Living the Dream

This is written version of the schpeal that I gave in chapel on Friday. Of course I don't really read word for word while I'm giving an address but this is pretty close:

Have you ever had a dream? I’m not talking about the "I showed up late for class one day to everyone pointing and laughing only to find out I was in my underwear” sort of dreams. But have you ever had a time in your life where you know God was saying, "Listen up! There's something important here and I want you to pursue it!"

Each person you see is up here because they had that kind of dream and they went for it! For me this dream started in 1996. I was in Mexico for the first time, meeting my neighbor up close and personal, and God planted a dream that I called "the 3M’s:" Mexico medical missions. In Mexico, God showed me a people that He loved -- a people with an openness, a readiness, a connection, and a need that I felt called to work with.

Dreams are processes, in God's kingdom, and the journey is part of living the dream. One of my favorite memories from this trip was a church service one night, where we were all sharing testimonies. It was awesome to see how God had been shaping each of our ideas and circumstances, for all these years, to bring us to this place. The two weeks you're going to hear about are just the tip of the iceberg.

So what was this trip? Our work began in a village called Aldea, where we set up a clinic below a rock quarry to meet the needs of the surrounding community in partnership with a local church. We covered everything from runny noses, to ear infections, to prenatal care. Some of us even cut hair!

We spent the second half of the trip serving with the Red Cross, focusing on trauma patients. Our team had the opportunity to see life in the streets of Mexico City from a medical perspective. We rode in ambulances, dealt with accident victims, sutured wounds, performed CPR and saw firsthand the needs of the city, which extended far beyond just the physical. Even though we were “living our dream,” the work wasn't easy.

It truly was an amazing adventure, but really it's just part of the ultimate journey. God is at work in each of us, bringing us closer and closer to where he wants us to be – and really, that's The Dream that we should be living every day.

Yay!

It's official, NURS 4910 has been approved for credit and will be in the course catalogue for this upcoming summer! The students are extatic, as they should be, they worked VERY hard for this class. Since we've been back three different professors have asked my students to share about their experiences in their classes. I have a lot of juniors already expressing interest. Here goes something...

Is it OK if I'm Laughing?

August 15th marked the date of a good friends wedding, it was also the day we were to leave for Mexico. Fortunately our flight out of SeaTac wasn't until very late during the night, I had plenty of time to go to the wedding, pack my bags, pack the medical supplies and do last minute checks on paperwork before boarding the plane.
That morning I work up early to finish packing my bags and to run over to my sisters house to feed her cats before heading off to the wedding. I had to be there early as I was slated to work in the kitchen helping to prepare the wedding feast. The wedding was held on a farm in Arlington. The reception hall was a converted barn. The kitchen area was quite small for an event like this but we came prepared with crock pots and the like.
The food was well planned and there was a detailed list and timeline to follow as far as when to add the sauce, boil the noodles, etc... All was going well and I was right on schedule with my salad making duty when suddenly I saw from the corner of my eye flames jumping from the stove top! It seems that one of sauce pots on the stove had boiled over and caught the burner on fire. Two other women and I quickly turned off the stove, removed all the pots and attempted to smother the fire with the lid of a pot. By this time the room (and the reception hall) was filled with smoke. Unfortunately my pot lid idea was unsuccessful in smothering out the fire, we had bust out the fire extinguisher. Fortunately that seemed to take care of the problem very quickly but it also covered a large amount of our prepared food in layer of fine powder. Needless to say we ended up having to throw the food away, keep the guests busy and send somebody on an emergency Costco run.
In the end it all turned out OK but I did end up smelling like smoke for the plane ride to Mexico City. All in all it was quite the funny story; or maybe you had to be there...

I just saw that a friend of mine posted this really cool quote, I'm not sure where she go it from but I thought it suited the subject.
"Fire is the reuniting of matter to oxygen. If one bears that in mind, every blaze may be seen as a reunion, an occasion of chemical joy."