support and my budget

I thought I would post a brief followup to the the last post. I now have a final budget and have 90% of the support I need to leave for my orientation in Kenya. This means I can now start working on booking my flight and will hopefully be heading out in early January.

Thankyou again to everyone for your prayers and support.

Danielle

December update

I thought I'd post a brief update as to how things are going. You may have noticed that I haven't changed my support level in a number of weeks. This is not because I haven't been getting support, I've been blessed with alot of support from many people and thank you to everyone for that. A few things have come up with my budget and are in the process of being finalized. As a result of this I don't have a firm number with which to calculate my support. I hope to get a final budget in the next week. Until then my support meter is based on an approximate budget calculation which is the highest my budget should be.

In the meantime I am continuing to prepare. Thursday I hope to have the last of my vaccines. I never realized how expensive the vaccines are. For example the rabies vaccine series costs approx $660. Usually travel vaccines are not covered under health plans but I figured I'd see if I could get it covered through my school plan. I was pleasantly surprised to find that the vaccines were 80% covered. Therefore this year my school plan will be well used and well worth the cost.

My passport is updated and I've already gotten it back. This was another great surprise. When I went to submit the forms to renew it I found I was about the 10th person in line(this was a good 10 minutes before the office even opened). I then started to wonder how long it would take to process given how busy things were and that the Christmas holidays are coming which means people travel more. They say it normally takes approximately 10 business days to process and much to my surprise I got mine in about 3 business days. 

I'm continuing to prepare and getting things organized. Once I get my budget finalized and approved I'll have a better idea of where my funding is at and if I will have the funds to leave in early January.

Praise
- for the generous financial support
- preparations that have gone smoothly so far
- for finishing school, passing the exam, and officially being a Nurse Practitioner

Prayer
- that the budget be finalized soon
- guidance as I make final decisions and continue to prepare


Thanks again to everyone for all thier prayers and support,
Danielle

A new language

As I'm preparing for my trip to Africa I've been starting to learn one of the local languages. Below is a link to some audio recordings in the Mabaan language.

http://globalrecordings.net/en/program/C63166

A few interesting links

These are a few links I posted on my facebook page over the last few weeks.

Life as a nurse in South Sudan
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-19649232

A long walk - a look at the refugees from very different angle
http://www.thedailybeast.com/newsweek/galleries/2012/08/26/a-long-walk-photographs-by-shannon-jensen-photos.html#slide1

October Update

Many people have been asking how things are coming in preparing to go to South Sudan and wondering what kind of preparations are still left to do. Some of the major things to finish are school, raise funds, get vaccines, and renew my passport.

I have finished my Nurse Practitioner training and am now in school take 2 of 3 required courses to get my Masters. The 2 courses I am taking this semester have no exams and for that I am thankful. I do have a few group assignments due just before the exam. Thankfully my partner for these assignments also is writing the NP exam so we are working at getting the assignments done early to be able to focus on studying for the NP exam without worrying about other homework.

To fully complete the Nurse Practitioner portion of my training I need to write a licensing exam on October 17 so if you don’t see much of me before that… you know why. I won’t get the results to this for a number of weeks to months. Students that wrote it last year got their results in early December so I’m hoping that I will get the results back before I leave for South Sudan.

Fundraising – Things are coming along well and I currently have approximately 17% of my support raised so far. I also have a number of presentations in churches to do over the next few months and dates are filling up fast so if you are interested in having me present at your church or group let me know ASAP.

On the passport front, my passport will expire about 2-3 months after I return from South Sudan which sadly means I need to get a new one prior to leaving.  You would think that because it doesn’t expire until after I get back it should be fine… unfortunately most countries require at that the passport have at least 6 months of time left on it by the time you leave their country. So even though a passport is good for 5 years, the reality is that you only have about 4.5 years of usable time on it. I don't need to get a passport until early December and I'm hoping that I can get one of the new 10yr passports that are supposed to be available then.

One benefit of being a nurse (and having my NP training) is that I know already what vaccines I will need before I go, There are a number of vaccines that can take up to six months to get proper vaccination but thankfully I’ve already had them in the past (due to work requirements and previous mission trips) so I can book my doctor’s appointment shortly before I leave. I also don’t have to get as many needles J

Praise

-          That school, work, and fundraising are going well
-       For the presentations that I have lined up in the next 2 months.

Prayer

-          That I do well on my licensing exam on the 17^th
-          That I be able to raise the support I need to leave as planned
-          That school, work, fundraising, and plans to leave continue to go smoothly

August update

July has come and gone and so has my last semester of the nurse practitioner program. The final exam was back on August 2 and that ended the long journey of training to be a nurse practitioner. All that is left is my licensing exam sometime in October.  

These last 2 weeks I have been back to work fulltime and am in the process of moving back to my parents place until December where I hope to leave for South Sudan. In September I hope to complete 2 more courses that will be part of my Master’s degree in Nursing. I’m starting to feel like a permanent student.  Education is a good thing and it’s important to always be learning but I will be glad when the school component of it all is done.  I’ll also be glad when I don’t have the 2.5hr drive to and from school in Windsor(bonus is my parents live closer to Windsor than where I live now :)  ).

 My support raising continues and is going well.  For those of you interested in the numbers I am at approximately 14% support raised as of the end of July.

Thankyou all for your prayers and support as I continue to plan and prepare to leave for South Sudan.

Danielle

Bible translation and health education

Some of you may wonder how I fit into the big picture of Bible translation and Wycliffe when I have a Nursing degree. The most recent Wycliffe magazine tells about a book called Kande's story. You can read about it here.
http://www.wycliffe.ca/wordalive/pdf/wam_2012_summer.pdf

Danielle

Edit - the above link has changed. the new link is - http://www.wycliffe.ca/wycliffe/wordalive/2012_summer/

6 months to go!!!!!!!

June 1 has come and gone. Why is that important??? well that marks 6 months from when I hope to leave for South Sudan. There are many things still in progress and my exact date has not been finalized but in general I hope to leave sometime in December for South Sudan. Its exciting as this is something I have felt called to do for years and now the reality of it is starting to sink in. 6 months!!!!!! exciting and scary at the same time.

In 6 months I have to:
- raise my support for the entire year.
-finalize my budget
- update my immunizations
- finish the Nurse Practitioner program
- write my licensing exam
- finish an additional 2 course for my part of my Masters degree (the last I hope to complete on my return)
- pack and go!!!!

The link below is a video that gives some background of the area I hope to be and some info on what is going on there.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1AFJtjCMnD8

Danielle