ack, i miss them already!!

central / eastside flock
(it will always be central in my )

and the faithful attendees…

…the ciptas, the tos, the lees, the wongs, the cons, the ray,
and of course our faithful shepherd and theologian, the gar.

thank you for an early birthday surprise

some sadness is beginning to creep in as the weeks go by…
but not too sad yet!

http://www.dermandar.com/p/bUirjq

drag panoramic pic to the right.
i’m in the first row, on the right!

…trust me.

spending 1 1/2 days at disneyland with some of the people i love most.

happy 4th birthday, claire-bear!

love you lots!

are always associated with good things.

praise club.  ibc kiddos.

prepping with adrienne.  hk missions.

we are more, more, more
than conquerors
through Him who loved us…

what can separate us from the love of God
that is in Christ Jesus?
nothing, nothing, nothing, nothing!!

tomorrow’s the first sunday this year that i don’t have to be at church at 8am.  it feels weird.  there are two days of the week that i most look forward to.  sundays – when i can hear the preaching of the Word and fellowship with my favorite church family and wednesdays – when i can go to my 2nd favorite church (grace church) and attend every woman’s grace and hear from some of the godliest, wisest women i’ve ever met…  yay, sundays and wednesdays!

today i had a student for all 12 hrs of my shift.  whenever i have a student, i realize just how much nursing knowledge and skill and technique i’ve obtained throughout my 3 years of nursing.  trying to impart all this knowledge to a newbie is not an easy task.  not easy at all.  i truly feel as though i’ve perfected a lot of my day-to-day nursing skills through so many years of trial and error.  it’s frustrating for me b/c i want my student to work quickly and efficiently and know what to anticipate, but i need to realize that she’s not at that level yet and i need to teach her to her level first.  being a preceptor for a day made me appreciate all my past preceptors and all that they had taught me and the patience they showed me as they trained me.  i had to go back to my old preceptor today (helen) and thank her for being so patient with me when i was a student and for helping me establish some of the best nursing habits i have.  i hope i taught my student a thing or two that she will remember one day when she’s a nurse.

i’ve been meaning to blog about two different patients i’ve had about a month ago.  it’s been so long that i don’t remember them very well, but i do remember the impact they had on me.  the first patient was a 90-something year old lady.  “pleasantly confused” we’d like to call her.  definitely a dementia patient, but was always the sweetest, kindest lady.  i always say that one’s true character is revealed when you’re old and demented.  people in that condition no longer have a filter nor any fear of man and are truly themselves…either at their best or their worst.  this lady in particular was really confused all the time.  she never knew where she was, who i was, what she was doing at the hospital, etc.  somehow i found out that she was a fellow believer, so i started asking her questions to pick her brain.  how does an old, confused Christian behave, think, and what does she still believe?  as i started asking her questions about her faith and what she believed, i realized that she was right on!  i was amazed that this lady who thought we were in a different time period and thought i was her family member could accurately present the gospel to me!  i then started telling her about the patient next to her, whom i tried to share the gospel with, but was not receptive to what i had to say.  she started to encourage me, telling me that it must not be God’s timing right now, telling me to continue to pray for him, etc.  i told this sweet lady (whom i can’t even remember her name anymore) that she is my role model.  i told her that i want to be just like her when i get to her age.  one of my biggest fears is that i would one day forget God…whether it is because of dementia, brain injury, etc, i cannot imagine if one day i no longer knew God or had a relationship with God..and that’s a reason why i’m afraid of getting old.  however, this lady completely proved me wrong.  she no longer knew anyone or anything (she couldn’t even tell me the names of her children or how many she had), but yet she knew Christ and she understood the gospel.  this was one of the most comforting things i’ve ever encountered!  praise God for truly sustaining and persevering His chosen ones to the end!

the second patient that left a mark on my heart was a middle-aged woman.  she was supposedly from home with a caregiver, yet was very dirty, super smelly, and very ragged looking.  “severe depression” was one of the diagnoses listed in her medical history, which was very evident in the way she presented herself.  she was my admission from ER and as my nursing assistant and i were admitting her, my initial tendency was to think that she was pretty disgusting and lazy.  she was a “walkie talkie” as we call them, yet always asked for a bed pan because she didn’t want to use the restroom.  when we would make her use the restroom, she would never wipe or wash her hands.  it was so nasty smelling in her room that i never wanted to be in there or i just wanted to put on a mask!  i’m sure the patient knew that i was quite disgusted with her as i never had the best attitude toward her.  as i returned to work the next day, i asked God (as i usually do before my shifts) to help me consider others better than myself.  and by God’s grace, He convicted me and gave me a change of heart towards this lady.  He gave me compassion for her as He opened my eyes to see that she was also made in the image of God and is a precious soul that the Lord had entrusted to my care for that day.  we were able to talk about her beliefs and i found out she’s part of a cult, so we spent a good amount of time talking about that as i tried to share what i believe.  after building a rapport, my heart felt more compassion for her.  i wanted to go the extra mile to do whatever i could to care for her and to make her feel valued because God cares for her and values her.  i spent extra time in her room talking to her and encouraging her to care for herself because she was a soul that mattered to God, so she must be a soul that matters to me.  i was really thankful that God graciously softened my stone-cold heart and allowed me to show care and compassion.

sometimes i do believe that i have the best job in the world.  yes, it is extremely difficult and stressful at times, but there are moments when i can’t believe i actually get paid to care for people and to share the gospel with people and pretty much do ministry at work.  i have the privilege of investing in people’s lives and caring for not just their physical health, but their spiritual health as well.  it’s great!

God is good.

goodnight!

my loyalties have switched from heejun to colton.  i’m loving the piano…

and i love kimbo, too

C H R I S T .

my Savior, my rock, my best friend…