Relief

After my last post, I thought you all might need some space to breathe and wrestle through the content. I certainly needed time to process and be renewed in hope for the remainder of my time here.

I was at once saddened and relieved to hear that several of the women at Kalighat have passed away since I was there on Friday. It is my deepest hope that they encountered the risen Lord Jesus seated at their bedside in their last hours on this earth. One of my co-workers went back to Kalighat yesterday and said that when she saw one of the bodies, it was the first time she had seen anyone look peaceful in that place. I'm going back to Kalighat this week. I must honestly confess that I go with hesitation and trepidation, but I go knowing that Christ goes with me and He is greater than the greatest sufferings of the world.

The last couple of days have been restful, and I think I truly needed that. Another volunteer, Whitney, whom I have greatly enjoyed getting to know, went shopping with me yesterday morning and then we spent the afternoon organizing our schedules here for the next two weeks. (This was honestly the greatest accomplishment of the day!! Around here, getting any accurate or timely information is VERY difficult!) Following that accomplishment, Orijeet (one of the coordinators here) took us on a city tour. Well... kind of. We were supposed to leave at 3 pm. We left at 3:40. We went to Victoria Memorial Gardens which is a well-known attraction in Kolkata, walked around and met another team who is here (nurses from APU in California), visited St. Paul's Cathedral, and then drove for a long time in really crazy traffic. We dropped off the APU team at the place where they are staying and then Orijeet decided if we drove a littler car rather than the small bus we were driving, we'd make it places faster, so we should go back to the hospital and exchange. Ummm.. yeah. Back to the hospital at 5:50 pm. We had thus far seen 2 of the things that were intended on our long list of city tour sites. Left the hospital again at 6 pm, saw the cricket stadium downtown. By now, everything was dark. Then Babu, our driver, got lost. He asked for directions. We made our way over some fun bridges (one of them that Orijeet claims has only bolts and no nuts... not sure if that's true) and decided we'd do the full city tour another day instead, so we went back to the hospital at 7:40 pm. Welcome to India. :-)

The highlight around here currently has been the arrival of a two-headed 40-year-old man. Apparently both heads are functional, but I don't take much stock in word of mouth around here. Yesterday, the first thing I heard about this patient was that SHE had four arms, three legs, and two heads. Sounds a little more like a Hindu god to me, but whatever. Anyway, Discovery Channel was at the hospital all day yesterday filming the man. I'm not sure what he's here for, but I'm off to use my nursing privileges to investigate in a few minutes.

I went to church this AM at the Assemblies of God church that is affiliated with the hospital. It was a great service with about 400 people in attendance. Whitney and I were the only white people. Love it. The pastor spoke on extravagant worship via Luke 7. It was a message I needed to hear this morning. There have been many things I need to just lay under the lordship of Christ and this morning was a good reminder to take the time to do so. That's my goal for this week-- Surrender. Submission. Extravagant worship of the Lord Jesus, whether that worship be through song, serving, working, eating, walking, smiling, praying, loving, etc. May He be our supreme obsession.

Happy Sunday to you all. His mercies are new today- for you and for me. Praise be to His name.