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