Saturday, June 27, 2009

"Where is your faith?" -Jesus, Luke 8:25

Time - it never ceases to amaze me how quickly it flies. My clinical placement midterm evaluation has already come and gone! I went home for Father's day weekend and had a really good time with family and friends. (Of course there are pictures to show...just scroll down!) There was even the smallest fraction of time to visit Uncle Wing who is recovering from quadruple cardiac bypass surgery. Through the ups and downs, I am continually reminded that grace with faith that allows us to see every storm or torrent with a hope beyond immediate gratification of the flesh.

Living arrangements - Steph, my housemate for the summer, is such a beautiful girl and so kind as well. Our schedules never really quite work out so I haven't had dinner with her at home since that first time a few weeks ago. We often end up chatting at the kitchen table while watching "late" night tv :) --> n.b. "late" as in 9-10pm-ish! One thing I love about Steph is her personality. Often, when she cannot explain certain emotions, like absolute amazement or sheer frustration, she will hold up her open hands, do a little stiffened jerk and open her eyes really wide with the appropriate expression on her face. It sounds like a strange description, but I think like all the other little quirks I have picked up over the years, this is one that might stick with me ;)

The connections with people are strange and I think this one is just plain cool: Steph is a really good friend of Victoria, whom she calls 'Tori', and who is the one who runs the Kingston Epilepsy's Homework Club for which I volunteer. Steph also went to highschool with a classmate of mine, Jen, with whom I am currently paired for my clinical placement. What a small world!

Fellowship with KCCF- I have had my share of concerns for the fellowship group in Kingston, and I am sure a few of you have heard them, too. Having grown so much in the Word with UWCCF and PT in Waterloo, coming to Kingston has made me realize the strength with which the UWCCFF brothers and sisters are grounded in Scripture and doctrine. The environment of uwccf allows people to challenge with and be challenged by difficult questions, to take those questions seriously instead of immediately writing the "unanswerable" questions off to "safe" and abstract answers filled with Christian jargon. Time and again, I have felt the KCCF group lacked this environment and promoted a very superficial understanding of the Word. I have been encouraged to share this with the leadership, but have cowarded in silence many times.

Yet last night, God showed me that despite my insufficiencies, He is faithful to His children and reminded me that I am such a small piece of the puzzle; that it's His hand that moves the world. All God did was place an inquisitive heart in the group that was not shy of asking the hard questions, not rushed away from analyzing the text, and definitely not afraid of challenging conventional thinking. The Holy Spirit is alive and real, and yesterday I saw just how alive and real He is!

Investments - Thursday night, I was asked if I have a hard time loving people. Although it was the truth, I felt ashamed to say, yes, I do - I would like to present myself as someone who gets along with everyone, is kind to everyone, and who tries to love unconditionally as I am called to do. Unfortunately, it's not true. I do struggle with loving people. Despite not feeling comfortable with the brothers and sisters in kccf since last August, I think God has met me at every turn to encourage me to keep up my resolution to give more than I take in the spiritual realm. I have "taken" and "eaten" so much during my years in Waterloo and now have been handed the perfect opportunity to "give" and "feed", a calling I had heard even before I took the plunge with Women's Cell a year ago. The summer in Kingston has pretty much forced me to step into kccf due to the summer break of other fellowships I had been attending...the age old story of "I ran, but God chased me anyway!"

So I have learned (re-learned?) another important lesson: comfort, fitting in, knowing what to say - none of those are requirements for allowing God to work within you! Even though I don't play football, crack dirty jokes, break out in random song, or play settlers, my resolve for the summer is to invest in the lives of these people who I know I am to love.

Labels: Food, friends, Reflection, School, Sports

posted at 10:26 AM by Jo -

Thursday, June 04, 2009

Summer in Kingston

St. Mary's of the Lake (SMOL) Hospital Site is a rehab-focused hospital for patients emerging from acute care at Kingston General Hospital. During my clinical placement there, I am working with Jen, my classmate, and with Jenn, a physiotherapist dealing with stroke and acute brain injury in-patients. (yes there are a ton of Jenn/Jens there!) I managed to sneak a couple photos earlier this week while no one was in yet, but the photos do no justice for the size of the place.


Even though I am quite hesitant about how to handle patients, even just this first week is such an eye-opener! The patients are 'so cute' (my prof would kill me if I said that in front of her =P) and never for one minute do I get the chance to forget that these are people rather than just clients. Seeing these people and their condition puts me in awe again at the wonder of God's creation - this time not just the trees and flowers, but the intricacy of our bodies and our physiology. This week, I had the privilege of seeing a newly admitted patient who could not communicate verbally in extreme pain and has been lying in bed for the last month or so get out of his bedroom and into the physio environment, where he sat in a wheelchair, sat on the end of the bed, and even had the chance to stand. In standing, I could not help but notice the huge grin on this man's face - his eyes lit up in disbelief at what was happening, and the only thing he could mutter, over and over again, was "oh God, oh God!" Praise the Lord indeed.

There isn't much else I'm doing yet in the evenings... 'not much' as in not much homework! :) Don't worry about me, there is plenty to keep me occupied in the Spring and Summer...

Labels: friends, Nature, School

posted at 5:05 PM by Jo -