Have I ever said that I love what I do? Well, I do. One of my favorite things is to care for people emotionally and to hear people’s stories. It was my favorite part of being a nurse too, when I got to care for people emotionally as they went through a very hard time being hospitalized. I also get to do this on a regular basis with our work.
In one day, I was listening to someone who was struggling with infertility and as we were talking, our co-worker knocked on my door to ask for help with bathing her newborn. Later that week, we listened to someone’s excitement as they were staring a new relationship and a family’s sadness as they have to leave the field because their kids are not doing well here. We are so privileged to hear people’s stories, encourage them and just be a friend or listening ear.
We went through training on coaching and debriefing recently and we have been able to apply this knowledge multiple times already. Coaching people through various things such as feelings of insecurities to anger problems. Debriefing is a time to allow people to tell their stories after a particularly stressful or traumatic event. It helps them process the event and develop healthy coping strategies. During the training seminars, there was a family that was being evacuated from the Gambia because their dad had fallen off a roof and needed more medical care. We were able to host this family in our guesthouse as they sought medical care. We have since debriefed them after they got back to the States. They are very grateful for the care that they received here. As they walked into the mission center, they described it as a breath of fresh air and a place they could be safe and rest.
Please pray for wisdom for us as we interact with people, that our words and actions would be a blessing. I have seen the opposite on how a wrongly posed question greatly offended a friend. We need God’s wisdom on what to say to each person to meet their needs in that moment.
Thank you for allowing us to be here to minister to people not only with physical rest but also caring for their emotional well-being as well. We are so grateful for the privilege to be here.