All Things... Jess :)

Countdown until Uganda: 12 days!! :)

I couldn't be more excited! It is coming up so quickly--I just hope it doesn't go by just as quickly. 

I just wanted to update those of you who are curious about what God has been teaching me lately. 

1) Relationship. If you read anything about my facebook fast, then this may sound familiar. God has really been laying "relationship" on my heart. Not only does God illustrate the greatest and most beautiful relationship-- he wants to be in relationship with us. He also desires us to be in relationship with others. I always take this for granted. But over the past few months, God has placed situations in my life to engage in relationships. I have hung out with so many wonderful people who care about me and who I care about. Whether aware of it or not, they have shown me God's love and his design for relationship. 

2) Worship. If you know me, you know that I really don't like worship. I think that the songs sung in church are just dully, recited drones that no one really thoroughly understands, believes, or lives out. In chapel a few weeks ago, they focused on Revelation 4. In this passage, John is witnessing the truest form of worship. I can't even describe the passage to you because it is utter beauty. The description of the scene is literally jaw-dropping. He says that there are four living creatures that never stop saying, "Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord God Almighty, who was and is and is to come." Later, he describes 24 elders who fall to their faces in worship, laying their crowns at the feet of the Lord saying, " You are worthy, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will they were created and have their being."  This is worship. We were created by the most high God. The same guy who placed the stars one by one in the sky. The same guy who knows the number of hairs on our head. He deserves all the worship we can give him. Our entire lives should be of worship. God deserves praise. Every second of everyday-- and even that isn't enough. How cool would it be to be one of the 4 living creatures who NEVER STOP SAYING "holy holy holy is the Lord God Almighty..." Wow. So great. I think after reading this chapter, I really understand worship. We don't do it to act "Christian" or just because everyone else is doing it. We need to read the songs and truly sing them to God from our hearts. The Spirit has really been alive inside me during times of worship. I crave it constantly now. All I want to do is praise him. God is so good. He is worthy of our praise. 

3) To God Alone Be The Glory. Soli Deo Gloria. No matter what we do, we need to glorify him alone. We cannot boast in our treasures or talents, but in God alone. 1 Corinthians 10:31 says, "So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God."

So those are three things that God has really been teaching me lately. I am sure he has a lot more up his sleeve, especially while I am in Uganda. 

Prayer request updates: 

-Continue praying for our team. That we may be the hands and feet of God. That we may have the heart, ears, and eyes of God. That we will be full of the Spirit and listen and learn everything God has planned to rock our world with.

-For the community. We recently had a guy come to our team meeting who lived in the community with FH for 3 years. So he gave us a lot of details regarding the area and exactly the living situation and such. I pray that the community members will be prepared for our arrival. That they will feel the love and peace of Christ. 

-For the FH field staff. Apparently we will be interacting the most with the nationals who work as FH field staff in the community. They all speak great English-- which is a blessing. But the guy who spoke to us told us that these are the people we will really be impacting. We will be there to encourage and uplift them in their work, as well as work along side them often. I pray that they will be encouraged by our team and not be burdened. I pray that we can show them your love and that they have teammates and friends praying for them half-way across the country.

-For the other teams traveling with CCU during the summer. There are a bunch of teams going all over the world. I pray that they also will be the hands and feet of Christ and overflow with His love and peace. That they will be good servants and come away with hearts full of compassion and willingness to act.

A little more of an update on all things Uganda-- We will be living with the field staff in their offices. (which means bunk-beds and solar power). We are currently planning VBS stuff for while we are their, but we don't know our full schedule, so it is a little difficult. We are just trying to be flexible. We got a tentative schedule. Something really cool about it is that each Sunday, the team will be splitting up for church. So the first Sunday, I go with Judith to a church, then the next Sunday, I go with Martin (both of which are FH Staff members). We also will be doing a day of home visits, and go to the medical center that is in the community. Apparently we will see lots of monkeys and fresh pineapple. :) 

We went to this really awesome place called Art for the Nations (in Cherry Creek), as a team last week. It is a really cool organization that sends craft supplies with missionaries. :) So we decorated a bag to be sent! We will head back over their shortly to pick up bags for our trip. I would definitely recommend going and volunteering their by painting a bag. So fun!

Our basement is finished in our house! In the process of moving things downstairs currently. Definitely a mess, but so nice to have more space away from the family! :) Bucky has finally moved back home! She has been living at Anth's since February. So I am MORE than excited to be snuggling with her again. :) 

A couple personal prayer requests: 

-As some of you may know, I am coaching at D'Evelyn with the wonderful Courtney Jones. Pray that I can show the love of Christ to the girls, as well as be a significant role in their life as confidant, mentor, and coach. Pray for the girls who are cheering, that they will be ready to work hard and really gain relationships with each other. 

-That as summer rolls around, I can continue the relationships that I have invested in and even gain more.

Wow. This is not a very lucid or well-written blog post. Sorry about that. It probably reflects my life right now. Disjointed. :) Well, thanks for reading. Love you all. 

"Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death— even death on a cross!"

--Philippians 2:5-8

All things Uganda

Hello all--

I just wanted to write, for those of you interested, and give a little update on all things Uganda. We purchased our flights! :) Which makes everything more real and exciting and terrifying-- all at the same time! We leave May 10th out of DIA-- head to Minne-an-apolis (I am spelling it like I say it. I know that is wrong).

Then on to Amsterdam.

Finally flying into Entebbe. Of course, we then have a 6 hour drive to the community we will be living and working in.

Recently, we were made aware that the community we are traveling to (Barakalo) is so rural that it will be rare to have people speak English. Being the ignorant American that I am, I just assumed that at least the schools would be taught in English and there would only be a slight communication barrier. After some research, we have determined that Barakalo is home to the Lango tribe who speak Lwo. Now, if you know me, you know I heart the library. Soo--- I checked out all books from the Rocky Mountain region on this culture and the language. There were 8. Better than nothing, I suppose!

Just in case you thought we were going to be living lavishly while in Africa, let me give you a little insight onto what we will experience. There won't be showers or bathing areas-- mostly just buckets that you fill up with river water and dunk your head in. We probably will get small mattresses or at least a thin cushion to sleep on. Granted-- we will have a roof over our heads and food in our bellies. We are still lucky. But this is by no means a vacation.

We are there to work side by side with the community members, engaging in conversations and relationships. We are there to reflect the love of Christ and serve His children. We are also there to learn from the people of the community, respectfully and lovingly.

Well, now that you have a glimpse of what is going on on this end of things-- let me tell you a little more. Each of the team members had to raise around $3000 to be able to go to Uganda. At this point in time, we still have $6700 left to raise (for the whole team). We are down to the wire. If anyone feels called to give, we would be forever grateful.

If anything, PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE pray for our team. Pray for our finances to come through. Pray that our hearts continue to be prepared for what God has in store. Pray for the people of Barakalo-- that they may be opened to what God will do in their lives. Pray for others we will encounter on our journey there-- that our team may be a great example of His love and peace.

If you are interested in giving, please email me at jessicatrichie@gmail.com. I can give you information on how to give via check or credit card. Thank you so much for partnering with me on this.

Dear Jesus,

Thank you for putting such a wonderful guy in my life. I am truly blessed day in and day out for him. God, thank you for giving him a heart that is so madly in love with you. He is so selfless and loves so deeply. May he continue to share the heart he has for you and for others. God, I pray that he continues to chase after you passionately and seek your heart always. Thank you my Jesus. I am so blessed. :)

Amen.

End of Lent

So it is the end of Lent. The end of my Facebook fast. Yet, I still am scared to log on. I know I will still love all the information I read and addict myself to learning about people through virtual relationships.

Yet, these past 40 days have been so great.

I have actually hung out with people. If you are one of the lucky ones I have hung out with in the past 40 days, I appreciate you. All were relationships that I have left to facebook to handle for me, yet I still cherish them-- Just in a lazy way. :/ I do love you. All of you.

Not only have I hung out with people, I have actually done what one of the things I love most in the world: READ! :)

Almost 20 books to be exact. And I have over 80 checked out from the library at any given time. (Don't worry-- I've only racked up $2.00 in fines so far. :))

My hope and prayer for myself for the next... forever is:
That I may daily and continually remember the significance of relationships.
That I will live my life reflecting the knowledge that God is a relational being who designed us to be in relationship with one another.
That I need to put time and effort into my friends-- believers and non-- to pour out the love of Christ onto them at all times.
That I take time for myself and my relationship with Jesus.
That I spend time doing what I love-- reading.
That I spend time with my family-- especially my sisters.
That I don't get overwhelmed by the world.
That I realize how much of an impact my words and actions make on others.
That I use that power carefully and intentionally filled with love and peace.
That I let go of inactivity and live each moment for Him.


A wise sage once said, it is not easy being green. I would love people to partner with me on this. At least pray for me every once in a while. I would greatly appreciate it. :)

And on this day, you know, the one that is THE most significant day for all of Christ's followers, may you burn with the desire to know Him more and more. That you may seek Him and find Him. That you desire to live out the hope that is represented, not only in the cross-- but what happened 3 days later.

He is great. Awesome. Powerful. Sovereign. Almighty. One. Compassionate. Loving. Hope. Peace. Love. Creator. Forgiver. Blesser. Intimate.

[[Please-- this list is never-ending, add on your own descriptions. :)]]

It's Friday. But Sunday's Comin.

Today is important. Without today, my faith would have no meaning.

Listen to this really cool sermon by Tony Campolo:

Youtube Video: It's Friday, but Sunday's comin.

 Here is the physical account of Jesus' death:

The physical passion of the Christ begins in Gethsemane. Of the many aspects of this initial suffering, I shall only discuss the one of physiological interest; the bloody sweat. It is interesting that the physician of the group, St. Luke, is the only one to mention this. He says, “And being in agony, He prayed the longer. And his sweat became as drops of blood, trickling down upon the ground”.

Every attempt imaginable has been used by modern scholars to explain away this phrase, apparently under the mistaken impression that this just doesn’t happen. A great deal of effort could be saved by consulting the medical literature. Though very rare, the phenomenon of Hematidrosis or bloody sweat is well documented. Under great emotional stress, tiny capillaries in the sweat glands can break, thus mixing blood with sweat. This process alone could have produced marked weakness and possible shock.

We shall move rapidly through the betrayal and arrest; I must stress that important portions of the passion story are missing from this account. This may be frustrating to you, but in order to adhere to our purpose of discussing only the purely physical aspects of the Passion, this is necessary.

After the arrest in the middle of the night, Jesus was brought before the Sanhedrin and Caiphas, the High Priest; it is here that the first physical trauma is inflicted. A soldier struck Jesus across the face for remaining silent when questioned by Caiphas. The palace guards then blindfolded Him and mockingly taunted Him to identify them as they each passed by, spat on Him, and struck Him in the face.

In the morning, Jesus, battered and bruised, dehydrated, and exhausted from a sleepless night, is taken across Jerusalem to the Praetorium of the Fortress Antonia, the seat of government of the Procurator of Judea, Pontius Pilate. You are, of course, familiar with Pilate’s action in attempting to pass responsibility to Herod Antipas, the Tetrarch of Judea. Jesus apparently suffered no physical mistreatment at the hands of Herod and was returned to Pilate.
It was then, in response to the cries of the mob, that Pilate ordered Bar-Abbas released and condemned Jesus to scourging and crucifixion. There is much disagreement among authorities about scourging as a prelude to crucifixion. Most Roman writers from this period do not associate the two. Many scholars believe that Pilate originally ordered Jesus scourged as his full punishment and that the death sentence by crucifixion came only in response to the taunt by the mob that the Procurator was not properly defending Caesar against this pretender who claimed to be the King of the Jews.

Preparations for the scourging are carried out. The prisoner is stripped of His clothing and His hands are tied to a post above His head. It is doubtful whether the Romans made any attempt to follow the Jewish law in this matter of scourging. The Jews had an ancient law prohibiting more than forty lashes. The Pharisees, always making sure that the law was strictly kept, insisted that only thirty-nine lashes be given. (In case of a miscount, they were sure of remaining within the law.) The Roman legionnaire steps forward with the flagrum (or flagellum) in his hand. This is a short whip consisting of several heavy, leather thongs with two small balls of lead attached near the ends of each.

The heavy whip is brought down with full force again and again across Jesus shoulders, back and legs. At first the heavy thongs cut through the skin only. Then, as the blows continue, they are cut deeper into the subcutaneous tissues, producing first an oozing of blood from the capillaries and veins of the skin, and finally spurting arterial bleeding from vessels in the underlying muscles. The small balls of lead first produce large, deep bruises which are broken open by subsequent blows. Finally the skin of the back is hanging in long ribbons and the entire area is an unrecognizable mass of torn bleeding tissue. When it is determined by the centurion in charge that the prisoner is near death, the beating is finally stopped.

The half-fainting Jesus is then untied and allowed to slump to the stone pavement, wet with His own blood. The Roman soldiers see a great joke in this provincial Jew claiming to be a king. They throw a robe across His shoulders and place a stick in His hand for a scepter. They still need a crown to make their travesty complete. A small bundle of flexible branches covered with long thorns (commonly used for firewood) are plaited into the shape of a crown and this is pressed into His scalp. Again there is copious bleeding (the scalp being one of the most vascular areas of the body.) After mocking Him and striking Him across the face, the soldiers take the stick from His hand and strike Him across the head, driving the thorns deeper into His scalp. Finally, they tire of their sadistic sport and the robe is torn from His back. This had already become adherent to the clots of blood and serum in the wounds, and its removal, just as in the careless removal of a surgical bandage, causes excruciating pain...almost as though He were again being whipped - and the wounds again begin to bleed.

In deference to Jewish custom, the Romans return His garments. The heavy patibulum of the cross is tied across His shoulders and the procession of the condemned Christ, two thieves and the execution detail of the Roman soldiers, headed by a centurion, begins its slow journey along the Via Dolorosa. In spite of His efforts to walk erect, the weight of the heavy wooden cross together with the shock produced by copious blood loss is too much. He stumbles and falls. The rough wood of the beam gouges into the lacerated skin and muscles of the shoulders. He tries to rise, but human muscles have been pushed beyond their endurance. The centurion, anxious to get on with the crucifixion, selects a stalwart North African onlooker, Simon of Cyrene, to carry the cross. Jesus follows, still bleeding and sweating the cold, clammy sweat of shock. The 650 yard journey from the fortress Antonia to Golgotha is finally completed. The prisoner is again stripped of His clothes - except for a loin cloth which is allowed the Jews.

The crucifixion begins, Jesus is offered wine mixed with Myrrh, a mild analgesic mixture. He refuses to drink. Simon is ordered to place the cross on the ground and Jesus is quickly thrown backward with His shoulders against the wood. The legionnaire feels for the depression at the front of the wrist. He drives a heavy, square, wrought-iron nail through the wrist and deep into the wood. Quickly, he moves to the other side and repeats the action, being careful not to pull the arms too tightly, but to allow some flexibility and movement. The patibulum is then lifted in place at the top of the stipes and the titulus reading “Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews” is nailed in place.

The left foot is pressed backward against the right foot, and with both feet extended, toes down, a nail is driven through the arch of each, leaving the knees moderately flexed. The victim is now crucified. As He slowly sags down with more weight on the nails in the wrists, excruciating, fiery pain shoots along the fingers and up the arms to explode in the brain – the nails in the wrists are putting pressure on the median nerves. As He pushes Himself upward to avoid this wrenching torment, He places His full weight on the nail through His feet. Again there is the searing agony of the tearing through the nerves between the metatarsal bones of the feet.

At this point, another phenomenon occurs. As the arms fatigue, great waves of cramps sweep over the muscles, knotting them in deep, relentless, throbbing pain. With these cramps comes the inability to push Himself upward. Hanging by His arms, the pectoral muscles are paralyzed and the intercostal muscles are unable to act. Air can be drawn into the lungs, but cannot be exhaled. Jesus fights to raise Himself in order to get even one short breath. Finally carbon dioxide builds up in the lungs and in the blood stream and the cramps partially subside. Spasmodically, He is able to push Himself upward to exhale and bring in the life-giving oxygen. It was undoubtedly during these periods that He uttered the seven short sentences which are recorded:

The first, looking down at the Roman soldiers throwing dice for His seamless garment, “Father, forgive them for they know not what they do”.

The second, to the penitent thief, “Today thou shalt be with me in Paradise”.

The third, looking down at the terrified, grief stricken, adolescent John, (the beloved Apostle), He said, “Behold thy mother”, and looking to Mary, His mother, “Woman behold thy son”.

The fourth cry is from the beginning of the 22nd Psalm, “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?”

Hours of this limitless pain, cycles of twisting joint rending cramps, intermittent partial asphyxiation, searing pain as tissue is torn from His lacerated back as He moves up and down against the rough timber: then another agony begins. A deep crushing pain deep in the chest as the pericardium slowly fills with serum and begins to compress the heart.

Let us remember again the 22nd Psalm (the 14th verse), “I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint; my heart is like wax, it is melted in the midst of my bowels.”

It is now almost over - the loss of tissue fluids has reached a critical level - the compressed heart is struggling to pump heavy, thick, sluggish blood into the tissue – the tortured lungs are making a frantic effort to draw in small gulps of air. The markedly dehydrated tissues send their flood of stimuli to the brain.

Jesus gasps His fifth cry, “I thirst”.

Let us remember another verse from the prophetic 22nd Psalm: “My strength is dried up like a potsherd; and my tongue cleaveth to my jaws; and thou hast brought me into the dust of death.”

A sponge soaked in Posca, the cheap, sour wine which is the staple drink of the Roman legionnaires, is lifted to His lips. He apparently does not take any of the liquid. The body of Jesus is now in extremis and He can feel the chill of death creeping through His tissues. This realization brings out His sixth words – possibly little more than a tortured whisper.

“It is finished.”

His mission of atonement has been completed. Finally He can allow his body to die. With one last surge of strength, he once again presses His torn feet against the nail, straightens His legs, takes a deeper breath, and utters His seventh and last cry, “Father into thy hands I commit my spirit.”

The rest you know. In order that the Sabbath not be profaned, the Jews asked that the condemned men be dispatched and removed from the crosses. The common method of ending a crucifixion was by cruxifracture, the breaking of the bones of the legs. This prevents the victim from pushing himself upward; the tension could not be relieved from the muscles of the chest, and rapid suffocation occurred.

The legs of the two thieves were broken, but when they came to Jesus they saw that this was unnecessary, thus fulfilling the scripture, “…not one bone shall be broken”.
Apparently to make doubly sure of death, the legionnaire drove his lance through the fifth interspace between the ribs, upward through the pericardium and into the heart. The 34th verse of the 19th chapter of the Gospel according to John: “And immediately there came out blood and water”. Thus there was an escape of watery fluid from the sac surrounding the heart and blood from the interior of the heart. We, therefore, have rather conclusive post-mortem evidence that Our Lord died, not the usual crucifixion death by suffocation, but of heart failure due to shock and constriction of the heart by fluid in the pericardium.

Thus we have seen a glimpse of the epitome of evil which man can exhibit toward man - and toward God. This is not a pretty sight and is apt to leave us despondent and depressed. How grateful we can be that we have a sequel: A glimpse of the infinite mercy of God toward man - the miracle of the atonement and the expectation of Easter morning!



C. Truman Davis, M.D., M.S.
(Originally published in Arizona Medical Association’s Arizona Medicine, March, 1965.)