July 13th, 2011
I
started out my 21st year with a birthday at Pinehouse Lake
Saskatchewan. I was with a group of
about 20 people who were spending two weeks in a rural Canadian village to
spread the Gospel of Christ. This
was my “first” mission trip to go out of the U.S.
(even though it is just Canada!) We were told, in preparation for this
trip, to beware of having to high of an expectation. In a way, we were all surprised by what
we found. It was only by God’s
grace alone that we were able to reach out to 100+ kids, teens, and
adults. I was very thankful to be
used of God in the lives of those people.
August 17th, 2011
I
arrived at Calvary Bible
College in Kansas
City, MO as a transfer
student to complete my bachelor’s degree.
My car was Fully Loaded Down with just about everything that I
possibly thought I could use at college.
This place was much farther from home (CBI was just 1 ½ hrs. away
from home), so I had to be much better at packing/planning for what I was
going to need. Let’s just say that the packing was a
challenge, But I got it all in!!! (It
was quite the personal accomplishment!
August 29th, 2011
It was a beautiful day that marked the event that gave me my first broken
bone and stitches!!! No, I don’t
even have a cool story to go alone with the slightly bent middle finger on
my left hand. But here’s the
story. It was just after
lunch. Some of the girls and I were
hanging out in the dorm lounge on our floor. We were laughing and having a great
time. Well, one of the things about
this old dorm building was that there weren’t screens on the windows, and
on the third floor there are many things that hyper minds can conjure up
to do from an open window. It
started out very innocently. We
just decided to throw things out of the window, like hats and flip-flops
(just stuff that had been left in the lounge). After depleting our arsenal of things to
throw out the window, I decided (as the gallant one!) to run downstairs
and retrieve our tossed items. Once
outside, I quickly realized that just hauling it up the stairs wouldn’t be
as fun as trying to throw it back through the window. However, I missed and the flip-flop
landed on the landing just outside the 2nd floor windows. I wanted to make good impressions, so I
knew that I should get the lost flip-flop.
Therefore, all of us girls trooped down to the 2nd floor
lounge to get it. The problem was
that you had to climb out the window onto the ledge to get the shoe. I was assured that the ledge was quite
safe for a person to climb on, but I didn’t get that far. In my attempted to open a window, I
pulled a bar that was in the window (in my hurriedness, I didn’t realize
that it was the bar that was holding the 8 ft. window open…). It happened very fast, but I know that
the moment the bar was removed, gravity took its hold and smashed my left
hand! I was so thankful that others
were there with me to help me get the window up! I was determined Not to make a big deal
about this, I was going to be fine.
But as a looked at my finger, which had a big cut down to the bone
from the lip of the window, I figured that it was probably more serious
than I thought. Long story short,
it was bleeding A Lot, I was trying to stay calm while all of the other
girls are frantically running all over the dorm looking for band-aids and
other first aid materials. I ended
up getting a ride from Security with the dean of women and one of my
friends to an Urgent Care. A couple
of hours later, I emerged with 5 stitches and a massive bandage on my
hand. I am very thankful because I
never really felt a lot of pain. I
cut and broke my finger, yet the worst amounts of pain were only when they
numbed my finger to put the stitches in and when they took the stitches
out. I am very thankful to the Lord
for that!!! Within a couple of
days, I had to go to a hand specialist (the doctors were afraid of an
infection in the bone, because the cut was on top of the broken
bone). The hand specialist gave me
an upgraded cast (No, this was no small, un-noticeable wrap on my finger,
but a massive cast that was hard on the outside and wrapped from my
forearm to the tips of my fingers, leaving only my thumb exposed! J It was always funny to have to explain
that I hadn’t done anything to my hand/wrist, but I had only broken my
finger…)
- Lessons learned
- Typing
one-handed is difficult, but possible; and with practice a person can be almost
as efficient as with two hands
- It
is okay and necessary to ask for help.
Others want to show that they care for you, by helping you do things
that you can’t do as easily because you only have one hand.
Yes, it is humbling, but it is good!
- I
can now sympathize with people a little better having gone through this
experience.
- I
am much more comfortable going/talking to doctors. They are rather intimidating at times, but
the main thing is just to Ask Questions…even if they seem inconsequential and stupid.
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Massive cast thing
(pardon the bad hair day) |
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| Almost Healed!!! |
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| My first stitches... |
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| Sweet Scar |
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