Gabon - January 2011, 17th

Monday evening, and my belly is full :-)

Full of good food, and "full" of good fellowship with friends.

It is a rare place on earth where one can go and find friends waiting to relate and engage about life. People that are happy to see you, and prepared to work together with you and tackle the challenges of whatever comes through the door, around the bend, or from under your bed.

In a place like this any of those challenges can happen on any give day.

Take for example the man pictured here.

It isn't just living, or living the moments, but the reason for living those moments. It reminds me of my days in English Literature class discussing various philosophies and perspectives of various writers. Existentialism was one of those perspectives which seemed to represent a lot of lives around me. Others such as Buddhism, Hinduism, Hedonism, naturalism,... (you get the idea) all lacked one important thing - a true, honest to God, personal and vibrant relationship with the Creator God. Jean Claude and I examined him, and there is obvious extension of the cancer around his carotid arteries and throughout his system. There is little we can do for him at this point. Life is going to come to an end on this earth for him, and soon. We know it. He is coming to grips with it.

The real difference between him and I is that he knows his time on earth will likely be shorter than mine. What really matters in reality now is what happens to us when that time here is finished.

To live each moment fully is only possible through knowing and walking with Jesus. It isn't believing that He exists, or trusting that He really is God, but it is walking with Him - together - Him and I. The same is true for you.

Why? Because Jesus said it was so. I have found He is telling the truth.

He also said that life was only lived abundantly (fully) in relationship with Him. Tough claims.

Crazy thing about Jesus is that He really WAS crazy, or He really IS God. No other options.

Looking at my patient this afternoon reminds me of why I am here. Why he was here today.

Speaking of crazy...

Dr. Miller and I are having a fun time trying to survive :)

Had an uneventful (relatively speaking) "bus" ride south across the Equator for 7-8 hours, then in a private vehicle (old Land Cruiser) for another couple of hours cutting through the jungle the whole way. The Gabonese government has done a whale of a job putting a new road in for the North/South traffic and it was simply amazing! Hurtled up to speeds of 120 kilometers an hour, rocking from side to side, with all the tires staying intact (though we stopped once when they smelled a bit burned). We bottomed out a few times (or quite a few) and the tires were rubbing the wheel-wells nicely - just to assure us we really were loaded to the gills. What you can't see from the picture is that we were sitting shoulder to shoulder so tightly that we didn't need seatbelts (not that there were any) much like sardines don't usually get mixed up when shaken in their can.

Dr. Miller has been extremely gracious in all the events - even the driver found a toilette at a stranger's home mid-way on the trip just for her. Nothing like pulling into a church (he figured that would be ok) to ask complete strangers to use their toilette. Yep, very gracious people here. The other 16 passengers were left to fend for themselves.

Today Jean Claude and I saw a few patients, and signed up 4 for hysterectomies, two wrist fracture pinnings (peds), another "large" ovarian cyst (pictures to come - maybe), hernias of all shapes and sizes, and a urological case of some kind (still trying to figure what he plans to do). Since I'm the "attending", i.e., substitute chief, I'm supposed to be guiding him through the operations as needed. We have a great relationship - and it really is more like two colleagues assisting each other than a "teacher/student". He will be heading into the Congo within a year to be the primary surgeon for 100's of thousands of people. That is your Ob/Gyn, Peds surgeon, head and neck, General/Trauma, Ortho... So - needless to say, we are working "together" at this point in the training. He is doing well, and I greatly appreciate his humility and heart to work for God, not himself or only to serve others. Big difference. He works out of his relationship with God, not because of his relationship with God. Subtle, but profound difference.

We are surviving incredibly well with three great dinners thus far, a good day of work, a cool evening, and the jungle noises echoing off the walls and through the windows. It is really quite noisy in the jungle at night with all the insects.

By the way, Johari (Dr. Miller) was able to find spiders on her walk home tonight by shining the light in their eyes. They look like glittering green glass in the dark. Quite a start though when she flashed her light up the path and saw two "big" green eyes moving towards her! Thankfully she discovered it was just a friendly domestic cat. Her laugh of relief was real!

So just a few random thoughts from the first couple of days here. Many more, but it is late and there is a full day of operating in the AM - two wrist fractures to pin, two hysterectomies, and a urological case. And...anything else we need to do.

If there are any particular questions you would like to ask - please do. I realize some are reading this for curiosity sake - and if curious I'm sure there are questions. I'll try to answer.

As I finished up the night last night I sent an email to my parents. Thought I would leave this blog with a couple of thoughts I shared with them:

"11:30pm and just finished chatting with the construction guys and headed to bed. Need to sleep hard and quickly :-)

Will be praying for each of you. One life to live. Now. Not in two weeks. 21 days, or next year. Now.
Same for each of you. :-)
It may not be the life you want, but life is not about us - it is living what we are given, and doing it in relationship with God.
My thought.
Bon Nuit. Blessings!
John"