The Home Stretch

I can't believe it's almost been one year since I began my CPE Residency journey. I've made it to the home stretch, one week to go. Hopefully then I will have and make time to blog again. It's been quite the journey. I'm exhausted, excited, sad, and thrilled to be finishing up. I promised God one year of residency, now I'm wondering what HE has for me next. Soon I'll know, or at least continue on this journey that's ahead of me.

Summer Fun

Chris and I recently returned from the Dominican Republic where we celebrated our 6th anniversary (1 week early) and also celebrated our friend's Jason and Stephani's wedding on June 10, 2011.
It was a beautiful beach wedding in Puerto Plata, DR. It was a fun week of gathering with old college friends, telling stories, laughing, lounging, and simply having a good time. While we were there we went to the 27 Falls National Park, and hiked up to the top of the falls and then jumped and slided down to the bottom. It was so much fun!! Definitely one of the ways I love to vacation.

While we were there we also got to meet up with our friend Jessica Ensing, who is now teaching English at a Christian School in Jarabaoca, DR. The picture below was taken at Jimenoa Falls 2. We had a great time meeting up with Jess and learning about the many awesome things God is doing in her life. I feel like it's rare that I get the chance to see how God has been at work in the lives of my former youth group students as they have gone off to college, graduated, and taken new adventures in their lives. I am blessed to continue to have Jessica in my life and see how God is using her to touch the lives of others.
It was definitely an adventure for Chris and I to get to Jarabaoca to see Jess. It was a 2.5 hour bus and taxi ride from Puerto Plata, and our Spanish was a bit rusty! But thankfully we made it and felt like we really got a chance to see the country side of the Dominican Republic... something we didn't really get to see while staying in Puerto Plata.

All in all we had a fun adventure together. It was the first time we had left Malia with her Grandma Nelson, and Great grandma Yuriko, but even she had a fun mini vacation at home without mom and dad. It was great to get away, but we sure missed Malia!

So now we are home. No major trips planned for the remainder of the summer. I have two months left of my CPE residency so I continue to pray that God will keep me going strong so I can finish well. It's been a crazy but rewarding year in many ways. Obviously I have not blogged much about it... hmmm... between motherhood, and full time work, it has been a tough year. God has given me a lot of insight as to the direction of ministy He is calling me, and I've learned a lot about myself in the process. But I'll save those thoughts for another day!

CPE Residency

I am officially a Chaplain Resident at the Penrose - St. Francis Health System. That means I'm a chaplain at Penrose Hospital (pictured below) and at St. Francis Medical Center. So far my first week of work has been filled with orientation and lots of technical things that come with training in a new facility. Next week I will be on rotations and able to visit with patients again, which I am very excited about!

Beginning this new job has been both exciting and somewhat sad. Exciting because it's a ministry that I love, but sad because I no longer spend my days playing with Malia. Thankfully we are all adjusting to this new time. Malia has done amazing at our friend Bridget's house (she spends four days a week there) and she had a great first day at the Hope Academy Montessori School (one day a week). When I picked her up from Hope Academy the teacher told me she did great and was so happy throughout the day. Before we left she was already making new friends and sharing the book she had in front of her with another little kid. The picture below is Malia sitting at the table in her little chair.

I definitely had a much harder time leaving her at the school than she had with us leaving. When we left she was already climbing on the stair structure and exploring the new things around her. Although she's doing great, I think it will still take her a little time to fully adjust. In September my rotation time is from 1:00pm - 9:30pm at St. Francis Medical Center, so I'm thankful that I will be able to spend the mornings with Malia, but sad that I won't be home for her bedtime. Chris has already said they will come eat at the hospital cafeteria with me for dinner some evenings! So I'm already looking forward to those evenings.

I really feel blessed to be starting this year of residency. I know there will be tough moments both in the ministry and in adjustments to my home life, but I feel confident that this is where God desires me to be. I am thankful for all He has done to get me this far, and pray He will continue to strengthen me, lead me, and even carry me in my weaknesses. I know God will show me amazing things during this year of residency.

CPE Graduation Day

Today was my graduation day from the CPE program at Arcadia Methodist Hospital! It's been a long eleven weeks, but a good experience. At the beginning of the internship I never thought I would see the end of it, but the day has finally come! I will miss my group tremendously, and the many people I met at the hospital both patients and staff who have touch my life and changed me forever. I don't know where God will lead me next, but I wouldn't be surprised to find myself one day back in a hospital being a light that shines for God in the midst of suffering. I loved my experience and I'm thankful that I had the opportunity to learn what it means to minister in the hospital. 

The picture above is the walkway leading to the back entrance of the hospital. I walked this path many times! I love the cross on the top of the building, and this was the best picture I could get of it!

This is the hospital chapel decorated with beautiful flowers just before our graduation!

The stained glass with a mural of the tree of life. The alter with the cross and six pots of columbine flowers representing the growth which took place in each of the six students over the course of the internship. 

This is a picture of my group! Our supervisor was not in the room when we took this picture so Rev. Amy is missing from the photo. From left to right: Bob, Gihun, Robin, Angela, Debbie, and me! This was the best group to work with and grow with over the past quarter. I will miss them. 

The Quietest On-Call Night

Thank you to everyone who has been praying for my on-call nights to be quiet! Yesterday and last night were the quietest on-call times I've experienced! God was so good to let me sleep all last night. I woke up this morning so very happy!! 

Last Sunday I was on-call too, but sadly it was a difficult day and I had to deal with the worst situation ever. I won't go into details to spare  you and myself because it wasn't fun. But I am glad to have experienced it because it gave me a picture of the larger ministry of a chaplain. After Sunday I was ready to throw in the towel and quit, but Monday rolled around and I had probably one of the best days ever at the hospital. So I realized that I promised God I wouldn't make any life changing decisions regarding Chaplain ministry until I have completed the CPE program... and then continue to discern for a while after. So I haven't given up on this ministry. There is a great need for chaplains, and I love what I do in the hospital, even though there are things I wish no one ever had to deal with. But that's life, and God still calls us to minister in those difficult situations. 

So I now have two more weeks until I graduate the program. Thanks for your prayers this far friends! My experience although challenging and terrible at times has been amazing. God has opened my eyes to something new and I'm not quite ready for it to completely end. So we'll see how God calls me into ministry!

At The Half Way With CPE

So I've completed half of my internship as a chaplain now, and the past 6 weeks have been quite the journey. While I very much enjoy the ministry I'm doing in the hospital, I have to say... when it rains it pours! When I'm on-call I get worked! Yesterday was my first weekend on call, and I spent a total of 8 hours at the hospital. After having spent 5 hours in the morning helping a family with a viewing I was able to go home for about an hour and a half before getting paged back to the hospital. On my drive to the hospital I received another page from the hospital this time from the Emergency Department. So I say... when it rains it pours because I seem to get paged in waves. Things seem to happen in twos even though I can only be in one place at a time. Thankfully everything worked out! I have a great supervisor who welcomes calls at any hour when we need help! So she made some calls and was able to help take care of one of the situations, while I spent time with a family at the Emergency Department. 

I have another 5 weeks of this internship, and God has continually given me the strength to carry on when things seem so difficult. I really like working as a chaplain, but I'm still not certain if this is something I want to do with my life. I do feel like God could be calling me in that direction, but for now I'll take it one day at a time and finish this internship before I make any decisions! 

There are definitely things I dislike about this type of ministry... 1) I don't like waking up in the middle of the night to go into the hospital, 2) I don't like getting called back to the hospital when I just pulled out of the parking lot, and 3) There are simply some situations that no one really wants to have to deal with. (But I still do it)

But regardless of those things there are still plenty of things that I love about this ministry... 1) the smiles on peoples faces when they look at me in the midst of their dying and tell me they are going to see Jesus, 2) The joy I hear in people's voices when they tell me they feel like God is with them, and 3) The feeling I get inside knowing that even in the pain and suffering I see glimpses of God's beauty in the hospital. 

If you think of me... please pray for discernment as I approach the last 5 weeks of this internship. And also that God would continue to strengthen me in this ministry. 

I survived my night on call.

Okay so last night was not the quiet night I was hoping for. I did get called back to the hospital around 1:40 a.m. and I'm happy to say I know I can wake up, get ready, and be at the hospital bedside in thirty minutes! Of course it does help that no one is really on the road at that time in the morning! 

So I survived being on call, but between yesterdays events and last nights, it was a rather rough day. Although I'm happy to be with families and help them find comfort in painful situations... I don't really like being called in during the middle of the night. I'm sure most people would agree it's not too pleasant being waken from your sleep. So I'm thankful that I'm only on call once a week! 

Today is a new day! And Saturday! Yay!! Even though it's grey and rainy outside, I'm happy to have the day off to rest. I love my weekends! 

On Call...

Okay so I can't actually put a picture with this post because Chris has the camera for the week while he's out of town. But if you'd like to see the hospital I'm interning at the link is: http://www.methodisthospital.org/

I know that's not as exciting as a picture but feel free to look. 

So Clinical Pastoral Education (CPE) has been quite the experience so far. Tonight is my second night on call, and so far the first that I have actually been called back into the hospital. It's tough work being with families who are suffering and going through painful experiences and even loss. Every day I process the things I'm doing in the hospital and ask God to give me the strength to respond during crisis, and the heart to carry another persons pain but also the freedom to release that pain to God and not carry it with me. That has been difficult, but I'm working on it. 

I feel very blessed to be welcomed into the lives of some of the families I have encountered. And I feel that even in the midst of suffering I can see glimpses of God's goodness. There's so much I don't understand about pain, and suffering, and death, and I don't think I will ever fully understand it. But I know and I believe that God is good, and that even in suffering He is present. Even in the silent moments He is there. 

This internship is really helping me to determine if God could be calling me into a chaplain ministry. And right now I'm still uncertain. But I'm fully committed to this ministry for the next 8 weeks, and right now it's one day at a time. After this internship is over I'll reassess and ask God to continue to guide me in the discernment process. If you feel led, please pray for me during this time. I know God is stretching me and teaching me in a number of ways. In the meantime... Please pray I can get a good nights rest and not get called back to the hospital tonight! 

Clinical Pastoral Education (CPE)

This week I began my internship as a Chaplain at Methodist Hospital of Southern California in Arcadia. It has been quite the week of orientation, and I still have one week to go... which I am so thankful for! The first few days of orientation were pretty intense, packed with a lot of information and also a visit to the hospital morgue. It was a little overwhelming, but I know the Lord will give me the strength to minister in this setting to patients and families experiencing crisis. I think this internship will be one of the most challenging things I have done for my degree program, but I'm excited to be learning in this environment. Below are pictures of my first two days at work! I'll probably be posting more on my CPE over the next 10 weeks until I'm finished. 

Please pray for God's strength, grace, and protection over me and the baby as I continue to work at the hospital. I have my first on call next week and I'm a little anxious about that! Blessings to you all!