Good Morning!
I was thinking today about all the excitement that there is currently around my life. I am a junior nursing student at LeTourneau University. However, it didn’t always start out that way. Originally I came to LeTourneau as a Biology Major looking at Pre-med. I took classes all of my freshman year with that in mind, but as the spring semester went on, I had less and less peace about pre-med. So I started praying about it (A LOT!) and God showed me how he had opened the door for me to study Nursing at LeTourneau University.
Back in high school I had applied to a variety of different schools, but when the decision came down to it, I had to choose between LeTourneau and the University where my sister attended. However, after much prayer (and a better financial package from LeTourneau) I enrolled here. Looking back, when I first applied to LeTourneau there wasn’t even an opportunity to study nursing at LeTu. Had I known that God was going to have me working in the field of nursing, I would have never applied to LeTourneau. I would have gone to the school my sister was attending, especially because that is where my aunt, my sister and my brother-in-law all went to study nursing. I am so thankful that God does things on his timeline: God had me pursuing the “wrong” major to get to the “right” school so that I could switch to the “right” major at the “right” school. I am so blessed to be studying nursing at LeTourneau.
So, what have I learned from the experience? Well, as it is a new major to LeTu, I have been exposed to a bunch of different opportunities. Most notably, this past summer I was privileged to travel with 5 other LeTu nursing students and our head of the nursing program to a rural missionary clinic in Honduras. Before traveling, we all took a course on doing effective missions and community building, both in the short and long term. This was probably one of the most applicable studies I have done recently, and it was a great eye opener to a different view on poverty and missions. The emphasis was on what is called “best practice”. This basically means that we wanted to use our resources in the best manner possible, impacting in a positive (and not detrimental or patronizing) manner that can be sustained over a long period of time, through follow ups and utilizing the assets that the communities themselves can provide.
However, going farther than just studying the theories behind this all, we were able to see the application of it by assisting the Helping Hands Global Rural Clinic in Rio Viejo, Honduras. We worked alongside of missionaries in the clinic (packaging pills and vitamins, walking through a day with the patients – I got to help a little girl wash her arm for the first time after her cast was removed from a broken wrist) and in the schools (we taught in 5 different local elementary schools about the importance and techniques of hand washing, brushing teeth, nutrition along with a song about the Power of God). The trip overall was neat experience as we got to talk and learn from the missionaries and get to know each other better. I learned so much from our nursing advisor, Mrs. Kendra Ericson, on the trip about the different issues we may face as nurses. Growing closer on the trip really made me excited about what we are going to face this upcoming semester.
I am so excited about next semester. I get to start taking my nursing classes! I have registered for classes, sent over what seems to be a ton of paperwork (mostly shot records and fingerprinting stuff, not really a big deal), signed up for a CPR course, and now I am waiting in anxious excitement for this semester to end so the next one can start. I am so grateful for all of the other LeTourneau students who are sharing this journey together as we take nursing classes and clinicals. Some of my best friends are in the program with me. It’s hard to explain, but we seriously cannot stop talking about what next semester is going to be like and how much we are going to learn. We know it is going to be difficult and challenging at times, but we also know that God has brought us here from so many different places to study nursing here.
Hope you guys have a great day!
Jennifer Nelson
Junior, Nursing Student
LeTourneau University
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