Not My Writing

I want to let you in on an email conversation I had with a friend the other day. My writing is in blue, and G.Diane's writing is in red. She was a missionary for years, and continues to be "on the field" through prayer and encouragement.

This is what I wrote:
I am humbled and a bit scared because God has obviously equipped us with a support team that is greater by far than we are, because He has work to do that is greater by far than we can imagine.


G. Diane replied with this:
He has work to do that is greater than any of us.
When I first got to Africa, I was scared to death. I had worked ER, I wasn't afraid of that. I didn't know enough to be afraid of the cobras. I hardly knew they were there yet. I was afraid that I didn't have enough skills. Equipment? Forget it. Diagnostics? Surely you jest. I looked around and saw massive injuries from accidents. I've never in my life seen so much pus. I was almost covered with it constantly. Gangrene. Rotting flesh and pus draining from teeth. Parasites. Amputations from hippos...yes...hippos. Horrible mutilations from machetes and witch doctor practices. We had a WW II X-Ray machine whose appendages flopped around when you rolled it and probably made the patients glow in the dark. The ether machine was rusted shut. Person to person transfusions. Babies left under sacrificial trees to die of starvation...or worse. Burns, ooooooh, the burns from cooking fires. People going blind from Spitting Cobras spitting venom in their eyes. It just didn't quit. I was going through what every nurse goes through when she arrives in Africa, an immobilizing inadequacy. I felt so low that I had to get a step ladder to get over a cotton ball. (Don't even bother counting the "I"s in that paragraph.)

I muttered to the doctor's wife, the charge nurse over the whole hospital, that I didn't feel capable. She stopped and slowly turned toward me and asked, "G. Diane, do you know any first aide?"

"What?"

"Do you know any first aide?" Her voice was calm, patient.

"Well, yes", I stammered. "I'm an RN and I started out as an EMT on an ambulance. But this..."

"I want you to remember something, G", she said softly. "The Lord sent you here to help people and to help us. If you know anything about first aide, you know far more than they do. An aspirin is like magic to them. You will see people die every day because they are 80% dead when they come. Our mortality rate is about that. They need the best you can give before they die and that is a chance to hear about the Lord Jesus Christ. If the Lord wants you here, you will be constantly amazed at what He wants to do through you. Give it back to Him each moment of every day...get out of His way...shut up...and watch. Prepare to stand in wonder at our Lord."

I decided it wasn't about me.