“Rest in Me”

I was so encouraged by a friend’s blog this morning. I read it and, even though it happens all the time in Missions, each time it always seems to amaze me. Hopefully you can be encouraged this morning too!

sunbursts and marble halls

Jetlag Joys

I sit in the middle of the day writing up a big ‘TO DO’ list and then sip some tea and stare into nothing.
I’m not hungry. I’m only eating 1 to 2 meals a day….which is frustrating when everything in the fridge looks amazing to eat!
I’m tired, but not really.
At one moment I’ll be so excited about this or that and the next I’m mellow and then lastly I’m restless.

Ha.

I’m already getting my blood checked for all things bad – I think about 6-8 viles of blood taken today.

One thing I’ve noticed which is frustrating is that when I was living abroad and living in a country with so little, I always felt like I had enough. Now that I’m back..I feel like I’ve got so little and am in lack! But in reality i’m living in excess. Backwards no?

I said goodnight to my mom in Kiswahili tonight.

Greeted by a double rainbow

After 36 hours of travel, I finally saw the rocky mountains and the beautiful green foothills through my small window. How do you feel in a moment like that? My heart started to beat a little faster and my eyes glistened over. Relief, nerves, excitement.

And yes, there was a double rainbow in the sky to welcome me back. Ha.

I collapsed in my bed in the early morning and woke up in the early afternoon. My bed has never felt so heavenly.

Time to officially leave

Leaving today at 7:20pm. I’ll spend a day in New Zealand. I’ll do a stop over in LA and then arrive home on Sunday at 7:00pm.

Today I had breakfast with the kangaroos.

Re-Entry into the land of OZ

After spending a full day awake (14 hours) and then spending 23 hours of travel..awake… I’m back into western culture after a full 8 months.

So far the 2 things that have made me cry my eyes out:

1.Stepping out of the Perth Airport into the cold air (a combination of heat relief and a feeling of being home)
2.Seeing my friend Rachel hold our teacher’s baby boy. He is big and he has blonde hair. Instantly I thought of Luca, my nephew, and as soon as I started tearing up, I couldn’t stop crying.

The little things that I’ve appreciated:

1.A soft bed with blankets
2.A hot shower (and not because the water has been sitting in the sun all day)
3.Wearing pants
4.Wearing shoes (they felt so soft)
5.Not sweating
6.Drinking none sugared and none milked tea
7.Having toast
8.Clean and none urine smelling streets
9.No one has stared or yelled at me because I’m white
10. I can flush toilet paper

I even forgot what a gas station was called.

I am definitely feeling a bit overwhelmed and am right in the middle of a transitional period. These periods are never really fun. Its emotion because its exciting to be a team all together again. To swap stories etc… but my mind is so set on home at the same time.

I’ve been trying to think of ways to summarize this last year. It seems like an appropriate thing to do at the end of it all. But so far – nothing has been able to solidify. It might be a good airplane activity (a break from movies).

I would love to be able to reconnect with everyone when I’m back home. So please don’t hesitate to get in contact with me! Thank you for your faithful reading.

So much love to you all and SEE YOU SOON!

LOVE THIS:

“As long as we rage against the heavens, we will remain impoverished in our pain. But when we allow our eyes to fall to the mire, we may then discover a wealth of little epiphanies glimmering in puddles at our feet.” Pete Greig (GOD ON MUTE)

LATEST AND GREATEST

Despite people being sick and getting weird skin conditions and being exhausted and done with outreach…. there has been some great things happening!

Like:

SHIPMENT OF BLANKETS:
We received a box of blankets and hats from a previous BAS student (from last year). They had shipped it in either December or January and it had just arrived this last week. Happily, we’ve gone up to the post-delivery room and just hand out blankets to the babes and moms. They are so excited and blessed. Its truly fun.

Usually the babies are half wrapped in a towel. Now these babies are fully covered!

LEADING FRIENDS TO JESUS
Simple put, a hindi lady with her daughter and niece approached us to teach her english one of the first weeks of India. Now, a few visits later, God really opened up the opportunity to share of his love. Normally she shows off her gods and altars to us. We normally listen and allow her to share about what her believes are. But this time, she just listened to me. And it was as if her eyes were pouring into my mine and she sat silent, seemingly understanding all that I was saying. It was bizarre, the most fluid God sharing experience simply because it was on my heart and she was interested. I asked if she wanted a bible and she was interested and even mentioned how she wanted to go to church.

FERNANDEZ HOSPITAL ASKING FOR ADVISE
Seriously. These people are so humble. They have one of the best hospitals in the district. Other hospitals seek them out for advise and copy their system. But here they are, asking us for advise in maternity care. And so far, from out interactions, they are integrating Privacy and Dignity into their course outline.

BABY CALEB MAXWELL …THE LAST DELIVERY!

Looks like he’s got a headache! Well… no kidding.
And I also achieved my goal of 25 deliveries. 14 in Africa and 11 in India. Wow!

Here’s the mom:

Here’s the story if your interested:
I would love to just write down the whole experience. Due to my audience I will keep things on the down low.
Basically, she was struggling a lot. She was a screamer. But it was all fear and pain that consumed her. Thank God I was able to just get into her face and breath with her, tell her to breath ‘low’ rather than high pitched screaming. She was able to get off the bed and we ‘sway danced’ together for a bit (getting some rather quizzical and mocking looks from the nurses). Then they injected her with a bolus shot of syntocin to speed up things. So the contractions went from ‘hard’ to ‘hellfire’ in a matter of minutes. She needed help more than ever. And in between contractions I was able to tell a student nurse exactly why I was treating her the way I was and why it was necessary. She took it in!
Then sure enough, the baby was showing up. I was surprised because I rarely get to labour with a woman and then deliver her baby – its either one or the other.
Afterward the baby had been taken to the nursery, Sana was SO happy. Biggest smile ever. She had a bliss moment! I don’t see that very often in the hospital.. so sad. Its like the most satisfying picture ever and I get to stand there with her in this moment praising her and giving congratulations. Such a rush.

Other recent deliveries:

GIVING WATER TO PATIENTS
Simple put – in the beginning, the Madams (the high ranking nurses) shunned anyone who would give woman water in the labour ward. We would sneak women water with our own water bottles. Now the Madams are giving water! What is this?!

GETTING THROUGH THE ROUGH STUFF
We have been lifting each other up in encouragement. Every morning we pray and get words for one person. Then we write them down and give it to them. This morning we just had a chance to do some ‘holy gossip’ in the sense that we just talked about the person in all their great attributes, skills, personality etc… in front of them. Yah – awkward for the person receiving, but in the end, very up lifting.

Next week is our last week in the hospital!!

I just want to say that TODAY and everyday

I LOVE MY MOM!

p.s. look how beautiful she is!

Amazing Opportunities and Random Encounters

A RURAL CONFERENCE
After attending the HIV/AIDS clinic on Thursday and meeting with the director, Lavania Suneetha, we were invited to teach again at a conference on Sunday. With one teacher and two other students we went to teach 1,400 villagers. Basically, the conference was led by a Christian Organization in India that focused on educating villagers on HIV/AIDS prevention and basic health care, teaching them so that they could teach others! It was a fun day. We were able to do many humorous skits and also teach a practical and innovative way to wash hands.

Also, it was refreshing to see the rural part of India outside of Hyderabad. Walking among rice patties, cows and huge coconut trees was a nice contrast to the loud, polluted city.

“DON’T STOP DROPPING APPLES”
On a normal shopping trip on Saturday, Joy, Beth and Rachel were buying fruit. Joy happened to drop an apple which triggered a conversation with a British man named Andy, who was nearby. A joke and a few introductions later, a spark of commonality brought them into an enlightening conversation…

It just so happens that Andy is a doctor who practices at a Private Hospital in Hyderabad that focuses solely on healthcare for women and the newborn. Go figure! Right now, he and the founder are working on creating a 2-year midwifery course for Indian nurses. India does not have midwives. And shockingly, in the Modern Government Hospital, we have noticed that the main role of the nurses is to write up paper work. The doctors deliver the babies. Dr. Fernandes and Dr. Beckingham (Andy) seek to change this system of practice. Their private hospital sets the bar high for excellence with 65% of their patients being high-risk. In that, not all women are able to be admitted into their hospital. But, this Midwifery Course they are initiating would involve both private and public hospital experience. Optimally, their vision is that graduated midwives would work in hospitals and clinics which accept majority slum population. To be able to hit poverty with available professionals with passion and compassion. To attend low-risk pregnancies and deliveries which would lessen the amount of deliveries that doctors would have to attend. There is a great need for mother-child care, especially where population is gross and poverty is rising.

The day after Joy, Beth and Rachel bumped into Andy on the street, both Dr’s came to meet with us to chat. Hearing their vision was so exciting! They SEE A NEED AND CHALLENGE IT! Again and again we are meeting people like this. WOW. And the encouraging aspect of our meeting was that they saw the passion and fire in our eyes! They said, “thats what we need our nurses to have!” They saw that we got it. We were on the same page.

I asked Dr. Fernandez if it was possible to volunteer in her training program in the future. She was very generous in her openness to receive people, such as myself, to volunteer in their future program.

We have been invited to their hospital for a tour and a chance to work with the nurses for a week!

Check out the website: www.fernandezhosptial.com

This is some of us waiting for our ride on Monday –> he was an hour late!

Keeping the Stink Filtered!

head n’ shoulders, knee’s and toes

April 28

We went to an HIV/AID’s clinic today to teach kids about their bodies and about hygiene.

A group of maybe 100 kids ranging from 5-18 years. Singing a lot of songs in the beginning, we participated with all of the kids. Then Em taught on keeping our bodies clean. The schedule was switched a bit on us, so we had to be flexible and change what we had planned to do.

\\After lunch we were able to take girls that were from the ages of 9-18 and teach them about their bodies, menstrual cycle, hormones, the purpose of the female body, sex, healthy relationships, value. It was amazing and they were very attentive. They didn’t know anything about why their bodies functioned the way they do. I was a expecting a lot more squirming and embarrassment, but no, not a lot of expression. I hope they are able to talk about it and ask questions to those they trust. They don’t talk to their parents about this topic at all. So it was really cool to give them this information without judgement or shame, but instead build them up as girls and share why God made women so unique and special.

The clinic itself is incredible. The couple that began this ministry, started working out of their home and then it boomed. I am always inspired by people who see a need, and then do something about it.

check out their webpage

ALSO! Our other half, the half that is working in rural Bangladesh, had an article written up about them! Check it out here

here’s a picture

photo: Chantal Anderson

Lastly I want to share a quote from a book I’ve been reading called God on Mute by Pete Grieg.

first
there is
prayer
and where there is prayer
there may be
miracles
but where miracles may not be
there are
questions
and where there are questions
there may be
silence
but silence may be
more than
absence
silence
may be presence
muted
silence
may not be nothing but
something
to explore
defy accuse
engage
and
this is
prayer
and where there is prayer
there may yet be
miracles. . .