Making Summer a Time of Rejuvenation

“The Lord gives strength to his people; the Lord blesses his people with peace.”

(Psalm 29:11 NIV)

When we think of summer we may think only those who get to lounge on the shore or go on a tour of some exotic place are truly enjoying summertime and having a summer vacation. Sadly church attendance tends to slump in the summer because of this expectation that one needs to “get away” or “take a break.” But there are many ways to take “mini-vacations” right here that can rejuvenate your body, mind, and spirit – in healthier ways without having to go away.

Hebrews 10: 24-25 tells us to keep coming to church even in the summertime: “And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another —and all the more as you see the Day approaching.”

I suggest approaching summer differently this year, with healthy Christian living that can rejuvenate and give you rest without having to go anywhere and spend money. Then donate the money you saved to a good cause like our PCM Outreach programs. By doing so you will be helping others rejuvenate through food, clothing, or by participating in mission trips like the Foundation for Peace trip serving those in the Dominican Republic.

We are instructed to: “Have no anxiety about ANYTHING but in everything through prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God which surpasses all understanding will guard your heart and your mind in Christ Jesus.” (from Philippians 4:8-7) 

When I am stressed I consider the passage above as a command from God. The scripture doesn’t say, “Maybe if you pray you will feel less stressed.” It says first to have no anxiety about anything. This is stated as if it is a sin to be anxious. We are told to give up everything to God gratefully. And the Peace of God “will” (it doesn’t say “possibly”) we are guaranteed that God’s peace will guard our hearts and our minds as we follow the ways of Jesus. John 10: 10 also reminds us that Jesus came so we can have life abundantly. His ways show us how to be healthy in our living in community with others and in our relationship with God. 

A summertime rejuvenation plan is: 1. Keep coming to church. 2.To prevent feeling stressed, take “mini-vacations” (even in the car or plane) and Pray, Pray, Pray. Learn the Centering Prayer method used in the study of resiliency last Advent. (Nearly 100% of our PCM study participants improved their Resiliency status with just 20 minutes of “resting in God” each day for six weeks!) 3. Learn the ways of Jesus for faith and health. And feel God’s peace rejuvenate your body, mind, and spirit. May you have a blessed summertime! See you at church! 

Learning About Resilience in Haiti

As the tears ran down my cheeks, I watched them drop to the dusty ground. Upon arrival to this village I could no longer contain my sadness in seeing the overwhelmingly impoverished living conditions. Our medical team of nurses and other volunteers stood in a big circle holding hands with the Haitian people and children of the Vilaj Kanes near the Lake Azuei, a salt lake in the center of Haiti.  In an effort to hide my tears I didn’t release my hands from the circle.  I just bowed my head low and watched them hit the dirt until the prayer was finished. Then I jumped up into the back of our tap tap  (open air bus) parked nearby to find a tissue. Soon I would be asked to greet the crowd on behalf of our Presbyterian Church in Morristown and the Foundation for Peace. So I had to pull myself together.

My tears surprised me because I normally do not cry when I am in the presence of the people I came to care for. As a psychiatric nurse therapist and a pastor, I have witnessed many sad situations. But the overtly poor condition of these children, the primitive dirt floor shacks where they lived, and the sparse barren land surrounding them was clear evidence of their desperate poverty.

At 10am, the hot sun mixed with the humidity coming off the lake created a tropical atmosphere. The only sheltered place available for the free medical clinic was under the one large shade tree in the center of the village. Twelve University of Pennsylvania graduate nurse practitioner students and the Foundation for Peace, Haitian and US team members spent some time shaking hands and introducing ourselves to the kids and adults who were waiting for us to arrive. We played with them by blowing bubbles for the kids to jump up and pop. And we let them touch our stethoscopes and gloves as a way of warming them up to the idea of being examined by these strange white nurses.

After singing a few hymns in Creole and saying a prayer of thanks for this opportunity to be with our brothers and sisters in our global family in Haiti, I felt spiritually more at peace.  This was our third medical clinic of the week and we came prepared to care for whatever need came forward to the best of our abilities. I was so proud to be a nurse/pastor among this team of graduate nurses who never complained about the hard work of providing free healthcare in desperately poor communities almost every day of our trip to Haiti. 

As the nurse practitioners set up mini open air exam areas with a few card tables and chairs, the rest of the team opened the suitcases full of medicines and wound care supplies and created a “pharmacy area” with two wooden benches. Then the Haitian pastor-leader of our group, Pastor Valentin, began to call people up to the designated intake area.

The people of Kanes watched all of this activity patiently and understood that they would all depart with vitamins, anti-parasitics, or other medicines as needed. Each family unit also would receive a bag containing beans, rice and cooking oil.

Each community we were sent to by the Foundation for Peace had little to no access to healthcare prior to our arrival. But this Village Kanes was suffering the most of all. Many of the children were covered with bug bites probably acquired from sleeping on the dirt floors in their little huts.  Some of the children were extremely weak due to a lack of water and food. Three infants with high temperatures needed rehydration immediately upon arrival to our clinic.

A few months prior to this clinic the Foundation for Peace (FFP) staff had discovered this fishing village was unable to fish due to broken fishing boats. Now with help from the FFP, they are starting to fish again; but the time of desperation when they had lost their ability to fish took a toll on their spirits and on their bodies. Many seemed depressed and ill with parasites, body aches, and other signs of malnutrition.

So where does one start working in partnership with a group when confronted by a place with such overwhelming need? You look for signs of hope and start there. The goal is to empower them to build upon the strengths they already have.

At the end of the day I found a group of the healthy looking kids swimming in the lake near the fishing boats. One little girl in a blue dress grabbed my hand as I walked toward the water. She had a huge smile on her face and spoke a few words of English.  When she beckoned me to go for a swim with her and some of the other kids already in the water, I quickly caught her attractive smile on camera.

Her name is Adrienne. And she gave me hope for the Vilaj Kanes. Adrienne’s resilience shines out through her smile, and her clever engaging personality.

Although these children have many challenges, they have advantages our children lack as US families become more isolated inside large high tech homes. Their village is a cohesive community that cooperates, plays and works together. Their care for each other was demonstrated by the way it was nearly impossible to distinguish blood relative from neighbor as they came forward in the medical clinic as “families” with each other’s children. We discovered mothers were breastfeeding one another’s babies. They cared for all the children as their own. No one family had a shack much larger than the other. And as we handed out the food, it became clear that this attitude of sharing all their resources was the key to this village’s survival. All of the food would be shared among the village rather than kept by just one family.

In contrast to the overwhelmingly sad feelings I experienced upon arrival at this beautiful lakeside Haitian village, I departed with a sense of hope that by working together in partnership they can be empowered by building upon their strengths: community cohesiveness, deep abiding faith in God’s love and care for them, compassion for one another; and their strength of resilience that is clearly within those who have endured many years of hardships.

I came away with a blessed realization that Americans have much to learn from the Haitian people about mutual care, cooperation, and faith for the development of resilience within our own communities. I look forward to returning to Village Kanes in the Fall to learn more from these resilient Haitian people.

Why I am inspired to go to Haiti on a medical mission trip…..

(I was asked by another blog to write about why I am inspired to go to Haiti. Here is my article.)

Once I held little scrawny Alberto in my arms, I could never forget him. He was a ten month old baby boy wearing just a raggedy red t-shirt. I was in love the minute he smiled up at me with his big brown eyes. After his brother let me hold him for about 30 minutes, Alberto tried to hold onto my neck when it was time for us to depart. It broke my heart when he kept reaching for me as his brother carried him home while my team returned to our transportation to take us to our mission team housing at the end of that first day. 

I met little Alberto in a bateye called Algodon in the Dominican Republic while on a mission trip with the Foundation for Peace. (See: www.foundationforpeace.org) Our team came from the US to work in partnership with their local church, and to build a clean water system for the whole community. The bateyes are a village of shacks created to house the Haitian migrant workers who are willing to work in the Dominican Republic sugar cane plantations. There are rats and snakes in these sugar cane fields and the work is extremely difficult for very low pay.

Alberto was being cared for by his six year old brother because his parents worked in the sugar cane field from sunrise to sunset. Most of the workers we met had no gloves or shoes, so they suffered much while doing this type of slave-like labor cutting down sugar cane by hand with machetes.

After a week of working together with their local church and making many friends the water was flowing through the filtering system. There was great celebration when there was clean water for all. These people had been barely surviving on the stagnant water in the irrigation canals. Now, instead of water that was brown and green with many contaminants, they had clean pure tasting water. The people told us that first day that they didn’t know water could look so clear!

I fell in love with little Alberto and his family and friends that week a few years ago. I continue to feel the nudging of the Holy Spirit to seek more ways to share the blessings and talents I have received during my comfortable life in the US.

We are all members of one global family and I look forward to meeting more of my global family in Haiti. I will be traveling with student nurses from the University of Pennsylvania under the leadership of their professor, Carrie Steele. I offered to help shepherd this group of student nurses as they work in a health clinic providing free healthcare to new mothers and babies in a town called Fond Parisien outside of Port au Prince. I am a psychiatric nurse therapist and a Presbyterian pastor so I will help to guide the students and provide healthcare teaching and pastoral counseling. A friend from church (see www.pcmorristown.org), Susan Perry, a Yoga Master, has offered to join us to teach Yoga.  She plans to teach the new Haitian mothers simple Yoga techniques to benefit their health and will help the student nurses learn Yoga to de-stress after working all day in the clinic. Please keep us all in your prayers! Our team will be in Haiti from May 3-10^th.