Hannah Viejou in Africa!

One of our Young Adults, Hannah Viejou, is in Zambia Africa for a six week practicum with 15 fourth-year student nurses from UBCO.  Here's an update on her experiences!  

I am both having the time of my life, and going through some really hard things. How do you describe having a whole floor of 60 children who are so malnourished that their hair turns yellow and their bellies either stick out or their ribs show? Babies that should be happy and fat, but instead are irritable because they are so hungry? I struggle with the injustice in this world, that parents who desperately want to provide for their children can't. A mother died the other day at the hospital, and a dad had to turn his one year old child over to an orphanage, because he could only look after his other older child by himself. The grief in his eyes, I can't imagine beeing a parent and having to do that.

And so, I do what I can. I buy eggs for the badly burned child who needs protein to get better, but whose mom can't afford it. I listen to the parents hardships and pray and play with the children. I pay for the mother to take a taxi home with her dead child, so that she does not have to feel the stares as she walks back to her village. I share their pain, and feel the some of the sorrow that Jesus must be feeling at this sight. Yet sometimes his love seems so far away.

 

There is a missionary nurse here that truly does show love in action. One of the things she does is run a feeding clinic, and I have decided to give the money from the church towards this program. She saves lives literally, and at the same time is able to share God's love. Thank you KGF for being so generous! This money will make a HUGE difference to many children.

I am travelling with this nurse to a very rural village to help the lone nuse there do clinic work this upcoming week. We will be camping and doing anything medical that needs doing. The rest of the team is doing evangelism in the night and I am looking forwards to that!

Please pray for health. That I can communicate in touch and action both my love and Jesus love, as I don't speak the local tribal labguage. Pray that opportunities will arise for work and education for the Africans to make a better life for themselves. There are so many young men that want to work here, but there are no jobs. Pray for the parents who have to watch their children suffer. I know they go to Jesus, to a better place, but the family left behind still has to go on. Finally, please pray for me to be strong. I have never had to depend so much on Jesus before, and at the same time I am angry. It's a complicated mess of emotions. Joyful about the people and weather, saddened, confused, angry, hopeful. I will never be the same.

I love going to church here-the freedom to clap and dance and sing. I also miss KGF. You are my home church and I was so happy when I decided to become a member there. The community I feel at KGF is the same I feel here. I love Zambia and want to come back even before I have left this complicated country. At the same time, I am looking forward to coming back and seeing you!

Thank you for your prayers. I love that so many people care and it makes me feel less alone in this struggle against poverty and disease. You all encourage me!

You can read more about the journey online here: