
BY JENNIFER KINLAW
When the Lord led us to Tanzania six-and-a-half years ago, I never thought I’d end up working in a local hospital. Maybe it was more that I hoped the Lord wouldn’t ask me to. It had been almost 20 years since I’d earned my bachelor’s in nursing, and I hadn’t practiced in a long time. The vast health-care differences in this developing country, on top of working in a different language, Swahili, were enough to scare me away.
A dream deferred
The Lord gave me a passion for babies long before I can remember, and although He did not lead me into labor and delivery straight out of nursing school, the dream stayed in my heart. I buried it when my husband, John, and I started having our own children and then especially after we moved to Tanzania. I missed nursing but became content in the role of stay-at-home mother.
All that changed about two years ago when we heard that one of our Tanzanian friends was pregnant with twins. We were excited for her family but also cautious: not only do twin pregnancies carry a greater risk, but she had already lost a seemingly healthy newborn two years before. We rejoiced with the family when we heard that the mother had safely delivered healthy twin boys. The babies were crying, nursing, and doing everything expected of newborns. The parents were elated. But our joy turned to sorrow when both babies died the next night due to unknown reasons. (It may have been from sepsis, but no one will ever know since autopsies aren’t done here.) Six other babies died on the ward that night.
Questions and answers
That tragedy began my nursing journey in Tanzania. Overcome with grief, I cried out to the Lord with questions flooding my mind: How could this happen? This is crazy! Why did they die? Lord, what can I do to help keep this from happening so often?
I knew that without an active US nursing license, I could not do anything, but John and I continued praying, despite my initial fear of navigating the health-care differences in a developing world. I began researching what it would take to reactivate my license, and it looked doable until I realized I would have to do a few months of clinical work in the US. Since our teenage son was studying in Kenya at the time, John would need to stay in Tanzania in case of an emergency. Certainly, I thought, the Lord would not ask me to do that—that’s unreasonable.
I tried to forget the whole thing, but I couldn’t. The Lord began speaking to me from all different directions, including our ladies’ Bible study, the preacher I listened to in the mornings, and my own quiet time.
Finally, the Lord spoke to me through a radio sermon from In Touch Ministries.1 The preacher, Dr. Charles Stanley, encouraged listeners struggling to commune with the Lord to consider the last thing God had told them to do. Their relationship wouldn’t be restored until they obeyed. Dr. Stanley also pointed out the temptation to tell the Lord that we’re available but then close off an area to Him. That hit me hard!
I realized that although I had learned not to tell the Lord I wouldn’t do something, I had said in my heart out of fear, I do not want to work in a hospital here. So, with trepidation, I re-surrendered to the Lord. I committed to do whatever He wanted, even if it meant working here and temporarily splitting up my family while I obtained the necessary experience in the US first.
A learning curve and ministry opportunities
I completed the online bookwork for the renewal course, and then, in February 2023, my two daughters and I set off for the US so I could complete the clinical requirements. I had never traveled internationally without John, but the Lord gave me much peace.
After returning from the US three months later, I began the process of getting licensed in Tanzania. No other CMML missionary in Tanzania had worked as a nurse here, so the process was new to us all. We ended up hiring a lawyer to help with the paperwork, and by January 2024, I was ready to start.
I now work two days per week in the labor and delivery ward of Kigoma Baptist Hospital, which has the most deliveries of any clinic or hospital in our region—at least 350 per month. I quickly realized I needed to learn a whole new set of Swahili terminology for the hospital, so every time I heard a new word, I wrote it down and studied it later. Initially, the work was awkward and exhausting. However, I knew the Lord wanted me there, and He gave me the strength and grace I needed for each day.
Now, I can say that I love working with the women here. It’s raw and so different from working in the US, but I get to help the women in their most vulnerable time. They usually don’t have any family with them during the delivery, there’s no pain medication, and they have no one to tell them, “You’re doing a great job!”
I get to pray with many of the women and minister to them in ways I could never otherwise. Often, after a woman delivers, she looks me in the eyes and says, “Thank you so much—thank you!” I pray that they see Jesus Christ’s love in me and that the Lord will water and nurture the seeds planted in their hearts.
The Lord’s path forward
Each week, as I work with Tanzanian nurses and doctors to help deliver healthy babies and prevent unnecessary deaths, I am aware of the lack of resources and personnel. The Lord has shown me the need to further my education to serve women and their families more effectively. Lord willing, I plan to start an online certified nurse midwifery course this month. I would appreciate prayer for this endeavor as I will juggle home life, my hospital work, and online study.
I recently told a friend that what I once feared, the Lord knew would be the perfect fit for me. Truly, He does not call the equipped; He equips the called. I’m excited about all the Lord is doing and continue to follow Him as He gently leads me onward into His perfect plans.
Jennifer and John Kinlaw are commended from North Ridge Bible Chapel in Raleigh, North Carolina.
Originally published in Missions magazine, July 2024. For more content, sign up for a free subscription (US) to Missions at CMML.us/magazine/subscribe