Medicine and Ministry - The New Program At CIU

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Hopeforthecaregiver.com. Many years ago, back in the early 80s when I was a very young man, I attended Columbia Bible College. It's now called Columbia International University. And I was there for a couple of years before transferring up to Nashville to finish up my studies in music. And I was the recipient there of some of the finest teaching and learning about Scripture in ways that I still hang on to for the brief time I was there for a couple of years. And I was getting the Alumni Magazine recently, and I saw in there that they have launched this new program to complete your BSN, your Bachelor of Science in Nursing, at CIU.

They're training nurses. And I was so moved by that that I called them up and I asked them, can we talk about this? Because I think it's so important for us as believers to embrace the original mandate that came for believers to minister to the wounded. Jesus himself said, I came to bind up the wounded, you know. And when we stand before him, he's going to ask us five things when I was sick, naked, hungry, thirsty, in prison.

And he's pretty serious about it. And so the fact that this wonderful institution down in Columbia, South Carolina is doing this, I felt like was worthy of our attention. I have been the recipient of interaction with many, many, many nurses over Gracie's journey.

I can't even count the number. And I've had some that were just extraordinary. And I had some that were less than so. I remember one nurse, I was so, I struggled with this in the middle of the night. Gracie was having, she'd had a pretty serious back surgery. She couldn't really do much of anything and she was just mortified at having the bedpans in the room and things such as that. She just hated it. And I was so frustrated on her behalf and I remember, I went and talked to this one nurse and she still wore, this was the time when they still wore the starch hats, or at least this one did.

She was real old school. And I went out there and I kind of choked up and I said, look, is there anything we can do different? And she looked at me and she said, in a voice that was so husky it could pull a dog sled, she said, oh for heaven's sakes. And she marched back in and I had a little cot beside Gracie's bed.

And this was decades ago. And she pointed a bony finger at me. She said, you lay down right there. And she took care of everything with Gracie. And then as I was laying there, I was just being very quiet because she told me to be still and I was. And then she leaned over and she held Gracie's hand and she prayed with Gracie. This was at 2 30 in the morning and she's praying with my wife.

And it was one of the most beautiful moments I'd ever seen. And so the thought of having a training program that will send nurses out there like this into hospice, into crisis pregnancy centers, into the mission field, who are going to minister the love of Christ and bring strong biblical understanding while performing very, very difficult things for family members and individuals and their families. Because this woman looked after me too.

It just moves me that the Columbia International University is doing this. And so I invited Jill McElhenney on the show to come and talk. She's the head of this whole program and I invited her to come and just talk about this. So Jill, welcome to the program.

Thank you so much, Peter. We are so excited here at Columbia International University where we're actually developing two nursing programs. Both are missions focused. The first one is that are into BSN programs for associate degree nurses or diploma nurses to get their bachelor's degree all online. We're really excited about that. We're also launching a four-year traditional nursing program on our campus next fall. So we're getting ready for that. There's just so much going on and we're excited because here we're going to be teaching nursing as a calling and not just as a job but a calling and as a ministry to others.

Exactly what you've been talking about. Our motto here is to know him and to make him known. And I can't think of another profession that's in a position to do this. Nurses are in such a unique position to do this.

So we are excited to be doing that here at CIU. You beautifully said, because I agree with you about this, is it is a calling. I have been in rooms where there was just it was it was so tense and there was so much pain and there was so much all kinds of stuff. And I will tell you this Jill before we get too far into this. I remember one time early on when Gracie was it was coming after one of her surgeries and for those of you don't know my wife she's had now that I can count 81 surgeries and it's it's been quite a haul and I was a young man I I don't think I was 27 years old and they overshot the medication evidently this is two days after the surgery something happened and she seized in the middle of the night she'd asked me to go down to the nursing station get her something to drink and she seized in the middle of the night and if you've never watched a seizure it is it is horrific experience this audience is probably very familiar with those but it was my first time and I came in there in the room and it was just god-awful and I immediately got the nurses in there and we're all working to keep her safe and keep her from falling on the bed she's throwing up it's screaming it was just awful and afterwards when she kind of blacked out which a lot of times with seizures that's it kind of kind of reboot boots you a little bit and and she got into some good rest at that point and they that I watched these nurses though and they all kind of took a deep breath and Gracie had thrown up everywhere and it was just it was a mess and they cleaned her up clean the room up one of them even brushed her hair and they cleaned up their uniforms they were you know used to this sort of thing and I'm sitting over there and I'm sitting in the chair and I've still got vomit on me and everything else and and I'm just kind of sitting down at 3 30 in the morning now and one of them put their put her put her hand on my shoulder said are you okay and I didn't know how to respond because I wasn't okay but I mumbled out yeah I guess so and but I wasn't okay but I didn't have the vocabulary at that point that's one of the reasons I do this show is to help give people the vocabulary of what it what it's like to be a caregiver attempt to express these things but I was struck by something Jill that these nurses number one they they didn't panic they were trained for the job number two they didn't try to fix Gracie they called the physician who showed up hair sticking straight up that kind of thing and I knew this surgeon well and they didn't judge Gracie they didn't anything they just ministered to her and they didn't worry about it getting on them they were dressed for the job and I thought man that's it as Christians that's that's that's what we're to do we we don't judge we minister to them in their distress we call the great physician and if we're wearing the righteousness of Christ we don't have to worry about it getting on us and that's the picture I have with nurses of what what it cemented in my brain and that is so when you mentioned the word calling that's what I think of you've had similar experiences in this in your career and your journey what is what is one that stands out for you as a nurse that would mean something to this audience specifically gosh that's hard because there have been so many of them but you're exactly right that it's a calling there's a different level of compassion that it takes to become a nurse one story that I always think about I I worked my background's been buried and I've worked in a lot of tough areas I've worked in pediatric trauma as a nurse practitioner for many years I've worked in disasters well hold that thought for just a second I didn't realize I'd run up against the break and I apologize for that and I will make it right by you Jill we're gonna run to a quick break here we're talking with Jill McElhenney I'm sorry I got that wrong Jill at Columbia International University in their new school of nursing there and I can't wait to hear some of the things that they're gonna be doing we'll be right back Peter Rosenberger he's not a preacher but he's got great hair welcome back to hope for the caregiver this is Peter Rosenberger this is the show for you as a family caregiver that is my wife Gracie from her CD resilient and if you want to get a copy of that go out to hope for the caregiver dot-com and you can see how to do that there we are talking with Jill McElhenney and she is from Columbia International University I used to go there many years ago in Columbia South Carolina and they have a new nursing program that we're very excited about and she was telling a little bit of her background before I didn't watch the clock properly and I'm sorry for that but she has a very extensive background so Jill finish that up and I'm so sorry about that oh that's okay so I was just saying that I I've always felt called to work in the tough areas of nursing and I prayed to God to continue to break my heart for what breaks his just so that I don't become hardened for caring for for patients that are sometimes hard to care for I've worked in pediatric trauma as a nurse practitioner for about 20 years and then I also worked in hospice home care and that was an area of nursing that I really wasn't exposed to as a student which is why I really I want our students to see hospice and to see some of the areas of care that I really think are forgotten about and I don't get as much exposure when students are going through school about ten years ago when I was a clinical manager in home hospice one of my jobs was to sign patients up for hospice so if you can imagine I'd go knocking on doors and you know trying to convince patients that they need to go into hospice care even if the doctor had ordered that a lot of times they were not happy to see me but my patients weren't and one one day I knocked on a door and this stern looking woman opened the door and I introduced myself and told her I was there to help her host her husband set up hospice care and she said I know my husband's doctor sent you here but we don't like hospice we don't need hospice I don't know why you're here and I said okay and you know I really try to meet patients where they are in the journey wherever that is and I just said is there anything you do need and she said well we could use a hospital bed because it's getting harder for me to turn my husband and get him in and out of bed and I nodded and I said okay I'll have a hospice bed I'm sorry a hospital bed delivered tomorrow to your house and she slammed the door in my face and I left and so the next day I come back to her house and I knocked on the door again to make sure the bed had been delivered asked her if I could come in and show her some ways to transfer her husband back in and out of the bed and she said okay so when I got back there there was this very thin man very thick in the bed and I stayed just a little bit telling him you know showing him and showing his wife how we could get them in and out of the bed okay and when I was leaving she stopped me by the front door and she said you know my husband's a Vietnam veteran and he was a colonel in the Air Force who won a lot of awards and I said that's great and I love it when they start telling me their stories because then I can really find out where this is going she went on and she said he served as the director of personnel for the military airlift command and a base commander and she went on and told me all these different awards he'd done and how powerful he was and she said he's not going to tell you this but he was the pilot who flew the American hostages out of Iran and January of 1981 and so she said he's always been so successful and so strong but now look at him he's so sick and so helpless and I thought this is this is sad this is a sad story but then she wasn't done she said we lost our 35 year old daughter to cancer not long ago and just 14 months after that her husband died of cancer so we have an 11 year old grandson who has no parents and we've been in Mississippi helping him you know caring for him and helping our son and daughter-in-law adopt him our other son so when we got back from Mississippi my husband had missed several of his own doctor's appointments and found out that he had stage four cancer and she said we went to ask about treatment the doctor told us and these were the words she said there is no hope and I didn't quite know what to say which is unusual because I usually have something to say so I did the only thing I knew what to do and I asked her if I could pray with her and she agreed thankfully so I prayed with her and I left and I decided usually I would assign these patients out to another nurse but I said you know what I need to stay with these people because they finally let me in and I've gotten through a little bit but you know this needs to be my patient there was too much going on in this house so I started visiting with the colonel I called him the colonel and we got to know each other pretty well and he was comfortable with me coming he was an Alabama Crimson Tide fan so I am a game we won't hold that against it so I'm a Gamecock fan here in South Carolina so I always wore Gamecock shirts when I went to visit him so we could you know kind of joke around and ride and talk about the rivalry and it was football season so one way that it instead of doing a neurological assessment on him I started asking him football stats and football scores from the weekend before and that was how we did our mental status assessment and we started talking about heaven because he knew he was dying and he knew he didn't have a lot of time left and he said to me his favorite verse was Romans 8 18 I considered that in our present sufferings are not worth comparing to the glory that will be revealed in us and I learned he was a believer and he was actually a member of my church I did not know them I had never seen them and we have a big church but I should have known that he was a member he said they had been out of church for so long because they'd been in Mississippi helping with the death of his daughter and the death of his son in law and then he became sick so he'd been out of church a while and I was able to contact our pastor with his permission and get our hospice chaplain in there as well to do some spiritual visits and they slowly began to work through some of this grief and some of this sorrow that they had because they really didn't have any hope when I walked in that door but the biggest part of this story that I love and this is what I like to share with my students is I didn't do a lot of nursing care the skills really didn't matter but because I had the opportunity to go into that house and to get in there and meet him where they were hear the story hear what was going on we were able to reconnect them back to their church family help them through some of this grief emotional pain they were having and also to spiritually do a spiritual assessment and spiritually reconnect them with their church so it was it's a great story he ended up dying he passed away peacefully his wife was there he was buried at Arlington National Cemetery and they invited me to come to the to the funeral at Arlington National Seminary Cemetery and I all I could think about was I'm the nurse that they slammed the door the door in my face and they didn't need hospice they didn't need a nurse they did and just because I was able to kind of listen to them and meet them where they were and do those assessments emotional assessment spiritual assessment the physical assessment there wasn't a lot I could do with it but that's what I want our nurses to know this is not just skills skills skills we're not going to be teaching you know only skills we are going to teach the same skills and they'll be testing on that just like any other nursing school in the country but our nurses are going to learn that physical and that spiritual and the emotional assessment that we need to do to take holistic care of these patients and that's going to be the difference showing them how they can show the light of Christ no matter what where they are where they're working what they're doing and to me that's missions whether it's internationally or this is someone in my church that needed missions needed someone to meet them where they were and someone to care for them so that's one of the stories that I like to share that is a great story and that you know that's the gospel though how many times if we slammed the door in the face of Christ you know we just the the music world just lost a great musician and hymn writer Ralph Carmichael recently and he wrote a hymn called the Savior is waiting I don't know if you ever heard that him or not the Savior is waiting to enter your heart why don't you let him come in and and the you know it's it's that picture of Jesus coming to the door and yet we have slammed the door in the face of Christ way too many times in our life I know I have and and here you are modeling that beautifully and this is what I believe will be the the fruit that comes out of what you're doing down there Jill to have nurses that are willing to take a slam door in the face in order to be able to to love and care for people that recognize that the trauma that is going on if you if you just allow the external bristleness if that's a word bristling to to rebuff you you're gonna miss the opportunity for ministry that is unparalleled and you by the way you've done things overseas with Samaritan's Purse and some other places as well correct that's right I've been on the International Medical Disaster team for Samaritan's Purse for about 11 years now and we go into natural disasters epidemics it's really one of those situations where when they call you you got to be ready to go you got to feel like you're you know again that's another situation where you got to be called into that and I never imagined in a million years I would be the one to go out and do disaster care but that's somewhere that I was called into and it's been a passion of mine broken people who've lost everything that they're ready to hear the gospel and they need to hear it they you know that again like being told you have no hope there's no hope for you that's something that we can show them there is hope there is hope in in the salvation of Jesus Christ and as nurses we're at the bedside we're the ones who are there when they're broken we don't have to force this on them I've had patients overseas who asked me why do you come all the way over here to do this I'm sure you have a better job in the United States well because this I'm serving as the hands and feet of my God and of Jesus Christ and they are asking why you do what you do and you have the opportunity to share that and I've seen so many patients come to Christ that way and it's such a blessing but it is a calling and that's that's one thing that I want to impress is that you know you're hearing all about the nursing shortage and how much nurses can get paid right now and how and and that's really important but if you're not called to this type of work just like the story you shared about the nurses who had vomit on them and who were calm under pressure that's that they were called to do that that's the only way you can do this you know they really were Jill it was astonishing the way they handled that in stride and but not only that but they turned to look around at me you know that's you know they looked at me and and they were they were some of the first people that looked at me as a caregiver and for that I'm always grateful it makes me kind of get emotional to think about it because so many caregivers are not seen and you are modeling exactly what I I'm just deeply moved I love what you're doing we're gonna talk some more this is Jill McElhaney and she is from Columbia International University this is Hope for the Caregiver we'll be right back. Welcome back to Hope for the Caregiver this is Peter Rosenberg and this is the show for you as a family caregiver and we are so glad that you're with us hopeforthecaregiver.com we're talking with Jill McElhaney and she is from Columbia International University Jill do you remember that song by the way from the Imperials yes I've heard that before that's one of my all-time favorites that's Russ Taff and the Imperials and that is just one of my all-time favorite songs I'm forgiven now I have a reason for living Jesus keeps giving and giving and one of the things I want to do on this show is and I've worked hard to do this is to show people that caregivers if you try to do this on your own you're gonna run out of steam but if you will allow the inexhaustible love of God through Christ to come through you and let him do it through you as opposed to you trying to just you know grip this thing as hard as you can and wrestle it to the ground you're gonna find that you can do this with in a calmer healthier and dare I say it even more joyful way even while tears fill your eyes it doesn't rob you of the joy and the beauty of seeing God move and this is what Jill talked about in the last block that being able to to see the the pain of this family and yet the beauty of the redemptive work of God moving in this Jill one of the things I asked you before we came on the program was you know what kind of candidate are you looking for what is what is the school wanting to who are they who are they trying to connect with and what that person would look like that would come to your environment because a lot of this can be done almost all of this can be done online I think for the first program the second program I think you have to actually be in the school at location wise but but the the first program is like a hundred percent online is that what I understand that's right the RN to BSM program we're looking for nurses who are working as nurses who have completed an associate's degree program or possibly a diploma nursing program and they're working to get that bachelor's degree we can do it all online and then they'll be doing a mission focused clinical capstone project in their own community it could be anything from a COVID vaccine clinic or helping to do a quality improvement project in a crisis pregnancy center something like that we'll talk about it all through the program of that and help them identify an area that they may want to serve and complete a capstone project there but otherwise it's all online it's 15 months and we're really excited to also show some nursing leadership in that bachelor's degree online and there's the first course and the course that I teach is called nursing for vulnerable populations so we're going to talk all about different kinds of populations that might be forgotten or that a little more difficult to care for drug addicted populations we're going to talk about prison ministry and how we can help care for homeless shelters and migrant worker clinics places that you know may not be very popular to work in but areas that we could make a big difference and one of the things I want to share with the audience is if you as a caregiver have been blessed by a nurse that has come alongside you and your family and your loved one during some difficult times and you feel like this may be something they may be interested in would you consider telling them about it and possibly even helping them with a scholarship to do this it is it's a great way to say thank you to those who've been alongside you during these processes that you've dealt with as as a caregiver through through lonely stretches and sometimes the only person that gave you a kind word was this particular nurse so I would ask that you please let them know about this they may want to get their BSN they could do it from a distance and they and then if you want even designate a scholarship for it you know and and there's ways that you can do this as a way of saying thank you or if you're a pastor or so forth you know somebody in your church is like this please let them know this this is an extraordinary opportunity tell us about you you were mentioning to me about a candidate that you you wanted to tell a story about that of you guys that's came into the system there and I would love to hear that right well you know all nursing schools have admission requirements and they usually request a specific grade point average or an SAT ACT test score or something like that but and we do that as well but I also like to interview every single student before he or she comes to the program and one of the questions I ask is tell me why you've chosen nursing because I really feel like this different set of skills and compassion the stamina all that I want to know why they chose it so that I know this is going to carry them through their careers I tell students all the time write down your why on a note card and look at that when you're in school and it's tough or when you become a nurse look back at your why and you know especially times like right now during a pandemic you're working over time mandatory over time look back at your why why are you doing this what what brought you to nursing and that tells me so much about students but the other question I like to ask is what have you done to prepare for nursing school and one of the students that I had in the past her name was Kaia and she had special needs twins that required her full-time care and so she had become a certified nursing assistant to care for them and that was her why she's like I want to go back to you be able to care for other patients I'm good at this I'm called to this this is my calling so she had been taking prerequisites for about six years one at a time while she's taking care of her special needs twins at home and she told me when I asked her in her interview what have you done to prepare for nursing school she said I've saved enough money for my husband to stay home with these twins for two years so he doesn't work and I don't work and I can focus on the nursing program for the next two years because she was coming in as a junior and she said so and I've moved my mother-in-law in with me we've saved the money we've done all these things this is my calling this is all I want to do in the world and I said girl I don't even care what your GPA is you are going to do well because this is what you're called to do so she graduated this past May and passed the NCLEX the national licensure exam with flying colors and her GPA may not have been the top one I had but that's why I interview students because if you're called to do it you're going to be great in it and she came back and visited me this summer after she graduated it was such a blessing to see that that is the way we need to choose our candidates because you know I've had 4.0 students who you know with the perfect GPA come in and they're just not sure about it they're not called to it and they're not going to do well in the program because they're not going to have that passion and then to work as a nurse you this has got to be what you want to do and what you're called to and I do believe it's a calling by God because just as we've described these stories I mean it's it's not an easy job to have no it's not in in your around family and patients with so much tension at times and it's you've got to read the room very quickly you've got to pivot you've got there's there's so many different things going on at one time and you know it's that's that's wonderful I shudder to think about my GPM and that's why I graduated Thank You Lody and it's you know it's how come so lousy but but I I recognize this with a passion because I've seen those and I also remember a lot of guys that took care of Gracie during times that were former medics in the Marine Corps there was a particular ones I'm thinking of that big strong fellas and they were so great with her because when when they had to lift her it was hard because when she didn't have her legs and all the things that were going on and but they were so tender with her you could just tell that this was in their DNA and and so I think about you know people like that as well that have the opportunity to continue their education and get this bachelor's degree who have this vast amount of field experience and and want to put that in there and then go into new areas we're gonna bump up against the break here in a minute but let's start the conversation about hospice because we've dealt with this with a family member recently and you know you want people are nervous about this they feel like oh this is just going to help them just die but that's not what hospice is all about there are lots of different kinds of hospice care and and yet I've also know that when folks come in and we've had different people come in who are very sincere about it but they they're Buddhist and they're this or that or whatever and what a treat it would be to have strong biblically trained believers who are very good nurses come into those situations what what better way to minister into people's lives than at their most vulnerable right at the right at these very difficult times of sickness and even approaching death talk a little bit about your program there if we hit the break we'll just continue on to the next block well I agree with you hospice is there a lot there's so many misconceptions about hospice care and you know that we're going to help them die that it's you know they're at the end of the road but really hospice is so much more than that the nursing skills are obviously necessary but the spiritual care is so important one of the most important members of the hospice team and it is a team it is a team of a nurse and a social worker and a chaplain the spiritual care there is so important I've seen so many patients who really were struggling spiritually and stayed alive longer and suffered a lot longer because they were struggling spiritually and and the Christian hospice nurse and this is what I want to I'm hoping to get our students to understand is if you can identify and do that spiritual assessment on that patient you can say okay I've done all I can do physically I'm going to call in the chaplain to come do a visit with this this patient and I've seen it so many times where I'm you know I'm sitting there looking in my books and I'm using all of my medical knowledge and I'm saying there's no reason this person is still alive and there's no reason this pain can't be relieved with this and there's no reason you know that this should be happening and then I call the chaplain in and the chaplain is able to help this patient by you whether it being a life review or to tackle something spiritually that they're struggling with or answer some of those questions that they're wondering about am I going to heaven is this way you know have I am I going to be punished for things that have happened in my life and the you know a relationship with a family member that's estranged all of these things are so important in the dying process and the other thing I want my pay my students to understand is that God created the dying process and I've seen that so many different times so you know there are all these movements for euthanasia and to end suffering God created this suffering that we have at the end of life for those moments for those spiritual reconciliation moments and I've seen it so many different times well he does he uses he uses the broken things of this world he uses suffering he uses sin sinlessly in order to weave redemption into these things and point to his glory and I've seen CS Lewis says that suffering is God's megaphone you know and and it gets our attention and that's when we recognize that this world is broken you know he would one day we won't have this and there will be a new heaven a new earth and all of this will be gone but for right now he does this and there is the privilege we have as believers to minister along the way to others we mourn with those who mourn and we comfort those with the same comfort we ourselves have received we'll be right back hey this is Peter Rosenberg if you like this podcast if you find value in what we're doing please go to hopeforthecaregiver.com slash giving and help us do more help us get this word out on more radio stations there is nothing like what we're doing and there are so many caregivers I mean more than 65 million and the numbers keep growing who are they going to listen to who's going to reach them who's going to speak in a way that they understand that's what this program is all about can you help us do more hopeforthecaregiver.com slash giving thanks so much welcome back to Hope for the Caregiver this is Peter Rosenberg and this is the show for you as a family caregiver that is Gracie with Russ Taft on the Joy of the Lord I love that song and I love to listen to her proclaim that and she's doing that through a broken body but not a broken spirit we are talking with Jill McElhenney and she is from Columbia International University their new program they have for nurses and training nurses to go out and be emissaries of the gospel while ministering physically and spiritually and it's a great work that they're doing we talked about hospice which is a very difficult subject for a lot of folks but there's another area that CIU is wanting to also address and that is in crisis pregnancies and what happens in these places where young women girls are terrified they're just they're truly terrified and they're they're contemplating horrific decisions because of that fear because of shame because of guilt because of whatever and who do you want to intersect with these young ladies but biblically trained medical personnel who can bring the light of Christ into what to them looks like such a dark place so Jill talk a little bit about that and the things that you're excited about and where you see the great opportunities okay yes we have a partnership with a crisis pregnancy center here in Columbia but we also are encouraging our online students to connect with these organizations in their own communities so that they can be exposed I really feel like a lot of nursing programs I've taught in many programs over the last 20 years and the the focus is always on the inpatient ICU the critical care areas the acute care areas and those are all important and our students will all go be going to those as well but we're also going to expose our students and take them into the community health areas like crisis pregnancy centers so that we can minister to those patients there and to really show our students that we're in the best position to do that as nurses and working with with those vulnerable patients in that population the other thing is just in the acute care settings in the hospitals in the emergency department you encounters you encounter the same patients that would be going to these crisis pregnancy centers and after working in the emergency department for so many years had lots of teenage girls and young mothers who come in and very confused or finding out that they're pregnant in the emergency department and that was an opportunity to minister to them there so it may not even be in those crisis pregnancy centers but also referring them to those centers and knowing where they are knowing what they do knowing what they're about making sure they refer them to the right crisis pregnancy center because you know the one here in Columbia is strategically placed across from a Planned Parenthood clinic and just making sure that you know how to refer these patients and know how to guide them and direct them but also just to be a hand holder and to show them love and no judgment and show you know show them the light of Christ by telling that God loves them and that there are alternatives to what they're what they are thinking that the only alternative is well one of the challenges I have found as you journey through these medical crises that so many of us as caregivers do is that we are hearing so much about death we're hearing so much about suffering we're hearing so much about pain and loss and sorrow but we're not hearing words of life there's an old hymn that I love I've played it on this show before it because usually every week I'll do a hymn every week to drive home a point so people can have it kind of hang on to a thought you know one of them is a beautiful wonderful words of life do you know that old hymn yes yes it's a and I want people to learn it beautiful words wonderful words wonderful words of life and if if no one is speaking to life into these situations what is the person going to do and there's a great sign have you seen the chosen by the way no I haven't that yet oh do yourself a favor do yourself a favor there's a scene though where there's there's a man in and those of you seen it will know this and he has a broken leg from a fall from a horse and the character playing Jesus does such an amazing job and they're sitting around a fire at night and talking and he says I come from a kingdom where there is no more suffering there's no more injuries there's no more any of these things he said but in this world bones still break hearts still break and this is what he came to do is to redeem all this and if we're not speaking this life and people think it's country well if God is so great why do you allow it and my question is why aren't we hearing more of these people speaking life into it as opposed to just wanting to argue with why did God did this why I get this and they're missing the whole point of the cross they're missing the whole point of the redemptive story and the whole point of what is being done in us as we minister to others as I said the last block comfort one another with the same comfort that we ourselves have received Margaret Mead the anthropologist she once said that the first sign of a civilization is compassion and you know what she backed that up on when she discovered a healed femur which is the longest bone in the body my wife just broke her femur last month and she's recovering from it and it's a long process it's a six to eight week process and somebody's got to care for that person somebody's got to feed them somebody's got to to do their work or whatever and that she saw compassion is when you see somebody with a healed femur they were the recipient of compassion and and I love that story I just I think that is just an amazing thing and they're so descriptive of what you all are doing here is that you're marrying the science of healing with the the passion of Christ to minister to the wounded and the broken-hearted and and in the last couple of minutes here we've got if somebody is interested in this they want to pursue this or share this with someone what is the best way for them to find out about what you guys are doing the best way would be if they're if you have a nurse who is interested in coming back to get the BSN the Bachelors of Science and Nursing degree the best way is to go to our website ciu.edu backslash apply and they can apply right there click on that link and we can answer any of the questions as soon as we get that contact there so it's ciu.edu slash apply and then the if you mentioned that if you had a caregiver who was interested in going back and maybe you wanted to support them and you wanted to give them a scholarship the best way to do that would be to go to ciu.edu slash give nursing and we we are accepting scholarships we're accepting any kind of support we can because again you know we're a private Christian institution and we've been blessed to have so much support but we need more to get this off the ground and we're so excited for to be able to speak to your caregivers because this is exactly what I want our students to know and the populations that our students need to be caring for so we're very excited that you've asked us to be here today oh this is this is my pleasure I've I've been at this school I was a student there my father-in-law was a student there and I know these people and I know the passion they have for the Word of God and for ministry and I cannot stress to you enough if you feel called to this and you have you you think okay I want to learn more about this please do not let anything stop you the where he leads he feeds where he guides he provides there will be resources there for you to do this they'll work with you they're about equipping people to go out as the whole mission of Columbia International University it is right there in the in the Chapel shortest Chapel in on the campus there's there's a globe there's two two sides of the globe and right there it says to know him and to make him known Mike when I was a student there I had what they call college service I had to and you know you do different types of tasks around the campus to help offset bills and in your your tuition and so forth so we all did color service and one of mine was to clean the chapel and to sweep it I did it every I think I did it every Friday and I had to go in there and sweep and and organize the chapel and so forth so I spent a lot of time in that Chapel and I looked at that sign every time back and forth those aisles and those where those chairs were to know him and to make him known and what better way than to equip nurses to go into these places where people are hurting where they're suffering where they're scared where they'll even slam the door in your face as Jill shared with us earlier but if we are prepared if we're wearing the right garment which is the righteousness of Christ in this we can walk into any of those things with confidence knowing that he is he who began a good work is faithful to complete it to the day of Christ Jesus and wouldn't you love to be a part of that whether it's sponsoring a nurse whether it's sharing this podcast with someone else or telling somebody else about it on the radio whatever you can do to and and also commit to praying for them commit to praying for we've got plenty of people out there that are talking about death we've got plenty of people out there that are wanting to end life there if it's inconvenient let's get rid of it whether it's a child in the womb or whether it's somebody who is chronically ill and this is the culture that we're trying to go into and minister the light of Christ and the darkness does not comprehend that light but we can and that light can come right through us through the redemptive work of Christ and you could be a part of that today ciu.edu is the site for this for the university go out there and you can go to the nursing you go to the giving there's all kinds of things you can do Jill thank you so much for being a part of this today we really appreciate it we want you to come back thank you so much for having me Peter I'm blessed to be here all right this is the show for family caregivers and healthy caregivers make better caregivers okay hope for the caregiver calm we'll see you next time some of you know the remarkable story of Peter's wife Gracie and recently Peter talked to Gracie about all the wonderful things that have emerged from her difficult journey take a listen Gracie when you envision doing a prosthetic limb outreach did you ever think that inmates would help you do that not in a million years when you go to the facility run by CoreCivic and you see the faces of these inmates that are working on prosthetic limbs that you have helped collect from all over the country that you put out the plea for and they're disassembling you see all these legs like what you have your own prosthetic and arms when you see all this what does that do to you makes me cry because I see the smiles on their faces and I know I know what it is to be locked someplace where you can't get out without somebody else allowing you to get out of course being in the hospital so much and so long that these men are so glad that they get to be doing as as one band said something good finally with my hands did you know before you became an amputee that parts of prosthetic limbs could be recycled no I had no idea you know I thought a peg leg I thought of wooden legs I never thought of titanium and carbon legs and flex feet and sea legs and all that I never thought about that as you watch these inmates participate in something like this knowing that they're helping other people now walk they're providing the means for these supplies to get over there what does that do to you just on a heart level I wish I could explain to the world what I see in there and I wish that I could be able to go and say the this guy right here he needs to go to Africa with us I never not feel that way out every time you know you always make me have to leave I don't want to leave them I feel like I'm at home with them and I feel like that we have a common bond but I would have never expected that only God could put together now that you've had an experience with it what do you think of the faith-based programs that CoreCivic offers I think they're just absolutely awesome and I think every prison out there should have faith-based programs like this because the return rate of the men that are involved in this particular faith-based program and other ones like it but I know about this one are it's just an amazingly low rate compared to those who don't have them and I think that that says so much that doesn't have anything to do with me it just has something to do with God using somebody broken to help other broken people if people want to donate a use prosthetic limbs whether from a loved one who passed away or you know somebody who outgrew them you've donated some of your own for them to do how do they do that please go to standingwithhope.com slash recycle standingwithhope.com slash recycle thanks Gracie you