Countdown

What a busy week this has been!! We are four weeks away from leaving, and it seems there is still alot to do. As a team we are responsible for getting and bringing ALL medicines and supplies. As you can see from the picture in the previous post, it's been a success. My office looks like a warehouse threw up in it. Seriously. :o) But it's all good. Keeping track of everything is a whole different issue. I finally came up with a list of what is needed, what we've acquired thus far, and what is still needed. I spent oodles of time working on it only to have the stinkin program screw up and mix up ALL the numbers in the "Quantity" column. So instead of having 600 4x4's, it said I had 600 catheters. Nice. I could have been the poster child for anger management during the "recount" of everything.

Last week a hospital in another town called me and said they put together a box of "stuff' for me. It was awesome. A huge box of wound care supplies and dressings...good stuff!! And all of it we'll use I'm sure.

Anxiousness and excitement of what is to come is setting in as we take this journey and make our way to the Toul Serey Orphan Home. :o) Have a great weekend!!! ~M

Kindness of Strangers

I came to work this morning and one of our distributors brought me a HUGE box full of donated supplies... I'm sitting here at my desk, can't see over it, and am just amazed, overwhelmed, and humbled at his kindness. He didn't hesitate a minute about donating to a cause he knows little about. All he heard was "there are people in need".

Isn't it amazing how often we can touch someone's life, and enrich our own, by a very simple act? Kindness, pass it on...what a wonderful way in which to pattern our lives! I love seeing how God will use the giftings of strangers in our own lives to accomplish His plan. :o)

Have a good week!! Many Blessings! ~M

And then there were 4...........

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I received my in country itinerary today. Everything is starting to come together. Unfortunately our team is now 4, one doctor and 3 nurses. But everything is a go. We leave the states on April 29th, and arrive in Phnom Penh on May 1st. The next day we will be driven down to southeastern border of the Kompong Speu Province where we will be setting up clinic in the morning and opening in afternoon. The Kompong Speu province is very poor, and poverty is a major problem in the region. AIDS, childbirth complications, malaria and poor health care facilities have led to a large population of orphan children. This area has also never had a medical clinic and is very rural. The first orphan home we are going to is in a central location there and is surrounding by 8 villages, so we'll be able to serve more people.

I also received the supplies/medicine list from the in-country partner (FCOP). As a medical brigade team, we are responsible for acquiring all medicine/supplies/needed equipment to take over. So in the next couple weeks, as supply/medicine coordinator, I'm going to be busy. But it's all good. As a friend said recently, "Sink or swim".... :o)

Many Blessings ~M

Your thoughts

I read this in a book and it spoke greatly to me.

Your thoughts are inseparable from your body. Your thoughts both reflect and direct what you do with your eyes, your ears, and your mouth.

Take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.
2Corinthians 10:5

One way to take captive every thought to Christ is to develop the habit of turning self-talk into God-talk. You know what self talk is-it is the silent and secret conversations you have with yourself. But turning self-talk into God-talk can actually be a method of praying without ceasing.

So the question is what am I doing with my thought-life? Am I taking my thoughts captive to Christ or are my thoughts imprisoning me? I say this again. Am I taking my thoughts captive to Christ or are my thoughts imprisoning me? Do I dwell on hurtful memories or grievances? Am I keeping a record of wrongs committed against me? Do I let my mind wander into mine fields of anger or vengeance? Do I allow my imagination to run wild after elaborate schemes and selfish ambitions? Are my aspirations driven by human will or are they in pursuit of God's will??

Real.Life.

I went up to Portland yesterday for a team meeting at Medical Teams International. My medical team of 5 is a month away from leaving for Cambodia. We got our airline tickets 2 wks ago and everything is a go. At our meeting at the headquarters building, we went thru the Real.Life. exhibit. It's in a portion of the big warehouse building and consists of about 15 different rooms. Everyroom is different and set up depicting different parts of a world where MTI has sent teams. By room 3 I was an emotional mess. Everything depicted was spot on to reality. The only thing missing was "smells". There are certain smells that always remind of when I was in Haiti, like burning garbage. We started out in Tsunami room, where they had built what looked exactly like a 25 ft wave and all around you on the walls are lifesize real actual photos of the devastation that took place. I just stood there and looked up at this wave (the actual one was 30 ft), in disbelief. Another room was on Hurricane Katrina, an actual med center was set up, with again, the walls being life size actual photos...you feel like you are really there. There was about 50 people (from approx, 6 different teams who are traveling in the next 6 months) in this group of volunteers, and there wasn't a dry eye in the place. The silence and sounds of sobbing is something I'll never forget. Strangers going up one another comforting each other. The group of strangers putting a hand on the nurse who broke down in the Tsunami room, because not only was she affected by devastation/tragedy she was seeing, she was on one of the first teams MTI sent down for disaster relief. She said this was the second time she's gone thru the exhibit and the pain is refreshed each time, the memories of all the bodies. Other rooms, Cambodia, Africa, Mongolia, and numberous countries, each left me speechless. During our meeting one of the main topics discussed is the need when we get back to grieve, mourn, and how important it is to have a trusted support system you can talk to, debrief, sort through all these feelings .
I have never gone through an exhibit such as this, and it's been on my mind ever since I left there yesterday. We were in there a good hour and half. I didn't know MTI had something like this, it's open to the public, its free, and it's life changing. I walked out with so many feelings going thru my heart. Guilt, humble, humility, and thankfulness. WOW. http://www.medicalteams.org/exhibit