? Because anything that happens there, every day she survives or even flourishes (and I’ve had both)- it will be Him who did it, not her. Now am I comparing myself to these great people of the Bible? Hardly, I know way too much about myself for that. What I am saying is that as I look towards these last 2 months here and back at our last 4, I really have to take a minute to sit back and marvel at what God has done. What He’s taught me, what He’s shown me… I stand amazed.
I have moments of disbelief- I can’t believe I, Rashel Sifford, have lived in “the bush” in Africa for the last 4 months! It’s crazy to think about and so obviously God- God got me to say yes, God got me on the plane, God got me out to Sanyati… and God has had me every step of the way. He had me in the days without power, and then the days without power AND water. He had me when Katy had a shoulders-to-toes rash for no explainable reason on our 2nd day out in Sanyati. He had me when I was so ill from food poisoning that I was practically unconscious for 36 hours. But He has also had me when I was watching some of the most beautiful sunsets I’ve ever seen and when I marveled at the gorgeous flowers or the gigantic baobab trees. He had me when I watched on, with pride bursting, as Paige was being interviewed by a team member for his children’s department to see what a child can do in missions. He had me when He showed me what trust really is, what faith really is, taking off years of fearful living and breaking the chains of so much bondage. He had me. 
Its nice to receive compliments, but what is even more warming to the soul is when those compliments are said by people who REALLY know what it took to do it, what the sacrifices were, where the problems lied. The last team here was filled with people who have been in on this Makeover project since the beginning… people who come every year, people who have had a part in the planning and implementing of this makeover from the start. The whole time they were here Ryan and I received dozens of compliments on how well things are going, how well our family has adjusted, how much progress has been made on the hospital. Sometimes when you are working, even for the Lord, your head is down digging into the work and you forget to look up and see how things are going. That’s what that team did for me… lifted my head up to see. God has done some amazing things here both inside of me, in my family and in that hospital. God is good and He has me. 
Rashel

Going Home to Die

Even though it is my wife’s birthday and Independence Day back in the US, July 4th is not a holiday in Zimbabwe.  So for me it started like most other days.  I left to pick up Patience, her husband and a young man who attends Sanayti Baptist High School and possibly a few others who traveled our way. I arrived at the Gora village and I found out that I missed a text message.  The son of Patience’s cousin had just died and Patience asked if we could stop by the village to see her family.  

Along the way, I inquired what had happened.  The man was 28 years old.  Later on I found he had a wife carrying their first child.  He was in Sanyati Baptist Hospital for two weeks, discharged and referred on to Kadoma.  The family did not have the money so they took him home to die.  It broke my heart and I cried.  I tried not to show it.  I have mentioned this before.  Going home to die is very common here.  At first, I was just told about it.  It hit closer to home when it happened to families I knew.  This day it hit me personally.

We went to the meager home site.  It is like most others.  A few small huts built out of termite bricks.  This one also had a small rectangular house out of termite bricks with a thatch roof that had caved in.  When we arrived, we greeted the family in the “kitchen” hut.  In there was a mattress with the body on it.  The women of the family were next to him openly morning.  I could not help but cry as the women openly wept.   We prayed with the family.  They asked if I could transport his body to the hospital mortuary.  I have not moved a body before and I had to ask Patience what he died of.   I asked if would offend the family it I wore gloves as we loaded the body.  Then I helped hold up a blanket to shield the women from the body as a family member put the clothes on they wanted him to wear.  We wrapped him in blankets and loaded him into the back of the pickup.  Two or three women road in the back and sang songs.  I drove slowly the 6km to the hospital mortuary as we were not able to shut the tailgate.  As we approached the mission center, a combi bus had Psalm 23 written on the side.  I remembered what I could of the Psalm as I had memorized it when I was younger. The specific words escaped me but the meaning of the Lord being my shepherd comforted me.  I recalled the part of walking through the valley of the shadow of death and His rod and staff leading me.  

By the time we arrived at the hospital it was well past the 6:30am start time I had with the team.  The Lord was in charge because the night before I had given the keys to the container, with the tools and material in it, to one of the team members.  They had already started for the day.  I told them I was delayed and it would be a little longer before I would be back.

After a short wait for keys, we moved the body to the mortuary on an old gurney.  Our container is directly across from the mortuary.  Though I have seen many bodies carried both in and out, I have never actually been inside.  There were three cooler doors which reveal three selves each that slide out.  The first one we pulled out was rusted through and broken.  We pulled another one out that was not quite as rusted and place the body on it to slide his body in.

I drove the family back to their village and brought Patience back with me.  She had stayed so other family could ride with the body.  On the way back I found that the young man was not a believer.

I spent most of that morning working by myself as I had to deal with everything that happened.  The team was moving ahead well and I worked on removing the old roofing panels ahead of them.  It was good to have some time alone because I was able to compose myself by the time Rashel came by with Paige and Katy to visit the new and expecting mothers in the matumbas.  It was a tough day and I was physically and emotionally spent by the afternoon.  

Over the next couple of days I got to witness some of the culture as the family prepared for the funeral.  In some ways it is very similar back home but in others it is very different.  I saw many people come from far away.  They took buses as far as they would go and walked the rest of the way down the roads.  Some I even gave a ride.  There was always someone at the entrance to the village to direct those who were coming.  People who lived close brought extra kettles to cook, tarps and blankets to sleep on and big tubs to bathe in.  Many came and camped out at the village.  I saw them kill a goat, hang it from a small tree and butcher it.  They gathered and dug the grave themselves.

Only in Africa…. Vocabulary

“African Facial” - when the steam hits you in the face after you’ve boiled a pot of water for filtering and drinking.
“African Time”- you say “I’ll meet you here at 9am”, they hear “I’ll meet you here at 11am….ish” (who knew all this time I was just on African time in America!)
“African Hobbies” – move over scrapbooking, hello sweeping, dishes by hand, scratch cooking and, yes, more sweeping
“African Hospital Ground Crew” – goats to keep the grass down (and leave their droppings everywhere:P), chickens to peck for bugs, cats to keep the rats at bay, cattle because the mission center is apparently a good place to leave them if you have to go somewhere and can’t graze them yourself. (We have had to shoo cows out of our yard- it was a surreal moment to say the least. Thank God for Patience being here to help us! Sometimes this “city girl” is out of her element!) 
“African Meatloaf” – it is only made with oatmeal, because you would never waste your American saltines on meatloaf!
“African perfume” – mosquito spray
“African Russian Roulette” – eating meat that has been prepared by candlelight
“African Surprise” – “It actually works”: the thought you have when something so illogical actually works.  For instance, yellow lights blinking in all directions at a busy intersection in Harare. (If you are curious how it that works: the driver slowly fights their way through the mess of cars and pedestrians by forcing their car into the intersection. The passengers pray with their eyes closed.”
“African Facebook” – the extremely large and extremely fast grapevine here in Sanyati
“African Robots” - a robot is a traffic light here… well, actually it is a “scan each light to find a bulb that is working” light. They occasionally work, but if not the power may be out in that part of town or it’s just plain broken. If it doesn’t work, check traffic from other directions to see if theirs’ work, pray and work your way through the intersection
“African Mall” – when the 10 local ladies come and set up a sale in my front yard for the teams… very convenient- No parking headaches, car seats or strollers needed
“African Transportation” - a minivan with 5 rows that 20-30 people cram into. For only a few dollars, you too can ride squished up to a window on one side and to a sweaty man on the other.  (AND you’d be blessed because at least you got a window seat!) 
“African Romantic Meal”- any meal eaten by candlelight because the power is out
“African Gold” – the US salsa that the last team brought us
“Africa Fast Food”- since it’s all scratch cooking… it’s anything that takes less than an hour to prepare
“African Vacation” – any illness that does not allow you to work
“African Restaurant”- your dining room
“African Hot Showers” – there are no bad feelings that a hot shower (aka: bucket bath) won’t cure. Granted it involves heating pots and pots of water on the stove, but there is nothing like a hot shower to make you ready to attack the day!
“African Mail”- coordinating by email with your family and friends to mail packages to the next team that then carry the package in their luggage to us. It takes a lot of planning and time, but at least it is hand delivered! 
“African ‘Hot New Ride’”- a brand new scotch cart (cow or donkey pulled cart) you bought at the “scotch car lot”
“African Sore Throat” – what you get when you are stuck somewhere without filtered water… “Anybody know where I could get a Coke around here???”
“African Waterpark”- Victoria Falls
“African Roofs” – Just below the roof at the hospital Ryan has found all kinds of “special” prizes: snakes (told multiple times that they might find a python up there but only found small skins so far), bats, kitten skeletons, owls and their digested prey, lizards, spiders, rats, ticks and all kinds of bugs
“African T.I.A.” – Something said often by missionaries from the States when something doesn’t work out as it would have back home… “This is Africa”
“African Grass Fire” – nothing special here, just a common site... No one even tries to put them out. We’ve decided that it’s how they mow their grass.
“African Christmas”- every time a team brings us items from America … We wish you a merry Christmas, we wish you…
“African Babysitter” – having your children (as young as 3, if accompanied by a (young) sibling) walk the cows around to 
graze them 
“African Friends”- anyone within a 3 foot radius of you- they are very friendly here
“African Strangers” - apparently I haven’t met one yet…. Except for… (see below)
“African Terror” - When a mother throws her toddler into your arms and the child screams and cries because he or she has never seen a white person before. 
“Africa Ants” - otherwise known as “army ants”. Gigantic black ants that march out like an army, conquer something like a fresh pile of dung and return home with it
“African Milkshake”- what you have after one of your children, who shall remain nameless, forgets and puts your $11 tub of ice cream in the refrigerator instead of the freezer… Grrrr!
“African TV”- watching the dvd’s you brought from home over and over and over again. (but, honestly, I love my Golden Girls and could have quoted it before I left town anyway!) 
“Africa Lawn-mowing” - set it aflame, let the goats in or thrash it by hand…choose your poison
“African Reasons to Stare”-1) talking like this y’all 2) having 2 kids with v e r y blonde hair 3) being THIS white
“African Sparkling Lights” - when you go outside at night and see tiny sparkles reflect on the ground from all direction. Get close enough and you realize it the eyes of spiders everywhere looking at your light.
“African Fog” – the dust in the air that looks like fog or smoke
“Africa Creepy Crawlers” – “It feels like something is crawling on me” … “Something probably is”….
“African Treasure” - Wrecked car on the side of road- axle -> new scotch cart  /   scrap metal -> supplies for the blacksmiths
“African Mosquito control” - Flat spiders all over the walls
“African Zesa” – the term used for power.  The girls scream “Zesa! Power!” when it returns.
“African Right Hand Turns” – no, there are no cars going to t-bone you from the right because you are turning from the wrong side of the road
“African Baby Swing”- a mother ties her baby on her back with a large piece of cloth. It has the same results too…Zzzzzzz!
“African Dedication”- walking 3 hours one way to go to church, twice a week. I don’t know many Americans that would even consider that. Their dedication to their Lord is breath-taking at times and humbling as well! May we all continue to do more with what we have been given. 

Rashel & Ryan