Carpe Deum

I'm telling you this starts the last few days of our time in thailand. we are leaving this saturday, so i am trying to seize each moment we have left for God. i remember one camp travis i worked at we had a t-shirt that said "carpe deum" meaning "seize God" it had phil 3:12 with it i think. that is what every last moment here is all about. it's not about us, but about Him. well, i guess we stepped up to the plate and God met us with loads of opportunities so far this week. (i'm writing this on wed. and have a lot to tell you for just these three days.) I remember Monday's clinic going really well. I had the opportunity to pray with several patients. I know Dr. Tom had a patient that day with serious kidney failure and all they could do to him was offer him eternal salvation, since he was going to be facing it soon. his BUN was 210 and his Cr was 15.5. for all of you medical folks, you know that is not good. the only answer in america is dialysis. well, like i've told you before, that doesn't work here in thailand b/c it is way too expensive, so it is more of a death sentence. so sad. oh, julie had her girl come back with the alopecia areata. she grabbed me so i could go in and say hi to the sweet little 13 year old. you would not believe it!!! two weeks ago, we injected her scalp with steroids and her hair was growing back in! we also had prayed for her that visit, so it was so awesome to share God's glory with her on Monday and show her that He did that. her entire family was there so we all rejoiced. she had even shaved off her few long strands of hair that had been left. so now she was even all the way around. before, i mentioned that she could do that if she wanted to, but if she didn't want to, i understood and she could just keep those strands of hair. i was totally impressed at her strength and how they cut them off. seriously, my dermatologist told me that usually she doesn't recommend that girls cut them off b/c somehow it makes you feel like at least you have something still. i'm glad she didn't have a problem with that attachment. it was such a joy to see her and to see her new hair!!! it was growing in so fast and the same color as before. big praise! as far as i could tell it was growing in straight. brought back exciting memories of the baby steps of joy that i. too. experienced. then mindy called me to her room, too. it seemed like everyone had great patients with special stories. i think i got to vicariously help or live through it with everyone that day. mindy said she needed me to help share my testimony. i just said, sure. as i walked in the room i asked, "which part of it?" and dr. tom heard and said, the tumor. oh, no problem. so i went in to meet an older woman with her grown adult son. mindy was counseling them b/c the mother had uterine cancer and they were tired of chemotherapy and wanted to take her off it all together and i guess were seeking advice from our clinic. the only thing, was that i have never had chemo. i told them that, but told them a little bit about my story and how i want to help people one day who have cancer. i wish you could have seen their faces tune in and smile. it was like they lit up knowing someone cared for them. that was just a touch of what i think it will feel like when people know you are at least wanting to help them. they had a very distorted idea of what chemotherapy is about. they thought it was making her cancer cells grow! no!!!! we explained the point was to do the opposite. anyway, after i left the room, mindy said the son wanted his mom to go back on chemo and they would talk about it more. the problem with that patient was that she never had surgery to remove the uterus and it was stage 3. in america they would have done surgery plus chemo. but in thailand they refused surgery b/c she had diabetes. uhh, how sad, when you know something can be done about it. what do you do? our clinic is not set up for those kinds of surgeries. so, the only thing you can do for her is pray. we did.