Time

(Nate, thank you! :-)
Time is an interesting phenomenon. It is something we love and we hate. In Transcultral Nursing we learn to evaluate how different cultures evaluate time. A culture can be past, present, or future oriented. In the United States we are very future oriented. Always moving thinking about the next thing that needs to be done and planning for our futures. In other cultures, such as the Native Americans, Latin Americans, and African peoples, are very present oriented. They are concerned with what is happening right now. If you have a meeting that is supposed to start in 10min but you are holding a conversation with a good friend the meeting will start when you are done with the conversation over an hour later. Then there are some cultures, mainly rural tribes like in the jungles of the world, that are past oriented. Things are done in accordance with tradition, the way they have been done for hundreds of years. India has a bit of all three time orientations. The major cities are future oriented like us but the more rural places tend to be present/past oriented. In nursing we think about these things when dealing with cultures so we can plan medication/testing schedules and how a people group will comply with appointment times.

I have been thinking a lot about time. The present for me is very busy because school lets out in less then two weeks. Everything is winding down and yet speeding up as finals approach. The future is very bright. In 16 days I will be getting read to board a 14.5 hour flight to Delhi, India for three weeks. Then June 1, two weeks after I return from India, I start my summer internship for 8 weeks. Then I go back to school a month early for RA training. *breath* WOW.

Last but certainly not least the past. I was thinking today how when I started planning in October I never thought the trip would come this fast. For that matter I never thought my junior year of college would be ending this fast. I was driving with a friend the other day and we were talking/rem incising about high school. It dawned on me that four years ago at this time I was preparing for a missions trip with my high school youth group to Taipei, Taiwan (an island of the southern tip of China). Junior years must be good years for missions trips! It was a trip that stretched me way outside of my comfort zone. There was so much I could not control and so much that I did not know. That scared me. I enjoyed it but at the end I wasn't sure I ever wanted to do something like that again. In fact the next year when my youth group went back I did not join them. Looking back it was one of the best experiences I could have had. I would never have even considered a trip like the one I am about to take without my time in Taiwan. Now here I am four years later preparing yet again to go on the other side of the world and feeling even less prepared then I did then. With all the excitement that is growing for this trip, the nervousness is growing as well. Yet I know my faith in God is stronger and that He has brought everything together perfectly. Please pray that I keep a willing and open mind/heart. because I know with that there is no telling what can/will happen.



"With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day." ~2 Peter 3:8



P.S. Three weeks after being admitted to the PICU and one week before he is scheduled for heart surgery Stellan broke his SVT for over 24 hours. He got moved to a step down unit and could go home early next week!!!!



"He has RISEN!! He has risen indeed!"