PYC 2010 - Empowered - Day #1

PYC 2010. Here are just a few highlight photos for this year's conference on the first day. It is a beautiful place and you can definitely feel the Spirit of God in this place.

The beauty of the campus of Adventist University of the Philippines

Young people taking a stand for King Jesus.

A 12 year old gives his testimony of how God is working in his life...it was amazing!

David preaches on being a plastic bottle for Jesus

Sabbath morning during the Philippine Youth for Christ conference

First Preventative Intubation

Well, I hit a milestone today. I intubated my first patient for preventative measures today as an attending emergency physician. Basically, this means I passed a tube down the patient's trachea to secure his airway because there was a high chance he would go into respiratory failure. He was a young teenager with symptoms of stroke and he was rapidly declining. We needed to get him to an ICU at another hospital fast and helicopter was the mode of transport chosen. I have intubated plenty of people, but most of the time they were unconscious, code situations, and it was a life-saving maneuver. This time, I was taking the patient from a fairly stable (currently) situation and paralyzing him (taking away his ability to breathe on his own), to passed the tube in.

It was a scary feeling, knowing that he could die in front of me, and I had no other MD in the hospital for back up in case something went wrong let alone an attending doc to ask questions...I was it. Whoa, the adrenaline was pumping, my arms were shaking, and as the nurses prepared the induction medications and the RT prepared the vent and intubation kit, I slipped away to my computer and prayed to God for guidance. I knew it was going to be difficult because the family insisted on staying for the procedure (added pressure) and the boy was over 300lbs (difficult to maneuver his neck).

After the meds were in, I positioned the head, inserted my mac blade and searched for the vocal cords, which I barely saw after about 10 seconds of readjusting. For some reason the endotracheal tube wasn't wanting to pass through the cords as they spasmed with each contact. After about 45 seconds of trying, the pt's O2 sats started to decline, so we bag-masked him for about 1.5 minutes to get his O2 sat back up and to get a smaller tube to try to pass. On second attempt, instead of trying to jam the tube pass the cords, I twisted the tube as it touched the cords and waited for the cords to relax and slowly passed the tube...SUCCESS! what a great feeling. My nurse and RT confirmed the positioning, secured the tube and worked effortlessly to get his parameters to the right levels. The life-flight crew was present within 10-mins of the intubation, packed him up and he was on his way. The adrenaline slowly started to dissipate as the situation stabilized.

What did I learn today...trust your team, trust your skills, and trust that God is in charge. I started my day with a prayer today that God would give me the ability to accomplish the things he would place before me today. Prayer answered. Time to get some sleep...until the next patient.

Farewell to Derek and Bodil Morris!

God speed to Derek and Bodil Morris! Great team that will be hard to replace, but we know that God will use them mightily at the GC. My prayer is for the FLC as they seek to find someone lead their church who seeks to place Christ first and foremost (as the Morris's strived to do). Jason & Janelle

A Home of Our Own

Jason, Janelle, Daisy, & Deuteronomy Shives' new home
(click pics to see bigger).

Story at the end. It is long , but very interesting!

Living room
Master Bed looking out to lake

Master bath

Dining

Kitchen

Family room

another bedroom

2nd bath

the view =)

I think we will cut down that tree that is covering the house.

God has blessed with a home of our own, and at an amazing deal too! Good things come to those who wait. When we first were going to move to Orlando (April 2007) we had signed on the dotted line to purchase a 800 sq ft 2/1 condo with no covered parking for just over $150,000. Praise the Lord we backed out because the monthly payment was too high, and it was not close to Jason's work. So we rented for 1.5 years and continued to look here and there for homes, as prices continued to fall.

Then in April of 2008 we almost bought again, and this time in a much higher price bracket, since we were both making good money. But Priase the Lord we didnt buy then, because Janelle took a significant pay cut in Aug 08, and we would probably be another foreclosure statistic right now. It is funny that we told our then real estate agent, Heather, that we would be willing to drive further to work if we could be on a lake, she basically laughed and said that would have to be our second home, after we were making more money (at this point we were looking at houses over $300,000 too!).

Then in Nov 2008 we found a 3/2 house that was "waterfront" (retension pond) for only $100,000. Although it was spoken for by the time we called the next morning, it sparked in us a drive to find something we could own for not much more than rent.

Almost every Sunday from Nov to Jan 18 we looked at homes. We made offers on 3 of them, but thankfully did not have them accepted.

Then Jan 19th happened. after having seen everything in our price bracket and location, and as we were going that afternoon to look at ones we had skipped over, Janelle decided to check back on a house that we hadnt seen inside, because of tenants. This one was located on a canal, and was priced at $145k. So I typed in the street name into orlandoreo.com and low and behold there was another house on the same street for a little more money ($159,900). After a little invetigation, I discovered that this house was not on the canal, but on the lake itself! and the pictures of the inside were georgeous! and it had a 2 car garage! So i immediatelly added it to the list of ones i wanted to see and sent it to our real estate agent, Martina. Then almost as immediately called Jason and simply told him, "PRAY, I just found a house on a lake for $159,900." he agreed to and then i proceeded to tell our friends Tim & Sunny Arakawa (Tim was interviewing at Florida Hospital) about the house.

So the afternoon come and Martina took us to see some more houses, but we were eagerly waiting for the lake house. Then the moment arrived and we pulled in the driveway. The outside looked like many homes we had looked at so far, but then we stepped inside...

It was more beautiful than the pictures, completely remodeled inside with cherry wood floors and a never been used before kitchen (the owners manuals were still in the appliances). And then we saw the view! it is not a huge lake, but a skiable one, and the best part was that there are no home on the opposite side! so we looked out at the lake and the beautiful nature around it!

So we immediately told Martina to call to make sure it was still available, she told us not to be heart broken if it wasnt. She called the listing agent, but got no response. The home was a short sale, which means it could take months for the bank to accept your offer, and during the whole time can accept other offers too, this is usually very discouraging, but for the lake house it said the 159900 was a preapproved price, and that was good news. But Martina found out the preapproved price was actually $179900, but that the buyers had backed out because it took too long. We were ready to pay $179900 for the house, because we liked it so much, but God didnt want us to have to do that.

EIther that night or the following night Martina called us with good news. She said that yes the preapproved price was 179900, but that was months ago and the bank was fully aware that the listing agent, Billy, had dropped the list price to 159900, and even better that if we offered the full list price that the listing agent would put the house as "sale pending" so no other offers could be made!! We jumped at the opportunity and we had a signed offer to martina that night.

Then came the waiting. Billy told us that he would have the seller's signature in 2 days, and the banks in 2 weeks. I checked with our loan officer, Matt what the rates were that morning and he said 4.875 with a 1% fee! I wanted to lock in that rate so badly, but couldnt without a contract. So we waited. The seller took 5 days to sign the contract, because he wanted to make sure that we were willing to pay an extra $3000 at closing, if needed and because we had put that we wouldn't pay higher than a rate of 5.5% and he changed it to say "prevailing rate." we agreed, but in our hearts did not want to pay the extra money or higher rate, and so the contract went to the bank. It took the seller 5 days, instead of 2, so I was afraid the bank would take 5 weeks instead of 2!

Since we technically had a contract, so on Jan 26th we could have locked our rate in (which had risen to 5%), but would have had to close in 30 days. Martina advised us against doing that because the bank did not have to accept our offer, and then we would have a mortgage and no house. So i listened to her and waited patiently.

So week number 2 came and went, and we heard nothing and interest rates continued to rise. Week 3 came and went and we heard nothing.

Then on Feb 18th some bookshelves for the new house arrived on our door (that janelle had ordered without asking jason, sorry babe). Jason gets upset, and janelle promises to take them back if they dont get the house. So Jason goes back to work and I have the daunting task of getting 3 large boxes into the garage. while i was doing this i left my phone in the house. So i finally get them in and check my phone to find that Martina had called twice and send a text message to call her ASAP. So i did and she asked if Jason was home (it is always something important when she asks that) and then she says "do you want the good news or bad news first?" I said the bad news. She almost yells, "there is no bad news, they accepted your offer!" I of course get very excited, thanked God, and called jason.

The next call was to Matt at our bank, and guess what rate we were able to lock in? 4.875 with 1% fee, the exact rate I had told God I would be ecstatic with, maybe i should have said lower! So we had 30 days to close and Matt said the bank needed 3weeks (Mar 16). We wanted to close even earlier so we got everything in very quick and they agreed to move it up 5 days to the 11th. So everything was set except for the appraisal.

At our CREATION health study on Friday night the 6th we excitedly told our friends we were closing on Wed and the lovely and talented Nadine gave us beautifully embroidered towels as a house warming gift. Little did we know what was waiting for us on the answering machine... so we finally listened to our messages pretty late Sat night and heard Matt tell us that the house had only appraised for 147900 and to let him know if he could help in any way. I didnt know what our options were at that point, and decided to call Martina right after witness 4 fitness in the morning. I had bad dreams that night.

In the morning Martina ranted and raved about how bad a job the appraiser did, and that there was no reason for it not to have appraised for the sale price. So she, bless her heart, spent 3 hours on Sunday preparing a document that showed the errors the appraiser had made and comparable sales for houses that were waterf/lake front. the appraiser had even underestimated the square footage.

Monday morning Martina sent that document to the bank, who sent it to the appraisal company. We went back to waiting, and waiting. We missed our 11th and 16th closing dates waiting to see if they would change the price, and our contract on the house expired the 18th. Martina let us know that there were back up offers on the house, so i dared not think of asking the bank to accept a sales price of $147k. So on the 16th I took matters into my own hands. the problem with the appraisal was that our bank would only fund 95% of the appraised price, leaving us with a difference of $12,250. So i went where all good children go when they need money - Mommy. Mommy reluctantly agreed to let us borrow the extra money and we rushed to get the money wired into our bank account. We just had to close by the 18th. Later that day Matt informs me that the appraiser did not budge a single dollar! We were all shocked.

So 2 scenarios are now running through my mind. 1. this is God's way of lowering our monthly payments by taking an extra (interest free) loan from my mom. 2. this is God's way of telling us not to buy this house. This is right when 2 other Advent HOPE leadership couples had also had problems closing on their houses. how were we to know which it was? well we did much more praying and later that night Martina said the unthinkable. She wanted to ask the bank for an extension on the contract of 1 week AND that they take $147,000 for the house. I told her to go ahead and try, but i did not tell Matt, in my mind we were still closing on Wed with mom's money. Tues went by, no word from the bank. Now it is the 18th our last day under contract. I get a call from Martina while jason is completing his motorcycle class. She begins by saying, "I have bad news...

...no! there is no bad news, you are going to have your dream house at $147,000!!! and they extended the contract for 7 days." Of course there was more screaming,excitment, praising God, and calling Jason.

Martina said the title company would need 2 days to close, but our rate was going to expire after the 19th and rates had gone up significantly, so we would have to pay a couple hundred dollars to extend it. That's nothing compared to the $12,900 that Martina had just saved us, but money is money. So Matt went to work and said he taught on his end that we could close tomorrow, the 19th. I asked Martina to see if the title company could be ready as well.

We closed on the 19th at 4 pm!

What a miracle how it all came together at the last minute. Thank you God! And because the purchase price was less, the down payment/closing costs were less, the monthly payment was less, and that extra $3000 never showed up. Mom was grateful to get her money back as well =)

Everyone at the closing was so excited for us, the listing agent even came by to congratulate us and tell us that we MUST be at the bottom of the market for the deal we got and that he would have bought the house if we didnt!

Martina gave us a gift card to Home Depot, and reminded us how we almost went with a different agent because Martina was not part of a program that wouldve given us $600 cash back. At that time she promised us that we would not be sorry for using her, and she was right! and you know what is amazing? Martina got less commission because she stuck her neck out for us, isnt that awesome? selfless. reminds me of Someone else.

So now we have a 4/2, 1680 sq ft, 2 car garage house, on a Lake for LESS money than we wouldve paid for the condo in 2007. Did I mention that the man we bought it from paid $410,000 in 2006 before remodeling it! So friends, come visit us, we have an extra room for you =)

"Delight yourself in the Lord, and He shall give you the desires of your heart." Psalm 37:4

New additions

Introducing (Officially) Daisy & Deuteronomy

We adopted them from the Orange county animal shelter in Nov and we have been pleasantly surprised at how well behaved they are and how they get along.

Don't breed or buy while shelter pets die!

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Nigeria & Tchad 7/13 - 8/22

Here is the mission spotlight we did at Advent HOPE FL in Sept. We enjoyed our time in Africa, and are excited to see how/where God will lead us back full time when Jason finishes residency.

Europe 2008

I may never get all of our great Europe pics on here, but i hate when things are not in chronological order, so here is an incomplete post. i will add pics soon.

After flying in from Tchad to Paris we spent 2.5 days in Paris. We saw Notre Dame, the arc de triump, the louve, the eiffel tower, the gardens of versailles, and ate delicious falafels! We took a evening boat tour of the city and watched with surprised as the eiffel tower turned a beautiful blinking blue. This video is better than ours, so enjoy:

After missing the train out and getting ripped off by this restaruant that promised wi-fi, we then took a train through the french countryside to Milano(Milan), Italy. We got in very late, but God protected us.

We spent the rest of our time exploring Italy's western coast. We first went to these cute seaside towns called the cinque terre, where we swam and jumped off big rocks, hiked beautiful vineyard trails, walked the "via del amore," and took a really relaxing and scenic boat ride. While we were there some other guests in the home we stayed in highly suggested a town called Priano on the Amalfi coast.

we then took the overnight train all the way to Napoli (Naples) and went in search of Priano. We had actually reserved a room ahead of time, unfortunately by the time we got to Napoli they had given away our ocean view room, and then by the time we took the Circumvesuvian train and a tour bus along skinny roads that on 1 side was the cliff and the other a 1000 ft drop to the ocean (awesome ride btw), they had given away our 2nd night at the hotel!! And this was Friday and we really didnt want to change hotels on Sabbath. So we made some calls and then rented a scooter to find another hotel (thankfully almost everyone in Italy speaks English ). We finally found one and they allowed us to move our stuff in, but not pay until after sundown.

The views in both places were awesome!

On Sabbath we had breakfast with a view and then studied the lesson quarterly in a swing on the patio, then Jason suggested we continue our study at the top of the mountain. So we had a great hike with breathtaking views and just happened to find a pinic table to finsh reading the Bible. We also found blackberries and figs to eat right off the vine/tree. It was awesome!!

We then left Priano and headed back to Sorrento where we stayed in a campground with a tiny cabin. We wished we had found more places like it, cause we spent way more money than expected on hotels. We took a day trip to the island of Capri and went into the blue grotto. very cool, highly recommended.

We discovered our new favorite dessert while in Italy--sorbetto (sorbet)!! Our very favorite here in the states is Haggen Daaz's coconut sorbet, but there it was cantaloupe.

We also spent a half day exploring Pompeii and the archeological museum.

We then went to our final destination--Roma(Rome). We only had 2 days, so we did a open bus tour where you can hop on and off at your leisure. We saw the coliseum, forum, julius ceasar's tomb, the Marmartine prison that housed peter and paul in the new testament, st.peter's basilica, etc.

Then back to the good old USA, and God was so good to us. Even though we missed some trains, we didnt have anything stolen, or harmed in any way.

Bye bye hair! May 2008

After growing my hair out for 2 years, I decided to donate it to the cancer center here at Florida Hospital. Estela-mom came with me and Jason popped in for a little bit.

It was about 14 inches, curly!

She straightened my hair (which Jason really liked), and I havent done since (sorry babe).

Janelle's Grandma will be in the first resurrection (Not to play God, but i am pretty sure)

I also didnt mention in Feb my Grandma Baptist (maternal) passed away. She had colon cancer and thankfully my mother (along with all her 7 siblings) got to take care of her and say there goodbyes through the months before she died. I am also greatful to God and Jason that we took the time on our trip from CA to FL to spend 1 night with them in MO, it was the last time i saw her alive, although i spoke to her on the phone many times after. She just kept saying that Jesus's second coming was soon and i believe her! She is resting now, but she was a wonderful Christian woman that loved telling people about Jesus. She and my Grandpa even though in their upper eighties still would get out and hand out Christian literature to those in their town of Lebanon, MO. Here is one of my favorite pics of all time:














I think it is too cute that Jason is wearing the t-shirt from the last Baptist family reunion!

Jason's High School Reunion

Oops i forgot to mention we went to Bass Memorial Academy in Lumberton, MS in March for Jason's 10 year reunion. It was very nice to get to meet some of his classmates, although some of his closest friends didnt show up! C'mon people go to your high school reunions, there are people that want to see you.

It was a nice weekend. I did get to meet Pastor David Hartman who was the pastor that gave the evangelistic series in Pensacola, FL in which Jason's family joined the Seventh-day Adventist movement!

Jason got reaquinted with his old gymnastics coach Bernie Culpepper, who is now boy's dean. We found out we have a lot in common with he and his wife, and they are really trying to make a difference in the lives of the young people there. Praise God for the men and women that are being good examples in our church schools!

We are really bad at this...

So what has happened to the Shives in the last oh almost 6 months? Let's see... Here's some in no particular order:

Jason took Step 3, and will soon receive his score. I know he will pass! Almost a licensed physician =)

Jason has been doing Bible studies with a young man that was demon possessed!! The demon even talked to Jason during one of the first Bible studies. Jason kept thinking about the story in Acts 19 where the demon says, “Jesus I know, and Paul I know; but who are you?” Since then the young man has made some major changes in his life (especially in MUSIC!!) and has been free of possession.

We were looking to buy a house because the economy is so bad, and house prices keep falling, but God intervened and showed us he didnt want us to be tied down to Orlando with a house.

Speaking of not being tied down, we received a letter from the General Conference of SDA's stating that we had been assigned to serve in West Central Africa after Jason's residency. Janelle is very excited because she has been saying for years that they should go to a French speaking country, since God divinely orchestrated (she believes) both Shives to take French in high school and college.

Since neither of us have been to Africa, we are going to go check it out in July & August (sorry Tim & Sunny). We will be going to Ile Ife in Nigeria and Bere in Tchad. Jason is doing a month medical elective and Janelle will be doing... umm... Learning the language and cooking Afro food! Actually Ile Ife does have a nursing school, so maybe I'll be teaching some more A&P. More on this once we go.

Janelle spent 2 weeks in Loma Linda working on the ever so illusive thesis. It was all work except for Sabbaths. It was really wonderful to be back at the "other" Advent HOPE and see all my beloved friends! The very last Sabbath I was there Brad, Amber, Fanny, and myself spent the afternoon at the beach. It was beautiful and relaxing, complete with gray whales migrating and a pod of dolphins (and of course HERMIT CRABS)!

The tide kept coming in on us, almost stranding us on some rocks, and Brad was anxiously waiting for a wave to get me while I was looking into the tide pools, but it never got me! hahaha. After sundown we began the new week with some delicious vegetarian Philipino food before they took me to LAX to fly back to my Babycakes!

The picture was taken by a lady that Fanny boldy offered 3 Christian booklets too! She was very receptive, good job Fanny!

Advent HOPE Florida is such a blessing! Our little group has seen awesome changes in the lives of the attendees. I got tears in my eyes when one Sabbath afternoon recently a group of us were sharing our testimonies and 2 different people included Advent HOPE Florida as part of their testimony of coming to know Christ!

Our small groups are going really well. From 1 original group, we have split into 5! Jason & I have one on Friday nights. We have an awesome group! I will do a whole post dedicated to our group soon. And that is just our Friday night study, then Jason has that men's one on Tues night (with the demon possessed guy), I have one on Tues night with my very sweet neighbor Norma, and I (Jason is usually there too) have one on Thurs night with an awesome lady named Estela. She is Cuban, goes to Catholic mass, but doesnt agree with everything they teach, she doesnt agree with us on everything either, but despite that she has become our adopted mother. Here we are jumping on our trampoline.

Pray that we can keep up with all that God wants us to do here!

P.S. Janelle apologizes for switching between 1st and 3rd person. I am sure that will bother someone.