Senior Nursing Students Serve Abroad

This last February, the senior nursing students went on a 28 to 30-day trip where they were able to serve people from places all over the world and put their nursing skills to practice. Eight groups of students and faculty were sent out to the Philippines, India, Taiwan, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Mexico, Alaska, and Georgia. Not only did these students bring their expertise, but they were also able to be the hands and feet of God as they served his children in foreign places.

Morgan Bigalk, Anna Dombal, and Brittany Pemble were part of the team that traveled to Kenya.

“I wanted to go somewhere that was going to be the complete opposite of the United States. I felt like Kenya was going to be the most different,” said Dombal.

Bigalk emphasized how nursing and missions are a few of her passions and this trip combined the two in a way that excited her.

“This is why I’m doing nursing! I love ministry because you are so out of your element and I’m most excited about how God is going to change our lives,” she said.

Pemble was equally excited about the trip as her fellow teammates.

“From a nursing standpoint, I hoped to learn how to care for patients outside of my own culture and how to provide them with the most holistic, high quality care that they need for them and their family, said Pemble. “From a personal side, I wanted to learn to love people better. I just want to allow the Lord to stretch me and move in me.”

Christa Harrigill and Hanna Rodli were among the students who travelled to Kazakhstan for their nursing trip. Both students had nothing but positive things to say about their experiences there.

Harrigill reminisced on the new friendships she had built while in Kazakhstan.

“We bonded so well with our interpreters and they became really good friends to me. I still message them on daily,” Harrigill said. “I got really connected with these people and they became a big part of our lives.”

Although real-life nursing experience and making new friends made up some of the larger takeaways from these trips, one of the most influential aspects overall involved seeing God do his work even miles away from home.

Rodli described a moment in Kazakhstan.

“I was at a hospice center and there was an old lady who couldn’t even get out of bed. I felt like God wanted me to do something for that woman so I brought her some chai tea and sweets and then a few of us came in and sang the song ‘Lean on Me,’” she said. “As we sang in English, she began to cry and look at me. I put my hand on her foot to let her know that I saw her. Even though we could not speak the same language we understood each other completely.”

Harrigill expressed similar sentiments when talking about her experience seeing God among the people of Kazakhstan.

“They were singing these songs that we knew in Russian and we were standing beside them singing in English.” Harrigill said. “One of the songs we sang was ‘You Are Good.’ Part of the lyrics say ‘people of every nation and tongue from generation to generation’ and we were literally different nations singing those lyrics together. It helped solidify that no matter where you are in the world God is the same.”

In Kenya, Pemble also witnessed God among the people she served.

“Each smile I shared with a child, each time a mother hugged me after giving medicine to her child—each moment was memorable. Each moment changed me and God worked in me throughout the whole month.” Pemble said. “God moves all throughout the world without us even knowing it and The Body of Christ extends through all boarders and oceans.”