Revival

I have decided to spend some time reviving this blog. Like I said in my blog introduction, I write for my own enjoyment and just maybe someone else can relate a bit and enjoy reading it as much as I enjoy thinking and writing it.
As most of you know, I am just a few short days from leaving for a medical/evangelical mission trip to Kenya. I mean, that's all I've talked about for weeks now, right? I have written a note on Facebook that described my overwhelming gratitude for all the donations people have so generously given. What a confirmation of God's love for this woman who wants to have 'great faith' but often suffers from 'little faith'. As soon as I got home from the bank, I hurried downstairs to tell Bradley (and Braden since he was here doing P90X in the basement with Bub) how wonderfully God had provided above and beyond what I could have ever dreamed or thought. They were duly excited as well. I had to say, as Bradley has quoted, "I love me some Jesus". (He said he wants to get me a t-shirt with that saying on it. I would wear it proudly.)
So, if you have a minute..please share with me a time God provided for you whether it be your 'daily bread' or something beyond your wildest expectations.....I can't wait to read your story!

Roots and Reminiscing

Today was a glorious spring day in the good ole' Valley. Since I had to work yesterday and didn't get my usual day off, I decided to stay home from BSF today and spend some quality Jesus and me time. We spent most of the day in the yard pulling weeds. April is a very busy gardening month with all the clean up and dirt readying that needs to be done. We talked alot as I pulled out those stubborn dandelions and sprayed the hole where the roots were with 'Weed Be Gone'. Even though I tried hard to get all of the root, I am afraid that many of the same weeds will be pulled up again next week or next month. As I pulled out a stubborn weed, I thought about how sin is very much like weeds. Unless we get ALL of the root out, it won't be long until it pops it's ugly head above ground again. I wish there was a simpler way. But just like getting rid of weeds in the garden or yard, it takes effort to search out the sin, locate the root, get a good grip and yank it on out! Still, you could actually avoid getting rid of the weeds and just mow over them. Maybe you'd be the only one to know they are in the yard. Similarly, we can continue to overlook the sin lurking in the 'pretty' part of our lives and possibly be the only earthling to know it's there.But it IS there and keeps us from the beautiful growing fellowship we can have with Him. Lord, search my heart and show me if there is any wicked way in me........I want it gone.
We also talked about what He was doing this time, oh so long ago, after His resurrection. These next 40 days were spent with the disciples and showing Himself to many people before His final assent back to Heaven. After those days of supernatural proof, my Lord returned to His Father to be returned to the glory He so rightly deserves. Now He sits at the Father's right hand, talking about me...being my advocate... interceeding for me...What an amazing thought.
What a day it will be, when my Jesus I shall see......can't wait.....and hope it isn't long!

Life in Perspective

Well, I have spent nearly every free moment of the past five days doing some ( and some more, and more, and more) painting at our church. Pastor Danny made an off hand comment that he wanted to get the church spruced up last Sunday during the message on our 'vision' and boy, did a few of us women run with that! Monday started out fun but by Friday, after three different run-ins with paint issues, it really wasn't so fun any longer. In fact, I had become somewhat quiet and bothered by the whole thing-well embarrassed really.
Painting wasn't exactly the way I had planned to spend this day. I wanted/needed to spend some quiet time with my Jesus on this special day of remembering His sacrifice for me. Then, on my way home from the fourth or fifth trip to the paint store, I began to realize and reflect that this inconvenience of changing my plans, is NOTHING in comparison to what Jesus went through for me. So, after confessing my prideful attitude for being so upset that everything didn't work out like I wanted, I did spend some time (albeit while rolling on drippy paint) to talk to Him and thank Him for loving me and calling me into His family.
Because, Easter is my favorite holiday!! Although, I hate calling it a holiday. I prefer remembrance/ celebration of the Resurrection. After all, without Jesus raising form the dead, Christianity would be just another self-serving religion. Thank you, Lord Jesus, for suffering for me, for dying for me, for raising again for me and for the blessed hope of Your soon return! See ya soon!

Jeaus still heals on the Sabbath

Ok, I know that our Sunday is not really the "Sabbath" that was recognized in the Bible but it is what we know as our own 'day of rest'. So....as people were sitting around waiting for the docs to get back from hospital rounds so we could start our worship service, people were discussing Jesus healing on the Sabbath. Then out of the blue, I heard Grace yelling, "Pat, Amanda, Gale..." repeatedly. I walked out of my dorm room and asked what was up? Grace replied, "There is a patient at the hospital who has been stabbed in the chest and Suleman wants to open him up and take a look."

What?? Crack a chest here? In the DR? With our limited supplies? No way!
Yes way! So, I began to frantically search for Gale, the more experienced scrub tech, (remember, I don't do this for a living) but couldn't find her anywhere! :(
My mind began to scan what I knew we had: no rib retractors, no bone cutters, no wire, no drill. Then I realized Dr. Sadiq knew this too, so he must be planning to go in between the ribs. That we could do! (Where in the world is GALE!) She still couldn't be found.


However, I did find Amanda, still in her pajamas coming out of the bathroom after just brushing her teeth. I followed her to her room and told her we had a trauma that they wanted us to come and do right away. She thought I was joking, trying to get her back for taking my name tag and hiding it the day before. After convincing her this was NOT a joke, and giving her just enough time to change into some clothes, we headed to the hospital. They would hold the worship service until the afternoon when we would likely be back.

Once at the hospital, I pulled together what I thought Dr. Sadiq would need: a thyroid instrument set (just right for a heart surgery, right?), large richardson retractors, suction and tubing, cautery..just the basics. Grace had brought in some chest tubes and a drainage system that she has carried back and forth in the 'tubs' for years and have never needed. In fact, Dr. Sadiq told her not to bring them this year and use the space for 'something else we would NEED'. Thanks, Grace for bringing them after all.

We brought the patient to the OR, we called him Marty, but his name was something like Miguelez Sontana (I couldn't really read the chart clearly). Everyone, including Teo, the Dominican physician, scrubbed in and we started. It was truly amazing to watch Dr. Sadiq work. There were 3 stab wounds; 2 were superficial and didn't enter the chest cavity but the third went directly into the heart muscle and left a 2 inch wound. If it had gone even 1 to 2 cm deeper the man would have died on the spot from profuse bleeding from the left ventricle. We didn't have pledgets (little pieces of special fabric to keep sutures from hurting tissue) to use to support sutures (if you sew directly into the heart muscle it will just tear through it like butter) so Dr. Sadiq slowly cut away portions of the pericardium (lining around the heart) and made his own pledgets. Then he JUST sewed together the muscle of a beating heart like it was making brownies. When we asked him if he had ever done anything like this before, he calmly and confidently said, "No, I did a bypass on a beating heart once and didn't really like that technique, so I always had my patients put on pump bypass for surgery." Seriously! I would never have know that he didn't do this type of surgery every day.

After the heart was sewn back together, we placed a 36fr chest tube and connected it to gravity suction. The patient was stable and we transported him to recovery; meaning a small hot room with no IV pole, a portable oxygen tank and 2 recovery room nurses who had no ICU experience. Thankfully, they were very experienced nurses, however, and did a great job of keeping him stable. In the states, 'Marty' would have had a central line in place, an arterial line in place, been on continuous cardiac monitoring and had blood cultures drawn for antibiotic treatment, I'm sure. We hung his IV on the nail in the wall, put him on nasal cannula 02, and took his pulse and blood pressure the 'old fashioned way'. He did get antibiotics, since the knife used to stab him was undoubtedly not too clean. We all silently and continually prayed for him then went back to camp for a late lunch.

Upon arrival to the hospital the next day, I went directly to the 'recovery/ICU' room to check on Marty. He had a fever and his heart was racing pretty fast. The recovery room nurses jumped into action. By mid afternoon he was doing much better.Rita, one of the nurses in the recovery , even found a spyrometer to have him use to keep from getting pneumonia.

Later in the afternoon, Milton, one of the men who shares the gospel with patients, stopped by to speak to Marty. At report that night, Grace shared that Marty had listened to Milton and had accepted Christ. Unfortunately, he also said he wanted to get revenge on the man who did this to him. (Marty was supposedly just stepping in to break up a fight at the bar when he was stabbed).

Throughout the week, Marty continued to improve. By Wednesday afternoon when we left, he was eating and drinking and able to walk around the room. Praise the Lord!

Thank you God, for still healing on the Sabbath!

Heading Home........

Wow......I can't believe I will be home in my own comfy bed tonight. It has been a short/long two weeks. I had originally hoped to post every day while here in the DR but I couldn't get Internet access on a daily basis. And honestly, I may have not had much to say. In general, the days were the same; wake up, prayer time, breakfast and a devotional, announcements, and head off to the hospital. However, there were certainly highlights to the trip.
First off, our group was asked to help a young man named Jeffri. He is about 20 years old and has terminal sarcoma/cancer. He was found on the street by a local Mennonite gentleman and brought to the hospital for care. He has multiple open wounds all over his body and they were infested with maggots. He weights very little, is weak and in severe pain. The hospital at Las Matas did not have access to pain medication for him so we provided some Oxycontin and pain patches. The last day of surgery, Wednesday, we took him to the OR, opened up a six inch abscess on his left side and drained and cleaned it. To say the least, all we could do for him is pain control, love and compassion. As if dying of cancer at 20 years old wasn't enough, we noticed some severe scarring on his back and arms. He told the pre-op nurses that he had been burned severely as a child. Then, when asked about his family, he said that they had deserted him (we aren't clear about why). Many of my team mates commented "How can you tell some one who has suffered so much that God loves him?" That's a valid question, I suppose, but do we really only think God's love is expressed by nothing 'bad' ever happening to us or our loved ones? Life is HARD- that's a fact. Suffering exsists because sin exsists. Jesus knows and understands all elements of suffering. In fact, the best way to explain God's love to Jeffri, or any fellow earth journer, is to explain God's sacrifice of His own Son for our ETERNAL, painless, suffer free, life with HIM.
Please pray for Jeffri to know and experience supernatural knowledge that God loves him and to feel the presence and comfort of the Lord. Unfortunately, the nurses at Las Matas do not give the best comfort care. Jeffri's wounds drain onto the sheet, ants crawl around him and often, no one comes to clean him up for days at a time. Also, pray for him to actually get the medication we left for him. (Many times narcotic medications are sold on the black market instead of being given to the patients.)See yall soon...........

What.......no iPod........say it isn`t so..

Woke up,,,looked for my iPod so I could listen to it on the way to the hospital......can`t find it ANYWHERE..oh, no How will
i ever get in a plane to fly home?
Alabare, Alabare, Alabare a mi Senor......I will praise, I will praise, I will praise my Lord........This song begins every morning at the clinic and the hospital as we sing with the Dominicans waiting in line to see the doctors to see if they get to have surgery.
After finishing setting up the hospital and surgery areas, we started our first procedure at about 10 a.m. The day ended about 6 pm and I decided to walk back to camp with Abby. Abby is a nursing student who will be graduating in May. She is cirulating my table but the issue is, she has never been in an OR. Amanda, the other circulator is experienced and very capable. It will be fun teaching though too.

Now- the follow up on the iPod..........it was found.....and then lost AGAIN...then found again.....I became known as "the lady who keeps losing the iPod"....then on Thursday I busted two of the gals rummaging through my bags looking for it so they could 'auction it off' at the evening auction fund raiser.....they thought it would be funny....and it would have been.....

The rest of the week went well....up early, to work early, do surgery, home late, bed and begin again........repeditive but fun and very well worth it.
Each evening we would get a report about how many people accepted Christ, as well as how many were helped at the clinics and at the hospital. I will give full results when Grace sends me a report......thanks for all the prayers!!! Much is being accomplished.

Sunday, Sunday, Sunday....

One day at a time ...sweet Jesus....that`s all i`m asking from you....That is the traditional alarm clock on all mmi trips here in the Dominican.
Once we arrived at the camp, the first thing I noticed was the newly finished gazebo. The old one was made of wood and a discentegrating thatched roof, which certainly did not stop the afternoon shower from dousing you. The new gazebo is beautiful. It has a floor made of broken marble scraps mixed with whole pieces of marbleish material. It is painted white and stands out amoung the mustard yellow paint and tin roof of the dorms and dining hall.
I was on the second bus to arrive and quickly grabbed a bunk nearest the ladies bathroom.....I won`t go into details as to why this seemed a prime room......ha.........However, three older ladies came looking for a room to share and none were left with three beds open.....of course, I moved down the hall and am rooming with 2 gals who are also nurses and work in Wichita at Wesley ER.....I found out that they work with another nurse that I precepted in the OR at Riverside. It really is a small world afterall. We only had a short time to throw things in our room, unload the semi, sort the tubs into medical team and surgical team, then head to the hospital to begin setting up. We quit about six, dragged back to camp, ate a delecious, mouth watering, make the Colonel cry, chicken dinner and then had our first team meeting. Before falling into bed, Kathy, Rita and I organized our room and put up the mosquito nets...the weather is cool so we slept well.......Tomorrow is will be our first day with patients.........I hope I remember the names of the instruments.......Where is that Ginko anyway?