Each week, Redeemer Church is going to post 2 blog posts each week from a dear family who has been a part of the Redeemer Church family here in Bellingham for years moved to Africa to do medical education for 9 months. The Sund Family, Greg, Stephanie, Ella, Biniyam, and Mekdes have lived in Burundi for the last 8 months and we wanted you to be up-to-date on all that they are doing and all that is happening in Africa.

Below is the Sund's blog post in September from Africa called "Making History Can Be Painful". You can find more blogs from there personal blog here > Beyond Our Backdoor 

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The anesthesia students have been very excited this week.  That is because today, we scheduled the very first surgery under general endotracheal anesthesia at Kibuye hospital.  There has been an anesthesia machine in the OR since I arrived, but it had not been set up or used until today.  This week, Jason and I worked on getting it ready to go, connecting an oxygen tank to one port, an air compressor to another and filling it with expired halothane and expired CO2 absorbent.  So what could go wrong?

After discussing the plan with the students, drawing up the medications and preparing the intubation equipment, I handed my ipad to one of the students and asked him if he would take a couple pictures of the intubation to memorialize this historic event.  So, we injected the induction drugs, and this patient turned out to be one of the most difficult intubations I have ever encountered.  The reason for the surgery was to remove a tumor on his neck.  This tumor was apparently distorting his airway, making visualization of his vocal cords almost impossible.  So, what should have been a 15 second induction of anesthesia turned into a 45 minute scene of chaos and mayhem.  At one point I could not ventilate the patient and so his oxygen level dropped to undectable  levels.  The medical student with my ipad continued to take pictures this whole time, 133 photos to be exact.  And I remember thinking at one point that I REALLY wished I had not asked someone to take photos of this historic event.

Alas, by the grace of God, the endotracheal tube finally found its home, the man had his surgery, woke up and appears to be doing fine, and hopefully our next general anesthetic will go a little smoother than this one.  

A few of the less incriminating photos ..... (Photos below are a slide show, click through them)

Click image below to see the many different photos taken from our 2nd Annual Turkey Bowl Celebration. 

Blog Post by Michael Finley (Gospel Community Director for Redeemer Church)

Part of being a disciple of Jesus is being the family of God, to be his people that live intentional and relational lives with Him and each other. At Redeemer we call this our Gospel Communities. And just like every other aspect of discipleship, our growth in Gospel Community is a process. It would be nice to plug everything we need to know into the back of our heads like a scene from the Matrix but the truth is discipleship is often very slow.

In Ephesians 4, Paul tells us that we are to grow up in everyday into Christlikeness. Growing is an ongoing process. Just like our bodies we all have times of growth in different areas of life at different times. Whether it is your physical body growing taller, your intellect growing smarter, your love capacity growing larger, or your skills growing more refined, we are to be growing in everyday of lives into Christ. However we often neglect to see Gospel Communities in this same way.

In my time in group ministry I have witnessed a "Group Model" in which all the groups in the church attempt to reflect the same model. While models have their role, I have found some problems. Here are three:

1. Reaching The Goal Of A Model Instead Of Reaching For Jesus

Often we are so focused on "how" our group should look that we forget "Who" we are suppose to look like. At Redeemer we have two goals for our Gospel Communities, for those who know Him to love and look more like Jesus and for those who don't know Jesus to meet Him.

2. Models Tend To Encourage or Discourage

Some groups fit the model already in personality, maturity, and/or ministry development. While others may find it hard to reach the model because they do not have the time, the training, or the overall group maturity to obtain it. The first group finds the model very encouraging because of their success and the second gets very discouraged because of their perceived failure to look like the first group.

3. Group Models Tend To Move The Bar

The question is, where do you set the bar for where a groups should be? No group has arrived; in every group on the planet there is room for growth. If you set the bar to low, the group isn't challenged enough and often halts the discipleship process. If you put the bar in the middle, for some it is too high and some it is too low. It is always changing.

Progress Is A Win

Rather than placing a model in front of every group and say, "this is what your group should look like," I have found it more helpful to say, "praise God your group looks like it does, here are some ways you and your group can continue to grow in Christlikeness." 

When a new Christian puts their faith in Jesus we celebrate. We are not discouraged that they do not know how to pray or they do not understand the Bible. At every step of a Christian's walk we celebrate progress. We need to start looking at our Gospel Communities in this way as well. There is always room for growth but we should always celebrate progress. I am pretty sure I have not see an unhealthy group that is growing in Christlikeness. When a group becomes static its health declines, when it remains dynamic Jesus shines.

Think of your group as a family growing together in Christ. Do not get discouraged, celebrate the evidence of God's grace where you are, and then put your hand to the plow and move forward!

photo credit: kohlmann.sascha via photopin cc

Goal for Weekly Once-Over Weekly Once-Over is our weekly recap of some great blog posts that we've seen this past week that have been helpful. Our hope is that they would benefit you in someway. Each Thursday of every week you will see a post that has links to different blog posts. Enjoy!

Weekly Once-Over (6.13.13)

The Puritans on Putting Sin to Death - Mortification of sin was what Paul was talking about when he said to the Colossians, "Put to death therefore what is earthly in you" (Col.3:5). Here are six practical ways the puritans suggest how to put sin to death.

4 Questions to Check Your Church Culture - There's only so much you can learn about a church from their website...Culture is the heart of your church, the atmosphere your church creates...Unfortunately, the culture of a church doesn't always match the confession. Here is a few questions you can ask to know what your church culture is like.

Manhood Restored: How the Gospel Makes Men Whole - With his new book that just came out, Eric Mason does an interview with Desiring God and talks through his book and the purpose, vision and desire for the book. Every guy needs to read this book.

I Am Not In Any Respect My Own - Sam Storms brings to light what Jonathan Edwards recorded for us in his personal Diary, when he talks about renewal of his baptismal covenant. Would that we all might recommit ourselves to the Lord in this way.

photo credit: [ changó ] via photopin cc