Meg McCardel YWAM

http://www.youtube.com/v/h7WpAjYlkEA?version=3&autohide=1&feature=share&autohide=1&attribution_tag=QYqcTnsiodOk5iVeEN51hw&showinfo=1&autoplay=1

He will rejoice over you with gladness, He will quiet you with His love, He will rejoice.

It is crazy to think that it is already time to start preparing to leave World Relief. I am not sure if it will be harder to say goodbye to the people I have been teaching English to or to the staff. There are three ladies in particular who I will miss very much. I have lived in Jacksonville for 5 years now and only get to visit my home for weekends at a time, meaning much of these last five years have been without a mother, but the warmth from these ladies has really taken the edge off of it.

Yesterday I brought my little sister Michaela with me to World Relief. I am glad she got a glimpse into what my summer has looked like. We started our day off filling out a form with Peter Nay to get him a coach that will teach him how to use our public bus. It was cool to be able to talk to Peter so freely. When I asked him if he was nervous about riding the bus, he told me that he grew up in a small jungle like village  was not used to signs, directions, streets and things like this. He was nervous that he would get lost and have to call 911 to get back home. I tried to relieve his stress by telling him there would be someone there to explain things to him and that he would be alright. We then went into our little booth and started our "English class". I think the funniest part of our class was him explaining what he ate for breakfast; a bagel with smashed up chilly pepper. I also tried explaining what sugar was for 5 minutes and finally got up and found a packet of sugar and a packet of salt so he could taste the difference. The two hardest concepts I taught with the help of my sister were - what "favorite" meant and what the word "say" meant. I have not figured out how to explain to my English students that the verb "say" should not be put before everything they repeat. Much of our vocab review sounds a lot like "Say 'no thank you'" and they repeat "Say no thank you".  How to you tell someone "Don't say 'say'" and then say "Say banana". Goodness- I am over that word. I would like to erase it from our language some days.

Michaela and I then went to different homes to teach English. Unfortunately Mary, the young lady from Sudan, was not feeling well enough to learn English today. She is always open to prayer though and I was able to kneel next to her bed and offer her up to the Lord. I so desire to see her whole and healthy one day in heaven. We then left for Divines home, the woman from the Congo, and spent the majority of our day with her daughters and her.

Teaching Divine is very different from any other student. She knows a lot more English then I am used to so I have to go about her education in a different way. I always try to do some reading and writing with her, but more than anything she needs conversational tools, so I just try to sit there and talk to her hoping she is picking up as much English as she can. Our time surprisingly started off with another 15 minute photo shoot of her and her children. It was pretty fun though. She really does have cute children. Her youngest is like a ball of dough, always giggling and her twin girls are so precious. The first of the twins was born with out any complications, The second, however, was left in Divine for too long and the lack of oxygen had some serious long term effects. Thankfully everyone adores the disabled child just as much as the other two.

Our conversations yesterday were, for the most part,  about the differences between the different ethnic groups in the Congo and why she and her family had to flee to Rwanda. She gave me some details that I would not feel right sharing, but I can definitely say I am so glad they made it here to America. She explained  the answers to some of my questions about the genocide and I was quite impressed that bitterness has not taken over her heart in the least bit. She and I started talking about Jesus and how saying you believe in Jesus is one things but how Jesus looks different when he is in your heart.

Our day ended with some Congolese worship music and dancing. She pulled up songs from her country and showed me how much dancing is incorporated in her church back at home. It was much much different from our churches here. There were these giant lines of dancing women and men singing out things like "Our God answers prayers" and not giving up when suffering hits. I do not think Divine could resist dancing after the second song and she got up and started showing her dance skills to my sister and I as we internally prayed that she would not force us to try. She really does have a sweet heart. Whether she realized it or not, seeing her dance and worship was a huge blessing to me.

Jesus I pray over Mary today. I pray she is not in pain this morning and can enjoy her day. I pray that you heal her fully and get full credit for the miracles that you are fully able to complete. Lord I pray I can fully engage in my internship this week and that I am working off of Your strength and Your heart. I pray You lead my days and You give me opportunities to be your hands and feet. *amen*

Blessed is the one who preservers (7/12/13)

Today was a busy day as usual but it was full of laughter and I was blessed by my best friend volunteering to help teach me English. My day started out with teaching Peter Nay English in our little nook. I spend almost 10 minutes today explaining that when I point to something and say "What is this" he does not need to repeat "What is this" before he gives an answer. It is really hard to explain little things like this sometimes. In fact. I still cannot figure out how to explain the word "or" to him and I confuse every student each time I use that word. Peter is growing so much and so wonderfully in his English. Today he proudly proclaimed to my co-workers "I am going home". I was music to my ears.

I then had an unexpected encounter with a man from Sudan named Philip. I teach English to his wife Mary when I am able to. Mary is a sweet sweet girl from Southern Sudan. Unfortunately Mary was rushed straight to the ER the night she arrived in Jacksonville. She, in the last 9 months, has spend the majority of her time in America in the hospital. She had emergency open heart surgery when she was taken to the hospital. While she was there they also discovered that not only did she need a new heart, but she was in full hepatic and renal failure (kidney and liver). She has now been in her home for over a month with out having to be rushed to the ER and only leaves her home for her dialysis appointments. When I was told about Mary and looked over her medical history it didn't take me long to see that she wouldn't live much longer. This broke my heart. The fact that she had to flee her country, live in a refugee camp for years and then she arrives in America only to pass away in a foreign place where no one speaks her language or knows who she is. 

The way I teach English to Mary is much different from the way I teach Peter Nay or Divine from the Congo. I teach Peter and Divine for their survival and acclimation process: I teach English to Mary to fill her empty apartment with a voice and sometimes even laughter. I teach her so she can build a relationship here and feel a sense of a friendship. She dose not have the stamina to last long in English class so I try to break up our time by talking about whatever I an remember in Egyptian Arabic (which is not a lot) and she tries to piece together my broken thoughts. We actually have a pretty good system going and get along very well. 

When I bumped into her husband at WR we got into a discussion about our lives in Cairo and discovered that not only did we live in the same subsection of Cairo (Maadi), but he played guitar for the church I was really involved in! It was crazy- He said "I knew you looked familiar!". When I asked him how Mary was doing he sweetly said that she was doing well and she is talking, as long as he could have conversations with her he was pleased. I was touched and tried to encourage him and was surprised when he told me that he knows God can provide all things but he was at peace about her coming death. My eyes instantly misted and I struggled to continue our conversation. I knew she was not improving, but thinking about her passing affected me a lot differently now that I knew her and she was not just a case file. I also think it is hard for me to think about her passing because there are similarities we share. For instance, we both love Egypt and love their food, we are both in our young twenties, and both of our men are obsessed with flying airplanes (her husband is an aspiring pilot and drills me about my boyfriends flying). When my best friend and I were sitting in her living room with her we were all sharing our age. She laughed when I told her my friend, Lo, was turning 24 this November and said in Arabic "oh- kabeerah" calling Lo old. Mary is 21, and I know she was joking but I wondered if Mary thought 24 was old because she was not expected to live that long. If you read this blog please join me in prayer for Mary's healing. I know we pray to a big God who loves Mary more then any of us can and I believe healing a liver, kidney and heart is not too difficult for Him. 

After reading through children's books with Divine from the Congo, and taking some new facebook pictures for her, I left for Peter Nay and Paw Wah's home! I actually felt bad because Lo and I intruded on their early supper. Apparently Peter didn't mind seeing how he said 'Teacha- hu" and motioned for me to take a picture of him shoveling a hand full of rice into his mouth. I laughed and took a few pictures of them, and tried pronouncing the foods I could remember in Karen. I do not have much to say about English class because Lo wanted to take over today and did a fabulous job while I entertained the kids who were too young and uninterested in learning (I think I got the better end of the deal). 

I really want to just take this family everywhere with me! They bring me so much joy. 

Lord I pray you continue to bless the Peter's family. I pray their 5 children grow up to love and honor you. I pray I obey you fully and never grow complacent in serving you. I pray for Mary and her body. Please heal her Lord. I pray you fill her home with your spirit and comfort Lord and she can feel your incomparable joy. I pray you show me how to love the people you have put in my life and I am always drawing from your well. Thank you for your grace and mercy given so freely. You say to Mary and Philip in James 1:12 that "Blessed is the one who preservers under trial because, having stood the test, that person will receive the crown of life that the Lord has promised those who love Him." Thank you for your promises Jesus. *Amen* 

He will not grow tired or weary...(7/10/13)

There are days when you wake up with the weight of the world on your chest, and days when you wake up with a weight of glory: today I woke up with the later. It is not that I did not have things to worry about, or unending tasks to complete, it was just one of those days where the problems just didn't matter as much. I do not want to give a skewed view on my character- I definitely fight my battles with the spirit of worry, today was just great because God stepped in the ring and did the fighting and concurring for me. 

Today was a perfect example of how my internship at World Relief is stretching me in very calculated areas. I am around visionaries often and see certain leaders and even people I am disciplining come up with all of these awesome ideas and creative goals. I tend to think if myself, as my boyfriend puts it, an efficient "second in command". I am great with following directions and completing tasks, but not so good at just initiating what needs to happen step by step. However, despite my lack of ability, I seem to always be put in the position of leading things I am under-qualified for. Today Word Relief had 8 amazing nurse interns come in to serve WR and work with 4 different refugee families who are in the greatest position of applicable medical need. 

On paper the idea is fabulous. These nurses want to go into the homes of their family and asses what the needs are. They then want to take these needs and find ways to implement either treatments, or educational factors that would help prevent illness. This type of project is something I have been working on for the last 5 years of college so naturally I loved the idea and see it as very useful. The thing is, these are families from such different backgrounds from us. It is difficult to just walk into someone's life and show them the "right" way to do things, tell them to change things they have been doing their whole life, and have them use things they have no experience with. Even if we did place all of these barriers aside, the biggest obstacle is the complete lack of communication. As I am typing this out I am just astounded at how easy it is to doubt our Father, and how easy it is for God to breeze past those doubts and work in the miraculous. Jesus can take anything we offer and create the most immaculate tapestry just because it is in His nature to do so! Anyway, after some teamwork, my preceptor and I devised a plan and just went into action. I had to take the initiative at some point in WR and step out of my comfort zone into an area of expertise that I have preexisting insecurities in. I took the reigns, made a route of the four different homes we would be visiting and lead the stream of 9 cars to each apartment complex. 

On the arrival of the first home, Ling-ling, I called the interpreter hotline. Voice shaking and clumsily tripping over numbers and names I was able to get my first interpreter on the line and introduce the team of nurses to Ling-ling and some of her 6 children. I know from experience that her youngest takes oral iron medication and she could use some health education on preventing mold and mildew that has already begun permeating the apartment. I know I say that I love every client I work with, but Ling-ling really does have such a gentle and sweet spirit and I am so blessed to know there will be two lovely nurses trying to help her. The second home was Peter Nay's home where I am at often. This was the first time I have ever used and interpreter to communicate with his wife, Paw Wah. I have been teaching her, coming into her home, going with her to medical appointments, playing with her children for over two months, and today was the first time I was actually able to tell her how much I love and appreciate her and she was able to thank me. I think we had a little moment lol. I introduced the nurses she would be working with, put the dates on her calender as the bugs scurried out from underneath and scooped up her youngest boy to shower with kisses. We then walked to another household went through the same process. This family has a young daughter with a hip issue that is not responding the multiple procedures and surgeries done to it. The final home was a woman who is 8 months pregnant and has a toddler with a leg traction. She is so pretty and sweet. I am glad I had her last because by the time I got to her I had mastered how to use the interpreters, how to introduce the nurses and explain what they would be doing! Every single one of the clients were so receptive and appreciative! It was so awesome to just see how God carried us through the whole thing- I just cannot believe how awesome everyone's attitudes were! 

Before this adventure my incredible preceptor decided we should watch a documentary called "God Grew Tired of Us". I am so glad she suggested that, because I think it really did prepare and soften the hearts of the nursing students, well, it softened mine at least. In this documentary, we watched how  over 20,000 "Lost Boys" of southern Sudan walked thousands of miles into refugee camps, and then their journey to America. I would really suggest looking up this video on Youtube or Amazon because it really is a gripping yet realistic depiction of how challenging coming to America is. I think most of us are under the impression that the refugees all come from horrible, poor countries, struggle though a refugee camp, then arrive in America and all of the problems melt away and they have a happy ending. When in reality, there are refugees who really loved their home and would love to return if they could and even though they are grateful of being in America, they have a whole new  category of challenges they must combat. What really hurt me was the question that one of the men was mauling over as he reflected on all of the people he buried when he was just 13 years old..."Did God grow tired of us"? I so badly wanted to jump through that television screen and scream "No! He did not! I know it feels like that sometimes, I know life is hard sometimes and I know you feel isolated but God could never grow tired of you! He calls you 'son' and 'is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He will not grow tired or weary, and his understanding no one can fathom'".

The absolute highlight of my day was most definitely my trip back to Peter Nay and Paw Wah's home! Yes, the English lessons with the family of 6 and two additional Burmese children was a blast and was full of laughter and excitement, but what really delighted me was my "kitchen creepin'". The art of "kitchen creepin'" is when one enters into a home and casually greets everyone, and then breezes into their kitchen to inspect the use of soap, the condition of the "clean" dishes, the storing of perishable food, and the proper or improper use of their refrigerator or freezer. I do this in a couth manner by reviewing specific vocabulary words like "plate, spoon, cup, sink, fridge" and so on. Today I literally jumped in excitement when I saw the dish soap I bought for them was almost out AND THE TUPPERWARE I GOT THEM WERE ALL IN USE IN THE FRIDGE! This is quite an accomplishment if I may say so myself. I actually took a picture just for keepsake because I am so incandescently proud of this family and the steps they have taken! Not only was the house in great condition, but I got to see Paw Wah read her first word "Hat"!!! I was so impressed by their reading skills and vocab, I did not even realize that I spent over 2.5 hours with the Peter Nay, Paw Wha and the six kids! 

As Peter was teaching me Karen (their language from Burma) words and Paw Nay was laughing at my pronunciation I realized that I really did feel like a part of their home. It takes time to really feel comfortable with strangers in general, but being in their home and not speaking a word of each others language can be really straining. I did feel that stain at first, but now all I feel is a pure sense of joy and acceptance, especially since Peter and I have been able to have minor conversations. Recently he walked past me reading my Bible and said "Teacha- Bible?" and I said "Yes- Jesus" he then said "Teacha- (touched his heart)- Jesus" "Yes Peter!" I replied and a smile rapidly spread across his face "Good- Teacha- Good" and walked away. 

My day ended with taking a 19 year old boy from Sudan to a local grocery store to help him apply to be a "bagger". Of course I was invited inside and instantly given a drink. Almost as soon as I sat down in his home his mother came out talking to me in Arabic and his little sister pulled out her comb and started brushing and combing my hair. I just thought as I stumbled through my broken Egyptian phrases..."I really do have the best internship ever".

Unexpected Tears (7/8/13)

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I knew today was going to be a little bit tougher then normal because I just had to drop off my boyfriend at the airport where he flew back to Texas. We have been long distance since September and saying bye is difficult each time. I was not taken by surprise at the tinge of pain I felt in my spirit waking up, but I was not prepared to see more people that I love leave.

This morning I was told that Tulasi and Chandra, my faithful and hard working students from Bhutan suddenly moved to Ohio. My tears are welling up with tears just by typing this out. Their caseworker told me that Tulasi came in on Friday to get the last bit of paperwork signed and say goodbye but I was not there. He told his caseworker, Robin, that he loved his time here in Jacksonville. He said "my teacher even counted out pennies for me to understand how American money works, and now I can write my own name."

When I first started teaching Tulasi and Chandra they had no clue to read or write at all. I got to see Tulasi and Chandra write their names for the very first time and read their first words. We had grown so much from the first awkward English class. We went from absolutely no communicating to taking pictures together and meeting friends. going to their home and meeting their family. When Robin told me that they moved to Ohio I tried really hard to just tell myself "Meg you can not get attached like that to the clients- people come and go- do not let yourself get upset..." but the tears I was attempting to hold back would not relent. I guess I feel like I really grew to love and care for them and I hate the thought of them not having someone like that i Ohio. I know I am going to really miss hearing Tulasi try to correct Chandra when she is actually the one saying it right- or hearing Chandra laugh when she says something in Nepali and I repeat her. I think more then anything, I am sad at the thought that they do not know the Lord. I did not realize that they were Hindu, but when I found out I instantly started praying for there to be opportunities to share about our beliefs. I really pray that the Lord puts intentional people in their lives to selflessly love them and share the freedom of Christ with them.

After I recovered from that blow I moved on and started teaching through the material I bought at a local Dollar General. Peter Nay is getting really good at reading and is pretty much getting the vowels almost completely down. I accomplished my goal of at least one good laugh today during "class". Today I rally wanted Peter to know how to write his birthday and his age but could not figure out how old he was because he was insisting that he was 78! After I wrote my age on the dry erase board we both shook with mirth and adjusted his age to 38. I was taken back when I saw that Tulasi and Peter have the same January 1st birthday, but then realized that most of the our refugees do not know when they were born. I don't even know if the years are legitimate. It is really strange to think of a life without birthday candles, presents and people celebrating your life. I guess it is kind of a narcissistic performance now that I think about it. A more important lesson however was the Karen smoking prevention material I showed him to stress the fact that he needs to quite smoking. He insisted that he only smoked two a day but I told him that if he did not stop he really would be like a 78 year old man!

I was also able to visit his wife at their apartment and start working through a new set of flash cards. We worked on the words "sun" "moon" "stars" "tree" "apple" "bug" "hat" "bat" and "rain". We worked on those until her little boy ,Clein, would not allow her to focus any longer. I noticed the bottle of dish soap was only a quarter full so I felt a little encouraged that they were using the soap, but their kitchen was still swarming with bugs and apparently also are interested in English, seeing how they eagerly climbed on the table I was teaching on.

Recently I have been stuck on a song called "Oceans"  by Hillsong. The lyrics that I was praying through today were:

Spirit lead me where my trust is without borders
Let me walk upon the waters
Wherever You would call me
Take me deeper than my feet could ever wander
And my faith will be made stronger
In the presence of my Savior

Lord I pray that I am being lead by your spirit in the big decisions of life along with the monotonous day to day activities. I pray that trust you with Tulasi and Chandra. You love them more then I do and You are a good Sheppard. Please put people in their lives that will care about them and intercede for them. Lord bring me deeper into Your love and Your calling then I could ever choose to go. I pray as I trust You and watch You move, my faith in You grows. Jesus I only want to be where your presence is and where it goes. *Amen*

A bird just dropped a gift..rude

Ya Salam! (7/1/2013)

Something I have constantly battled with throughout this internship is the feeling of being useless. I am always meeting people who have specific talents or capabilities they can offer others. Like people who know all about public relations, or someone who knows accounting, or someone fluent in a useful language, or someone who can do grant writing... the list goes on. I love those types of people, I really do. They help me, the people I love and the organizations I serve keep afloat but they also fill me with insecurities when I let my armor down. What is my thing? What skill or gift can I offer up? There is not a single thing to my knowledge that I really feel like I have mastered. I know a lot about health yet cannot perform diagnoses, or cut out tumors. I know something about the Middle East but cannot hold a real conversation in Arabic. I know a few things about creating "Program Plans" yet lack the creativity to construct one on my own. A resounding prayer I cry out every day is simply "Jesus, where is my place"?

I am pleased to say He sweetly answers every time "Your place is with Me".

Though I did not receive this until a few hours after World Relief, this scripture brought me so much peace. It is found in Philippians 3:10 and it begins saying "My goal is to know Him...". I really need to carve that into every area of my life- if my goal is productivity, if my goal is to please people, if it is to be impressive or even if my goal is to be as holy as possible- I would still be wrong. My goal purely needs to derive from a place where I am not straining to fix my eyes on Him, but where my goal is simply to know Him.

Today I was actually not able to teach my students English because they had to help move stuff into a new apartment for a new family. During my free time I did two things #1 I printed out a ton of paper money to teach them about our dollars and coins to teach buying and selling and #2 dreamt about the delicious lunch that was being cooked for me by an Iraqi family!

I meet this family because I was used to fill out certain medical forms for the Father, and had to ask him every question about his injury that one could think of. I feel a slight connection with this family because as I asked invasive question after invasive question I was able to see how traumatic and devastating the consequences of the car bomb are to every area of his life.

Our lunch did not start out like typical lunch meals. As we, I and two other World Relief employees came in and sat down, our host had something new he was excited to show us; his new fake leg! I have never been so happy to see a prosthetic leg in my life. It was beautiful! The ankle of the leg was springy to relieve pressure on the point of contact of his injured leg and the prosthetic. The foot of the leg looked like a real foot and he received a long gel covering that he could put over his amputated leg that would make the prosthetic a lot more comfortable.

You could tell he was truly appreciative, not full of bitterness and entitlement. In fact, he had really kind things to say about the gentleman who came to fit him for his leg. He told his case worker how gentle and kind the man was who was fitting him and said he almost cried when the man was massaging the hurting and sore areas of his amputated leg. No one had really touched him like that since the explosion. I could not imagine that feeling. It reminded me of the sorrow the leprosy colony in India faced once their disease was discovered and the gratitude they expressed after I cleaned their eroded feet. Nevertheless there really is something sweet about this man. I am sure he has his moments, and I know from our interviews, the dismal times he faces, but he is not characterized by this. Our lunch was full of two things: calories and ubiquitous laughter. He and his wife were hilarious together; they have such a funny dynamic. They teased each other and laughed the whole afternoon.

The only concern I had coming into lunch was how I was going to handle the food. Not because I am not accustomed to Middle Eastern food (I am far too accustomed actually) but because I have not had a meal full of meat since India two years ago when they fed me water buffalo. I have been a pescetarian for almost 4 years and limit my meat intake to seafood which typically is only a few times a week. It is not that I am an animal activist or a crazy health nut, I just do not really crave meat or miss it and I have gone so long without eating it that I just do not incorporate it into my diet anymore. Anyway, I was slightly concerned about how my body would react to the beef in the Dolma (eggplant, grape leaves, tomatoes, peppers, onions and cabbage stuffed with rice beef and seasoning) the Biryani (delicious rice with peanuts, veggies, spices and chicken) and Kibbeh (think of a homemade corndog but replace the cancer ridden hotdog with ground beef and spices). Everything was delicious- even for someone who does not eat meat. We started with Salada made of chopped cucumber, tomatoes, and cabbage with vinaigrette and then the biryani and dolma and kibbeh. The dolma was definitely my favorite. The woman I lived with in Egypt used to cook me Mahshi that is very similar to the eggplant dulma. They of course criticized the other American and me for not eating enough and encouraged us not to be shy and keep eating but we were beyond stuffed. Iraqis' eat much larger lunches then Americans are used to. Many eat a good breakfast, a huge later lunch and a small dinner.

 After we insisted that we couldn't possibly take another bite we all moved to the couches for sweet Iraqi hot tea in beautifully designed dainty glass cups. We sat, laughed, shared stories, talked about our cultures and the differences between Iraq and America. We talked about the war and the deaths, corruption and past lives. They shared pictures of family members still in Iraq and I showed them pictures of my family. Their bashful daughter of 14 shared how she wanted to be a cardiologist when she grows up because her grandmother has a heart condition. It was really nice to be in an environment like that again. I almost chocked on my tea when I saw the men, not so gently, tap their spoons on their empty tea glasses while looking at the woman- clearly they were ready for more tea. She laughed at my gapping mouth and cheerfully filled up the glasses. It was not offensive at all in their culture and they comically expounded on the duties of the wife. I joked back that this is probably why I was not married yet because when I cook my boyfriend does the dishes- they chuckled at the thought of that.

Our time their ended with a 911 call because the apartment across the hall from them almost caught on fire. We jumped up when we hear the fire alarm go off and peer out the door as the thick smoke came billowing out of the apartment. The mother and young child ran out of the house and into the neighbor’s home and the fire department came, inspected, evacuated the smoke and assisted the mother and child also Iraqi. All was well. I think the stove was just left on with an empty pan on it or something, but the fireman told us that is one of the most common causes for house fires. Thank God everything and everyone was ok.

Jesus - thank you for simplifying my life today. I pray my goal remains to know You Lord. I lift up the workers at World Relief that have influenced my life and loved on me the last few weeks and ask You to give them endurance to serve others. I pray for the families that have joined us in our country and the ones to come and ask that we can be your hands and feet. Give us your heart for others Lord.  *Amen*


 

Can a Mother forget her Child?

A little blessing in disguise happened today when Peter Nay, the Burmese man, could not make it to English class this morning and I was left with just Tulasi and Chandra from Bhutan. I adore Peter Nay, his wife and four children and have a blast with all of them. However, the Bhutanese needed special attention and the Lord knows our needs. Today I was able to spend 2 hours with just them. It actually is better to teach two people of  the same language then just one because there is a slight sense of competition and they start to correct and teach each other what they struggle with. It is really interesting to observe how Tulasi is stronger in memory but how Chandra is much stronger in correct pronunciation. I wish I could just bring you all into a typical class with me but I honestly do not even know what a typical class would be. For instance, today my class what held in a spare booth set up outside of the restrooms lol. Not ideal, but at least it was empty, we could claim it and be as loud and as we'd like.

I realize of course, that these detailed stories about people you do not know might seem quite monotonous, so I would like to give you a glimpse of Tulasi and Chandra through my eyes.

 

First we must start with the foundation, where they are from and why are they here. When I first started to write this blog, I thought I would just type in the country Bhutan and see what surfaced. One of the first things that popped up was an article titled "Bhutanese Refugees: The Story of the Forgotten People". If you want a more detailed and better written version of this history I would suggest you read this article, but I will just give a comprehensive description.

Bhutan is beneath China and over India and a little east of Nepal and has generated one of the highest numbers of refugees in the world in proportion to its population. In fact, over 105,000 Bhutanese have lived in Nepalese refugee camps for more than 15 years. A really condensed version of this tragedy shows how devastating the 80's were for the Lhotshampa people. The Lhotshampa people were an ethnic group of Bhutan making up a sixth of the population. Most were Bhutanese and some had immigration there from Nepal but regardless of what reality was, once the Government saw these people as a "threat" they took extreme measures to discriminate against this particular ethnic group by completely removing their language from the school systems, requiring them to change their ethnic clothing and even their religion. If they did not adhere to the new laws they were seen as "anti-nationalists" and therefore subject to imprisonment, torture, but ultimately expulsion. Think about it- all of a sudden you belong nowhere- no country is yours, no land is yours, you are literally a nomad overnight.

I could tell you heart wrenching stories of families losing everything they have worked for in the blink of an eye but that is not the point of this blog. I guess what I am trying to portray is the fact that this precious family is more than just an illiterate and strange couple who live in "our country" but they are survivors. They have experienced immense suffering and losses, endured refugee camps, and have finally reached freedom, well an opportunity to be free. I know they are technically free now that they are here in "The Land of the Free" but what is freedom without being able to communicate, or fill out forms, or even buy groceries? This is where I feel like I come in. I cannot get them their land back, or get their loved ones here, but I can try to be the heart of God that cries out "I WILL NOT FORGET YOU". I can try to teach them their ABC's and sing "Head and Shoulders" with them and I can laugh with them when we make silly mistakes. 

An article written about the Bhutanese labels them "Forgotten People" but Book of Life written to Tulasi, Chandra (and the rest) labels them "Sons and daughters" "Beloved" and says "Never Can a mother forget her nursing child? Can she feel no love for the child she has borne? But even if that were possible, I would not forget you! See, I have written your name on the palms of my hands." (Isaiah 49:15,16)

Jesus thank you for loving us even more than our earthly parents. Help us never forget that it is Your character to love- you are love- and there is no way we can earn it or squander it. *Amen*

(Actual names have been changed to preserve the privacy of the subjects)

Fruits of Labor (June 26th, 2013)

Today started off pretty similar to yesterday. I started out just offering the people I will be working with today to the Lord and recognizing that I need Jesus every step of the way. Wednesday mornings at World Relief start with a 30 minute prayer meeting. Sometimes there are plenty of the employees there and sometimes there is just me. I like both. I love hearing the case workers praying in Spanish, Burmese, and Ukrainian. I love hearing the American case workers praying fervently for the refugees we serve to find jobs, for God to open opportunities to get their other family members here, for the sick to be healed. It is a beautiful scene to see hearts still softened to the needs of others, no matter how redundant those issues seem. Compassion is something I have to fight to have, I know it may not seem that way, but I really struggle to feel for others day after day. It is crazy to me to see almost every single employee here really care about their "clients" (refugees) and are still not just moved to tears sometimes, but moved to prayer. I also like praying alone because I like to pull out a hunk of scripture and just pray that over the clients I work with and the workers here. Recently I have been hooked on Isaiah 42:1-7

Isaiah 42:1-8

Holman Christian Standard Bible

The Servant’s Mission

42 “This is My Servant; I strengthen Him,
this is My Chosen One; I delight in Him.
I have put My Spirit on Him;
He will bring justice^[a] to the nations.
² He will not cry out or shout
or make His voice heard in the streets.
³ He will not break a bruised reed,
and He will not put out a smoldering wick;
He will faithfully bring justice.
⁴ He will not grow weak or be discouraged
until He has established justice on earth.
The islands will wait for His instruction.”

⁵ This is what God, Yahweh, says—
who created the heavens and stretched them out,
who spread out the earth and what comes from it,
who gives breath to the people on it
and life^[b] to those who walk on it—
⁶ “I, Yahweh, have called You
for a righteous purpose,^[c]
and I will hold You by Your hand.
I will keep You and appoint You
to be a covenant for the people
and a light to the nations,
⁷ in order to open blind eyes,
to bring out prisoners from the dungeon,
and those sitting in darkness from the prison house.

Today as my Pandora started blasting All Sons and Daughters I began praying this out verse by verse, name by name, situation by situation. I was pleasantly interrupted by a lovely volunteer named Shannon who sat with me the remanding 20 minutes. We quickly discovered we both love the Middle East and she is interested in learning Arabic! I was elated; I rarely meet woman my age who are even the slightest bit interested in the Middle East.

Once I found a room available for my 3 English students, Peter Wah from Burma, Tulasi and his wife Chandra from Bhutan, I began to pull out my delicious props. Today I thought we could take a break from filling out forms and writing names and do something a little more fun...like eat! I brought an angle food cake, apples, mango, watermelon, zucchini, bell pepper, garlic and yogurt.

We of course started with the cake but it was kind of a misunderstanding. I waved hello to Tulasi and Chandra and they just followed me into the room where I was preparing the food. I was trying to tell him that I did not need them yet and that they could continue to clean our building but neither understood me or my gestures so I just made the best of my situation and we ate some cake. It was really funny to see their reaction to the cake. Tulasi was smacking so loud it sounded like a camel and Chandra did not make much noise bbut when I walked by the water station she was chugging a cup of water as fast as she could. I do not think they were impressed but I could not help but giggle.

When I had all my students together I started with apples and I cut and served them (they ate every part of the apple #hardcore), then the watermelon (which they all love), then the mango. They did a great job with the fruits and ate them all willingly. Then we moved to the zucchini bell pepper and garlic. I tried to bring things they would know and I think it was successful. They all knew the fruits and veggies and all cooked them in their own way. Peter Wah was very animated when he was showing me how he cooked the garlic and we all had a good laugh at it. The foods we ate turned into charades of what animals we ate and what animals were culturally unacceptable (like pigs and cows fro the Bhutanese who have lived in Nepal for a majority half of their lives). It then lead to looking at pictures on the internet of food which was a blast and hilarious. I looked up pictures of Nepali food which Chandra and Tulasi loved teaching me about and looked up pictures of fruit that were completely foreign to them like kiwi. One fruit chart I pulled up was cartoon and all the fruits and veggies had faces (like Veggie Tales). Through out this lesson I was asking them "do you like this" "do you like that" and they were answering yes and no. Peter Wah said yes to almost everything I pointed at but when we got to this animated fruit chart he looked really confused and kind of disgusted. I kept asking him if he liked this and I would point at something and he would reply "no no- no good" and then I would point at the apple and he would say "don't like' and finally I said "what do you mean you don't like- I just cut up all of these fruits fro you and you ate them all!". He finally pointed to the eyes and mouth on the fruits and said "no good- no like- don't eat that". I about fell out of my chair laughing. Of course he would not eat an apple or watermelon with a face. This was probably his first experience with cartoons or cartoon fruit at least. Tulasi also branched out a little bit and took a stab at drawing a picture of an animal that he ate. The picture was hilarious and I wish I would have gotten a picture but after making the animal noises I realized he was talking about a goat!

After the fruits and vegetable lesson we started with the alphabet. to my surprise and delight al three of them had their alphabet memorized! Trying to communicate that the letters of the alphabet made sounds was hard. I was trying to get them to sound out words but they would only repeat the letters for the most part. But at the very end of our two hour lesson Peter Wah read his first word! "Pam"! That name never sounded so sweet. I think I may have freaked them out a little bit because I almost jumped out of my chair when I heard him say it. Tulasi and Chandra did not read their first word but their victory was concurring the letter "F" and coming really close to being able to make the "eff" sound. I literally put my finger on Chandra lip to shove it under her teeth but we were laughing so hard it was impossible.

Yes, today has been a blessed day already and I am only half way though. Right now I am eating my tuna fish salad (that the foreign case workers are teasing me about) and waiting for my roommate to pick me up and accompany me to teach the other refugees in their home!

_________________________________________________________________________________

Today has officially come to a close and I could not help but finish this blog. Soon after I ended the first half my roommate and I drove to a Burmese apartment and taught English to a mother with 4 children. They all are basically illiterate but are doing such a great job learning English. The children are picking it up really fast! I brought over the remaining fruits and veggies and went through the process of teaching the verbs "to like, cut, cook, and eat". They did such a great job! I could not help but be so proud of every single one of them. The mother is one of the most patient woman I have ever met. She just so sweetly and shyly allows her chunky and demanding 1 year old to crawl over her and play with her face and sit on the table and whatever else he feels. It is really cute to see some of her emotions surface finally. We are finding things to laugh about and today I had the pleasure of watching her playfully hold and kiss her 1 year old. I have always known she loves him, but today I got to see that look mothers get in their eyes when they are just delighted to have their baby close to them. I do wish I could find a way to explain to her how to store food properly. There is a huge bug and roach infestation. It seems like there are most and more roaches every time I come over. The kitchen is just crawling, and today I checked out the fridge and to my dismay the bugs have infiltrated almost every item in the fridge. One of the problems could be the over flowing amount of trash which is mostly just left over peels and food. I just cannot figure out a way to communication kitchen sanitation with her because I do not speak even a fragment of her language and know little about her culture. I was encouraged by the home hygiene of the other Burmese woman I visited in the same complex. Her name is Sara and I had the blessing of being with her when she gave birth to her precious baby boy "Ring Loon". He is already 7 pounds and 11 ounces! That is almost a pound he has put on since he was born. We chatted with as little words as possible and she showed me her Burmese Bible. I tried showing her my favorite verse and realized a few moments ago that I gave her the wrong reference! ...Typical... But she was healing great and her place was super clean and organized. I was happy to be able to pray over her and Ring Loon again.

 

We then drove to a Congolese woman about my age to help her build her reading skills. We read a children's book about Joseph and the coat of many colors. She did pretty good but it was all in past tense so that was kind of hard to work through. it was so cool though because she, her husband, my roommate and I just all sat and talked for about an hour after the reading ended. I learned a lot about their family of three and a lot about Africa. As we talked about our lives, families, and countries, we talked about fears like hippo's, snakes and alligators and I showed them pictures I found on my smart phone to correlate what we were talking about. She almost threw my phone when I pulled up a hippo! We talked about very humorous and different practices like marriage. Sanga (her husband) proudly proclaimed that he had to buy 12 cows and 3 cases of beer to her father in order to marry her! I made him repeat his story a few times to make sure that I was getting it right and when he found out that in America the groom not only pays nothing for his bride, but the parents actually spend money, he could not believe it. We all had a good laugh about that topic but the giggles faded away as they started sharing stories about how genocide ripped through their villages. Sanga's mother and father both dies by getting their arms cut off and then their head, and later on in his life his first wife and 3 children were brutally murdered by a conflicting ethnic group. Sanga's wife nonchalantly gestured what they did to pregnant woman, which I do not plan on exposing, and I could not help but thank God internally for saving this family. She really has worked her way into my heart and at the end of our time together she playfully leaned into me and said "I love you". It was the first time a refugee has told me that and I tried not to expose how excited those three words made me. I love her too, and the rest of them. I love the smell of the potatoes she makes her children, the sound of the Bhutanese couple ordering each other around, the way Peter Wah shouts "TEACHA" at me whenever he has a question, I love his wife's sweet and gentle smile she gets whenever I complement her memory, I love watching the children laugh at me when I clumsily stumble through Karen words they teach me, I love hugging the Sudanese women and side kissing her cold cheeks. I just love them, and I feel so blessed to be apart of their precious lives.

Lord I am in awe of your goodness. Thank you. 

Familiar Strangers (June 24, 2013)

Today is unlike "normal" days that I typically have at World Relief. To be honest I could not tell you what a "normal" day looks like here, but I love that about this internship. This weekend the engine blew in my car and got towed to Daytona. This means that not only do I not have my English material I have been collecting for over a month, but I am not able to drive to my 4 homes I teach English in. I know I cannot control this and I should not feel guilty, but after taking a week off teaching because of having family in town, and now not having a vehicle... I feel really bad. This morning however, after I was dropped off here by a gracious best friend, I gathered together what I could and started teaching English to my 3 faithful students who show up every morning to clean World Relief for community service hours.

The Karen Flag

These students consist of a Burmese man named Peter Nay, and a Bhutanese couple, Chandra and Tulasi Koirala. Peter Nay has a tiny amount of education behind him and recognizes about 75% of the alphabet and can count to 10 in English. He is literate in his dialect of Burma (Karen) but has a serious hand tremor and therefore writing is difficult for him. The Bhutanese couple is 100% illiterate in their spoken language of Nepali, in their Bhutanese language, and in English. This has made writing very difficult to teach because they have never had to practice such foreign exercises. As of now, they know basic body parts, and a few phrases (good morning, how are you, good, thank you) and can almost say all the days of the week in order. I am trying to work on things they really need to know like "First Name, Middle Name, Last Name" "Address, City, State, Zip code". Peter Nay can now successfully fill out a form by himself with correct spelling, Tulasi is getting better at handwriting and is improving in writing the correct information in the correct places, and Chandra is getting better at copying letters and still getting a grip on spacing letters and words and writing on the lines in the appropriate places. I find myself getting frustrated not at my students, but at the lack of ability to communicate with my students where they need improvement. Lucky a young man from Bhutan helped translate corrections in writing for a few minutes. I could not be more proud of them though. I really enjoy every day at the end of class trying to ask them questions about their life.

Today we struggled through a fragmented conversation about things they liked to cook or eat. It was really interesting to see the differences in the foods they liked or did not like, and even funnier to combine a mixture of gestures, noises and pictures to describe animals, and produce they eat. The Burmese man for instance eats pork and beef, but the Bhutanese couple only eats poultry. They both eat fruits like watermelon and bananas, but the Chandra and Tulasi eat mangoes and Peter Nay does not. I know I these conversations are about as surface as you could get, but in a way we feel pretty connected to each other and almost a sense of victory when we are able to understand the points others are trying to make. It feels like we were familiar strangers, but I feel like we are now crossing the border into friends who just come from different worlds. If we can collectively laugh at least one time every English class, I consider it a success.

After English, I was informed about an Ethiopian family who needs some minor health education on sanitation and hygiene. The main issue I will deal with immediately is a case of "Ringworms". This is actually a fungus that is spread through the surface of skin and hair. I am not quite sure how I will go about treating and education this family affected by ringworm because they do not speak English and I certainly do not speak Amharic, but my goal today is to research methods of treatment and simply ways to explain (though pictures) what this is, how it spreads and how to prevent reoccurrences. I also am becoming more experienced with Social Security Income (SSI) and the different processes people have to go through in order to prove disability. Because I am the Health Intern I have been able to help, along with an interpreter, asses and document a bomb victim’s physical and mental wellness. At first I felt sympathy for the man who was a victim of the car bombing, but after filling out form after form of what his injuries affect- I feel much more then sympathy. Literally every single task, whether socially, mentally, or physically has been massively affected since the explosion. I knew the physical struggles he would suffer due to his amputation, and artificial eye, but I never really considered how his mental ability to cope was hindered, or fine motor skills like shaving or cooking would be affected. Even though it broke my heart, I really did enjoy filling out the copious and redundant forms. I liked being able to affectively articulate the pain and symptoms of his physical issues. I have also been really encouraged to see SSI respond positively to the ways I have communicated his physical condition.

Now, after gobbling down my left over Thai food, I am attempting to organize the next few days, figure out how to make up on lost hours due to my recent vacation, and start writing up health biographies on the families I visit…I love my internship.

  Isaiah 52 "This is My Servant; I strengthen Him, [this is] My Chosen One; I delight in Him. I have put My Spirit on Him; He will bring justice to the nations. He will not cry out or shout...He will faithfully bring justice. He will not grow weak or be discouraged until He has established justice on earth."
Jesus please strengthen me this week. I pray I can delight in my work here at world relief and find joy in every task you put before me. I pray I will not grow weak or discouraged because of my present situation. Give me endurance in these confusing and challenging seasons. I pray my joy never becomes contingent on my circumstances and I remember your character and your promises. *Amen* 


(Actual names have been changed for privacy purposes)
 

Day 4

May 20th, 2013 Today was a collection of teaching and learning...I think I definitely did more of the latter. I started off my wonderful morning with teaching a small group of Burmese learn basic English. I thought we did only a small lesson but after I journaled what words we went over I figured out I taught over 30 words! Way too much in my opinion. I started off with family terms like "mom, dad, baby, son, daughter, husband, wife" and then moved into food and clothes. I know I definitely lost track of time because I taught for over an hour, but I had a blast! I love teaching, I do not know how good at it I am, but I know I loved doing it, especially when I could see them picking up on words so quickly! I was then later informed that there is a plethora of teaching material all over World Relief that I had no clue about! I was drawing pictures and creating props the whole time. Nevertheless, I had a blast and I was blessed to be able to interact with a few familiar faces.

 
I then was allowed to attend an Arabic session on "Right and Responsibilities" for American refugees. I loved hearing it in Arabic because even though I was only able to pick up a few new words here and there, it was a great refresher. More than anything, I learned a lot about our country and the teacher actually gave me a stack of "civics" flash cards! They are used to help prepare people for their exam to become American citizens and I answered half of the questions he asked wrong! I really need to brush up on these things. The refugees probably have a better grasp on these things then most of us Americans.

 
The majority of my day however was spent trying to come up with ways to measure and test health education absorption and the changes that come from it. There are a lot of materials, but our largest problem is the fact that we have many people who are illiterate in English and even their own language. I found a pretty cool place that creates "Speaking Books" about health topics in specific languages. These books have pictures and when you press on certain buttons it talks about the topic in the language you create it in. I think these books would be specifically helpful in the Karan language of Burma. I have to remind myself daily that the Lord has brought me here and He is going to give me all I need because I often feel so under qualified to be of any help yet desire to help so much.


2 Corinthians 12:10 That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong. Lord I pray You fill in the gaps. I pray that we never rely on our own strength, power, or endurance and can fully lean on You. I pray against the attacks of the enemy that try to steal and destroy everything that You are doing. Please remind us who you are and how great just Your name alone is. *Amen*


   

Day 2 & 3

On May 15th I spent my afternoon reviewing the materials I have on "Healthy Living". This is a program that teaches health care and healthy living to people who's first language is not English. I reviewed the material and started creating some type of program plan for how World Relief would be able to best serve the clients in the health care world. I was also able to accompany Meg Young and an Afghani family to Shands to get a "Shands Card" in order to have some type of health insurance. I really enjoyed seeing what Meg and the other employees do in order to assist their clients. If Meg was not helping them with these detailed and arduous documents, paper work, and questions, it would be nearly impossible, especially with their limited English. One thing that really put things into perspective to me was the young man that came with his mother whom was trying to get her Shands card. He was the bread winner of the house and has been working, along with his younger sister, for months in order to afford the small apartment they live in and food. I have no idea if he has any education or how long he was in the Pakistani refugee camp for, but when he showed me his ID I noticed we shared the same exact birthday. On September 11th 1990 we both were brought into the world; myself in Bronxville, New York and he in Afghanistan. Yet, though we share the same birthday, our lives couldn't look more different. I felt two things: first, a flood or gratitude that I have lived such a blessed life and secondly I felt proud of the young man who was working for his family and making a life for him in our country. On May 17th I had an awesome opportunity to shadow Emi, a woman who does home and hospital visits. Emi can be used in a special way because she once was a client of World Relief from Burma and speaks Burmese and Chin. Though she cannot speak the other 6 languages of Burma, she understand the culture and ways of life which is almost equally as important. It was so sweet to watch the comfort and relief wash over some of the familiar Burmese woman's faces as they saw Emi walk into the apartment complex. Our purpose was to bring a Burmese woman back to her home because she did not understand that her appointment was at 1 pm. She showed up at 9 am ready to go to Shands for a pregnancy check up. However, one people saw Emi come into the apartment complex our purpose was extended. One woman who was 8 months pregnant needed Emi to let the apartments know that her stove was broken, one high school girl from Burma needed us to take her to get her immunization shots, one needed us to fill out her field trip form and another women simply needed a haircut. When we walked into one family's home who needed to be taken to see Wolfson Children's Hospital to be with their young daughter who was getting a series of surgeries to fix her hip, we discovered the hospital required this family to get deloused in order to visit. To be able to meet all of the needs, Emi and I decided to split the tasks. She was going to cut hair, deal with communicating hospital check ups and so on, and I was going to take care of the lice problem. Thank God I have some experience with lice treatment. When I lived in Egypt I worked with "street children" who had massive lice infestations and I picked it up kindly shared it with my darling roommate. We spent weeks going through each others hair and doing treatment after treatment and we survived. Lice does not have the power of fear over me anymore...well that is not entirely true...I did have a nightmare last night about lice, but my fear is not nearly as great! Anyway, I read the instructions and went to work on a little girl of 4. She was so stinkin' cute it was almost impossible to not swoop her up and shower her in kisses. I put in the timer and sat her down as I went through her little silky brown head of hair. She reminded me of my precious niece Meeky whom I have not seen in almost 3 years and I soaked up the time I got to spend picking through her hair and bathing her. I know it sounds ludicrous that I actually enjoyed doing lice treatments with this child and mother, but there was something so intimate about the trust they showed me to do this, and the vulnerability of letting a stranger wash your hair. I chuckled as I watched the mother eventually scrub down her daughter her own way. It was amusing to see the was they used American facilities. For instance, instead of filling up the bath tub to wash her daughter, she filled up a large Tupperware with water and a small plastic cup inside. She then proceeded to use one hand to scrub her daughter with soap and the other hand was busy splashing her down with a cup of water she was filling from the tub. This instantly brought me back to 2 summers ago in Rajahmundry, India. I remembered the woman who slept with me washing down the orphans in this way by the water pump, using one hand to scrub the squatting, and the other to splash cups of water on them. Emi and I then took the pregnant woman and the mother and daughter to the hospitals they needed to go to. It was pretty cute to walk into Wolfson's and see the littler girl who was getting hip surgery watching the Disney Channel. I did laugh however when the nurses urgently told us to put on surgical caps and dress before entering (because of the lice issue). It looked like we were getting ready to enter into a war against anthrax. I couldn't imagine how silly making a fuss about little harmless bugs seemed to the family affected, but nevertheless, we all dressed ourselves in our cotton hospital armor. We then took the pregnant woman to Shands and once again I felt so grateful refugees have a place like World Relief to be an advocate. I could not imagine how insanely foreign, scary, and impossible a American hospital would be to someone who has not only never been in one, but who speaks a very uncommon language and cannot read or write. We filled out her paper work, and while we waited, Emi explained what has been going on in Burma since 1962. That is a whole other topic for a different day but it was very eye opening. The prenatal check up went well and she was seemingly healthy but I wonder if she would ever actually take the vitamins given to her. We had a translator tell her what they were and why she needed to take them but I doubt she is. I think my favorite part of the visit was just watching her shyly and curiously giggle as we told her to do certain things like sitting on the table they have in doctors offices, urinating in a cup to check on her hormones, and taking her blood pressure. Though we could not speak words to each other we could communicate by playfully giggling at how strange certain hospital practices are. I am not very good at concluding essays or summaries and I am especially poor at wittily ending a blog so I apologize in advance. All in all, I cannot believe I am getting this incredible opportunity to serve the Lord in being His hands and feet. I couldn't help but praise God the whole way through those two days for His goodness and beg Him for His strength. Isaiah 40:29 "He gives strength to those who are tired; to the ones who lack power, he gives renewed energy."

Day 1 "For thier lives are precious in His sight."

Day 1: May 13th, 2013 Unfortunately, I am not much of a blogger. However, there was a request that I would keep a blog of my days here at World Relief Jacksonville so my blogs will be consisting of a summary of my activities, responsibilities, and progress in the clients and my own life. Enjoy! When I discovered I was going to be an Intern for an organization who's calling is to "stand for the vulnerable" refugees from all over the world, I felt the familiar sting of inadequacy. "I do not know what I am doing- where I am going- what languages they will be speaking- or anything of this nature... Lord how are You going to use me" said a little voice in my head as I approached the slow creeping traffic of 95. My typical prayers that I normally use for defense were not fighting of the anxiety so I decided on arrival I needed more ammo; and only the Word of God was a big enough weapon for this job. As I sat down in the desolate waiting room, I coolly, yet desperately, parted my Bible right onto a long lost Psalm God pierced my heart with years ago... 12 For he will rescue the poor who cry out and the afflicted who have no helper. 13 He will have pity on the poor and helpless and save the lives of the poor. 14 He will redeem them from oppression and violence, for their lives are precious in his sight. (Psalm 72:12-14) Oh Lord... I may be the least adequate person in this radius, but you are so sufficient and You love these people more then every employee and intern combined here. Thank you Lord for Your promises. My anxiety finally eased as I read those words, and soon enough I heard a soft familiar greeting I used to receive every morning while I lived in Egypt. "Sabah el kheir" (good morning in Arabic) said a sweet warm woman as she walked through the door. Before I could sloppily squawk back in the little Arabic I know, a Middle Easterner World Relief employee responded with a smile and a "Sabah el noor". Little did I know that within the next few hours I would have met three different employees who could speak fluent Arabic and knew the places I have lived, the church I so loved to attend and even the café that I spent most of my time at while living in the Middle East. I almost fell out of my seat when I found out my work station neighbor is from Iraq, and instantly connected as we joked around with each other. I forgot how much I missed the little things like the high fives they give out when you say something that makes them laugh, or the lack of rush I feel when I am in conversation with them. The Lord is so sweet to not only provide the big important things, but the I think the most valuable part of my first day however was the staff meeting I attended. I do not know what my favorite part was, but the Staff meeting was definitely highlight. I realized that the statement "everyone loves their job here" that my preceptor Brenda proclaimed was indeed true! I sat there, amazed, as I saw the staff's fresh passion they have for the refugees. The director, Elaine Carson, but more commonly known as “Mrs. P” opened up the staff meeting with prayer and ever so sweetly and simply invited the Lord into our meeting. It was as if she was having a conversation with an old friend or family member. To know the director of this organization shares in intimacy with the same lover of my soul and Father I instantly was put at peace and felt the Lord's instant conformation that He hand picked this internship for me. I could not be more blessed and am overflowing with gratitude that the Lord would use someone like me to represent someone like Him. Thank you Jesus. Responsibilities, Duties, & Objectives *Create a program for home health visits - research and glean from other World Relief health programs - study and research "Staying Healthy" by the Florida Literacy Coalition - research Health Literacy Projects - start compiling health bios on clients - research private funding for literacy and in house English - observe the clients needs and document what actions have worked and failed - research "home health assessments" and the Minnesota refugee health screenings * Keep a Google Blog * Study Oxford Picture Dictionary * Home Health Visits - asses the needs of the clients - observe current health status - observe environmental factors, risks and safety - take action on what needs attention (minor health needs, sanitation, food safety) - check medications and administration of meds - transport to medical appointments - assist with translating medical needs between medical personnel and client - follow-up appointments to chart progress Keep World Relief and myself in your prayers! In Christ Alone Meg