Do you have trust issues?
I think that most of us, predominantly due to some negative past experience, have trust issues. Maybe you are reluctant to share something with your family because of some past hurt. Maybe you are afraid to share something that is close to your heart in your church small group because you are unsure that confidentiality will be maintained. Regardless of the reason, we all have some degree of trust issues.
But, do you have a trust issue with God? Do we believe the God we believe in ?
It is so easy to say "I trust God", but do your actions speak louder than your words?
Jeneson and I were talking about this the other day and he said that seeing the trust that his parents had helped foster the trust in God that he has. As he puts it: "during difficult times they prayed, during more difficult times they prayed even harder and longer and during good times they prayed even harder and longer than before." He saw time and time again when there was no human way for something to occur and through prayer and trust in God they were provided for. What a wonderful legacy to leave your children!
Jeneson and I pray that we are demonstrating our trust in God to our children through our words and deeds. There have been many times where we were unsure of the next step, but prayerfully placed our trust in our Heavenly Father. He has often provided over and above what we were praying for!
God does not respond to our desperation as much as He responds to our faith and trust in Him. Sometimes it is that desperation that breaks us and brings us to our knees and causes us to trust God.
However, we cannot mistake a cry of desperation for trust.When we compare and contrast the healing of the woman with the issue of blood for twelve years and the daughter of Jairus (Mark 5:21-43), we see in the woman a mixture of faith and desperation, and Jesus is quick seek her out and tell her that it her faith in Him and not her desperation or superstition that brought about her healing. To Jairus who is waiting beside Him anxiously, Jesus continues to admonish 'Do not fear, Only believe'. God wants our genuine, no holds barred trust and faith, not a plan B of our own self-reliance.
Are you trusting God whole heartedly? Do you believe the God you believe in when He says 'only believe' ?
Wednesday, November 23, 2011
Saturday, November 19, 2011
Yet Another Conference
So, yesterday I returned home from yet another conference. This time it was only me going. Jeneson stayed home and worked and took care of the kids; I have such a wonderful husband!
First, THANK YOU!!!!! to the many friends and family who pulled together to help watch the kids so that we were able to attend these conferences. It is no small feat to find somebody to watch our three kids for three and four day stretches of time.
The is last conference was regarding midwifery skills that are transferable to developing countries. It was enlightening and challenging. I learned some horrible statistics about the state of women's health in developing countries and how dangerous it is to be pregnant and give birth in areas with no resources. For example in the US the lifetime risk of maternal death is 1 in 2,500 (which is actually high for a developed country), but the lifetime risk of maternal death in Sierra Leone is 1 in 6. Yes, 1 in 6.
The biggest determinants of maternal and newborn deaths are the health of the mother and whether or not she had a skilled birth attendant present at the delivery.
After being a witness to an African delivery (see my blog post African Birth) I felt compelled to learn more about labor and delivery and managing complications. Through Internet searches God led me to this organization that sets up birth centers and trains midwives in the Philippines. The head Midwife comes to the US a couple of times a year to teach these courses. The course taught me many new things and brought to mind even more that I need to look up and research before we move to Sierra Leone. Vicky will be a great resource in the future.
I am blessed to have all these resources at hand and pray that God will continue to lead us as week seek to be as prepared as possible for Sierra Leone.
First, THANK YOU!!!!! to the many friends and family who pulled together to help watch the kids so that we were able to attend these conferences. It is no small feat to find somebody to watch our three kids for three and four day stretches of time.
The is last conference was regarding midwifery skills that are transferable to developing countries. It was enlightening and challenging. I learned some horrible statistics about the state of women's health in developing countries and how dangerous it is to be pregnant and give birth in areas with no resources. For example in the US the lifetime risk of maternal death is 1 in 2,500 (which is actually high for a developed country), but the lifetime risk of maternal death in Sierra Leone is 1 in 6. Yes, 1 in 6.
The biggest determinants of maternal and newborn deaths are the health of the mother and whether or not she had a skilled birth attendant present at the delivery.
After being a witness to an African delivery (see my blog post African Birth) I felt compelled to learn more about labor and delivery and managing complications. Through Internet searches God led me to this organization that sets up birth centers and trains midwives in the Philippines. The head Midwife comes to the US a couple of times a year to teach these courses. The course taught me many new things and brought to mind even more that I need to look up and research before we move to Sierra Leone. Vicky will be a great resource in the future.
I am blessed to have all these resources at hand and pray that God will continue to lead us as week seek to be as prepared as possible for Sierra Leone.
Sunday, November 13, 2011
Post Mission Conference Musings
Last night Jeneson and I returned from the Global Mission Health Conference. There is just something magical about being in a room with over a thousand other people who feel the call of medical missions in their lives and lifting up our voices to praise our God.
It was a fabulous time together listening to some great speakers and learning a TON of new information about fun stuff like vaccinations, TB, malaria, intestinal worms, etc... The main speakers had many encouraging words for us and we often felt that they were speaking directly to us!
One of the speakers was Charles Fielding, the author of Preach and Heal. During one of his talks in reference to medical missionaries he said that:
"It may not be safe or easy, but it is right."
This profound statement hit us like a ton of bricks! There are many out there who question our sanity and reason for going over to Sierra Leone with three small children. This statement sums it up. While there may not be any clearly logical reason for us going, this is what we have felt God lay on our hearts to do and where we feel that God is leading us.
And yes, it WILL NOT be easy. We will face many challenges both as a family and medically. There will be physical, emotional, and spiritual hardships.
And yes, it WILL NOT be safe. While there is not much violence in Sierra Leone, there are plenty of other dangers in terms of disease, snakes, and poor road conditions.
But it is RIGHT. This is where we are supposed to be going. This is what we are supposed to be doing.
But, we also need your help. It will be the prayers of the people that will help us during those rough times. Even if we don't know when or what you are praying, just knowing THAT you are praying will give us encouragement.
It was a fabulous time together listening to some great speakers and learning a TON of new information about fun stuff like vaccinations, TB, malaria, intestinal worms, etc... The main speakers had many encouraging words for us and we often felt that they were speaking directly to us!
One of the speakers was Charles Fielding, the author of Preach and Heal. During one of his talks in reference to medical missionaries he said that:
"It may not be safe or easy, but it is right."
This profound statement hit us like a ton of bricks! There are many out there who question our sanity and reason for going over to Sierra Leone with three small children. This statement sums it up. While there may not be any clearly logical reason for us going, this is what we have felt God lay on our hearts to do and where we feel that God is leading us.
And yes, it WILL NOT be easy. We will face many challenges both as a family and medically. There will be physical, emotional, and spiritual hardships.
And yes, it WILL NOT be safe. While there is not much violence in Sierra Leone, there are plenty of other dangers in terms of disease, snakes, and poor road conditions.
But it is RIGHT. This is where we are supposed to be going. This is what we are supposed to be doing.
But, we also need your help. It will be the prayers of the people that will help us during those rough times. Even if we don't know when or what you are praying, just knowing THAT you are praying will give us encouragement.
Monday, November 7, 2011
Physical and Personal Preparation
Some days I feel like my To Do List is never ending. On top of the daily duties of being a stay at home Mom of three young children I constantly have in the back of my mind 'What do we need to do before we leave for Sierra Leone?'
First, health wise we need to make sure that all of our immunizations are up to date. So in addition to the routine childhood vaccinations they also need typhoid, meningitis, Hepatitis A & B, and yellow fever vaccinations. This on top of thinking of what we are going to do about malaria prophylaxis for ourselves and our children.
All of us need to have dental exams and Jeneson and I need to have eye exams. Since I wear contacts I have to carefully plan on how often I am going to change them and how many bottles of cleaner to take.
One big change that we made a couple of months back with Sofia (our 15 month old) is switching to cloth diapers. I am keeping it really simple by going 'old school' and using flats and prefolds with simple covers. For those of you out there who hear cloth diapers and think mess, laundry, diaper pins, and hassle, just do a quick 'cloth diaper' Google search. You will be astounded at the extent of cloth diapers available! It has gone quite well other than not having a nighttime solution that she doesn't soak through. I almost wish that I would have done cloth with our older two.
The other list that I am constantly going over and updating in my head is the 'what will we bring list'. More on that the next post.
First, health wise we need to make sure that all of our immunizations are up to date. So in addition to the routine childhood vaccinations they also need typhoid, meningitis, Hepatitis A & B, and yellow fever vaccinations. This on top of thinking of what we are going to do about malaria prophylaxis for ourselves and our children.
All of us need to have dental exams and Jeneson and I need to have eye exams. Since I wear contacts I have to carefully plan on how often I am going to change them and how many bottles of cleaner to take.
One big change that we made a couple of months back with Sofia (our 15 month old) is switching to cloth diapers. I am keeping it really simple by going 'old school' and using flats and prefolds with simple covers. For those of you out there who hear cloth diapers and think mess, laundry, diaper pins, and hassle, just do a quick 'cloth diaper' Google search. You will be astounded at the extent of cloth diapers available! It has gone quite well other than not having a nighttime solution that she doesn't soak through. I almost wish that I would have done cloth with our older two.
The other list that I am constantly going over and updating in my head is the 'what will we bring list'. More on that the next post.
Thursday, November 3, 2011
Professional Preparation
So how does a Physician Assistant and a Family Nurse Practitioner prepare professionally for caring for a rural population in a poor developing country. First some stats to give you a glimpse of what we will encounter. To give some perspective the numbers in purple are the US stats.
Human Development Index 180/187 countries (4/187 countries)
Average life expectancy 47 years (78 years)
Maternal mortality 970/100,000 live births (24/100,000 live births)
42% of births attended by skilled health personnel (99%)
Infant mortality rate 157/1000 live births (8/1000 live births)
Under 5 years old mortality rate 192/1000 live births with 58% of them due to malaria, pneumonia, and diarrhea (8/1000 live births with 43% attributed to prematurity and congenital abnormalities)
28% of children under the age of 5 can be categorized as being moderately to severely underweight (1%)
HIV prevalence 16/1000 adults age 15-49 (6/1000)
In Sierra Leone there are 0.2 physicians and 1.7 nurses or midwives for every 10,000 people (26.7 physicians and 98.2 nurses/midwives for every 10,000 people)
49% of the population uses clean water (99%)
This is the grim reality of life in Sierra Leone: there is great chance that you or someone you love will get very ill and great chance that they will not be able to see anybody who can help them and end up dying from a relatively simple disease process where prevention or early intervention could have made all the difference in the world.
There are a number of ways that we are preparing for this medical adventure.
Last fall we all moved to Slidell, Louisiana to enable Jeneson to attend Tulane University's Diploma program in Tropical Medicine. It was a lot of information crammed into one semester. He is also a class or two away from getting his MPH.
Last summer I attended a two week International Medicine and Public Health course held by INMED in Kansas City, MO. I was able to network with many others who are working in developing countries or preparing themselves for that task. Also, inspired by my recent observations in Sierra Leone, I am taking a two day crash course on Midwifery in Developing Countries down in Nashville. I am really looking forward to this class and hope to glean lots of information that will help improve the pregnancy and labor and delivery experiences of the women in Mokanji.
Additionally we feel like we are constantly preparing in many little ways. Next week we will travel to Louisville, KY for the Global Missions Health Conference where we will hear some excellent speakers and get some great teaching on medical and spiritual care in missions. Jeneson can often be seen walking around the house reading the Handbook of Medicine in Developing Countries. We are frequently checking out websites that might offer us some information about health care in developing countries. I follow a few blogs of people I know who are caring for people overseas.
But, most of all, we pray. We know that there will be some tough times ahead; that we cannot prepare for everything we might see or do and that there will be times when there is nothing we can offer the patient except prayer. We pray that God will sustain us during those times.
Human Development Index 180/187 countries (4/187 countries)
Average life expectancy 47 years (78 years)
Maternal mortality 970/100,000 live births (24/100,000 live births)
42% of births attended by skilled health personnel (99%)
Infant mortality rate 157/1000 live births (8/1000 live births)
Under 5 years old mortality rate 192/1000 live births with 58% of them due to malaria, pneumonia, and diarrhea (8/1000 live births with 43% attributed to prematurity and congenital abnormalities)
28% of children under the age of 5 can be categorized as being moderately to severely underweight (1%)
HIV prevalence 16/1000 adults age 15-49 (6/1000)
In Sierra Leone there are 0.2 physicians and 1.7 nurses or midwives for every 10,000 people (26.7 physicians and 98.2 nurses/midwives for every 10,000 people)
49% of the population uses clean water (99%)
This is the grim reality of life in Sierra Leone: there is great chance that you or someone you love will get very ill and great chance that they will not be able to see anybody who can help them and end up dying from a relatively simple disease process where prevention or early intervention could have made all the difference in the world.
There are a number of ways that we are preparing for this medical adventure.
Last fall we all moved to Slidell, Louisiana to enable Jeneson to attend Tulane University's Diploma program in Tropical Medicine. It was a lot of information crammed into one semester. He is also a class or two away from getting his MPH.
Last summer I attended a two week International Medicine and Public Health course held by INMED in Kansas City, MO. I was able to network with many others who are working in developing countries or preparing themselves for that task. Also, inspired by my recent observations in Sierra Leone, I am taking a two day crash course on Midwifery in Developing Countries down in Nashville. I am really looking forward to this class and hope to glean lots of information that will help improve the pregnancy and labor and delivery experiences of the women in Mokanji.
Additionally we feel like we are constantly preparing in many little ways. Next week we will travel to Louisville, KY for the Global Missions Health Conference where we will hear some excellent speakers and get some great teaching on medical and spiritual care in missions. Jeneson can often be seen walking around the house reading the Handbook of Medicine in Developing Countries. We are frequently checking out websites that might offer us some information about health care in developing countries. I follow a few blogs of people I know who are caring for people overseas.
But, most of all, we pray. We know that there will be some tough times ahead; that we cannot prepare for everything we might see or do and that there will be times when there is nothing we can offer the patient except prayer. We pray that God will sustain us during those times.
Tuesday, November 1, 2011
Spiritual Preparation
Preparing for moving our family of 5 to Sierra Leone can be a daunting task if I focus too much on the little details. So how have we prepared so far? What are some of the ways that we have been preparing spiritually, professionally, physically, and personally?
I think that, by far, our spiritual preparation has been the most integral to getting us ready for Sierra Leone. One things that has helped our spiritual preparation is knowing that this is where we are supposed to be going and what we are supposed to be doing. While we have not had any auditory revelations from God, He has certainly been showing us the way and guiding our steps of ministry by closing and opening doors and answering prayers of need in unimagined ways.
It has been a long journey to get to this point of preparation. We have been imagining our day of embarking on long-term missions for over 10 years now, from even before we were engaged. The fall of 2001 we travelled down to Texas to take a 2 week seminar on medical missions run by Mercy Ships. We were engaged December of 2001 and married June of 2002. Our honeymoon was a labor mission trip to the island of Roatan, Honduras (don't worry we did have a couple of days on the beach toward the end of our trip).
We pray often for the people of Sierra Leone and the Mokanji region that their hearts be open to our teaching and to hear the Gospel of Jesus Christ. We pray often for the people who support us in prayer and financially. We pray often that we are able to hear the still, quiet voice of God and follow his leading. We pray often for patience and provision.
We are growing in our trust and faith in Jesus Christ. I think that by relaxing our expectations and what we can achieve on an individual level we allow God to work more in our lives. One great example of this is Jeneson's job situation. He has not worked a regular full-time job in over a year, but God has amazingly provided. I guess that I should not be all that amazed about God providing because He did it all through the Bible. (Let me know if you need references for this, because I am sure I can find them). We made the decision, after much careful consideration and prayer that after coming back from India this past January that Jeneson would not take a full-time position and instead take locum tenens (short-term contracts) for work. We wanted to be completely open to God's timing for departure to Sierra Leone.
The biggest lesson we have learned is that in order for God to be faithful to his promises, you need to stop trying to do it all in your own strength and step out in faith.
I think that, by far, our spiritual preparation has been the most integral to getting us ready for Sierra Leone. One things that has helped our spiritual preparation is knowing that this is where we are supposed to be going and what we are supposed to be doing. While we have not had any auditory revelations from God, He has certainly been showing us the way and guiding our steps of ministry by closing and opening doors and answering prayers of need in unimagined ways.
It has been a long journey to get to this point of preparation. We have been imagining our day of embarking on long-term missions for over 10 years now, from even before we were engaged. The fall of 2001 we travelled down to Texas to take a 2 week seminar on medical missions run by Mercy Ships. We were engaged December of 2001 and married June of 2002. Our honeymoon was a labor mission trip to the island of Roatan, Honduras (don't worry we did have a couple of days on the beach toward the end of our trip).
We pray often for the people of Sierra Leone and the Mokanji region that their hearts be open to our teaching and to hear the Gospel of Jesus Christ. We pray often for the people who support us in prayer and financially. We pray often that we are able to hear the still, quiet voice of God and follow his leading. We pray often for patience and provision.
We are growing in our trust and faith in Jesus Christ. I think that by relaxing our expectations and what we can achieve on an individual level we allow God to work more in our lives. One great example of this is Jeneson's job situation. He has not worked a regular full-time job in over a year, but God has amazingly provided. I guess that I should not be all that amazed about God providing because He did it all through the Bible. (Let me know if you need references for this, because I am sure I can find them). We made the decision, after much careful consideration and prayer that after coming back from India this past January that Jeneson would not take a full-time position and instead take locum tenens (short-term contracts) for work. We wanted to be completely open to God's timing for departure to Sierra Leone.
The biggest lesson we have learned is that in order for God to be faithful to his promises, you need to stop trying to do it all in your own strength and step out in faith.
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