How can we encourage people who are suffering when the outcome is out of our control? 

How can I respond to their suffering if I can’t take their pain away? 

If suffering is apart of being human, how do I have hope sitting with those in suffering? 

We can look to scripture, like the book of Job and see how the suffering he endured was not because of anything he did wrong. From Job’s friends we can learn how not to sit with those suffering. Trying to figure out the reason why someone is in suffering doesn’t avail much or bring comfort. 

We can observe Paul and how he suffered for Christ. Paul was following Jesus well and still suffered. Lack is suffering doesn’t quantify success. 

Because of God’s character I know He cares about our suffering. If God didn’t care about our suffering He would have left us on our own to figure it out. Instead He sent Jesus to walk the earth in a physical body and suffer. He suffered to the point of death, even death on the cross for us!

“Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God. For just as we share abundantly in the sufferings of Christ, so also our comfort abounds through Christ.”

2 Corinthians 1:3-5 NIV

God wants to comfort us in our suffering and use us to comfort others. As I have wrestled through these questions I have found so much comfort in the fact that not only does God meet us in our suffering, but also He has created us with the ability to heal. 

No matter what suffering we endure - we can heal! 

God created our physical bodies to heal themselves from injury without our conscious effort. The last time you got a scrape did you think about growing new skin? No, it just grew the way God designed it to. The unseen spiritual and emotional wounds we encounter can be healed by Jesus too. It takes more effort but we can heal with the help of Jesus. There is no suffering, pain, or injury that is outside of God’s healing hand. 

I have seen it in my own life. Deep betrayal and pain has been, and is continuing to be, healed. The healing process has brought me closer to Jesus and has made me stronger. I’m not stuck in self preservation because I know no matter what happens in my life, God can heal me. That sounds like hope and freedom. 

The next time I’m sitting with someone in their suffering and feeling the weight of their hopelessness, I can remain hopeful knowing Jesus can heal all of it. 

Thank you Jesus for being our healer. 

What quickly came to my mind is God’s heart for women. God is so intentional and tender to women. 

I think about some of my hardest days as a birth attendant and I ask God why the outcome was so poor when I prayed and had faith for life. I would ask God why I was in the room for that traumatic birth. 

God’s simple response to me was that He knew the outcome for each mother and He didn’t want her to be alone, so He sent me. 

He didn’t want a first time mother to deliver her first baby stillborn all alone. 

So He sent me.

He didn’t want a second time mother to labor alone when no fetal heart rate could be detected.

So He sent me. 

He didn’t want a mother who was going to deliver a baby with severe anomalies to labor alone.

He did not want any of these women to walk through some of their hardest moments alone and without hope. 

So He sent me. 

Jesus is not in physical body on earth to tend to women so He sends us, Christians, to be His physical hands and feet. As Christians we can look to scripture to see the example Christ set when He was on the earth in a physical body. 

We can remember the story of the woman at the well in John 4. Jesus met with her where she would go each day. Jesus took time to sit with her, ask questions, and listen. Ultimately Jesus encouraged and inspired this woman and she left full of joy! 

We can see in Mark 5 how Jesus tended to a young woman and an older woman. Jesus was going out of His way to visit a sick girl in her home. While He was going a woman touched His robe and was healed of her disease instantly! Jesus could have ignored her and kept walking, but He stopped and looked for her. He gave her dignity and hope. Then Jesus continued to meet with a sick girl who had actually passed away due to the delay. He went into her room and RAISED HER FROM THE DEAD! After Jesus was crucified and resurrected, who did He reveal himself to first? A woman! Mary Magdalene, who was weeping and full of grief. He did not make her go on a long journey to find Him. Jesus met her in her grief, weeping in a garden. The list goes on of the gentle ways Jesus has shown up for women, why would He not still be tending to women like that? Jesus is the same yesterday, today, and forever and His heart is for women all over the world. 

In my personal life I have seen how God has tended to me in ways only He could in my darkest moments. He was never harsh or hurried, always gentle and kind. He wants to use us to encourage and encounter women on some of their hardest days. I am honored that in my unique role as a birth attendant, I got to tend to women and meet them right where they were at. I hope you can recall ways God has tended to you in your darkest moments. Let us be people who Jesus uses as His hands and feet to tend to the women all around us. 

The first day I met Ash I learned that she had endured not one but THREE eclamptic seizures in her pregnancy. Her blood pressure was so high it caused seizures multiple times. Ash is 19 years old and 34 weeks pregnant with not one but TWO babies. She was scheduled for a c/section that afternoon. Her blood pressure was stable but her swelling was extensive, she looked miserable. I got to hold her baby boys right after birth, miraculously both babies were born healthy and breathing on their own at only 34 weeks. I got to pray over them and swaddle them up while she was still in surgery. The following day I went to visit her as she was walking to the NICU to visit her babies for the first time. She was still so swollen and in pain from the surgery. 

Through a translator I got to teach her how to breastfeed and help her hold her babies skin to skin for the very first time. Another miracle is that both babies attached to the breast and fed for 10-15 mins each! Premature babies are usually weak and struggle to breastfeed, but these baby boys were strong. Ash had so much milk to feed her babies despite all the stress that had been put on her body during pregnancy, also another miracle. I spent over an hour with her, educating her about many things related to caring for a premature baby and breastfeeding. God really used the training I have as a lactation nurse to support and encourage her, we build a relationship in those close moments. It was time for her to go back to her bed to rest after all the work feeding the babies. I felt like God put it on my heart to pray over her out loud.

As she sat on her postpartum bed I asked If I could pray for her and she said yes. I asked her if she knew Jesus and she said she was Muslim and had heard the name of Jesus before but did not know much about Him. She was so eager to learn about Jesus as I got to lay out the gospel starting with creation and ending with Jesus wanting a relationship with her. She said she wanted to accept Jesus but was concerned because she is married to a muslim man. I encouraged her that Jesus hears our prayers and she can pray for her husband to accept Jesus too. That was enough for her, she said she wanted to accept Jesus into her heart. Right there on her postpartum bed I prayed a prayer of repentance and salvation, it was translated into Swahili and she repeated it outloud.

 I was overjoyed with her decision and also knew how big of a choice this was. We discussed what it meant to be a christian and how to follow Jesus. We talked about the importance of reading the Bible and she said she could get a Bible to read while at home. We talked about the importance of attending church to be surrounded by other christians to grow together. Giving her life to Jesus was not the easy choice, but she was so eager and ready. 

The following day I got to visit her again and you could see the difference in her eyes, light had come into her eyes. The girl who was once hopeless and despondent now sat up straight and smiled at me with hope in her eyes. The next day other members of our team visited her and showed her the Bible in Swahili and she read as much as she could while they were with her. She was hungry for the word of God. She was discharged that day with both of her twins still alive and well. The odds are stacked against this young mother and her babies so I ask you to remember her in your prayers. 

I will probably never get to see Ash again in this life but I will never forget her story. Her story is also an answer to the prayer I had been praying for weeks to get to lead a mother to the Lord. In the days that followed I got to lead another young mother to Jesus and watch her life change for the better. It was an incredible way to end the four months of serving in Africa. 

Mid June I returned with my team to Perth for one week of debrief, and to graduate from the Birth Attendant School! Although I have just begun to process all the Lord has done throughout these last nine months I can say with confidence that I will never be the same. As challenging as this time serving in Africa has been I can’t look away. My heart burns with passion to be in these places serving mothers and babies while sharing the hope of Jesus. With that being said I have been given the honor to lead the next Birth Attendant School training course with Youth With A Mission in Perth, Australia. After prayer and consideration I have accepted the role and will be returning to Australia for the next three years to see this program continue! I am so excited to see how God will move in the coming years and so humbled to get to be a part of it. 

I am currently back in the States for the summer and want to reconnect in person! I have so many more stories to share and ways you can be involved with what God is doing in Africa and for mother and babies in the low resourced setting. Thank you all for following my stories, stay tuned because the best is yet to come. 

Our ministry here has looked like a lot of listening to stories and sharing devotional and simple healthcare teachings. We shared with women the value the Bible says they have, because their culture doesn’t give them value outside of having babies. We have talked about the importance of a father being present for the delivery of their child because in their culture the father doesn’t even see the child for 4 days. We also talked about practical things like nutrition, hygiene practices, and fever reduction. It was encouraging to share a simple teaching and the women asking questions, they really wanted to understand what we had to say. 

Some of the most impactful moments were getting to meet with mothers in their homes. We met A who is 20 years old and delivered her 2nd baby 3 weeks prior in her mud hut. She was a child bride at only 10 years old. She lived with her mother in law for a few years and was given to her husband before she even had her first period. 

We met R who had an eclamptic seizure in her mud hut after her delivery 3 weeks prior. Thankfully she made it to the hospital with the help of the local missionaries. We got to pray for her and her baby in her home, she even asked us to name her baby!

Polygamy is still a very common practice in the Maasai culture. Doing an antenatal check on N in her hut she pointed to the hut across from us and said that was her husband’s first wife’s hut. While visiting R the first wife was in the other room cooking. Although they say they are Christian more discipleship is needed. 

On this trip God has been shaping my heart to understand that someone becoming a Christian is just the beginning. Missions is sharing the gospel to those who have never heard AND walking with them in discipleship. Missions does not stop when someone accepts Jesus, but it’s the starting line for sanctification in Jesus. I can see the evidence of missionaries in Maasai land preaching the gospel and people choosing Jesus. It takes generations to sanctify a culture that doesn’t align with how God calls us to live in the Bible.

One home visit I sat with a mother holding her newborn baby and asked her what her dream was. She thought about it for a while and said she wanted to be a preacher! She said she didn’t have a Swahili Bible but would borrow one and memorize the stories. We got to encourage her in her dream and tell her how a woman was the first person to see Jesus after His resurrection, and the first one to tell people Jesus is risen! The women here face so many challenges in their daily life but they love Jesus. God is moving in Maasai land and I’m honored to see it for myself. 

As we continued to wait for the midwives to finish the handoff I started counting her contractions. The contractions were strong, consistent and frequent. This was Q’s first baby and by the looks of things the baby was coming soon. The midwife came to check her cervical dilation and the membranes were bulging. The midwife quickly ruptured her membranes and said she was 5cm and the baby was breech. The midwife wanted to move her to a labor bed. Once on the labor bed my plan was to take another set of vital signs, pray for her and leave as our shift was ending. As I was holding her hand to pray the midwife brought the doctor to do an exam. He gloved up and said “let’s just deliver this baby”. I continued to hold her hand as the doctor delivered her first born son, preterm, limp, with no respiratory effort. I quickly checked for a heartbeat and it was strong! My teammate helped me clamp and cut the cord quickly and I ran with him to the NICU. My other teammate stayed with the mother to continue with the 3rd stage of delivery. 

When I arrived in the NICU no hospital staff were present. All the neonatal warmers had infants on them. I had to move a term baby to the side to make room for this preterm baby to be resuscitated. Based on the mother’s last menstrual period he was 25 weeks and 4 days. As I bagged this baby he started to gasp every 30 seconds with a stable heart beat but no spontaneous breathing. Before I could give a 5 min APGAR score my teammate who was with the mother was running into the NICU “saying there is a twin!!”. As I looked up I saw her holding another tiny, limp, preterm baby boy. I quickly made room for the twin on the warmer next to me. As I continued to bag baby A I coached my teammate on how to bag baby B as this was her first neonatal resuscitation. More people started coming into the NICU, some hospital staff and some of my other teammates. We were working together as a team to help these babies. We were praying out loud over these babies and crying out to God to help them!

 At one point I had the idea to connect the resuscitation bag to oxygen. I left my teammate bagging the baby as I dug through a bucket of reused tubing to find what we needed. We had to take oxygen off of another baby to attach it to the bag for the premature baby. After maybe 2-5 mins bagging with oxygen baby A pinked up and even started breathing on his own! I was in shock, but God was hearing our prayers. Baby B was still blue and not breathing so we switched the oxygen over to his resuscitation bag. The pediatrician arrived and started taking history and calling for a transfer to a higher level of care for both boys. We worked together to give the babies the best we had in that small NICU. Baby B’s color soon improved and he also started breathing on his own! The boys were opening their eyes and moving their hands spontaneously. We thanked God for hearing our prayers and the miracle of these premature babies breathing on their own! 

When we left that day, 2 hours past our shift, both boys were alive and doctors were continuing to care for them attentively until they could be transferred to another hospital.

The next day we went back to hear an update on how the twins did. We were so heartbroken to hear that neither of them survived the night. Baby B passed away before the transfer and baby A passed away 1 hour after the transfer to a better equipped hospital. The transfer took too long. I was so discouraged and deeply saddened by this news. 

I know we honored God by the way we cared for those babies, we gave them the best we could with what we had. These boys were prayed for in the powerful name of Jesus before they were delivered and from the moment they were born. I also find comfort knowing we gave Q the opportunity to meet her baby boys alive, her first born sons. She will never be the same, and neither will I. I believe God sent me and my team to be her birth attendants that day in the low resourced and understaffed hospital. In the 2 hours we spent resuscitating them more women delivered babies on the labor ward. These midwives have to choose who gets their attention. I am so honored and thankful my team could be there to help that day, we saw heaven come down and these babies breath on their own. 

The harsh reality of being chronically understaffed means patients die simply because no one is there to help. I have stood with midwives who talk about how challenging it is when there are 2 midwives on the unit to manage 30 deliveries. That is their every day reality, day in and day out. I was fighting back tears hearing the stress they endure every day and the passion they have to help mothers and babies but how limited they are. That is why we go to the places as trained birth attendants- to help and encourage in every way we can. That is why we are missionary birth attendants who trust God even when the outcomes are not what we hoped for. We are not a people who grieve without hope. 

“And now, dear brothers and sisters, we want you to know what will happen to the believers who have died so you will not grieve like people who have no hope. For since we believe that Jesus died and was raised to life again, we also believe that when Jesus returns, God will bring back with him the believers who have died.”

1 Thessalonians 4:13-14 NLT

To put it simply a birth attendant is there to help, there to help in the name of Jesus. Helping can look like so many different things and no day as a birth attendant looks the same as the last. 

It looks like assisting with three deliveries back to back to back. 

It looks like being the first one to congratulate a mother on the birth of her child. 

It looks like holding an 18 year old’s hand as she delivered her first baby stillborn all alone. It looks like wrapping the baby so the mother can see her child in a culture where that is not normal. 

It looks like staying with a woman in labor for hours. Encouraging her to breathe through every contraction, taking careful observations of her vital signs, and encouraging position changes and sips of water. 

It looks like connecting with the staff and hearing their stories and learning of the injustice in the medical community. 

It looks like fanning a woman in labor with no fetal heart rate, reading scripture over her, and playing worship music. 

It looks like sitting with a first time mom and teaching her how to breastfeed her new baby. 

It looks like taking lots of vital signs on a mother and a baby, being sure to alert staff if something is out of the ordinary. 

It looks like rubbing a mother’s back at the peak of a contraction and helping her clean up after the delivery. 

It looks like putting a hat on a baby and welcoming them into the world in the name of Jesus.

It looks like doing a simple healthcare teaching in a busy maternal child health clinic. 

It looks like doing antenatal checks for what feels like an endless stream of women. 

It looks like giving hundreds of vaccines to children under 5. 

Each day is different but every day it looks like prayer. Hours of prayer for life and for wholeness. Prayer for peace and strength for the mother. Prayers against the enemy and his plans for death and destruction. Prayers of encouragement and hope. Prayers that speak the powerful name of Jesus over every mother and child we meet. Through our prayers we see miracles every day. We see new life come into the world after being carefully knit together by a caring God in the unseen place of a women’s womb. Every life is a miracle that we grow accustomed to all too easily. As a birth attendant we see how fragile life really is and how every new life is a miracle from God. 

Recently I have been reflecting on Deuteronomy 7:22 that says “The Lord your God will drive those nations out ahead of you little by little. You will not clear them away all at once, otherwise the wild animals would multiply too quickly for you.”

The phrase that jumps out to me is “little by little”. The context of this verse is Moses encouraging the Israelites who are about to take the promised land that they had waited so long for. God chose to work through the little by little. Even after all the promises and waiting God choose for them to take the land little by little. 

 When we look at the growth of a new baby in the womb it’s little by little. A labor and delivery of a child is little by little. Each painful contraction bringing the baby closer to birth.  As a birth attendants we have seen how important little by little is, especially in 2nd stage of labor when the baby is crowning. The mother is in a lot of intense pain, but the slower she goes through that part of the delivery the less likely she is to tear. It is also better for the baby to come out little by little as the pressure on them help remove the fluid in their lungs before their first breath. 

The lord has been encouraging me in the little by little work he is doing in my life and all around me daily. I have a tendency to want to get something done as quick as possible but that’s not always how God works. The little by little might feel like nothing is happening but there is purpose in it, and our God never stops working. In this work as a birth attendant the need feels overwhelming. Each day on the labor ward feels like I can only help a little. I can only offer a little encouragement to mothers in labor. I can only offer a little kind word to a stressed coworker. I can only pray a little for the vast needs. I’ve been encouraged that God works in the little by little. 

Keep showing up, keep giving your little even when the need feels great. 

The real lasting work is in the little by little. 

God works in the little by little. 

We started the month discussing missions and hearing stories of missionaries who have gone before us. We learned about the Maravians from Germany who would pack their belongings in a coffin when they went out as missionaries. They did this because the probability of dying due to disease or illness was so high. What a sacrifice these people took in order to spread the gospel. It is humbling to think about how I am a Christian today because someone was willing to leave home to be a missionary. A missionary years ago shared Jesus with someone in my family and Christianity has been passed down for generations to me! 

We talked about how every Christian is called to hasten the day of Jesus’s return (2 Peter 3:12). The Church can hasten the day of Jesus’s return by sharing the hope of the gospel with every tribe, nation and tongue. As a born again believer we all have a call to share Jesus with whoever is around us. William Carey, a missionary to India, said “I’m not afraid of failure; I’m afraid of succeeding at things that don’t matter.” That quote stood out to me because I think it can be easy to get distracted from what God has asked me to do and waste time succeeding at the wrong things. We also heard stories about Hudson Taylor, a missionary to China and Amy Carmichael’s work in India. Inspired by the stories of these missionaries we packed our bags and boarded our flight to Africa. 

The past 5 months of lectures have been preparing us for this outreach in Africa. We landed in Zambia one week ago and hit the ground running. We have been adjusting to the new culture and standard of living. I have spent three days in the labor ward at a small clinic in a poor part of the city. I have had the honor of being a part of three deliveries and have already delivered my first baby! I am learning so much being on the unit. Practicing finding the fetal heart rate with a pinnard stethoscope and charting assessments on the partogram. I’m also slowly building relationships with the midwives and nurses who run the clinic.

 The mothers here are so strong, about 15 minutes after the baby is born they are up and walking to the postnatal ward. Each mother is responsible to bring their own supplies, the clinic provides nothing. They pack their own cord clamps and a blade to cut the cord. They bring their own blankets for their bed and to wrap their baby in. It is quite humbling how much we have readily available in the hospitals in The West. Although the lack of resources is shocking, I am so honored to be with the mothers. I have gotten to encourage them, pray for them, and be one of the first people to welcome their new baby. 

Being a birth attendant has been more challenging than I anticipated. Physically the conditions are sub optimal, emotionally it has been a lot to process as well. We are with women on some of the hardest days of their life and that takes a toll. Continue to pray for me and my team as we serve in these low resourced clinics. I believe God has equipped and called my team to be here, but the work is taxing. If our first week is any indication of what the next 7 weeks hold, we are in for a fruitful time in Zambia! 

The last four weeks of lectures we have been equipped practically. We have covered topics including eclampsia, malaria in pregnancy, newborn resuscitation, and postpartum hemorrhage, all in the context of the low-resourced setting. We have also discussed how to respond in the more rare circumstances of a shoulder dystocia, cord prolapse, and uterine rupture. We have taken time to discuss how to process when a baby or mother doesn’t survive, as that is a harsh reality of the work we will be a part of as birth attendants. Prayer and the hope of Jesus is the most powerful tool we will take on outreach with us. We have been poured into by women and men who are experts in their field and who have worked in the low-resourced setting for decades. I have felt honored to hear their stories and to get to sit under their teachings. As a class we feel well equipped to start attending births and have spent hours in prayer and intercession for this outreach.

(Practicing how to respond if a mother has an eclamptic seizure)

We have already seen God’s faithfulness in our finances for this trip. As a team, we needed to raise over $75,000 AUD to go to Africa. As of this week God has provided all of the needed finances and our flights have been purchased. As God has been faithful to our team up until this point we know He will continue to be faithful every step of the way.

This month I got to share with my classmates on the topic of God as a promise keeper. Through personal study and time with God I have come to know God as a trustworthy promise keeper and it’s shown all throughout scripture. We see God keep His promises to Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and all of Israel. When we read in Exodus 6:6-8 God is talking to Moses using many “I will” statements “Therefore, say to the people of Israel: ‘I am the Lord. I will free you from your oppression and will rescue you from your slavery in Egypt. I will redeem you with a powerful arm and great acts of judgment. I will claim you as my own people, and I will be your God. Then you will know that I am the Lord your God who has freed you from your oppression in Egypt. I will bring you into the land I swore to give to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. I will give it to you as your very own possession. I am the Lord!”

If you know how the rest of the story goes you know that God is good on all of these promises! If God was good on these major “I will” statements won’t He continue to be good on His promises today? When I read verses like Psalms 126:5 “Those who plant in tears will harvest with shouts of joy.” I can stand on it as a promise. God is saying that because I have sowed tears He will bring the harvest of joy- its a promise! It is not something we have to wonder about because He has promised it to us. Thank you Jesus! When you read your Bible, look for the promises/”I will” statements God is making to you, and let them encourage you. I believe God wants us to catch the promises He is making to us in scripture and live from a place of confidence in Him as the promise keeper.

A testimony of God turning my tears into joy recently. When I lived in Texas, long before moving to Australia for missions was a thought in my mind, I applied to be a home visiting nurse to support new mothers in my city. The interview went well and I felt called to the work, but I did not get hired. I was disappointed and confused but moved on to become a lactation consultant instead (which I LOVE). This week I got to be a part of a ministry with YWAM Perth that visits new postpartum mothers in the city. I got to hold her newborn twins while she ran errands and took time for herself. It was such a special time to serve her. God reminded me in those quiet moment how I had dreamed of doing this in Texas but God did more than I ever could have imagined. He moved me to the other side of the world to visit new mothers in Australia and with the freedom to share Jesus and pray with the mothers. It ended up being her birthday- her 1st birthday as a mum (your aussie slang of the month). We got to pray blessings over her in this new season of her life. God is so kind and in all of the details of our lives.

Australia is still such a fun place to explore and I’m soaking up all the summer sun. I got to meet the Quokkas of Rottnest Island this month and they were so cute!

This is my last update from Australia as this time next month my team and I will be in Zambia! Thank you for every prayers, I feel each one.

This month’s lectures included Fear of the Lord, Postnatal Care & Breastfeeding, and Maternal Health in a Developing Country. Even more important than having practical skills to serve women during their birth, we want to be birth attendants who fear God. We spent a whole week learning about what it means to fear God. We learned how our design is to live in close intimacy with God, and that living in the fear of the Lord means not allowing anything in the world to get in the way of our intimacy with God. Ridding our lives of sin, habits, and situations that draw us away from God. As followers of a holy God, our obedience to leave sin draws us closer to Him and as we draw closer we want more and more. Closeness with God is what we were all created for.

As most of y’all know, I’ve been a postpartum nurse for the last 4 years and a lactation consultant the last year. Needless to say I was excited for the week on postpartum care and breastfeeding. I was given time to share with my classmates from my studies as a lactation consultant. I had so much fun planning the teaching and educating my classmates.

When I started studying to be an international lactation consultant I had no idea how quickly God would put me in the nations to teach. I had the opportunity to educate birth attendants from the US, Canada, Europe, and Australia how to support breastfeeding moms in Africa! God really does multiply our small obedience.

In our final week of lecture for the year, we discussed how poor women have negative health outcomes due to lack of education. The importance of simple healthcare teachings for women in low resourced countries can be the difference between life and death for a young mom and a new baby. We took time practicing educating on complex topics in simple ways. Topics like breastfeeding attachments, nutrition during pregnancy, and weaning from milk to baby’s 1st foods. We were challenged to tie in the gospel into our simple health care teaching as well. Our focus is to equip mothers to stay healthy and keep their babies healthy, while sharing the everlasting hope of Jesus. We took time to pray over the mothers and babies whom previous birth attendants from our program helped deliver. Careful records of each name have been kept, and it was emotional unrolling the list and being overwhelmed with all God has done since this training program started in 1997. What a legacy!

Outside of class this month my classmates and I took a camping trip down south to get out of the city and explore more of Australia. We encountered kangaroos on our way to the campsite and were woken up early by some exotic bird calls. We enjoyed picnics by the crystal-clear water, and a sausage sizzle watching the sunset over rock formations by the sea.

I was so blessed to get to travel back to the states to be with my family for Christmas and New Years. It’s rare when my family gets to all be in one place since me and my youngest brother are both in missions full time. I love getting to reconnect with my parents who are my biggest supporters, watch my brother be a loving husband and attentive father to my two adorable niece, and my youngest brother be an uncle! We are richly blessed.

2025 has been an incredible year of dreams coming true and God being so faithful to His promises to me. Even still I know the best is yet to come, Happy New Year!

Exodus 1: 17 “But because the midwives feared God, they refused to obey the king’s orders. They allowed the boys to live, too.”

This month YWAM International released a film about what has been going on in Nigeria, Africa. It tells an incredible story of how God is moving in Nigeria because of missionaries and their willingness to go to the dark and dangerous places. After crying my way through this film I am more sure than ever that full time missions is what I want to pour my life out for. I encourage you to make time to watch the free film and be encouraged how God is moving in some of the hardest places. Let these testimonies inspire your prayer life and prayers for my team heading to Africa in three months.

Every Friday we get to be involved with ministry here in Perth, Australia. This month we have been blessed to get to do door to door Bible distribution. Over the years I have had the privilege of doing Bible distribution in the States, and in remote Mongolia with my family. I love getting to take the living word of God right to people’s door step here in Australia. After many harsh responses and rejections we met Yana. We almost skipped her house because it had construction signs out front. Yana is from China and shared that she was here for nursing school. I got to share with her that I am a nurse and encourage her in school. She was reluctant to receive another book to read while overwhelmed by school. I told her the Bible was my favorite book and she received it and began thumbing through the pages. She read the title “Holy Bible?” out loud like she had never heard of such a book. I asked her if she had heard of the Bible before and she said no. I got to tell her about Jesus and how much He loves her. She allowed me to pray over her and she shared how encouraged she felt after the prayer. Do you remember the first time you held a Bible?

I pray when you read your Bible next you reflect on what a gift it is to have a Bible and know the hope of Jesus. If you don’t have a Bible I would love to get you one, it will change your life! Pray for Yana as she has the word of God in her hands and we know from Isaiah 55:11, when God’s word goes out it always produces fruit.

Aussie slang of the month: Sausage Sizzle/ Snag

A sausage sizzle is grilling out hot dogs, they call the hot dog a snag. We experienced a classic sausage sizzle on the beach for YWAM Perth founder’s 74th birthday. Aussies love to put a lot (and I mean A LOT) of onions on their snags. I was shocked at the onion consumption.

As we come to the end of 2025 I want to ask you to prayerfully consider a tax free donation towards my fees for outreach to serve the poor in Africa. I am so humbled and thankful for every dollar donated. Every donation will go directly towards serving vulnerable mothers and babies in Africa.

Merry Christmas and Blessings to you all!

https://www.equipnet.org/missionaries/mhenderson

When I first arrived in Perth the scripture from Exodus 3:4 was given to me. The verse says “When the Lord saw Moses coming to take a closer look, God called to him from the middle of the bush, ‘Moses! Moses!’, ‘Here I am!” Moses replied.” This is when Moses saw the burning bush in the wilderness and was ultimately called by God to rescue a nation out of slavery. Since being in Perth my heart posture says “Here I am”, all in for whatever God asks me to do.

Being all in here at YWAM Peth has looked like full days. We spend hours a week in worship and intercession, lectures, serving in the base kitchen, and completing homework assignments. Being all in has also looked like going out for evangelism in the city center, joining a local gym, and getting plugged in with a local church.

One of the impactful lectures we have had so far discussed God’s heart for maternal health. We gained a new perspective on why people aren’t successful or die. Poverty, powerlessness, lack of education, and lack of resources lead to death in the nations. As a result a million children are left motherless each year. The statistics are heart breaking and clear that much can be done to help women and children stuck in poverty. Each of us have a part to play in breaking this cycle.

We watched an eye opening video breaking down what leads to maternal death. It’s more than just the medical diagnosis or what is charted as her cause of death. The disparity starts long before she even gets pregnant. We learned how poor nutrition in early childhood can cause anemia that will persist throughout her life. We learned of the social injustice that happens when people are in desperate poverty situations. Would you take time to watch the video and let your eyes be opened as well?

What part will you play in helping break these cycles for so many women in poor countries? I am so moved and thankful that because of my support system I get to go serve these women face to face.

Outside of class and sight seeing, going to church has been something I really look forward to. The church I am attending is Holy Spirit lead and passionate. The church has been so welcoming, going as far as paying for an uber for us to join a small group. On our uberride to small group we got to share the gospel and discuss Jesus with our Pakistani driver, he was very open and asked to stay connected. Pray that God would guide me in connecting with him and showing Jesus’s love. We know as believers that its the loving kindness of Jesus that draws us to Himself.

Aussie slang of the month: Brekkie sanga

I was explaining to one of the other Australian YWAM students what a Jimmy Dean breakfast sandwich was and that I couldn’t find anything like it here. It was because I wasn’t calling it the right thing. Its not a breakfast sandwich, but a brekkie sanga. Someone enjoy a Jimmy Dean brekkie sanga for me ;)

Prayer requests: Outreach fees, and adjusting

I am needing to raise $6,500 to go to Africa next year on outreach. God has been faithful to get me here to be trained and I’m trusting Him to get me to the nations to serve.

I am living in a dorm again with people from all over the world, its beautiful but also stretching. I’m finding it difficult to get alone time to recharge. Prayers for creative ways to get alone with the Lord while living in a vibrant Christian community.

Here I am! And its only just begun!

Today is the day! I am uploading this post from the airport on my journey to Perth, Australia! I wanted to share a testimony of how God has shown His kindness and goodness to me this week.

In January I knew I would be attending the BAS starting October 5th. Also in January I got the news that my sister in law was pregnant and was also due on October 5th! I was so surprised and almost instantly concerned I wouldn’t get to meet my new niece until she was almost a year old. At that time I began praying that she would be born before I left for Australia and that this birth would be redeeming for my sweet sister in law. Prayerfully I purchased my one way ticket to Perth for October 1st. The flight on the 30th was slightly cheaper but I didn’t have peace about it and I trusted that feeling. I planned to spend my last 2 weeks in the states with my brother, pregnant sister in law, 18 month old niece, and my parents in Virginia, all the while praying the baby would come early.

I arrived in Virginia mid September, at my sister in law’s doctor’s appointment on September 25th the OB stated there was no sign of an early delivery. I made peace with having to leave without meeting my niece but kept my hopes up. Early in the morning on September 28th my sister in law went into labor! All day she labored and progressed steadily without a pitocin drip, another answer to prayers. My sister in law invited me to be in the delivery room for the birth of my second niece and it was the most special experience of my life.

I have had the honor of being in the room for many deliveries as a nurse, but I will never forget this one. I cherish the moments I saw my sister in law dig deep and give it everything she had. Watching my brother catch the baby and hearing her first cry was a holy moment. I felt at home being in the delivery room and helping the nurses with assessments and feedings. When everything had calmed down and my sister in law was being tended to by her nurse. I got to swaddle my baby niece and rock her in the chair. In that quiet moment I felt the goodness of God. As tears streamed down my face I reflected on all the answered prayers. God heard my hearts cry to meet this baby and He came through in His perfect timing. I felt so seen and treasured by the Lord.

Since I booked my flight on October 1st rather than September 30th I got to be there when my niece came home from the hospital too! With a full heart, and my faith emboldened I am stepping into this new season. Here I am Lord, send me!

What an honor it is to live in relationship with the God sovereign over all things. Who are we that He hears our prayers? Who are we that He answers our prayers? He longs to hear your heart’s cry, so tell him!

Isaiah 65:1 NLT

“The Lord says, “I was ready to respond, but no one asked for help. I was ready to be found, but no one was looking for me. I said, ‘Here I am, here I am!’ to a nation that did not call on my name.”

“I will answer them before they even call to me. While they are still talking about their needs, I will go ahead and answer their prayers!”

‭‭Isaiah‬ ‭65‬:‭24‬ ‭NLT‬‬

Subscribe now

I am headed to the land down under

I am excited to announce that I will be stepping into global Christian missions full-time, with Youth With A Mission (YWAM) by attending the Birth Attendant School (BAS) in Perth, Australia this October!

A little about me

If you don’t know me well, I love babies and Jesus. If you do know me well, you’d agree that sentence sums me up quite well. I have loved babies for as long as I can remember. My most prized possessions as a young girl were my baby dolls. I loved working in the church nursery and I attended the babysitters certification through the Red Cross as soon as I was old enough. In high school I enjoyed my anatomy and physiology class which prompted me to pursue a degree in nursing. After obtaining my Bachelor's of Science Degree in Nursing, I quickly found my passion as a mother/baby nurse. The last 4 years I have loved taking care of mothers and babies right after delivery. I cherish the moments of hearing a newborn’s first cry and giving them their first bath — all while walking alongside parents, helping them learn how to care for their precious new baby. Most recently, I obtained an international board certification as a Lactation Consultant to help moms and babies navigate feedings in the 1st year and beyond.

Most importantly, I came to know Jesus at a young age and knew I was called to live for Him for the rest of my life. I grew up being inspired by stories of missionaries taking the hope of the gospel all over the globe. I was blessed to go on many short term missions trips throughout school, but I knew I was called to full time missions one day. My plan was to go into missions full time right out of high school. I did pursue missions for a year after high school graduation and then I felt God ask me to go to college and gain experience as a nurse. My dreams of being a full time missionary were slowly pushed to the back of my mind as I got deeper into my nursing career. I was content with my life in East Texas and fulfilled in the work I did as a postpartum nurse, until I came across the Birth Attendant School.

A little about the Birth Attendant School

When I heard about the BAS with YWAM it felt like the school was made for me. It combines the two things I love and am passionate about. The training in Perth will equip me to provide practical support for mothers and babies in low income countries. The BAS has a strong focus on intercessory prayer and evangelism as we walk with women through their pregnancy, labor, delivery, and postpartum season. After 5 months of training in Perth, we will be going to Zambia and Tanzania, Africa to begin attending births for 4 months. We will serve women in urban hospitals as well as rural villages. From a practical standpoint, studies show that women in lower income countries who have a trained birth attendant at their delivery have better outcomes than those without a birth attendant. The goal of this school is to provide safe deliveries and decrease deaths. Even more importantly there are still people in this world who don’t know the hope of salvation in Jesus Christ. I feel called to meet both the physical need as well as the spiritual need.

How you can partner with me

I can't pursue the ministry I feel called to on my own. I'm inviting anyone who is passionate about ensuring women in developing nations have access to a trained birth attendant during childbirth — and anyone who is passionate about sharing the gospel — to partner with me through prayer and financial support.

As I take this step of faith into full time missions, I want to be ready for whatever God says to do next - even if that means staying longer than the 9 month program. Monthly supporters would be the best way for me to achieve that goal. I know God will lead my steps and provide just like He always has, and I want to give you the opportunity to sow into this kingdom ministry with me. Please follow the link below to my donation platform at https://www.equipnet.org/missionaries/mhenderson . Thank you for subscribing to this newsletter to stay up to date on my ministry as well as ongoing prayer requests.