Miracles
Thank you for your prayers for Melissa and her family. Melissa's uncle, Mark, went to be with the Lord about two weeks ago. Because of how my schedule worked out Melissa was able to fly out to Des Moines to be with her aunt and the rest of the extended family as they grieved their latest loss. We are grateful that Melissa was able to spend time with her family and have an opportunity to grieve with them. Please continue to lift up Melissa's aunt, Diane, and the rest of her family as they struggle with Mark's loss. We are also grateful that the kids did well with Melissa traveling and that I survived the first time in our marriage when I was at home with the kids without Melissa's ever-present help!
Praises:
- Opportunity for Melissa to travel to Iowa for Mark's funeral and to be with the rest of her family as they grieved.
- A second meeting with Denton Bible Church last week as we take steps forward to be sent by Serve International.
- New students and residents that have joined the Dallas medical missions group which we have been a part of for two years. They have been an encouragement to us and continue to spur us on to fulfilling God's calling on our lives.
Prayer Requests:
- Melissa's extended family as they grieve the loss of their grandmother and her uncle Mark.
- Clarity about where we want to go for language school once we return to India so that we can become fluent in Hindi.
During the course of the past few months God has been showing me more and more of His hand at work to bring about healing when I care for patients in the emergency department. Growing up in America, I was taught to view most things through the lens of science. The spiritual dimension was something that was pushed to the periphery and rarely acknowledged in the course of everyday events. However, as I've allowed myself to look for God's hand at work He has begun to show me how He provides healing in ways that I just cannot explain scientifically. As a Christian, I have to acknowledge that sometimes God works in mysterious ways - sometimes to provide healing, sometimes to just build my faith that He is ultimately in control. Over the course of the past year, I've had several experiences where things have gone much differently that I would have ever imagined and I can find no other explanation than God's hand at work. As Ambroise Paré the French surgeon once said, "I treat, God heals." What a burden off my shoulders when I realized that great truth - yes God expects me to provide the best care possible to my patients but ultimately He is the one that brings about healing!
Caring for the Mentally Ill
The months seem to go by quicker. Perhaps its the change of seasons, perhaps its the realization that life is fragile, perhaps it is feeling as though our time left here is short and thus we need to get as much done as possible in a short amount of time. This past month has been a month of sorrows as several of our dear friends experienced the loss of a newborn, Melissa's grandmother passed away and we received some unexpected news that one of her uncles has brain cancer. We have felt anew how short our lives on earth are and how we are as Moses said in Psalm 90, "In the morning they are like grass which sprouts anew. In the morning it flourishes and sprouts anew; Toward evening it fades and withers away." Or consider the words of James 4:14, "How do you know what your life will be like tomorrow? Your life is like the morning fog--it's here a little while, then it's gone." How can we live our lives with purpose so that the few days we have on earth and spent in a meaningful manner: investing in things of eternal value!
Praises:
- A good initial meeting with Denton Bible Church and the elder board as both of us prayerfully consider whether a long term partnership would be viable. They were encouraged by our desire to serve in North India and we pray that God would give us further leading as to next steps we need to take so that they can potentially serve as our sending agency.
- Staying on task. We had felt that this spring would be a busy season of life as we both took the Perspectives course and started a group that meets at our home every other week. We have been thankful God has allowed us to carve out time each week to get the required reading done and make preparations for different groups we are a part of.
- Rejoicing with Melissa as she celebrates her 34th birthday and with her brother David and sister-in-law Lacy who were blessed with a son just a few days ago.
Prayer Requests:
- Melissa's family as they deal with the loss of Melissa's grandmother and the unexpected news of her uncle who was diagnosed with cancer.
- Patience to wait on God as we walk through this season of preparation. Sometimes we wonder if we could just skip this phase and move on but we trust that God is teaching us important lessons on waiting on Him to give us further direction before we leave for India in fall of 2013.
I wanted to write some this month about caring for the mentally ill. It seems like almost every shift I have one if not more patients that come in with a primary psychiatric complaint - whether that be attempted suicide, severe depression, schizophrenia, anxiety, or undifferentiated psychosis. Caring for the mentally ill has not always been easy - they can often times be some of the most challenging patients I encounter but one thing I've been grateful for are the unique opportunities God has given me to bring a word of comfort into several of these lives as they grapple with hopelessness and sometimes just staying in touch with reality.
Pictures from Mussoorie & Herbertpur
The dog days of June...the heat and lack of rain in Texas since we returned back to Texas have been intense. The kids seem to have recovered from jet lag fairly well although our whole family seems to still be suffering from GI problems. I think similar to what happened the last time we were in Assam, we might have all picked up Giardia again and so it might be about time for us all to get a course of tinidazole in our system.
Work has been going well - working a month of nights after coming back from India has been easier due to not having to worry about jet lag. However, there has been a lot of paperwork that needs to get done to finish my residency and so I've spent several days these past few weeks working all night and then spending most of the day getting things done for the residency which has led to several 3-4 hour sleep days. On top of that, I had all 4 of my wisdom teeth removed yesterday which was actually a much more pleasant experience than I thought it would be. I was quite amazed by the effect of nitrous oxide, midazolam, fentanyl and propofol in my system! I don't remember much of the surgery and for most of the day yesterday was in a narcotics-induced stupor. Today has been a little more painful but quite bearable and if it was not for the side effect of dizziness from the narcotics I would feel like I was back to 100%. Here's to praying for no dry sockets in the next few days and being able to go back to work on Monday night!
I also had my orientation with the organization I'll be working with for the next few years - Emergency Medicine Consultants. I was so impressed with them during my orientation and feel they really have both the physicians and patients's needs at heart much more than the survival of the company. They have put together a wonderful group of support staff that I think will make my life as an ER doctor as manageable as possible so that I can focus on the most important part of my job which is caring for patients well. EMC helps to coordinate my scheduling, keeps track of my credentialing at different hospitals and contracts with another company to get all my billing done. I'm excited to be part of this group (about 120 physicians all together serving at 12 hospitals in the area). They have several contracts which they have held for over 35 years! They seem very family centered and we were excited to see so many staff members who have stayed with this group for several decades which I think speaks to the quality support they provide. I'll find out soon for myself as I work my first shift on July 5th. Right now I'm planning on working primarily at Hunt Regional Medical Center in Greenville and Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital Kaufman with about two shifts a month as an attending at Parkland Hospital. We chose these two hospitals because they are rural enough that I'm often on my own without much in the way of subspecialty support and thus we thought it would help prepare us well for long term work in India when we'll be in a similar situation.
Finally, we wanted to share some final sets of pictures from India. The following are pictures from our visit to Mussoorie to see Landour Hospital where we met Joe and Sima Weaver and from our last weeks at Herbertpur Hospital. I wanted to try a different way to show a slideshow and so have created a video with music on animoto which I've posted below. Let us know if you like the slideshows better this way as opposed to previous versions. Also at the bottom of the post are individual pictures you can click on in case you just want to look at a few pictures. Have a wonderful week!
Lou Malnati’s And Our Appearance on the Travel Channel
In my last post, I had talked some about one of our favorite restaurants in Chicago for deep dish pizza - Lou Malnatis. We first discovered this pizzeria about 4 years ago when we we did a marathon 3500 mile trip that brought us through Chicago on the way to Kalamazoo, MI. Since then we have loved the pizza at Lou Malnatis so much that if were are within an hour of Chicago on a trip we will usually make a detour to stop at Lou Malnatis for some pizza and buy a couple extra to eat later when we crave authentic deep dish Chicago style pizza. Apparently because of our love for Lou Malnatis pizza we also go to make our first TV debut last November on the show Food Paradise on the Travel Channel.
