My Last Week in Hawaii :(

I can't believe that I will be leaving Hawaii in less than 3 days!! The past 3 months have just flown by! I am really excited to be able to come home for 4 days!! I hope that I can see as many of you as possible! My plan is to be at Pacific Community Church on Sunday Sept 23.
This last week of school has been really, really intense and stressful, but I have learned so much! We had an EMT from Seattle area teach us about Emergency Medical Treatment. Several times a day during the teaching lectures, there would be people screaming and we would hear loud sounds and have to rush outside to find some people bleeding and badly hurt! I have to applaud our patients and the make up team, because they did such a realistic job! I think my heart rate has been double for this whole week!! The last scene we had was a 2 car accident with 7 casualties! It was so realistic that we had a huge crowd of bystanders and a nurse who rushed over from a nearby apartment building. Our staff had tried to warn as many people as possible without any of us students finding out about it. We had to do triage, treatment and transport for all of the casualties. They had even called 911 to let them know that they were doing a 'mock' accident because apparently they get called every year!! This week was so intense that many of us resorted to tears! We understood why our teacher came a day early and took us out on a fun boating adventure to go snorkeling and bond with us! And that day of snorkeling was probably one of our funnest days here! But during the week, we sure learned how to work under pressure!! So even though I have learned so much at this school, I still feel that there is so much more to learn! I am excited to be able to use what I do know to help people in Cambodia and Thailand. I am flying to Cambodia by myself :( on Sunday Sept 23! We have recently learned that in one of the remote northern provinces of Cambodia, where we will be going, they are have just started to persecute the Christians there for their faith! If you can pray for us that we would still be able to impact those whom God has for us there and that he will protect us and keep us safe! There is still a possibility that we may go to Myanmar (Burma) which is a lot more dangerous, so just pray that God opens the door for that if it's his will. Several of my team members have been feeling sick this week:( Jessica has a respiratory infection so pray that God heals her quickly!! One of my staff, Tom, has flown back to the mainland to be with his sister as she has surgery for cancer. He is planning on rejoining us in Cambodia. Pray that God uses this time to restore their relationship and that he restores Tom's sister to himself! Our school leader Freidhelm's mom is dying of cancer in Germany and he is still torn between coming to Cambodia or going home to Germany to be with his mom. Freidhelm is currently at a big YWAM health care conference in India with another one of our staff. Pray for clear decision for Freidhelm and for his mom's healing and relationship with God. My roommate Jodi has suffered from migraine headaches for 10 years. Last week during a counseling session here on campus, she felt God delivered her from those headaches!!! But since then has been suffering from mild headaches everyday so we are praying for her complete deliverance!! Also pray for continued unity among our team that we may go out full of God's love!!:) Thank you so much for all your continued support, encouragement, prayers and love!! I am attempting to add some pictures from this week of the day snorkeling and also the traumas we experienced in class. Hope to see many of you later this week!! Love you!!!

My Second Month

Well August has just flown by! I've been so busy and computers and me don't get along very well so the few times that I have started to update this my computer has decided to act up!! Not my fault at all I am sure!! lol :P We have learned so many things in the last month that I am not sure that I can remember them all!! One of the main focuses was nutrition and the different types of malnutrition. We learned how to use a mix chart with staple foods such as rice, maize or potatoes and mix that with beans or eggs or sweet potatoes etc to make a complete protein. We studied some of the common deficiencies in Cambodia especially and what foods were available there that the people could eat to prevent those deficiencies. One of my favorite weeks was last week. We had a lady teaching us on how to do teachings in the villages. We weren't allowed to bring our laptops to class or switch on the AC and we had to do group presentations in village style settings. All week we had to sit and study on the floor! This teacher even made me cry with some of the tough questions she made us ponder but she ended up being one of my favorites and one that challenged me and made me think about some really hard issues! My group presentation was on breastfeeding. We talked about the importance of breastfeeding for the baby and the mother and why, especially the importance of giving the baby the first breast milk-the colostrum. In many cultures this is not done. This last week brought together our teachings on world view, cultures and some of the key issues we had been studying and how to present that in a village setting! It was really hands on and useful and we know have a valuable teaching to take with us to Cambodia.
The last few weeks there have been a few changes to our team. Our teammate and roommate, Jenni, went home so know we are down to 9 students and only 3 people in my room. It was hard to say goodbye to her and there were lots of tears! Funny thing is that her flight got cancelled and the airlines put her up for 2 nights in the Hilton hotel!! It is one of the most expensive hotels on the island!! (I think its like $500/night!) A few of us girls borrowed a car and drove out to spend the day with her! It was so much fun enjoying there beautiful beach and snorkeling! A wonderful last day with Jenni! We also lost 2 of our staff a month early because they had a huge conference to go to in India!! We are missing them but know that it is important for them to be there!! Another staff, Tom, might be leaving soon to go look after his aging sister who just got diagnosed with a late stage of breast cancer:( We will be so sad to see him go but understand the need for him to be with his sister. We are praying for her healing and would appreciate your prayers too! Her name is Kathy. Tom would then try to meet up with us in Cambodia as soon as he was able while his wife stayed with us. We are really praying that he does not have to go!! Tom's wife Cindy is my small group leader and I have had some dinners and talks with them and they are so wonderful!! I think that God has amazing plans for us in Cambodia and the enemy is trying to distract from that so please pray for this!!

I have not felt as tired this last week, (other than the day I stayed up til 2am doing my presentation!! lol), and have not gotten seriously sick other than 1 migraine headache, so that is very good!! Most of my teammates and staff have gotten sick with stomach problems and diarrhea:( I would really appreciate your continued prayers for my health especially as we head to Cambodia!!
The first week I was here on of the staff mentioned that one of our teachers would be the school leader of a midwife school in the Philippines. My heart started racing as soon as I heard about that program!! We will not be receiving this teaching from her until we are in Cambodia and I was just going to wait and talk with the teacher then about the midwife school, but my roommate Jodi, who is also very interested in the program, ended up looking it up online and found out that we only have a few weeks left to apply for the next school which starts in March!!! So we have both emailed for application forms to be sent to us and are anxiously awaiting the reply!! 2 years is at times sounding like a long time to me especially when I would love to get married and have a family, but if its what God is calling me to-I want to do it!!! This program that we are inquiring about is 2 years in the Philippines. It gives you the certification to deliver babies in North America. It is primarily based out of a hospital that delivers about 1,500 babies a year!! I am really excited about the prospect of getting this training! Mothers and babies are so close to my heart and I would love to be able to make a difference in the number of mothers and babies that die from preventable deaths!!:( Please pray for me about this as it would be a big commitment for me!!

My outreach fees for going to Cambodia and Thailand are due next week!!! As of the moment I still owe over $3,000!! (American:( I know this is where God wants me to be right now so I am willing to put this on my creditcard and try to pay it off when I come home but I would really rather not have to do this! If any of you feel it on your heart to partner with me in sharing God's love in a practical way with the poor and needy, I would soooooooo appreciate it!! You can send a check to my parents home address (they prefer it not be posted on this site as anyone can read it, but email me or contact them and we can get that too you!:) Or you can send a check to:

Sherina Tatum #388

University of the Nations

75-5851 Kuakini Highway

Kailua-Kona, Hawaii

96740-2199 USA

I will be home for 3 days!!! Sept 19 until Sept 23. I am in one of my friends weddings so I will be very busy but I would love to see as many of you as possible!! I will be at church, PCC, on Sunday Sept 23 before I leave. Feel free to email me as well if you would like to see me and I will see what I can do!! (Or if you want to give me money!! lol I am getting desperate!! lol:P)

My email address is: sherinatatum@hotmail.com

Thank you so much for reading this!! I'm sorry it took me so long to do this update!!:( I love you all and miss you all!!! Thank you for your prayers, support and encourament!!

My First Month In Primary Health School!!

Well, school has been so intense that it has taken me until now just to create this blog! I've never done this before so I hope it turns out.

This is a picture of all of the students and staff in my school. We are quite a small school but that has enabled us to bond very quickly. I really like all my classmates and the staff.

All of us students have the breakfast work duty so we get up between 4:30 and 4:45am Monday through Friday to make breakfast for the whole campus which is only about 300 people. I'm finding it hard to get up so early and with all the homework and evening meetings it is also hard to get to bed early enough so I am very tired!!

We have covered many topics in school so far. I'm finding the school very interesting but there is so much information coming at us each week that I can't retain it all! So far in the 3 weeks of classes we have covered the following topics:

Water & Sanitation where we learned how many preventable deaths there are from water and sanitation issues as well as different ways to make a water filter.

We learned the 8 Keys to Primary Health Care

We learned about the main diseases which affect developing countries which are:

Malaria, Polio, Tetanus, TB, Pneumonia, Typhoid, Pertusis, Diphtheria, Mealses, and more!

We learned how to recognize them and ways to treat and prevent them.

We have learned the anatomical names for parts of the body and Greek and Latin Medical Terminology such as gastrectomy, thrombophlebitis, and epigastrium to name a few!

We've had a crash course on Pharmacology which entailed knowing the generic names for drugs, dosages, ways of administering the meds, side effects, and contraindications.

We learned about different world views such as Hinduism, Buddhism, Taoism, Voodoo, Wicca, Communism, Islam, Basic Gnosticism and Biblical. We learned how each religion views a man, the universe, god, nature, history and death. We also learned how to see lasting change in a community and culture and how to work along side the people and get the most information about their village and way of life.

We have also learned about massage, and pregnancy, and child growth and development.

We have extensively studied the muscular system, skeletal system, the eye, ear and respiratory system. We can recognize, treat and prevent many common illness found in these areas.

We all have stethoscopes, and blood pressure cuffs and ear, nose and throat lights and know how to recognize a normal eye, ear and throat as well as the signs of most common diseases.

We can take your respirations, heart beat and blood pressure.

We have extensively studied about dehydration, malnutrition and diarrhea. We can instruct on how to make re hydration solutions and how to care for wounds.

I feel like I am leaving out so much of the stuff that we have learned but I know by know that most of you probably aren't still reading this anyways!!! This is just to give you an idea of the intensity of the program!! Every weekend we have a test on all the information from that week. We also have book reports due, presentations, homework assignments, and personal journals that are read by our small group leaders.

My average week goes like this:

Wake up at 4:30, get ready for the day.

Work duty from about 5:20-7:40. Back to the room to change and pack all my school stuff. Hike down to the bottom of the campus (about 7 mins straight down 90 some stairs!)

We have worship, intercession, devotionals, or Bible study from 8-9.

Then from 9-noonish we have class. Lunch is usually about 40mins, then back to class til 3 or 3:30. Then hike back up the 90 some stairs, go to our room, study, go to dinner, study more, and go to bed, usually around 10 of 11!

On the weekends there is cleaning, church, homework, studying, test writing, and journals.

I have only been to a beach twice!:( I don't even have very much of a tan, one cuz at 3 when we get out of class it is already cloudy and preparing to rain, and two cuz we don't have time!!

I am loving everything that I am learning but it does get a bit overwhelming!!

If you think of me I could really use prayer for sleeping more, and continued health as many of the students have been sick with different things. Also one of my classmates still needs money for school and the deadline is next week!! I too will need to raise some more money for the outreach part of this program. I think I still need just over $6,000!!! Thank you so much for taking the time to read this and for your prayers and support! It has got me through some tough times here but I know this is where God wants me and it is so worth it!!!