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Mission 130 Mission 129 | View All Mission Reports | Mission 131 Departure: Arrival: Date: Mission Report “For I know the plans I have for you says the Lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future” Jeremiah 29:11 Monday of last week I had a really bad day as an ER physician assistant. As I am always very hard on myself, I was having a very stressful time coping with some of the day’s events when I got a call from Florida from a caseworker that had just spoke with Hal (who was actually in Florida for flight recertification with the plane Nellie) and they needed to get a patient home very soon and wondered if we could do the flight in the morning. As I scrambled to find staff and flights to get me and staff to Florida that night for a morning trip-it was just what I needed-to be immersed in God’s work to help me forget about my bad day. At the Indy airport I spoke with our medical director Dr. Milstead and got permission for the transport. My medic didn’t quite make the flight and had to take the next one. So I boarded alone. But the flight I was on taxied out and then we got word from pilot that severe weather and traffic congestion was going to give us a delay on the ground. I had finally found some quite time to contemplate the day’s events and I began sobbing. As the tears welled up in my eyes I ran through my small source of kleenexes soon and that was when I saw a hand in front of me from the guy in isle seat giving me more. I’m not one to speak to strangers and I eventually cried myself to sleep. After we landed in Orlando he stopped me as I got off of ramp and said, “God’s been telling me to tell you everything is going to be OK- I thought you’d think me crazy until I saw the Red Cross on your (Grace on Wings) shirt”. Later in the hotel room after having another good cry with my husband Hal, I tried to gather my composure to make the night before nursing report call about our patient who was going home to hospice. Nurse Beth answered and told me she’d met us-that she was best friends with our medical director’s daughter and had relocated there in Florida. I couldn’t believe out of all the nurses across the nation-I had one that knew our mission intimately. I told her this was a “God sighting” for me because I’d had a bad day and she told me she’d have the patient ready by the time she left at 7am and would pray for me. She even came back at 10am to see us off. Wow how awesome God is to put just the right person near you to comfort you-a perfect stranger at times so you know it’s directly from HIM. Sasha is 77 and has been married to her husband Karol for 53 years. She was found to have cancer from a lump on her neck 5 years ago and it has spread to her lungs, abdomen and bone. Yearly they travel to Florida to escape the winter months in Northern Indiana but this year she became too ill to get home. She has one daughter that lives in Florida, but Sasha’s desire was to get back to the rest of her family and the place on the lake that her dad built and where she spent most of her life. Her daughter kissed her goodbye as we prayed over her and loaded her onto Nellie. We arrived safely in Northern Indiana to an awaiting Superior ambulance donated ambulance. We arrive at her place and gently tucked her into her bed in a beautiful lakefront house. Sasha died peacefully exactly where she wanted to be 4 days later. Wow how I hope to continue to be the “stranger” showing God’s love and comfort to these people He brings us. Thanks to great flying by Hal and Mike and great care by Medic/RN Matt and expert care by Superior Ambulance crew. Tam
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