Afghanistan has the second highest maternal death rate at 1900 maternal deaths per 100,000 live births ~

For the past 2 weeks we, as a student body, have had the priviledge of hosting Sharon - a previous intern at Mercy Maternity Clinic who now lives and works in Afghanistan. This link will take you to her blog [http://www.xanga.com/moshdeh] where you can read her thoughts on her trip to the Philippines, as well as more of what she does with life. After 2 grueling student groups (haha, they weren't ALL that bad) Matt, our director, had us raising hands to show interest in pioneering a new clinic starting up on the outskirts of Kabul, the capital of Afghanistan. Together, with Sharon in the lead, my school Newlife wants to send 4 or 5 midwives there :| Matt is going to start a new sending agency for the missionaries/students he has here to be able to send them out into the world to do good work.

oh MY.

He keeps saying, you've gotta go where God is working...Sharon is an incredible individual who has been a missionary in Afghanistan for quite sometime, working in the hospital there, heading up divisions of the hospital not yet established, etc. I can't ever imagine being so strong as to do something like that. [good thing God uses the weak and disabled..] ANYways. this is what has been filling my thoughts lately. Afghanistan is in serious need of caring midwives. Please pray for this whole situation. They're setting up a little exploratory excursion on oct/nov. to acutally go into the country, be submersed in the culture, and pick a spot for the clinic. They want it to be up and running by Sept.'08 (how conVENient...i'll have jUSt graduated!) I most likely will not be going this fall - money doesn't seem to grow on palm trees quite the same as thoses maples back home. But it's fun to daydream!