Musings on the Kili Summit Trail

So, after our time in Mwanza, I took a side trip to trek Mt. Kilimanjaro. I started training for the trip in January to get myself ready. It was an amazing six days on the mountain leading up to summit day. On summit day, we got into camp about noon and took the afternoon to rest and relax. Then, early dinner and a few hours of rest before hitting the trail at midnight.

With our headlamps on, we started out in a single file line (our guide, me, Joe (a Canadian who joined my trip) and an assistant guide. It was a grueling, seven hour trek straight up through scree fields, then snow and scree and then just snow, climbing from 15,000 ft elevation to 19,340. I was glad I couldn't see the trail, only the lights of climbers above and below. At times I wasn't sure if I could continue. We went polepole (sloooowly), our footsteps only about six inches long at a time. At one point, another climber was having difficulty, so through the darkness I could hear the sweet melody of a swahili prayer song or the whistling of an old Christian hymn as her guide encouraged her up the trail. Poignant and beautiful.

So needless to say, with seven hours I had a lot of time to think (muse...perhaps hallucinate). Of course, one of the first lyrics which came to mind was "Thy word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path..." The thing is, with a lamp (or in my case, a headlamp) you can really only see about three steps ahead of you. It got me thinking about the summits God asks us to climb, the vision He might lay out before us.

I think we usually just get a glimpse of that vision, that mountain He wants us to climb, but it may only be a glimpse. If we choose to follow the course He sets before us, we may only see a few steps ahead. Sometimes that is a good thing. Perhaps if we saw the entire road we would turn back, discouraged or afraid. Sometimes along the way we may run into difficulty, feel like we can't continue, and in those instances, we need people to pray for us and encourage us, and in turn, we need to do the same for others. At the same time, we need to be sure we have prepared, using the disciplines of prayer, scripture reading and meditation.

At sunrise we reached the summit, and it was overwhelming in its beauty, its vastness, just the magic of the place. I will never forget it. It is a part of me. At the same time, for me a little of the high altitude sickness started to set in, headache and nausea. Perhaps all mountaintop experiences are the same. We aren't meant to stay there. We will be changed by journeying to and being in that place, but then it's time to get down off the mountain, recover, and start the next journey.

So the question I leave Kili with is, what summit is God calling me to go after? After attending the Doing Justice conference, I know it has something to do with justice for children. I am excited to see what glimpse of the trail He might show me over the course of the next few months, what mountain He might ask me to climb. I guess I better start training now.

Blessings to you on whatever journey you find yourself on.

Prayer Guide - June 7

We thank You, God, for Your love for us, Your constant blessings and especially for the great gift of salvation through Jesus. Thank you, God, for caring so much about us.


Father be with Your children from this team who are still abroad, especially Adriene. Keep them safe as they travel and bring them home in joy and peace.

Prayer Guide - June 6

Thank You, Lord, for the opportunity You have given us to serve your children and for the amazing blessings that we have received in and from this work

Post Mwanza

It has been two days since most of us flew out of Kilimanjaro International Airport. My return home to Walnut Creek is delayed a few weeks as I stopped in Istanbul, Turkey to see how my project is going. Istanbul has many problems including very low salaries for the majority of its people. My project includes visiting public hospitals. From what I see I know I would not want to visit any of them if I were sick or injured. However, compared to the people of Tanzania, the Turkish people have a high standard of living and excellent healthcare.

The contribution that our team made in bringing the Patricia Ward nearly to completion and with providing most of the materials for the Birthing Center and constructing many major building components will assist the people in Mwanza with access to affordable health care.

Observing first hand how the 2nd world (Turkey) and the 3rd world (Tanzania) people live on so little while we have so much, reinforces the fact that those of us with the ability to share our talents and treasures must use them to assist those whose talents andtreasures are needed just to survive. Healthcare and education in Tanzania are greatly lacking. How can we continue to help these beautiful people?

God's Plan?

I've been thinking about our time in Mwanza this past week (I had a little time on my hands as I trekked Kilimanjaro). We talked a lot about God's plan versus our own (with the container delay), but somehow I feel we are missing something. I think we need to acknowledge that there is a force that was at work against our plan...call it evil, Satan, the devil. We aren't comfortable talking about it (I know I'm not), but I do know it exists. In a country where one third of the people still believe in animism, sorcery and witchcraft, its existence and workings are overt.

I've come to believe that the container delay was not part of God's plan. I don't believe it was part of His plan to leave some of the most technical pieces of the project on the ground. Instead, I think of Romans 8:28, "And we know that in all things, God works for the good of those who love Him and are called according to His purpose."

God certainly worked good out of the container delay. We were able to almost fully complete the isolation ward, making it fully usable as visiting surgical teams pass through. It changed our perspective from building a monument to being invested in the whole mission of the clinic. It changed the focus of our energy from accomplishing a task to building relationships with the local workers.

Certainly there are times when God's plan is far different from our own, and as Lindsay would say, we just need to get ourselves out of the way. But sometimes we need to acknowledge that not everything is part of God's plan. And in those cases, we need to trust and look for the ways He will work good. For one thing I do know from experience, God is good, all the time. All the time, God is good.

Blessings.

Prayer Guide - June 5

God of Mercy and Grace, continue to work and protect in all the places in this world where we humans have failed to bring justice, safety and security to others

Prayer Guide - June 4

Father be with Your children from this team who are still abroad. Keep them safe and give them a positive experience as they see other parts of Your amazing creation.


Lord, today Gwen is meeting her friend Liz whom she has not seen for 43 years. Bless this reunion and use it to Your Purpose and Glory.