Four weeks in Roca Blanca
By Jason Bowen

The nursing program, led by Dean Dr. Kenda Jezek, has one of the hardest curricula at ORU. Of the 132 required hours that nursing majors must complete in order to earn a bachelor's in nursing, nine of them consist of a senior leadership internship.

Even though the major is one of the most challenging, it can also be one of the most rewarding. This semester seniors Liza Colangell, Angie George, Laurie Teo and Laura Spierce fulfilled their internship requirement through a four-week stay at the Victory Bible Institute missions base in Roca Blanca, Mexico. It was the first time ORU students had ever conducted a leadership internship with Victory.

Their schedule was fairly busy during their stay. On Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays they spent time doing academic work and preparing for prevention classes which they taught during the week. On Tuesdays and Thursdays the seniors gained hands-on experience working in the medical clinic.

When asked what they anticipated of the trip before heading south of the border, Colangell replied, "I knew it would be something totally different, but I didn't really know what to expect."

Students would wake early in the morning on Monday through Thursday to pray and worship, they fellowshipped with the Institute students there in Roca Blanca, sometimes for an hour or more.

Some of their work days began at 6:30 a.m. and ended at 10:30 p.m. The four agreed that working with the patients in the clinics was the most rewarding of all the activities completed.

As seniors, all the students had previously participated in clinicals, but they agreed there is a major difference between the clinicals in America and those at the Corban Clinic in Roca Blanca-besides the obvious language barrier that required the students to carry around an English-Spanish dictionary everywhere they went.

Jezek, who had previously travelled to Roca Blanca, relates that "there is a language barrier, even though there is no human barrier among the patients."

The ORU students also noted the patience of the people waiting for treatment. "It's so different it's hard to compare. Some of the patients come from three hours away and wait all day long to receive medical help and if one child in the family is sick then all children in the family come too," Teo said.

"Their attitudes are so different than from in America," Colangell said. At closing time, if there were families still waiting to be treated, the students would continue to work. "After a whole family travels for three hours you just don't tell them to come back tomorrow," Colangell said.

The students had opportunities to minister medicine but also the gospel to the patients. Yeo said they had chances to "pray for every single patient we worked with and even lead some of them in salvation."

Jezek said this program will definitely continue next year and hopes that it can be expanded to include other countries, including those in Africa.

She also said that currently in America there is a severe nursing shortage which is especially why the U.S. needs more and more Christian nurses. "We see nursing as a ministry. We believe nurses from ORU will make a difference."

George agrees with Jezek. "In our nursing program, the body, mind and spirit are really emphasized. I think our program is unique because of that. It's really a blessing."

All four of the students hope to return next year to Roca Blanca, not as students but as nurses; not only to learn but also to assist those ORU students who plan to go to Roca Blanca next year.

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