Team worship

We were given a CD prior to our trip with some great music to learn for our worship together.  Most of the music was familiar to me, but I wanted to share a few lines from each song that really highlights our desires and beliefs about this journey. 

We are the body by Mandi Mapes

-we bring living water to the thirsty

-we go where your lights not shining because we are the body of Christ

-and our anthem will be, a song of praise to the King; He is worthy, He is worthy! With one voice we will sing, where oh death is your sting?; He is mighty, He is mighty!

Lord I need you by Chris Tomlin

-Lord I need you, oh I need you; every hour I need you. My one defense, my righteousness, oh Lord how I need you.

Sovereign over us by Aaron Keys

-your plans are still to prosper, you have not forgotten us.  You're with us in the fire and the flood.  You're faithful forever, perfect in love, you are sovereign over us

-even what the enemy means for evil, you turn it for our good, you turn it for our good, and for your glory.  Even in the valley, you are faithful, you're working towards our good, you're working for our good and for YOUR GLORY.

Behold our God by Sovereign grace music

-Behold our God, seated on His throne, come let us adore Him! Behold our King, nothing can compare, come let us adore Him.

-You will reign forever - let YOUR GLORY fill THE EARTH

Hope of the World by Hillsong

-to know you forever, to love you forever; all we need is you

-the hope of the world, lifted on high

Man of sorrows (Hallelujah what a Savior) Brookhills arrangement

-guilty, vile and helpless we.... full atonement can it be? Hallelujah, what a Savior!

-Hallelujah, you have saved me.  Sin and death will reign no more.  Christ has made a way for sinners, hallelujah, what a savior.

You're my everything

-I am nothing without you, alone in doubt, but when I cry, you will answer.  You're my everything

In Christ alone by Travis Cottrell 

-in Christ alone, my hope is found. he is my strength, my hope, my song.

-on Christ the solid rock I stand, all other ground is sinking sand.

-no guilt in life, no fear in death, this is the power of Christ in me. From life's first cry, to final breath, JESUS COMMANDS MY DESTINY

I desire Jesus by Hillsong

-He is worthy of all honor; all glory to His name.  He alone deserves our highest praise & forever He will reign.  

Oh how He loves us by David Crowder

-He loves us, oh how He loves us!

-we are His portion and He is our prize, drawn to redemption by the grace in His eyes

Bless the Lord (10,000 reasons) by Matt Redman

-the sun comes up, it's a new day dawning; it's time to sing your song again.  Whatever may come and whatever lies before me, let me be singing when the evening comes!

All I have is Christ 

-If you had not loved me first, I would refuse you still

-You held the wrath reserved for me, and know all I know is Christ

-oh Father us my ransomed life in any way you choose, and let my song forever be, my only boast is You.

-Hallelujah, all I have is Christ, Hallelujah, Jesus is my life

By our love

-Sisters, we were made for kindness; we can pierce the darkness as He shines thru us.  We will come reaching, with a song of healing; and they will know us by our love.

-The time is now, come church arise! Love with His hands, see with His eyes; bind it around you, let it never leave you, and they will know us by our love. 

You never let go by Matt Redman

-I will fear no evil, for my God is with me and if my God is with me, whom shall I fear?

-You never let go, through the calm and through the storm

Enough by Chris Tomlin

-All of you is more than enough for all of me, for every thirst and every need - you satisfy me with your love

Our purpose into draw others to worship the one, true God! For the bible tells us in Revelation that those "from every nation, tribe, people, and language" will stand before the throne and the Lamb and worship God.

On Monday night after clinic, we worshipped under the mango trees and Jefferies, Paul and Coffee joined us.  We had printed sheets of the lyrics.  Jefferies commented afterward that "even though I do not sing (know these songs), I needed to hear these wonderful words.  God needed me to hear these words and I will continue to read these over and over.  Thank you." I was so touched by his response to the music and words we take for granted. I'm so thankful we have music that is biblically based to sing our praises to God.

We had many great times of worship under the mango trees!

Our team - Updated with Pictures!

Just wanted to quickly review our team members, so that you will understand who I'm taking about in the blogs.

The ladies - Front row L-R: Debby, Emily, Jessica Giadrosich, Laura, Wendy and Leigh
Back row L-R: Shayna, Lauren, me and Leslie

The Men:  Jack at work in triage

 Dr. Brobst

 The UPS boys: Jon, Patrick and Jeremy

-Patrick Giadrosich is our team leader. He is a nurse in the CVICU where I work. He is working towards his nurse practitioner degree as well. 

-Jessica Giadrosich (Patrick's wife) is the organizer extraordinaire and keeps Patrick in line.  She is handling registration each day at the clinic. 

-Emily Patton is serving as a diagnostician on the trip. She is a nurse at Brookwood and also in school getting her nurse practitioner degree.  

-Wendy Patton (Emily's mom) is a dental hygienist but is serving as a pharmacy teacher on the trip

-Dr. Don Brobst is a family practice physician and author in Birmingham and takes multiple medical mission trips a year.

-Shayna Prescott is a pharmacist and will be working alongside me in the pharmacy. 

-Lauren Hamrick is serving as a diagnostician on the trip and has her nurse practitioner degree. She is also a nurse in the CVICU at Children's.

-Debby Bowers is a nurse and will be working in triage for this trip. She has served as team leader on previous trips to S Sudan and is also working towards her nurse practitioner degree.

-Laura Carlisle is about to graduate from Samford's nursing school and will be working in triage on the trip.

-Leslie Stalhut graduated from nursing school in December and will be moving to Chicago in April to work as a nurse. She will also be in triage.

-Jonathan Hard lives in Huntsville as is our team evangelist.

-Jeremy Hoggle owns his own business in Tuscaloosa and will be running the vision clinic each day

-Jack Hausen is a retired pharmaceutical rep who will be working in triage

-Leigh McGuire lives in Auburn and works for Four Corners ministries part-time.  She will be serving as a pharmacy teacher on the trip.

South Sudanese field partners:

-Jefferies Kayanga - runs South Sudan Christian Advocacy which is a partner with Four Corners ministries.  He was a very high ranking church leader in South Sudan but was called by God to start this ministry in order to be more influential in evangelism and humanitarian efforts to his people.  He has great relations with the minister of health for the region of S Sudan that we visit, so that is why we are able to do so much on the ground when we go.

Me, Jefferies, his youngest son and Lauren  

-Paul (calls himself the Archbishop of the whole world). He is in his early 60's and is quite the character.  Very animated and has served as a children's minister at one point.  He's always ready to break out in song and helped us translate everyday.  He is an archbishop in the Africa Episcipal Church.

-Coffee/Lexon is a local pastor around 40 yrs old that works closely with Jefferies and was with us all week helping translate.

Emily and Coffee

-Repent is another's young helper that wasn't able to be with us in Buagyi all week, but stayed behind to look after the Mundri compound. 

Paul, Me, Repent and Wendy

 

-Steven was in his early 20's and was one of our drivers for the week.  He was an excellent translator and helped Jeremy in vision clinic each day.  After they were done he would come help with pharmacy teaching - he needed no instruction and jumped in to help everyday. I think there are big things in store for Steven.  Jeremy taught him how to use the focometer and left all the extra glasses with him to distribute.

Jeremy and Steven

-Esther and Grace traveled with us as our cooks for the week.  

Those were the main partners, but so many others made our daily tasks possible.  

Day 3 - An extra day in Uganda

We are now in Amsterdam and I will be updating the blog from my journal.  I wish I could have provided these updates earlier, but I am thankful Don Bowers could relay our thoughts each day through the quick text we sent each night.  Pictures will follow once we are back in the states. 

Day 3 - Saturday March 16
We awoke to a beautiful sunrise at our guest house that overlooked Lake Victoria.  We had a nice breakfast of bananas, pineapples, egg omelette's and toast.  After breakfast, Emily led our morning devotional on the true meaning of missions and how it is God's design that ll believers be involved in spreading the good news of the gospel.  We discussed that if you truly understand what Jesus did for you and His love, that you can't help but feel compelled to share it with others because they deserve it just as much as we do.  The gospel will spread and as Revelation tells us, in the end, ALL nations, tongues and tribes will bow down and worship our Holy and most worthy God.  God doesn't need us to be involved in spreading his good news, but He chooses to have us involved.
After devo, Patrick shared the plans concerning our flights and that we would transfer to another local hotel that morning. We practiced and performed a song (to the tune of New York, New York) for Dr. Brobst's son-in-law and his residency match news.  We even had 2 of the ladies working at the hotel join us.  It was hilarious and I believe the video is now on Facebook for your viewing pleasure.
Once we got settled in our new hotel, we decided to take a trip to the local zoo.  It was only a few minutes away from our hotel.  Patrick, Jessica Giad & Jack stayed behind at the hotel to rest.  The zoo was fairly good for African standards.  We had to pay $15 each & we had a guide named Mohamed who showed us around.  We saw camels, antelope, buffalo's, zebras, ostrich, warthogs, crocodiles, monkeys (who almost stole Dr. B's phone thru the fence), chimps and a few others.  We missed seeing the elephants and the giraffes.  While the weather was quite pleasant, the sun was still pretty hot and we definitely got our exercise in.  After the tour we sat at the zoo restaurant overlooking Lake Victoria and had a soda and french fries.  We made it back to the hotel around 4 and went to a buffet dinner there around 6.  Most of the food was good - all except this banana-like stuff they made us try - it was very bland and not sweet at all.  Just prior to dinner, Jeremy did his sermon that he was supposed to do on Sunday morning in Mundri.  It was on 2 Samuel 9:3-9 and Saul's grandson who was crippled.  He related it to our crippled sin nature and God still providing us grace as He did the child.  It was excellent and I hate the Moru people missed hearing it.
After dinner we played a few rounds of banana grams and took another cold shower.  Some of the guys went back to the airport after 10pm to retrieve the 24 bags that didn't make it the night before.  It took them a few hours, but all arrived safely.
Over dinner, we were discussing how nice it has been today to ease into life in Africa and rest before the more extreme conditions come.  We want to be ready to be used of God in powerful ways this week.  Our desire is that the gospel would flourish among the Moru and continue to spread after we leave.  Thank you Lord for providing for us and watching over us.  Please use us a you will and draw us closer to you so that we may better reflect your character.

Off to Africa again!

"Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you, and behold I am with you always, to the end of the age." Matthew 28:19-20

Time to update the blog again because I'm on another trip to Africa!  I'm going with a ministry called Four Corners - they do a lot of work in Uganda and south Sudan.  They are located in Opelika, Al and have partnered with my church, BrookHills on previous mission trips.  Most of the 15 on my team go to Brookhills also and are in some type of medical field.  We have 2 pharmacists, 5 nurses/nurse practitioners, a doctor and several helpers involved in registration, triage, pharmacy teaching and vision clinic.  We plan to do 5 days of clinic in 5 villages that 4 corners has partnered with and visited previously.  

We are in route to South Sudan right now. We left Birmingham thursday morning the 14th, had a 6 hour layover in Detroit, then a 10 hour flight to Amsterdam. At this point the only glitch was someone getting stopped for hand wipes at the Birmingham security check point. We did leave Detroit about 1.5 hours late due to a mechanical issue.  This caused us to have about 25 min to run to our gate in Amsterdam and board. The airline had waited for us and we were so thankful!  We knew it would be a stretch for our bags, but it took a while for the plane to leave, so we assumed they made it too.  The flight to Uganda was about 10hrs total, but that included a stop in Kigali, Rwanda to drop off some passengers. We arrived at the Entebbe, Uganda airport about 1030pm local time (230pm CST).  After going through customs, we noticed a sign listing all of the people whose bag did not make it to Uganda - which included 24 of the 25 medical supply bags we brought.  Luckily, we packed most of our personal stuff on our carry-on backpacks, so we had what we needed for the night.  Our concern then shifted to the plans for Sat and beyond.  We were supposed to leave Uganda on Saturday morning and fly to S Sudan.  Our team leader, Patrick, worked all night to come up with a solution.  We learned the bags never made it out of Detroit and would be taking the same route thru Amsterdam and arriving late Sat night.  The airline company flying us to S Sudan graciously agreed to come in on Sunday to take us to S Sudan with our bags.  Otherwise we would have had to cancel our Monday clinic! We will have to miss Sunday worship with the local believers, but we are thankful for the solution.

So today, we have had a little adventure in Uganda.  We found a new hotel to stay at and most of us spent the afternoon at the Zoo. Apparently it is the tourist hot spot here in Entebbe.  We saw a few camel, monkeys, white rhinos, lions, ostrich, zebras and various other animals.  The weather was really nice and sunny.  The zoo and our hotel overlooks Lake Victoria which is beautiful. Even thought we want to be in S Sudan right now, we are making the most of our delay and getting a little extra rest before clinics begin.  

I am so blessed to be a part of this team and excited for what the Lord has in store for us.  I am surrounded by others that are passionate about spreading the good news of Jesus to the ends of the earth. We know that God called each of us here for this time and purpose.  Therefore He will provide us the power to enable us and receive the glory through us.  We desire to be used of God in His redemptive plan and to serve as representatives of His kingdom  by reflecting His character.  

Specific prayer requests:

-Travel mercies; That all the medical supply bags would make it through customs; favor with the S. Sudanese authorities.

-Team unity and harmony; that we will demonstrate the love of Christ in word and deed

-Sunday worship services at Okari, Mundri and Miri Kalanga; encouragement for the local believers

-Monday clinic at Matta, Tuesday Clinic at Witto, Wednesday Clinic at Buagy, Thurs clinic at Wiroh and Friday clinic at Lanyi

-Opportunities to find "Persons of Peace" among the Moru people so that the gospel will continue to be spread after we leave

Dr. Brobst's blog: 

http://www.donbrobst.com/2013/03/remember-africa/#more-4205 

Lord willing we'll be in S Sudan tomorrow thru next Saturday and will likely have no Internet access.  I'll try to keep blogging, but may not post them til I get back to Uganda.  

Thanks for sharing this journey with us and we appreciate your prayers for us, but especially for the Moru people! 

"I think the key irony of short term mission is that it turns out not to be merely the journey of thousands of miles to a distant land, but the journey to the center of our own hearts - it will invite us to a deeper work of transformation." Gordon Aeschliman

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Last day in California - Birthday!

Thursday, February 2nd
Since breakfast is truly my favorite meal of the day, we chose to forgo the lighter breakfast at our B&B and found a local restaurant in Carmel called From Scratch, to enjoy a hearty birthday breakfast. It was yummy!
After breakfast, we managed to take a nice bike ride along the coast near our B&B. We had to check out of our hotel by 12ish so we hurried to get packed up for the journey home.

 We spent some of the afternoon at the Monterrey Marina and Old Fisherman's Wharf admiring the boats and marine creatures. We stopped a local outlet mall for some shopping and a birthday manicure before hitting the highway back to San Francisco.

We probably had enough time to go past the airport back into the heart of San Fran for a fun dinner before our 11pm flight, but we just could not decide if it would be worth it. So, since we had eaten so well all week, I chose the simpler idea of stopping in San Jose at PF Changs for a meal we could depend on. It was great.

Unfortunately, our trip home included a restless night on the plane with a layover in cold Detroit. We landed in Birmingham at 9am Friday. Mom & I exchanged pictures before she made her way back to Auburn. Sad for the trip to come to an end, but I really enjoyed all that we got to do and see! I would definitely like to go back one day and see more - especially of Napa Valley. It was a great way to ring in my next decade!!

Highway 1 Fun

Wednesday, February 1st
Wednesday we continued our trek down Highway 1 to Big Sur. Poor mom had to keep her eyes on the road, but I enjoyed the many scenic viewpoints on this drive. We especially enjoyed Bixby Bridge - we are told this stretch of the road is often used in car commercials, etc.

Our first stop was Point Lomos

The lighthouse at PointSur

We made it to Big Sur and had a great lunch at Nepenthe Restaurant which has breathtaking views of the ocean.

After lunch, we went a little bit further south to Julia Pfeiffer Burns State Park to see a waterfall that used to go straight into the ocean - now just onto the beach.

After that we made our way back up Highway 1 to the cute downtown area of Carmel. We had an afternoon treat & coffee at a local bakery. We probably had about 1 1/2 hours of daylight left when we decided to go ahead and do part of the 17 Mile drive through Pebble Beach. Mom & I both wish we had taken a little more time or come back the next day to spend more time here.

We stopped at the golf course of Pebble Beach where they were getting prepared for the big Pro-Am tournament that started a few days later. It truly is a beautiful course and we enjoyed taking a few pictures from the 18th green. We managed to get a few souvineirs for the family here and Mom was wishing we could stay here a few more days to see Phil and the other great golfers she loves... :-)

We then made our way to the Lone Cypress - the iconic tree for this course and area. We continued along the coast as the sun was setting - very beautiful!

We made it back to our B&B just after dark and rested a bit before heading to dinner at another great local seafood restaurant called Fishwife in Pacific Grove.

Off to Monterrey

Tuesday, January 31st
Tuesday morning Mom and I took our time leaving the city and stopped at a few "must-see" sights on our way out. We stopped at Macondray Lane first, which was a cute little garden alley.  Mom managed to get a $50 parking ticket for not turning her tires the right way on the 3% incline street...made for some laughs!

Next, Lombard Street again. This time we go out and walked the famous street - I'm sure the people that live on this street love the crowds that are constantly there.

Finally, Alamo Square - home to the famous "painted ladies" that I remember from my favorite childhood show, Full House. (http://youtu.be/d-5HC44GRbk)

 So picturesque for San Fran.

We began the trek down highway 1 to Monterrey. The ocean views and cliffs became more impressive with each mile. We stopped in Santa Cruz for lunch at this not so great Mexican restaurant - note to self - planning the meals ahead of time usually works better! :-)

We finally made it to our Bed & Breakfast, Green Gables Inn, late afternoon. It was a cute little place right on the coast. Again, my parents had stayed here 20+ years ago and the decor was similar. We had dinner at a local seafood place in Cannery Row and called it a night!