Hi! I'm going to digress (I'm sure I've just spelled that wrong!) a bit from the history to tell you about the Diploma of Tropical Nursing course I started a week and a half ago at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM). It's every Wednesday from 9-6 and I've been to 2 days so far. In addition to the usual introductory stuff like being shown the library and online resources and reminded how to write an academic essay, we have had 2 fantastic lectures from parasitologists on malaria and schistosomiasis (sometimes called blood flukes, worms which live in the blood vessels around the bladder or intestines and liver, depending on which species! Yummy!) and learned some basic laboratory skills such as setting up a microscope, preparing blood films for viewing, and looking at normal and abnormal red and white blood cells. We all look like mad scientists with our goggles and white coats! It's been pretty fun! I'm pretty excited because this course is already giving me lots of practical new knowledge and skills that I will be able to use in Sierra Leone. Please be praying that I will take full advantage of this opportunity and learn as much as I can.
I have already found, however, that it's easy to get side-tracked by the medical side of what I'd like to do in Sierra Leone, and forget the real reason behind it. I definitely see health care as a concrete way to show the love of Christ and I want to use it as such, to be the hands and feet of Christ in my corner of the world. But the temptation always looms to want to be a hero, to want to do something great or to see medical work as an end in itself. Please pray that I will keep Christ and building His kingdom as my focus always and that I will do everything I do for the glory of God and rely on His strength to do it.
Thank you to those who have already responded to the little green slip of paper with my prayer letters and chosen a day of the week to commit to pray for me. I am excitedly watching my prayer team grow! For those of you who haven't yet, please consider joining my prayer team by picking a day of the week that you could remember to pray for me regularly. Thank you also to those who have expressed interest in supporting me financially. I look forward to seeing how God will provide!
23 September 2005
12 September 2005
The Story Begins...
When I was 12 years old, living in Arctic Quebec as a missionary kid, I was home with my mom one day watching a Christian TV program called 100 Huntley Street. The hour long program was focussed on an African Children's Choir from Uganda, East Africa who sang with amazing passion and told stories of how they had lost their families. It really tugged at my heart and I was completely riveted. Mom recorded it for me and I used to watch it over and over and over again. I can't remember if I was interested in Africa before that or not but I think that was basically my introduction to Africa. Ever since that day, I dreamed of going to Africa when I grow up and caring for orphans myself.
The dream lingered through my teen years and in High School I became interested in Nursing as a means of caring for children in Africa. At that point Africa still seemed a long way off and I took a detour to go to Providence College in Otterburne, Manitoba to study TESOL for 1 year as I was also very interested in teaching English as a second language. During my year at Providence, I met my friend Nathan who had spent time in West Africa and knew a lot about the needs there. Until that point I always thought I would go to East Africa, as that was the part of Africa I knew something about. I now learned that West Africa was home to some of the poorest, most desperate people on earth who had far less opportunity to hear the Gospel than in East Africa and West Africa began to tug at my heart.
During my year at Providence I looked into teaching Engish in Africa short-term but all the doors I pushed on seemed closed and that didn't work out. I then learned of an ESL teaching opportunity in Takaishi, Osaka, Japan with a church there. Two of my friends from High School were out there that year and the church needed new teachers to take over from them when they left. I suggested to my friend Lori during the summer after we finished our TESOL training that we both go out to Japan for a few months to teach.
Also during my time at Providence, I had begun to look into studying Children's Nursing in England. I had always wanted to go to England anyway and I learned I could get a monthly bursary from the National Health Service to prevent me having to take out student loans. I also figured it would take me closer to Africa and allow me to travel there while I studied and get a taste of what it's like and whether I was meant to be there as I had always thought. So I sent off my application form before I headed to Japan with Lori.
While I was in Japan, I got an offer to travel to England for an interview at the University of Greenwich in London to study Children's Nursing. When I arrived back in Canada from Japan at the beginning of April, I then hopped on another plane a few days later and traveled to England for a week to attend my interview. I was told right after the interview that I had a place on the course and I was ecstatic.
I moved to London in September, 2000 and spent the next 3 years studying at Greenwich and doing a variety of clinical placements at surrounding hospitals and in the community. We had to choose an elective learning experience each summer and during my first summer back at home in Canada, I began to contemplate how I could get to Africa for my second elective in 2002.
One day my friend Katie and I were hanging out on a sunny Saskatchewan beach and I was talking about my Africa dream and how I really wanted to try it out the following summer. She then told me about a family she knew through her fiancee, the Nelsons, who had recently started up their own Christian Aid Organization called International D.O.VE (Development, Orphanages, Vocational Education) Association in Sierra Leone, West Africa and that their main work was with orphans. I got all excited because it just sounded so RIGHT for me and in the next few days I got in contact with them through their website www.internationaldove.com and applied to volunteer with them in the summer of 2002. I was soon accepted and began my preparations for the following summer. Many people gave of their finances, prayer, and encouragement so I could go that summer and I will always be grateful for that! Stay tuned for the next entry, A Dream Come True...
The dream lingered through my teen years and in High School I became interested in Nursing as a means of caring for children in Africa. At that point Africa still seemed a long way off and I took a detour to go to Providence College in Otterburne, Manitoba to study TESOL for 1 year as I was also very interested in teaching English as a second language. During my year at Providence, I met my friend Nathan who had spent time in West Africa and knew a lot about the needs there. Until that point I always thought I would go to East Africa, as that was the part of Africa I knew something about. I now learned that West Africa was home to some of the poorest, most desperate people on earth who had far less opportunity to hear the Gospel than in East Africa and West Africa began to tug at my heart.
During my year at Providence I looked into teaching Engish in Africa short-term but all the doors I pushed on seemed closed and that didn't work out. I then learned of an ESL teaching opportunity in Takaishi, Osaka, Japan with a church there. Two of my friends from High School were out there that year and the church needed new teachers to take over from them when they left. I suggested to my friend Lori during the summer after we finished our TESOL training that we both go out to Japan for a few months to teach.
Also during my time at Providence, I had begun to look into studying Children's Nursing in England. I had always wanted to go to England anyway and I learned I could get a monthly bursary from the National Health Service to prevent me having to take out student loans. I also figured it would take me closer to Africa and allow me to travel there while I studied and get a taste of what it's like and whether I was meant to be there as I had always thought. So I sent off my application form before I headed to Japan with Lori.
While I was in Japan, I got an offer to travel to England for an interview at the University of Greenwich in London to study Children's Nursing. When I arrived back in Canada from Japan at the beginning of April, I then hopped on another plane a few days later and traveled to England for a week to attend my interview. I was told right after the interview that I had a place on the course and I was ecstatic.
I moved to London in September, 2000 and spent the next 3 years studying at Greenwich and doing a variety of clinical placements at surrounding hospitals and in the community. We had to choose an elective learning experience each summer and during my first summer back at home in Canada, I began to contemplate how I could get to Africa for my second elective in 2002.
One day my friend Katie and I were hanging out on a sunny Saskatchewan beach and I was talking about my Africa dream and how I really wanted to try it out the following summer. She then told me about a family she knew through her fiancee, the Nelsons, who had recently started up their own Christian Aid Organization called International D.O.VE (Development, Orphanages, Vocational Education) Association in Sierra Leone, West Africa and that their main work was with orphans. I got all excited because it just sounded so RIGHT for me and in the next few days I got in contact with them through their website www.internationaldove.com and applied to volunteer with them in the summer of 2002. I was soon accepted and began my preparations for the following summer. Many people gave of their finances, prayer, and encouragement so I could go that summer and I will always be grateful for that! Stay tuned for the next entry, A Dream Come True...
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