Posted: 8/12/05

Bead making offers Kenyan women livelihood

By Brittany Burcham

Baylor University

Pulling into the driveway of the Kazuri beads factory in Kenya, members of a women’s leadership team from Baylor University began to count their shillings and think about gifts for friends and relatives at home.

Initially, the students were dismayed when told they could not bargain the prices. After seeing where the money was going, they wouldn’t want to bargain.

The Kazuri beads business was founded in 1975 by Lady Susan Wood. Wood started with two African women, but soon, more women joined the workshop. Experimenting in making handmade beads, the workers are mostly single mothers from the villages around Nairobi.

Kazuri, which means “small and beautiful” in Swahili, has since grown into a competitive business that sells its beads worldwide.

In the brightly lit bead-making factory, about 100 women sat at various tables working. The room was large and on the left side were huge ovens and fiery pots. Modestly dressed in skirts and head wraps, the women stared at the work before them. With nimble hands, they created works of art.

The students stood amazed at the working women’s craftsmanship. The first table was filled with women mumbling quietly as they carefully molded clay into various shapes. Beads took the form of long, flat circles, small squares and other various shapes, each one intricately crafted. The speed at which these women worked allowed us to see them make one, two then three individual beads in a matter of minutes.

The women gladly allowed the group to take photos of them at work, smiling for the cameras between beads.

“It’s amazing that these women are able to craft these beautiful beads from clay and mud with their hands,” said senior Amy Din.

The guide told the students that after the women craft them, the beads are heated to 1,060 Celsius and hardened. At this point, every indention is permanent. Because the women are so careful in their design, flaws are rare, and individual details give personality to their work.

After the clay beads are baked in the industrial-size ovens, they are sent to another table to be painted.

Students watched as the workers turned beige clay into beautiful, colored art. Turquoise and pink, purple with green spots, red with black circles; every color and design was being carefully painted onto the clay. Each bead was individually painted, intricately designed to be unique.

“I’ve never bought anything that was all homemade. It was neat to see what I was buying being made,” said senior Liz Aldrige.

Making the beads into jewelry is the next step. A table of older women took fishing wire and added large and small beads of various sizes and colors. The workers allowed some team members to try their hands at stringing beads onto a necklace. What would take about three hours for a student to do, the workers could do in 10 minutes.

Seeing the process of the beads being made and interacting with the workers, the team was excited to be a part of supporting the company by visiting the gift shop. For an hour or so, the Baylor students squealed over pottery shaped like their college mascot, modeled necklaces in the mirror and gathered gifts for their mothers, grandmothers and friends.

In addition to jewelry, the store contained pottery, hand-beaded sandals, purses and various other bric-a-brac.

Although the prices were more than many wanted to pay, the students knew where the money is going. A bracelet took on new meaning when helping the women who created it.

“There’s a story behind it, so it makes it more special,” said recent graduate Jordan Willmann. “It’s not a normal necklace you can get anywhere; it has a purpose.”

Knowing that they were helping Kenyan women have a better life made money seem inconsequential.

“It’s a good souvenir because you see the process and the money is going to the women.” said recent graduate Kacee Surratt, a member of the women’s team. “You’re willing to pay more.”

For more information on Kazuri, visit www.kazuribeads.co.uk/

Posted: 8/12/05

Baylor choir sings at
Kenyan graduation ceremony

By Stephen Kim

Baylor University

American students aren’t used to seeing parents rushing toward their children to congratulate them in the midst of a graduation ceremony, but that’s what a Baylor University student missions group witnessed at Africa Nazarene University in Nairobi, Kenya.

Proud parents were spread along the periphery of the outdoor ceremony beneath white tents. One by one, the 98 graduates of the 2005 class received their diplomas as well as a big hug from family and friends who dashed across the grass confirming their support for the new graduate.

The event afforded the Baylor University Men’s Choir an opportunity not only to participate in the graduation festivities, but also take in a graduation ceremony unlike any typically found in America.

“It is nice to see parents dashing from their seats to meet their kid right after they received their diploma. I am used to seeing graduation ceremonies that are more formal than celebratory,” junior choir member Bryan Smith said.

Sophomore Landon Gilmore said, “The drum rolls that were done after each graduate was announced added a twist to the ceremony.”

Graduate student Eric Mathis added, “The camaraderie was really evident when parents would applaud the graduates who weren’t a member of their family or a friend.”

Choir members felt honored to be invited to perform at the ceremony.

“It was a unique experience for me to perform in front of an international audience for the first time in my life,” Smith said.

Sophomore Brian Arnold said “Being able to perform in their graduation ceremony was quite an honor being that they had never seen or heard us perform.”.

The men’s choir performed three songs—“Praise His Holy Name,” “Swing Down Chariot” and “The Word Was God.”

“I felt the audience really liked our performance of, ‘The Word Was God’ because it had a bit of a Kenyan flair to it,” sophomore James Kimmel said.

Baylor was not the only university to represent the United States. Southern Nazarene University, located in Oklahoma, also participated in the graduation ceremony, joining the choir from African Nazarene University.

“To see two different sets of choirs, especially with one from Kenya, perform so well together was quite a treat,” junior Stephen Magyar said.

Baylor Men’s Choir Director Randall Bradley, and his counterpart from Southern Nazarene University, Phillip Miller, knew each other from attending Oklahoma Baptist University more than a decade ago, but they were not aware they would run into each other during the ceremony.

“I knew Dr. Miller because I was a student at Oklahoma Baptist when he was the president of the choir there in 1994. It certainly goes to show that it’s a small world after all,” Bradley said.

Posted: 8/12/05

Students install solar lighting
system for Kenyan deaf school

By Courtney Schultz

Baylor University

A banner hung outside a small, brick-framed school building in Oyugis, Kenya, welcoming engineering and deaf education students from Baylor University to the Kenyan School for the Deaf.

In front of the school, deaf students lined up from youngest to oldest—the young children wearing new school uniforms provided by Baylor—to greet the team, part of the university’s Africa ’05 missions group.

As the Baylor students worked their way through the line to meet the school’s faculty, the last two people they encountered were Charles Okello, a native Kenyan, and his wife, Gloria Okello, a missionary from the Philippines. The couple runs the school in Oyugis, as well as a special education school in Nairobi. He travels between the two schools, serving as superintendent.

In 1997, his wife came to Kenya to investigate the Oyugis School, which had not yet opened. That’s when the couple first met.

When she returned in 1998, the two married and became partners in the school project. The school opened in 2000, and since then, Gloria has gone from “five-star hotels, to sleeping under the stars,” she says.

After pictures and greetings, the two teams split to start their work. The engineering team entered the three-room schoolhouse, which serves as a dining room, classroom and sleeping quarters, to assess the job ahead. The Okellos had asked the team to prepare a solar lighting system, which would power reading and night lights and a new lap top computer.

The school building is small and has no running water or electricity. Walls are covered in white paint that has turned a smoky yellow from the propane-fueled lanterns used each night for cooking and reading. Running along the edge of the walls, strips of blue paint are slowly chipping away.

Chickens run in and out of the kitchen to their egg laying spot under the kitchen table, clucking at the team as they passed through the doorway. Wires hang out of the wall from previous attempts to provide electricity to the school.

From the front entrance, one can see the backyard, which holds a kitchen made of tin, outhouses and angry guard dogs. When the teams were there, in the back, the children were busy working on their daily chores. Chores include collecting rain water for drinking and washing, cleaning the house, cooking the gruel for each of their three meals and taking the clothes a mile down the road to wash in the river.

Older children are put in charge of the younger children with tasks such as sponge bathing them in the primitive, closet-like shower, pulling the mats out at night for the children to sleep on the floors and helping them with their nightly reading sessions. They also wait up at night for the propane lantern to burn out, making sure a fire doesn’t start.

In the small, tin-clad school room just to the side of the school house, the children welcome their visitors with a song. “Welcome visitors, welcome visitors, we love you,” they signed to the Deaf Education team sitting on the splintering wooden benches.

As deaf education and engineering team members went to work, reactions were all the same. The children and teachers showed smiles, grunts and tears of joy as they finally got much-needed help.

Posted: 8/12/05

Students defy smoke, lack of
supplies to learn English

By Stephen Kim

Baylor University

As smoke from a nearby oven wafted through their classroom, 5-year-old students at the Xcel School in the Kibera slums of Nairobi, Kenya, took their first steps toward mastery of the English language.

The 30 students attend class in the same room as the school kitchen. For nearly eight hours a day, the children try to learn a new language while hearing the ringing of pots and pans in the kitchen located less than 10 feet from the table they all share.

For students at Xcel, learning must be done where resources and comfort are at a premium.

Members of the education team from Baylor University’s Africa ’05 program visited the Xcel School as a way to see how an impoverished school in Kenya compare with a typical American school.

“For one hour, I was able to watch a class of 5-year-old kids beginning to learn the English language,” senior Kali Pomykal said.

Among the most noticeable aspects of Xcel was the lack of supplies deemed essential in the United States, she noted.

Senior Kristen Love said, “I was surprised to see that 5-year-old kids are in a classroom where they are exposed to a lot of smoke and other possible health hazards by having class next to the kitchen.”

All of the school’s nearly 150 students live in Kibera, the largest slum in East Africa, with more than 700,000 inhabitants. Students as young as 3 years old and as old as 15 years old attend Xcel.

Xcel is used primarily as a school, but it also plays a role as a haven of sorts to keep children away from the perils of life that negatively affect Kibera, such as gang activity and sexual promiscuity.

“We often allow a local football team to use our field to play games and practice because we know it’s a good tool to get them away from bad influences that have hurt many young people in Kibera,” school leader Vincent Odrol said.

Like many schools in Kenya, Xcel is a year-round school that has breaks during August, December and April. Even when the school is on break, Xcel serves the Kibera community.

“Many of our students have very little to eat and most of what they eat is from school, therefore we cannot close our doors completely when school is not in session. Even during the holiday breaks, students come by our school to eat meals,” Odrol said.

Xcel also hosts an art studio and hair salon. The studio allows 17-year-old Jay Wanderer, a former student, to create vivid oil paintings depicting the Maasai, a tribal group in Kenya known for their bright red wraps and colorful beads. The hair salon is used as a vocational school of sorts to help train aspiring hairdressers.

“Xcel allows me to work, as well as display my art work, which I rely on for a living. I hope to someday take art classes to further develop,” Wanderer said.

The Baylor education team bought pencils with erasers, pencil sharpeners and other school supplies to meet needs that they felt were essential to a decent education.

“We went to Nakumatt and bought school supplies because we didn’t think it was right that the students didn’t have the mandatory supplies that we are used to having,” said Love.

Posted: 8/12/05

Missions veteran gathered Baylor
School of Nursing team for Kenya trim

By Amanda Sawyer

Baylor University

Linda Garner understands the importance of missions education. Missions leaders instilled it in her as a child growing up in a Baptist church, and she wants to pass it on to a rising generation of students at the Baylor School of Nursing.

In 30 years, she has served as a medical missionary in India, journeyed to Romania, Kenya, Tanzania, Russia, Gaza and Macedonia, as well as making annual trips to a clinic in Juarez, Mexico.

Through each trip, she has influenced the medical system of the country she visited by teaching modern medical techniques to nurses and helping the poor.

Through every act of service, she has placed her fingerprint on the world of international medicine. She incorporates this in her method of teaching, passing on the spirit to her nursing students. She urges them to impact their community with their medical skills and abilities both in and out of the classroom.

“I have just tried to help others do the best with what they have,” Garner said. “But they do not have a lot.”

Garner, a member of Wilshire Baptist Church in Dallas, noticed an ad for the Africa ’05 Baylor University mission trip to Kenya in the packet of faculty information given out at the beginning of the year and contacted Steve Graves, then director of missions for Baylor’s university ministries.

She assembled a group of four nursing students to work with 10 pre-medicine students for the trip and gave them a vision for a unified team set on leaving a mark.

“When I heard about this opportunity, I knew there was no way I could pass it up,” said Brendi Poe, a freshman pre-med student who wants to be a medical missionary.

Sarah Brasington served as the spiritual leader for the group by leading prayer for their future trip across the Atlantic Ocean. This was as far as she could take the girls and wished she could make the trip, too. “It was a joy to bring the ladies together so they could get to know each other and share why they were going on the trip,” Brasington said.

All hopes and fears were realized among new friends in this spiritual time, along with clinical basics to be translated to their assigned clinics. Garner also prepared the students for dealing with patients who lived in extreme poverty, those with HIV/AIDS and those who will die soon after arriving at the hospital because they waited too long to come.

Garner has worked in hospitals all over the world—many drastically different from medical facilities in the United States. But some of the learning happens outside of the clinics and hospitals, as trips through the streets where the destitute and desperately ill live show students the size of this difference.

Posted: 8/12/05

Orphanage offers hope to
HIV-infected children in Kenya

By Matthew Waller

Baylor University

From the guarded entryway to the diagnostic laboratory, the HIV-positive children of the Nyumbani orphanage outside Nairobi, Kenya, enjoy privileges millions who share their diagnosis do not. They have more toys than their dorm mothers know what to do with, and singing and dancing fill their Sunday morning worship services.

Even so, with each passing day, AIDS takes a tighter hold on their lives.

Angelo D’Agostino, a Korean War physician and surgeon turned Catholic priest, began the orphanage in 1992 after finding HIV-positive children abandoned in a hospital while he coordinated refugee relief in Kenya for the Jesuits.

Since then, his efforts have grown to include an outreach program called Lea Toto for children in Nairobi’s western slums. A village to house 1,300 orphans and their caregivers is being built well outside the city.

“People come here to see how it’s done,” volunteer Kate Fletcher, a retired teacher from the United States, told a group of visiting Baylor University students.

Fletcher described D’Agostino as “the Bill Gates of orphanages,” who can raise $20,000 in a single college campus visit, funds vital to the orphanage’s $15,000 to $20,000 monthly budget.

He sometimes inspires more volunteers than they can use. A donor from the United States even constructed a separate dormitory to accommodate volunteer overflow.

Nyumbani, coming from the Swahili word for “home” and officially registered as Children of God Relief Institute, has been no stranger to publicity.

“We’re very open,” Fletcher explained. “Our website (www.nyumbani.org) is very well-done and inviting.”

During a single weekend, college groups from Texas, South Carolina and Pennsylvania, ambassadors from Turkey and Italy, and an Australian documentary film crew visited the orphanage.

Children grow accustomed to such visitors and take them by the hand to give them a tour of the facility moments after they meet.

“It’s deep, deep, deep, and there’s water under there,” 15-year-old Martin Muchene said with his ear to the rumbling top of a well he was showing off.

Muchene seemed like a natural at giving tours of the facilities. He took his time in the fields especially, explaining how avocados would ripen, pointing out patches of corn and lettuce and explaining the differences in leaf shapes and smells.

But when a visitor asked him his age, he stopped. His smile faded, and he stared at the ground. Muchene is HIV-positive and saw another child die from complications of AIDS less than a week before.

Dealing with death has been a fact of life for these children.

“Sammy wasn’t feeling well,” Fletcher explained. She said the 6-year-old boy “sat in the sun playing with baby Isaac” before Sammy turned “cold to the touch.” One of the nurses later called for her to tell her Sammy was dying. Before the day was out, he was dead.

Fletcher said she had seen five children die in the two years she had been there.

“In the early years, we would have a death every month,” Protus Lumiti, Nyumbani’s chief manager, told the Turkish ambassador, who was visiting for the first time.

But the outlook has improved. Baby Isaac, Sammy’s playmate, has given hope to many of the children, because he had a negative HIV test recently, switching diagnosis like 70 percent of children born with HIV will when their bodies are old enough to flush out their parents’ antibodies with their own. Negative status means Isaac is eligible for adoption, Fletcher said.

With anti-retroviral therapy, recently provided for free through USAID, children have prolonged their life further than anyone ever thought possible.

Now the hospice’s progress and the children’s longer lives have let staff and volunteers focus on issues like dealing with adolescent hygiene—a challenge they welcome.

D’Agostino has also been expanding Nyumbani’s services in recent years. Its on-site diagnostic laboratory has allowed the staff to provide free HIV tests for the children, while offering medical services to the community to bring in more funds. For example, an HIV confirmatory test costs $50 and a full microbiology/parasitology test—examining blood, feces and urine in 12 different examinations—costs about $32.

In the near term, Nyumbani’s community outreach and village programs promise to help thousands of children and families suffering from AIDS.

Yet amid the progress, a reminder of the pain is found in a corner of the property, between the fields and dorm-sided quadrangle where the children live. A small cemetery marks where the dead used to be buried. White crosses amid flowery mounds read:

“Rose Gacheri: 1.9.99 – 10.5.00” and “Camela Kwok: 28.10.95 – 1.1.96”

Recent laws don’t allow burial there anymore. But Nyumbani’s staff looks to the day when they will not have to bury children at all.

Posted: 8/12/05

Nairobi street kids find refuge at center

By Amanda Sawyer

Baylor University

Baptist student missions and education team members talked excitedly as they drove out of the heart of Nairobi to the suburbs. Streets became muddy from the new rains and the bus bounced up and down, dodging as many potholes as it could.

But the real excitement came when the bus pulled onto the muddiest street of all. Out from the woods came little boys, chasing and jumping on the back of the bus. The boys’ smiles spread to the travelers in the bus, and laughter was poured out in unison as the doors opened at the final destination—Toni La Maji Street Youth Rehabilitation Center.

Founded and funded by a Catholic priest from Italy, the center is in the Langata-Rongai area of Nairobi. Its mission is to get small boys off the streets and off drugs while getting them back into school. Currently 49 boys, from 9 to 16 years old, stay on-site in dorm-like faculties.

Only open one month, the rehab center has successfully filled its rooms and is near full capacity of 63 boys. Director Richard Ngethe Gitau is in charge of helping create a file on these boys, many of who do not even know their birthday.

All of the boys have different reasons for being on the streets. Most come from Kibera slum, the second largest in Africa, and deal with addictions to glue sniffing and bang—slang for marijuana. When mothers have so many children they cannot support them all; the boys are the first to get pushed out of the home.

Girls still are valued, as they can bring goods to the family during tribal wedding traditions practiced in most of Nairobi. But when the boys are pushed out, they are left to fend for themselves on the rough streets of the city, usually forming large groups of approximately 40 boys.

These groups help rehabilitation center workers to meet many boys because once they make friends with one boy, usually he will invite them to meet the rest. This method of introduction automatically gives the worker credit and an inside help.

The Baylor students sang songs and played games with the children all afternoon, the boys not growing tired one bit. “The best part was talking with the kids and getting to know their stories,” said Crystal Sullivan.

To take a break, the students told the biblical story of Jonah and the whale through illustrations and a translator. As a result of the story, three boys became Christians.

There are two other facilities in the area, one for girls and another for boys, and they try and help as many as they can. But there is more need than capacity.

Boys must meet criteria to be accepted at the center, the most important being that they want to change and go back to school where they could have previously seen the most scorn.

“Schools in Kenya are hard on the children,” said Eric Sundene, a missionary for Spoken For and Irving Bible Church who works with the boys. “And if they are having a hard time at home too, then the boys will become discouraged and not want to go to school.”

After a long day of play, the Baylor students had reason to celebrate. In addition to the three boys who decided to become Christians, so did two social workers at Toni La Maji Center.

When asked what spurred his conversation about Jesus Christ with social worker Patrick, sophomore Joel Mendez said, “ He just looked like he needed to be loved.”

Posted: 8/12/05

Posted: 8/12/05

Baptist World Alliance Identity Statement

This is he complete text of the BWA's Identity Statement:
Message from the Centenary Congress
Baptist World Alliance
Birmingham, United Kingdom
July 2005

To all Baptist believers throughout the world with love and joy from those assembled together in Birmingham, UK, at the Centenary Congress of the BWA.

Together those Assembled:

THE HOPE OF A NEW HEAVEN AND A NEW EARTH

1. Renew our commitment to the Lord Jesus Christ, our God and Savior, our guide and friend, in the power of the Holy Spirit and we affirm our life together as a community of faith looking forward in hope to Christ’s return and God’s New Heaven and a New Earth;

OUR TRIUNE GOD

2. Believe in one eternal God who revealed Himself to us as Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

3. Rejoice that our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, revealed in the Scriptures as fully God and fully human, and whose life shows us the way of true discipleship, was crucified for us and was raised from the dead on the third day to save us from our sins;

SCRIPTURE

4. Declare that the divinely inspired Old and New Testament Scriptures have supreme authority as the written Word of God and are fully trustworthy for faith and conduct.

THE CHURCH AND THE KINGDOM

5. Believe the Christian faith is best understood and experienced within the community of God’s people called to be priests to one another, as these Scriptures are read and studied together. We thank God for all those who study God’s word and seek to put its teaching into practice individually and collectively, through congregational polity;

6. Understand our worship, mission, baptism and celebrating of the Lord’s Supper joyously witnesses to God’s great purposes in creation and redemption;

7. Believe our gathering churches, with other true Christian churches are called to be witnesses to the Kingdom of God. To that end we pray, work and hope for God’s Kingdom as we proclaim its present and coming reality;

8. Declare that through the Holy Spirit we experience interdependence with those who share this dynamic discipleship of the church as the people of God. As such, we affirm Christian marriage and family life;

9. Repent for not having prayed and worked hard enough to fulfill the prayer of Christ for the church’s unity. We commit ourselves to pray and work to further the unity of Christian believers;

10. Affirm that Believers’ Baptism by immersion is the biblical way to publicly declare discipleship for those who have repented of sin and come to personal faith in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior;

THE WORK OF CHRIST: ATONEMENT AND REDEMPTION

11. Affirm the dignity of all people, male and female, because they are created in God’s image and called to be holy. We acknowledge we are corrupted by sin, which incurs divine wrath and judgement;

12. Confess the atoning sacrifice of Christ on the cross, dying in our place, paying the price of sin and defeating evil, who by this love reconciles believers with our loving God;

STEWARDSHIP OF GOD’S CREATION

13. Proclaim our love of God’s created world and affirm our commitment to the stewardship of God’s creation.

OUR MISSION

14. Declare that God gives spiritual gifts to believers who are called to live a life of worship, service and mission. These gifts are discerned and confirmed by the believing community together.

15. Know that in the Great Commission, every believer empowered by God, is called to be a missionary, learning and sharing more of Christ that the world might believe;

RELIGIOUS FREEDOM AND JUSTICE

16. Confess that faith in Christ entails a passionate commitment to religious liberty, freedom, peace and justice;

17. Affirm that in Jesus Christ all people are equal. We oppose all forms of slavery, racism, apartheid and ethnic cleansing and so will do all in our power to address and confront these sins;

Now, at this centenary gathering these things we declare, affirm and covenant to the Lord Jesus Christ and to each other, believing the truth found in Him and revealed in the Scriptures. We, recognizing that this is a partial and incomplete confusion of faith, boldly declare that we believe the truth is found in Jesus Christ as revealed in the Holy Scriptures. Because we have faith and trust in Him so we resolve to proclaim and demonstrate that faith to all the world.

Amen and Amen. Maranatha, come, Lord Jesus, come.

Posted: 8/12/05

CBF church, Buckner building
neighborhood community center

By Lance Wallace

Buckner Communications

DALLAS – Officials at Buckner Children and Family Services and the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship-affiliated Cliff Temple Baptist Church in Oak Cliff announced plans Aug. 9 to build a community center on the church’s property just south of downtown Dallas.

A $1 million gift to Buckner from Dallas resident and Cliff Temple member Jeannette Sadler is being used to launch plans for the center, which will be called the “Cletys and Jeannette Sadler Community Center.”

Cliff Temple Pastor Glen Schmucker, a member of the CBF Coordinating Council, said the community center fulfills the “life-long dream” of Jeannette Sadler.

“Her dream for years has been to help those in our community who are less fortunate by providing both the physical facilities and the programs that help them,” Schmucker said.

Buckner President and CEO Ken Hall said the Sadler gift and the partnership with Cliff Temple Baptist Church are “answers to our prayers to be deeply involved in meeting the needs of hurting people in the Dallas community. Mrs. Sadler’s generosity in making this gift to Buckner exemplifies her commitment to others who are less fortunate.”

Initial plans call for the community center to work with other strategic partners in the community to provide crisis relief and assistance, after-school and youth programs, adult and family education, and programs for senior adults. Possible services may include health and immunization clinics, technology and job training classes, English as a Second Language (ESL) classes, food and clothing assistance, and a variety of others.

Buckner President Hall said his organization is in the process of raising additional funds for the construction of the center. According to Hall and Schmucker, specific details about the cost, size, location and programs to be offered will be determined through a community assessment survey being conducted by Buckner and the church.

Posted: 8/10/05

COMMENTARY:
Christian nurses helping people in difficult circumstances

By Sarah Stone, RN

Hendrick Health System, Abilene

My mind is crowded with pictures of nurses caring for people in physical and emotional pain .

I remember the Hospice nurse who sang along with me while I sang hymns to my dear friend, Maryanne, the day before she died.

There was the "gentle giant" male nurse who was especially careful with my father-in-law as he spent his last weeks in the oncology unit. He always took time to make sure things were just right. He was always so considerate of Daddy’s need. He also shared his faith with me when he noticed I was reading the Bible to Daddy.

I recall the nurse who asked me how I was feeling—how I was really feeling. She sat with me and talked and held my hand after I miscarried my twins (at only seventeen weeks). She told me another nurse had rocked my baby girl as she died, while I was in surgery to stop my hemorrhage. Her twin had been stillborn. After twenty-three years, I still recall the kindness of those nurses.

So I suppose I am qualified to tell how nurses give comfort and care to people who are hurting emotionally, spiritually or physically. I have been on the receiving end; I know how experiences like these prepared me to comfort others, every day. This desire to help other people is what motivated me to enter the nursing profession in the first place. Twenty-eight more years of life experiences have complemented that desire as I have grown in with maturity and empathy. Most nurses come to the profession with at least a vague idea of what nurturing and comforting the sick means. Christian nurses understand our profession is in actuality a calling, a mission, and a viable way of living out our commitment to Christ.

In reflecting on the situations when another nurse comforted me, I think of 2 Corinthians 1:3-6, which says, "Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God. For just as the sufferings of Christ flow over into our lives, so also through Christ our comfort overflows.”

As a registered nurse in Day Surgery Recovery, I meet people each day who are in some kind of health crisis. These encounters usually last only a few hours—and not every patient is going through a particularly bad time—but it affords me the opportunity to make an impact on someone else’s life. It may be in word or it may be in deed, but as a nurse, I have this opportunity.

A patient in my recovery room may be in great discomfort, in which case I can offer pain medication early and often, while following doctor’s orders. I can validate his or her pain, because sometimes a person simply needs to hear that someone else believes the pain is real. I try to encourage some of my patients by telling them I can relate to the pain they are experiencing, because I have had a similar experience. I also inform the family about the patient’s condition as soon as possible after surgery, so that they can offer support.

Someone may come out of surgery with a new diagnosis of cancer or other bad news. The best thing I can do for that patient is just listen to him voice his fears or hold his hand for awhile. A gentle touch, hand-to-hand contact, eye-to-eye communication, a soft voice—these are all important tools in sharing the comfort with which I have been comforted. The greatest comfort seems to come from knowing that someone else is sincerely concerned about you when you are hurting.

Sometimes I like to sing quietly as I go about my duties at the bedside. Many patients have commented the hymn I was humming brought them a special peace. Children especially seem comforted by a simple lullaby.

I also pray with my patients. At Hendrick Medical Center we are not only permitted, but encouraged to pray with our patients—if this is acceptable to them. Hearing someone else pray for you is very comforting. It comforts the patient to know his caregiver looks to a higher power as the source of healing, and it comforts the nurse to know that what she does is truly in God’s hands.

Nursing is an art as well as a science. It can also be a ministry. Finesse and intuition are critical elements. But I must remember that every person I encounter in my work is a unique creature of God. Not every patient would appreciate the actions I have described. Some want to keep their guard up, maintaining an emotional distance from other people, especially in areas like mine where stays are very short. Some people are at their absolute worst when sick or in pain; sometimes they are unreasonable or angry. A part of my role is to keep the peace and to determine the best way to relate uniquely to each person.

Teamwork is important! I have heard it said that the best thing a father can do for his children is to love their mother. Perhaps in a similar way, it may be that one of the best things we nurses can do for our patients is to love and care for each other—or at least have a cooperative attitude. If we support each other and strive to make our workplace atmosphere pleasant, it will be much easier for our patients to get through their hospital ordeal.

It also is important to remember we serve with a team. Even in Day Surgery, chaplains’ visits or social worker interviews assist our efforts. Whenever possible we include the family in this team; keeping them informed when they cannot physically be with the patient.

I must admit that even though I strive to be a wonderful, sweet, kind, caring, nurturing, compassionate, helpful, gentle nurse, I do not always achieve my goal or carry it out flawlessly every day! I am human! I have bad days, but I have learned the importance of courtesy and kindness—even when I do not feel like being courteous or kind. This is the essence of professionalism. Patients should receive kindness even when I am not necessarily feeling kind on the inside.

Philip Yancey says it’s much easier to act your way into feelings than to feel your way into actions. Sometimes nurses have to be actors! I may go home frustrated enough to kick my dog, but while I am on the job, I want my patients to think I had nothing to do but to pamper them. I also want to convey to them my sincerity in my caring for them, regardless of what just happened at our unit staff meeting!

By and large, nurses today have less time for dispensing TLC (tender loving care) than we have had in decades past. The amount of paperwork required today absorbs so much of our time. But if we are going to help people get through their tough times—whatever those times may be for them—then we have to find the time for each patient.

If I am hurried or behind in my paperwork, I try to keep my patients from seeing this in my face or in my actions. A patient is in a vulnerable position. He or she is dependent on me in so many ways. So each one wants my undivided attention, and not hear how busy I am. Every patient has the right to think he is the most important person on my unit. If a patient believes he has my undivided attention and I am truly concerned with every aspect of his care, it will help him get them through his tough time. If I can sit calmly at a patient’s bedside, even for a moment, make eye contact, and be gentle in my touch—even if my mind is on ten other tasks that I have to finish in the next five minutes—the patient will sense I truly care.

One of the best things I can do for any of my patients is listen to them. Listening enables me to understand and validate their feelings. When I listen to my patients I learn from them how best to help.

Christ commands us to live out our faith in daily living. That is true for everyone in every vocation, but nurses have a unique opportunity to serve people who are in some of the most vulnerable or critical moments in their lives.

The Hendrick mission statement says that we will strive “to provide high quality health services, emphasizing excellence and Christian service in all we do”. I have heard many patients say they choose us, because they sense that the people who work here really care. I am sure this is largely because so many of us are professing Christians, and we instinctively try to live out this mission.

Nurses will always be on the frontline in providing compassionate care. It is not easy to do consistently when dealing with the varieties of people we encounter every day, but I believe God uses us and works through us. In the power of his Spirit – the fruits of patience – kindness and gentleness can become expressions of our work, as much as they are descriptions of Christian character. May God grant that it always be this way.

Posted: 8/09/05

BaptistWay Bible Series for August 21

God’s power will be revealed in end-time events

• Revelation 19:11–20:10

By Wayne Smith

First Baptist Church, Lamesa

Last week’s lesson announced the destruction of Rome, the enemy of the church, and prophesied eventual destruction of all those who opposed God.

This week’s lesson studies the climactic events of history. Christ returns and reigns on earth for a thousand years. Satan is defeated and destroyed. Final judgment takes place. History ends.

The wedding of the Lamb (19:6-10)

Heaven rejoices as the church experiences glory with the Lord Jesus Christ. Believers are presented both as the bride (church) and wedding guests. John is warned against idolatry when he is told not to worship the angel who brings the message.

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The return of Christ (19:11-16)

Jesus appears dressed as a conqueror and riding a white horse. He leads the armies of heaven, likely saints and angels. He wears a white robe stained with the blood of his enemies. Jesus uses supernatural power (“a sharp sword issuing from his mouth”) to destroy his enemies.

Destruction of God’s enemies (19:17-21)

Carrion birds arrive as Christ and his army immediately win the battle of Armageddon. The beast, representing Rome and all secular power opposing the church, is captured and thrown into the lake of fire. The false prophet (the second beast, Revelation 13:11), representing false religion which forces people to worship the beast, also is captured and thrown into the lake of fire.

The 1,000-year reign of Christ (20:1-6)

Satan, conquered by a single angel, is thrown into “the abyss,” where he will be imprisoned 1,000 years. Believers who are to reign with Christ are raised in the first resurrection. The “rest of the dead,” probably unbelievers who have died, will remain in the intermediate state until the 1,000 years are over. Then they will be raised to face judgment and the “second death”—eternal separation from God. Believers will reign with Christ on the earth without the deceiving presence of Satan.

Final destruction of Satan (20:7-10)

Satan is released, leaves the abyss and rallies the nations against the Lamb. The forces of Satan are referred to as “Gog” and “Magog” (Ezekiel 38-39, Genesis 10:2). Before the battle begins, fire falls from heaven and consumes Satan’s armies. Satan is thrown into the lake of fire, along with the beast and the false prophet. Unbelievers have been given 1,000 years under the reign of Christ without the influence of Satan. Yet, they refuse to repent. When Satan appears, they rally and follow him.

The great white throne of judgment (20:11-15)

As the great white throne of judgment appears, earth and sky pass away in anticipation of the new heaven and earth. Most interpreters believe this is a general judgment of both believers and unbelievers. Two books are used—the Book of Life and a book containing a record of “what they had done” (20:12). Those who have trusted in Christ as their Savior are listed in the Book of Life. However, everyone stands before God and is judged. The verdict of judgment is either life or death.

The imagery of Christ’s return is overwhelming. Christ returning as a blood-stained conqueror is a picture of destructive force against the enemies of God. But the Christ who returned is more than a conqueror of Satan and his evil cohorts. Revelation is a word picture of God’s redeeming power and his control of history.

Since creation, God has allowed his people to suffer persecution—slavery in Egypt, captivity in Babylon and persecution by the Roman government. In every instance, he has provided a way of deliverance. The last provision for deliverance was through God’s sacrifice of his own Son for atonement.

From creation, God had a plan for protection and eventual redemption of his people. God’s plan was to send a Messiah. The Messiah was not a militant conqueror of those who persecuted God’s people, as the returning Christ is depicted in Revelation.

The incarnate God who appeared on earth as Jesus drew men to him, not by a show of militant power, but by demonstrating God’s love for his people. The faith in God fostered by receiving Jesus forms a bond between man and God that a militant figure could not. The militant returning Christ of Revelation is not the Savior men chose to follow during his earthly ministry.

Revelation presents an awesome picture of the majesty and power of God, contrasted with the total depravity and wickedness of God’s opponents (enemies). God is able to ultimately destroy not only the enemies of the church but also the source of evil itself—Satan.

But the church, sustained by its faith in God, eventually experienced God’s redemption by surrender—not by its own war against God’s enemies. When Christians surrender to the will of God, he protects and delivers them. Christ, leading God’s armies, fights their battles.

Application

The awesome power of God is revealed through end-time events. Christians need to realize the power of God to deliver us daily now from whatever holds us in bondage or persecutes us. God protects us when we surrender to him and place ourselves in his care.

Discussion question

• Do I surrender myself daily to God’s watch care?

• Do I listen for his direction?

• Do I witness to others the evidence of God’s working in my life?