On the road

 Well, I am on my way. I’ve landed in LAX and am waiting for the next flight across the Pacific Ocean. The last few days have been difficult dealing with the uncertainty of paperwork and trying to figure out how to pack for two years in two suitcases. And I am mourning saying goodbye to dear friends and family.

 

 

                                                            Picture over California

 

When I was in high school, I did a soccer camp in California. I was so scared and anxious at the time I said some hurtful things to my mom. All for a weeklong soccer camp in California. Now as I fly across the world, I find I am still anxious and afraid. But this time I know that I am not alone and that I am called to walk with and love the people of PNG.

 

                             Dr Adams and I will be flying and working at Kudjip together
 

 

Thank you all so much for your prayers and support as I start this journey. Please keep me in your prayers as I still have many long flights/layovers, customs, baggage and quarantine to contest with. Please continue to reach out and let me know how you are doing.

 

I’ll leave you with the psalm God has been using to encourage me today:

 

Psalm 139 1,5,7-9

O LORD, you have searched me and you know me.

You hem me in-behind and before;

You have laid your hand upon me

Where can I go from your Spirit?

Where can I flee from your presence?

If I go up to the heavens you are there;

If I make my bed in the depths, you are there.

If I rise on the wings of the dawn,

If I settle on the far side of the sea,

Even there your hand will guide me, your right hand hold me fast

Preparing to Leave

The last several days have felt like a rapid change of seasons, jumping into a cold lake on a summer day. I’ve transitioned from a season of rest, recovery and waiting to one of active planning, logistics and nervous anticipation.

Henri Nouwen describes advent as “an active waiting in which we live the present moment to the full in order to find there the signs of the One we are waiting for.” The past few months for me have been a season of advent. While my initial plans were to leave for Papua New Guinea in September, the COVID pandemic delayed my departure. Initially disappointing, this season has turned out to be rich with time with family and friends, reconnecting with dear friends, recovering some of the depth in my relationship with God that was lost during the business of residency and time to actively prepare for PNG through language and tropical medicine courses. The pictures are from some of the renewing time I had in God's creation in Colorado and New Mexico this summer/fall.

 

Last week I received my visa! Thank you to everyone who has been praying for that. Once that piece fell into place things seemed to switch into 2x speed. Between emails, flights and other logistics life has changed into a different stage of preparation. Part of me is nervous for the big transition and mourning the end of this time of “active waiting,” but another is excited to get to Papua New Guinea, to learn and to serve.

 

Thank you to everyone who has donated to my work. I’ve been amazed at your generosity and humbled by your support. I am still looking for additional support if you feel called to give. All donations come straight to me without any overhead, are tax deductible and will carry over to my long-term sending agency once I finish at Samaritan’s Purse.

 

Prayer requests:

-Safe travel and the ability to sleep-my trip will likely take about 4 days with several long layovers

-A humble heart and a flexible spirit to be able to learn and fit in to my new work in Papua New Guinea

-Community in the midst of a big transition and a global pandemic

-Strength for our hospital staff who have been working overtime and short-staffed since the beginning of the pandemic. Please pray that I could be a support and not a burden.

Intro: Preparing for PNG

 Dear friends and family,

 

So many of you have helped me walk through the different phases of the long journey that has been undergraduate education, medical school and residency.  Thank you so much for your prayers, friendship and support! This is where I will be blogging my thoughts and experiences, as well as prayer requests during my time in Papua New Guinea.

 

As a quick update to everyone, I am going to be working with Samaritan’s Purse in their 2-year Post-Residency Program at Kudjip Hospital in the highlands of Papua New Guinea. I just got my medical license for PNG approved a few weeks ago (a huge answer to prayer), and I am hoping to be able to leave in January. I still need to obtain my work permit and visa prior to my departure.

 

I am learning Tok Pisin (one of over 900 native languages in PNG) currently and will continue when I arrive on the field. In the hospital I will be working in the Pediatric, Adult Inpatient and Obstetric Wards of the hospital, the Emergency room and clinic. I will cover everything when I am on call 1-2x/week.

 

Kudjip Hospital is a 134 rural bed hospital that provides primary care as well as referral services. The hospital has 6000 admissions, 2000 deliveries and 60,000 outpatient visits a year. Needless to say, I will be busy learning a lot from my fellow physicians and the local staff as I adjust to caring for a new population.

 

As I start the slow process of going through my belongings in preparation for a couple of moves (back to Georgia and then to PNG) I have been touched by the amount of love different people have shown to me over the years in different ways-cards, gifts, emails, messages, visits.

 

I also ran across a book I loved as a child and that my parents gave to me on graduation from medical school, Doctor Dan the Bandage Man. The story is of a little boy who gets a bandaid for a cut and then proceeds to use his new knowledge to help care for others (his sister, dog and sister’s doll). What stood out to me rereading the story was how it was Dan’s own injury, suffering and subsequent healing that then allowed him to care for others. While compared to many I have suffered very little, the last few years have been difficult for me in different ways, dealing with loneliness, doubt and new challenges. I pray that as God has been so patient and gracious in bringing me through he would use me to help others find peace and healing in the midst of their own darkness.

 

Please pray for me that the logistics would come together for me to be able to get to PNG, that God would continue to prepare my heart and mind for the work he has for me and that God would prepare relationships in advance for me in PNG, both with the hospital staff and with locals in Kudjip.

 

Please let me know how I can be praying for you and what is going on in your lives!

 

If you would like to support me financially please go to www.samaritanspurse.org, click on Give and then “Support a Physician.” You can also mail a check with my name and this number: 006043 in the Memo line to:

Samaritan’s Purse

Attn: Post-Residency Program

P.O. Box 3000

Boone, NC 28607