The sick days...

Ah yes, the last 3 days have been uneventful- starting Thursday I came down with a fever and cough bad enough that I have had to stay home from work... trying to sleep, trying to get better, but not really being successful until today.

So, there's not much to talk about :) I listened to several good sermons and lots of good singing, thats for sure :)

One of the sermons that was a real blessing to me was "The friend of God" by Bill Mcleod- if you have a chance to listen to it, definitely look it up on sermonindex.net

Lord willing, I'll be preaching tomorrow- if my throat holds up and the fever doesn't come back :)

Well, that's about it for now :) God bless!

-nate

Throwback to Haiti days-- A bandage patient!!

The other night my cousin Ben came over and told me he knew I enjoy medical stuff, so he brought his bandage supplies for his finger- remember, the one he cut on the table saw?

I was elated :D

So, I donned some rubber gloves (some that I accidentally carried home from Haiti, actually... oops...) and removed the bandage. I asked him how often they told him to clean it and they suggested every so often- but he hadn't cleaned it for a few days, so I decided to go the whole nine-yards- "sterile" environment, rubber gloves, disinfectant (hydrogen-peroxide) and of course, the new bandages.

It was really fun. He was a good sport, entertaining my craving for some real-life med-stuffs :) I even asked him if he wanted me to trim off the dead tissue- to which he gave a violent reaction in a negative sense, so I didn't...

Thus, even though it was very simple and routine, it brought back so many good memories of the clinic in Haiti that it really made my day :)

The flesh has filled in the chunk that was missing and is looking pretty good...

He's on strong antibiotics, so there's not much fear of infection... 

but I cleaned it all the same- it's just a good idea, right? Those of you that are in the clinic down there??

:)

But the inevitable happened- the next day he comes to work, complaining that ever since I cleaned it, the finger had been hurting. Is it always the "doctor"'s fault?? :) Even today after church he came up to me and said it's still hurting. I told him it's probably a good sign; that the nerves were dying and I revived them and saved them from immanent death :P He didn't think so, but I told him it's good he has feeling in it. 

Any thoughts on why it would hurt after it was cleaned like that? All I did was pour peroxide over it and daub it off afterward...

We had a very nice prayer meeting tonight at church. It's always so refreshing to gather around and pray as a brotherhood- so much good comes out of hearing each others' hearts...

God bless you all!

-nate

Lessons in selfishness...

The last few days it seems like the Lord has been teaching me lots in the area of selfishness and patience- not just because Ryan preached about honesty and patience last night during Bible study, but also because of the circumstances which have occurred recently...

First off, there have been longs weeks of work- yes, time in the evenings to do things, but we have been working 6 day work weeks so the spare time I became accustomed to in Haiti has become a memory of the past. At first I really was annoyed at the lack of "spare time" but the Lord had something to teach me about selfishness through it all- when Saturdays rolled around, I would wake up and have to come to grips that today was not the "day off" but rather another day of work. Why can't I have time for myself? Why is it that we put so much time in for these customers and their happiness and satisfaction, when we ourselves are just getting worn out?

However, as the Lord worked on my heart, I realized how very much selfishness I had inside- though it might not be the best thing to wear yourself out for a job, this was at the least a lesson for me. I was thinking about "Me, me, me!!" and not wanting to be a blessing to others.

The second came one day when I was planning on staying home to stain a bunch of trims and doors- it would have been nice to spend time in our basement listening to music, preaching, etc, and just stain trim... but then Dad informed me that Ry would be doing that and I would be going out to the job site with Josh and him. Unfortunately, my response in my heart was not a good one- isn't it amazing how self can be cloaked in such "good" motives? I didn't say anything outwardly, but inside I was not pleased at all! As I began to resign myself to the fact that I couldn't have my way I realized how selfish I was being... as the conviction came, my heart started to break and see itself as it was; petty and selfish, not wanting to give others the best and take the low road myself.

I determined right then and there to make a point in the future to take the jobs others didn't want and try my best to bless others rather than myself... great commitment, right? :)

Ah yes, I am so thankful our Heavenly Father knows our frame, that it is but dust- the rest of that day was fraught with times and opportunities for me to live that out- only for me to fail multiple times! At the end of the day I realized how much I had to grow in the area of selfishness!

And such is life on this earth :) and such is life with Christ- a continual process of sanctification and growing in grace and the knowledge of Him. May our love for Him motivate our actions to be obedience to Him and seek to serve Him in a more acceptable way today than yesterday...

Anyhow, that's some of what I've been learning in the school of life recently :) Onward to the pictures, then! :)

In other news...

I have applied for a 2 week-long medical course (Missionary Medical Intensive, or more commonly known as "MMI") and received my acceptance letter the other day! I'm very excited to take this next step to hopefully be able to go back to Haiti as a clinic worker in the next 2 years or so...

On my way to work one morning... :)

My cousin Ben cut the tip of his finger off with a table saw one day at the job, so I was elected to run him to the ER- it spiced up an otherwise "normal" work day ;)

Thanks Ben :)

And here is some of what we were doing that next day- hardwood flooring!

Mom visiting and bringing us lunch!

Ah yes, the outside of the job....

Some of the the infamous trim I thought I would be staining :)

After putting the floor in we were installing some cabinets.

The end of a long day of work! Ben and I were walking around outside, double checking the cleanup, while Dad and Don packed up the equipment.

A half-day's work of labor:

We built the wall on the left side of the stairs, put a floor over it, built a railing and drywalled it. 

Now the customer will have more storage space! :)

And finally, we began trimming everything out last Friday!

It looks pretty good, in my opinion- mostly because we've been learning from neat tricks from Don about finish carpentry :)

God bless you all! Keep Him first!

-nate

Getting things done!

Ah yes, here we are, fairly well removed from the new year and I haven't written on here for a long while :-/

Such is life, as they say... Here are some pictures I took at the job today...