Divine Intervention

It was not the end of our world but it sure felt like it.  “I have decided that I need to resign and move to Lilongwe.”   This decision by our Nurse, Anna Kamanga, felt like a tsunami surging over our Crisis Nursery, threatening it’s very foundations.  Anna has served as the Mzuzu Crisis Nursery Nurse since it’s early beginnings.  She has been our rock.  A quiet, competent, compassionate professional, Anna seemed to us irreplaceable.  She was an expert on treating Malaria.  She has invaluable contacts with the local hospitals, medical officers, and police.  And, perhaps above all, she had become a dear friend.

What would we do?  Where could we turn?  Emotionally I was progressing from grief, through anxiety, to outright panic.  An advertisement in the newspaper and an announcement at church brought only one response.  A young woman phoned to say she was interested in the position.   When asked about her education she replied that she had none but she would really like to be a nurse.

Just a few weeks before Anna was to officially resign and depart for Lilongwe, an old friend whom she hadn‘t seen in years, “happened” to stop by her house for a visit.  When Joyce Nyasulu learned of Anna’s plans she mentioned that she herself was thinking of resigning her current position (which involved a lot of travel) and returning home to Mzuzu if she could find the right job.

Two weeks ago Joyce joined the Mzuzu Crisis Nursery Team and we are thrilled.  Joyce has a BSN from Howard University in the US.  She is familiar with the area and has contacts everywhere.  And she has a wonderful way about her. Anna was here for Joyce’s first week of orientation and now she has moved on to Lilongwe to share her skills with Ministry of Hope’s Mobile Medical Clinic.  Joyce is here functioning in a most efficient, competent and pleasant way.

Far be it from us to comprehend the ways of the Lord.  But from everything we can discern, our new nurse is what can best be described as a God-send!