Here's Life Mission Africa
Tuesday, January 12, 2010

     Lots of prayer! It took lots of prayer," RN Jacque Johnson explained. "God was working on me to get me involved in this mission." It was an answer to the question, "How did you get involved with 'Here's Life Mission Africa' (HLMA)?" Jacque Johnson (Silverhill) joined fellow RN Dana Smith (Fairhope) in a medical and Gospel trip to Tanzania where Maassi and Swahili were the languages of choice. They joined in both medical mission and bush-screening of the "Jesus Film."

     RN Jacque Johnson (Silverhill) discussed her recent Gospel and medical endeavors in Tanzania with the "Jesus Film" at the February breakfast and speaker fellowship at Zion Lutheran Church. She was joined by fellow RN, Dana Smith (Fairhope).

     "My family was not convinced about this kind of African mission work. I recognized that 'our days are numbered' and God is ultimately in control. We came to the point where we were in agreement that God would use my work in this program." The trip took place this past summer in conjunction with the ministry of Church of the Eastern Shore.

     RN Jacque Johnson set up a table of Tanzanian artifacts for display at Zion Lutheran Church's "Men's 710" which hosted Johnson for its breakfast. She is holding a Maasai garment. She is reaching for a hammer-club to show to her father, Steve Vasko (l).

     "It was harder than I thought," Johnson explained. "I never went camping, and we were camping for our whole time there! We would begin our day with breakfast and worship with local Christians and then begin clinic activities, sometimes with miles to travel to the clinic site. By late day, we would travel to remote sites to show the Jesus film. We would cross empty land, set up for the movie, and people would show up from seemingly nowhere. People were so hungry for hope."

     "That Tanzanian garment fits like so," RN Jacque Johnson explains to a volunteer at the breakfast. The volunteer is "good ol' mom," Becky Vasko.

     "We collected medications here in Baldwin--there were many hours in preparation for the relatively few days we had in Tanzania. We found that 80% of the people there had malaria. There was TB. Much of what we did was very basic health care," Johnson noted.

     "Sharing the Gospel was our main goal, just like it is in our new clinic opening in our Church of the Eastern Shore called 'Hope Center.' HLMA and our goal as a church is to spread the Word about Jesus," Dana Smith shared.