Have you ever said to God, "I want to spend my life (that's right, SPEND my life, not save my life) doing ALL that you made me for. I TRUST you in EVERYTHING I might encounter. Please give me courage not to waver when the battle heats up. Amen,"? THANK YOU to all of you who have had the guts to say such things!
We have felt the battle heating up here on the spiritual front, and we feel compelled to pray for the workers in the harvest here in Tansen. (And we know there are so many equally strained harvesters all over the world whom we have never met.) As I have looked around at the workers here, interceding on their behalf, for strength to carry on, the strain has struck me. I wonder if there are any others out there who might consider joining this wonderful team of dedicated, loving, creative workers at Tansen Mission Hospital?
Last night, I was talking with one of the new doctors on the team. He was describing his day to me. He was the only senior doctor on for the medical ward that day. He told me how many patients he needed to see before he rushed off to the outpatient clinic and he emphasized how important it is to him to spend time instructing the new interns who have been placed under his tutelage. I did a quick calculation. He only had six minutes to spend with each patient, and he was supposed to instruct the interns in that time as well. How could this happen? Well, in the end, one patient had a cardiac arrest during rounds, so even the six minutes allotted to each one was gobbled up by tending to the neediest. I'm sure that this translated to the patients on the outpatient side of the hospital needing to just wait longer. Some would have to pay for a hotel room for the night and wait to be seen the next day. They couldn't possibly go home, as that journey would take most of a day. Will you ask with me, "Lord of the Harvest, could you please send even just one more doctor to share the harvesting work?"
Speaking of harvesting...there has been a surgeon from Norway here for a year and she is just on her way back home this week. She shared a story at last night's church service about a patient she had seen over seven months ago. The patient was a young girl with cancer with multiple masses inside her abdominal cavity. Through a collaboration of the doctors and the social service at the hospital, they had arranged to pay for a substantial amount of her care at a nearby cancer hospital (our hospital does not have oncology services). I don't know all the details, but in the end, the young girl died; yet in her death, God raised up a harvest. The family recently returned to our hospital to share that a significant number of them were impressed by the LOVE they encountered at our hospital and they have now turned to the origin of that LOVE: Jesus Christ. We are all amazed sometimes by the LIFE that God gives through deaths, such as this one, that often feel like medical failures. Who can fully understand the mystery of God?
Okay, one final plea...are there any unemployed teachers out there wondering what God might do with their lives? Our own personal journey of losing our teacher and trying to fill her role has greatly increased my respect and appreciation for teachers. It is a challenging and important job! And I am praying that God will pick out a teacher for us for the next five months when we come back to Tansen (February through June 2011). But I see clearly that the need out here for teachers is huge. You know, there is a school here for foreign kids, but we can't place our kids in it because there aren't enough teachers. The first priority has gone to the families whose parents have visas that require them to serve a lot of hours at the hospital. Dave and I have more flexible visas. You might ask why not put them in the local Nepali schools. Well, we have a little bit of trouble with the local pedigogy (repeat what the teacher says; no questions asked!), but really beyond that, the strain on the local system here is beyond our imagination. For example, we have supported a boy here for the past ten years, so that he can attend school (each student must pay for his/her schooling). He is in grade ten now and beginning to think about what he might do with his life. And we've had ample opportunity to discuss this with him because his school was on break for two months, not because a break was scheduled but because they had run out of textbooks. And all the power cuts in his city did not allow for the printing of more books. Does that ever happen at your kids' school? If you know any umemployed teachers who might have a heart to live in simple conditions and to take an exciting journey leading some fascinating kids of missionaries on an educational adventure, please encourage them to pray to the Lord of the Harvest.
Thanks for letting me share a glimpse of this side of the globe!
Loving the Adventure,
Kimberly, for the Beine Bunch
No comments:
Post a Comment