Julie's Journey

As I reflect on how Christ has led me in life’s travels, my heart is so thankful that God has used you to encourage my walk with Him. The past few years have been full and exciting in both work and ministry. Through camp nursing, helping with the youth group at church, sharing the love of Christ with patients at the hospital, and addressing health concerns in Oaxaca Mexico last June, I see how Christ has been preparing my heart to care for the people of Sudan.

Last July, I began the application process with SIM (Serving in Mission) to help as a nurse at a mission clinic in the South of Sudan. SIM is an interdenominational mission organization that focuses on glorifying Christ by evangelizing the unreached, ministering to human need, discipling believers, and equipping churches to fulfill the Great Commission (Matt 28:18-20). The godly testimony of SIM missionaries has influenced my decision to serve with SIM in Sudan.

I am thrilled about the opportunity to learn and serve in Doro, Sudan at the mission hospital. Staffing at the clinic has been limited and caregivers typically see fifty to one-hundred patients a day! Regionally, there are approximately 100,000 people with no access to medication within walking distance. What an amazing privilege to share Christ’s love and provide care in Doro!

I am planning to leave for Sudan in early May of this year and to stay through November. However, the date of my departure depends on being fully-funded for this trip. SIM estimates the total cost to be $12,288.00; this includes the expense of international passage and travel, supplies, immunizations, field-training, health insurance, etc. I must be 80% financially supported one month prior to my departure date. Please prayerfully consider partnering with me by making a contribution to His work in Sudan. Please see the tear-off form below; SIM will provide a tax-deductable receipt for your contributions. I treasure your prayers and thank you for your support! May God bless you as you advance the kingdom by your part in His work!

Above the Clouds

My stomach twisted with anxiety as the plane launched into the shrouded dawn and the lights of Houston shrank beneath me. I felt as helpless over my future as I was over the aircraft's trajectory. The past weeks had been crammed with working nights, mailings, traveling, scheduled interviews; I barely had time to think, or more importantly, to pray about Sudan. The time that I had spent hiking and in prayer was pressured by time constraints. Finally, now that I found myself en route to Charlotte for Sudan field-training at SIM headquarters, I realized that exhaustion had found me.

There is no time more powerfully spent than being quiet before the Lord. In the light of His perfect love, He beautifully confirms His sufficiency for my inadequacies. I prayed and surrendered my fears regarding support raising and nursing in Doro; "Cast all your care upon Him, for He cares for you," (1 Peter 5:7). Peace enveloped me as the plane slid through layers of clouds, gliding smoothly like a needle through cotton. Then I was suspended in a pristine dawn above an endless foamy sea. The morning was a rainbow; it boasted brilliant red on the horizon and spread its dazzling palate across the sky. Realizing that God had painted this living dawn for such a small audience, I was so comforted that He knows the view above the clouds as well as that of the darkness.

He knows what He has created me to do and will walk with me through the steps to Sudan. When I become focused on myself and my needs, I see only the darkness and rain; I feel the lack of control acutely. But living in full reliance on Christ's will for my life is the best place to be; the assurance of Christ's beautiful love gives me confidence of His provision in my life. And there is nothing that I want more than to be His light in a dark world!

"For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light, finding out what is acceptable to the Lord." Ephesians 5: 8, 10

First Steps to Doro

Pictured: Missionary candidates at SIMStart

A little over a week ago, I returned from the initial SIM orientation in North Carolina. It was an exciting time to get to know missionaries that had been on the field, learn about the process to get there, to be reviewed by the staff, and to get acquainted with fellow missionary candidates. I enjoyed getting acquainted with so many others who have a passion for sharing Christ's love in various nations.

I received confirmation yesterday from the Sudan SIM coordinator that I can join the medical team in Doro! The process of getting from here to there is a bit over-whelming, but exciting at the same time. I'm thrilled that God has provided this opportunity and I'm eager to learn what He has to teach me as I serve as a nurse where the needs are so great. He has placed this passion in my heart to love His people and I have full confidence that He will provide the strength and resources to get me there (Phil 4:13). This weekend I will get to share my plans at the church Ladies' Retreat. Then on the 7th and 14th of February, I will be presenting at churches. I appreciate your prayers!

In the meantime, God has given me the blessing of being a testimony of His love. I got to share the gospel with a co-worker last night at work; for the first time, he actually acknowledged that it would be awesome if Jesus' sacrifice for him is actually true. I also got to share with a friend after roller-skating on Friday, then again with my patients. One man in particular stands out in my thoughts from this past week. He had emergent surgery for acute GI pain; the surgeons found lesions, adhesions, and cancer spread throughout his abdomen. Placing a colostomy to bypass the infected bowel and giving antibiotics temporarily has saved his life. He spent days in system failure in the Intensive Care Unit before he woke up, and the night that I had him, he was pretty emotional about the changes to his body and his spiritual condition. Through tears, he told me, "This has changed my life. I told God that if I survived this, I would live my life for Him. I believe in God now with all that I am." The more that I seek the Word, the more compassion I have for the people around me; the more I want them to know this incredible joy that God freely shares.

Brevity and Urgency

A recent experience with a patient re-opened my eyes to the beauty and brevity of life. I cared for a twenty-two year-old male with terminal cancer for several days. He had been placed int eh cardiac-surgical unit after a team of surgeons attempted to extract a cancerous mass that enveloped major vessels and organs in his abdomen; he had to be on cardiopulmonary bypass during the operation. Following the complicated procedure, the young man faced a long and painful recovery period. When his youthful wife visited, he would be hopeful and strong, eager to hold his five-week-old daughter and share in her tender life. The patient talked about returning to his college basketball team and working again. But late on night, I was cleaning the incisions that criss-crossed his thorax, and the weight of his prognosis caught up with him. I prayed with him and he started to cry, not for himself, but for those he loved. He cried about his mother worrying about her only son; he cried about his wife and how much he adored her, how he wanted to grow old with her. Mostly, he cried for his daughter, his beautiful tiny infant. He said that he wanted the opportunity to walk her down the isle on her wedding day. I couldn't keep my eyes from brimming as he released his pent-up fears.

I asked God why life is seemingly robbed from the young and responsible. Why is it wasted on those who take it for granted? And as I watched the young man, I saw the truth as if I was looking in a mirror. I take life as it comes because it is easy. I waste time because it is cheap. When I skip exercise, its because I'm strong enough. I let an opportunity to share salvation slip because I'm "short on time". True excellence isn't expected, just as godliness isn't human nature. In lieu of life's fragility, sharing the Truth of His Word, being a Light and living for the Gospel is essential. Only He know how long we have on this earth, or how long our unsaved friends have. Lets let our "light so shine before men, that they may [...] glorify our Father in heaven," Matthew 5:16.

Look Me in the Eyes

After returning from a lively Thanksgiving vacation with family and friends in Washington, I was reluctant to return to the rigorous routine of cardiac nursing. As I was walking into work on Sunday night, I quickly prayed for wisdom... more out of habit than my pride would admit. The first hour after report saw me rushing between two unstable people; one with severe bradycardia, the other in system failure just one day after open-heart surgery. It took three hours to stabilize one of them and get her shipped off to ICU. I found myself placing that ever-so-helpful vial of Atropine in the other patient's med drawer, (you know, just in case). The next two days proved equally as busy; one day I was a resource nurse and picked up a team at half-shift. I was feeling pretty down that night and I finally concluded that I was just too busy. I needed to slow down and actually "see" my patients. Its so easy to move quickly and to give the obligatory "uh-huh" without really listening. In doing this, I lose the opportunity to share Christ's saving love; I'm distracted by treating a mortal being's temporary illness. So last night with my group of heart-failure and dialysis patients, I was determined to care for them as Jesus would.

I find that, no-matter how challenging the group of patients, the night is redeemed if I simply try to see them as individuals. After settling in a very arthritic and diminutive elderly lady for the night, I realized that she spoke with an adorable southern accent. When asking her about her family, she said that her physician had told her that she wouldn't be able to have children. With coy smiling eyes, she said, "I had eight, though. I sure showed those doctors." It was hard to image the tiny 80-lb lady having been the mother of eight, but her spunk spoke volumes.

Another dialysis patient had done surprisingly well after his heart surgery, and was looking to discharge soon. After helping with breathing exercises, I asked him about work he had done prior to retirement. "I was in the CIA," he stated. The gentleman mused, "I liked working under Eisenhower, but Reagan was the best."

Often, Christ's love can be shared in simply giving a little back rub, making eye contact, and carrying the conversation further than "yes and no" responses. I thought about how the lady felt who was left incontinent following a hemorrhagic stroke. And how the man who manages his diabetes and daily peritoneal dialysis treatments all alone must feel... and how being lonely must contribute to his frequent hospitalizations. How much better accountability and support is for the healing process. I wondered what I could say or do that could support these people who have such difficulty. Where would I be in that situation? And how would I cope without Christ? I could enter all the consults, provide the most expert care, but until I take into account the spiritual aspect, I'm not making any lasting benefit.

How special and what a privilege to have the opportunity to care for people. In the whole of society, health care workers are truly afforded a rare privilege of becoming quickly familiar with people in their most vulnerable moments. John 15 speaks to me the most today because I cannot love people without the Spirit of Christ working through me. Jesus stated, "I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing," (vs. 5). May I never get caught in the grind and lose track of my purpose: sharing Christ with people and caring for the person, not simply treating an illness.