"The hair is the richest ornament of women." Martin Luther

The definition of “beauty” shifts from culture to culture, but beauty seems to be a concept every people group embraces. It’s interesting to note the focus most cultures place on hair as well. Not only does hair grow on nearly every part of the body (excluding the soles of the feet, palms of the hands, lips, and eyelids), it serves several functions such as helping retain heat, providing sensation of touch, and protection (especially for the eyes).


Throughout the centuries, hairstyles have served as a distinction of social class, ethnic and religious ideals, and political statements. For example, grey hair or baldness indicates elderly age; healthy, natural hair portrays youth.

Social Class: young

Social Class: elderly

African Americans at one time embraced the afro style as a demonstration of racial pride.

Ethnic: afro

Muslims, some Jews, and certain Christian sects command covering of the hair. 

Religious: Jewish

Religious: Muslim

Monks distinguished themselves by their tonsure. 

Religious: monks

During the roaring 20s, flappers wore their hair bobbed. 

Political: roaring 20s

Prisoners in concentration camps of WWII had their heads shaved as punishment. In the 70s, hippies wore their hair long. 

Political: hippies 70s

Political: hippies 70s

Presently, military members buzz their hair or pull it back. 

Political: military

All of this to say, hair is used to make statements of who we are, what we believe, and how we see ourselves. Take for example, a child who is undergoing chemotherapy for cancer. She sees her appearance change as her body reflects the cellular damage it’s experiencing. She’s nauseated often, fatigued, and starts losing her hair. As she compares her bald head with her healthy friends from school, she feels different and envious.

Now, focus on your hair for a second. According to averages, your hair grows half an inch a month for a total of six inches a year. Some falls out as you wash and brush it, but it stills largely remains. It can be curled, combed, straightened, teased, pinned, gelled, brushed, braided, twisted, picked, sprayed, dyed, permed, trimmed, and twirled. Yet unless a genetic predisposition or chemical interference exists, it will remain largely attached to your head.

For the past four and a half years, my hair has grown from short to long.

2nd donation: December 2007
Wigs for Kids (10")

(before pic) Father's Day: June 17, 2012

During those past years, I have enjoyed styling and having all that hair. But it was time to make a sacrifice again. The first time I donated hair the salon sent the 11 inches to Locks of Love. The next time a different salon sent the 10 inches to Wigs for Kids. This time the 12 inches will again go to Wigs for Kids. 

(after pic) 3rd donation: July 11, 2012

Both of these organizations create wigs from donated hair for young cancer patients to wear while going through treatment. It is so rewarding that something I valued, when given away, can help bring a little girl happiness. 

*If interested in either of these programs, check out their websites here and here.

mos·qui·to /məˈskētō/

Isn’t it interesting how at times it seems like everything relates to one another? For example, recently I checked out a book from the libary featuring amazing pictures by National Geographic. Among those pics was this one (which I found online here):

Talk about painful. This picture was taken after the photographer patiently let his feet be consumed by moquitoes in the fair land of Alaska. As I studied this photo, I was revolsed as well as intrigued. Who would do something so iritating for the sake of art?

Anyway, that was my first instance revolving around mosquitoes lately. However, it was not the only encounter I've had since then. In addition to seeing this photo, this past week I also received my first mosquito bites of the summer. That’s right – bites. Apparently, the mosquitoes were not content to leave just one mark. Instead, I ended the evening with four incredibly itchy raised spots on my leg. Yes, that’s correct – one leg; the left one for that matter. Anyway, that was the second instance involving mosquitoes this week.

The third occurrence came because of my nerdy enthusiasm to learn. We received a catalog of product listings from Great Courses this past week in the mail. For those of you not familiar with Great Courses, it’s a company that records (either video or audio-only) lectures by academic experts on specific topics and compiles these lectures onto discs for the learning pleasure of people like me. Of course, Springfield having the coolest library system has many of these courses available for borrowing. As I scanned through the new catalog, I marked the courses that interested me and then searched the library to see if they had them. One course related to human disease. Yep, you guessed it! I definitely checked that one out and started watching the series. And that’s when it happened, again. The first lecture was on malaria.

***(Interesting tidbit: The first person who used the term malaria was an Italian novelist in the 18th century. He described the disease as mal aria (bad air) because people who displayed the disease often got sick after spending time in the evening air.)

However, as interesting as those three events are together, it only gets better. The final instance (so far) involved scanning through our church’s weekly magazine, The Pentecostal Evangel. One of the featured needs involved sending donations to purchase mosquito nets for Africans. When I saw this appeal, I knew everything that had preceded this point was preparing me to be able to make a difference in this situation. How cool! Just goes to show that God has a way of speaking to our individual interests…in my case, health and missions. Who knew what an impact a small mosquito could create?

So, that’s my story from this week. What’s yours?

Easter is Coming

Happy Easter!

I love this time of the year. Spring brings with it the promise of new life. The days lengthen, the sun shines, the clouds pour forth rain, the buds blossom, and the birds start singing. The natural is reflective of the spiritual – new life is an ever-present reality for the Christian who lives in the fullness of the risen Jesus J

To kick off the holiday season, Kelly and I attended Evangel's presentation of the 2nd and 3rd movements of Handel's Messiah (the Easter portions). We enjoyed listening to the complex music and vocal lines. It is truly incredible to experience the result of such creative genius. Handel was one talented guy. After the concert was finished, we headed back to my apartment to continue our celebration of the Easter season...

Once Kelly and I returned, Nick joined us in an egg-dying adventure. After popping open our bag of Starburst jelly beans, we were ready to begin. If you were a fly on my kitchen wall, you would have observed a comical scene of three 20-something-year-olds trying to figure out how to hard boil eggs. Apparently, it’s not something we do terribly often. Haha. After a helpful Google search, we found directions on how to cook the “perfect hard-boiled egg.” Although we started with a dozen eggs, three of them cracked while boiling…so we had a tasty snack.

Everything is ready to begin dying the eggs :)

Sisters

By the time our remaining 9 eggs had cooled, our color tablets were dissolved in the vinegar, and we were ready to start dying! To this day, the smell of vinegar still takes me back to my childhood when my sister and I would color eggs. We all worked around each other to get to our desired colors, and a little later we had some spectacular eggs to show for our efforts. Kelly and I often dyed eggs together as kids, but it was fun to have Nick in on it this year too. He always makes things more entertaining. For instance, check out this pic. Yes, I have the coolest brother-in-law.

Our results were awesome.

In addition to the Starburst jelly beans and dyed eggs, I have also enjoyed this week of preparation for Sunday morning. First though, time was taken to remember the horrible, awful sacrifice Jesus made for our sins. Joining some friends, I went to Evangel Temple’s Good Friday service. Throughout my college years, I was never able to attend this service because I would go home for break, but I had heard wonderful things about it. As I entered the sanctuary, the lights were dimmed. The choir and orchestra sat ready in anticipation of the evening. During the hour of reflection, we took communion, sang a hymn, and heard Scripture read. The musical portion filled the remaining time and presented the last 7 words of Jesus at the scene of the cross. We left the sanctuary in silence. The somber mood only emphasized the extreme of the joyful Sunday morning we would soon be celebrating.

I am grateful for Jesus and his exchange - my sin for reconciliation with God. May we ever praise Him. Have a blessed day J

Day: #366

As of today, January 24, 2012, I have been an official employee of St. John’s Hospital – or should I say, Mercy, Springfield – for one year. The name change has been only one of many things that have occurred since that time only 365 days ago. In honor of the occasion, I’ve decided to do a mini-series of blog posts on what I’ve learned, seen, and done in the past year, how my life is different because of my experiences, my perspective of the medical world as viewed through a Christian worldview, and the possibilities to come.

For now, let me leave you with my thoughts from New Year’s Eve 2011. At the time, I decided I would save this part of my year-end reflections until my one-year mark with St. John’s employment. And now it’s that time, so enjoy!

“It is so easy to become overwhelmed with the world, it’s standards and demands, it’s definition of success, and striving for temporary fulfillment. But I have learned the importance of fighting for what is right, living a pure and righteous life, and being set-apart from those around me. I wasn’t called to conform to the world, but the image of God’s Son. I can’t live to please everyone; I’d much rather focus on pleasing the only One that matters.

This year at the emergency room, I have witnessed many people being hurt both physically and emotionally, rejected, in despair, lonely, abandoned, in deep sorrow, and searching for something when they don’t even know they’re searching. I’ve seen violence, abuse, perversion, the consequence of sinful decisions, lawbreakers, psychologically disturbed patients, elderly people dying of loneliness, suicidal attempts, men and women wallowing in drunkness, ignorance, arrogance, anger, filth, obscenity, gluttony, deceit, theft, rudeness, and hate. The world is a dark place, but thank God for his mercy and light. I’ve also witnessed lovingkindness, gentleness, loyalty, grace, people at their best in their worst times, strength in vulnerability, trust, compassion and empathy, healing, resilience, and gratefulness. As one may ascertain, it can be hard to buffer oneself from the effect of whiplash among all of these emotions and realities.

It’s easy to become burned-out in such a fast-paced, demanding, and draining environment. And I hit that point at about month 5. At that point, it felt like an endless plodding of hours, or a ceaseless circling of a revolving door – patients in, patients out, never stopping, never done. I had to learn to limit myself, get enough rest and have some days completely off to recharge, not sacrifice my spiritual renewal and growth, and to spend time with others outside of work. I started out naïve, trusting, gullible, with a young and innocent belief in the decency of every person…I swung to the opposite extreme, believing every person a liar, selfish, and manipulative…and I now have fought for a more moderate perspective in the middle. Through the past year, I have learned to better judge if someone is telling the truth, their motives, and their severity of injury.

Since working at St. John’s, I have learned social politeness, better phone etiquette, the importance of patient identification, to relate on a professional level with physicians, the difference between normal and abnormal vital signs, and different protocols in situations. Since I’ve started, I have observed a cath lab procedure, done CPR on a coding patient, and seen the first-hand effects of meth use. I’ve also seen patients dying of HIV/AIDS, run from the police, be restrained by security, learned how to avoid or dissolve a hostile situation, seen stomachs pumped due to bowel obstructions, observed physicians struggle with how to break news of a miscarriage to mothers-to-be, and observed a chest tube placement. I’ve seen hundreds of x-rays, performed hundreds of EKGs, given thousands of directions, cleaned hundreds of rooms, transported hundreds of patients to rooms, saved the world one bladder at a time nearly a million times, helped splint broken bones, performed orthostatic vitals, and learned the medical/hospital lingo, including the alphabet soup of that world.”

I have been incredibly blessed to have the opportunities and experiences I have had in the past year. Every day I try to learn something new, and rarely am I unsuccessful in that pursuit. It’s a wonderful place to be at this point in my life – I have transitioned from gaining my knowledge primarily from books to learning nearly entirely through practical application this past year. Although it would be great to have both types of learning at the same time, the variety is great.

That’s all for now. Look for the beginning of the mini-series blog posts soon!

In Focus

I find it fascinating our inclination to pause and reflect at the end of one year and the beginning of another. Why don’t we feel the compulsion to do the same at the end of each month or week? What is the big deal with our 12-month reminder that it’s important to assess where we’ve been, what’s happened, where we are headed, and what we are resolved to do? I’m not suggesting that I’m in opposition to this general trend; merely questioning our reason and tendency for doing so. That being said, I am happy to announce that I am one of those people who like to think about the year as a whole at this opportune time. In this post, allow me to share some highlights of my life this past year.

January brought about the end of a wonderful trip to Kenya for Christmas. Departing from Nairobi, it was pleasant and warm. Landing in Springfield, we encountered ice, snow, and freezing cold – quite a rude welcome home. After much anxiety, I finally learned I had been offered a job at St. John’s hospital, which I started later that month – January 24, 2010, to be exact. I learned the duties and skills of being a PCA/tech and became certified in CPR and basic life saving for health professionals. Those first few weeks were somewhat stressful as I tried to learn and navigate my position and the hospital.

February brought in a ton of more severe winter weather. At one point, the governor of Missouri declared a state of emergency due to weather, and the National Guard was called out to help. Those few days of seclusion were one of my fondest memories with my roommates. Valentine’s Day was spent in celebration with many other single girls at our apartment during which we play single-related games including love song lyric charades, Guess Her Date, and Loaded Questions: Valentine’s Day-Related edition. During this month, I also began a wonderful friendship with a Vietnamese student through MSU’s English Language Institute (ELI) program.

March came in with a whirlwind round of training with the secretaries in the emergency room, learning the art of direct communication, social niceties, and juggling a thousand things at once. As I observed one of the secretaries in her role, I was impressed and inspired with her graceful nature and the strength of a gentle spirit. I am indebted to her for her example in so many ways. She was not only my trainer; she became a friend and source of support. Although much of my time was spent at work, I was also able to continue accompanying for voice lessons and meet up with friends for special events.

April rolled around with many activities. Although I was no longer a student at Evangel, most of my friends still were and one of roommates was finishing student teaching. Therefore, this month was filled with much graduation preparation. (All four of us living together were participating in the graduation festivities). Other events of this month included getting my first massage at Nu Essence (heavenly experience!), attending the Evangel production of Hello Dolly, dying Easter eggs with Van Anh, and my 23^rd birthday.

May entered on a sad note with the funeral services for my roommate’s grandparents. The first week was crazy busy with graduation-related events as well: first, the

baccalaureate service, then graduation party at Sharon’s, and finally graduation. I am beyond blessed by the support I received from friends and family during this difficult transition time from student to official adult. I ended my college career on a high note with a perfect g.p.a. and receiving the Outstanding Student in Biology award. After the events of the first week, the rest of the month seemed calm. I did, however, get to go home for a belated graduation party with friends and relatives at home. My friend Lauren was also was able to stay with us for a short time this month during which we celebrated her birthday with an awkward first attempt at making cheesecake. Since then, I’m happy to report, we’ve improved :)

June marked the beginning of summer…and everyone being gone for break. I spent a lot of time at work. Unfortunately, this time was when I hadn’t learned to say “no” yet. However, the paychecks were beautiful. For Father’s Day, I was able to make a trip back home. I was also able to start volunteering at Convoy of Hope again during the summer months.

July found me excited for the 4^th of July and going home to celebrate with the parade, fireworks, and family time together. Much of my time this month was spent memorizing GRE vocab, taking practice tests, and reviewing my test prep book. After much preparation, I took the test and did excellent! To celebrate, my roommate, best friend, and I went out for Thai and had a fun evening together. It was a wonderful end to a lot of hard work. One of my roommates also got married this month!

August began with a visit to the county fair. My roommate, Megan, also got me hooked on Zumba classes at the Discovery Center, and when I wasn’t able to go with her, I took my best friend with me. We were soon ardent fans and went every week, usually following our calorie-burning workouts with calorie-rich dinners :) Later in the month, St. John’s hosted an employee appreciation day at Silver Dollar City (SDC), which my sister and I attended and loved. Once school started back up again, we had a back-to-school party with several of our college friends. I became involved with volunteering with Healthcare Ministries (HCM) – the medical world missions division of the Assemblies of God.

September felt like it brought much of the same as the previous month. I still was working many hours every week, volunteering at HCM, and attending zumba. In addition, though, I was able to celebrate my Vietnamese friend’s birthday. My roommate and I also attended the first EU football game of the season, mostly to watch the debut performance of the marching band.One highlight of the month was the JRA’s Women’s Conference– it was several days filled with wonderful sister time, powerful speakers, moving worship, concerts with Group 1 Crew, “Just Be”, and carnival fun. Megan and I were also able to host friends over several times. It’s wonderful having an apartment where we can host so many people and events. I love it!

October blew in with beautiful fall colors and brisk evenings. Lauren came over to help me in an attempt to redeem ourselves from our first cheesecake endeavor – this time we made a pumpkin cheesecake and it turned out much better. I was also able to attend my first EU homecoming as an alumna. Although it felt a little surreal, I enjoyed being back with everyone, watching EU’s Got Talent, rooting for our team at the game, and visiting with dear professors. At this point in my life, I was desperately craving home, and I was able to manage a trip back to enjoy the loving acceptance and support of my family for a bit. The month ended with a trip to St. Louis to the Cheesecake Factory and Fox Theater to hear Straight No Chaser. During October, I was able to celebrate my half birthday, go to an amazing corn maze, and experience my first haunted house.

November didn’t feel incredibly eventful, but I think that’s due to the distinct separation of the events that occurred. Daylight savings rolled in to everyone’s lament of earlier, darker days. Finally, I was able to see the result of all the practice and hard work of my friends by attending “Into the Woods” presented by the Evangel drama department. By the middle of the month, I was anticipating my friend’s birthday party at my apartment, which was quickly followed by another friend’s senior voice recital. And, after several weeks of waiting and advanced ticket purchase, my friends and I were able to go to the midnight showing of Breaking Dawn Part I. Yes, I know; we’re such girls. The Thanksgiving holiday was filled with wonderful food and family. And on Black Friday, instead of joining the nation in shopping, I attended a friend’s wedding.

December swept in with Christmas-related events. I was finally allowed to publicly play Christmas music by my roommate, and we threw ourselves into the festivities of the season: the Evangel Christmas concert, decorating our apartment, gingerbread baking, and eggnog drinking. I was able to go sing with concert choir at SDC, celebrate my sister’s birthday with the family, attend Christmas parties, and go home for the holidays. There’s something special about the Christmas Eve and morning services that I just can’t get enough of. In the midst of all the Christmas celebrations this month, two good friends were married to each other here in Springfield. We were honored to host many of the girls who came to attend the wedding, including the bride herself!

And that brings us to now – the last day of December and consequentially Year 2011. Although this year has been extremely difficult at times, I am thankful for God’s ever-present grace, wisdom, presence, and love. Without His Holy Spirit and the strength of my roommates, friends, and families, this year, I wouldn’t be the same person I am now. I have learned that God will never leave me or forsake me, He owns all the resources in the world, He is sufficient, He satisfies my heart’s desires with good things, He is good and does good, His grace is enough, and my life exists to glorify Him. My prayer is that next year is filled with many opportunities to know God better and serve Him wholeheartedly. May you find your New Year to be filled with joy!!!! Happy 2012 :)

Life. It's a Good Thing.

Before today, it had not crossed my mind that my blog was in serious neglect. I bet it’s feeling lonely at the moment. But no longer, for I am now bringing all my readers an update.

First off, before delving into the past, let’s begin with the present. Today is a mile-marker in my life. Halfway to the next year of my life. Yep, it’s my half-birthday. And, yes, I did celebrate with brownies and ice cream. Haha! My family always taught me to find small things to celebrate, and I have definitely taken that message and embraced it wholeheartedly. Now, on to the happenings of my life.

Of course, much of my time these last few months have been spent working long hours at the lovely St. John’s ER. Especially since one of our techs was out for weeks recovering from surgery and another tech had to quit because she began grad school. Although it is easy to view my work as just another job, I am constantly reminding myself that what I do is important. It can be discouraging when we are confronted minute-by-minute with people’s hurts, demands, and general unpleasantness. Medicine can seem like any other customer service business at times. But if we really question what we’re all about it breaks down to something like this: We save people from dying and try to improve their quality/quantity of life; the underlying presumption being that life is worth saving and improving, that life is valuable. And it is. I’m just glad I can approach it from a Christian worldview or I’m not sure it would be worth trying to approach at all.

While work has taken up much of my time lately, I have also been able to add a few news activities into my life recently. For one, zumba. Now, if you’ve never been introduced to zumba, you are missing out. Around the middle of July, I started attending classes at our Discovery Center. Zumba is a wonderful concept of using dance and choreographed steps and motions to comprise a workout session. We dance to a variety of songs with motions used to emphasize particular areas such as cardio, flexibility, and toning. I’m kind of addicted to going to the classes…haha :) Usually, I only attend once a week, but lately I’ve done a lot of zumba. It’s a way for me to meet up with my school friends and catch up or hang out with my roommate on our random nights off of work together.

I’ve also recently begun volunteering with Healthcare Ministries which is part of AGWM (Assemblies of God World Missions). When I went on my spring break missions trip to India it was through this organization. After some persuasion from a friend, I decided I wanted to get involved with the behind-the-scenes work and learn who the people were that made all the details flow smoothly. It’s been a great opportunity to meet people, stay informed about the world of medical missions, and learn what has to happen in order for trips to be successful. Most of my work has been with logistics – working on spreadsheets for flights, researching country facts/culture/history to send out to team members, copying documents and licenses of the med professionals to send to the host countries, and helping with filing. I’m hoping to branch out eventually to working other departments as well, but so far I feel like I’ve learned so much just in the one.

Recently, my sister and I attended the women’s conference at James River Assembly – Designed for Life (DFL). The amazing speakers shared from their experiences and expertise, and we were moved to embrace not only ourselves, but also other people. The line-up included: John and Debbie Lindell, John and Helen Burns, Nancy Alcorn (of Mercy Ministries), and Charlotte Gambill. Throughout the three days of the conference, we learned, were challenged, relaxed, and had fun being girls :) This event was definitely a highlight of the summer/fall…first, anticipating the event; then enjoying the event; now, reflecting on the event. It’s always wonderful to be encouraged in the faith, and that’s what DFL is all about. To see highlights from this year, click here.

Me and my sister at DFL on the first evening.

The last thing I’ll related is this past weekend. I attended my first Evangel University Homecoming as an alumna. Although I’ve graduated, I still have so many friends who are currently students that it almost doesn’t feel like I’ve completely left. Since I live in the same town, I really wanted to attend the festivities. The only dilemma? Work. So, with some shuffling around of the schedule and some awesome co-workers who traded me shifts, I was able to make it to everything I wanted to attend. Those events included: EU’s Got Talent, the Sci/Tech Reception, Concert Choir, and the Homecoming game (we won!). I will always be grateful for the education, direction, and friendships I received while attending this university. It really was like going home…so many memories. Can’t help thinking where I’ll be by my fifth-year reunion. Who knows?

So, that’s the update. If you’ve stuck through to the end, congratulations. I will attempt to do better with keeping up with postings in the future. For now, enjoy what you got.

I recently found this reminder the other day. I thought it was fitting to share it with you all. It's so easy to get caught up in our own little world, but our lives are short-lived in the grand scheme of time. Just something to think about...

Nine Things God Won’t Ask You On That Day

1. God won’t ask you what kind of car you drove. He’ll ask how many people you drove who didn’t have transportation.

2. God won’t ask the square footage of your house. He’ll ask how many people you welcomed into your home.

3. God won’t ask about the clothes you had in your closet. He’ll ask how many you helped to clothe.

4. God won’t ask what your highest salary was. He’ll ask if you compromised your character to obtain it.

5. God won’t ask what your job title was. He’ll ask if you performed your job to the best of your ability.

6. God won’t ask how many friends you had. He’ll ask how many people to whom you were a friend.

7. God won’t ask in what neighborhood you lived. He’ll ask how you treated your neighbors.

8. God won’t ask about the color of your skin. He’ll ask about the content of your character.

9. God won’t ask why it took you so long to seek Salvation. He’ll lovingly take you to your mansion in heaven and not to the gates of Hell.