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?