Saturday, November 21, 2015

Haiti Part 3




More than a week in Haiti following the devastating earthquake, trying to figure out what my part in all this is…I looked around me.  Me…”just a nurse”…someone who had had lots of varying, different experiences, who had been a Staff Sergeant in the Army, jumped out of airplanes, been a part of a Patriot Missile system to shoot down enemy aircraft, married to an amazing man, gave birth to the most beautiful daughter…here I find myself in the middle of Port-au-Prince, where I have no business being.

Sure, I had run over 500 medical clinics by myself, in the jungles of Honduras, given CPR to people who have died as I am the “only hope” they have, and knowing the ambulance will never come…that people look to me for answers well beyond what I can give them…it’s just me…little old me…and who am I?!?!?!  I keep thinking, “I’M JUST A NURSE!!!....WHAT DO  I KNOW?!??!?” but God knows what I know…and He will equip me…and He will give me just what I need…

And yet I panic.  I’m  by myself, completely, no one around, I don’t even speak the language, and a pregnant mom is looking at me for answers….looking at me to make things right.

I taught childbirth education for over 20 years before I even left for the mission field.  I did an internship for over a year in a maternity ward delivering many a baby…but let’s just face it – I had resources…other nurse…other doctors…an OR for goodness sake that could save me from the potential complications of what childbirth means, MONITORS that would tell me a baby’s heartbeat and contractions, but I was by myself, completely and alone.

But like any good soldier, like any good nurse, like any good Christian…I dug down deep….What do I know…what are my resources…what do I have available to me?

So I put on the pair of gloves I had in my pocket, and assessed my situation.  I had 2 alcohol swabs, one pair of clamps, and one pair of bandage scissors, and God…those were my resources, and that was sufficient…

So I laid this mama down, and assessed the situation…

To be continued…

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