Inkosi Mayibe Nawe (May the Lord Be With You)

This week has been parked my something unusual: Death.

Death is inevitable and going to happen to us all and everyone we know but is a rather un-talked about subject in this culture.

so lets talk about it a little....

This past week I started by final semester of nursing school. The nursing class is critical care (advanced med/surg) ICU/emergency nursing. All of the things that we have learned are now needing to be recalled. All lab values, all meds, all assessments need to be applied. The thing we all have been dreaming of is almost coming true: being a real nurse. The steps to attaining that goal are 7 weeks of clinical, 7 weeks of our own preceptorship (12 hours shifts with a nurse where we are doing the primary care), graduation, and passing NCLEX (the nursing boards). So the first portion of this is to complete the 7 weeks of clinical. I am working at an amazing hospital in orange county in the ICUs. So this past week we went to the hospital to get oriented. As we walk onto the unit we see a family outside crying...and we sensed it....

we walked onto the unit....passed by a room filled with people but no monitors were beeping...that means the patient is no longer hooked up to them, meaning they have passed on...

after the family had left, our professor ushered us into the room to pray for the family and with the primary nurse...

we were able to look into the face of a beautiful woman whose soul had left her physical body and was now where she will spend eternity...

it was emotional.

by the grace of god i was able to pray in the room for the family to be comforted, strengthened and able to weep and mourn and celebrate the life that was lived...

it was powerful...

can I just tell you though how good our GOD is...

this past semester being in south Africa and working in Zulu communities in which HIV/AIDS, violence, and many other reasons where DEATH is such a daily part of living. There were many times where we would interact with people in the communities that had just lost loved ones that day, that week, that month and they would talk openly about it.

Death was part of life.

Death was talked about.

Death was expected.

Death was viewed differently then it is here. When someone dies in a Zulu community you dont say "i am sorry" you say things like

~ "Sikhala kanye nawe" which means "I cry with you"

~ "Ulale ngenxeba" which means "time heals, sleep with the wound"

~ "Ngiyakuzwela" which means " i sympathize with you"

~ "Inkosi mayibe nawe" which means "may the lord be with you"

The Lord allowed me to wrestle with death this past semester in ways i had never done before. The mindset that the lord has given me is very different then that of typical western culture that is all about DEFYING death and doing all that they can to avoid it, look younger, not grow old, and not talk about or acknowledge death.

I am so thankful that the LORD used last semester to prepare me for this past week. I am not saying that I was not emotion filled because i was and it was truly a powerful experience, but I was able to pray and lead my group in a time of prayer and wrestling because the LORD had faithfully provided time for me to do so previously.

God is good.

God is faithful.

Death in this life, in the physical is not the end.

It is truly only the beginning.

This changes the way we view death more then any cultural differences could.

2 Corinthians 15

⁵⁰ I declare to you, brothers and sisters, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. ⁵¹ Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed— ⁵² in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. ⁵³ For the perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality. ⁵⁴ When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come true: “Death has been swallowed up in victory.”

⁵⁵ “Where, O death, is your victory?
Where, O death, is your sting?”

⁵⁶ The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. ⁵⁷ But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

⁵⁸ Therefore, my dear brothers and sisters, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain.

So, when you are faced with death, may we say "Ulale ngenxeba" that "time heals", and may we be willing to say to those are around us facing death "sikhala kanye nawe" that we will cry with you

my dear brothers and sisters no matter where this post finds you INKOSI MAYIBE NAWE-- MAY THE LORD BE WITH YOU.

May the Holy Spirit truly be the Comforter of our souls.

May he deliver peace that will guard our hearts and minds.

May he provide all that we need to serve him.

Because we truly have a High Priest that can say "ngiyakuzwela"--I sympathize--because he sympathizes with us in every way.

Praise be to God.

We are Victorious.

What an Adventure!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Today is the last day of 2010.

What an adventure this has been.

In this year I have seen many mountain highs and just as many valley lows; metaphorically speaking as well as physically.

The song “o how he loves us” is playing as I write and it is ringing true in my heart now because it is truly a testimony of what this year has been: an out pouring of God’s love and grace. Through the songs, skits, and scriptures that the Lord has placed on my live I have seen the love of God. In India as well as Africa I had the chance to narrate for the skit done for children about the parable of the Lost Sheep in Luke 15. God is relentlessly pursuing us and will do anything to be with us and have us understand that we are loved my him.

I have seen the love and touch of our Abba, Father, Creator God in many diverse ways this 2010. I have seen him in….

• · The eyes of a slum children in the streets of Kolkata, India who had a joy in the LORD that was contagious
• · The worship of Nepali speaking northern Indians in Darjeeling who are willing to do anything for the gospel and to further the name of Jesus
• · The home of a HIV+ Zulu family who physically was ailing but was strengthened in their inner being to grasp the LOVE that God had for them
• · The sharing of a meal and partaking in communion with a persecuted Christians in the Himalayas
• · The beauty of true friendship that is such an example of the LOVE of God because they KNOW me, the good and bad, and still love me
• · The majesty, power, and untainted beauty of the Himalayan, Draakensburg, and Yosemite mountains
• · The many patients that have I have worked with in the diverse nursing setting that I have been placed in
• · The diversity of people and gifts as well as ways to worship in the global and large body of Christ
• · The thousands of small answers to prayers that God has so faithfully answered in the mundane, daily, and routine life lived day to day

My final Sunday in Cape Town South Africa I had the chance to attend church with a dear friend Victor. The theme of the church for 2010 was a year of “Great Things”. This statement and motto rang true for my year. This truly is what 2010 has been: GREAT. I said to the LORD “Here I am, Send Me.” And he sure did take me up on that offer. I am so humbled that I have been able to be part of the ministry of God drawing his people back into a relationship with him. God is truly moving my friends. He is alive and he is active. The grace of God was overflowing to me this past year and I cannot believe the things that I have been able to see and be a part of all over this world. I am so thankful to my friends and family who were so incredibly supportive of all the things that God was doing in my life and allowed me to wrestle with issues, cry at things that seemed silly, complain about things in America that don’t make sense any more, process the interaction with the glory of the LORD that happened in India and Africa, pray and be pray for me, and tell stories over and over again and say “this one time in india/south Africa” =) couldn’t have done it without you all. Thank you. =) would have died with you! =)

It is interesting because this past year I have asked many believers the question “why are you a Christian?” An extremely common response to this question is “oh because I get to go to heaven”, but one response that I have heard and that I have claimed as my own is that I am a Christian because of the HOPE that I receive today. I have hope today, but I also have a hope for tomorrow and find forgiveness from my past. The Holy Spirit gives a joy that is unmatchable. The God of the universe is madly in love with his people here and now TODAY! I know that heaven is real and that it is a place that I will go when I die, BUT hypothetically speaking, if heaven was NOT real, I would still be a Christian. I say this because the God of Heaven and Earth has a kingdom agenda that does not start when we die. It starts now. My dear friend Holly said that many people are willing to DIE for Jesus, but far less are truly willing to LIVE for Jesus. May 2011 be a time of truly living: living with purpose, living with hope, living with joy, living with love. As I sat in the beautiful African Church that last Sunday, I turned to my friend and asked him, “2010 was truly the year of great things, so what is 2011 going to be?” and he responded “Megan, it is going to be the year of GREATER things.” I claim this promise in the name of Jesus.

2011 holds many exciting things and many unknowns. I am entering my last semester of nursing school. After May 8 when I receive my degree Bachelor of Science in Nursing, I will stay in Los Angeles and study for my nursing boards (NCLEX). After that it is pretty unknown. I know that I will be a nurse, a pediatric one most likely. I am going to be applying to a couple children hospitals in northern California and a few in southern California. =) I do not know where I will be but I do know that God has a plan for me. I know that I am his and that he is going to put me where he wants me. This is comforting because it takes the pressure off. I am going to do my best and do all I can to stay faithful to the call that he has placed on my life, but the LORD will place me where he wants me to be and will open the doors that he wants to and close the ones that he does not want.

This picture was taken the last day in South Africa, when we woke up at 4:45 to watch the sunrise over the Indian ocean; today as i drove my friend to the airport, I was blessed with a beautiful sunrise. These are little reminders that the sun (and son;) ) is rising on a new chapter in my life. A newness is coming. "Here we go again" is the the name of this blog and a truth as we enter into this year. So, Here we go again. =) By the Grace of God, Let us make the year 2011 a year of GREATER things.

Happy New Year Everyone. =)

Psalm 103

Praise the LORD, O my soul; all my inmost being, praise his holy name.

Praise the LORD, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits—

Who forgives all your sins

And heals all your diseases,

Who redeems your life from the pit

And crowns you with LOVE and COMPASSION,

Who satisfies your desires with good things

So that your youth is RENEWED like the eagle’s

The LORD works righteousness and justice for all the oppressed.

The LORD is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, ABOUNDING in love.

He does not treat us as our sins deserve or repay us according to our iniquities.

For as high as the heavens are above the earth,

SO GREAT IS HIS LOVE for those who fear him!

The End of Pietermartizburg and Travel Week

I cannot believe it.

The time in Pietermartizburg is over.

The longest I have ever been in another country was spent at this place called African Enterprise. One of the most beautiful campus’ in the world. This place my friends contained amazing landscape but even more amazing people. The staff of AE became a family to us all. They did above and beyond was a necessary to give us anything and everything that would make our stay there the best. And it was truly a blessing.

As my dear friend Francie is always quick to say: we are SO INCREDIBLY blessed to have done what we did.

Let me recap the last couple weeks in PMB.

Highlights:

• · Finishing my Community Health Nursing course
• · Completing my Senior Seminar, Nursing Ethics, course, final paper and presentation
• · Finishing my nursing research course
• · Having a wonderful farewell dinner with our professors and some of the people we worked with at our nursing sites.

I don’t know if I told you all this, but if you watched the blogs that francie and did you would know that we (Emily N, Emily L, Francie and I) had to do a community nursing project. This project needed to engaged the community and revolve around education.

CARE CENTER

The other 6 nurses were in a group and had their project idea with like 5 weeks left in the semester. We as a group did not. All the options we were looking at weren’t working. Nothing was coming together. However, we all remembered that through the grapevine we had heard that Walk in the Light a ministry that worked in Haniville, a town that Mason’s clinic in is which is where we had been working this semester, wanted to start some sort of clinic/care center. We had met Pendile, a dear woman from Walk in the Light, because she takes people to clinics and hospitals if they are unable to. She is truly a wonderful women of God.

So with only 3 weeks left we NEEDED a project. By the grace of God, pendile was at AE on a Monday we were able to talk with her about this rumor of a clinic and she said that it was true and wanted us to come visit the ministry and go on home visits with her. So on that Thursday we were able to go with the APU team to Walk in the Light.

This is when the miraculous occurred. =)

Bruce, the founder of walk in the light, met with us that morning. As we told him what our project was about and what our passions and gifts are this is when it all started coming together. As we asked bruce about this clinic he told us the vision of Walk in the Light and how it is truly a City on a Hill, a light into the community. Bruce and Pendile have been wanting to start a Care Center since the start of walk in the light because there is such a need for a place where HIV/AIDS patients and other extremely sick people within the community to come and be cared for because their families are not able to care for them . So, after talking for a little Bruce goes, “lets go start clearing out the building.” I was in shock. I think I expected that we would talk about it, then wait and then actually do something…but by the grace of GOD it worked out perfectly. We also talked about how we could provide walk in the light with a Basic Care Manual that they could use on home visits and in the care center. . The other “random” (and when I say random I am perfectly orchestrated event that was prepared by the FATHER since the beginning of time) aspects of this project were as follows:

1. We needed to do this project for our class

2. There was a team of 8 Adam W, Byron R, Zach W, Emily G, Megan H, Sarah C, Carrie J, Janelle Y that was going to be working at Walk in the Light for three weeks

3. Pendile was able to take us on home visits so that we could assess the needs of the community in order to better produce the Basic Care Manual to fit the needs of the community

4. Walk in the light had an extra building on the property

5. Carin’s husband Wilfred (a precious couple from the Netherlands who is staying at walk in the light for about a year) is an architect and was able to design the bathroom and layout for the Care Center

6. A retired nurse, Sylvia, has recently decided to volunteer at walk in the light and has committed to help with any nursing care

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U

So it happened,

• we assessed (the community’s needs)
• we put together (the Basic Care Manual)
• we encouraged (the group of APU people that were there to keep working so dang hard to transform the storage room into a beautiful care center with a veranda, pathway, septic tank, newly painted walls, preparing a place for a garden and doing everything physical for this project)
• we rejoiced (because every week that we went back we saw the beautiful progress)
• we thanked God

We thanked God because we got to be part of something so much bigger then us. It was so encouraging to see the body of Christ working together to finish this project. Though we did not get to see the project come to completion; it was an amazing transformation. I have never gotten to be part of something novel like this and it was such an awesome feeling. Though it was strange to not the be the one “in the trenches” digging, working, sweating, and painting and being the one who is doing the manual labor, I had to realize that my team and I’s portion to this project was to provide nursing knowledge and skills to this project.

This project further confirms that role of short term teams. We were there to reignite a dream. Bruce and Pendile have wanted to do this for years, but due to lack of man power, energy, and nursing care knowledge it was not able to be done. Due to this kairos, miraculous moment in time where we were in the right place at the right time and an AMAZING GOD on our side.

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U

I cannot wait to see the finished product and have peoples lives be saved due to the care they receive in this care center.

Please pray for the ministry of walk in the light and the care center. =) I will keep you posted with pictures =)

Every good thing must come to an end they say aye….

Our time in PMB is over…

We had to leave…

After tears and sadness we left…

We left places and people that we love:

• New Life Centre (the church that I have been going to)
• South African Friends
• Dance Fitness friends
• Clinical sites like Ethembeni
• African Enterprise and the amazing staff

=(

So we left on SUNDAY

And we drove

And drove

And drove

And drove

We stopped in East London, Port Elizabeth, and George.

We stayed in the nicest hotels by the ocean that I have ever stayed in =)

And a little adventure occurred on this trip:

I JUMPED OFF THE HIGHEST BRIDGE BUNGY JUMP IN THE WORLD!

It was amazing!

I will put up the video ASAP!

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We are in CAPETOWN!

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A city that I have been to before (for the first time, I am returning to a place that I have been) and it is wonderful

Pray that I can lean in and embrace these last couple weeks =)

God is good

This place is beautiful

And I cannot wait to come home!

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U

The internet is kinda slow here so I m not going to upload pictures just yet…but they will come ASAP!

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Watch francie and I’s video that we just posted right below this post =)

I love you all and I miss you terribly!

See you soooooo soon!

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U

Final Video Blog in Pietermartizburg, KZN, South Africa! =)

Procrastination at its finest =)

As we sat in the library late last night working out senior sem presentation (which i just FINISHED and it went great--i think --- ;) ) we decided to create this little video blog!

Enjoy!

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VIDEO BLOG =)

Emily N, Emily L, Francie and I made a video blog during a thunder storm that suddenly interrupted our homework time =)

Enjoy

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I CAN'T BELIEVE IT IS NOVEMBER! =)

Well goodbye September and October in south Africa. Hello November!

We only have like three weeks left in PMB and I cannot believe how fast time has flown by! Life is CRAZY! I have to remind myself every day that "this is real life" and that we are in Africa because i still cannot believe that i have been blessed with this amazing opportunity! Praise the Lord! =)

When we first got here we were leaving South Africa’s winter and are now going into summer. In the Eastern Cape (which is where we are) it rains in the summer season. So when we got here it was brown and dry. NOW, after many many days of thunder, hail, and rain the country has turned GREEN! I love it! It many many times reminds me of beautiful Ireland which makes me miss Ireland even more. It is super funny how many similarities there are between the white South African culture and the Northern Ireland culture! I love it! =)

In the spirit of enjoying the beauty around us we have done a couple of sweet activities like hiking, soccer and zip lining. African Enterprise is positioned outside of the city and up against a game reserve and mountain. Right behind our Chalets is a beautiful 30 ft waterfall that we get to hear and see always!

One of the highlights of this weekend was getting to go zip lining over the African canopy! It was seriously amazingly beautiful! The longest zip was 180 meters!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We were going to fast, we were so high, and it was seriously so scary/awesome/wonderful/out of control!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Here is a picture of what it was like looking over the valley!

Fun Events that Start with H!

Homecoming

The past couple weeks we have gotten to have entirely too much fun! We have an amazing activities committee that plans stellar events! The first one was HOMECOMING! We had a homecoming week where every day we got to get dressed up for in a different way like crazy, twins, and stuff like that. It was everyone else who is here who is not a nursing major finals week so we used homecoming really just as an excuse to get dressed up and have a dance party. It was a vintage theme and the committee did great! We had dance offs, a photo booth to take pics and danced the night away! It was so much fun! Here is a picture of all the girls that live in my chalet! =) Charles Palma! =)

Halloween

Of course, the next H is Halloween! Again activities committee planned a great event for us to have fun and get dressed up! My roommate Kimberly and I were stressing because we didn’t know what we were going to be and while on a weekly mall run she came up with the idea of being an old married couple….so after an hour of getting my makeup done, asking the guys here for clothes, getting a q-tip/cotton mustache I came out looking like Mr. Fredrickson from UP! =) Here is a pic of me and Kim and then one of me and Cherokee when she was dressed up like Russel from Up and I was Mr. Fredrickson! Thanks to Adam, Lucas, Audra, and anyone else who made this costume possible!

=) This is what i would look like if i was an old man =)

RUSSEL AND MR. FREDRICKSON

This is post is all about the fun things that have gone on this past couple weeks! I will have a post ASAP about my last week of clinical and talk about the Community Project that we are doing with Walk in the Light Ministry!