The Greater Gifts

Thanksgiving 2006 was the first official holiday hosted by my oldest sister in her then new house. I had invited some close friends to join us, a Russian mother/daughter team. While preparing my contribution to the Thanksgiving meal I received a call from my friends asking if they might bring along a close family friend of theirs "with no other place to go." Of course I said this would be fine as we all know that this is exactly what Thanksgiving is all about.
As I picked up my friend Marina on my way out to the house, I was informed that I was to pick up Oscar (the secondary guest). As she told me the address I immediately recognized it as the Union Gospel Mission downtown. (You can't work 9 years on ambulances in Seattle and not have them all memorized.) As we rolled up to the front door, Oscar was waiting. He walked with a serpentine gait and used a cane; Oscar had cerebral palsy. Oscar also had a PhD in Russian studies and a history of aplastic anemia.
Long story short, we all enjoyed a wonderful meal together. When it came time for the festivities to end, I found myself once again driving Oscar back to the mission. In the car on the way back he thanked us profusely for inviting him and said he had a wonderful time that he will never forget. "How can I pray for you," he asked. Though Oscar had "nothing" he wanted to express his gratitude and prayer was the most valuable thing he could offer. Oh, what a powerful gift it is! We prayed for more of God's love because love is: patient, kind, forgiving, selfless, rejoices in truth, never fails.
I don't know how what prayer does or how it works. All I know is that God tells us to do it and when you talk to God...

EMS Holiday Memories (Part 2)

It was Christmas Eve and I was working a 12 hour overtime night shift with a guy named J. Culvin. We'd worked overtime together before and had always gotten along just fine, but every time we worked on the same rig we ended up running back to back calls. Holding true to our tradition, we did run back to back calls setting our record at 14 calls for our 12 hour shift!
There is however, one of those 14 calls that really stands out. We were in the Northgate area when we got called by the police department to respond to an apartment complex. We were told that the scene has been secured and that we should go in. When we arrived we found the complex swarmed with at least 8 police cars. We grabbed our jump kit and stretcher and headed up the elevator. As the elevator doors opened at our destination we made the startling discovery that scene was indeed NOT clear. We were met by a man running down a hallway with a kitchen knife taped to a wooden dowel. We attempted to use the stretcher as a barrier between us and quickly closed the elevator doors just as he was tackled by police and sufficiently pepper sprayed. We then restrained him to the bed and hauled him off to "Crisis Triage Unit" (aka psych. emergency funny farm).
Our last call of the day involved picking up a flight crew at the airfield and driving in to the trauma center. When we finally finished our shift and made it back to the station our hearts sank as we realized our stretcher was still loaded with all their flight equipment. Back to the airfield we went!!!

EMS Holiday Memories

I've heard much talk of holiday memories floating around, it got me thinking about some of my own... I don't remember the exact year, but it was at least 6 years ago, I was still working working full time on the ambulances. It Thanksgiving Day and the family was gathered at my moms house. To my dismay, I was getting ready to head out for my 12 hour shift of ambulance craziness. My brother was the one carving the turkey that year. He took it upon himself to shave me off a few slices and put them in a ziplock baggy so I could have Thanksgiving dinner at work. We even packed an extra portion for my partner too.
When I got work that night we were almost immediately sent to South King County to cover Federal Way and Kent. It was a slow night and we found ourselves sitting at Federal Way quarters watching Charlie Brown's Thanksgiving while enjoying our turkey in a ziplock. I almost forgot that we were at work until finally a call went out and our pagers went off.

Bujumbura, Burundi or Bust?

A few weeks ago while checking my email I noticed a new message from Frank and Carol Ogden, a missionary couple to Burundi. I had met them a few times before, once when I sent supplies with Frank (he's a surgeon) and another time at a missions event when both of us where scheduled to speak. The message was titled invitation to Burundi! As as I read it I could hardly believe my eyes, they were inviting me to go and work at Kibuye Hospital in Burundi, a sister hospital to Kibogora (where I had taught my trauma curriculum in Rwanda)> They wanted the trauma curriculum and anything else I might be able to teach!
The origonal proposal was to go in February. Of course I told them I was interested but I would have to work things out with my own students here in Seattle. I recieved a call from last night with more information. They asked if I would be willing to teach a few classes at Hope Africa University in the nursing and medical schools there. They assured me that dates could be more flexible. It seems that the school year in Burundi begins in February and ends in December. The students at HAU would be in session while my own students at NU are on break. This could work!!!!

The Raven(s)

As I was reading of the students blog posts, I began to reminisce about nursing school and I starting looking through old pictures and papers. I found several journal entries I had made while I was in Alaska working in the villages there. Here is one them that I seem to have found at quite the opportune time.

We had a meeting at 1pm about the the community health aid program. I ended up not going because Aeromed had a flight for me to go on. Our call was in a village called Tooksook Bay. It located on Nelson Island near Night Mute. On the way to the village I got to sit in the co pilots seat. As we landed I noticed there was an overturned plane lying on the side of the runway. (This was the previous Areomed flight that didn't quite make it.)

After we landed we were picked up by a man on a "snow go" towing a wooden sled. We put all of our equipment on the sled including Tom, the flight medic, and rode along the frozen coastline to the village. Our patient was an infant with probable RSV.
During the flight back to Bethel I was looking out the window and noticing that there was absolutely nothing down there (not even trees) until you reach the village. These people were totally isolated. I was thinking about when God calls people to places like this... As I continued to look out the window I saw a raven flying below us.

I thought about Elijah at the Brook Kereth. The Lord had sent him there to escape the wicked king Ahab who was killing all the prophets of God. Even though God had sent Elijah to a remote and desolate place, He did not leave him "high and dry." God provided for him from the waters of the brook and He used the birds (ravens at that) to minister to him and bring him food.
These ravens did not bring the message of "nevermore" but rather the message of "evermore." Sometimes God leads us to desolate places, places where we think we couldn't possibly have a ministry. We just need to remember that it's all God's ministry, He doesn't need us (fortunately He wants us)to carry out His master plans. God can use even the ravens. In fact, sometimes He leads us to those places to minister to us. If we are faithful to follow God to the ends of the earth, He is faithful to provide for you forevermore.

I Kings 17:4
You will drink from the brook, and I have ordered the ravens to feed you there.