A word from the front lines... 06 (Virginia Rudolph)

I am so blessed to have the opportunity to be here in Ailegue and work in the CTC.  It is a joy to work along with each one of the staff, and everyone has their own way of brightening a day.  I want you all to know though, that if we didn't have Steve and Shana and Katie Jo those of us who work at the CTC would be pretty badly off!  So a big THANKS to them!

Have you ever prayed in an IV?  I hadn't 'till I came to work at the CTC.  In fact, though trained for it, I had never started an IV.  Now I have learned that the most important part of starting an IV is prayer.  Some of the people who come in are so dehydrated that it is a miracle if we get an IV going in them.  Cholera is a bad thing to get, but with the right treatment you can see improvement very quickly.  It amazes me every time to see a person who was carried in, walking out- in just a few days!

Some of the highlights of my time here so far have been the evenings we are able to sit on the roof of the CTC and sing and pray.  The patients are resting and listening to the Proclaimer (the Bible in Creole), and we gather on the roof and watch the moon come up and sing!  One evening storm clouds slowly rolled across the mountains toward us.  What made it so unique, was the lightening in the clouds.  It lit them up from inside!  Those evenings are very refreshing for me both physically and spiritually, it has a way of clearing the fogginess brought on by the stress of work.  Another great stress reliever is laughter!  The happenings of the day can take on a very funny aspect at two AM!  A sense of humor is a definite advantage here, and makes scrubbing buckets and laundry quite enjoyable.

Please keep each of us in your prayers that we would be able to give good health care, but more importantly that the patients would see Christ's love in us. 

For His Glory,

Virginia Rudolph