Count your blessings

If anyone still reads this.... this is for you.

God has blessed me so much in the past few months. There's really not enough time to recount his blessings, and I should hit the sack since I actually have to get up early to drop my roomie off at work tomorrow (ah the life of sleeping in and having no schedule). I apologize for not posting earlier, but I don't regret not posting and justify it due to the personal nature of my journey and growth. Being in Tennessee with my parents and brother and pets and garden and cows across the street has been wonderfully rejuvenating and restorative. Working at the urgent care/family practice clinic as a scribe was enlightening and informative. It gave me motivation and purpose. I mean, God created work before the fall, so of course it has a purpose in our lives. Think of the proverb that says something to this effect: Look to the ant, you sluggard! lol

I had the best counselor and can really look back and see the distance I've come. This journey is certainly being incorporated into my testimony, but the story isn't over yet--which is a reason why I haven't released details to many people. Eventually, though, I can see me sharing this story to the benefit of others and the glory of God. There are so many things I have learned. I'll leave you with one: I have only the energy God has given me for today--not for tomorrow or next week.

My first year as a medical student begins with orientation Aug 5th and with classes Aug. 16th. I have a great M2 (second-year) buddy who gave me some great advice to avoid complaining about studying. I want to enjoy every minute of it and learn as much as I can to be the best doctor out there.

Here's a blessing list:
1) I'm getting a relatively new Dell 1440 laptop for FREE from a generous friend in TN (saving me the leftover mission funds)
2) My M2 buddy just lent me 12 books for school! (think $$$ textbooks)
3) I have a great roommate who's also a great friend.
4) We have a nice apartment (aka "flat") really close to the pool, tennis courts, and laundry facilities.
5) fast internet
6) a super family that I love love love
7) special extra time I've had with my parents and brother
8) extra knowledge of UTIs, broken bones, and medicines and other useful facts I've gleaned from work
9) a beautiful and loving dog I call Meg
10) a FREE dining table with 6 chairs
11) a visit with my friend who's going back to Malawi
12) experiencing love the way God desires to express it to a daughter of the King all the time at the Emmaus Walk #75 of the Cumberlands (De Colores!)
and etc.

Praise God who gives so richly and lavishes his love on us!

Just a thought or two...

Reflection on Lou's last post (since I tried twice to comment):

When the head doctor at Satellite Med where my mom works (and now I do too) found out about what happened, he cried out to God. He asked where God was when this happened to His precious child serving him on the mission field. God condescended to give this reply: I WAS there; I kept her alive.

I know this to be true. I've never prayed harder in my life as I did that night. He kept me calm and gave me the fight I needed. I don't know what his purposes are with regards to this....but I'm banking on the fact that he is God. His purposes are so much bigger than me. If I have to sacrifice...a lot...for his global redemption of peoples of every nation, if I have to realize he accomplishes his purposes without my help..., if I have to lose many valuable and intangible parts of me for his greater good, then I have no choice but to say, Yes, Lord.

Real friends send packages... :)

This is Amy and me at Opry Mills. She's such a great friend to come visit the week after I arrived. Unfortunately for her, I was still so jet-lagged.



She'd mailed me a package that arrived in Uganda a few days after I left, so one of the ladies at AIM was kind enough to bring it in a suitcase and repackage/mail it back once she was in the U.S. It would've been fun to get this in Uganda, but it was especially meaningful now. I wonder if my big Christmas box from my family will EVER arrive in Mbarara. My mom spent way too much money on that.

So, I'm working now as a scribe at an urgent care/family practice clinic. Scribes input information into the computer chart system for the provider (doctor or NP) during the Hx and exam. I also fax prescriptions to pharmacies, order lab or x-rays, and put in billing info (per provider orders). I'm learning to connect generic medicine names with the frequently heard-of names and to correlate those drugs with the diagnosis of the patient. I'm also learning medical lingo, such as cerumen impaction, which means wax-stuffed ear canal. My favorite term is nevus--what a funny word for a mole!

Puppy pictures!

Meg sure is getting bigger and bigger. What a cutie. She's a pretty quiet dog, too, except when she growls.

That's a yawn.

It's like she's tired of me taking pictures of her.

Back in the U.S.

Newsflash:

I'm back in the U.S. That's my new puppy above. Her name is Meg. She's a mix between Great Pyrenees and Commondore. She will be BIG when she grows up. Here's what I sent to supporters:

Dear friends, family, and supporters,

You deserve to know that I am no longer on the field in Uganda. An emergency arose last week which required my immediate evacuation. There is no intention for me to return to Uganda because of the trauma I experienced. While the original plan was for me to come home in May, this is the new plan. Thankfully, I returned safely to my family in Tennessee, where I'll stay until moving to start medical school in August.

Though I planned to be there eight months, God only needed half that time to accomplish what he willed. I'm reminded of Proverbs 16:9: "In his heart a man plans his course, but the LORD determines his steps." It is difficult for me to convey to you how I ministered there, as I was unaware of how God was using me in the lives of those I loved. From the testimonies of my fellow teammates, I'm realizing that my ministry supported the long-term work in Mbarara many times over what I could have imagined.

I look forward to sharing with you about the ministries that I was blessed to be a part of in Uganda. I may be making a trip to Mississippi in late February, so I hope to see you then!

My attention span is short and I need to get to the posta before it closes, so I'll put more up later. But I do say AMEN to all the scripture posted on my friend's blog (which isn't allowing me to comment). See Psalm 121..Ecclesiastes..oh just go read it on "Go therefore"

God has a way, and I have a challenge

Every Tuesday night, the missionary team with AIM in Mbarara (plus some adopted missionaries) has a dinner and team meeting. Usually we share some business and prayer requests. We generally laugh and sometimes cry together as we share stories of the goings-on. During the prayer time, when I manage to focus on the prayer and even God instead of myself, I often get choked up in response to the Spirit moving through someone's words.

Tonight, I was moved by a prayer about how God gets things done when we think there is no possible way to resolve a situation. This was a referral to the destruction of about half the hospital wards in preparation for a new and expanded facility (with a few stories even). The memo for relocated the affected wards, inc. TB, Emergency, and Burns wards as well as the Radiology dept. designated the places where to move (or "shift" as they say here). However, beside the list for Orthotic Workshop (which serves for 10 districts in Uganda) and Physiotherapy were these words: "To be determined after consult with the contractors."

Haha! All I can do is laugh, since the contractors have no idea and just go back to the hospital administration, who wrote the memo. Now these departments (or ministries of health--MOH) are not actual buildings. They are "containers" bought and placed by Italians. The physio dept. will get a space in the new facility, but the orthotic workshop cannot; it has large and heavy equipment that would vibrate the floors and walls and crack concrete ones after some time. So there's no space for any of us in the meantime--meaning no outpatient physio for a year likely and no workshop at all once demolished.

We've done inventory in our dept. so are ready for a move when we know where to go. Otherwise we've been literally watching ourselves get fenced in by the construction while the wards beside us are hammered and chiseled to bits.

Now, thankfully, God has worked by mobilizing the Ugandan association for the disabled to raise concern and funding for our reallocation. It's a grassroots movement! They got the Minister of Disability (or something to that effect) to chat with the Minister of Health about this. When we are helpless, we have the Helper.

Which really is how I feel many times in the hospital: helpless. I have a mental struggle between the positive benefit of me coming as a learner and the wearing feeling of not having the knowledge to really DO something, medically, for these patients who tug at my heart when no one seems to pay them attention.

See, coming in as a learner, not as an expert, is a key for transformational development. By asking the nurses to teach me, their confidence in their work gets a major boost. I'm enabling them to show me what they can do (which sometimes may not get done). And I'm bringing attention to needs without telling them what is wrong. In essence, I'm encouraging them to take control and realize they have power to make a difference in their own country. Even Zillah has told me what a change she's seen in Janet, my coworker physio assistant, since I've come. I can't take credit for that--I didn't know it was happening. It's all God's work.

On the other hand, there's a patient vomiting and cool to the touch, but all the physicians on surgical ward are either med students who can't help me or surgeons who are busy in the surgical theatre. Patients in surgical ward may have a doctor look at them once a week as they await surgery, which can be a wait up to months. For instance, the lady whose name sounds like Elevator. She suffered from malicious acid burn and waited over a month for mobilizing surgery before heading to her village for Christmas. She's just come back in January to again wait to move up the list. It's just really frustrating. I have to stop comparing this to what I've known to be the case in America.

Well, I hope these jumbled thoughts strike a chord with you. May God lead you to pray for his ministry at the hospital in Mbarara--from the physiotherapy work Zillah and I do to the HIV testing and lab work Lou does. I'm challenging you to think of someone besides yourself and say a prayer for him or her every day for the next week. Let me know how it goes--that is, if you are willing to accept the challenge.

Much love from Mbarara, from your sister in Christ, Lindsey

Quick (or not so quick) note

Happy New Year!! Someone mentioned that we are starting a new decade. I hadn't even thought about it that way. It seems pretty natural to be 2010.

Yes, I have many things to say about my holiday season. Unfortunately, I have to be up tomorrow decorating for the women's conference put on by Life Ministries (aka Campus Crusade in Uganda). Actually, I rent my living quarters from the family who work with LM. So the wife will likely call me early in the a.m. to make sure I'm ready to help. She called me at 7:00 this morning (when I only went to bed at 2). Once she called at 6:30 to invite me to breakfast. Oh well, I know doctors are called at all hours.

Christmas Day I spent with a beautiful Ugandan family. Rev. Charles M teaches at Uganda Bible Institute, and Lou and I met him during our homestay at his friend Johnson's house. When he learned of my studies and interests, he decided I should meet his eldest daughter Shelia. She's aspiring to be a neurosurgeon (!!) and also loves music. She's a great singer. In fact the whole family sings. Charles and his wife Escovia have 4 children--3 girls and 1 boy on the end--and are expecting another very soon.

Anyway, I arrived at their house by 9:30 Christmas morning and traveled to the village to hear Charles preach in the church of his childhood. We arrived there at maybe 10:30 and didn't head back for lunch until maybe 2:30. Going to a village church is a whole-day affair.

The 27th, I went on holiday (or vacation) with two other girls. We camped in Fort Portal. We saw many rare birds like turacos and hornbills, many monkeys, caves, waterfalls, hot springs, the northern foothills of the Rwenzori mountain range, and even the Semliki River that borders Congo. New Year's Eve, we biked around crater lakes and to some falls with a guide. That was supposed to be a 3 hour mtn biking excursion but it became a 4.5 hour marathon. Even the guide admitted he was tired. The whole way back was uphill. Whew, I'm out of shape but add the elevation, heat, and terrible roads to that and you get a bad combination. I have scars to prove it. But afterwards we cooled off with a swim in a crater lake.

That night, after returning to Mbarara, we joined a party at the New Zealander's (Kiwi) house. Everyone enjoyed playing the animal game and a similar one called signs. On their front porch, we watched fireworks set off by the Lakeview Hotel down below.