First week

Emma and I spent the first week with the Andersons, family friends who came over for a month. We were outside of Glasgow in the small village of Bishopton.

We visited the Kelvingarde Museum which is an art museum in a wonderful building and the Riverside Museum (Transportation) that has all kinds of transport (planes, trains and automobiles as well as bikes and boats). There is a ship to tour out in the River Clyde and a ferry across the river. The museums are very family friendly with lots of interactive exhibits and the information is easy to read (both informative and not too much!)

 We spent a day in Edinburgh. We parked the car in Bolerno where Mama Jane and Papa Eade stayed during their year in Scotland and visited the site where their apartment was. Then we bused into the city which was full of people there for the festival...many street performances and fliers for later shows.

Ivy and I climbed the memorial to Sir Walter Scott and took in the views. We walked down the Royal Mile.

Emma and I found a photo exhibition in the Parliament building that we really enjoyed. Then we separated from our crowd...Emma and I thought we would walk to the Royal Infirmary (where Mama Jane had given birth to her first child) and meet the others there (they were in a taxi)...but the infirmary had been moved...They taxied to the new one and Emma and I walked to the old site (now apartments). Not having a phone or another place to meet up, Emma and I returned to the car in Bolerno...some hours later Scotty came to check as they had been waiting at the new infirmary...but all was well and we made our trip back to Bishopton.

Scotland!!!

My sister and I are exploring Scotland for about 3 weeks. We've come over and for the first week we stayed with our family friends the Andersons just outside of Glasgow. They have been here for a month and we swooped in for the last week of their stay.

The accents are difficult to understand -- they speak so quickly with different vocabulary and lilt to what we are used to -- but the spirit if being helpful (and repeating themselves) is always there. One woman walked outside into the rain to better point where we should continue!

The weather has been amazing! So much talk of the terrible rains (right before we arrived I guess). It is cloudy and often drizzles but we've seen some sun and the weather hasn't kept us from anything. I've only pulled out and worn my poncho once! (Though I carry it almost everywhere)

Public transport is very good though we don't have to use it much.  The house is a block from the Bishopton rail station and when we have more than 5 people for an activity we meet them at the other end and it worked wonderfully most of the time.

Minute for Mission

In our church especially during Mission season (which is February for us) we often do a couple minutes to spotlight a mission that we are involved in. I was asked to speak about my last trip with Marion Medical Mission. Here is what I said as a quick overview of our trip...I've also gotten to speak to a PEO group and might be speaking to another Sunday School class soon.

As most of you know, I’ve been on many mission trips both locally and internationally. I am often asked “Did it change your life” and “How did it change your life?” The answer is “Yes, it did”, but “how” is harder to articulate. When I go on mission trips I am reminded of what is really important: Relationships are more important than “stuff”. One thing I do know is that Marion Medical Mission changes lives!

This is the organization I’ve gone to Africa with for the past 3 years to install shallow wells. MMM is an ecumenical organization out of Marion, Illinois, that tangibly, immediately and permanently changes lives.

When we install a well and clean water comes pouring out of the spout , in that village, at that moment lives have been changed! No more drinking dirty water and getting sick. Money doesn’t have to be spent on medicines and clinic visits. Did you know that 50% of hospital beds in 3rd world countries are filled by people with preventable water-related diseases? Healthy kids can go to school and healthy parents can go to work. Another way a well changes lives is all the time that is saved since mothers and young girls who had to get up at 3 a.m. and walk miles to get water, now can get water close by. 40 billion hours per year are spent in Africa walking for water (and it wasn’t even clean water). Now girls can go to school and the mothers can work or take care of their families.

So when we install a well, the villagers know this. Their eyes are bright with joy. Some sing. Some dance. Some clap and some just bounce. Their joy is contagious and it is their joy that has changed my life.

In 2016 Marion Medical Mission worked in Malawi, Tanzania and Zambia and installed 2,173 wells – that was just one year! At an estimated 150 people per well, that is almost 407,000 people whose lives changed. My partner and I were assigned to Tanzania and we helped install 83 of those wells in the 3 weeks we spent there. We arrived at a village in a truck (we drive) with the PVC pipes, the pump and installers. The villagers had already dug the well deep enough to hit water – anywhere from 8-30 feet deep- lined it with bricks, and covered it with concrete so that it is a safe, closed source of water. Our Tanzanian field officers install the pipes, and then we show the villagers how to use the pump correctly and how to take care of their well, say prayers and give thanks to God and to all who helped make their well possible.

I thank you for your prayers and support that has made it possible for me to go with Marion Medical Mission to do this important work for the past 3 years. Thank you for sharing the gift of clean, safe water with those who have never had it before. Asante sana and Mungu awa bariki which is Swahili is Thank you very much and God bless you!

Pics

More coming, but this is what I have right now!

The Tanzanian program... Door of our truck

At a well...one of the few kids who let me hold her

MMM African staff--field officers from Tanzania, Malawi, and Zambia

Finished!!!

2,578 wells have been installed this year!! That means 38,600 people now have access to clean, protected water! (Calculations based on about 150 people served per well)

We met with the whole team in Mzuzu on Friday night (long drive down from TZ). Roughly 24 volunteers and 40 Field Officers and 6 Support Staff come for dinner and sharing time. After a feast (salad, veggies, chips, rice, chicken, beef, and desserts) we each stand and tell where we saw God in this year's trip. Stories from first time volunteers who can't believe what was accomplished to those who have been coming for years who still find we are doing the impossible. As far as we know, this is the only organization to succeed or even attempt to install 2500 wells in 8 weeks. And we can only do it by coming together as people of God. With the support of so many back home, with the leadership of our African team, with the knowledge that what we are doing is making a difference...we push and we are successful! Utukufu kwa Mungu!! Glory to God!!

PS. There are still about 800 wells that have been built but have yet to be funded...be a part of the miracle! Www.MMMwater.com

Dedication

I "helped" install 83 wells this year! (I don't do the installations, i drive to the wells) What a blessing! In Tanzania the villages seem to be larger and the need for multiple wells is great. Many times on the way to the well we were to install we would pass one that had been installed in previous years and a couple that were put in by Team 1. I love seeing past wells that are still being used!

As we dedicate the well to the glory of God, there is clapping and ululations. Sometimes I have to start these (though not often) and other times someone from the village gets onto them. We begin with a prayer by a church person usually from the village. As it is in Swahili I pray on my own for the village, the women who don't have so far to walk anymore, the children who won't get sick as often, the water that it blesses all who use it, and the other volunteers and MMM workers who are working all over Malawi, Tanzania, and Zambia, traveling over "roads"and paths to the remote places.

Then Woody or I talk about the well: how Christians in America heard about their need for clean water and wanted to help. That they donated money to finish the well built by the villagers. That the well represents the love of God and it is written on the top to be remembered and used as a reminder to pray and give God the glory for all the blessings in our lives. We speak of the ownership of the well, that it does not belong to me, or to MMM but to the village (I try to instigated some cheering here). And with that ownership comes the responsibility to take care of the well and the water beneath it by keeping the area clean and the animals away from it. By keeping up with the maintenance plan and calling the maintenance man promptly if it breaks. We ask that they share with others what they have seen and heard about the well and about the goodness of God. Time is given to them to add words. Many thanks are proffered to God, to MMM, to us, to the donors back in America. They tell us that this well is very needed and please can we help their neighbors with this blessing. They assure us that they will take care of the well (and some start lecturing their fellow villagers right away). Their thanks are often prefaced with, " we have no words." And the gifts we were given (chickens, bananas, ground nuts, and onions) with "we have no gift." They feel the inadequacy of trying to repay one of God's blessings. But the lights shining in their eyes and the smiles in their lips are more than enough for me.

If it is a new village, a demonstration on correct usage of the well follows and then we make our way back to the truck to head to the next miracle!

Typical day (2016)

Tanzania and Malawi are a little different. In our days it doesn't seem to be much different but still. In Tanzania (and some of the stories I've heard from other volunteers even in Malawi) they don't stop for lunch. I wasn't sure how I was going to deal with that. For one thing, I'd forgotten to bring any snacks to have when meals schedules and my hunger didn't quite get along. For another, I like to eat and take a small break from the bouncing and jostling of dirt roads. But, I figured I would be open...

My days have always started with breakfast. (Again, some volunteers say they skip that because they start so early--craziness, I say.) Usually an egg and white bread slices this year and sometimes a boiled sweet potato piece. (Last year add potato fries each morning.) Then load up the truck with more than enough pipes and pumps for the days plan (one day we planned on 10 and completed 11 because one just happened to be on the way back). And then start driving...

The roads are hazardous. People, bicycles, motorcycles, animals, other vehicles and a bad paving job....keeps you alert. Then you turn off the main road to a dirt road and all the same challenges apply (not the paving but then there are the washouts and ruts). Bouncing along to the first well after picking up a team of installers and builders. Here the villagers don't meet you at the truck. They trickle down to the well as it is being installed. Again they are shocked when I can do a basic greeting and I love seeing the smiles light up their faces. At many villages it is a second (or more) well so we don't have to do the demo or the full dedication service. We have a prayer, say a few words, and take a picture. Them it is off to the next well. These multiple wells are great. The need for clean water is so great that the lines at the wells are very long. And it was great to see previous wells that are still in good repair and use!

At some point we have a package if biscuits (cookies for Americans) and that suffices for lunch...and you eat them on the way to the next well. Once the wells for that day are done we head back to the hotel, and in some order depending on the time, shower, have dinner, prepare water and self for the next day and collapse into bed.