Nurses Wanted

This year is really flying by. It's funny how time works. Days go by slowly here. Even thought they are cram packed. But weeks! Weeks fly by. Maybe it's because there are always pin points in a week. Sundays are just crazy. Especially for the nurses. Monday there is team meeting in the evening, Tuesday we usually have the evening to ourselves, Wednesday is prayer meeting, Thursday is pretty quiet usually in the evenings, then Friday vespers either in the church or with SM's, then Sabbath. Weeks fly. It makes months between speed. But as of now, we only have about 3 ½ months left. That's crazy. Time has really flown by. I want to thank all of the sponsors that we have, both prayer and also financial. You really have made it possible for many good things to happen. I want to also thank sponsors in general who sponsor missions. How cool to think about how many people you can help reach through that. It's really quite a cool way for God to use people.

Michelle, the nurse I work with is leaving in June. Brian, the other nurse is over in another village called Emrang, about a 2 hour hike away. He is able to come over sometimes, but he's got quite a bit of things to do over there. So in June, I'm hoping I won't be the only nurse here.

This week, Michelle has been on vacation. And I know people have done it before, but being the only nurse is crazy. Especially if you're sick yourself. There's no backup. Last Sunday I saw 53 patients which is normal for a Sunday. Brian came from Emrang and helped too, he was my pharmacist. I pulled Kevin and another SM Ben in for back up as well. My workers weren't there. I don't know how many people a doctor's office schedules in one day, but the nice thing about a doctors office is you have the secretary to check you in, the nurse or medical assistant to get you into the room and do your vitals, then the doctor comes and sees you. There's not even a pharmacy. They just write the prescription and send you to the pharmacy.

Well here, we do everything. We check people in and get them on the list, it's first come first serve, we weigh them, take there temperature and then we pull their chart. Pulling a chart is a process in itself, most of the very locals and regulars are no problem, but in Palawan people have nicknames and they won't remember that they have 2 names. So when they were a patient for the first time they give us a name that goes on the chart, they deny having a nickname, then months or years later, they come with another name and insist that they don't have a nickname. So you go through the route of asking who their mother is, what about their father, do they have siblings, are they married now and finally when you read off a couple of options that could be them, they say “yeah that's me” as if it was a “duh” kind of thing. It can be quite time consuming. Then they wait. Sometimes a worker can do this for us if they come or are there that day. Lately we haven't had them very steadily. Then we see person by person, take the rest of their vitals, assess them, diagnose them, then we go into our med prep room and prepare all of the meds in a way that is easy for people who don't know how to read to understand. We can't just hand them a bottle with a bunch of pills in it, we have a very good knot system with baggies and can put the meds they need to take in the morning in one knot, the ones at noon in the next knot and etc. Or we measure the amount of syrup or whatever and mark a syringe. Or we crush meds and make our own suspension. It works very well, but it's very time consuming to prep meds. So you can see that having even 16 patients is a steady day. So the Sundays when there are usually at least 30 more like 50 most of the time, it is impossible to do it all by yourself.

I was talking with another SM the other day and we were wondering what it would be like for 1 week with absolutley no missionaries here. It's for certain that without the clinic, people would die. Even in 1 week. Mostly young kids with Malaria who don't get treatment right away, but a few years ago, a middle aged lady died too. Or septic babies that are newly born. Just as I read over this blog and am getting ready to send it, there was a very powerful experience that involved a spiritual battle and physical battle with a young 18 year old mother, wife, and fairly new christian. I'm just coming off of a 24 hour shift. But God is good and gives victory through Christ. Hopefully, another blog will be posted soon about this experience.

There's another nurse who was here. Her name is Joha. The people here love her. They are always asking when she is coming back. She is the one who trained us in. She left to go back to the States so that she could raise money for at least a second year here. We were hoping she would beable to come back by January or February, but funds are difficult for her to raise. Now our “faith date” is around May 17. As of now, she still has about $4.000 to raise in a little less than a month. Pray for this.

The thing that I'm really scared of is that she won't be able to pull all of her funds even by the time I leave which is the end of July. During this time the George's will also be gone on furlough. That leaves Kiana, who is a teacher here, maybe Carrine, the accountant/assistant, and Napthali, another teacher/maintanance guy. There would be Brian, who would have to run back and forth from Emrang and Kemantian making the number of people we see in a week very trimmed down.

So, I guess the purpose of this blog is a little bit of a fundraiser for Joha. Also for the sake of the clinic here that sees thousands of people a year and treats thousands of cases of malaria a year plus more. If you would like to help you can do so through AFMs website. You should be able to search for her name and choose to contribute to her. You can also do it by mail, being sure to make the check out to AFM with a separate note saying who you'd like to donate to. Her name is Johanelly Estrella. The link to AFM's website is on our blog to the side. You can find the address there, the phone number there, or, if you have previously sponsored, and receive monthly magazines, you can also find the information there.

It is urgent to see her here before I leave. Even more wonderful if on our “faith date” she could come. Thank you again so much for your support. Lives are changing because of it. Including mine.