Medical mission prep:
It’s getting close to the short mission trip. I went to the Morling
College library to borrow some books on short missions and bumped into a
classmate who said he had been on a short mission to Vanuatu before. He
mentioned that the place has a “rape culture” and lots of domestic violence. He
also mentioned that there is a huge Mormon church there. I didn’t really know
how to react after hearing this. Was it a good thing that I had been doing the
“Body Combat” classes at the gym and can fight off thugs with my flying kicks? Maybe
I should pray for the people of that land more, and brush up on my suturing
skills? Well, I definitely have to keep studying the words of God, so I picked
the gospel of John, but it’s a bit harder to get the momentum going, now that I
had finished the MDiv and no longer got any academic pressures to bury my head
in the books.
The clinic I am working in is undergoing renovation in late May and I had been cleaning out my stuff: 8 years of build-up in the same room was not easy to clean. I asked my colleagues if there is anything they didn’t want that they could donate to the short mission team. They were happy for me to take all the medications in the sample cupboard and any extra medical equipment which they no longer need. This meant I had to stick around as they clean up, to scavenge these things. Sometimes we stuck around past midnight. Coincidentally, the GPCE exhibition in Sydney is in May. I tried my best to get medication samples, but didn’t have much luck as they seem quite poor this year. I thought about bringing over medications from the doctors’ bag, but the pharmacists on the short mission team told me I better make sure I can really bring those medications. So I called up the PBS on 1800500147 for advice. They told me if I bring sample packs out of Australia, there is
no problem, since these medicines are not subsidised by PBS. However, if I were
to bring the "doctor's bag" medicines with me, it will no longer be
qualified for PBS subsidy: in other words, I have to buy those medicines privately,
because any amount subsidised by PBS has to be for the use of the person being
subsidised, so a doctor's bag medicine can only be subsidised if a doctor is
using the medicine in their own practice in Australia and on their own
patients. Furthermore, we also have to get authorisation from Vanuatu about the
things we are bringing to as well.
A week before the mission trip I had to use a temporary room for work. We had to
supply all our own medical equipment and move things into these temporary rooms
by Sunday. I guess this was a good “trial run” before the actual mission? However,
it had been so busy that I didn’t have time to brush up on my medical
knowledge. I’m sure medicine is very different in the tropics… I've been an "urban office GP" for so long, doing comfortable things like prescribing medications, doing referral letters, ordering routine check-ups and seeing people with viral illnesses, that I have become rather de-skilled in my procedural skills! And the unusual
thing about this short mission team is that there are no meetings before the
actual mission. May God have mercy, because I feel like I know nothing!
Marriages:
18May: One of the most jam packed day ever, a happy day!
Vivien & Lecter's LoVe wedding (Lector&Vivien,
obedience&encouragement)! It's joyful to see the kind& helpful Vivien
getting married, and touching to see the groom cry. Chris kept staring at the
Adam&Eve passage in the bible during the service.
Rushed off to this GP education talk in Eden Gardens after the wedding:
wandered into the garden after the talk, lots of Adam and Eve themed things in
there.
Wedding reception was full of great yummy food and the great MCs kept
the evening fun & happy!
Election day: contrary to the polls, the Coalition had a
"miracle" victory.
25May: So glad to witness the wonderful marriage of my friend/previous housemate Claire!
CAN:
Claire And Nathan: another play of names!
The pastor used a can of coke to demonstrate the "cans" of
marriage: "can do," "also can."
CAN also stands for: Commitment, Acceptance, Nurture
Auspicious 7: we got allocated table 7 for both last week's wedding and
this week's wedding!
Shortly after the short-mission trip, I will be attending another wedding
where I will be the bridesmaid… Have to attend my friend’s wedding rehearsal a day before the mission trip! That makes a total of 3 weddings of friends before
my own upcoming wedding! What a wedding year!
Intercessory prayers much needed!
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