Something to ponder......

I was reading in Mt. 10 the other morning when Jesus sent out the 12. I had read the verse many times where he says to them take nothing with you, no money, no bag, no extra clothes etc. Wow, He sent them out to do the work of the Lord without anything but the clothes on their back and the power to heal the sick etc. Why did He do this??? I really don't know but my thoughts were this: I want to teach you total dependency on Me!! Later in the same passage he refers to the sparrow falling to the ground and how the Father knows all of this, that every hair on our head is numbered, don't be afraid "....You are worth more than many sparrows." Jesus is sending His disciples out to preach the Gospel, heal the sick, set the demon possessed free with nothing and in His closing statements He leaves them the message when a sparrow falls to the ground I know this; HOW MUCH more do I care about you!!!! It blessed me as I started meditating on it. When the Lord takes us through difficult times or asks us to do something for Him, He knows our needs and loves us so much and has only our good in store. He wants us to learn that all we need in life is HIM!! He has given us the power to do everything through His Spirit and all we need his that. Help me Lord to fully grasp my desperation for needing only you in this life and how much you really do care about me.

I realize it has been a while since I have written, ugh. Life on the ship can get pretty monotonous and I forget that it may be exciting to all of you to know what a day is like so I shall try to tell you. For start, I don't usually get up until around noon ;) I work the evening or night shifts here on the ship. That was such a blessing cause I don't lik mornings:) So when I get up I eat lunch and then it's time to go to work if I work the evening shift (2pm-10pm). The patients are always glad to see us, those that have been here for a while :) The first half of the shift is usually just hanging out and building relationships with the patients. During the week we will have our post -op patients to take care of when they come back from the OR. So they are busy at times. Then in the middle of the shift, I actually have to do some work :) Every patient gets their vitals checked and some of them need dressing changes or whatever. Then the last half is playing games with patients or whatever. Usually everything goes pretty well. Night shift is from 9:30pm-7am. Everything is the same except the patients sleep more :) I really enjoy the work here. The main focus is building relationship with the patients and sharing Jesus with them it's great. All the nurses pray before each shift and have devo's together. It's so wonderful. I think I I should carry it back to America with me :)

After work my friends and I usually go for a run and then to the gym. On our days off we do fun things off the ship. Today was an ADVENTURE I will never forget. 9 of us headed to the "Bong Mines." This happens on a train :) We load the land rover onto a flat-bed train box and have a 2 hr ride. You can get out of cars and walk from box to box. This is quit dangerous and adventuresome in and of itself. I highly recommend not looking down while crossing from box to box :) We even got to sit on the engine. It was a lot of fun :) At the Bong Mines, before the war, they use to have a processing plant for ore-German ran. It was huge but during the war they all had to walk away from it and now it's just buildings that have been stripped of most of the steel as people walk away with it to sell. So we climbed around there for a while. That was scary at places as all the steps were gone on the stairways so it was like walking up the siderails only. :) That was just preparation for what was to come. Then we got in the land rover and drove and drove and drove and drove through the thickets, literally:) We went off roading. :) We came to the top of this ravine and then it was time to hike down!! The view from the top was amazing and you coul hear the rushing water at the bottom. The ravine was all thicket through the jungle with machetes!!! That was a great experience. Once at the bottom we followed the river bed and came to a goregous little falls. We swam in the water hole and slide down the rocks into the water hole ;) Our way out of the ravine was to climb up the waterfalls ;) It wasn't as bad as it sounds in most places :) Some places were a little difficult. Praise the Lord we all made it back to the land rover. Then we had a 3.5 hr ride back to the ship, with lots of bumps and mud holes :) We stopped along the way, once we hit the paved road, for a car wash in a river or something. All the little boys washed the land rover for us it was quit cute :) Needless to say we came back to the ship very tired, hungy and dirty : But it was one of the greatest adventures I have ever taken!!!!

And people say being a christian is boring??? Does this sound boring to you :):):)