Happy News!

I'm going to join the land of the living again! I have been tentatively offered a position on the day shift within the same unit at the hospital where I work. This has been my desire for over a year now as I would love to be awake when normal people are awake and sleep while it's truly dark outside. The night shift has been pretty hard on my body and I sincerely respect all those grave-yard shift workers. There is a good reason why they get a shift differential pay!

One of the reasons why this will make my life so much easier is because I will be more available to do deputation stuff, like visit churches and small groups. I look forward to meeting folks and getting the word out there about this little birthing clinic in Manila. I've loved who God has brought into my life thus far and am excited about who is still to cross my path.

Time to hit the books again! --->
Another reason why I am excited about this move to days is that this fall I will be taking the last two classes I need to complete my second bachelors, this time in nursing. This is a huge blessing as the classes were full and wait-listed. However, God saw fit to allow me into the classes and I am truly grateful. Not sure how I will feel when I am waist-deep into a research paper, but I will try to remember my gratefulness. :)

This weekend is a bittersweet one for me. One of my dearest friends and roommate is leaving early Monday morning to teach at a missionary kid school in Rwanda for a year. I am super excited for her as this will be an awesome experience, but I'm going to miss her like crazy! We've had so much fun through our college days until now, nearly 10 years. However, I'm thankful for technology and gchat, something I'm no stranger to as I've lived across the ocean from family and friends most of my life. If you would like to follow this sweet woman of God, her blog is: jennatKICS.blogspot.com.

Thanks again for your prayers. I feel somewhat like a broken record thanking you again and again for your prayers, but I am humbly aware that without them, I would be never be considering a move across the ocean to serve the poor and vulnerable young families in Manila. I never take your prayers for granted!

Discouragement and Trust

I'm not gonna lie. There are times when I get very discouraged during this whole fundraising process. It seems like it's all about the money. If I just had 100% support, then I could board a plane in a matter of weeks and be where I want to be right now. I have about 25% of my monthly budget raised, but that means I still have 75% to go.

Right now, all signs seem to point to a December departure: a vehicle is likely available for 1/2 the cost of what I was expecting to pay but only if I get there in December, my lease is up where I'm living now in December, and my airline frequent flyer status expires (which allows an additional 40lbs of luggage). But a December departure means I have to 100% of my monthly support in November. That's less than 5 little months to raise about $2000 of monthly support!

However, I know that this time of deputation is about more than just money; it's about trusting and believing God. Period. If I can't trust Him now, when all my needs are being met, how in the world is it going to work when I'm on the field and thousands of miles away from those who are partnering with this ministry?

My prayer for this season of life is to become like Paul as he wrote to the Philippian church: "I am not saying this because I am in need, for I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. I can do everything through him who gives me strength" (Phil 4:11-13, NKJV).

If you think of it, please pray for trust in my heart that God will bring the necessary growth and funds to get me to the field in His timing, not my own.

First fruits and quilts

In my quest to read through the Bible this year, I've been reintroduced to the beauty of the Old Testament historical books. One thing that has convicted me time and again is that God unequivocally commanded His people to give of their first fruits, their very best, in offering to the Lord (Ex 34:19-20, 35:5-9 are just two examples). My parents taught me to always set aside the tithe of my finances to the Lord first, and then divide the rest up in my budget, something I try (but don't always succeed) to do. However, what about other forms of tithes and offerings? I'm so guilty of handing God my leftovers, my scraps when it comes to my talents and time. For example, I only sign up for service projects if I have time leftover in my week from work, spending time with friends, watching my favorite TV shows, and sleeping. Or when was the last time I heard of a need for clothes for a friend or acquaintance and rather than dig through my overflowing closet for my rejects went to the department store and bought a new outfit to give?
Last August, I made a survey trip to Manila to scope out what my ministry was to be. Before I went, I talked to the missions pastor of my church about taking donated clothes for the new babies at the birthing clinic. She suggested I take baby quilts, lovingly made by a wonderful group of ladies in the church. When I saw the quilts, my heart melted. They were beautiful! I knew that these moms who lived in squalid conditions would never have the opportunity to own something as precious as this but for the generosity of some ladies in Southern California. These quilts were definitely "first fruits."
It got me to thinking, how can I make this new ministry more accessible for people to give of their time and talent and not just their treasure (money)? Flying over to the Philippines is not always an option for most people...but what about other forms of "tithe?" Some ideas I have had are:
- a new digital camera and small photo printer in order to give new families a family picture to treasure
- small photo frames for these pictures...this is something an Awana or Sunday School group can make
- more quilts!
- crocheted or knitted booties, mittens, and caps

I can't wait to get over there and give of my time, talent, and treasure for these dear people. But in the meantime, I can't forget to give of my first fruits right where I'm at.

"Your real, new self will not come as long as you are looking for it. It will come as you are looking for Him."
- CS Lewis

A lousy cup of coffee

This morning I woke up knowing that I had no coffee creamer in the house for my daily cup of joe. I decided to pilfer some of my roommate's coffee creamer and buy her a new bottle when I hit the store later today. When I finally crawled out of bed to make my pot of coffee, I discovered she had used the last of her creamer too. What to do? I cannot abide black coffee and did not want to make a pajama run to the store. I remembered that our landlords had left a commercial size container of the powdered stuff and attempted to doctor up my coffee with that. Ugh, no amount of peppermint syrup or sugar could make that coffee as delicious and rewarding as my liquid creamer. But did I dump it? no, I was more than willing to down not one, but TWO huge mugs of the second-rate coffee to get my daily fix.
This reminded me of my morning devotions (which were accompanied by said mediocre coffee). For many years I have struggled with consistency, and working the night shift has made the situation worse as I don't have the same daily wake-up time. I would much rather read a novel or even a book about the Bible than read the Bible itself. However, I promised myself that I would read through the whole Bible, in order, this year. And I have loved the thirst I am developing for this rich Word of God. It seemed that the Word was like a mediocre cup of coffee with powdered creamer and other books were the more expensive cup but in recent months, that has reversed! I'm so excited to finally have that genuine thirst for God's Word that I have longed after for years. This isn't to say this cultivated taste won't last forever as I'm sure if I suddenly gave up coffee and then tried to drink it again in 5 years it would be second-rate again. However, now that I've seen the light, I hope I never give it up.
Maybe there is hope for the powdered creamer? (There needs to be as the liquid stuff is more spendy and hard to come by in Manila. *sigh*)

Exciting progress!

As you may or may not know, the current facility for the birthing clinic where I hope to work is a small house that is also home to the British midwife/founder/administrator. This tiny living room and back bedroom serve as labor/delivery/recovery/pre-natal check-up/post-natal check-up/teaching/finance/ and just about any other purpose you can think of. However, it is CRAMPED! This picture shows the main room.

There is a lady in the curtain giving birth, the gal on the floor is recovering (with her baby there), and the lady on the right is having a prenatal checkup. Right behind the midwife is a scale that every now and then would be used to weigh a baby! Behind the camera was another woman in labor...yeah, it is a bit crowded (and very warm!).

Praise God that a new clinic is being built on adjacent property to house a two story clinic that will feature a labor & delivery room, recovery room, classroom, offices, guest rooms, dorm for midwives and nursing students, laundry room, ambulance bay, etc... They are now to the second level of the building frame, but funds have slowed to a trickle. More money is desperately needed to finish the construction so the clinic can move to the new building! If you would like to learn more about the clinic, please click here to view the webpage of the missionary family overseeing the construction. It is so exciting to see this dream become a reality!

A nun or 1940s Pin-up?

My life isn't all about getting ready for missionary work. In fact, much of my time is devoted to working full-time as an acute care nurse in a local hospital. Life as a nurse is never dull - every patient is different and we must learn to cater our care to the needs of the patient.

One night a couple of months ago, I had an elderly gentleman who was admitted needing blood transfusions. Normally this is pretty straightforward, but this guy was deep into Alzheimers Disease and his mind lived in his days as a WW2 soldier. He kept making comments like, "well, when are you going to start?" or "You sure are pretty!" I just thought he was confused and joked with him that he needed to get his glasses checked. He started to get more adamant about me starting the show. It took me a while to figure out who he thought I was, but the light bulb flashed on when he said, "You can just get up on that table there so I can see you and start your dancing and singing for me." Oops! This poor guy thought I was a pin-up model from the moving pictures!

Then several nights ago I had a different patient who was very much alert and "with it." He had a difficult night feeling like all his rights were being impinged on. His nurse insisted on leaving his door open and set his bed to alarm whenever he tried to get out of bed because he had fallen on the floor of the bathroom the night before. This is standard protocol for "fall-risk" patients. He had none of this and tried to leave "Against Medical Advice" at midnight but his wife wasn't willing to drive 200 miles from his home to come pick him up. Oops. He eventually came to me on a different unit. I was my normal friendly self with him and explained that we couldn't force him to do anything. I changed his now unruly dressing, helped him into his pajama bottoms, gave him a midnight snack, and helped him into bed. As I was leaving he said, "Are you a nun?" Startled I said, "No, do I look like one?" To which he replied, "No, but you're just so nice."

Haha! A pin-up girl and a nun...all in a day's work for a nurse. :)