The Crunch & Munch of WHAT?

28 September
Last night I sat down to enjoy my first evening meal with my Tchadian family. They were serving beans and rice. Or so I thought. There was a rainstorm in progress so we were inside enjoying our meal on the dark due to the absence of electricity. It as quite delicious actually.
So here I'm sitting chewing away, yummy yum, yummy yu...crunch?
Wait what? Cooked rice isn't supposed I be crunchy.
Must've been a rock....
Pretty soon, another crunch, but more like a stick snapping. I'm really confused. Is it normal to have this many rocks and sticks in your beans? I'm not all that partial to the thought of eating them, I'm not lacking uin roughage. I dig them out of my mouth.
Before taking my next bite I examined food. There's another stick. I pull it out. Season nie notices and holds out her hand. I give her he troublesome stick.
"Ah, poisson." She says. That would be helpful, if I knew French.
"It's fish." Brian translates.
Oh joy.
I did say I was vegetarian, but I also said I was willing to try fish. And now, I've tried it. I will admit it was pretty tasty. But I cannot handle the munching of a poor fishy a bones. I lost my appetite.
I wish they would've jut let me think it was sticks and rocks! I would've never known he difference...at least until the bite that felt like it was the whole skeleton in my mouth. I almost gagged on hat one.
I think it will be easier to stay vegetarian completely.
"No poisson. Vegetarian." I tell Sedonnie. She laughs at me.
I will never forget the  French word for fish. Poisson. Poison? I think so.

The Beginning

            “In two weeks I will be on a plane headed to Chad, Africa, where I will be living for the next eight months.” The thought crosses my mind, bringing with it an array of conflicting emotions. I’m excited about all the new adventures that await my arrival, and I’m impatient to be able to finish up all the packing and planning and just hurry up and leave. But I’m also nervous and a little bit scared. What is it going to be like living in Chad? Am I going to be able to really be a help to the missionaries I’m supposed to assist? Will it take me too long to learn everything? I don’t really know what to expect.

            So, how did I end up deciding to spend a year in Chad? I mean, I’m really just a normal college sophomore who happens to have an appetite for adventure and an unquenchable desire to do something different with my life. I have dreamed of being a student missionary ever since I first knew that such a thing existed, and I have wanted to be a missionary for much longer. Last December I started the process of applying to be an sm, and choosing a call. I knew that I wanted a place where I would get medical exposure, but I didn’t really think I would get one because I have no experience in that area. I prayed about it a lot, toyed with some ideas, but wasn’t really that interested in anything that I was seeing. Finally a medical call opened up in Moundou, Chad that looked like an answer to prayer. They weren’t asking for someone with medical experience! I was so excited; I could go somewhere and learn! I got accepted to that call in May, and started preparing to go to Chad. God had opened the way!

            However, things weren’t quite what they seemed. I had tried to email Dr. Scott, the contact for Moundou, and hadn’t received a reply. Six weeks before I was supposed to be leaving I discovered that I had sent emails to the wrong address. I quickly typed up another email and sent it, this time to the correct account. The next morning I received back a discouraging reply: “Sadly we are already full for the coming school year as far as volunteers go.” I didn’t really know what to think. I had been so sure that I was supposed to go to Moundou. Dr. Scott offered to send emails to other hospitals in Chad, asking if they might possibly have a place for me to go, I was thankful for his help, but I was also disappointed. My friends and family encouraged me to remember that God has a plan for me, and that maybe it was for the better if I didn’t go to Moundou. I prayed about it, and decided to leave it in God’s hands because He knows far better than I do.

            A couple of days later, I received another email. This time from Danae & Olen, doctors from the Bere Adventist Hospital in Bere, Chad. They had heard about the mixup concerning my sm assignment and were willing to put me to work in Bere. I started getting excited again. With the new call I will be living with a native family in their compound. I will be eating their food and drinking their water. And I started praising God. You see, one of the reasons I am so excited about Chad is because of a book, African Rice Heart by Emily Wilkens. She was a student missionary to Chad a few years ago, and wrote the book about the experiences that she had there. I had read the book when it first came out and I was thoroughly impressed with the way that she had been able to live with a Chadian family and get to know them and their culture so much better than if she had been staying on the hospital compound. And that is what I want, to immerse myself in a different way of living, and Bere is exactly that. I believe that God knew the desires of my heart and even though I didn’t understand what was going on when my first call was canceled, I believe that God allowed things to happen to work out for the best.

            The last few weeks have been a whirl of figuring out what I’ll need, getting shots and vaccinations and keeping up with stuff at home. Mom ordered 600 pounds of peaches to can, so it’s been a little hectic around here. Last week I went to get my Yellow Fever vaccine. Mom thought that she was going to have to pay $140 out of pocket for the shot, but when we got to the pharmacy, the pharmacist ended up having to call our insurance about something and insurance ended up covering the whole bill. We were so excited! Yet another blessing from God. Then there was my visa. I’m flying out of Portland on the 23^rd so I can meet up with Olen & Danae in Washington D.C. to fly to Chad. I have heard stories about African embassies being notoriously slow in giving out visas, and I was paranoid that it wasn’t going to come through in time for my flight. I sent it in last Monday and lo and behold, it came back in the mail on Saturday! I was so excited and thrilled. Everything is now in place for me to leave! There is a little bit more for the funding, but I know that God will come through.

            So yes, I’m nervous, excited, impatient, and a little bit scared. But I also know that God’s got His hands in this. There is nothing He cannot do, and He will be there with me all the time. I am looking forward to seeing what other miracles He has up His sleeve for me. : )