Suturing Lessons

Recently, the Wornock family of Downtown Church hosted Heather and Kristina along with another Downtown Church member and friend, Cassie Ganus, at their home for an unusual meeting.  Dr. Wornock taught the new RNs and missionaries-to-be to suture, a skill that was not taught in nursing school but might be useful for future life in Africa.

Heather and Kristina were taught about suture supplies and materials, and the group discussed what kinds of substitutions could be made for typical materials when resources are limited.  Then the new nurses learned proper suturing techniques and wound treatment.  Heather and Kristina used expired suture brought from Dr Wornock’s clinic and they practiced suturing on pig’s feet that they bought at Sexton’s grocery.

Kristina got quite a look (as a pregnant woman) from the checkout person in the grocery line when she was buying three packages of pig’s feet, “They probably thought it was some wierd pregnancy craving,” she said.  Dr Wornock made various cuts in the pig’s feet with a scapel and oversaw Kristina and Heather as they sewed the “wounds” back up.  The girls practiced sewing straight lacerations as well as flaps and deep cuts.

The team is greatful to Dr Wornock for sharing his expertise and to the Wornock family for bearing the smell of pig’s feet in their home for the morning.  There are many skilled and gifted individuals at Downtown who have shared their gifts with the team in order to enrich our future ministry.  If you have a skill or an area of expertise that could help out the Makonde team, please contact one of us through our website www.makondeteam.com or in person.  We want to learn as much from the Downtown family as we can before we leave in Septermber, and we believe that our church body is loaded with talent and skill that could enrich God’s mission that we are involved in.  In sharing these things with eachother, we truly work as the body of Christ to spread the Kingdom of God in our world.

Collecting Little Truths

I can see the top from here, I think to myself.  Racing up the boulder strewn slope, hand over hand, I try to follow the red trail markers and keep from slipping.  Lurching from one stone to the other the tin cups in my backpack “tink” “tink” against each other and my excitement grows.  I smile because they remind me of the miniature stove, the pot, and the gallon of spiced cider stowed away next to them.  I can’t wait to see the looks on their faces when the team reaches the top and I am already there to greet them with a steaming pot of hot spice cider.  It is a brisk October Saturday afternoon and I know that the sweat from the climb will turn to a chill once we reach the cool winds at the top; that hot cider is really going to score me some points.  I know they are going to think I am great.

Our team had church together the next morning.  Amidst the scones, hot coffee, warm cappuccino-chocolate-chip muffins (my favorite), and scrambled eggs, we listened, as a community, to what God is telling us through Philippians 2:1-11.  I, along with the rest of the team, wrote out the scripture by hand, then rewrote it in my own words (to practice telling others the meaning of the scripture), and came up with ‘I will’ statements that stem from the text.   I munched down on a warm buttered cappuccino-chocolate-chip muffin and rewrote out the section that goes,

“Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves.” Philippians 2:3

That verse haunted me with the memory of my intent the day before. I had served with selfish ambition. I raced to the top not so that others would be blessed but so that I would be lifted up. “But this was such a small insignificant case,” I was tempted to think.  After getting more coffee, I wrote down in my ‘I will’ statements section, “I will serve others not out of a desire for them to view me as better, but I will in my mind consider them better than myself.” Even though this felt insignificant in the big picture, it was a helpful reminder to me that serving must to come from both my actions and motives.

As we make preparations to move to Tanzania and serve there I find myself collecting little truths like this in hopes that they will shape the way I act and live in Makonde land.  If you have any thoughts or other nuggets of truth you have found along your way we would love for you to share them with us.  Feel free to comment or email us those little truths that shape the way you live.  Every bit helps!

Caleb M.

Cappuccino (chocolate chip) Muffins:

2 cups flour

¾ cup sugar

2 ½ tsp baking powder

2 tsp espresso coffee powder

½ tsp salt

½ tsp cinnamon

1 cup milk

½ cup butter, melted and cooled

1 egg, slightly beaten

1 tsp vanilla

¾ cup chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Mix dry ingredients. Form a well in center and add liquid ingredients til moist. Pour into well-greased muffin pan.

 

Makes 12 regular size muffins.