I had just sat down on one of the mattresses in the common area of where we live to watch an episode of “The Office” with some of the girls. I had never seen it before, and thought a little mid-day bonding over popcorn and a show sounded pretty good.
Five minutes into the show, William and Matt walked in the room and asked the question… “Are there any girls who would want to go with Pastor Gift to deliver a baby?”
I think after the initial shock wore off… I jumped up faster than I ever had before. I looked at Erin who had also jumped up and started pumping my fists in the air and screaming with so much excitement. Within a few moments, six of us girls were piled into White Chocolate (the old white van we drive around) and ready to go. 
We picked the mother up from her home. Her name is Gamane. She was already in a lot of pain and could barely walk. This is her story: Her mother was a prostitute, so she is a direct product of that lifestyle. Her mother was born again and now looks down upon her daughter, disowning her because of the lifestyle that SHE has now chosen… the life of a prostitute. Gamane, only 25 years old, is now pregnant with her 5th child, and has no idea who the father is. She is HIV positive, and has no money or food for the baby. 
So we get her into WC (White Chocolate), and started comforting her.

Her contractions were getting closer and closer together. Kel started to time them, and they were about 1 minute 45 seconds apart. Kimi checked and said she wasn’t that far along, and literally 30 seconds later, I look down… and see half of the baby’s head!
Every one screamed “THE BABY IS COMING!” and hardly even 10 seconds later.. the whole baby was out. It happened so fast! 
Pastor Gift was yelling to us to shut the windows, and wrap the baby up. We didn’t have anything! Luckily, Hannah had decided to layer that day (so fashionable, that girl). So she took off one of her shirts and we wrapped the baby up.
A girl. A beautiful, beautiful baby girl.
I was crying. Bawling. Harder than the baby. It was the most beautiful… disgusting… thing I had ever seen.

A few minutes later, we pulled over on the side of the road. There was no buildings around us, no people… just cows. A lot of mountains, and a lot of cows.
We had a flat tire.

Pastor Gift changed the tire… with a tire that was even more flat than the one that was on it before. We tried to flag a couple cars down, but no one would stop.. so we did the only thing we could do.. we drove. Welcome to Africa, friends.
From the moment we puledl out,  you could see the lines from the rim of the tire grinding into the asphalt. 15 minutes later, we arrived at the hospital and handed them over to some professional care.
She is HIV positive, so she can not breastfeed. We walked to the store and got some milk. Gamane asked who was singing to her in the car. I told her that I was. She said that she didn’t know what was going on around her, and that all she could hear was the song, and that it helped her through everything. I cried again. We prayed over Gamane and Hope. We prayed for her little life… for God to invade her heart, then said our goodbyes. We couldn’t fix the tire, which was shredded at this point, so we hitched a ride in the back of a truck and headed home. 

I don’t really understand it all. Life. Death. Struggles. Victory. Hardships.
 But I do know… God… is in the midst of it. Of it ALL.
He was there. He is there. He sees Gamane. He sees Hope. He loves them. He has a plan. A purpose. He does for everyone.
We are blessed.
Because we are alive.
And we have Him.