Category: clinic


Cimarron

September 18th, 2012 — 2:48pm

What a place to wake up in on your birthday! #sacredground #cimarron

I spent last weekend with the church staff at the YWAM base in Cimarron, Colorado. We spent a couple intense days working on the vision of the church, talking about where we’re going and how to get there. I felt so honored to be there, representing my department – the Good Samaritan Clinic – with such an amazing team. The thing that I love over and over again about my church is how real it is, how each person on staff is so genuinely loving and how un-religious we are. I love that we all desire to help people with no agenda other than just helping them. I’ve longed for years and years for a place like this and I’m just so thankful to have found it and to get to be a part of it.

Ten years ago my sister did a DTS (discipleship training school) at this base before she went to Nepal & India for 3 months. Because Cimarron is only 2 hours away from home, we got to visit her a couple of times, packing 6 month old Eden into our car with every baby contraption we owned. It was such a breath of fresh air to return to this scared space on the mountain. As soon as we pulled onto the property, I could feel peace flooding in. And when the team that runs the school told us over the amazing dinner they had prepared for us that they had been praying for our time there, I could feel it. In the book Bittersweet, Shauna Niequist talks about the Irish folklore of Thin Places. Thin Places are places where the boundary between heaven and earth is just a little bit thinner, where you can feel heaven just a little bit closer. I’m not sure about Irish folklore, but if ever there was a Thin Place, the base at Cimarron is one.

My time there was not only significant for me in my role as director of the clinic but also for me personally. I forced myself out of bed early in the mornings so I could spend some time to myself on the porch journaling. I feel like God always talks to me through my journal and the prayers that I write in there end up being the most poignant. I think maybe because writing gives my ADD brain some space to focus.

That time on the porch was such a good opportunity for me to draw a few lines in the sand. Sometimes I have to make deals with God. A few years back I had to make a deal that I was going to stop questioning his existence. Last weekend I had to make a deal that I was going to stop fighting him, stop fighting what he is doing. These lessons of trust have been so constant in my life. (It might especially be that way for people who are a tad bit controlling…) All I know is that Trust has to be my way of life, that every time I’ve trusted him, it’s been so much better than I could have made it myself and it has always been good, even if the road there was marked by pain. Up there on the mountain, in that Thin Place, I made a new deal: that I was going to stop fighting what he was doing and let go of how I wanted things to be. I promised to start trusting again and stop doing things my own way. Trust can still be a little scary, but it feels so much better to know that someone so GOOD has free reign to do GOOD things in my life.

Journal time on the porch with the sun coming up #cimarron

My favorite #cimarron

Yellow trees are so captivating #cimarron

Bonfire #cimarron

Bonfire #cimarron

Sacred place #cimarron

Cimarron

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The Good Samaritan Clinic

June 8th, 2012 — 12:13pm

Front Desk

The Good Samaritan Clinic started almost a year ago out of a dream – we wondered, what would happen if we could provide medical care to the people in our community who couldn’t afford it but desperately needed it. If you don’t know what the Good Samaritan Clinic is, it’s a medical clinic, supported by our community, staffed by volunteer physicians and medical professionals from our valley, and run solely on donations. We don’t ask our patients to qualify financially to be seen at our clinic and we also do not require them to pay.

the front door

I started volunteering because I was interested in homeless relations in our valley and I knew the clinic would impact that population. I started out helping where I could and I kind of fell into the role I now find myself in, Operations Administrator. I kind of think that’s how things work with God, he just gradually plugs you into a position that best suits your skills and suddenly you find yourself doing something you’ve never imagined for yourself but it’s perfect. I have never worked harder in my life but I just LOVE what I’m doing for the clinic.

Our office

Our clinic started out as a mobile clinic. We would work out of various locations in the valley and as the word spread, our monthly clinics got bigger and bigger. A month or so ago we leased a permanent space for the clinic and began working on getting it ready to be a clinic. On Monday the construction and painting wasn’t finished yet and the building was empty and by Thursday we were totally set up and had our open house.

My friend Brian and I practically camped out in the space this week cleaning, moving furniture, organizing supplies and hanging pictures. Last night, after our open house, we sat in the beautiful space and marveled at the feat we had pulled off… we opened an entire medical clinic in just a few days. I’m so proud of this huge thing we’ve accomplished.

Our conference/extra waiting room

work space/exam room

I’m excited for what’s next. We get so many phone calls every day from people who need help but can’t afford it. I’m excited to be able to tell them, yes, this is where we are located and yes, we can help you. I’m amazed that a church that’s only a couple of years old can pull off a project SO big and help so many people, not for the purpose of converting them but for the simple purpose of just HELPING where the need is.

exam room

Our signs

For me running the clinic has been part of those blind steps forward that I’ve learned to take. It’s been part of me laying my life in God’s hands, totally surrendering, and saying, wherever you’re taking me is where I’m going. I never expected this to be where he took me, but it’s perfect for who I am. I’m so grateful that I get to do what I was made to do. It’s pretty amazing.

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