Author Archives: Todd

•
There are too many relationships to capture in a collage, but this one serves as representative for them all.

It was hard to say farewell to my work family at the Baptist Medical Center Jacksonville Adult Emergency Department. I can’t be in two places at once, so I had to tear myself away to get ready for deployment. I must have torn a piece of my heart in the process because I’ve been grieving ever since. I know I have attachment issues, but these people have really made me at home and I will miss them.

I tried to make everyone I worked alongside feel a part of something bigger. We worked hard but had fun in the process. Many mornings when 6 o’clock came around, I broadcast “The Final Countdown” on our radio badge system to signal the nearing end of our 7 to 7 shift. I did it so much it became our closing theme. Thursday morning after my last shift, while we were gathered at a popular after-work hangout, that song by Europe played overhead, as if to close out a perfect farewell.

•

My flight is booked but for one week later than previously announced. It turns out the CEO of the mission I am visiting will be visiting the US on the same dates I had planned to be in Uganda, so I shifted my itinerary a week to allow us to meet there. I will depart Jacksonville April 29th and return June 13th.

Photo courtesy of Qatar Airways

I will depart Jacksonville April 29th and return June 13th.

Dr. Colby Cessnun, the medical director of the mission hospital, contacted me and seems eager to put me to work alongside the nurses there in the hospital. I cannot begin to describe what a privilege I count this and how excited I am at the prospect of being there and getting to know these precious people.

Pray all goes well and that God is glorified in every process and detail. I will be sure to keep updates coming.