We ARE Not the Eagles

"We Are NOT the Eagles"

Kathy Tschiegg

Founder of CAMO

For those of you who are not familiar with CAMO, it has been a journey formed out of experiences of my youth, Peace Corps experience, my profession as a critical care, ER nurse and as a business women.  There are many events that have shaped the creation of CAMO 16 years ago. Today I would like to share with you some of those defining moments.

 

Those moments have to do with relationships and preparation:

 

But first let me share a scripture with you.

 

Deuteronomy 32 verse 10 to 12

“In a desert land he found him in a barren and howling waste. He shielded him and cared for him: he guarded him as the apple of his eye, like an eagle that stirs up its nest and hovers over its young that spreads its wings to catch them and carries them on it pinions.  The Lord alone led him. No foreign god was with him.”

 

SHOE SHINE

During my PC service over 28 years ago I thought I was meeting a need that I defined.  Every day walking to the Hospital I would walk through Centro Park in Santa Rosa de Copan were there were men shining shoes. Jorge even bought white shoe polish for my nursing shoes. On this occasion the climate was very cold and could get down to 40 degrees Fahrenheit.   It was around Christmas and my aunt had sent me a new sweatshirt.  So I had two.  Sitting there getting my weekly shoe shine Jorge only had a thin t-shirt and was shivering. So I ran back to my house and pulled out my old sweatshirt and ran back up to Parke Centro and gave the sweatshirt to Jorge.  The week past and I did not see Jorge at his spot, so when it was time for the weekly shine I asked, “Where is Jorge”.  His coworkers look at me, and asked “you know that nice sweat shirt you gave him?” yes I responded.  “Well he sold it and then bought a lot of alcohol, after a night of drinking he died.”  Now why do I tell you this, because I defined his need based on my perception, if I had known him better his need would have been better served getting him help with his addiction?  I am sure if I had asked his friends they would have told me of Jorge’s problem.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Perhaps it is our desire to be like the mother eagle hovering over the young and spreading her wings to catch them and take them safely back to the nest until they are ready to fly.  

 

 I believe God is stirring up the nest in us everyday.  It is our decision on how we are going to respond.  Just as the eagle keeps stirring up the nest, pushing the young ones out, and catching them before any harm comes to them, so it is with each one of us.   We will make mistakes because we are not all knowing, only God is. Remember the 12^th verse

 

“The Lord alone led him. No foreign god was with him.”

 

This verse implies a relationship that is not foreign.  As the young eagle has a relationship with its mother.  One of trust, allowing for mess ups and yet be there to be picked up and carry us back up to safety.

 

 Here comes the hard part the relationship

Let me go back to Jorge.  You see I was going to fix him quick, keep him warm I was going to be the eagle all knowing of Jorge and his needs.  I had no real relationship with him, I knew my shoes looked really good after the shoe shine and that he was there at his stand everyday.  I did not know him as a person

 

Relationships:

With Jorge, I innocently put my desire for the quick fix, the immediate gratification ahead of everything else.  That is what we North Americans have been conditioned to expect. 

1       I want it now,

2       I want it fast

3       I want to feel good about myself (I wonder how many of us could last in a cave alone, only with ourselves, are we comfortable with ourselves.)

4       We have even translated that into our mission work without regard to all the preparation that  will cause us be weary, we do not want to be weary,

5       We want to see results now. 

6       We even want our God not to be foreign but we can and do make excuses of the time we invest in relationship. 

 

These are choices that we unconsciously make.

1       Do we really want to get to know someone that is different

2       Do we want to get involve with someone and find out what would really meet their needs.  That might take our time

3       Or do we keep that WHICH IS FOREIGN, FOREIGN, protect ourselves from involvement. 

 

Relationships are work; no matter how you look at it they take time and energy.  They get messy.  These are choices we make every day. 

 

As I was thinking about the verse a question came to mind.

1       How do you think the young eagle feels on the free fall,

o perhaps fearful,

o frustrated because it cannot fly yet

o maybe even angry “why is my mother trying to kill me”,

o Or loved because the mother is teaching and protecting.  

 

These depend on our relationship with each other on how we might interpret what is happening. Most of all our relationship with God.

 

 

ANGER & ANSWER

I was so angry with God at one point after Peace Corps, how a loving God could let so many people die.   How could he touch my heart and abandon me with this heavy burden. 10 years after my return from PC I went back to visit my PC site.

I saw that conditions were worse.  I was brought to my knees and knew that God had given me the ability to make things better, that I had to stop blaming government, and others because the fact of the matter is if we are able to do something to help another and we choose not to, are we not as culpable as anyone or thing that we would be inclined to blame.  So I started to collect sheets for the Hospital and paying my school loan and supporting myself.  I had barely enough money to live on and now to ship all these sheets it was going to cost $500.  I remember sitting on my stationary bike working out my frustration and angry at God for abandoning me.  For ½ hour my conversation with God was a heated conversation to say the least, then my phone rang, it was a member of my church. She opened the conversation with “Kathy for the last ½ hour I have not been able to get you off of my mind, I don’t know if you need this but I do crafts and at my last show I made $500.00 do you need that.  My Lord had to teach me, and day after day other miracles happen.  I had to decide to choose trust or anger which would it be?

 

Isaiah 41 verse 31:  “Those who Hope in the Lord will renew their strength.  They will soar on wings like eagles: they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.”

 

I don’t know about you but I choose soaring.

 

Preparation to listen to hear

 

All of you have the old joke of the devout Christian who got caught in a flood and was stranded on a roof.  He prayed to God to be saved.  Soon a row boat came along and the man said no I do not need your help God will save me. He remained prayerful and soon the water rose and a ship came by and his response was the same, then a helicopter came by and he replied again I trust in the Lord he will save me.  The man died and went to heaven and met the Lord and said why did you not save me.  The Lord said “who do you think sent the rowboat, the ship and the helicopter.”

 

We asked God for things and then if he does not response in the way we believe he should, we are surprised. 

2     I am really careful about what I ask God for

o When I ask for patience I am given the most annoying person to deal with. 

o When I ask for compassion he has given me the most difficult patient or situation that you could ever imagine. 

 

The answers come in so many ways; you have to be prepared to listen.  You know the events are so numerous of God answering prayers for all involved with CAMO.

 

WOMEN AT THE DOOR NEED YOUR EAR:

I always travel to Honduras weeks before the teams. On one of these occasions I had counted 12 pleading parents presenting me with awful cases of their babies and young children dying due to heart problems and cancer. By 12 Noon I was emotionally exhausted.  I escaped to my home in Honduras for some quiet time to recollect.  I no more than closed the door and a knock came.   I reluctantly opened the door to the question “Are you Senora Katy”   I wanted to say no, but at that moment I noticed a trembling women in front of me, I knew I did not want to be a person that people were afraid to talk to, I opened the door, yes I am Senora Kathy what can I do for you.  Without hesitation she blurted out I want your ears.   My automatic reflex was bring both my hand to my ears and saying I cannot give you my ears I need both of mine,  why do you need my ears.   I ask her to sit, she goes on, my husband was taken from the street by a gang and raped then to mark him they cut off both of his ears.  Now he will not go out of the house and drinks alcohol all day long.  I do not have a husband and my children have lost there father.  I asked her to get him to a friend you had started AA meetings and said let pray before you leave.   We prayed for her and her family.  1 month later I am here in the states and the plastic surgeon who normally went with us decided not to go this year.  At that point I thought we would concentrate on other specialties.    2 days later the phone rings and a doctor from Columbus Ohio said he had heard of CAMO’s work in Honduras and wanted to meet with me.  We met for lunch and had a pleasant introduction as the conversation continued Dr Les Mohler stopped and said “I am not sure if you know this but I have created a special technique of taking cartilage form the ribs and reconstructing the outer ear, would you have a need for this.   Pray answered not in a way that I would have thought.  Marcio got his ears back and his family got their father back.

 

 

Every day needs are brought to CAMO and every day we get answers in ways that are far beyond my abilities as a leader. 

 

31 BABIES DIE

You know I counted how many babies in July of 1981 the last month of my Peace Corps Service how many babies I carried to the morgue. 31 that is the number we lost that month.

 

I prayed that God would do something about this

 

BABY JESUS

Christmas morning of 1980 I was the only professional nurse on duty of 250 patients.  That morning a baby was born his mother named his Jesus.  Jesus had aspirated. Back in 1980 we did not have a suction machine, we did not have aspiration bulbs, I improvised and placed a tube and sucked on the tube to get what I could out of his lungs.  All day I worked with him and prayed that he lived, at 4PM he died.  This has a defining moment.

 

Because of these and many other events CAMO has focused on development of the NICU ward in this public hospital.  Today one baby is save every two days.   If I had not been given those experiences as hard as they were, I would have been content to have the safe rural Ohio American, apple pie country girl life.

 

You see we can pray for things:

3       our relationships

4       for others

5       for ourselves

6       to provide for us,

7       to take our fears away, 

8       for wellness, for strength,

9       for the world peace

We can pray, but are we prepared to do what God might be calling us to do So that ours and other prayers will be answered... 

 

Each and every day God answers prayer and today not because of me, but more because we have a mother eagle looking over us. We have a God who is not foreign to us. We have many good people listening to their calling and offering their talents.  CAMO serves 90,000 people a year and we have 17 programs each with stories more powerful than the ones that I have just shared with you this morning.

 

You see we do have a choice in the type of relationship we want, are these relationships going to be full of anger, resentment, frustration, or are they trusting, and hopeful.  Are we prepared to receive answers in ways that are outside of our imaginations?  

 

We must be

1       Prepared to listen to his answers

2       Prepared to use the gifts and talents God has given us. 

 

He uses us to answer prayers.

 

We must not limit God to the limits of our understanding.

 

Don’t avoid the relationship; be prepared for the unexpected...  God has his reasons.