we have arrived

The airline threw away my peanut butter. Our leader almost missed the flight...i mean, not even almost...the standby people were taking seats around me. I almost got kidnapped at the airport (it's really okay mom) and I had to put my mosquito net up with medical tape (thanks MCCG). But all in all it has been a smooth trip and we have made it.

The team is beautiful. Five Haitian Americans, eight African American's, and one crazy white girl, who already gets the most attention. All of the motherly instincts deminished a little bit when I told them I'd lived in Africa for 10 weeks.

I haven't seen any patients yet, other than those that hang out on the lawn with their wrapped limbs and external fixators, but I'm ready for our 7:30 meeting!!

The food tonight tasted nothing less than Tanzanian! Rice, stew and beans. Beautiful. And some kindof watermelon juice! Delicious.

That's all for now. The internet here is wonderful and the phone works pretty well also...too bad I don't know anyone's phone numbers...

And mom, the computer didn't break.

Love to all and please pray for the adventures ahead!

Haiti

I will be traveling to Port-au-Prince Haiti from May 12-19th. I am going with seventeen other team members from a Seven Day Adventist Church in the Atlanta area and will be working as a staff nurse at the Hospital Adventiste de Diquini. This is currently the #1 Hospital in Haiti doing all orthopedic surgeries. I'm not sure as to the nature of my work yet (ER vs. ICU vs. OR) but I am open to wherever they need me.

Hospital Adventiste de Diquini's blog is here if you are interested in reading about what they've been up to. I will have internet access while I am there so I hope to update this blog as much as possible.

Thanks to all those who have been praying for me, for Haiti and for those who have given both time a resources!

the gardener.

For about five years now God has used women and girls named Mary to impact me. It's sorta weird. It started with an eleven year old girl in Africa whose story changed my life and most recently was a "patient" I took care of in the middle of the interstate after she was ejected from a van.

Today it was Mary Magdalene. The controversial one. The one more speculated about than perhaps any other. The one whose role we don't really understand except that we often see ourselves in her.

My pastor read from John 20 this morning and I think Mary impacted me differently than she ever has. It's after she sees that the tomb is empty and she is so wrapped up in her emotions, stress, frustration and perhaps anger that she doesn't even recognize Jesus in front of her.

"(the angels) said to her, 'Woman why are you weeping?' She said to them, 'They have taken away my Lord, and I don't know where they have laid him.' Having said this she turned around and saw Jesus standing, but she did not know it was Jesus. Jesus said to her, 'Woman why are you weeping? Whom are you seeking?' Supposing him to be the gardener she said to him, 'Sir if you have carried him away, tell me where you have laid him and I will take him away." Jesus said to her, 'Mary.'

Then she gets it. He says her name and she hears Him. She hears Him and she sees Him.

Then Jesus tells her, 'go.' He sends her to tell others.

Mary reminds me so much of myself here. I am often so caught up in my own stress, confusion and agenda that I miss the Jesus standing before me.

My speech to the gardener as of late has been, "But what should I do? I could take this great job in Atlanta or I could join Doctors Without Borders. What if I just quit my job and move to Haiti, that's what I really want to do...I mean, there is a reason I'm a trauma nurse. But what about HIV patients? I've thought I was supposed to work with them since I was fifteen. I could be a camp nurse for the summer so I have more time to figure it out, and weekends off...Or should I just stay in Macon and take that job at the clinic? I could help plant that church in Milledgville! I have five years of memories there...But I really wanted to be a nurse in Africa...I didn't go to nursing school to be a nurse in the US..."

"Jessica."

Ohh.

"Go. Just go and tell people that I have risen. Forget what you're worried about and all the things stressing you out. Forget the stuff that you think matters so much. Just say to them, tell them that I have risen. It's all that really matters."

The gardener Jesus listens to me whine about my life as Mary stressed that the body was missing.

The gardener Jesus just wants me to tell them. Tell them that it's true. Tell them that He did die. Tell them that the tomb is empty. That the curtain was torn. That He is Risen.

Tell them that nothing else matters.

~afflictions ecplised by glory~

One of my close friend's from high school was killed in a car accident two years ago today. How strange. If I could create superlatives for all of my friends she would be the one that was most like Jesus. It's crazy to me that His perfect plan was to take her so soon.

This morning I was reading the second chapter of "Crazy Love" by Francis Chan and he mentioned a young girl who was in love with Jesus, she started a Bible Study at her middle school, purchased Bibles for her friends with her babysitting money and was killed in a car accident at age fourteen. 200 teenagers professed new faith in Christ at her funeral service.

The whole time I was reading I thought of my friend Jessica Pety. It wasn't till after reading that I realized today was the day Jessica passed. It's funny how God works.

There are some people so inspiring in their love for people that I don't think they can ever be forgotten. Jessica was one of those. She was selfless and loving. She held Bible Study for high schoolers at her house at 6am before school, served as a prayer warrior at my church, put others before herself...always, and was killed with others from her mission team on her way to serve for six months overseas. The church van was hit head on.

Jessica impacted so many people while she was here. But it was only because she got it. Francis Chan says, "the point of your life is to point to Him. Whatever you are doing, God wants to be glorified, because this whole thing is His."

Jessica understood that, like no other person I know or have known. I was so blessed to be her friend.

~He is Hope~

I have been trying to get to Haiti for eight days. Following a lunch last Thursday with a Med Student friend of mine, I came home, turned on CNN and spend at least an hour on the internet trying to find someone who would take me there.

I rarely make the statement that God has called me to do something, usually because I always fear that it is, in fact, myself that's created the calling. But in this case, I'm not sure what else my motivation would be.

I spent close to an hour on a conference call last week with over 900 RN's from all over the nation who want to travel to Haiti and help. I hung up even more frustrated that I couldn't just fly myself there. I even, in my ignorance at the time, checked the web to see if there were any commercial flights going out...only to see Delta's "no flights match your search" come across my screen.

For the last week or so I have had to limit my CNN watching as images anger me and leave me screaming at the television, myself, and God...WHY AM I NOT THERE!?!?

Today tears ran down my cheeks as I watched two men bleed to death in the middle of the street after being shot for "stealing rice." They claimed the rice had been a gift, but whatever the case, no Good Samaritan stopped. A news crew just headlined the story.

I am anxious to go, and know, like my pastor said the me tonight, "It's going to be hell down there." I don't think I can even imagine what I will encounter, even two weeks from the quake.

Joel 2 blew my mind last night as I read it with CNN reporters in the background.

Yet even now, declares the Lord
return to me with all your heart,
with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning,
and rend your hearts and not your garments.

Return to the Lord your God, for he is gracious and merciful,
slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love;
and he relents over disaster.

Who knows whether he will not turn and relent,
and leave blessing behind him,
a grain offering and a drink offering
for the Lord you God?

...then the Lord became jealous for His land
and had pity on his people.
The Lord answered and said to his people,

Behold, I am sending to you grain, wine, and oil,
and you will be satisfied; and I will no more make you a reproach among nations...

I will restore to you the years that the swarming locust has eaten...
you shall eat in plenty and be satisfied and praise the name of the Lord your God who has dealt wondrously with you.

And my people shall never again be put to shame.

You shall know that I am in the midst of Israel,
and that I am the LORD YOUR GOD and there is none else.

AND MY PEOPLE SHALL NEVER AGAIN BE PUT TO SHAME."


He was the Hope for Israel, He is the Hope for Haiti.