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Showing posts from May, 2015

The Creative Side of Things

A blank canvas. A ball of untouched clay. A white wall. A block of wood or stone. The artist has the ability to look at such an object and see something that is not yet there. And then they pick up a brush or a chisel and they create what their mind sees one stroke at a time.  It's amazing to me: the creativity placed in us as human beings. That creativity has to come from God, the best creator I know. He took an empty, void, dark universe and saw something there that no one else could have imagined. He saw light and a world with mountains and reefs and sunsets and people - people who he would love, but who would reject him, so he would construct a plan to sacrifice his only son in their place so that he could be reunited with them in perfection and in eternity.  Who could look at nothingness and then create that ? Such a marvelous mystery, such a wonder, such an epic story. That's our creator God.  A piece of the creator God lives in each one of us, and I belie

God Knows Her Name

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London woke me up by bounding in my room and announcing, "Mom's going to check on a baby. Do you want to come?"  I couldn't say no to that, so I jumped in some clothes and headed out the door shortly after.  I heard the story of the child on the way to the village. The mom already has six children, she had a seventh child who died at birth, and now this baby makes the eighth. It's a girl who was born in her village hut on Saturday night, prematurely at seven months of pregnancy, and weighing in at around 3 pounds. They had taken her to the hospital, who turned them away saying there was nothing they could do.  It's now Wednesday morning, and we have a baby who would be in a NICU under critical monitoring (if she was born in America) that has been living in the African bush for four days. I didn't know what to expect.  When we arrived, all the traditional greetings were given, and the family brought chairs for us to sit in under the shade o

Not A Coincidence

I remember the very first time I came to Burkina Faso. When I stepped off the airplane, the heat hit me like a blast in the face, and it instantly smelled like humidity and sweat. The sky was abnormally dark for the time of day, like the sun had decided to set an hour early, and the wind was blowing dust everywhere. We loaded our luggage into the car, and as soon as we hopped in and shut the door, the sky broke open, and it began to rain. This was no ordinary rain. It was a rain like I had never seen before, with such forceful winds and heavy drops that I actually thought I might have gotten off at the wrong spot and was actually on the coast in the middle of a hurricane. The windsheild wipers were hustling at their highest speed, and we could still only crawl down the road, which had become more like a muddy river at this point, trying to see just a few feet in front of us. I thought it wasn't supposed to rain in the desert of Burkina Faso. I had been warned that it would

Ready or Not

Today is the day , I thought when I woke up this morning.  Moving day.    After three and half months of language study in the capital city of Burkina Faso, Ouagadougou, I am now moving to phase two: village life in my new city. This is the reason I came to Burkina, to live and live and serve among the dagara people group. To offer compassionate nursing care. To provide healing in order to point people to the healer. This is what I have been dreaming about for as long as I can remember. And now it's finally here!  As I hop into my pre-loaded car and start the engine, I find myself asking a question. It's the same question that everyone asks me as soon as they find out I am moving to the village.  "Are you ready?" No, not really, I want to say.  My French isn't perfect. I still struggle with comprehension and ask people to repeat what they said. I am not a perfect nurse. I only have a year and a half of experience in labor and delivery.

Rainfall

It had to be at least 115 degrees because it felt like it was 130 inside the church building, with windows wide open and fans going full blast. Still, that didn't stop the church service from happening or the people from worshipping like they always do - with their whole bodies. It was my last time at French church with my host family, so I embraced the heat and clapped and danced along with them, even as the sweat rolled down my neck and back.  I left a few minutes early so that I could also spend my last Sunday at our English speaking church called International Bible Fellowship (or IBF) where we have members from  Belgium, France, United States, Germany, Canada, England, Northern Ireland, Nigeria, Kenya, Zimbabwe, Ghana, Burkina Faso, Vietnam, Denmark, and Netherlands. (Thanks to the Brills for doing that math for me.) IBF has been a huge blessing in my life these past four months, giving me a place to meet amazing people and worship our global God side by side.  An added bonus

Masks

Walking into the national museum, I was getting my French brain all geared up and ready to go.  I'm gonna listen really well to the guide. I am going to take what I understand and ask questions. When I don't undertand, I will be bold enough to ask him to repeat himself. This is going to be a perfect learning and practicing experience... But as soon as we walked into the door, I could not say a word.  It was only one big room with lots of small stations. At first, each station looked pretty much the same. Masks. There were masks everywhere.  The guide began his well-rehearsed presentation. "Masks play a very important role in the culture of Burkina Faso. They have a political, economic, social, and spiritual significance."  We passed from station to station, hearing the stories of the masks. The crocodile mask represented longevity. People would wear this mask during a ritual or ceremony in order to seek long life and health.  The rabbit mask represented intelligence.

All In

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I had only one chance to tell them something. This was my shot.  "Imagine this. It's a perfectly beautiful day off the coast of Hawaii." The youth group sitting on the floor in front of me quieted down a little bit as I got their attention. "What I am about to tell you is a true story. A story of the time my family went to Hawaii for Christmas, and we did what everybody who goes to Hawaii has to do. Naturally, we went snorkeling."  I flashed a picture on the PowerPoint of Molokini island, supposedly one of the top ten places in the world to snorkel. And with my best story-telling voice and hand gestures, I told them exactly what happened.  On the way out to the island, which is actually the rim of an inactive underwater volcano, our guides suddenly turned the boat in the opposite direction. "Whoa, did you see that?!" They were saying to one another. "Do you guys wanna go see some whales?" they asked us.  Watching for the sprays of whales when

Weakness and Strength

After I hung up the phone, I had a minor freak-out moment.  Geoffrey had just finished giving me a report about all the infants in our program and how they were doing. Some were in good health, and others...not so much. After hearing it all, I asked myself what I would do if I was the one making decisions in each situation.  I didn't know what I would do.  And then I realized that in two weeks when I move to the village, I will begin the ministry that I have been dreaming about for years. With that comes responsibility. I will be the one visiting these children. I will be the one making decisions about their health. And I will face situations where I do not know what to do.  There will be signs and symptoms that I do not recognize, diagnoses that I am unable to make. There will be resources that I want, but don't have.  For a nurse who has studied and trained to be equipped and knowledgable in every situation, that is an unnerving thing.  So I told the Lord