Pizza is wonderful bait for catching university
students! Never fails! We went through 50 pizzas over two nights to
feed almost 80 final-year animal health students. As part of the CVM short-term mission trip I
host each year, we offered two Tuesday evening review sessions last month with
pizza working like a charm. It is always
fun to bless the students not only with academic help, but also with good food
and lots of laughter. This year, the
students requested topics including hematology (evaluating blood cells) and
round cell tumors.
On the Saturday in between, we offered
extra-curricular suturing practicals for a portion of the class. This is a skill that isn’t included in their
course, but it is always a big hit. They
really enjoy getting the chance to learn how to handle the instruments and
perform a few simple suture patterns. I
usually pick up trotters (pig’s feet) at the local butchery as the skin isn’t
too thick or difficult to use and utilize donated expired suture so there is no
cost for the students. One year several
of the students took the trotter home afterwards for a stew!
Having the team visit was also a good excuse to
organize another rabies vaccine outreach with the students and the local
SPCA. We visited a village about 10
minutes south of Mahikeng and had our busiest clinic yet! Nearly 100 dogs vaccinated in just 4
hours. We even had to send the van
driver to bring more vaccines!
All-in-all, the two weeks of the short-term team flew
by. This month, our Acts 29 witnessing
team students are preparing for our spring break outreach, which will once
again be in the country of Lesotho. We
will be joining with a local ministry for the week in serving children
head-of-households and encouraging Christian college students toward campus
evangelism in the capital city of Maseru.
What is my most important responsibility for the outreach? Keeping the team supplied with cookies of
course! At least, that is what the
students tell me :) Good thing I’ve got
10 pounds of Costco chocolate chips in my fridge! After all, chocolate chip cookies work almost
as well as pizza!