My Journey

My journey to Tenwek has been months in the making.  Last fall, I started thinking and praying about a short term mission trip and where God would lead me to go.  Kristen had just returned from her trip to Togo, and she told me about conversations she had with the local missionaries.  They were very excited to hear about my IT skills, and they told her how much I could be used in Africa.  This really was an eye-opener to me.  I had always heard of missionaries going to spread the Gospel or performing medical missions in Africa, but I never really thought of Africa as a place that needed IT or IT missionaries.  I had several conversations with mission organizations in the following months, and found that IT is very much in need in Africa.  Shortly after New Years, I started looking at various mission and local church websites for opportunities.  I talked with missions organizations about the possibility of going to South America or Africa.  Throughout the next couple of months, I would have opportunities to go to several places.  My two most promising opportunities were to go to Zambia or Mozambique.  Both of these locations were great opportunities, but neither seemed to be the right fit.  I was looking for a third world country where I could use my IT skills in a hospital.  Tenwek was just what I was looking for, and God presented the opportunity at just the right time.  I will spend two weeks helping the hospital with a large upgrade to their IT infrastructure and implementation of an electronic medical records system.