Charity No.1: Mozambique

As much as I love the W-B, there are a few things the Wyoming Valley just doesn’t have. Anthropologie, for one, which is probably a good thing – always best to keep your kryptonite as far away as possible, right? (In related news, they just put in a Banana Republic Outlet. I am so dead.) There’s also a legitimate lack of coffee shops open past five, which I find ironic seeing as how the packies are always open much later. But most importantly – and probably due to a water supply that only suffers from sporadic contamination of the mining variety – there is a serious shortage of Typhoid vaccines. And travel clinics that supply them. And doctors who know where a Typhoid-vaccination-seeking-traveler could even begin to look for one. (Oh, yes, Dr. F., I am talking about you!)

And so last week I found myself driving to a travel clinic down in Hazleton, a town I know only from passing on 81. (During the college years, I always stopped at the much-more-interestingly-named and a bit-more-farther-south establishment of Frackville.) I refused a flu shot (27 years and running!), explained the powerhouse that is my remaining thyroid, grabbed a box of live Typhoid pills (currently residing - quite happily - in our fridge next to the cheese), and went on my merry way. The question is: why?

I thought everyone knew I was going on a missions trip to Mozambique in September until I mentioned it to one of my besties and received the “Huh? What?” response. “Oh, you didn’t know?”

That was 150% my fault. The decision to go was made about a month before Bert proposed and immediately lost in the wedding hubbub. We decided not to send out support letters, since it seemed a bit rude to ask for money so soon after the wedding, and I just assumed everyone would find out somehow. Like through osmosis. Or carrier pigeons. (Full Disclosure: I was so relieved to nix the dreaded asking-for-money letter, which everyone knows is like a cover letter, only 1,000 times worse. Read an excellent/hilarious explanation of the whole process here.) But as our molecules do not seem to be communicating and the pigeons are nowhere to be found, I can think of no better place to explain the whole shebang than my very own soapbox.

Ahem.

I am going on a missions trip to Mozambique in September. Ta-da! (If you’re not up for a long blog entry, that was your early exit. There's no pictures in this post until the end, so you gotta be in for the long haul. ;)

Obviously, there’s a bit more to it than that. This will be my second time in Africa since 2009. My first trip to Uganda was run through an organization called Engineering Ministries International (eMi), a group I first heard about in architecture school, then again in 2008 when Papa V. went on a trip to Congo. eMi is a "non-profit Christian development organization made up of architects, engineers and design professionals who donate their skills to help children and families around the world step out of poverty and into a world of hope." This includes helping churches and NGOs realize their visions through the design of hospitals, schools, orphanages, bridges and utility supplies.

My Uganda team, a mix of American and English architects, engineers, and surveyors, was asked to survey and design a site layout and facilities for an orphanage run by Show Mercy International. (You can read more trip details here in an article I wrote for iBerkshires.com.) In the two years since then, Show Mercy has done a miraculous job in building out the site. What they've accomplished in 24 months would be impressive for a Stateside nonprofit, but in Africa it is absolutely unheard of (and usually impossible). You want to see some evidence of divine intervention? Check out the photos here.

September’s trip to Mozambique will be a little different. This trip was organized by my parent’s church in Connecticut and managed by their youth pastor and the ever-adventurous Papa V. (For those who know either of those persons, you know that “a little different” might garner me the “Understatement of the Year” award. ;) We’ll be in Mozambique for ten days (plus two days there and two days back) and running around like mad men for the most of it. I hesitate to say “we'll be doing this” or “we'll be doing that” because, quite frankly, we will be doing a little bit of everything: children’s ministry, teen ministry, adult ministry, prayer ministry, and any other ministry that God feels like tossing our way. I am quite possibly the least flexible person on earth, so for me, it will be an interesting exercise in patience and faith. (I shall henceforth be known as the "Flexmaster," if only to prepare myself for things to come. ;)

Papa V. and I will focus on designing a new ministry center for the missionaries we’ll be visiting. They currently live in the capital city of Maputo, but would like to move farther north to where they own a small plot of land. We won’t be able to visit the site while we’re there, so we’re working exclusively from photos and drawings to come up with a set of plans. The 1,000-1,200 square foot ministry center will initially function as a house for the missionaries, but later on (after another house is built) will host offices and short-term guest housing. We’re still kicking around a few conceptual drawings, but I hope to have at least a rough set of construction documents done before we leave. (This is a lot harder when you’ve lost all access to Auto CAD. I never thought I'd miss it!)

So, that's a rough outline of September's trip. Now, if this post were the aforementioned dreaded support letter, this would be the part where I asked you for money or prayer (but really just money). And I won't lie: my inner control freak had a major panic attack when we decided not to send letters and to instead rely on God to provide. I mean, that is something you say to sound good and holy, but it's not something you would actually ever do, right? Right?

It amazes me how God can use a missions trip that hasn't even happened yet to teach me a lesson or two. He has provided the money so far (even if it's as humble as Mama V. picking up quarters from the side of the road), and I am (oh-so-slowly) beginning to realize that, hey, he'll probably continue to provide, both for this trip and in other areas of my life as well. (Fun Fact: Newlyweds are chronically broke. So broke, in fact, that we hack into Mama and Papa V.'s Netflix account on a daily basis. That broke.)

I've also begun to realize the importance of prayer (and not just money) in an endeavor like this. The turning point? When my friend told me she didn't know I was going, my stomach did a little flip-flop. Was I nuts? Who tries to do something this big without prayer? (Mmm...I do, apparently.)

So that is how I will end this letter/post amalgamation: with a very serious request for your prayers. Design is a struggle for me sometimes - I know people with architecture degrees aren't supposed to say things like that, but I'm a big fan of saying things I'm not supposed to say, so I'll say it anyway - and it's been difficult to work on this project while being so far away from the rest of my team. I am also really bad at working in metric. And, you know, we'll be in Africa. There's a whole continent-full of prayer requests right there. But God will provide. I am learning that. Slowly.

To get a better idea of where we’re currently at, take a look at a few of our schematic plans. (Rendered by the talented didn’t-go-to-architecture-school-and-still-draws-better-than-me husband, of course. He even put shadows in the bathtub. I love that. ;)