Update from Impact VIII
This post was written by one of our Solace Missionaries, Tawnya Jackson.
February began with Jeff and I packing up and joining the 1040i team on their medical mission trip, Impact VIII. We traveled to Doropo, a town about 4 hours north of Tanda. We were so excited to see our friends Rachel Foley and her son Zion (from Solace) along with many familiar faces from past trips. In the drive, we saw some beautiful things like mountains and real live camels! I’ve never seen a camel anywhere but the zoo or circus. They are awesome! We also saw a monkey cross the road in front of us but it was super fast so we didn’t get a picture of it. It’s not as green in Doropo as it is here in Tanda and with this being the dry season, literally everything was covered in dust. We camped out in a tent (if you know me at all you know that I HATE camping in tents, LOL) for 10 nights. I’m happy to say we had no snake encounters, although the ladies doing laundry did. Yikes! When they moved the tub of clothes there was one under it. No one was harmed, except maybe the snake.
Jeff was a part of a construction team that helped to repair some storm damage to a dormitory at a village (Nionan) school. Last summer, the dorm “mama” said that there was an evil presence in the dorm. She told the spirits to get out of that house and as soon as she did, the roof was completely ripped off and thrown about a quarter mile down the road. I have to say, I never really experienced “evil spirits” until coming to Africa. In 2013, on my first ever trip, we went to do wound care in a village. There was one believer in this village, a teenage girl. They were disrespectful of the pastor while he was speaking and as we did the wound care, they circled us and just kept closing in on us. After the second time of telling them to please back up, we left. I felt like something was sitting on my chest the whole time we were there and had a really hard time breathing. As we were driving away, I could feel myself breathe. I said something about how heavy I felt to one of the other ladies that was with us and our translator told the pastor what we were talking about. The pastor told him to tell me that in that village, we were in the presence of the dark one. Here in Africa, there is a LOT of darkness. I think that’s why the pastors here are so diligent about getting out into the villages to share God.
I was part of the kitchen staff that prepped and cooked the meals for the 100 or so volunteers. I cracked about 2,400 eggs in total for breakfasts. I peeled and cut veggies and even made some cookies one day. I was really having a hard time in the beginning with my ankle but I was able to do most of the prep work sitting with it propped up with ice on it so after the first 4 days or so it was better.
We are now back to our regular routine in Tanda of trying to get our new house finished up so we can move in. The kitchen cabinets were delivered today. They are so pretty! They aren’t exactly the size they needed to be but Jeff said he can make them work. Jeff’s permanent residency papers are ready, but we are still waiting for mine. We are going to be making a trip to Abidjan in the next week or so to pick up a money transfer and I’m hoping for at least one day of relaxing on the beach.
We love you all and thank you for all your support and prayers.
For more pictures, videos, and updates from Impact VIII visit https://www.facebook.com/1040i/.
