Author Archives: Todd

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Easter blew past the Lemmons this year. Since I was working several days in a row to make up for time I took off to recover from hernia repair surgery, we really didn’t get to experience Easter the way we like. Still, we got to worship together in church and serve together in the nursery for the second service, so it didn’t go completely unnoticed. While Easter is a special time of remembrance of the death and resurrection of the Messiah, ever since Cindy and I spent Easter 2014 in Uganda, we are reminded of the marching on of time. This year, we are more than half-way through our seven year wait. We are nearer to our planned move-out in July 2021 than to our initial visit to Uganda in April 2014. It’s time to get planning!

We have signed up and booked a trip for a Medical Missions gathering of the Christian Health Services Corps in Texas next month, and plan another trip for an orientation education experience with Mercy Ships in June. While CHSC operates hospitals in several locations, one as near to Uganda as D.R. Congo, Mercy Ships generally deploys the Africa Mercy to ports west. Either of these ministries, as well as several others, may give us the opportunity for experience in missionary nursing and service Cindy and I desperately need, as well as exposure to other ministries with which we might someday partner. Cindy has wanted to serve on a Mercy Ships cruise since long before she met me, and we both would benefit from the experience of living and serving on board for a year or so before we deploy to Uganda. These are all merely possibilities at this point, but it seems prudent to begin gathering information and making plans, since time is flying so quickly by.

When last I wrote, I was reeling from the ego punch of losing my position in the Intensive Care Unit. Since then, I have made great strides toward learning how to manage six less-intense patients on a medical-surgical-telemetry unit, many of whom can walk, talk, and ask for coffee. This is a stark contrast to the two patients I would have in the ICU, who were often intubated, sedated or comatose, and struggling for life. It is a different kind of stress — that of being behind rather than terrified. Working on the night shift at least makes the pace something I can generally catch up with by daybreak. Overall, I’m glad for the change and do not plan to reapply to the ICU. Instead, I think the Emergency Department or perioperative care would give me better experience related to missionary nursing, the E.D. for clinics, village nursing care, or disaster response, and the O.R. for surgical support. Such decisions are pushed back by the hospital policy which requires I work in a unit for one year before making any other moves. I will content myself to spending this time learning to be a nurse, and then start over learning to be an Emergency Department or Operating Room nurse.

Additionally, my back trouble represents a physical obstacle in my development plan. It appears back surgery is necessary, but recovery times necessitate that I push surgery past July, so I have enough employment history to qualify for leave under the FMLA. My neurologist is confident a spinal fusion will remedy my problems if I don’t put it off too long or do anything too reckless in the meantime. So, I’m being careful and trying not to be a superhero at work.

every day is an opportunity to serve God, and everyone we meet is a mission field

It is easy to get lazy in “when I, then I’ll…” thinking, which takes the pressure off serving today deferring it to a hazy future moment, but every day is an opportunity to serve God, and everyone we meet is a mission field. Every single soul needs encouragement, and most remain in need of a Savior. Today, I’m asking God for the opportunity to reflect the glory of His grace onto those around me so that His love and light are felt, and so He is better known. Won’t you join me in this petition?

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When winds turn turbulent the One who calms storms is still Lord! Wave after wave buffeted the hull of Noah’s ark, yet all mankind still descends from his sons. Joseph, though tormented in dungeons, still brought to bear his ministry of deliverance for Israel. Persecuted and scattered, Christ’s own disciples wondered if they’d come so far for nothing, yet they sit as fathers of the Church. “In his heart a man plots his course, but the Lord determines his steps” (Proverbs 16:9, NIV 1984). Special waypoints confirm themselves, but the steps in between call for faith in the One who set the stars.

When winds turn turbulent the One who calms storms is still Lord!

In July, I reported a miracle of God’s providence when He landed me an unimaginable job ("Nurse Todd takes a Job"). The Lord planted me in an intensive care unit when I had never dreamed of asking for such a distinction. Since then, I have toiled, wrestled, grieved, and strived, only to find myself involuntarily moved to another assignment less demanding. I grieve the loss of the work family I developed in the ICU, and the blow to my pride since I can no longer say, “I am an ICU nurse.” I would be remiss, however, to think that such was never His will. Any one of the patients I’ve served, the families I’ve comforted, the coworkers I’ve encouraged, the complex health issues I’ve studied, the severe situations I’ve experienced, or even this recent lesson in humility I’ve been dealt could be reason enough for me to have been brought through this season.

I can no longer say, “I am an ICU nurse.”

I well remember that a missionary is not called to do what is easy, but what is necessary. That very notion has helped me to make a decision about where to plant my next footfall. Given the option of a sparklingly attractive job in predictable, routine orthopedics or a more clinically demanding medical-surgical unit, I have opted for the latter and have already joined the ranks of my new work family. They seem to be happy to receive me and, only two days in, I’ve already had an opportunity to make an impact on patients and coworkers alike.

a missionary is not called to do what is easy, but what is necessary

I am learning that the key to living through loss with grace is gratitude. I am grateful for the knowledge that God is sovereign over my circumstances and has a plan for me. I am grateful that my end destination is not God’s only plan, but that every stepping stone en route is no less carefully designed and appointed. I am grateful for relationships built, experiences had, and ministry opportunities capitalized. Today, I honestly thanked God for the lesson in humility represented by my reassignment. I don’t need to know what lies ahead to trust the Navigator.

the key to living through loss with grace is gratitude

Whether you are experiencing turmoil in your life or not, I hope you will remember that the Master of the waves and wind is also the Architect of your soul, sinews, and senses, and He will plant your every step if you surrender your course to His will. That said, I cannot overstate the value of faithful encouragement. The words of my friends through this have really propped me up when I needed it. My hope is that every child of Christ has a family of encouragement to prop them up. The entire purpose of the Church is to glorify God by caring for one another in the manner Christ taught us.

the Master of the waves and wind is also the Architect of your soul, sinews, and senses

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Where the Lord guides the Lord provides. The battles to which He brings us are His to win, while the orders of a spiritual warrior are to “pray without ceasing,” “be still and know,” and “after all, to stand.” When those battles have to do with health, we are further instructed:
“Is anyone among you sick? Let them call the elders of the church to pray over them and anoint them with oil in the name of the Lord.” (James 5:14, NIV)

It is in response to these orders that I write this update, which may err on the side of overshare since my recent prayer concerns are of a physical nature. You may remember I alluded to some of this in September's post.

For the last couple years I have endured minor pain and stiffness in my back, but dismissed it as merely part of nearing fifty. It turns out that aging is not supposed to hurt and pain really is an alarm for something amiss. After many sessions with my doctors and an MRI machine, it has been revealed that I have a lower spine issue that requires intervention. I have had two lumbar epidural steroid injections and have been going to physical therapy in hopes that surgical spinal fusion can be avoided. At the same time, another pain symptom in my groin, which green-flagged my start to the doctor after all this ignored pain, has proven to be an inguinal hernia, for which I have been referred to a surgeon. Each of these issues has brought warnings not to lift heavy objects, difficult orders to obey when one is a new nurse on an intensive care unit.

A good military commander will not attack merely one front, but will overwhelm an enemy with flanking maneuvers from all sides possible, and Satan is a crafty destroyer. So it is with my family recently. My physical concerns come at a time when I am also under the pressure of an extended orientation at work. Having failed to achieve satisfactory progress in critical decision-making necessary to remain in the ICU, I risk being reassigned to another new unit where I may have to learn everything anew. On other fronts, someone very dear to me faces the news of a cancer diagnosis, my parents are addressing their own health problems, and so on and etcetera.

I am reminded that the Lord has crafted His handiwork, and the maintenance of our bodies is a shared stewardship. While I should care for His temple with the diligence of one loaned an antique car, I also have to remember that He is the Chief Mechanic and Great Physician. We are called to pray for God’s will to be done on Earth as it is in Heaven, because the will of God is not the rule on this dirt world. God gave authority over this world to Adam, and man has been running the way of sin, decay, and death ever since. The Son of God and Son of Adam, Yeshua (Jesus), was born to combine the power of Heaven with the authority of Earth, and we as heirs were given permission to wield that powerful authority with prayer. It is precisely this miraculous combination that we celebrate at Christmas and, as Christians, every day in prayer. Thank you for fortifying my position with your prayers. My hope is for full remission after my loved one's treatments are complete, that I may be spared spinal surgery, and that a hernia repair will not interfere with my new job.

I am an ICU nurse by the will and design of God - the Lord of Heaven’s armies, and He will resource my development. For where the Lord guides, He provides!