Austronauts

Here is a favorite song of mine:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FxWvgwnx1NA&feature=youtube_gdata_player

As I look through the evening sky
I think to myself
How much He must love you and I
The Milky Way makes me look
Like a piece of dust on the road
But the Milky Way is a speck of dust
Compared to my Lord
That's how big He is
That's how big He is

And I don't know that much about astronauts
But I know that Jesus cares an awful lot
He made the stars
He made the moon
Just think of how much more
He loves you

Space may be the final frontier
For a lot of people who show no fear
They step outside and they look around
They take a sample and come back down
Have they ever found the meaning of life out there
I don't think so, no way
I don't think so

Young and unashamed

I am kinda sick of always hearing about how being young and inexperienced makes people listen to what you have to say less. God can speak through anyone, they do not have to have had a long relationship with God or be respected in their community. Here are a couple songs that I like:


Young and Unashamed
By Trip Lee

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZTPqsaJvPg4&feature=youtube_gdata_player


Verse 1:
Hey when they see ya boy, what's they first impression?
Probably not a teen redeemed from the worst transgressions
That's repented from the path of His first ancestors
Was cursed but since rebirth this person's dressed in
The glorious righteousness of Christ
They probably think I'm on the stage 'cause I like the mic
Or like to get hype, but really I'm laid back main
But sometimes could lose my mind if you say that name
(Who?) Jehohah Jireh, my soul's provider
Life without Him's a contradiction like bein' poor with Prada
I done wrote a lot of flows, in my soul's a fire
That shut up in my bones, ah my soul desire
Is for some slick guys to the know the Lord He died
But still the Son did rise like it was mornin' time
So if you think you fully satisfied wit a vette wit chrome
You better check yourself like playin' chess alone
I'm a stranger, is Earth really my residence? Nope
I'm a alien and I can't wait to rest at home
My dress ain't always fresh to def I ain't impressed wit clothes
But Christ, He's the key to life dog and death's the door (and rebirth)
Since the moment I believed, my flesh was broke
Sin lost it's control and death it's hold
So maybe now you'll understand and get up in ya brain
Why ya boy so young and unashamed
[ Lyrics from: http://www.lyricsmode.com/lyrics/t/trip_lee/young_and_unashamed.html ]
Verse 2:
They don't associate ya boy wit Christ Jesus kid
'Cause I got my hat cocked and my jeans is big
No suit and tie, tall tees and kicks
But you ain't gotta be a geek to preach that Jesus lives
So it's almost strange when they see me hit tha street blocks
'Cause with my life I copy Christ like a Xerox
No heat cocked, I roll wit the Lord and
Wit a team full of Saints like I play for New Orleans
We hold each other accountable when seekin sound doctrine
Through Christ we been found not guilty without Cochran
We kingdom people selected to rep His name
Forget bout cheddar main, Christ is the better thing
I don't let no weapon hang, I don't roll wit thugs
That's holdin drugs and spendin all they dough in clubs
I roll wit a gang of believers that's crazy for Jesus
That's saved from the flames and unashamed of His teachings
Cats be like, "You just a baby, how you know about the Lord?"
To know Jehovah at His core we had to open up our swords
We read His word on a daily, His inspired text
And submit to the Spirit dog, we died to flesh
I confess, they tell us that our youth is bein wasted
Instead of jewels up in a bracelet, we speak truth each time we make hits
So maybe now it's stuck up in ya brain
Why the 116 is so young and unashamed

Verse 3:
Cats don't really understand, they think I lost my mind
They hood on they back, but I rock a cross on mine
Walk wit Christ in light, blood bought plus I'm
Not dark as night, I'm light because I sought His shine
I was livin' for today, was always caught in crimes
Bout guilty as O.J., my talk and walk declined
The Boss of time and space, but I put that to rest man
I saw my old life, it wasn't right like my left hand
Now He orders my steps and with Him is how I walk bro
Got off the highway to Hell and I took the cross roads
Now I'm walkin with Christ, what beautiful thing
It's cooler than fame, more precious than jewelry and chains
Most think God is just old school like Kool and the Gang
They wanna be like Jeezy, Jay-Z and Ludacris main
But I'm here today to say that if you want a greater day
Don't fade away, cling to Christ and His amazing savin grace
If you a Christian who accepted the King and you clean
We gotta move, the Lord is pleased when we play on His team
I hope young believers understand, I pray it's in ya brain
If we love the Lord we must be young and unashamed


Young
By Andy Mineo

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_h46Hx0pyik&feature=youtube_gdata_player

Look it don't matter if I'm young
This life isn't mine I'm living for Him now
I ain't wasting time (*tick tick) never turn back
I really ain't missing nothing stead of living for myself
I be living for the mission of the King that'll soon be coming
Sin over promise under delivers
I ain't with the nonsense I'm in the Scriptures
Get to know Him early I tell 'em why I wait
So Imma serve Him all my days

It don't matter if I'm (Young 2x)
Yeah I'm unashamed (Young 2x)
That's right I'm living for the King (Young 2x)
Through Him I can do all things (Young 2x)
Yeah it don't matter if I'm (Young 4x)
No it don't matter if I'm (Young 4x)
No it don't matter if I'm (Young 4x)
No it don't matter if I'm (Young 4x)
No it don't matter if I'm Young

They say living in your twenties
Go and get yours go and get money
Sow them wild oats slide with some honeys
Yeah I tried that already and them lies don't satisfy buddy
This ones really dumb they like have some fun
Now and change tomorrow, but that may never come (*tick tick)
And they saying they excuses that they young
While you stop making excuses when a man's what you become
Don't believe the lies yeah ya'll ain't missing nothing
'Cept never ending gains of holding on to sand grains
They calling me a fool I giving what I can't keep
Gaining what I can't lose

It don't matter if I'm (Young 2x)
Yeah I'm unashamed (Young 2x)
That's right I'm living for the King (Young 2x)
Through Him I can do all things (Young 2x)
Yeah it don't matter if I'm (Young 4x)
No it don't matter if I'm (Young 4x)
No it don't matter if I'm (Young 4x)
No it don't matter if I'm (Young 4x)
No it don't matter if I'm

Wheezy told me get that money little duffel bag boy
Them dime-bags, nickle-bags, hustle that enjoy
But Eons D say go to jail get out you unemployed
Now you a Winn-Dixie, Publix or a Kroger bag boy
And uh and if I listen to the colleges
I probably come out sounding like a Darwinist
Agnostic and arguing tolerance I can do whatever no consequence
Partyin' partyin' with a couple barbies
Going to Bob Marley spliffs
And my god is in science, psychology
The only problem is Yahweh's real
I was locked up in a box car
Couldn't pop the top until the Son popped up
Then He copped us with a drop blood
He would adopt the flock and by the cross bring us
Brought us from the bottom though I lost
Over what I got was God and His love
How could I be missing out on everything I'm hearing now?
This better and better I'm glad I'm young
So they say you young live your life
Do what you want I think they right
Cause we want Jesus living in our sight
You only live once, my homie's living twice
New heaven homie new earth too

Yeah I'm unashamed (Young 2x)
That's right I'm living for the King (Young 2x)
Through Him I can do all things (Young 2x)
Yeah it don't matter if I'm (Young 4x)
No it don't matter if I'm (Young 4x)
No it don't matter if I'm (Young 4x)
No it don't matter if I'm (Young 4x)
No it don't matter if I'm

Part of a puzzle

A big theme on our recent trip to Honduras was how everything was part of puzzles. The big puzzle of God's plan, the smaller puzzle of relief to Honduras, and the even smaller puzzle of how our team works. With surgeons but now nurses the surgeries don't go well because nothing would be clean or orderly. With no anesthesiologists patients would have to revert back to the old practice of shotgunning some rum before the surgeries. With only doctors the patients would have knowledge of the drugs they need but would be no better off. With only pharmacists patients would get overdoses and wrong meds.

Also a big problem that people were facing on our last day was "is what we did actually useful and beneficial?" people had many ideas and were saying that while medicines help them in the moment, they still are gonna get sick again. The thing is if we only focus on the long run, people die now and there would be no one left to help later. Basically they argued it back and forth for a while. Then God had me say "Guys, it really doesn't matter if you think that you are doing any good. Or that others think that you are doing any good. If God called you to do this just do it. Don't ask questions." They thought that it was deep and it ended the conversation anyway.

The fact is when a puzzle is not put together it is hard to see how each piece fits. Only God knows everything and our job is to just trust him and praise him for everything.

Trip #2

Being the second part of our trip. Btw this is an event only version. The theology will be discussed more later.

Also forgive the grammar errors. All of this was written on site and I was not worried about grammar.


H-Trip
March 24 2012
I woke up at 2:57 to dad trying to make the clock near our bed snooze, though it hadn't gone off. Turns out he heard my iPod and thought it was that clock. We got to the airport and checked in before I realized that I had forgotten my carry-on bag in the hotel. Fortunately I had taken my wallet, my iPod, and some headphones from it right before we left. We ate at burger king before we took off. The flight lasted 2 1/2 hours. We landed, ate at mcdonalds, and got ready for the next flight. The plane was really nice and they fed us so we got three breakfasts today xD. After we landed we met up with the BMDMI head dude for the hospital and his wife, along with three interpreters. We waited at the airport for 3 hours or so as other team members arrived. This took that long because one of the flights was delayed by two hours due to a very strange occourance. After boarding the plane they were told that there was some problem with the nose cap. After two hours of waiting the were finally alerted that the problem had been solved with, of course, duc tape. The nose of their plane was held together with duc tape! Anyway, during the time we waited we got lunch at McDonald's. As soon as everyone had arrived we went over to pizza hut and ate another lunch (yes that is 5 meals so far). After that everyone loaded on the buss and we navigated streets that made New York look tame. There appeared to be no traffic signals, but somehow we got out into the country and drove three hours to our final destination. Once there we unpacked and settled in. Then, after a dinner of some rice and meat thing, we got briefed and took a quick tour of the hospital. Bed shortly followed.

March 25 2012
Not much happening today. Got up at 6:45 and spent a while after breakfast trying to work the tech. We went to church this morning and listened to a Spanish sermon, but they had a translator. Today we see no patients because it's Sunday. After a lunch of nachos we started pumping some pills. We sorted, counted, bagged, and bottled medicines from 12:30-20:30 at night with a break for dinner that lasted about an hour and a half. We played some frisbee during that time and it rained while we stood on a little watch tower thing. From then on we just chillaxed. It's 22:13 right now. Oh, one other thing, someone saw a coral snake today! They are very poisonous and can kill with a single bite so I hope I don't run into one xD.

March 26 2012
We woke up at the regular time (6:45) and took a bus, after breakfast, to Talanga nearby and set up a hospital. I worked as a pharmacist and distributed like 500 packs of pills. xD after about 8 hours we stopped for the day. I'll give you the basic thing that happens to the patients. First they fill out "una tarjeta," which means a card. Each card has the patients height, weight, age, and stuff like that for the doctors on the front, and on the back is a list of all out medicines with check boxes next to the name. Ok, back to the patient's experience... They get their blood pressure taken and sent to the doctors. After the doctor sees them and checks the correct medicines they take their tarjeta to me and the farmicia crew. Basically I take their card, grab the medicines that are checked, and say something like "esto es para usted" or "estos son tuyos". The first version is more polite. You would be surprised at how many patients don't say thanks after they get their medicine. We finished and ate dinner and played some frisbee and games. Then we cooked some utensils to sterilize them.

March 27 2012
Woke up again at the regular time. Again I went to telanga to work as a pharmacist. It's pretty awesome, now that I have been doing it for two days I started to be able to check other people's trays and give my own out with out having to check it with the head honcho. We got back and ate a dinner of enchiladas. After dinner we talked for a while and went to bed at about 23:00.

March 28 2012
Got up and ate breakfast. Then we talked about the day and other stuff. Today I am gonna go to Telanga (surprise, surprise) and be a pharmacist again. The trip out is always interesting. We will pass these little shacks with shingles falling off and stuff and on top of EVERY shack is a "claro" wifi dish. It's humorous. We distributed medicines until lunch. After lunch we went out on a house visit and bought a lot of EXTREMELY MEGA SOUR candies which we fed to a bunch of people off the street to see their reaction xD it was hilarious, one started to do some sorta dance from the mega sour part, a lot of people tried to be polite and not freak out and pretended like they liked it. After we got back we just hung out till dinner, and after dinner we chilled till bed.

March 29 2012
We went to a different place today; a small school near by. We saw patients till lunch and ate a picnic at a marble mine. To get to the mine you must go on a trail that would be easy for a jeep, but for a school bus it was nearly impossible. Actually we had to get out an walk for one section to take some weight from the bus. After lunch we went back to the hospital and played four square and dodgeball until diner.

March 30 2012
We are headed to the valley of angels today. There we did some shopping. After that we went to a orphan's home run by BMDMI. All the kids were lacking attention and basically mobbed us. It started out nice, then we started to play soccer. NOT A GOOD IDEA!! They were wild and played by crazy rules. I told the girls on the sideline my name when they asked and they started chants and stuff with it. For some reason they kept telling me that I had to hit the ball with my feet instead of my hands... xD All the kids loved my accent and especially how I said "benjamin" and "soy americano". The kids all lacked attention and were very wild. One little fellow just ran up and slugged me in the gut. Another was testing out his water balloon throwing abilities. The game ended 1-1. After we left the kids place we went to a mission home. The place was really nice. After a dinner of beef and potatoes we watched some videos of BMDMI and our trip slideshow. When we finished that we went up to a balcony and talked for a while. People were trying to figure out all sorts of questions like if short-term mission trips are useful and what if what we just did is only a temporary bandage and not fixing any problem. During one of the prayers suddenly God told me something to say and apparently knew I wouldn't do it on my own so after the prayer was over the guy kinda running it pointed right at me and said something to the effect that I have been pretty quiet so far. It was pretty cool. After we finished the talk I looked at all 2111 pictures that were taken and went to bed.

March 31 2012
We fly out today. Breakfast was at 7:00 and I had five omelets that tasted really good. When breakfast was over we drove out to the airport. At one point the road disappeared over the edge of a cliff where an avalanche had ripped out a hole. We avoided the pit. The trip took a few hours and we got to the airport at 9:30 or so. My bag almost was left behind but fortunately was put into the ambulance and showed up. The runway that we will be leaving from is one of the most dangerous in the world so hopefully we survive... We took off by going to the very end of the runway (and I mean the VERY end) then they turned the jets on and kept the brakes on until the engines were going fast. They released the brakes and we shot away! It still took almost all the runway to take off but it was very fun xD. We arrived in Houston at about 4:00 and prepared for our next flight which left at 7:30, 25 minutes late. Got into Minneapolis and eventually got to our hotel where we quickly realized that I was more sick then anyone else had thought. We went to McDonald's for a midnight snack at 12:05 and went to bed at 12:30. The major difference between Honduras and USA can be summed up by two sentences: I saw only two stop signs in Honduras. No one stopped for either.

Trip stats:

1337 total patients

4119 prescriptions total

I probably filled somewhere between 40-60% of the prescriptions.

Total miles traveled: a large number