Container

Another container arrived today on the ship. Its a big day for the deck department to empty the 40 ft long box holding supplies. I'm sitting here in midship while watching all the rain-soaked deckies carry boxes into the galley with food from The Netherlands. We will also have several boxes from Texas of supplies for the hospital. I look forward to many packages my family send me via container- it takes a couple months to get to the ship, but its free for me to receive. Just typing about the container, makes me think of one of my favorite passages in the Message. 

2 Timothy 2:20-21 "In a well-furnished kitchen there are not only crystal goblets and silver platters, but waste cans and compost buckets—some containers used to serve fine meals, others to take out the garbage. Become the kind of container God can use to present any and every kind of gift to his guests for their blessing."

This passage encouraged me this past week when I asked to do another job in the hospital for five weeks. I love being an operating room nurse. That is why I am here, but I am also here to be any container for God. In the OR we are overstaffed in nurses due to the number of surgeons we have working now. In the ward, numbers are low, so they needed a nurse to help in Admissions for awhile. I loved doing triage in Guatemala and doing histories at screening day, so it will be a neat opportunity to admit patients to the Africa Mercy. I will miss my job and my family in the OR, but it will neat to refresh some nursing skills and interact more with the people of Benin. This is only temporary and then I will be ready to get back in the OR!