About a month or two ago my mom received an email from a missionary in Ecuador that is/was a member of their church before they left for the mission field. He is a physician and doing medical missions in Ecuador. Here is the original email we received:

“Marjori Silva died in my arms on the way to the provincial (regional) hospital today. Please pray for me and for the family.

She presented in severe respiratory distress with a mild fever and without drooling or barky cough. Aggressive nebulization treatments (using the machine I bought and the meds I brought) made no difference, and as I was filling out the transfer papers to send her to the regional center where they have intubation and resuscitation equipment, she abruptly stopped breathing and was not able to be ventilated by mouth to mouth. I did CPR all the way to the provincial center and helped as best I could once we arrived, but by then it was too late. Visualization of the epiglottis and upper airway at the regional center showed that she did not have epiglottitis, diphtheria, or other discernible cause of upper airway obstruction, at least to the level of the vocal cords. We removed a 7-inch Ascaris worm from her throat during intubation at the regional hospital, but I believe that guy was just trying to escape given the trauma of her asphyxia and the CPR process. We’re trying to persuade the family to allow the autopsy to give us some answers.

I had never seen her before, but a postmortem chart review shows many episodes of “bronchitis” and a previous referral to the regional hospital by a pedi resident for an asthma crisis about a year ago.

Our “hospital” where I work is not equipped for emergencies and makes no claim to provide emergency services. I did what I could given our limitations of equipment and personnel, but of course it is still pretty devastating. I’ve never lost a child to respiratory failure before. If any of you have an old laryngoscope lying around or know someone who is upgrading their equipment, let me know immediately because I will certainly be buying my own laryngoscope and endotracheal tubes. I am very competent at intubation but did not have the equipment I needed to save her, and that situation can not be allowed to happen again.”

After I read that email I felt like i had to do something and I remembered that we have an extra bronchoscope at work…it’s not in the best shape and we were going to throw it away so we just kept it and played around with it. This is what could have saved this little girls life. So I asked and they said I could send it to Ecuador and he could have it. I also went to our operating room and got a bunch of endotracheal tubes and other intubation equipment that I was able to send to him.

I just received this email from him saying they got all the equipment, along with a lot of other stuff that many other people sent to him. Our God is good, many people helped and now more lives can be saved because we took the time to help our brother in Christ out. Here is the last email I received:

“Dear all:
Thanks so very much for the amazing array of great items you sent to us here in Loja. The Lord is amazing and He works thru His people. Not only did we receive a laryngoscope and bronchoscope, nebulizer machines, resuscitation medications, nebulizer meds, an amazing assortment of ENT surgical specialty equipment and supplies, endotracheal tubes, and additional medical equipment (which all got here in one piece due to the remarkable packing care of my mom and sisters putting virtually everything in bubble wrap), but also some great personal items like General Foods International Coffees and Starbucks syrup for coffee/latte flavoring, chocolate, etc. We also received some language learning software and pediatric CME materials we’d hoped would come to them in time to bring along. So we feel richly blessed and I know the Lord will see that these items are put to use in His service (and for our refreshment/encouragement as well).

Thank you for caring and for your gracious generosity.”

Brian is doing a new series at church called “Livin’ Large”…it’s basically about taking a look at the things/blessings we have. He asked us a question to answer in a group…my answer was different than most, I think I took a different approach–and in no way did I mean for my answer to be smart alecy or seem like I am high and mighty or better than anyone, it’s just what came to mind. Anyway, he asked us to reply to this: If we were sat in front of the top 10 wealthiest people what would we say to them. A lot of people replied with “can i have some money?” or “how did you do it, how did you become rich?” but my answer was simply this “I’ve saved a handful of babies and children from dying, what did you do and is it something you’re proud of?” The meaning behind this response is simple. I get paid A LOT less than they do, but at the end of the day I love what I do and I go home knowing I made a difference in someones life, whether it’s performing CPR on a baby to save their life, doing a simple diagnostic test to determine what disease they have or simply smiling at them and telling them to have a good day. Compared to the top 10 wealthiest people I make like nothing, but I’m happy and having more money won’t make me happier.

Did you know that if you make $37,000 or more a year you are in the top 5% of wage earners in the world. If you make $45,000 or more a year you are in the top 1% of wage earners in the world. Put that into perspective and I’m rich. I/we make more than 99% of the population in the world. There are some people in the world that live on $1 a day, can you imagine living on $1 a day now. Three billion people live on less than $2 per day while 1.3 billion get by on less than $1 per day. Seventy percent of those living on less than $1 per day are women.

Think of some of the things we spend our money on and some of the things we probably don’t need. This is a list of things we could do with the money we spend on certain things and what we could do with the same amount of money.

$8 could buy you 15 organic apples OR 25 fruit trees for farmers in Honduras to grow and sell fruit at their local market.
$30 could buy you an ER DVD Boxset OR a First Aid kit for a village in Haiti.
$73 could buy you a new mobile phone OR a new mobile health clinic to care for AIDS orphans in Uganda.
$2400 could buy you a second generation High Definition TV OR schooling for an entire generation of school children in an Angolan village.

Kind of puts things into perspective huh? So next time you want that new iPod or camera, think of what else you could be doing with that money. (myself included, since I did just buy a new ipod)
If you want to see how rich you are go here : http://www.globalrichlist.com/

Brian is doing a series on Sunday mornings called inverted and today was about parenting. Now Jonathan and I don’t have any kids but one day we will. I have always been fine with the idea of having kids, it’s the idea that they will become teenagers that scares me!! I’ve told Jonathan that I’d have 4 or 5 kids if they were like the Treadaway kids. I know their kids are far from perfect but Brian and Heather have raised an amazing soccer team…i mean kids (sorry, I couldn’t resist–for those of you who don’t know, they have 5 kids) and unless they will come and raise ours, it scares me a little. Today made me realize that you don’t have to be super mom or dad and you don’t have to know everything to be a good parent. As long as you make God the center of your family and make sure your kids have Him at the center of their lives, that’s all you can do….and pray! This morning just made it seem less scary and something I could handle. If you have a chance you should check out the podcast from this morning and listen to what Brian had to say–it’s pretty darn good!

DISCLAIMER: This is in NO WAY saying we are having kids anytime soon!! 🙂

I wrote the post that is below back some time last year about how we wear masks to cover up who we really are. Yesterday Brian spoke on masks and how if we wear masks we truly can not experience God-Likeness because we aren’t true to ourselves or others. We put on a mask to cover up who we are, maybe something we’ve done or are ashamed of. I know in the past I have worn masks, trying to not let people in and get to know me. Over the last couple of years, I have slowly taken those masks off and thrown them away, I’ve learned that this is who I am and who God created me to be, so why should I cover it up and hide it. I’m comfortable with how God made me and who he created me to be. I listen to this song by Casting Crowns and it just makes me think of exactly what Brian was talking about yesterday. We need to take the masks off so we can be more Christ like and become closer to those we come in contact with, at church, work, school or wherever it may be.

From November 2006:
Stained Glass Masquerade
by: Casting Crowns

Is there anyone that fails
Is there anyone that falls
Am I the only one in church today feelin’ so small

Cause when I take a look around
Everybody seems so strong
I know they’ll soon discover
That I don’t belong

So I tuck it all away, like everything’s okay
If I make them all believe it, maybe I’ll believe it too
So with a painted grin, I play the heart again
So everyone will see me the way that I see them

Are we happy plastic people
Under shiny plastic steeples
With walls around our weakness
And smiles to hide our pain
But if the invitation’s open
To every heart that has been broken
Maybe then we close the curtain
On our stained glass masquerade

Is there anyone who’s been there
Are there any hands to raise
Am I the only one who’s traded
In the altar for a stage

The performance is convincing
And we know every line by heart
Only when no one is watching
Can we really fall apart

But would it set me free
If I dared to let you see
The truth behind the person
That you imagine me to be

Would your arms be open
Or would you walk away
Would the love of Jesus
Be enough to make you stay

I was listening to this song today on the way to work and I always sing along with it but never really listened to the lyrics. It’s a powerful message and all too real. I don’t know about you, but there are many times that I’ve felt like this, just wanting to hide how I feel and putting on a good face for everyone. Putting on this act is just what the song says a “masquerade”, you put on a mask to cover your true feelings and in doing that you never really let anyone in. On the flip side, we are so used to people asking how we are out of a basic courtesy but not truly meaning it so we just say “good” and both go on our way…this has taught us to keep our feelings inside and hide them. We think to ourselves, “They don’t want to actually know how we feel, so why tell them. We might scare them off.” For me, it’s not that, okay maybe sometimes, but mainly its just the fact that I don’t want to burden anyone. But that’s why we have family, friends, and brothers and sisters in Christ. They are there for us no matter what and let us know we can be ourself and take off the mask. Are you the type of friend whose friends know they don’t need to wear a mask around you? I think I am and I hope my friends know they don’t need any kind of mask around me, ever! We need to get off the stage, put up the masks and just be ourselves.

Yesterday at church (Encounter) Brian talked about our “passion groove”. For those of you who may not know what he is referring to, it’s what gets you going, what gets your blood flowing and gets you out of bed in the morning. There is a groove on a record that the needle from the record player fits right into and that is the records “groove”. God has created a passion for each one of us and we are created to fit right into that passion, whatever it may be. That is our passion groove. We may not know what it is right now but usually, as Brian said, we will find it when we are put into a situation that brings on heat and/or pressure. You can ask yourself…if I were to give up my life to God and say you have control over it…..if there were nothing holding you back, what would you do, where would you be? That would be your passion. If you had this amazing career with a six figure income, but gave it up and to do what your passionate about, that would be your passion groove. I was talking to someone after church and we got onto the subject of our jobs and she said to me “your job must be what your passion groove is, I don’t see how you could do it if it weren’t.” You know, it’s not…ya I love what I do and I am passionate about working with the kids I work with, but it’s not my passion groove, it’s not what my passion is. I could walk away from it and would be just fine. Now I think the part that is my passion is the part of helping people. I think if I were to give my life to God fully and nothing was holding me back, I might be in a third world country doing medical missions. But there are so many things holding me back from doing that and I just don’t feel led to do it right now. I think it might take me a while to truly find my passion groove. What do you think your passion groove is, what are you most passionate about and would give everything up for?

To listen to the full message (which is a good one) click here