oops

Well I had this great plan of trying to make sure that I get at least one blog post up every week. And it's been more than two weeks since my last post. Oops! Sorry for those of you who regularly check!

It feels like the last few weeks have really just flown by. It's been good though. I spent quite a few hours pounding out a grant proposal. I've been dreaming about doing a big women's educational outreach for a long time now. So I've recently applied for a grant to run an education program for the women and girls in our community. After all those hours of work to get it submitted before the deadline, it's a bit of a let down to realize that we will have to wait almost four months to hear if we will be awarded money for our project!

We did a photo shoot with the clinic staff earlier this week. I really believe that we have been blessed with an awesome staff! It's been exciting to see the different people who I believe God has hand-picked to work together in this ministry. It's great to see the heart's of compassion that they have as we reach out to patients on a physical, emotional and spiritual level.

In these last two weeks our friend Juli brought in the first two patients for her new work, Living Room Ministries International where she will be providing hospice care. As the ministry is just launching she doesn't really have a regular working staff yet. There are a few volunteers from our community who are cooking and care-giving to these two ladies. One of the patients really needs a high level of care and has been suffering for some time. The building the patients are staying in is on the same compound as our clinic. So we can all hear her regular cries of fear and pain. I told Juli that I was willing to assist her however I could, and we made arrangements for me to come assess the patient's pressure sores and help put together a skin-care plan.

Some of our clinic staff members came to my office yesterday before I left and said that they want to help Juli and her patients. So a few of our staff joined Juli to help care for her patient yesterday afternoon. It was a heart-breaking and moving hour as we assessed her skin and provided wound care. As I would approach her wounds she would cry out and scream like a fire-siren in both fear and pain. There were moments where I wanted to put in ear-plugs or run out of the room. But there were other moments where my heart was so full of love and compassion it was overwhelming. As I would take this beautiful woman's hand in mine and look in her eyes I could see Jesus. She would make eye contact through the tears and one time did her best to smile at me.

Please pray for Juli and her team as they launch this powerful new ministry. Pray also for our clinic staff as we will often be working closely with the ministry in our work. It is such a blessing to me to see what can happen when a group of people not only listen to the call God has put on their hearts, but respond to it in action!