Tag Archives: #bigstuff2017

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Let’s wrap up camp

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I’ve been home for over a week and tonight was the first night for the Edge (our youth service). I cut off my arm band from camp a little while ago. This year we were yellow so I had a couple of people ask me at work if I was a high fall risk. (Patients that are high fall risk wear yellow armbands). I hadn’t even thought about it until I was asked and that cracked me up. The messages were great and the theme was awesome. I am reposting the take away sentence from each message which i copied from BigStuf.

>>if you can SEE different, you can BE different.>>
>>what if we saw THEM through HIM?>>
>>the best things in life require a fight>>
>>based on where I’ve been, and where I’m going, what’s the wise thing to do?>>
>>what do you think about when you think about God? Jesus reveals God as a father.>>
>>if they don’t bring out the best IN you, they’re not the best FOR you.>>
>>your life is saying something about Him.>>

The nursing side of camp was insanity. I decided this year to keep a record of how many kids came through my room. I am sure I forgot a few so I’m estimating somewhere around 55. Most of it was easy stuff, I need a band-aid, I have a headache but some of it was a lot more. The first night of camp I was awoken at two in the morning for an assessment and that should have been my clue to go straight to the airport and fly home. Totally kidding but it was a foreshadowing of the busiest camp to date. Three kids tested positive for strep throat and another kid broke his arm. I missed session six with a medical emergency. Because of HIPAA I can’t really be specific but every nurse friend was blown away that I did not rush him to the ER. However, because of my ten years of burn/icu experience I was comfortable taking care of it the way we handled it. However by missing session I got to go to small group after session. It was interesting to hear what boys had to say. They are so different from girls and it made me wish I would have had just one. But since I didn’t, it just explains why I find a boy every few years to pour into.

I did not go to the ER/urgent care with any of the kids this year. At first I thought it was because they didn’t think I was competent or something. I really need to work on my self-esteem. After the second kid, I learned it was because they didn’t want me to leave in case I needed to triage someone. So that helped my low self-esteem. I really need to get over it. After all I diagnosed all the kids correctly and no one died so it was a win-win. They plan to take a second nurse next year and a few adults to run kids for treatment if needed. This leads me to some sad news.

My roommate Lynn has been a true joy the last five years. She has been a huge blessing helping me with triage and talking to the kids. Every time someone knocked on the door we would be like now what and we would take turns getting up to answer it. She told me this was probably her last year. This was camp eighteen or nineteen for her. She said she just doesn’t feel as connected with the kids because she doesn’t understand the technology and her husband is not in the best shape medically. I was so sad for myself and for her as well. Everyone knows I hate change but at least I have a year to adjust to a new roommate or two at camp. I have finally come up with the perfect thank you gift for her. She will never really know how much I have appreciated her over the years!

 

Mole Moral ~ How different the world would be if “we saw THEM through HIM”!

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Session 4 The Wise Filter

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Jamie took over speaking for the rest of our time together. I really enjoy him and he reminds me a lot of my sister as he also talks a hundred miles a minute. Tonight’s talk was about the wise filter which made me think of something Pastor Tom has said for years “based on my current circumstances what is the wise thing to do.” Dumb decisions don’t matter until they involve things that do matter. Everyone has filters for how they make decisions. Jamie’s examples:
1. Feelings
2. Thinking
3. Wanting
4. Them
5. Boyfriend/girlfriend
6. Culture
I would venture a guess and say most of my decisions are based on thinking. I really don’t care what culture and others think except for maybe my husband. However he said none of these are worthy of your life decisions and smart people do dumb things. Therefore be very careful how you live, making the most of every opportunity because the days are evil. So he very careful how you live not as unwise but wise.
Jamie then brought a cardboard car front out on stage and sat behind it to demonstrate how to make wise decisions. When one drives he looks two directions both forwards and backwards. So one knows where to go based on where you been (looking behind) and where you are headed (looking ahead). His example from his high school days was that he was invited to two different parties. The last time he hung out with group a they were a lot of fun but they made a whole bunch of stupid decisions with tough consequences. Group b was a little boring but no bad decisions or tough consequences so he chose group b.

Mole moral ~ God’s “rules” seem restrictive and make for a boring life when they actually release you from experiencing pain from making unwise decisions.

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Session 3 The Fight filter

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The morning talk started with the comfort filter which is the best life is an easy life. That’s such an easy way to live, however it causes these issues:
1. Slow is bad (no patience for anything.
2. Hard is bad.
3. Boring is bad.
4. Risk is bad.
5. Work is bad.
By seeing the world through this filter causes you to run from the difficult, the daunting, and the dangerous. Of course I immediately start thinking of my upcoming fifty mile race in just 22 days. It most certainly fits all three categories. Difficult you bet. The training alone has been a nightmare especially in the middle of the heat wave. Running fifty plus miles a week is difficult both mentally and physically. I have to carve out huge chunks of time on the weekend to get them done. Is it daunting, you bet it is. I cannot think of it as fifty miles in twelve hours or less but more in five-mile blocks of time. Otherwise it is extremely overwhelming. Is it dangerous? You better believe it is. Without proper hydration and fuel I could easily end up in the hospital. Just moving non stop for twelve hours can be considered dangerous. Not everyone has been encouraging and I could have easily listened to them and took the comfort filter and said no way. When I had the five-week headache and had to change my race I could have also said forget it. This last month with the heat index and the mega distance, I have had to pull in every encourager into my head to move on and finish this.
So the enemy’s (Satan) goal is to make us complacent. He wants us to settle for the life we have because we become lazy, apathetic, and comfortable which keeps us from fighting. The way to get out of comfortable and into fight mode is to get off your BUT (please note the spelling).
I want to stop drinking at parties BUT all my friends are doing it and it’s fun.
I want to wait until marriage for sex BUT kissing etc feels so good.
I want to lose weight BUT exercise takes too much time and meal planning.
I want to be better mentally BUT counseling is too expensive and too hard.
Gerald concluded with the three ways to fight:
1. Be great
2. Be good (morals, character)
3. Be Godly

Mole moral~I shall run my fifty mile race knowing that God made it possible and may he shine through me.

 

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Session 2 The Us filter

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Gerald started off the talk with who is your squad, crew, homies, or friends depending on what you call them. My squad is made up of current and past women’s health homies.
Everyone has a filter to choose their friends and some examples are fun, hot, popular, or the same as you. This had me thinking back to my high-school days and what filter I used. I would have to say it was the same filter. Almost all of my friends were in band and everyone knows band kids are the best kids. I think a big factor in this was the group that went to South Africa in August of 1983 Who is this Gary Lindsay character?). That trip and all the fundraising really bonded us together.
Just as we can use filters to include we can also use them to exclude. This then sets up the us VS them scenario. Although this certainly runs rampant in middle school and high school it can also be seen in the adult world as well. In the world of nursing it can be nurse vs techs or management vs the employees.
If we change our view and see everyone as someone God made and someone Jesus died for, it would change the world. When Jesus met up with the Samaritan woman at the well and asked her to give him a drink she said you are a Jew why are you even talking to me. A perfect example of us VS them. By the time he was finished having a conversation with her, she saw him for who he really was, just as he saw her the way God made her.

Mole moral ~ What if we saw “them” through him? It certainly would be a game changer.

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From Broadcast to Filters

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On my Timehop today it popped up that nine years ago today was my very first camp. It’s so hard to believe that tonight is the start of my tenth camp. Where has the time gone?


I remember that first camp so well. I was in a room with three or four other moms. They were all heading into menopause because the room was like a meat cooler. Flash forward nine years and my room is a meat cooler and I’m in shorts and barefoot. Menopause is a nightmare.
My second year at camp I had a room with ninth grade girls. They are probably just finishing college. Again where has the time gone. My calling was not in leadership in this area and the next year I began being just the nurse.
Every camp has been awesome with some being more incredible than others. Of course broadcast my first will always be my very favorite. I’ve talked about it in the past how it was a life changer. I finally “felt” love for the first time. I knew I was loved but didn’t really feel it. Don’t worry if you think I’m speaking Chinese because I am. Ha.
And so over the years I have taken kids to urgent care and the ER for everything from strep to mono to bladder infections to dehydration. And I still worry that I won’t diagnose correctly or get symptoms wrong. My lack of self-confidence can really be annoying. I know in my head I’m good at my job, I have excellent assessment skills and my spidey sense is usually spot on. That’s the sense knowing a patient is about to crash and burn before it happens. So of course this all flows to the kids. Seriously I do so enjoy all the kids that stop by and I try to lighten the mood with my bizarre sense of humor. Although sometimes when I say well you won’t die today they look at me like I have lost my mind. Of course I don’t have a mind but that’s a secret.
This years theme is Filters and I’m pretty excited. I have seen filters on social media for years and I’m not just referring to Snapchat with the bunny ears or Facebook’s filters to change your picture to black and white or sepia. But rather the posts where people attempt to project great love and care when you know them in real life and know it’s nothing but a smokescreen. I do try my best to be the same on Facebook as I am in real life besides curse!
The first session has ended and we are off to a great week. I’ll blog tomorrow about living with Jesus as your filter.

Mole moral~ A sixteen hour bus ride is a small price to pay for an amazing week with God, Jesus and the best age group ever-teenagers!