Double Vision

Hi all,

I know I know and I'm sorry. I should have posted before now. Just in case any of you don't know I made it home safely and had a great Christmas with my family.

It is very difficult to try to keep you updated once I get home because I find it hard to put into words. I've been trying to for weeks but can't really explain it; the joy and sorrow of coming home. I am so glad to be spending time with my family and in a lot of ways being in the states is comfortable and easy. I can take hot showers with running water, I can eat whenever I want and whatever I want, I can drive myself places, I can set the temperature to what I like, I have a bed to sleep on, and I can entertain myself however I choose.

The problem is that although I can do all this I can't do it blissfully. I have spent enough time in other countries and cultures that I know things now because I've seen them. I know that so many kids not only don't have running water they don't even have clean water and if they do so many don't know that they need to wash every day. I've seen them covered in scabies and open running sores because of that. I've washed them. I know that there are kids who get one meal a day...of tea. I've seen them so malnourished I could count the bones showing through their skin. I've held them. I know there are people who walk for miles and miles in the hopes of getting medical care. I've seen them lined up waiting patiently for their turn. I've walked with them. I know there are people who don't have adequate protection from the elements. I've seen their homes. I've sat shivering with them. I know there are orphans who have no beds or blankets. I've seen the cement floors they share. I've played games with them. I know there are teens who have such limited options they will have sex, get pregnant, contract HIV, join gangs, and get sent to prison because of boredom. I've seen teens who've done this. I've talked with them.

So as I hope you can see it is a difficult blessing; having double vision. I do however know that everything my Lord has shown me He will use. The passion He has placed in me would not be complete if I hadn't seen what I've seen. I look forward to His continued teaching. And now I'll be seeing you guys!

Isimbi Johanna

Crossing Oceans

Hey guys,

I hope you are all fully enjoying the holidays. Apparently NH is lacking snow at the moment which makes it harder to get into the spirit of things but I'm hopeful that by the time I get home there will at least be a few inches. (1)

I'm sorry that I haven't blogged sooner. I have been strangely moody this past week and don't really know how to explain myself. Not that surprising considering that I am at the end of outreach about to return home. I am so excited to be back for Christmas and see my family but at the same time am reluctant to go. My heart feels fully alive in places like Zimbabwe while I am helping people and I already miss it. I can't really describe the feeling of returning after you have been away for a while in a different culture; you kind of have to experience it yourself and then you get it. For me it feels like I have one foot still in Africa and the other in America and I am just stretched out between them. The good thing when trying to live in two worlds at once is that I get to experience twice as much of God during the stretching time.

Alright, I will give you guys a more complete update later. I was just online waiting to Skype with my family but they apparently forgot about me (2) so the computer I'm borrowing needs to be returned. I have my final exam tomorrow morning if you think to pray for that and then our school is going to have some rest days before our graduation on Wednesday. One week from right now I will be boarding my flight in Cape Town to return home. See you soon! Love you guys and Merry Christmas!

Isimbi Johanna

(1) NH received about 3 or 4 inches of snow the evening after we spoke with Johanna!
(2) We didn't get home from church in time...

Zimbabwe is a life-altering, God glorifying, fantastic country!

Hello everyone!

I just got back to South Africa on Thursday after a 26-hour train ride and am just letting you all know that I made it OK. As soon as we arrived back at the base the two other American girls and I went out for a Thanksgiving lunch although mostly we were going for the coffee that we missed so much (if my Grandma and my Dad read this I blame my coffee addiction on your side of the family). This morning I left the base and got on a train again to come to Cape Town and hang out with the girls in my school. Starting this Monday we have some more health teachings to do at a school here in SA for a week. I am praying that God will give me the energy for this last bit of outreach...

Thank you to everyone for my birthday wishes. It was wonderful! To celebrate my 23rd year I got to give massages to about 50 old Zimbabwean women who have been working incredibly hard their whole life and now have back and joint pains. I loved it!

I will be graduating on the 10th and will leave to return to NH on the 13th. See you all later!

Isimbi Johanna

Last Zimbabwe Update

Hi,

I am almost out of internet time but I wanted to let you all know quickly that Nqobi is doing better. He came to stay with us for a few days and it was very good for him. He ate like a king and fell asleep in my arms 3 nights in a row. When his father came to get him and walk him back to the people he stays with he cried. Please keep him and his father in your prayers.

I am just outside Bulawayo for the rest of the weekend and then we are driving to Nkayi where we will do ministry and get some teaching on mother-child health from the hospital there. After 2 weeks we will go and stay in the village to provide some healthcare for them. I am excited for that. You can see the stars with awesome clarity when you are in the bush with no electricity. I will be back in South Africa in a month and then heading home for Christmas. See you then!

Isimbi Johanna

Nqobisitha

The first time I saw him he was sitting next to his father under a tree on a hot sunny afternoon. I was tired. I had just walked 2 miles to get back to where we are staying but some things make you forget exhaustion. I had never seen trachoma in person before but Nqobi is already at stage 4 so even with my little training I could recognize it as soon as I knelt down in front of him. Have you ever seen an 8 year old who has given up on life? This kid has. He would barely lift his shoulders to look at me even though I was right in front of him; partly because the light hurts his eyes so much. They were swollen and crusty with discharge. He can barely see at this point because of the gray film over his pupil. Needless to say Nqobi impacted me.

On top of his eyes he is so malnourished that he is the size of his 4 year old cousin. His mother died when he was 2 and although his father loves him he can't take care of him because he has to work. Nqobi stays with some cousins who are struggling to provide for themselves. Over the next few days after I first met him our team visited his home to begin treatment on his eyes. It was a dramatic improvement just by washing them.

On Monday Nqobi is coming to stay at the base we are living at. They have a home for orphans there and they will temporarily take care of him while we continuing treating his eyes. We can clean them up but we can't cure his blindness. We do, however, serve a God who can and therefore we are expecting and asking for a complete recovery. The most important treatment we can give people as a medical team is prayer.

I wanted to share Nqobisitha with you because he is the reason I did this school. I could tell you all about the primary school we do health teachings/health care at or the home visits we make to the community members. I could tell you about how we got permission from the chief of the community to do a community-wide teaching on HIV/AIDS last Saturday. For me, though, it comes down to people like Nqobi. People who need help from someone to show them that life is not hopeless, that there is a God who loves them and created them, and that they do not have to die from something we can prevent.

I have been in Zimbabwe for just a short time but it will certainly affect the rest of my life. In a week I am going from the bush to the bush-bush or in other words we are traveling farther into Zimbabwe to work in a village. Obviously, I will have no internet connection so I will talk to you in December. Thanks for your prayers and support! I love you guys!

Isimbi Johanna

Prayer for Political 'Stability'

Continue to pray for the political landscape of the country of Zimbabwe which has had such a convoluted history in recent months, years and decades. The unity government of the past year appears to be dissolving and that could in turn lead to political violence and further turmoil and hardships for the population of the country. See the following Reuters story for further detail.

Zimbabwe!!

Hello all,

So this will be my last post before I go to Zimbabwe which means I don't know when you will hear from me again. Hopefully, I can find a computer to use to let everyone know I'm still alive sometime this week.

We are leaving tonight at 7 and will reach Johannesburg around noon tomorrow. We stay there overnight and then continue on to Zim; we should arrive in Bulawayo sometime on Thursday.

Concerning prayer, just keep it coming! The base prayed for our team this morning to send us off and you can never pray too much. Zimbabwe needs prayer for sure but I believe God has great things in store for turning this country back to Him and I am excited to see a glimpse of it in the coming months. We are praying for safe travels of course and then some things to keep in mind are unity amongst our team, wisdom in our words and actions, and most importantly that God would use us to glorify Him in Zimbabwe. We may be going there as a health care team but really God can use us however He wants.

As for me, I am so excited to be going. I love seeing new countries! Time goes by so fast and I want to make the most of the 2 months I have in Zim. Before I know it I'll be going back home for Christmas. I look forward to seeing you all in December and I will write to you from Zimbabwe. Bye!

Isimbi Johanna

I love my life

Hi dear people,

I am borrowing my lovely Lissia's computer but she is from France so her keyboard is a little strange for me; if there are any typos it's because of that. The plus side is that I get to listen to fantastic French music as I write this. Someday I will be fluent in French.

Seriously, anyone who thinks that being a Christian means you are always going to lead a boring life full of rules is missing out on so much. I can barely begin to list the amazing things I get to do just because of where following Christ leads me. I'm going to Zimbabwe in 6 days because of Him. I wanted to remind you all of one of the ways that our God blesses us; by giving us adventures. He's so cool!

I and my classmates had a wonderful time in Knysna as I said. We had some interesting days together learning more about our personalities and differences but it was good. We are spending this week cramming in some last lectures before we leave. Our teaching is on the nervous and endocrine systems which I didn't realize I would like so much. They are such delicate and incredibly important systems that are created so beautifully how could you study them and not glorify our Creator God. Really amazing. On Monday we are on our way. We take a bus from here in Worcester to Johannesburg which will be about 16 hours. We'll stay in Joburg overnight and then take a combi to Bulawayo, Zimbabwe. Please be praying for safe travels and that we can get across the border as soon as possible. The police can take a rather long time checking everyone's bags and then visas take time as well. Still I've driven across borders in Africa before and it is really fun. It's a great way to see the nitty-gritty of a country. I have been learning whatever I can about Zim before we go and God has blessed me with some great opportunities to talk with people about it. I'm so excited to go!

I will talk to you again before we leave. Thanks for your prayer!

Isimbi Johanna

Life for Zimbabwe's children...

A BBC team has been to Zimbabwe, four months since a power-sharing government took over, to meet the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Harare, Robert Ndlovu. To hear his narration of a 2:30 minute audio slide show and see what life is like for the Zimbabwe's children click here [click 'Show captions' for better viewing].

L. Beachy