Let's start at the very beginning...

"Life is a daring adventure or nothing. Security does not exist in nature, nor do the children of men as a whole experience it. Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than exposure."

-Helen Keller

Before I start the story, let me just say...thanks for reading! Welcome! I haven't a clue what I'm doing with this whole blog thing, so please bare with me. I intend to use this blog to keep friends and family updated about my trip to Nalerigu Baptist Medical Center in Ghana.

A week from tomorrow Lord-willing, I will be boarding a plane, and 24 hours later I'll be in Accra--the capital of Ghana. I'll stay there for a day or so at a mission house, then I'll fly to Tamale (the 3rd largest city in Ghana). Finally, someone from Nalerigu Bapist Medical Center will pick me up, and we will take a 3 hour drive to get to my final destination for the next 8 weeks! You can check out their website at http://www.baptistmedicalcenter.org/.

So how did I work this all out???

Ultimately it's God, who opened up every door because there is no way I could have worked out the intricate details myself.

A year ago, my school sent me to Island Falls, ME for the month of February, it was freezing! It happened that a friend in the class ahead of me had stayed at the same house and worked with the same doctor. Brooke had also inspired me to go to El Salvador with Global Health Outreach during my 2nd year. So I e-mailed her to tell her I was at the same site she had been to. When she wrote me back, she told me about MAP.

MAP--Medical Assistance Program--funds a fellowship for 4th year medical students and residents with an interest in missions to do an 8 week rotation overseas.

I suggest you look at the MAP website too, http://www.map.org/. They are a very cool organization! Without making this too long, I won their scholarship! I originally planned to be heading to Papua New Guinea, however my school squashed those plans. The scholarship actually supported me to find a new location.

Finally, God opened up the door to go to Ghana. I'll be at a 123 bed hospital, with 2 American missionary doctors. There will be alot more about the hospital in upcoming posts.

Since I finalized my location, I also won two other scholarships to help defray the costs. I won the Humanism in Medicine Scholarship from SOMA and the Westra Scholarship from CMDA. Let me tell you, it's all God, because I've never been a big scholarship winner, then to win, three national scholarships in 1 year is CRAZY!

PS Upcoming posts will have alot more pictures, but my computer is crashed at the moment.