I will be starting orientation for my job August 2nd, a bit later than anticipated, but I know this is His perfect timing. It is a wonderful job that I am so excited about. I will be working per diem, picking up shifts as they need extra help in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit at Baptist Hospital in Nashville. One of my old assistant managers from when I was working at Vanderbilt is now the manager of the unit and I LOVE her. They have a brand new, updated, gorgeous, and bigger unit with more beds. And the best part? The hospital is built on Christian principles. Their value and mission statement are focused on serving the poor and needy and spreading God’s love. You are welcomed and ENCOURAGED to pray with your patients and their families. When I worked per diem there for 5 months in 2007 I was overwhelmed with the environment. The nurses and respiratory therapists and secretaries and anyone working that shift would gather together at the beginning of every shift morning and evening and hold hands and pray. There were prayer cards at each bedside. The staff shared prayer requests, praises, and answered prayers with each other in the break room! Such an inviting and encouraging place to work and help heal. Even better? God is using this to bless me financially. The pay is 2x what I used to make as a staff nurse and while I won’t be able to work full-time because of grad school, I will still be able to pay off graduate school (all 26 out of state hours) in full while putting some away for retirement and savings (which I haven’t put one penny into either in the last 2 years). Ya’ll have blessed me by stepping up and out in faith and obedience of God and continuing to support me while I’m home. I still have 2/3 of my normal support, which will perfectly (and I do mean perfectly) cover my living expenses while I’m home.
I will start my online graduate certificate program in Global Health through the public health college at University of Alabama mid August. And it’s looking more and more like I will be home till the end of July 2011. Why? Well, truly, God only knows, but also, because the way graduate classes are falling it would be practically impossible to take them while overseas. After talking with many different programs and many people in online graduate programs along with acknowledging that the internet in Moz is at best, worse than old school dial up, and the fact that I want to finish these programs in my lifetime, coupled with lots of prayer, I’ve seen how God knew what He was doing with letting me think I’d only be home till January. I might not have ever left Moz. ;) So I’ll be able to take 8 hrs this fall, hopefully 7 in the spring (including starting my certificate in Maternal Child Health), and then 6 in the summer. By the end of July 2011, I will have finished my UAB certificate in Global Health and only have 5 hrs to take the following summer to complete my Maternal Child Health. So I’ll be ready to go back on the field for 10 months, before coming home for a break and my last summer of classes! Did I mention that thankfully God didn’t allow my car to sell 2 years ago when I put it on the market? Well, it didn’t and I still have my car which is making this whole thing even easier. I don’t know what I would have done for this season without a car!
I miss Mozambique terribly. Some days it’s unbearable. But God is carrying me through and I’m excited about this season and all the things He has for me and Mozambique in the future. I cannot say enough how truly blessed I am. With June completed, I have started looking at dates to speak with churches and groups so please contact me again if you had said you’d like for me to come so we can lock in dates and details. I think you’d be blessed to see the faces of the people you have blessed by giving so much of yourselves to me! I have so many stories to tell of His faithfulness and where I see Him leading me in the future. Thanks for praying and walking this journey with me.
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