Tag Archive for: welsnurses052015

News & Notes – Spring 2015

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  • The 2015 Wisconsin Lutheran College Online Parish Nurse Course will be offered in early fall. Dr. Carlo Piraino will teach the six week online course, requiring about three hours of work each week, consisting of independent study, project work and online discussion groups. The Antioch II Foundation has provided a wonderful matching grant to help with the course tuition costs. Now is the time to be talking to your pastor of your interest in serving as a parish nurse in your congregation. Download the Parish Nurse Starter Kit from www.welsnurses.net and give him a copy of the “WELS Parish Nurse Guidelines” and the “Word to Pastors.” He would be welcome to contact Pastor Jim Behringer, director of Special Ministries, with any questions. [email protected] More info at www.welsnurses.net. More questions? E-mail [email protected].
  • SAVE THE DATE – The Fall Parish Nurse Gathering is scheduled for October 17th @ Christ Lutheran Church in Pewaukee, WI.
  • Do you have an AED on your Church/School campus? – Leading the effort toward the purchase, the training of church, school staff and ushers and the maintenance or documentation of a new AED might be a great way for a “nurse in the parish” to use her gifts. Make your willingness to explore the possibility known to your pastor and/or elder and many times they will give the OK to gather information and make a proposal to the church council. Funds may not be immediately available but the seed can be planted for some future memorial funds to be donated. An active church campus with many people coming and going make the need for an AED a possibility statistically as in any other public building. Purchasing the same brand as your local EMS is helpful. Training DVD’s come with the purchase of an AED making the yearly training and review easy to do. Questions? Feel free to ask us. Many congregations have an AED on campus now!
  • At the WELSNA Spring Conference the Wisconsin Lutheran College/WELSNA Nursing Scholarship was awarded to Joseph Sallazo, a current junior from Caledonia, WI. His home congregation is St. Johns, Oak Creek, WI, and he is honored to be the recipient of the WELSNA Scholarship. Please remember him and the other students in your prayers as they prepare for lives of Christian leadership as nurses in a secular world. More information on the WLC/WELSNA Nursing Scholarship is available at www.welsnurses.net.

 

 

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Porn is pandemic

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By Caleb Schultz

I moved to Atlanta just after Dr. Kent Brantly was brought to Emory University Hospital. Of all the places to bring a man with Ebola, they chose MY CITY, even as Americans were thinking: “Keep Ebola as far away as possible!” Since then, only one person in the United States has died from Ebola, and it wasn’t Dr. Brantly. By percentages, we’re doing well: we have a better chance of dying by shark attack while being struck by lightning than from Ebola.

Now look at percentages for a far worse disease, one that many people are not trying to cure but are actually trying to contract. 50% of Christian men and 20% of Christian women say they are addicted to pornography.1 And that’s just those who acknowledge that pornography is sinful and admit they have a problem.

If those numbers are accurate, then we might conservatively estimate that 35% of the people who read this article struggle with pornography. Those 35% live with an illness that slowly kills the soul by attacking their relationship with God.

Maybe you live with this disease, and with its accompanying darkness, guilt, and frustration. Maybe you know that place all too well. In that place it can feel like no one, not even God, could love you. Even though you know Jesus died for your sins, you feel unworthy of that forgiveness. Friend, you’re absolutely right.

But even when you feel like God shouldn’t love you because of what you have done, remember what he has done. Remember what that One – who knows everything about you – did for you and for every person trapped by pornography.

“We do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are – yet he did not sin.” (Hebrews 4:15)

“‘He himself bore our sins’ in his body on the cross, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; ‘by his wounds you have been healed.’” (1 Peter 2:24)

Like Ebola, porn can be deadly, but not to your body. Pornography attacks your soul. A person infected with Ebola needs help, and so do you. A great place to start healing is at the Conquerors through Christ website. Go there! Begin to leave that awful, dark place you know all too well. It won’t be easy, but Dr. Jesus and his medicine of forgiveness are working for you.

A perfect cure for Ebola is not yet known, but your perfect Savior gave you his perfection in exchange for all your sexual sins, including pornography. Because he suffered the shame of the cross, God sees you as pure and perfect, without wrinkle or stain or any other blemish (Ephesians 5:27).

The Conquerors through Christ team is praying for you. Ask trusted friends to pray for you. May God protect you from temptation and remind you that, in Christ, you are alive, free, and victorious.

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1 http://www.covenanteyes.com/pornstats/ Accessed 10/28/14

 

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From a secular bedside to a Christ-centered classroom

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By Jessica Washburn, instructor of nursing at Wisconsin Lutheran College

I pursued a career in nursing through a public university after attending a Lutheran Elementary School and a Lutheran High School. Four years later and having earned a BSN degree, I entered the secular world of nursing. As a nurse in the Midwest and the West Coast, I encountered co-workers and patients from many different countries, speaking different languages, and believing in different religions and gods.

My family returned to Wisconsin a year ago, and I was asked to adjunct at Wisconsin Lutheran College’s (WLC) School of Nursing. I have always enjoyed working with student and graduate nurses; teaching these WLC students in a clinical setting did not disappoint. I accepted a full time call to WLC in August. Higher education is definitely a new area of nursing that I have come to enjoy and about which I still have much to learn. I am impressed that my students come to an 8:00 a.m. Monday morning lectured prepared and ready to learn.

I am now able to work openly from a Christ-centered viewpoint knowing that my students and co-workers understand one another’s beliefs and the college’s mission. I can stand in front of the classroom and tell these students what a wonderful world of nursing God has made for us, despite them learning and seeing disorders and diseases of each body system.

The opportunity to attend chapel each day is an aspect I never anticipated being part of my daily life. Attending chapel is something I was never able to do in college. During difficult and stressful times, chapel services allow the students and I to take a break and focus on what really matters in life. This past week, the students and I were discussing the differences in doctrine that we at WLC believe compared to other Christian entities to which they’ve been exposed. This open communication of religion is an aspect of teaching at WLC these students would not be able to encounter at many other colleges.

I often reflect upon what I have encountered as a bedside nurse over the past decade. I remember profanity being yelled by colleagues (both physicians and nurses) and having families cry over the passing of their loved one, believing in everything but Christ. These were rough days, but there were also rewarding days. I enjoyed watching my own Pastor come to my unit and have a devotion with a patient—realizing in the semi-private room the other patient behind the curtain is intently listening. Being able to teach in a Christian environment has opened my eyes to the importance of Christ-centered education. The value of daily chapel, faculty meetings that start with a devotion, and knowing my students can receive Christian answers from any professor is a gift from God. I am now a part of WLC, helping these students prepare for lives of Christian leadership as nurses in a secular world.

 

 

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