Experiencing Peru!

Dear Family & Friends,Where to begin! I cannot believe I have been in Peru for 2 ½ months already. My overall feeling is: everything is better than I had dreamed. There have only been a few days that I felt under the weather. Kristin and I are learning Spanish “poco a poco” and hope to come back home bilingual. Just in the last couple weeks I have noticed that I understand most everything in the evening sermons. The crew on our Launchita, as we lovingly call it, are becoming like our second family.Kristin and I’s daily routine consists of waking up at 6 am for personal worship, cleaning our area, group worship at 7am, breakfast at 7:30 am, then at 9 am, we start seeing patients in the clinic room at the back of the boat until 12:30 pm. From about 2 pm to 4:30 pm we extract teeth. After a light supper, we prepare for the night meetings in the villages, which go from 7-9 pm.On a typical day I usually do “Triage”: getting our patient’s personal information, symptoms, blood pressures, temperatures, etc. Then, Henrry, the Peruvian nurse, gives the diagnoses and prescribes the medication. Many patients we see have Anemia, Bronquitis, Pharingitis, Hypertension, Influenza, Vulvarvaginitis, Paracitosis, Asthma, Allergic Dermatitis, and Urinary Tract Infections. We have taken care of patient’s with poisonous snakebites, sting ray stings, abscesses, and machete lacerations, to name a few of our more interesting cases. On one occasion, I was able to stitch up an 11 year old boy’s leg after a machete accident in his father’s chakra. Even though my only previous “experience” suturing had been on a pig’s ear in one of my classes. Some of my other activities have included pulling teeth, giving shots, and with health education.Each time we go to a new community, Kristin and I go with Henrry and the nurse tech, Melita to the local schools and teach sex education in for the older children and oral hygiene for the younger ones. During our dental presentation, Kristin comes into the classroom masked as “Diente Triste” (Sad Tooth) and crying as a result of her painful cavities. Next, I jump in the doorway energetically, masked in a smiling, pearly white tooth-shaped mask. I proceed to state that “I’m happy because I brush my teeth 3 times a day”! Ever since the first school visit when Henrry asked us to do a action song with the kids, the Hokey Pokey has stuck. Needless to say, being a nurse in Peru is different.The Lord is blessing our work here in La Selva (the jungle) of Peru. It is such a joy to not only to minister to the physical needs, but reaching the greater need, the need of a Savior. Every day I remind myself, in all I do or say I have the opportunity to plant seeds in hearts around me. I may never know the effect I have had in the lives of the beautiful children as they surround me and watch my every move or the afternoons I have spent teaching them songs about my Jesus.I must relate my recent opportunity of sharing Jesus! Kristin and I where traveling on a public launch for two-days on the Ucayali River, on our way to Pucallpa for our break. I had just opened my Bible to read, when I noticed a lady peaking over my shoulder. I looked up and smiled and she asked if I was an Evangelical? This opened up what turn into a couple hour conversation about the Bible and I was able to witness to her husband, son and another lady who listened in! I had such joy in my heart after that encounter, and realized Jesus has opportunities waiting for me each day, if I stay in tune with His Holy Spirit. For He says, “the harvest is ready, but the laborers are few….” Being in Peru, away from my busy life in the states, has given me time to reflect on what is really important; my relationship with Jesus, telling others about Him, and praying that all those I love will form that bond with Him as well. We are mere pilgrims on this planet, homeward bound, to the place where we belong. Every day I pray that the Lord will take me by the hand and lead me down the straight and narrow. Then, I pray that each one of you will also fall deeper in love with Jesus Christ with each passing day.The bits of news I get from the states reminds me that we are indeed, living in the last days of Earth’s history. Natural disasters, gas prices, the presidential election, the fluctuations stock market, and thousands losing there jobs. Then, I think of the persecution of Adventist church in India and ask myself, “Am I ready to die for my faith?” The words to this song come to mind: “Don’t it make you wanna go home now, don’t it make you wanna go home, all God’s children are weary where they roam, don’t it make, you wanna go home.” Yet, let us also rejoice, for very soon there will be no more famine, heartache, or death. The former things of this earth will vanish (Rev.21:4)! Friends and family, I plead with you, if your relationship with Jesus is not what it should be, why not get to know your Savior better today. Who knows what tomorrow may bring, but we may find peace that our Heavenly Father does. Isn’t this a comforting thought? (Matt. 6:25-34). I do not know what is going to happen in the next 7 months of my stay in Peru, or if I will be able to see each one of you again. However, I look forward to seeing each one of you in heaven, where no more good-byes will be said. Will you meet me in heaven and sing the song of the redeemed before the throne of God?! Until then, let us stay faithful, keeping our lamps burning bright for Him.In His Marvelous Love,Linda M.Ferguson, RNP.S.(To see some pics from Peru, visit linda-missionperu. blogspot. com or see them on myspace)Contact Info: Physical Address: c/o Edie Mulivull 206 Casilla Pucallpa, PeruEmail: lmferguson. southern. edu