Building a Hospital

Sometimes when I think about my life I get a little overwhelmed. I think about my growing up years, my dreams and aspirations and how my life isn’t what I thought it would be.

How did I get to this point? Didn’t I progress day by day just like everyone else. Didn’t I make decisions along the way to direct each day just like everyone else? Then why am I here in the middle of Africa working on plans for a modern hospital placed in the middle of nowhere?

I never studied hospitals, village work, living in another culture, or speaking a different language. But here I am doing all of that. It’s amazing how God’s grace is sufficient and his strength is shown in my weakness. Not that it isn’t good to prepare and that God can’t blow your socks off if you are knowledgeable in those things he has you do, but that’s not where I am.

As we sit around the table at a local coffee shop Isaac, Andrew (the architect) and I discuss how many chairs should be in the waiting room, where the toilets should be, how many beds are needed in the patient’s ward and where the nurses’ station should be. It’s funny because at times Andrew and I look at each other wondering what Dr. Isaac is meaning. Then other times Andrew just sits there as I tease out of Isaac what he is really talking about. Most of our meetings consist of interruptions by phone calls and I just sit back and think about how crazy this is. Isaac and Andrew are in their early thirties and I’m 28 yet we are the ones who are putting together this hospital. I can’t help but wonder isn’t there someone more qualified, older and with more experience in these things? Why hasn’t someone already done this task? Then I resign that this is my task for this time.

I’m learning that life comes in short stents. I always used to think that things that were done needed to be for always. Growing up mom would put together a great chore chart or a cleaning schedule that would work for a month or so. I thought that it must be a bad program since it didn’t last a long time, but I’m learning that short burst of things is how things seem to work. You do something until it doesn’t work anymore and then you do something else. I guess the bible talks about that as seasons. There is a time for everything. Now is my hospital building season.

Living in East Africa for the last four years and Isaac traveling around East Africa being introduced to different things we have observed that some missionary projects don’t last after missionaries leave or international funding stops. We have seen good things fall apart. Isaac and I are planning for that. We know that a modern hospital is something that is a good thing, and something that will last. Our plan is for retirement. I know we are young but we are already thinking about retiring from our work at this hospital. Going into this project we plan on leaving it someday. We want this hospital to be run by nationals, funded by itself, and have a good upkeep/maintenance plan. We know that to get the hospital up and running it will need funding from outside itself and our direction in running it but our goal is always in focus. We are leaving it someday.

When I get overwhelmed by it all I find comfort in the fact that this is just a season. We are only here for as long as God desires. Then on to a new thing. Perhaps we will take this vision to other villages, perhaps we will focus more on special education, perhaps we will do something else. We never know what God is up to. All we can do is follow him each day, not worrying about what he will do tomorrow, not worrying about what our next moves are. We just can rest in the fact that all we need to do is follow for today. And that makes living today much easier.