A shared vocation and a desire to serve prompt a mother-daughter team to experience powerful God moments at a mission hospital in Rwanda.
Jody and Skylar Lund are professionally trained nurses blessed with fulfilling careers, but one thing they had not crossed off their bucket lists was the opportunity to work together.
With more than 40 years of experience, Jody has served in intensive care, the operating room, labor and delivery, hospice, and as a helicopter flight nurse. She currently works in the OR at a hospital in Tucson, Arizona.
The Lunds served in a variety of roles, ministering to patients in Jesus’ Name.
“I love working one-on-one with the patients. I’m the last voice they hear before they go to sleep, and I’m often the first voice they hear when they wake up,” said Jody. “Except for my roles as a wife and a mother, I never wanted to do anything other than be a nurse.”
Jody’s middle child and only daughter, Skylar, followed in her footsteps and received an RN degree a few years ago. In third grade, one of Skylar’s best friends died of leukemia. That tragedy helped set her on a path to specialize in pediatric oncology.
“It was always in the back of my mind to be able to try to prevent that heartache for other families,” Skylar said. Now she has found her niche in the bone marrow transplant unit at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee.
Nursing is Skylar’s second degree. She also has a heart for overseas children’s ministry, and her first degree in kinesiology and exercise science opened the door for her to do sports ministry for three summers throughout Europe. Additionally, she has gone on a church missions trip to Cuba and participated in numerous U.S. disaster relief deployments, including a Samaritan’s Purse tornado response.
Jody had always wanted to serve internationally, but the daily responsibilities of family and career kept her schedule booked.
“I’m so proud of Skylar. She carries the Lord with her. I wanted to take Jesus with me somewhere,” she said.
Jody felt a sense of urgency. Her longing to go on a mission trip “came to a fever pitch. … I needed to pack and go,” she said.
The two had previously contemplated serving together, but it didn’t seem plausible due to their different nursing specialties. Jody contacted World Medical Mission, and the staff found a match for them at Kibogora Hospital in Rwanda, where nurses were needed with experience in the OR and in pediatrics.
They also enjoyed spending time exploring the surrounding area together.
“At Kibogora, I eventually got the opportunity to go into the OR. So we worked together as nurses for the first time when we were in Africa, and we had so much fun,” said Skylar.
‘Absolutely Stoked’
Despite the depth and breadth of Jody’s experience in American hospital settings, her introduction to nursing care in a small bush hospital held some surprises.
“I am a circulating nurse in Tucson. So I’m the one who gets patients ready and gets them positioned. And I do all the charting. If anybody needs anything, I run and get it while the surgeon and the first assist scrub up,” she said.
“On the first day at Kibogora, I walked into the OR and introduced myself as the nurse. The surgeon said, ‘OK, go get scrubbed.’ I had never gowned and gloved off the back table, but he showed me how,” recalled Jody. “Then I assisted with surgery. I got the instruments ready. When it came time to pull traction on broken bones, I pulled traction. I helped every way I possibly could.”
That valuable session prompted Jody a few days later to ask the surgeon if her daughter could watch them work. They were preparing a patient for hand surgery.
The doctor welcomed Skylar into the OR, but not for the purpose to casually observe. It was a case of déjà vu when he began meting out instructions. Jody paraphrased the surgeon’s no-nonsense challenge to both women: “Your daughter’s got hands too, doesn’t she? Get her scrubbed and bring her in.”
“So I took Skylar out in the hall and we scrubbed her up and brought her in, and she gowned and gloved. She got to assist the surgeon too,” Jody said.
Skylar’s moment of truth came when the surgeon asked her to begin suturing. Perhaps he already knew that as a young nurse she would have limited experience.
“Well, I don’t know how, but will you teach me?” Skylar replied.
“OK, I will talk you through one suture, and then I’ll do one while you talk me through it, and then you’ll do the rest,” he answered.
These were some pressure-filled moments, but Skylar was learning the essentials of loading a needle, closing the wound, and knotting the ties.
“As a mother and a nurse, watching Skylar do those sutures, even though she had a mask on, I could see in her eyes that she was absolutely stoked,” Jody recalled.
The surgeon stepped back and let Jody and Skylar work together. At one point Jody announced to her daughter, who was intently concentrating on the immediate task: “Not to make you nervous, but he just took his gloves off and left the room.”
Skylar was unfazed. “We did it! We got the sutures done and we bandaged the hand up and one of the techs put the cast on,” she said. “It was a really cool experience being able to work with my mom and especially in that kind of setting.”
Hands of Faith
Throughout their three-week stay at Kibogora, the Lunds witnessed many “God moments.” From marveling at His healing power to their admiration for the hospital staff’s fierce dedication to patients, both felt humbled serving in the austere but Christ-centered environment.
Skylar joined in assisting a surgeon performing an orthopedic procedure.
Jody was impressed by the staff’s expertise in caring for a young man who had sustained serious injuries in a road accident. His motorbike was struck by, of all things, an ambulance.
The man’s femur was shattered in about 10 pieces. Unlike a hospital in the U.S., Kibogora is not equipped with extensive imaging or laparoscopic technology.
“I watched the surgeon use only his hands to put the pieces of that patient’s leg back together again. We screwed and pinned the femur. The staff does so much with so little,” Jody said. “To me, it was like watching the hands of God. It was one of the most memorable things I have ever seen.”
The patient’s case was a success story in spite of the low-tech environment and the frequent lapses in electricity during surgical procedures. The staff are accustomed to such challenges and are not hampered by them.
Jody believes their resilience comes from a combination of faith and learning to make do. “The things that we take for granted, they have faith for. They react with faith. It’s the most wonderful thing,” she said.
The Lunds met a woman whose family members had been slaughtered in front of her during Rwanda’s dark period of genocide in 1994. At that time she was four years old. Instead of harboring hatred toward the men who killed her family, she expressed gratitude for God’s merciful love.
“I am glad we had the opportunity to pray with this glorious soul,” said Jody. “She told us, ‘I am thankful to God every day because He saved me and I have Him. And I am grateful He sent you.’”
The youngsters that Skylar saw in the pediatric wards were similarly cheerful. She was particularly moved by the kindness of a 5-year-old boy in the burn unit who provided a ray of sunshine for his fellow patients. Burns from an electrical cord injury covered his neck and part of his right arm. Although necessary, Skylar hated to put him through the agony of dressing changes. Otherwise the child was upbeat and gregarious.
“He talked to all of the patients on the ward. He wanted to be everybody’s friend,” Skylar said. “He was always smiling and happy, and he really brought up the mood in the burn unit. Even though the patients were in pain themselves, that little guy lifted their spirits.”
He lifted Skylar’s spirits too, and a few days before their trip concluded, she and her mom brought their own rays of sunshine by handing out crocheted stuffed animals and baby hats in several of the patient wards. The gifts were handmade by friends in Arizona and their home state of Washington.
The Lunds are already talking about a return trip to Kibogora. Their time in Rwanda offered an amazing learning experience for both women, and they encourage other parent-child teams to venture out into the mission field. The most important prerequisite, they say, is a willing heart.
“I believe that God doesn’t always call the qualified. Instead, He qualifies the called,” Skylar said.
