Born Again and Again and Again

Its a Wednesday night and I have finished my homework before 12 o'clock- miracles do happen! This weeks assignment is "Normal Labour and Pain Management", and I must say that the actual labour homework is the most interesting of all our studying.
This afternoon as a visualization of the 8 Mechanisms of Labour we each made shower-cap style fetal skulls which we wore as we attempted to be born out of a cardboard box mother! Maybe you had to be there - it was worth many a chuckle! But today I was born 3 times - twice LOP (sorry, cardboard box mama) and once LOA. LOP stands for left occiput posterior, meaning that the back of my head was facing my mama's left side and my spine was towards hers - that means painful back labour. Ouch!
Here we are a class of midwives-to-be in fetal fashion! Note the large anterior fontanelle!

Plans Change, Clinic in Transition

Dear friends - we're having another shockingly HOT day, it seems that a summer in Boise is the perfect precursor to the Philippines! And of course all heat is compounded when you shove as many girls as possible into a vehicle without Air Con!
I've had a fun weekend with lots of kids - yesterday I got to take 5 kids to a local river for a day at the beach, followed by an afternoon at an outdoor pool with friends, then this morning I was on schedule again at church - this morning with more than a dozen rowdy 2-year olds! Lots of fun.
I have news about our clinic! No, it isn't open, please keep praying, we wanted to be open for these women yesterday (or a month ago). But things are moving forward, our lawyer is still hard at work there, and things are taking shape and forming now for what the future is going to look like!
Our school directors announced this week that they're selling their place and moving to the Philippines - they're going to do whatever it takes to set up places for us to serve and get our experience. This could mean many small, Filipino run clinics, working in hospitals, etc. We are going to wait and see what God will do!
But this means that our timeline has changed - at this point I will not be going to the Philippines in September. It is going to take time to set up and get running. So please pray for all of the pieces to fit together. I hope that the next couple weeks will see more of the details unfold - this is a time of major transition. And for all of us students our dreams, expectations and plans are changing. We are having to trust that God is at work and in control (which of course He is). PLEASE PRAY.
Thank you - you are such an encouragement, I am so glad you stand behind me!

We're Gonna Do What??

You will not begin to guess what we did yesterday - okay so you've seen the pictures, maybe you will guess. We learned how to give injections! Both sub-cutaneous and intra-muscular - that's right and we practiced on each other! Sometimes my jaw just drops and I can't really believe that they are letting us do this stuff! And then they pull out syringes, gloves and sterile water and we start shooting each other up! Yikes!
But for all the absolute terror that filled our classroom I think we really got a good feel for it - now we're not pros but we're on our way!
As midwives we need to learn injections in order to be able to give pitocin or methergine after delivery in case of postpartum hemorrhage, sterile water shots for pain and tetanus immunizations during pregnancy.
Anyone wanna sign up for midwifery or medic school??

Weekend: New Pictures!!

This weekend has been busy - but when isn't it! A couple on staff at Mercy In Action got married and so we got to head into the mountains a bit to witness their joy and help make a million Italian Sodas!

The coolest part is that the Bride is actually the sister of one of my dear friends from DTS (that's Dani, she lives here in Boise, with her hubby and is expecting her first babe in November) So I have some pictures of me and Dani (sorry Dad, that's Dani and I), it is so good ANY time I get to see her!

On the way home we stopped at the Payette river and took a couple hours to swim and catch the current. There is nothing more refreshing, or tiring than an afternoon in a chilly river and the hot sun!

So click on the pictures to check out my albums from the wedding, the prolife rally and probably some other random times - like 80's night I think...

4th of July, A Rally, Updates, Classes, God

It has only been a week - but I really feel like it has been forever since I have posted! How are you all? Life here is good - continuing at breakneck speed as is usual! I am overwhlemed to think of all that we have covered in classes so far - there is so much information - so much of God working in us and so much further to go!
After just over 1 month we have begun to study LABOUR - woohoo! Up to this point we have been studying pregnancy, which has been really good, so much information, and just seeing how perfectly and wonderfully God created pregnancy and birth to be the beginning of families, the perfect cocoon for a baby! It is absolutely stunningly amazing - (you can insert an Amen! here if you like, or just nod and smile, if you'd rather just take my word for it!).
But now - the real fun begins - LABOUR! So although the homework is shocking, and sometimes I think I don't want to answer another question or pick up another text - we keep keeping on - because we are being prepared and so soon in the future we will be putting all this book-learning into use and start catching babies!
So - some of my recent adventures, or things I've learned, or classes we've taken... here they are:

• Breastfeeding - the best gift any mother can ever give her child, it is an absolutely amazing intersection of the physical and emotional! In a 3rd world country breastfeeding alone saves thousands of infant lives - and with more education and encouragement could literally be saving thousands more each year!
• Abortion/Pro Life - we had a class last week with Brandi Swindell who is at the church here in Boise, she started an organization called Generation Life here and she is involved in the pro-life movement all across the States. Anyway, the class was absolutely awful - no one wants to be confronted with the grossness of injustice and murder. We'd rather not go there, but we faced it last week and two things hit me - one, it doesn't matter to the baby about to be aborted if I say I'm prolife, it matters if I'm doing something about it (whatever that looks like in my life), and two, Women Deserve Better! Women are really being lied to about abortion, the pro-choice side states that they care about women's health and empowerment, but by the way they act they are proving that they have other motives (MONEY). I know that the whole culture of pro-life/conservatism/political right is different in the States then Canada - but on both sides of the border we need to engage this issue. We need to get God's heart for women in crisis, for the unborn and then we need to act.
• Rally - since then we attended a pro-life rally, its was pretty small, our school made up about half of it! But we spent 3 hours worshipping God and praying and asking Him for change. Being a part of a rally was definitely a first for me! But it was good and I hope we can watch God move, and Idaho make steps towards choosing Life, and better options for women.
• 80's Night - we had an 80's night on Monday - as you can see from the pics - it was pretty special! We had a lot of fun, and went downtown for coffee and ice cream - but downtown Boise - well we kinda fit in!
• Prayer Updates - as far as my two recent prayer requests - the clinic is still shutdown, we are still waiting and ready to see what God will do. And Suzette is still waiting, her babysitter went back home this week and Suzette has pulled out of class. We want her to be able to return and be a part of school full-time, please keep praying. There's a chance a girl could come out here to help out starting in August - and that's better than where we're at right now.
• God in My Life - through our discipleship classes God has been really moving in my heart this week - and I am handing a lot of my "masks" and "idols" over to Him. It is an experience that is both humbling and freeing. I want wholeness and righteousness more than I want to look all put together for you, or anyone here in Boise. So I'll seek God. Right now I am trying to learn what it means to be real with God and before others, I don't want to hide, and I don't want to pursue anything in life other than Him (even good things). Please pray for me as God shows me how to change and teaches me how to live.

So for now, I sign off, homework calls. (OK - the pics aren't posting - I promise they're coming really soon!)

Prayer Request : A Midwifery Family

Another prayer request, there is a woman here in the midwifery school who has run into a big snag. She's mom to 4 little boys, and lost her husband about 2 years ago, they had planned to do the school together.
Now she is a student here, away from her family, and raising her boys on her own. She is such an awesome women, and we love that they are a part of our family here!
Well, the girl who was looking after her boys, needs to move back home, leaving Suzette without childcare, and not able to complete the summer semester. We're really sad about this and we are praying that God performs a miracle to find care for her boys!
So I'm asking you to pray for a miracle and for a loving, caring person to join their family for the summer and spend time with her fabulous boys. She needs someone starting in about a week and a half. We know that God can provide, and we're doing what we can here to fill all spaces to let her atleast attend the midwife classes - but we want her to be involved in the whole school!
Thank you for praying - you are blessing every student here when you do (did you know that?).

I Got to Palpate!

I got to palpate my first pregnant belly today! I have wanted to do that for so long!
One of my classmates is due with her first in September and has a good size little one, sitting head down, bum up!
Yay, I want to palpate every pregnant belly I see!

Prayer Request: Clinic Update

Hey thank you so much for your faithful prayers!
I wanted to give you all an update with our clinic in Manila. Our director (Vicki) got back from PH last night and the current state is that the clinic is still closed (they have received a Cease and Desist order). The officials are saying that we failed a sanitary inspection (and just as a sidenote, the way to solve the sanitary issue is the removal of the foreigners!!). Also our directors could face criminal charges for practicing midwifery without a licence (to explain: they are licenced midwives, they attempted to register in PH and could not, and were told that was fine). Technically the law in PH states that to practice midwifery a women not only has to act as a midwife, but receive pay for her services. We never charge for our services, therefore, none of our midwives are technically performing midwifery.
Have I thoroughly confused you yet?? I'm just trying to give you the facts, I don't exactly know how to connect the dots.
In normal operation every birth in our clinic is overseen by a Filipina midwife, and even now these midwives cannot practice. Right now all foreigners (midwife students, etc.) have left the area, some are joining other ministries throughout PH. And we are hoping that the clinic can reopen just for births to be run by the Filipinas and a Filipino doctor. Because right now, every day women are coming to our clinic, IN LABOUR, and are being turned away! After all of the hospitals have turned them away, after they have travelled long distances, we still have to send them home! It is awful for them and their babies, and it is awful for everyone who has to explain to them that we can not help.
So, the goal is that the clinic will eventually reopen, the sooner the better. We have a Christian lawyer in PH who is working on our case, and trying to get a judge to read the laws to interpret them. (Apparently the exact details are in question). This case could be a landmark either way - we want it to open the doors for other ministries and NGOs to get into PH and provide midwifery without any hassels.
At this point we don't know what this Fall will look like. I am schedule to go in the first group of students, leaving in mid-September. But if the clinic is not open we are going to look into other options. I don't have a lot of details on that right now. But we're waiting and hoping, praying and trusting!
So there are a lot of things that I have said here. Sorry, I'm not very organized at the moment. Hopefully you can find the prayer requests in what I've said. There are so many things to pray. But we trust God - He is not going to allow any official to throw off His plan, or to stop His work from being accomplished. Amen!

Oh Canada!

Happy Canada Day folks!
Even though we're far from home us students celebrated the day in style! We hosted a big party here with an incredible showing of red and white fashion, face paints, Canuck trivia, traditional maple-syrup games (hehehe), red vs. whites ultimate frisbee and Canadian Bacon.
Ohh, and we did manage to get a hold of one firework, it was pretty impressive to see that cake sparkler flaring up across the lawn - a thing of beauty!!
Anyway click on the top picture to check out the album. I hope your day was as memorable, and I wish you a warm maple syrup greeting.