WILKENS FAMILY NEWS View this email in your browser August 2015 Hello!! Once again it has been awhile since our last prayer letter and we are full of excuses! Ha! Lack of electricity, business of life and ministry, etc. We however cannot survive here without your prayers so we are pressing forward with our latest edition. God has been so good to us these last few months and we have broken this newsletter into sections. We hope this letter finds you well. Love, The Wilkens Family Prayer Points: Opportunities to share the Gospel Consistent Electricity Safety and Health Tanzanian Elections Burundian refugees Our family s transition Cholera Outbreak would end Our Family God has been so gracious and good to us in this season of our lives. Our children are growing and thriving and home-schooling is going well. We have Michigan Invasion! Beginning of August we were blessed to host a team of 5 people from Battle Creek, Michigan. The leader of the group, John Grafton, is a good friend of ours from 19 or so years back. There were also 2 Austrians who were already on base to serve here who became such an addition and blessing to this team. 1 of 5 9/14/2015 3:30 PM
been in good health and have really been feeling the blessing and privilege of being able to be here and work for the Lord. It s been humbling but has filled us with Joy! When we heard from the Lord about 7 months ago that we were not staying we were a bit concerned that our thoughts of moving and getting vision for our future would distract us from our work here and so we asked for prayer. We are thankful for your prayers. It really has helped us to dig our heals in and be present here and now! Thank you as well for your continued prayers for our health and safety. We do not take these prayers lightly. We have seen many occasions where if we were not covered in prayer things would have turned out differently. So thank you!! Also a praise: our youngest Lily has several food allergies and it has been a challenge to feed her and help her to grow properly. However at her last check up she is just about average weight for a 2 year old and above average for height! We are so thankful for this! We have been hearing from the Lord about our future and look forward to our 5 weeks in Perth, Australia. As we were planning and struggling with plans we realized that it is exactly 40 days that we are in Perth! Definitely feeling this was not an accident and God has a plan and preparations for us there. God has been speaking to us and confirming in us how he has been preparing us for this next chapter. We have been feeling passionate about the idea of discipling young medical missionaries and being involved in the ministry of YWAM Perth. We are feeling like we will commit 2 years to the medical ministry of YWAM Perth and see what the Lord says from there. Our kids are aware of our next move and our middle child has been saying things like We always go on planes and we don t have a home. So we covet prayers as we transition them yet again to the next chapter. They are doing fine with the move and are excited about Perth being our next potential home as the 2 oldest remember it fondly. The team came and held a 4-day sports camp for 51 of our primary school kids. A good number of the kids in our school are from the surrounding Muslim villages and even though the parents know it s a Christian school they send their kids because it s a better option than the village school. This is such an opportunity for these kids to be reached with the Gospel and to know Jesus. Over the 4 days the team shared stories from the Bible, life applications and had lots of fun playing lots of high-energy games! Over all it was an amazing time and each day the team was ready for a nap by lunch time!! We also didn t want them to come to Africa with out seeing a bit so at the end of the camp we took them on a Wilkens style whirlwind trip. Saturday afternoon we took them to the Indian Ocean, Sunday morning to the city of Dar for church, immediately after took them north to Sadaani National park for a quick overnight safari, on the way back a stop to a small Slave/Livingstone Museum in Bagamoyo (complete with flat tire adventure), back to Dar for some souvenir shopping and haggling, dinner at a Chinese restaurant and then back to the village by 10pm Monday night! Whew!! This team was an amazing blessing to us. They brought encouragement and laughter, goodies from home, did our dishes, slashed grass with machetes, pruned trees, played with and loved on our kids. We were so sad to see them go! Also even though we have been doing great we also feel the pressure of the enemy daily trying to wear us out and make us give up. From small health 2 of 5 9/14/2015 3:30 PM
problems, to homesickness, to miscommunication. Please pray for our families protection during this time and against the schemes Tanzania Tanzania is in an election year. Tanzania tends to be one of the more stable countries in Africa but not without its share of problems. Corruption and poverty are serious problems. In the next 50 or so days there are 2 major parties competing for the presidential election. We have heard that it will be one of the most intense political races that Tanzania has faced. Although things should go fine and orderly there is always the wild card. A couple of weeks ago in support of a candidate people mobbed the streets downtown and shops were closed because of fear of looting and riot police were on hand. Even well meaning mobs can get emotional and out of hand. In the village we have felt little of this, however we do travel to the city once or twice in a week. We just ask for prayers for safety and that the election would go smoothly. We also ask for prayers that Tanzania would be able to elect a leader who would lead Tanzania well. We pray for corruption to end and for people to be able to have things like healthcare, clean water, electricity and jobs. Please pray for God s truth to be known in Tanzania. There has also been a Cholera outbreak in Dar es Salaam. Cholera?? Say what? Isn t that like an old school sickness that missionaries in the 19 th /early 20 th century battled? Yes. It s true. But in areas of poverty where people live close together and water sources are not clean, this water born sickness happens. The problem is it spreads quickly. Dar reported as of this week 850 cases with 14 deaths and it has spread outside of the city. They have tried put a ban on street vendors and those selling un-bottled drinking water, also spreading the news about proper hygiene and hoping that they can get a handle on it. Cases have been reported here every year here and they have been able to curb it so please pray that they would be able to stop the spread of Cholera. Also please pray for our clinic and family. We live 20km outside the city and it has yet to reach us and may not. There is also conflict in the neighboring country Burundi and refugees are flooding in across the border. The already full refugee camps are 3 of 5 9/14/2015 3:30 PM
completely overwhelmed now and there is an outbreak of Cholera there as well. This could be how it eventually made its way to the city although the border is 20+ hours from Dar. Please pray for this situation and for those like Samaritains Purse who are on the ground working there. Please also pray for stabilization of Burundi. The YWAM base We ask for continued prayers for our base and for the relationships on it. We continue to ask God how we can be a blessing each day to the other staff here. We are also trusting God for needed changes to take place. This last month we welcomed the newborn son of a beautiful couple on our staff. He is named Great. This has been a joyous occasion for us as these 2 have become good friends of ours. They have extended themselves in friendship, language and cultural training and in many ways have become like family. This was also the first pregnancy that as a midwife I was able to follow from start to finish. It was a good opportunity for me. We have been without consistent electricity for a couple of weeks now. This also affects our water supply, as it is run by a pump. The base does have a generator that is run sparingly for the water pump and for a couple of hours at night to have lights. It has been very frustrating and it has really affected our ability to be in touch with people and even complete this prayer letter. Please pray with us that electricity would be restored to Dar completely, especially since the extremely hot season is approaching and life without fans for sleeping is difficult. We also have had some instances of thieves or attempted theft around the base at night. We have guard dogs and steel doors so we are safe but please pray that this would stop and that no incidents would take place. Uzima Mission Clinic The clinic has been extremely busy in the last few months. This is not as typical in the cooler drier months like now. However, supposedly there is an El Nino effect already happening that has been making our weather a little manic. So we have had a mix between rain, cooler and hotter temperatures. The rain brings on things like Malaria and stomach sicknesses. We have seen a lot of this out of season. We continue to enjoy our days at the clinic and I (Heather) am especially grateful to be able to see some of the same women monthly. I only work one day a week and so its been nice that on Thurs when I work some of the same women return and some have been requesting me or Sarah (another YWAM trained midwife). This has been great because of the relationships we are able to build and the care we 4 of 5 9/14/2015 3:30 PM
5 of 5 9/14/2015 3:30 PM are able to give them. We had one woman come in because she was terrified that she was losing her baby and she went to another clinic and they didn t tell her anything about what was going on. She felt even more afraid and so came to us. She specifically requested me because she had seen me very early on. We were able to talk with her and access her and find a heart beat and reassure her that everything was ok. We prayed for her and asked Gods protection on her and her baby. She left and the next month came back and brought her pregnant friend. Her pregnant friend 2 weeks later brought her friend that had been told that she had miscarried. They had given her an ultrasound and they told her nothing. She walked into our office scared and confused and said she still felt pregnant but was still bleeding. The ultrasound revealed that even though one baby had miscarried there was another live baby!! We were able to detect a heartbeat and the woman burst into tears saying, God saved me a baby! We prayed with her and we all exchanged phone numbers and so we have been sending messages back and forth. Thankful. Please continue to pray with us for opportunities to share about Jesus and also that the Cholera outbreak would stop quickly and not reach our village. Copyright *TravelswithGodsheart', All rights reserved. Our mailing address is: travelswithgodsheart@gmail.com Want to change how you receive these emails? You can update your preferences or unsubscribe from this list Website: www.wilkensfamilyadventures.com