Enjoying God's Creation

'Your righteousness is like the mighty mountains, your justice like the great deep'

Psalm 36:6

Nathan and I have been in Maggie Valley, North Carolina for the past couple of days. Nathan’s aunt was gracious enough to allow us to stay in her mountain house. It has been such a wonderful time to be together and to enjoy nature. We have been refreshed this week. 

There is a deck on the back of the house with a very pretty little bird house. As I was sitting on the deck looking at the birdhouse, I noticed that there was a nest with baby birds inside. Very quickly, a mother bird (probably a finch) came to the house with a cricket in her mouth. As soon as she fed the insect to her babies, they began chirping loudly. Within five minutes the mother was back again with another treat to feed the babies. She proceeded to do this same routine throughout our entire visit. 

This really made me start to think and marvel at the Lord’s creation. How does the mother know how much to feed the babies? Why do all of the other birds stay away from this house? The Lord has perfectly created and sustains all of these things. This made me think about Psalm 104:24 “O Lord, how manifold are your works! In wisdom have you made them all; the earth is full of your creation.” I am so glad that we had the opportunity to be in His creation and to enjoy Him through it this week. 

Last week we went to the beach with Nathan’s family. It was a really great time to hang out with them and play with our niece and nephews. We were also glad that the oil decided to head west and did not come near that area.

Next week we will be going to the Christian Ophthalmology Society (COS) meeting in Cincinnati, Ohio. We are excited to see friends from residency and from Temple. This is always a great time to be encouraged, and it is also a great time of learning for Nathan and I both. There are usually multiple missionary ophthalmologists there giving talks on different subjects. We have learned a lot from them over the years and it gets us excited about what God is calling us to in mission. 

Our countdown has begun......we officially leave for language school in 32 days! 

Here are some pictures of our family from the beach:

The Girls: Nathan's mom, Sister-in-law Rebekah, and Niece Mercy

Brother and Sister-in-law Joab and Rebekah and Children: Isaiah, Mercy, and Daniel

And Uruguay........

LOSES in the World Cup! 

What a great time to be at an international conference with most of the countries in the semi-finals of the World Cup represented. I did actually watch the Uruguay vs. Ghana game. I will say that it was quite a celebration when Uruguay won. There was yelling and dancing in the streets, topped off with fireworks. We were stunned by how people everywhere were praising their team. It was exciting because it was a small representation of the great celebration on that last day, when believers from all over the world are praising our Lord together. 

So, we have been in Punte del Este, Uruguay for the International Christian Medical and Dental Association (ICMDA) conference since last Thursday, July 1. The conference was full of great speakers from the US, Australia, India, Nigeria, the UK, Canada and most South American countries. We were able to meet several students and physicians from around the world. 

One particular highlight was getting to eat lunch with several Peruvian physicians/pastors. Nathan did a wonderful job of speaking Spanish in our meeting. We were able to share our vision and call with them and were warmly received. There is great work for the gospel already happening with Peruvian physicians, but currently no focused outreach to medical students. It was exciting for us to all dream together about what medical student ministry could look like in Cusco. They also were very interested in helping us to integrate into the community of healthcare professionals in Lima and Cusco. We were greatly encouraged and look forward to working with these men over the coming years. 

Another highlight was getting to meet with a group of Brazilian students. There is currently no medical student ministry on their campus, and there are just a handful of Christians. They were gracious enough to allow us to share about our experiences with student ministry, and offer them encouragement. They have a few plans in place to begin an outreach at their school. It will be exciting to keep in touch to see what the Lord does through them. 

A memorable moment, and one that I can laugh about now, was our one evening in the town of Punte del Este for dinner. Nathan had decided that we should dress nice and go eat in town. I wore not-so- comfortable shoes and we walked the 2 kilometers (about 1 mile) into town. Once we sat down and started eating, the skies opened and rained harder than I have even seen. The problem was that we had walked. No taxis! No umbrella! We proceeded to walk back in the rain with cars zooming past splashing water all over us. I must say, Nathan sure knows how to treat me to a nice date :=)

So, we fly back to the States today and are going spend some time with Nathan's family on vacation. We do have the cutest niece and nephews, so it will be really fun to play at the beach with them. I am sure I will have some fun pictures to post. 

Here are some pics from the conference:

Dinner with medical students from Brazil

Sweet Brazilian medical student Marianna. Her English was excellente!

Mario, a medical student from Honduras. Greatly helpful in talking with us about medical student life in Latin America

Nathan speaking during our meeting with the Peruvian physicians/pastors

Our new Peruvian friends and colleagues

Chivitos (traditional Uruguayan sandwich: they don't leave anything out) 

Gluten free Chivito