I’ve been around a lot in this world compared to my grandma. She has never been farther south than my college in Georgia. She also has not been farther west than Nashville for the Grand Ol’ Opry….and well, her northern ventures have never taken her farther north than her home in the mountains of West Virginia. I love her so much. I love her spirit and her smile, her never ending prayers, and her incredible soft touch to my forehead with anointing oil. I may not meet a tougher woman. Sure, she has a little dementia now and forgets stuff…..but I’ll never get tired of her singing an old hymn in the kitchen…..or telling me stories over and over. She is my maw maw. She is so special to me.
We are all so so special to Christ. It overwhelms me to think of his love so strong for so many people. I think of my grandma now because I saw that same spirit in a woman about her age in the village last week as a patient. She was so talkative. OH, and she had a slurred country accent….which meant I couldn’t understand much of what she was saying in Spanish. When she simply did not understand me trying to say “relax” over and over so I could treat her with OMM I just asked her if she understood….she stopped for a second…said “no”….gave me a big giant smile and a hug and kept on talking. It reminded me of my maw maw so much. It made me miss home. It made me see once more in my life that this woman is so incredibly special to Jesus.
I had to get rid of my cats. We moved to a new house and the owners barely let us keep our dogs, so the we had to find homes for the cats. Well, when we couldn’t, we had to take them to the shelter. Justin, my brother in law who worked in a vet shelter, told me that they euthanize animals because they are not special to anyone. In a way that is true. It is always worse to have to put someone’s pet down that they love. It absolutely broke my heart to think of Sierra sitting in a cage about to be killed. I care about that cat…I just couldn’t keep her. My dad went and saved them on Friday because they were about to kill them. I made Jon promise me they wouldn’t kill them. I think mike’s mom is going to take them. Now they are living in my mom’s garage for a while.
Why stay locked up in a cage waiting to die when you are so special to an amazing God?
I was in an orphanage yesterday and a little boy just sat in my lap for like 30 minutes and hugged me. I rubbed his back and rocked him. He is 6 years old. He looked up to me and asked if I was his mom. I said, no, I am your doctor…..
So so special to me…..so much more special to Jesus.
I saw a 29 year old man with full blown AIDS this morning in the hospital that is an alcoholic and decided to stop taking his anti-retroviral drugs. He is so special. God is crying out for him. He is crying out for us…..his special, important, and overwhelmingly loved children…..no matter where we are, how alone we are, or how worthless or careless we are……nothing changes. He is in love with us. I said the only phrase I knew…..
No se desanime….dios lo bendiga
don’t lose hope….god bless you
Wednesday, January 14, 2009
Monday, January 5, 2009
Papusas Rock
I am sitting here in El Salvador armed with a 2 liter of Fanta Naranja and a belly full of Poopapias.
El Salvador is incredible so far, and I just landed yesterday afternoon. My preceptor, a doctor from here in this country, picked us up at the airport, took us to the grocery store (where I purchased my beautiful sweet nectar of fanta), and then him and his family took us out to a welcome dinner: papusas. A flat double layered circular corn tortilla filled with beans, cheese, and pork….that I nicely layered with some vinager based spicy cabbage and tomato sauce and ate with my hands. I love this culture…..almost as much as I love kilt lettuce.
The weather is incredible. It was 20 degrees when I left Virginia, and I’m sitting in the bedroom now and its 80 degrees with a nice ocean breeze blowing through the window. I love it. This is no vacation though. My Spanish is being stretched big time. The doctors wife does not speak Spanish, so I got frustrated right off. I have never been able to hold on to this language enough to really communicate well in all these years of travelling to central/south America. Well, now I simply have to. It’s just me......and a Spanish phrase book I bought at barnes and noble. Oh, and all that sentence structure in my head from costa rica immersion school with the really stinky swedish guy. Apparently, it will come together. Frankly, I’m scared to death! I have always relied too much on people around me to get the Spanish. Now I’m forced to learn it. A good thing, but makes me even more uncomfortable. Comfort isn’t what this mission is about, though.
Just to let you few who read this blog in, I am in San Salvador, El Salvador on an international rotation through VCOM (my medical school). They have a very nice apartment for us to stay in and Dr. Inglesias, a doctor here, takes us with him to various villages and orphanages. It’s a rotation just like my rotations in the states….pretty intense reading and cases and presentations…..the whole 9 yards. The technical term for the rotation is “Underserved Care”, and the majority of other students in my class do the rotation in very rural clinics in Virginia and North Carolina. Opportunities like this are why I went to VCOM…they really have a focus on training up missionaries. It’s technically a school learning experience and not a mission trip per say, but I am definitely open to being used by Jesus. I’m hoping that happens and that’s also why I’m here!
Just a little about what I am doing all month:
My mission will take me to four rural northern villages, where I will care for citizens who, without VCOM or the ministries in El Salvador, would not have access to medical care. I will also care for orphans from three homes, two of which have predominately HIV-positive children. I will care for severely malnourished infants in one additional mission site. All care is under the direction of Dr. Inglesias, who is an awesome teacher and is also bilingual. The ministry partners include “Casa De Mi Padre,” and Love Links orphanage and I believe that one of the orphanages is Catholic run. I don’t know much about these ministries right now but I am very excited to learn.
Please keep me in your prayers that I will stay focused and patient in both speaking Spanish and being a light for Christ here in El Salvador.
El Salvador is incredible so far, and I just landed yesterday afternoon. My preceptor, a doctor from here in this country, picked us up at the airport, took us to the grocery store (where I purchased my beautiful sweet nectar of fanta), and then him and his family took us out to a welcome dinner: papusas. A flat double layered circular corn tortilla filled with beans, cheese, and pork….that I nicely layered with some vinager based spicy cabbage and tomato sauce and ate with my hands. I love this culture…..almost as much as I love kilt lettuce.
The weather is incredible. It was 20 degrees when I left Virginia, and I’m sitting in the bedroom now and its 80 degrees with a nice ocean breeze blowing through the window. I love it. This is no vacation though. My Spanish is being stretched big time. The doctors wife does not speak Spanish, so I got frustrated right off. I have never been able to hold on to this language enough to really communicate well in all these years of travelling to central/south America. Well, now I simply have to. It’s just me......and a Spanish phrase book I bought at barnes and noble. Oh, and all that sentence structure in my head from costa rica immersion school with the really stinky swedish guy. Apparently, it will come together. Frankly, I’m scared to death! I have always relied too much on people around me to get the Spanish. Now I’m forced to learn it. A good thing, but makes me even more uncomfortable. Comfort isn’t what this mission is about, though.
Just to let you few who read this blog in, I am in San Salvador, El Salvador on an international rotation through VCOM (my medical school). They have a very nice apartment for us to stay in and Dr. Inglesias, a doctor here, takes us with him to various villages and orphanages. It’s a rotation just like my rotations in the states….pretty intense reading and cases and presentations…..the whole 9 yards. The technical term for the rotation is “Underserved Care”, and the majority of other students in my class do the rotation in very rural clinics in Virginia and North Carolina. Opportunities like this are why I went to VCOM…they really have a focus on training up missionaries. It’s technically a school learning experience and not a mission trip per say, but I am definitely open to being used by Jesus. I’m hoping that happens and that’s also why I’m here!
Just a little about what I am doing all month:
My mission will take me to four rural northern villages, where I will care for citizens who, without VCOM or the ministries in El Salvador, would not have access to medical care. I will also care for orphans from three homes, two of which have predominately HIV-positive children. I will care for severely malnourished infants in one additional mission site. All care is under the direction of Dr. Inglesias, who is an awesome teacher and is also bilingual. The ministry partners include “Casa De Mi Padre,” and Love Links orphanage and I believe that one of the orphanages is Catholic run. I don’t know much about these ministries right now but I am very excited to learn.
Please keep me in your prayers that I will stay focused and patient in both speaking Spanish and being a light for Christ here in El Salvador.
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