Connections and Dreams

So a bit of a misadventure in returning back from Haiti.
You know my initial idea in the timing of this trip was it would be great to get my clinical skills back in shape before starting my new job as a PNP in teh Emergency Department here. The timing was just a little tight. I was to fly in at 8 pm Sunday night and start my job Monday morning at 8 am. Not much turn around, but I've done worse.
Well, apparently Haiti decided to give the gift of Camphylobacter or E Coli or Salomonella or something in that infectious family. I suspected issues on Satuday but wasn't worried. But while on my layover in Miami I knew I was in trouble and my quick 4 hours of flying back to Saint Louis on Sunday actually took me a day and a half and a lot of Pepto Bismol and Gatorade. What a miserable flight back too. I honestly don't remember ever being that sick for so long. Four days of misery and I had to miss my first 2 days of work, but antibiotics and the Lords healing hand are wonderful things.
Those first couple days back in the states I hardly remembered being in Haiti because of just being so sick. By Wednesday I eventually started getting better, my strength was back. But it was Wednesday when I realized that I came back to the US too soon. My heart grieved Tuesday and Wednesday as the reality sunk in of how much I love it there, and I recognized that the trip was done. Those were a bit sad and lonely days as I wondered about my patients I cared for and friends there. But I began repositioning my heart from the place of serving to a place of travailing and interceding for these people. There is still so much to be done in this place and the country still has so far to come. I can't get over the fear that political unrest is not far off. So much of the upperclass appears to be back to business as usual while tents abound everywhere, buildings in Port remain in shambles, and aid is pulling out.
Oh how they still need help. So I pour out to the Lord I dream I have of a healed and restored country, and I pray the same prayer I have prayed for four years, "Oh Lord, would you heal this land, would you restore life in the waters and green plants in the hills, revive their spirits with Your love and Your hope as they see you restore this desolate land and that they will return to You wholeheartedly. I have hope Lord that Your mercy will abound for these people and that You will come to them" And now I sit and wait, wait for the revelation of the next adventure the Lord has for me. Wait for the restoration to come to this people, wait for the awakening of their Spirits and hope to abound.