you know you're in Africa when...

Life here is an adventure!  I have spent nine of the last twelve days with either the medical team or the dental team doing rural clinics.  The first five days I participated in the medical clinic and it was wonderful to be doing nursing again! I took blood pressures, temperatures, patient histories, gave injections, ran errands for the providers and on rare occasions, sat with one of the doctors as they treated patients.  It was a crazy week, but wonderful to be doing medicine and to be with people who love the Lord, love people, and are great encouragers. 

This week I spent a couple days with four pediatric residents who are working on a vaccine project.  The mornings were spent at the local project and during the afternoons they were patient with me as we made use of their hired vehicle and ran around buying shelves, groceries and other random stuff. The next two days I spent with the dental team.  I am now an expert in sterilizing dental tools, so if nursing doesn't work out for me...I have a back up plan.  The dentists were also kind enough to let me pull a few teeth.  I learned that molars take extreme strength (which I don't have) to pull and that I really appreciate dentists (like these) who really love their jobs.  I could never do it, but I watched their faces light up as they talked about their patients and the teeth they had pulled!

I am finally settling into life here.  We have a gas cylinder and I cooked dinner two nights ago.  It's nice to finally have the ability to cook and we're slowly acquiring utensils and staple items.  I met one of the doctors who runs the AIDS clinic here in Masindi.  He's very well connected and has promised to introduce Mandie and me to people at the hospital so that we can start working there.

For all of my irrational fears about transportation, how life works here, and learning the culture and language, I have been blessed with answers already.  I have the phone numbers for a couple of trustworthy taxi drivers and my house helper is a wealth of information regarding culture language and where to find things.  She spent one month in England and understands the difficulty of being in a different culture and has been gracious about cultural faux pas.  What a blessing!  The Lord truly has answered my prayers for being settled here!

Last but not least, I had two opportunities to share Jesus this week!  The first was with the van driver that the team has been using all week.  He has a Muslim name so I asked him one day about it.  We had a twenty minute conversation where I shared what being a Jesus follower meant to me and he shared that he had converted from Catholicism to Islam 10 years ago.  Please keep Herruna in your prayers.  I don't know when I'll see him again, but if you know me well, you know my heart is drawn to Muslims and I hope for more opportunities.  The second was at the dental clinic two days in a row.  Two hundred people came each day to wait in line to see the dentist.  I had a captive audience and was able to share with them why we come and offer these services.  It was a great opportunity to testify how the Lord has worked in my life and the lives of the dentists and why we would come around the world to take blood pressures or pull teeth.

Thanks for your prayers and your emails!  What a blessing you are to my heart!

oh...and you know you're in Africa when:

Your headlamp becomes the bathroom light.
Sleeping under a mosquito net is no longer elegant and classy.
The morning discussion during mobile clinics includes the quality of the latrines as compared to yesterday.
Someone says "hello" and you respond with "fine."

Landing in Africa

After several days of trying to get on the internet, I finally succeeded! :) Internet and power are both things I will now never take for granted!

I made it to Kampala (the capital of Uganda) on Tuesday night with no troubles.  Mandie and I had smooth connections and slept a lot of the way.  Random funny moment of the trip: on our way from Amsterdam to Kampala we both fell asleep with our tray tables down.  We woke up to find a slip of paper with a man’s name and phone number on my tray table.  We have no idea who this man was so we decided to leave the paper on the plane when we got off.

Tuesday night we spent the night in Kampala with a family from Water Mission.  It was a good introduction to the country.  They live in a nice house at the top of a hill.  The stars were amazing!  I could see the Milky Way cloud better than I ever have.  It was beautiful!

Wednesday morning, Michael and Amanda (the couple overseeing the building of the hospital) and Mandie and I set out for Masindi with a pit stop to exchange money, buy cell phones, and buy lunch and a few snacks.  I had saved a set of plastic silverware from the plane that we used to make tuna sandwiches.  When we arrived in Masindi the power was out, but the bishop welcomed us and introduced us to our new house.  Mandie and I unpacked our small suitcases and lamented all the things that we forgot, but overall it was a good day.  Michael took us to buy water and a few other necessities.  We bought a couple packages of ramen, but returned home to find out that even if the power came back on, we have a gas stove and no gas to boil water.  Fortunately, we had bought two cans of tuna and so ate tuna again with a small bottle of wine that we had gotten from the plane.  Mandie had just enough power on her computer that we watched The Proposal.  The power came back on around eleven in time for us to go to bed.

We have a wonderful three bedroom, two bathroom house.  It’s way too big for just two of us, which means it’s perfect for visitors (hint, hint, hint).  Mandie and I were both feeling a bit lost last night so we ended up sleeping in the same room last night.  It’s a double bed, but now our goal is to figure out how to move the twin bed into the room and then we’ll just share….meaning, we have two guest rooms!

We spent Thursday going from shop to shop looking at things we need to set up our house.  We came home with trash cans, a frying pan, knives, oatmeal, scrub brushes and pads, a mirror, and a pan.  Slowly we’re getting equipped.  Now we just need a gas cylinder so that we can use our stove and oven!

This summer I've been doing the Beth Moore study on the Tabernacle.  I am a few days behind because of packing and travel, which was ended up being perfect timing.  The first morning in Africa, these are the verses that I read:

"Your ears will hear a word behind you, 'This is the way, walk in it,' whenever you turn to the right or to the left." Isaiah 30:21

"I will lead the blind by a way they do not know, In paths they do not know I will guide them.  I will make darkness into light before them and rugged places into plains.  These are the things I will do, and I will not leave them undone."  Isaiah 42:16

"Then your light will break out like the dawn, and your recovery will speedily bring forth; and your righteousness will go before you; The glory of the L*rd will be your rear guard (italics mine)."  Isaiah 58:8

So many times in this process of moving to Africa, I have been reminded that this truly is a plan from G*d.  These verses above should be my theme for the year, in times of discouragement or culture shock or frustration.  I know that He has a plan and I know that His glory will be my rear guard! What a promise!  I didn't think culture shock would hit as quickly as it has, but arriving in Masindi and not having power or gas to cook with or any food, and not knowing the language or the culture, it hit....and these were good verses to remember.  Things have gotten better now that the power has come back on and I've eaten a few real meals! :)

The team arrives tomorrow with all of our stuff and I'm looking forward to having more than one skirt to wear!

Thanks for praying! I have felt so loved!  I'm hoping to be able to get online every couple of days, but if I don't respond right away, don't be worried! Life is just a little more complicated here than it is in the US.

7 days, 2 hours, 58 minutes and counting

I have one week left at home. It's a busy week that includes spending time with people, shopping, sewing, and tying up any loose ends. I'm way behind on my emails and if I said I'd do something for you and haven't done it...you should probably remind me.

 I was using the foyer downstairs as my packing location, but then Robbie moved his apartment home while he looks for a job and now the foyer is his storage closet. So, I've moved my stuff into my room:

 So as time winds down this is my laundry list of things to do:

• Purchase seeds for an herb garden
• Buy Walmart out of toiletries
• Find a black pair of scrub pants
• Sew a lining into four or five beach cover-ups skirts so that I don't flash the world.
• Find a skirt/dress or two that I actually like.
• Finish packing and meet Mandie with my trunks on Thursday
• Write thank-you notes
• Sign power of attorney forms for my parents
• Register for Moody classes
• Find my brain (lofty goal...I realize)
• Enjoy the week

For all you Jane Austen haters lovers, these are high on my packing list.

13 days!

I leave in 13 days and have been overwhelmingly blessed with love and support. I cannot even begin to describe how thankful I am for those of you who have joined my support team, emailed me and called me to tell me that you're praying for me and love me.

Not only have I reached my support goals, but you have also given me nutritional supplements, shampoo and conditioner, medical textbooks for the clinic, and money for last minute purchases. The days are passing quickly, but in the last two weeks I've been able to see friends in Charleston, Hilton Head, and North Carolina and will be in Asheville this weekend for a cousin's wedding/Fuller family reunion. What a way to spend my last few days in America!

Seriously...I have to be the best-cared-for person leaving to go overseas ever!

Some of you have asked what I still need. So...if you're going through your closets, I need to expand my collection of long-ish skirts, short sleeve shirts that can be worn with said long-ish skirts, and scrubs.

And if anyone had a pediatric stethoscope and/or a good quality adult stethoscope not in use that you were willing to donate, that would be amazing! Both Mandie and I have stethoscopes, but they're only slightly better than isolation stethoscopes. These aren't needs...just "it would be nice ifs..."

Y'all are wonderful! I thank my God everyday for you....

Love, rachel

Africa Here I Come!

It’s official: I bought my plane ticket!!! I leave August 9th for Masindi, Uganda! Yikes!

Last week PIONEERS Africa gave me permission to go! We worked up a contract between PI and Palmetto Medical Initiative outlining the relationship and so I’m moving forward!

My support raising adventure has been exciting! As of today, I’m at 90% for my monthly support needs and 100% for departure. I still need $150/month which means finding 10 people who will support me at $25/month!

Please let me know if you are willing to join my team, either in prayer or financial support! If you would like to financially partner with me, please visit pioneers.org/give. They have an option for monthly automated giving. My account number is 110942.

Please contact me: countingitjoy@gmail.com or visit my blog: http://smallripples.blogspot.com

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* I'll be living in Masindi, just to the right of Lake Albert

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Prayer Request

Please be praying for my arrival there and the staff I will be responsible for training. My inadequacy is a great opportunity for the Lord to show His glory. The vision of PMI is to create a hospital that provides excellent healthcare that is also eventually self-sustaining. When I started this adventure, I thought about the patients for whom I would care, but more recently, the Lord has given me a vision to see the staff of the hospital become passionate for the Lord and for His message. That may seem obvious, but Uganda is not among the unreached nations and some say the percentage of Christians is as high as 90%. I pray that the Lord will set apart the staff; that they would not just call themselves Christians because of their cultural background, but that they would be authentic followers of Jesus. Please pray for the first couple months as I assess their skills as nurses, as well as their spiritual condition.

In the Shadow of God

Bezalel didn't make it into the top 10 baby names for 2010, not even the top 100....I don't even think it'll make it into the top 10 in Israel, and it's a Hebrew name. 

I've been doing a Beth Moore study this summer with the women at church.  It's the updated version of "A Woman's Heart," a study of the tabernacle.  I was struck this week in my homework about a man named Bezalel.  God appointed him as a craftsman of the tabernacle.  In Exodus 31, God is telling Moses who he has appointed to construct the temple: "See, I have called by name Bezalel, the son of Uri, the son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah.  I have filled him with the Spirit of God in wisdom, in understanding, in knowledge, and in all kinds of craftsmanship."  Bezalel was one of the elite few from the Old Testament who were filled with the Holy Spirit.  What an honor!  Yet, he is hardly mentioned after that.  His name means "in the shadow of God."  I looked it up in baby names and the definition went on to say, "implies protection of the Almighty." 

"In the shadow of God" also implies to me that Bezalel was not in it for the fame and the glory.  If he was, then he was probably disappointed.  He was filled with the Spirit in order to carry out his job and he did so under the shadow of the glorious Almighty God.  My flesh seeks recognition and honor, yet my heart's desire is that the Lord be glorified in everything I do.  I really do want to be so hidden in the shadow of the Most High God, that only He is seen.

That is my desire for Africa.  May the name Bezalel be a theme, a daily reminder, that I am not working for myself but for the Lord.  May it also be a reminder that He is my hiding place and my refuge.

the Lausanne Covenant

Uniting Proclamation (evangelism) and Demonstration (of God's love) within the Church's mission.  Where are we now? ....http://vimeo.com/10168437

Approval to Go!

I received an email yesterday from Christine, the East Africa Area Leader for PI Africa!  She gave Mandie and me full approval to go!!!! It seemed a long time in coming, but hallelujah! :)  Now the only hurdle is to finish raising support.

God has already abundantly provided 100% of my departure needs and 57% of my monthly support!  In physical numbers that translates to still needing $776/month.  I am trusting the Lord to provide the rest!

If you'd like to join my support team, you can visit PIONEERS here: http://www.pioneers.org/Give/AutomatedGiving.aspx

Some of you have asked what percentage is used for administrative fees.  10% is deducted for administrative fees and 2% is deducted for international ministry.  Also, here is some information on PIONEERS' financial accountability:

Financial Integrity
Pioneers is a member of ECFA, an accreditation agency dedicated to helping Christian ministries earn the public's trust through adherence to seven Standards of Responsible Stewardship. Founded in 1979, it is comprised of over 2,000 evangelical Christian organizations, which qualify for tax-exempt, nonprofit status and receive tax-deductible contributions to support their work.

Independent Audit Each year, Pioneers is audited by independent certified public accountants. Click on the link below to download the 2009 audit. Download 2009 Audit

ECFA's Standards of Responsible Stewardship focus on board governance, financial transparency, integrity in fund-raising, and proper use of charity resources.

Pioneers is also a member of CrossGlobal Link, formerly IFMA. Not only are members trusted to be true to the Bible, to the gospel, and to the high moral and ethical demands of Scripture, membership with CrossGlobal Link ensures the highest standards of financial integrity.

Sex trafficking...

We are making huge advances in the world of research, but yet, things like poverty and sex-trafficking are also growing....I haven't read Tom Davis' books, but I've heard good things about them.  A fellow blogger, Kari Gibson, is giving away 10 copies of his book, Priceless.  check it out!

Rachel's update

 Mandie was kind enough to let me use her collage of pictures and layout for my newsletter so I won't post it here since it was similar.  If you'd like a copy and didn't get one, email me and I'll send it to you!

Support raising is always a challenge.  No matter how many times I've done it, it never gets any easier.  Thankfully, the more I do it, the more instances I have to remind myself of how faithfully the Lord has provided everything I need!

This time, my support raising adventure began with an extravagant anonymous gift of $7000!  What an incredible blessing!  It is a daily reminder not to be anxious about whether or not I'll get everything I need.  I know the Lord will provide.

I'm especially looking for people who will commit to giving monthly.  I realize it's a huge sacrifice for most people, but please pray about it.  If the Lord doesn't prompt you, then don't give.  If you are willing to invest monthly, please let me know and if you're in the area, I'd love to sit down with you!

You can give online at http://www.pioneers.org/Give/GiveNow.aspx. My PIONEERS acct number is 110942.  They have options for automated giving as well to make things easy for you. 

Another option if you can't give financially is to give frequent flier miles. Mandie and I are hoping to leave August 5th and if you've accumulated air miles that you aren't using, we'd be happy to use them for you!  We are only limited by whether or not the airline flies to Uganda or has a partner who flies to Uganda!

Thank you for loving me well!

Scary future

 Chilling....

Arab Royals funding the WTC rebuilding?

Support Raising

We have permission to raise support!!! An update from each of us will come soon, but we are now in the process of fundraising!  We each have to raise roughly $2100 monthly plus about $7000 in departure expenses.  It seems like a lot to do in a short amount of time, but we are so thankful for the people who have already committed to supporting us even when we couldn't give specific details.  Look for an email soon and if you don't hear from us, leave a comment.  You will have the opportunity to give either through PIONEERS International or Palmetto Medical Initiative.

Thanks for being so invested in each of us as we prepare to spend a year in Uganda.  We know we can't do it without you!

Wonderful Day

It's Saturday! I slept in till 7:45 and enjoyed not getting up at 5:30 to drag myself to take care of three babies.  It's a beautiful day and I enjoyed the Turner's view from the kitchen while I made oatmeal bread and drank coffee.  I was not excited about working on Perspectives homework, but the Lord met me as I answered questions about seeing the purpose of God in His covenant with Abraham. I was gripped by it in a brand new way.  I am so blessed to be adopted into the seed of Abraham.  It's Saturday and I'm in love with the day. :)

Update from Rachel

This is an email update I sent out a few days ago.  If you didn't get it, here it is. :)

One would think with planning to leave for Uganda in August I would do a better job of keeping you updated.  I haven't though...so here's a long overdue update.

Our plans are to be sent to Uganda by PIONEERS International, the agency that sent me to China, in partnership with Palmetto Medical Initiative, the organization building the hospital.  The good news is that Mandie was accepted to PI in March as an appointee.  The bad news is that it's now May and we are still waiting for final approval from the PI Africa leadership to move forward with support raising.  As August, our hopeful departure date, gets closer and closer, Mandie and I grow more and more nervous about raising support and have gone from reminding ourselves daily to reminding ourselves hourly that the Lord owns the cattle on a thousand hills and is not bound by time or space.

So, in the last month and a half, as we've been waiting to hear, PMI has found us an already renovated place to live!  We are so excited about not having to do renovations ourselves.  We'll be able to move in almost as soon as we get there.  PI has also given us a budget and PMI has looked over it to make sure it's accurate for Masindi.  On the academic front, Mandie and I were both accepted to the MUSC Pediatric Nurse Practitioner Program!  Due to the expense and to changes in the logistics of doing it over in Uganda, we both declined attendance.  Mandie has decided to pursue an online counseling program through Liberty and I'll continue working on Bible credit requirements for PI.  Hopefully someday in the future I'll be able to pursue a graduate nursing degree, but it was clear for now that the timing was wrong.

Thank you for all of your encouragement and support in this crazy adventure.  Please be praying with us that PI Africa would give us permission soon so that we can start raising support and moving forward with leaving in August.  Pray for clarity and unity of mind and purpose for Mandie and me.  Pray for our families and relationships here and the time we have with them before we leave.

Thanks for loving me well!

Rachel

my heart is sad

My heart is sad for the earthquake victims and their loss and their hopelessness without Jesus.  Please keep praying.  Please look through the pictures of the area 12 days after the quake.

Willing and Unprepared

Part of me is looking forward to moving to Uganda.  I think about nursing school and if nothing else, I was trained to provide education: what to eat, what not to eat, how to take medicines, how much water to drink, how to exercise, and how to manage chronic illnesses.  For all of the approximately 1200 patients that were seen during the March trip to Uganda, probably two-thirds of them (this is my estimate...and hasn't been verified) mainly needed education on health (eg. how to lower blood pressure with diet and exercise changes), hygiene (eg. "if you wash yourself from time to time, you won't have itching in the nether regions and think you have syphilis"), and illness myths (eg. "my child has a cough and I think it's malaria").  Though I'm inexperienced as a nurse, I've been equipped to provide education to patients. 

So all that being said, when I read blog posts like this one, I panic and the part of me that is not looking forward to Uganda wins over the part that does.  I realize that not only am I inexperienced, but even with years of experience, I'd still be doing stuff out of my scope of practice.  I want to provide good health care, but I know that I am way out of my league.  Given textbooks, resources, and doctors like Ed and Cody who are willing to answer questions through calls and emails,  I'm praying that, at the very best, I'll be able to provide care that otherwise would not be given, and at the very worst, I won't kill someone with a wrong diagnosis and treatment.  The theme in my quiet times the past week or so has been dependence on the Lord.  Time and time again I've been reminded that I'm not in control anyway, but it's when I know that I'm not in control and I'm at my weakest and my vulnerable state, that the Lord has the opportunity to be shine most brightly.  I need to get out of the way.

Now, if I could just remember to get out of my own way of support raising and remember to trust the Lord and His abundant provision.

from Matt

Matt is the executive director of PMI. We wanted to share a post he wrote while our team was in Uganda in March:

http://mybeardedthoughts.blogspot.com/2010/03/sharp-contrast.html

PIONEERS, Brazil, support raising

Just wanted to update you on the events of the last few weeks since Mandie and I returned from Uganda.  We had a few days off to recover from the Uganda site visit before I started a nannying job in Charleston for three infants (not related to each other) and Mandie went to Orlando to attend the Candidate Orientation Program for PIONEERS International.  After a barrage of psych tests, Bible tests and committee meetings, PI determined that Mandie is not, in fact, insane and has accepted her as an appointee.  She was able to meet with her pre-field coach and the Finance Dept to start working out a plan for raising support and preparing for the field.

Last Monday we met with Matt (PMI executive director) to start coordinating logistics for living there.  He and Michael and Amanda O'Neal are working with the Bishop on a place for us to live. There are a couple of options and it sounds like we will not have to do many renovations before we move in to the house.  We talked about a budget for living there and gave him the budget PI had given Mandie.  He is going to look over it and make adjustments.  We addressed the need for continuity of care between the medical teams that come and the hospital.  I think Mandie and I will go talk to the May team and explain the need for detailed and accurate follow-up reports that are given to the patients. 

We are waiting for final approval from Christine, the PI area leader for Uganda, on our proposal.  From there we can start raising support.  It looks like we'll need to raise roughly $2200 per month per person and $7000 per person for departure expenses.  Once Matt has looked over the budget we'll have a more accurate idea of the cost of living.

Mandie is in Brazil this week with her grandparents.  Codependent me is worried she'll stay in Brazil and speak Portuguese and never come home, although I think the anticipation of sleeping in her own bed is pretty enticing.  She returns the 13th and as of right now, has no international travel plans for the next couple months.  I've had a week off from nannying and have been at home with my family.  I go back to Charleston today and will be working up there till the end of May.

We'll keep you updated as we begin the process of raising prayer and financial support! :)

Injustice

I am overwhelmed by the injustice done to people around the world.  Videos about the thriving international sex trade, genocide by cruel dictators and armies, thousands of homeless in Haiti because of an earthquake, and orphans living naked and sleeping in their own urine all tug at my heartstrings but I shut down those feelings as quickly as possible because they are quickly followed with crushing feelings of helplessness.

I am very easily riled up these days about even the smallest of injustices directed towards someone I love. I pace around the house when my brother doesn't play a baseball game even when his stats show that he's one of the better players and an upperclassmen.  I write letters in my head to people when my sister isn't accepted to be staff for a summer worldview camp. I bristle when a friend isn't given a chance to show her skills and talents; and I am resentful when someone tells me one thing to my face and then by action shows me that I am not valued.  These are small injustices.  Most of them will not be remembered in the grand scheme of things and the ones that are remembered become lessens in perseverance.  They can't be compared to the above mentioned injustices, but I am not overpowered by them and can take action.

I went to the Good Friday service at church today.  The pastor spoke about looking at the resurrection through the cross.  Or....not stopping at the cross, but looking past it to the resurrection.  It was good, but I spent most of the time thinking about the number of injustices done to Jesus.  How did Mary and those who loved Him stand there and watch Him be abused and betrayed and condemned? If I get riled up about an unfair baseball coach, how am I not stricken with grief over the number of unfair things Christ endured before He died for me?  How did the Father watch His Son go to the cross and be separated from Him?  The wonder of the cross and what Christ and His Father endured for me has gripped me anew.  The number of terrible injustices done around the world on a moment by moment basis cannot be compared to the injustice that Christ faced in living a sinless life and being torn from His Father's presence and enduring an incredibly painful death on my behalf.

My response is to respond with adoration and gratitude and to remember Psalm 9:1: "I will praise you O Lord, with all my heart.  I will tell of your wonders.  I will be glad and rejoice in you, O Most High." That I can do.  I also pray that God will use me to lessen worldwide injustice.

Flashbacks

Update:  I did get accepted to the Pediatric Nurse Practitioner Program.  Now the reality of how much it costs has set in and I'm considering asking if they'll let me defer enrollment for a year.  Oh dear....I just can't make up my mind.

I've been informed by those of my classmates who are more anxious than I am that I can call MUSC on Monday to find out if I've been accepted to the Pediatric Nurse Practitioner Program.  I'd rather not call.  I'm having flashbacks from the last time I was waiting to hear from them if I had been accepted or not.  In case you weren't around in the spring of 2008, I wasn't accepted, I was wait-listed.  The same week I got the wait-list letter I was accepted to the University of Miami and only given a week to decide. 

I remember the misery of trying to figure out what to do and feeling like Miami was the automatic option.  I immediately had a sinking feeling like I was making a huge mistake in going to Miami.  Turns out everyone else felt the same way and I decided to turn down Miami and just wait to hear from MUSC.

The next few months were agonizingly long and I annoyed the CON with my frequent emails questioning them on whether or not they thought they'd have a spot for me.  The last week of May they called me to offer me a spot.  I'm pretty sure the offer was not based so much on my qualifications as it was out of a desire to stop hearing from me.

So, two years and a Bachelor's Degree in Nursing later, I'm waiting to hear from them again.  In the middle of the program, I told myself I wasn't going to MUSC again and that getting a graduate degree wasn't worth the heartache or hard work.  Yet, I applied to the PNP program and am hoping to get in and start in August.

If I don't get in, I'm going to assume the Lord has a reason for it and not go knocking down doors and persuading people to change their minds.

Why do I keep getting myself into these situations?

(I forgot to mention that I wasn't accepted to the Honors College at College of Charleston and went and persuaded them to change their minds as well....what a crazy foolish thing to do. I regretted that decision halfway through Western Civ....apparently, I'm a slow learner)

Michael and Amanda O'Neal

Our Neighbors in Uganda

Michael and Amanda have been in Masindi for just over a month. We had the chance to meet them while we were there last week and are excited to get to live and work with them. Michael is PMI's project manager and they will stay in Masindi through the completion of the new hospital. Amanda is working on her master's in counseling from Liberty University and is also a pilates instructor, so she will be a wonderful friend and resource for us. 

Pictures from Africa!

Here are a few pictures of our patients last week

  (courtesy of Amber Henderson, Michael Overcash, and Josh Drake's excellent photography):

a real live hippo...as seen from our Nile River cruise on Saturday:

the whole team (+translators, drivers, and clinic coordinators):

...and here are a few more gory medical pictures. 

I've made them small on purpose so that 

people who don't want to see them don't have to.

Click if you want to see them bigger:

"Welcome Home"

I look forward to traveling back to the US and going through Immigrations and Customs and hearing the words "welcome home."  Even though I was only gone for 10 days, it's so exciting to hear those words said.  I love traveling and living in other cultures, but the United States is my home and I'm grateful for it.

So, we made it back safely!  It was a wonderful trip and now begins the processing, debriefing, and preparation for the next phase.  Mandie will go to Orlando, FL on Sunday to attend PIONEERS' Candidate Orientation Program. Hopefully, we'll receive approval from the Area Leader over Uganda to pursue this new adventure.  From there we'll begin raising support.  We're confident the Lord is leading us both to do this, but finding investors requires more humility, perseverance, and trust than either of us currently have.  We are looking forward to how the Lord will work in the next couple of months as we step outside our comfort zones!

I will begin nannying on Monday for three teachers with three infants between the ages of six months and eleven months.  I'll be living in Charleston with Mandie's family till the end of the school year.  I'm so thankful for my second family and their willingness to open their home!  Much of the time that I'm there, Mandie will be continuing her travels (Orlando, FL and Brazil). 

Thanks for your prayers and loving support! We'll keep you updated as we figure out things.  Having seen the medical need in Uganda, we can't wait to go back and start serving.  Our time there this last week was fruitful for the kinds of things we need to be prepared to do and to see.  We've started making a list of the books and equipment that we'll need to function there.  We didn't have any time to figure out where we'll live or what kind of things are available, but I'm sure that will come as we email back and forth with Michael and Amanda.  Our housing decision is dependent on the Bishop of the local Anglican Diocese.  From what we understand, he controls the housing situation and will probably just tell us where to live.  Worst case scenario, we'll live at the Masindi Hotel for a couple weeks while he decides where we should live and while renovations are being done to make it livable (eg. running piping into the house so that we don't have to go in search of water every day).

Hopefully we'll have a few pictures posted soon!

Mandie's Birthday and Murchison Falls!

I (Rachel) “accidently” let it slip that it was Mandie’s birthday today….she wasn’t happy with me. She was lavished with unwanted attention and got to spend her 24th birthday on the Nile River. We spent two long hours in the car up to Murchison Falls swatting at Tsetse flies (which are very resilient) and sweating with the heat. It was worth it to see the Nile River pounding through a narrow 20 foot wide canyon. The amount of energy coming through was unbelievable. We walked around the top of the falls and enjoyed the spray misting up from the pounding water. The hotel had once again packed us a marvelous lunch and we ate in a little thatched open hut with the sound of the water behind us. From there we spent another hour or so in the car going down to a lower point in the river where we took a 2-hour boat cruise up to the bottom of the Falls. I was so tired that after only a few minutes of being on the boat, I crawled under one of the benches and fell asleep for about an hour. It was a beautiful day on the river and we saw hippos, crocodiles, water buffalo, elephants, warthogs, cranes, baboons and a plethora of birds. We traveled up to the bottom of the Falls and took a team picture on a rock. From there, it was only about an hour downriver back to where we had started.
Mandie now:
I’m 24! I rather knew that with Heather and Rachel on this trip it was not likely that I could escape birthday attention. They set me up for an impromptu counseling session with our team psychologist, Rachel Darrow, over breakfast and she reminded me that birthdays are a time to let other people celebrate the fact that I was born. I liked that definition and actually enjoyed the several times that Son initiated a round of “Happy Birthday” or the many team members who reminded me it was my birthday throughout the day. It really was a perfect birthday: slept in a bit, had a delicious breakfast, a fun bus ride to Murchison Falls (with lots of baboons along the road!), the breathtaking Falls and Nile River, good conversation on the 3.5 hour boat ride, a long and crazy drive back (with 2 hours of group singing from our rather extroverted bus group – Richard, Amy, Erin, Derek, Ansley, Roxanna, Christian, Brian, Rachel, myself, and our poor driver, Steven), an amazing dinner of shish-kabobs, and cake to go along with the “life story” sharing at the end of the evening. Son (for the team) bought me a beautiful handmade Ugandan bead necklace and a paper bead coin purse at Merchison Falls and presented them to be at dinner, in his sweet humble way, “on behalf of the team”. Then the Masindi Hotel staff gave me another beautiful necklace and trinket box.
The day was a perfect end to our time in Uganda. It was sweet to spend time with the amazing people on this team. After a whole week of being thrown together (and working well together) at busy clinics, we were able to sit with each other and have more conversations, enjoy the relaxing boat ride, and SLEEP!!
Tomorrow we head back to Kampala to catch our flight to Ethiopia, then Italy, then DC, then Charleston. Pictures will be posted as soon as we’re back!

Love to all!

March 11

DIRTY has been the theme of the week. We have been working for the last two days in a huge one room church with a bright red dirt floor. As if walking in red dust all day is not enough, we ride for an hour and a half one way in a non air conditioned van on a dirt road with the windows down. Most of us could pass for Latinos and in a few days would blend right in with our dear African patients and translators. Speaking of patients and translators, Rachel got to do her first pelvic exam today and I got to pull a molar. I spent the day in triage and found several enlarged spleens, interesting neuro cases (Dad and Dr. Ken would have been proud!), and mostly just enjoying hearing all the CRAZY stories people told to try and convince me they had malaria.  Rachel got to be with the doctors and PA’s all day and so learned some good diagnostic techniques and got to teach the PA students how to draw up and give an IM injection. Speaking of IM injections, I got to give two on Tuesday night. They were, unfortunately, on Rachel, but being the baby nurse that I am, I was excited anyways. She had a pretty bad migraine and the only thing that it seemed was going to work were two IM phenergan shots and I happily obliged. She woke up migraine free and was fortunately able to come to clinic (Rachel here: though 50 mg of phenergan and two ibuprofen pm and two regular ibuprofen may have been overkill...it was hard to keep my eyes open that day.)

(Rachel here) Back to today. We saw just over 200 patients and had to turn away at least that many. Since we were there for the second day in a row, word had spread that we were coming back and so the line stretched around the corner. We saw lots of coughs, heartburn and high blood pressure, but the day also included several children with seizures, a boy who had a broken arm with a piece of bone sticking out near his elbow (it had been broken for over a year) and a girl with a six inch infected abscess on her head that was eating away at her scalp. Not only is basic health care lacking, but education on how to care for wounds is as well. So many of the problems we saw today were due to a lack of hygiene. Patient after patient came through with bug bites that they had scratched and that had become infected with staph because they do not wash themselves or clean open sores. It was a particularly hot day and the flies swarmed on any open wound they found. Most of the time spent with patients was spent educating them on diet, hygiene and the cause of their discomfort or illness.

Tomorrow is the last day of clinic. It has flown by and although we had hoped to post something every night, by the end of each day we have been exhausted (not to mention that I kept Mandie up till almost two am the night I had a migraine. She was very kind and made a great nurse…I’m pretty sure I was not a great patient…though I did give her the opportunity to give not one, but two shots since the first one didn’t work). Anyway, my hope is that we will both be able to be with the doctors and physician assistants doing diagnosing and prescribing. It’s great practice for what we will do when we live here. I’m hoping to be able to pull a tooth and any wound care or exciting diagnostics will be exciting. On Saturday we will have a day off and relax and see the Nile River! We were hoping to spend some time with Michael and Amanda, the couple overseeing the building project. They won’t be there, unfortunately, but it will be good to spend time with the team, without the chaos of clinic. On Sunday morning we will start the journey home!

The days are blurring together!

March 9th:
Copang ‘o! (“hello” in Luo)
Today we drove an hour and a half outside of Masindi towards northern Uganda to do the first of two days at a church located near several refugee camps. My translator told me that there are over 57 languages spoken in a 10 mile radius of the clinic site. The main language of Masindi, where Rachel and I will be living, is Runyoro. A bit farther north, most people speak Luo. Swahili seems to be a common thread through all the languages I have heard. Many phrases in Luo and Runyoro retain at least one word from the Swahili phrase of the same meaning. Today, I had the opportunity to work with Amber, a PA, who was a great teacher. We saw several interesting cases and I got to do my first pelvic exam. We diagnosed a man with absence seizures, treated a small boy who had had seizures since birth, treated parasites, ear infections, STD’s, pneumonia, and tons of other things. Of course one of my main goals on this trip was to get a grasp of the local languages so that I can spend this summer learning them. Today was very exciting as I started being able to understand a lot of what our translator said when the patient spoke either Runyoro, Luo, or Swahili. I still blurt out Spanish when I don’t stop to think first. (Rachel here to finish) Mandie has astounded everyone with her language learning ability. I’m quite confident she’ll be starting on her third local language when I’ll still be struggling with the first. I’m glad I’ll be living with someone who understands the people here.

As exciting as Mandie’s day was, my day was predictable. I spent the day in triage again and I perfected the art of taking blood pressures quickly. Each of us in triage had a Ugandan nursing student with us. They are only four weeks into the program and did not know the normal heart rate or blood pressure, so I spent as much time teaching my nursing student as I did talking to the patient. It reminded me of the first week of nursing school and how overwhelming it was to try and absorb everything being taught. I’m glad I survived and can now teach someone else.

Most of the time I still feel like a student, but it has started to set in on this trip that I'm a "real nurse" when the MUSC nursing students come to me for help. Yikes, and to think Mandie and I are thinking of coming and being the primary American staff for the hospital.

Thank goodness the Lord knows what He is doing!

Day 2: First Clinic

(Mandie here): I was an "escort" today, which is kind of a loose job description. It included walking patients from triage to doctors, from doctors to pharmacy, and so on. The day started out early for Rachel and I and the several others who went to the clinic site early for registration. I found myself with nothing to do and so started down the line of 150+ people, shaking each person's hand and saying the one work I learned from our bus driver on the way: "oraireota?", which means "how did you sleep?". The first person I spoke to gave me my pet name, a tradition in Uganda. It is Akiki (ah-KEE-kee). By person 50, I had learned the correct response to "oraireota" and several other phrases. Those all came in handy through the rest of the day. I spent some time playing games with Heather and the children, started an IV on a severely dehydrated grandma, pulled a tooth, dressed a third degree wound, and then saw patients on my own. We had a rather large patient load today and the doctors got a little behind, so they put me and Wendy (a med student) together to see patients. That was taking too long, however, so they split us up after the first patient. Most of what we see here is the usual dehydration, malnutrition, and parasite infections. That can get frustrating as I got tired of telling the translator the SAME things over and over, but it is so good to know that even the small things we can offer then can make a big difference in their lives. This was my first day on a medical mission trip where I wasn't a translator and I loved it. I miss being able to communicate directly with patients and several times blurted out Spanish to them, but the opportunities to actually DO the medicine I've been studying was wonderful.

(Rachel here): I worked in triage today from 8:30 to 6:30....what does that mean? Three nursing students and I took 260 blood pressures, heart rates, asked "what brought you here today?," watched people chew up disgusting non-chewable worm medicine and vitamins, and hopefully made the lives of the doctors easier with our many many questions. It was a long day, but rewarding when the leader of the trip made the comment that he would never have gotten such a detailed history from the patients. Overall, I didn't drink enough water and may or may not have bruises from sitting on a hard bench, but will sleep well tonight knowing that 260 people got great health care consults. We keep saying we'll post pictures, but so far have been so exhausted each night it's enough to just write. Maybe tomorrow...they've promised to make the clinic day shorter! Thanks for your comments and emails! I can't wait to share more!

Day 1

Day 1: the “calm before the storm.”  I’m not sure I would have called it that other than that breakfast wasn’t until eight am and we had some free time in the afternoon.  We started out the morning at the local orphanage, hearing the kids sing, playing with them and providing vitamins, and doing check-ups on the children with complaints.  Mandie handed out vitamins and then helped take vital signs while I was the triage person.  I now understand the difficulty in eliciting information from a child who does not speak English and thinks a fever is the same thing as malaria.  After lunch we went on a tour of the local hospital.  Dismal and primitive are the two words that come into mind.  After walking through the maternity ward where women were lying on dirty mattresses recovering from labor, Mandie and I chose not to walk through the other wards gawking at the patients.  While we agree that it’s important to see the state of the health care conditions, we realize that we’ll have plenty of chances come August to be in the hospital and did not want to be two more white faces staring at the misery.

(Mandie writing now)  During the free time, we walked through part of the town with Josh, the photographer, and saw the site for the clinic and the house that is being renovated for Michael and Amanda, the couple overseeing the building of the hospital. This is also the neighborhood where our house will potentially be, so we took some pictures and smiled at our future neighbors and tried to imagine walking down those red dirt roads every day. It seems like a good town to live in. There’s not much that looks familiar, or even comfortable, but the people are warm (well, at least the women and children are) and there is a lot of lush vegetation…and electricity and plumbing...so what could there be to complain about?

After walking around, we came back to the hotel for dinner and evening announcements, etc. What was supposed to be an early night turned into a 4 (and inappropriately named) hour pill-packing “party”. It was not a party. We counted out and bagged packs of 40 multi vitamins, Tylenol, and ibuprofen, while a few people filled prescriptions from the orphanage this morning. At 10:30, we decided to call it quits. Tomorrow we eat breakfast at 6:30 and the few of us who signed up for registration will leave at 7:30. It will be our first real clinic day and everyone is excited to see how it goes and what we see…

WE MADE IT!

After 24 hours of airline travel with another five hours on a bus, we made it to the Masindi Hotel.  Highlights of the trip include the best airline food Mandie and I both have ever had (we recommend Ethiopian Air).  Not only that, but it was a very social airline and we made friends with everyone around us.  The man and his son sitting behind us were flying to Uganda first for a building trip.  After the trip they are flying back to Ethiopia to pick up an eleven year old son they are adopting.  The two women sitting in front of us were going to Ethiopia for a medical mission trip similar to ours.  One of the women is a long time Registered Nurse and Lactation Consultant.  We swapped stories and contact information, Ibuprofen and homeopathic remedies for immune health and detox.  

Tomorrow we will visit the orphanage and conduct well child check-ups for about 100 children and then visit the Masindi Hospital to get an idea of the only healthcare available here.

It’s 8:30 in the evening now and we’ve just finished dinner.  We’ll update more later, but the room hasn’t stopped moving around us and neither of us have any brain power (in which case disregard all typos and sentences that don’t make sense).

We have a professional photographer with us on this trip and he’s been taking both photos and video.  Since we won’t be posting every day, visit the PMI blog to see pictures and updates posted daily: www.palmettomedical.org

two days and two new websites

So I leave for Uganda in two days! Yikes! :)

Mandie and I have a new website and a new blog for you to follow if you're interested in all things Africa.  Please visit and comment and and thank Mandie for her creative talent. :)

Time to pack. :)

TWO DAYS! :)

Two days from now Mandie and I will be sitting on a plane (hopefully next to each other...keeping our fingers crossed) on our way to Uganda.  Three weeks ago today I was telling Matt that I was ok with Mandie going to Uganda on a site visit without me.  That wasn't acceptable to him so here I am, going with her.  My bags are not packed and I need to work on it.  The pre-travel jitters are starting to set in and I'm constantly having to remind myself to trust the Lord.  I have my vaccinations and my malaria meds and my passport at Mandie's house with hers so that I won't have to go through the process of checking one hundred times to make sure I have everything important.


Mandie got her approval today to go to the March orientation for PIONEERS and they have finally appointed a new area leader for Uganda, so things are finally starting to fall into place on the PI end.  Hopefully we'll be able to start raising support soon!

Yikes it's becoming real!

Oh...check out Mandie's handiwork: http://somethingbeautifulafrica.com

I don't know how often we'll be able to update the blog for this ten days in Uganda, but I am taking my computer so we'll try! :)

Hmm....maybe I should start packing. :)

A website!

Hello friends,

We've just opened the website that hopefully will serve to keep you updated on what we're up to in Uganda over the next year or two. We'll be leaving for Uganda this Friday, March 5th for a preliminary site visit and hope to be able to keep you all updated on what we're doing throughout the week.

Go here for the new website www.somethingbeautifulafrica.com.

Mandie & Rachel

Something Beautiful

If you read the previous post, you know that I'm currently planning to go to Uganda in August with a friend.  I'm keeping this blog for personal posts, but Mandie and I have started a blog for all things Africa: http://somethingbeautifulafrica.blogspot.com.  If you'd rather get email updates, you can subscribe :)

Uganda here we come!

Looking back at the two years I spent in China, I think God had me there to learn three main things:
 
1) I need some sort of common ground for developing relationships.  Walking up to students and asking them if they speak English seems fabricated to me.  I can't understand why they'd want to be my friend and hear of Jesus.  As much as that works for some people, it taints my relationships because I feel like I'm lying to them about why I want to get to know them.

2) I am not a visionary and try as I might, I get lost in the details if I'm not working alongside with someone who keeps sight of the vision and reminds me of it daily.

3) I can't live by myself.  I shrivel up into a depressed empty shell when I live by myself.  It's a vicious cycle: I spend too much time by myself --> I get depressed --> I don't go anywhere because I'm depressed --> I spend more time by myself --> I get more depressed..... it isn't good.

God has provided abundantly for these three weaknesses.  In the 16 months of nursing school, He has given me the common ground I need to develop relationships with people.  In taking care of people's physical needs, often in doing the dirtiest and lowest of jobs for people, relationship becomes natural. Patients open up, as if they've been waiting for someone to listen to them.  Conversation naturally flows into spiritual things and I'm able to tell them of the Great Physician - the One who wants to heal their souls.  I have found my niche.  I have been equipped to go into so many different situations, whether it's with the old men at the VA or in Africa and as I care for people, I am given opportunity to share the Good News.

Not only did nursing school provide a platform for sharing the gospel, but he also gave me a friend and a partner in ministry.  Enter Mandie: alike in vision, goals, desires and upbringing, but completely different in personality.  She is my visionary, the one who keeps me on track, and the one who needs a details person in her life.  We are kindred spirits and now share a vision for the next few years.  Not only does she answer the second weakness, but also the third.

What does all this mean?

One month ago this weekend, Mandie and I were sitting at Panera in Charlotte with Patty and stumbled across Katie's blog.  We don't know Katie, or even the path we took to get to her blog.  But here we were, fascinated by her life in Uganda, Mandie to the point that she emailed Katie to ask her if she needed a nurse.  Mandie and I have had many conversations about nursing overseas and adopting children, but at that point, I had no idea when I would go back overseas, and I assumed it would probably be back to China.  Little did I know that I was at the beginning of something completely new, completely unexpected, and completely supernatural.

Mandie and I have both applied to the pediatric nurse practitioner program at MUSC.  It's online and we thought the first year didn't include any clinicals. On a whim (at least I think it was a whim), Mandie suggested we go talk to our favorite faculty and ask her if it was possible to do the first year overseas.  We were blown away by her response: "why just the first year?  If you want to work overseas as PNP anyway, why not do the whole thing overseas?" WHAT??? I was so not expecting that.  She cautioned us that we'd have to find a qualified and US licensed health care provider to sign off on our clinical paperwork, but she said other than that detail, it should be feasible. Her advice was to wait till we were officially accepted to the program before we went and asked for permission.  We said ok, and went home to dream about the possibilities.  In the meantime, she did not heed her own advice to us and talked to the Director of the DNP (under which the PNP falls) and the DEAN of the College of Nursing and got them on board with our idea.  So, we had permission to pursue living overseas, but nowhere specifically to go.

Since Katie had inspired us with her work in Uganda, we started thinking about the possibilities there.  We knew people that had been to Uganda on short term medical missions trips through Palmetto Medical Initiative started by a couple of people from Charleston.  A friend of Mandie's put us in touch with the founders.  We met with them for coffee a few days after having met with our instructor to ask about the possibilities that Uganda had for doing long term medical work there.  We knew they took short term trips there, but were surprised when they told us of their plans to build a hospital in Masindi, Uganda.  Not only were they building a hospital but they needed health care professionals to staff it!  They were even willing to sign our clinical paperwork for the above mentioned graduate program.  One week after giving Mandie a dream to go to Uganda (and me by proxy), we had a specific place and a specific ministry.

Thus, the third step was to find a sending agency.  At this point, we aren't sure PMI is big enough to facilitate us going.  Mandie has experienced how hard it is to go without a sending agency and I've had a good experience with PIONEERS International, so we started communicating with PI to see if they'd be willing to send us and allow us to work under the leadership of PMI.  Mandie is working on the application and planning to go to the March Orientation and I've begun the process of emailing Member Care and the East Africa PI leadership to find out if we would fit into their vision.

So...all this to say, a month ago I was discouraged by having applied to 30 jobs and not having found one.  The Lord seemed to have something better in mind and has opened doors I did not know existed.  Now, we're pursuing Uganda until the Lord shuts doors that only He can shut.  He has provided for the weaknesses He and I both knew I had.  I was sharing all this with a friend who was not at all surprised and commented: "on-a-dime turns are the way with the Lord."  Just like that God has changed my direction.

The timeline so far:

• January 9: Find Katie's blog and start dreaming
• January 14: Meet with Dr. Bennett to ask about the PNP program
• January 17: Meet with Matt and Ed from PMI about their hospital in Uganda
• January 18: I go home and talk to my parents about it in depth...they're on board so far, provided Uganda is politically stable
• January 19: At a meeting about a trip to Honduras in February, Mandie runs into a man who is going on the March trip to Uganda with PMI.  When he finds out Mandie is planning to move there in August without having gone on a survey trip, he offers to pay for her to go in March
• January 22: Mandie has her phone interview with PI...it doesn't go as well as we would like, but we aren't discouraged yet.  In the meantime, I've emailed the Africa Member Care person who has directed me to the East Africa Regional Leader.
• January 23: Mandie leaves for Honduras on a medical mission trip.  We are happy to learn she has internet access once she gets there so that we can communicate.
• January 26: the Africa Regional Leader emails me back to tell me he likes our vision for Masindi.  He's in the process of appointing an Area Leader and that they'll get back to me towards the end of February to discuss details.
• February: Find a job in Charleston or Hilton Head that will pay bills, pay student loans, and contribute to my life overseas.
• February 1: PMI's board meets and Matt presents our bios and resumes.  They are as serious as we are about it.
• February 2: I meet with the Member Care Director.  She's really encourages me and is excited by the vision we have.  She says she'll be our advocate down at Headquarters and explain our vision to the Africa Member Care person.
• February 3: I met with the Elders of Grace Community Church. They're excited about the future and have asked to be my sending church...well, I hadn't planned on anyone else...so it's good that they offered.  They're seeing a lot of things happening in Uganda and are excited about how the Lord is moving people that way.
• February 6: Mandie returns from Honduras and we start working out a time to meet with Matt in the upcoming week.
• February 8: Michael and Amanda O'Neal are moving to Uganda to oversee the building of the hospital.
• February 10: We're meeting Matt for coffee to talk about the details of going to Uganda. ** UPDATE - we were able to start talking about logistics of moving there.  Matt asks me to go to Uganda in March with the team. He says we'll figure out the funding! I have a ticket to Uganda
• February 19-26: Mandie is going back to Honduras to show a documentary she filmed during the first trip.
• End of February: Hopefully we'll hear that our vision fits with PIONEERS vision and that they'll help us get there....then we can start raising support.
• March: Hopefully find out we've been accepted to MUSC's Pediatric Nurse Practitioner Program
• March 5-15: Mandie and I are going on a medical mission trip/survey trip to Uganda with PMI.
• March 21-26: Candidate Orientation Program at PI headquarters in Orlando...I'm confident they'll take Mandie...she's not so sure.
• March 31-April 14: Mandie is going to Brazil with her grandparents.
• Summer: Raise support, prepare for Uganda, work on my Bible Credit requirements for PI, work, enjoy relationships
• August: Lord-willing, move to Uganda for at least two years...who knows....it might last longer. 

"On-a-dime turns are the way with the Lord"

Looking back at the two years I spent in China, I think God had me there to learn three main things:

1) I need some sort of common ground for developing relationships.  Walking up to students and asking them if they speak English seems fabricated to me.  I can't understand why they'd want to be my friend and hear of Jesus.  As much as that works for some people, it taints my relationships because I feel like I'm lying to them about why I want to get to know them.

2) I am not a visionary and try as I might, I get lost in the details if I'm not working alongside with someone who keeps sight of the vision and reminds me of it daily.

3) I can't live by myself.  I shrivel up into a depressed empty shell when I live by myself.  It's a vicious cycle: I spend too much time by myself --> I get depressed --> I don't go anywhere because I'm depressed --> I spend more time by myself --> I get more depressed..... it isn't good.

God has provided abundantly for these three weaknesses.  In the 16 months of nursing school, He has given me the common ground I need to develop relationships with people.  In taking care of people's physical needs, often in doing the dirtiest and lowest of jobs for people, relationship becomes natural. Patients open up, as if they've been waiting for someone to listen to them.  Conversation naturally flows into spiritual things and I'm able to tell them of the Great Physician - the One who wants to heal their souls.  I have found my niche.  I have been equipped to go into so many different situations, whether it's with the old men at the VA or in Africa and as I care for people, I am given opportunity to share the Good News.

Not only did nursing school provide a platform for sharing the gospel, but he also gave me a friend and a partner in ministry.  Enter Mandie: alike in vision, goals, desires and upbringing, but completely different in personality.  She is my visionary, the one who keeps me on track, and the one who needs a details person in her life.  We are kindred spirits and now share a vision for the next few years.  Not only does she answer the second weakness, but also the third.

What does all this mean?

One month ago this weekend, Mandie and I were sitting at Panera in Charlotte with Patty and stumbled across Katie's blog.  We don't know Katie, or even the path we took to get to her blog.  But here we were, fascinated by her life in Uganda, Mandie to the point that she emailed Katie to ask her if she needed a nurse.  Mandie and I have had many conversations about nursing overseas and adopting children, but at that point, I had no idea when I would go back overseas, and I assumed it would probably be back to China.  Little did I know that I was at the beginning of something completely new, completely unexpected, and completely supernatural.

Mandie and I have both applied to the pediatric nurse practitioner program at MUSC.  It's online and we thought the first year didn't include any clinicals. On a whim (at least I think it was a whim), Mandie suggested we go talk to our favorite faculty and ask her if it was possible to do the first year overseas.  We were blown away by her response: "why just the first year?  If you want to work overseas as PNP anyway, why not do the whole thing overseas?" WHAT??? I was so not expecting that.  She cautioned us that we'd have to find a qualified and US licensed health care provider to sign off on our clinical paperwork, but she said other than that detail, it should be feasible. Her advice was to wait till we were officially accepted to the program before we went and asked for permission.  We said ok, and went home to dream about the possibilities.  In the meantime, she did not heed her own advice to us and talked to the Director of the DNP (under which the PNP falls) and the DEAN of the College of Nursing and got them on board with our idea.  So, we had permission to pursue living overseas, but nowhere specifically to go.

Since Katie had inspired us with her work in Uganda, we started thinking about the possibilities there.  We knew people that had been to Uganda on short term medical missions trips through Palmetto Medical Initiative started by a couple of people from Charleston.  A friend of Mandie's put us in touch with the founders.  We met with them for coffee a few days after having met with our instructor to ask about the possibilities that Uganda had for doing long term medical work there.  We knew they took short term trips there, but were surprised when they told us of their plans to build a hospital in Masindi, Uganda.  Not only were they building a hospital but they needed health care professionals to staff it!  They were even willing to sign our clinical paperwork for the above mentioned graduate program.  One week after giving Mandie a dream to go to Uganda (and me by proxy), we had a specific place and a specific ministry.

Thus, the third step was to find a sending agency.  At this point, we aren't sure PMI is big enough to facilitate us going.  Mandie has experienced how hard it is to go without a sending agency and I've had a good experience with PIONEERS International, so we started communicating with PI to see if they'd be willing to send us and allow us to work under the leadership of PMI.  Mandie is working on the application and planning to go to the March Orientation and I've begun the process of emailing Member Care and the East Africa PI leadership to find out if we would fit into their vision.

So...all this to say, a month ago I was discouraged by having applied to 30 jobs and not having found one.  The Lord seemed to have something better in mind and has opened doors I did not know existed.  Now, we're pursuing Uganda until the Lord shuts doors that only He can shut.  He has provided for the weaknesses He and I both knew I had.  I was sharing all this with a friend who was not at all surprised and commented: "on-a-dime turns are the way with the Lord."  Just like that God has changed my direction.

The timeline so far:

• January 9: Find Katie's blog and start dreaming
• January 14: Meet with Dr. Bennett to ask about the PNP program
• January 17: Meet with Matt and Ed from PMI about their hospital in Uganda
• January 18: I go home and talk to my parents about it in depth...they're on board so far, provided Uganda is politically stable
• January 19: At a meeting about a trip to Honduras in February, Mandie runs into a man who is going on the March trip to Uganda with PMI.  When he finds out Mandie is planning to move there in August without having gone on a survey trip, he offers to pay for her to go in March
• January 22: Mandie has her phone interview with PI...it doesn't go as well as we would like, but we aren't discouraged yet.  In the meantime, I've emailed the Africa Member Care person who has directed me to the East Africa Regional Leader.
• January 23: Mandie leaves for Honduras on a medical mission trip.  We are happy to learn she has internet access once she gets there so that we can communicate.
• January 26: the Africa Regional Leader emails me back to tell me he likes our vision for Masindi.  He's in the process of appointing an Area Leader and that they'll get back to me towards the end of February to discuss details.
• February: Find a job in Charleston or Hilton Head that will pay bills, pay student loans, and contribute to my life overseas.
• February 1: PMI's board meets and Matt presents our bios and resumes.  They are as serious as we are about it.
• February 2: I meet with the Member Care Director.  She's really encourages me and is excited by the vision we have.  She says she'll be our advocate down at Headquarters and explain our vision to the Africa Member Care person.
• February 3: I met with the Elders of Grace Community Church. They're excited about the future and have asked to be my sending church...well, I hadn't planned on anyone else...so it's good that they offered.  They're seeing a lot of things happening in Uganda and are excited about how the Lord is moving people that way.
• February 6: Mandie returns from Honduras and we start working out a time to meet with Matt in the upcoming week.
• February 8: Michael and Amanda O'Neal are moving to Uganda to oversee the building of the hospital.
• February 10: We're meeting Matt for coffee to talk about the details of going to Uganda. ** UPDATE - we were able to start talking about logistics of moving there.  Matt asks me to go to Uganda in March with the team. He says we'll figure out the funding! I have a ticket to Uganda
• February 19-26: Mandie is going back to Honduras to show a documentary she filmed during the first trip.
• End of February: Hopefully we'll hear that our vision fits with PIONEERS vision and that they'll help us get there....then we can start raising support.
• March: Hopefully find out we've been accepted to MUSC's Pediatric Nurse Practitioner Program
• March 5-15: Mandie and I are going on a medical mission trip/survey trip to Uganda with PMI.
• March 21-26: Candidate Orientation Program at PI headquarters in Orlando...I'm confident they'll take Mandie...she's not so sure.
• March 31-April 14: Mandie is going to Brazil with her grandparents.
• Summer: Raise support, prepare for Uganda, work on my Bible Credit requirements for PI, work, enjoy relationships
• August: Lord-willing, move to Uganda for at least two years...who knows....it might last longer.