Purpose Asia

Preparing our patient for transport to Australia I was jarred awake by the jingling of the on-call radio. I fumbled for the light with one hand and the radio with the other. Blearily I looked at my watch; 2:30 A.M.. I pressed the button to talk on the radio, “This is the nurse on call.” I waited for the crackly response over the radio. A response came through and I asked where I could call them and ended the radio call. Throwing back the blankets I hauled myself up and stumbled to the phone to find out what was going on. I called the number I was given and heard the brief story from the patient’s father. At the clinic we’d been monitoring his daughter over the last few days for suspected pneumonia. Over the course of the night she’d begun to decline and now was struggling to breathe with decreasing oxygen saturation. Now, he wanted to know what he should do. I ended the call with a promise to call back in a few minutes and I called the doctor on-call with me over the weekend. He ...

One year ago I sat in this very spot and heard the news that would turn my world upside down. It would send me back around the globe to be with my family in a twist I had never seen coming. I’d be a liar if I told you I was perfectly composed that day or in any day that followed it. Truth be told, I was a mess and I remember many tearful days and nights that followed that day as I was stretched to the breaking point and beyond in the months that followed. I was reading my journal from last year and came upon my entry from May 18, 2015. It was full of raw emotion but at the end I wrote, “You [God] are good and I trust you. You give and take away. May You be praised.” Praised. Seems like a strange response to such difficult news. However, God did not change when my circumstances did. He was the same God that was good, loving, faithful, true and caring. I knew He had my best in mind even if it looked horrible and painful. Since then, I’ve been learning what prais...