Blackout

I have never been so scared of the dark... until yesterday afternoon. I was scrubbed in assisting a surgeon with a mandibulectomy- removing part of the jaw bone with a tumor. We were searching for the facial artery when the power went out. Pitch black. Silence. Dr. Gary quietly insured us the emergency generator would come on as other nurses quickly came in with torches (aka flashlights).  Praise the Lord we had not cut any major vessels because the backup generator failed and we went back into blackness.  Are we going to have to evacuate with our patient? Is the bleeding stopped? What about the other patients in the OR? Does anesthesia have enough oxygen? Are we going to have to finish the surgery on the dock? We packed out patient's mouth cavity with hemostatic film and sponges as we waited for the backup generator to come back on. Thankfully, it came back on and we took a break to make sure we had full power before we continued.  Only two other patients were asleep, but surgery had not started. During that time, I learned that the officers, engineers, and electricians were running all around the ship to fix the blackout problem. Before returning to the darkened OR, I grabbed a quick bite for lunch and the dinning room staff was praying for the OR. We were able to finish the major surgery without any negative outcomes from the blackout. Praise God! Later, I found out the wards were praying and singing in the dark. The whole ship came together to support the Operating Room in this emergency. I know we depend a lot on electricity, but we also depend on prayer and support from the whole crew to do this mission as we are the body of Christ. 

1 Corinthians 12:12-27

The body is a unit, though it is made up of many parts; and though all its parts are many, they form one body. So it is with Christ. For we were all baptized by one Spirit into one body—whether Jews or Greeks, slave or free—and we were all given the one Spirit to drink. Now the body is not made up of one part but of many. If the foot should say, "Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body," it would not for that reason cease to be part of the body. And if the ear should say, "Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body," it would not for that reason cease to be part of the body. If the whole body were an eye, where would the sense of hearing be? If the whole body were an ear, where would the sense of smell be? But in fact God has arranged the parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be. If they were all one part, where would the body be? As it is, there are many parts, but one body.

 The eye cannot say to the hand, "I don't need you!" And the head cannot say to the feet, "I don't need you!" On the contrary, those parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, and the parts that we think are less honorable we treat with special honor. And the parts that are unpresentable are treated with special modesty, while our presentable parts need no special treatment. But God has combined the members of the body and has given greater honor to the parts that lacked it, so that there should be no division in the body, but that its parts should have equal concern for each other. If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it.

  vs. 27 Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it.