Surgery...

I finally have a steady source of internet so I will be able to get online every other day or so! Today has been an amazing day. We were in the theatre (OR) while they were doing orthopedic surgeries. We had 8 patients and finished them all before lunch. We saw several club feet where the surgeon cut out part of the bone that was keeping the foot from fully functioning and he would also lengthen the achilles tendon. Pretty crazy stuff... he took a hammer and stake to the bone to cut it! Definitely intense. The anesthesiologist is so awesome. He let Josh and I do a lot of the skills he does. Today I intubated (yes... intubated) several patients and put in most of the IV's for the day... what an experience. Tomorrow I am scrubbing in to be the assistant for Dr. Kachinga, the neurosurgeon, as he does several shunt cases for hydrocephalus. I'll let you know how that goes! Please pray for this one patient we saw today... it was a little girl who had club feet surgery at a different hospital several months ago. The doctor who put the cast on her foot after her surgery did it incorrectly so the wounds did not heal... in fact, the wounds started going backwards in their healing and is eating away at her foot... rotting. The doctor said she will probably have to have it amputated soon. There really is no ankle joint left... it was the worst wound I have ever seen. Please be in prayer for this little one.

God has been revealing something new about Himself daily... He has been reminding me to soak up each moment for what they are and who I'm with. I am constantly reminded of His love for us, His children. I am in absolute awe of His love. The fact that 1) He does not pick favorites, 2) that He loves you just as much as he loves someone extremely far away from Him, 3) that nothing we can do can make Him love us any more or any less than He already does --- these facts make me fall on my face in absolute awe of our Savior. wow wow wow what an incredible God we serve! When I look at these children... I see someone of whom God cherishes more than I can even begin to imagine. I see someone I need to take excellent care of because our Heavenly Father created that person and put me in charge of taking care of them at that moment. My pastor once said "a need seen is an assignment given." What a powerful statement.

If you are wanting to give to a charity, please donate to CURE. If you have extra blankets, linens, towels, tape, hand sanitizer-- ANYTHING-- please send it to them. I have never seen such honest, responsible stewards of the gifts given to them. They take the donations very seriously and are extremely frugal with them-- using them to the very last penny.

I can feel your prayers here... what an AMAZING gift from you all! Thank you, from the bottom of my heart, for those prayers. Right now we have a house full of pastors from all over Zambia... it's so fun to talk to them about what the church should be like!

I love each and every one of you.

Kristen