Panama Medical Mission Trip

I ended my full time employment on Wednesday and headed out to Panama, the Country, on Friday the 20th. I was headed out with 13 friends to go on a medical mission trip. We worked from 6 in the morning until 10 every night. We worked very hard and enjoyed nearly every minute of it. So what did we do? We registered over 2000 people for the clinic the following week, conducted 465 Bible studies involving 583 students, had 14 baptisms and 8 restorations. We worked with the children's home and loved the children, encouraged the church, and grew as a group united in Christ. I pray that I can go back next year for another life changing event.

The Church

The Children's Home

The Clinic

The Children

Good Friends

"every new beginning comes from some other beginning’s end."

Tomorrow is my last day as a full time employee at NHC Place Cool Springs and thus it becomes my first step in my new begining. As exciting as it is to begining a new journey, it is hard to end this one.

Over the past two months my journey has been ending and in that time three significant things have occurred.

First of all, there was a conference I attended in May. This is the third year that I have attended this conference and I found myself feeling very secure and confident with my place in the company and in my field. Ironic that I feel secure as I'm about to take my exit. Every year at this conference NHC likes to take the opportunity to recognize some of their dietary partners at an awards ceremony. I was awarded the clinical excellence award for the South Central region.


Second was State Survey. An exhausting week in which the state comes in and looks at everything in the building with a fine tooth comb and a white glove. We were given a perfect score. In my administrators 25 years he has only had that happen 1 other time.

And Third. We had our Excellence Review. This is when the dietary department is harshly graded against some very intense criteria. This reveiew was the best we have ever had since we opened.

Making the choice to leave NHC had not been an easy one. I struggled greatly deciding what I should do with my life. The thought of walking away from NHC is a hard one, a tough one. But I know that the decision to leave NHC is the right one. I desire to be more than I am and I am ready to accept the challenge.

So as the song goes, "every new beginning comes from some other beginning’s end." As I'm begining one phase in my life another one is ending. Being given the clinical excellence award was the perfect end to my time as a dietitian.