The first nurse I ever met was Inez Gilliam Crawford at Kings Daughters Hospital in Temple, Texas. She was my mother and that\u2019s where I was born. The most recent nurse I met was last week at the Texas Health Hospital Clearfork Surgery Center where my wife was having hip replacement surgery. Separated by decades, these two nurses shared a common bond – The Nightingale Pledge, of 1893, revised in 1935, named in honor of Florence Nightingale. A plaque with this pledge hung in our home as I was growing up. The pledge ends with, \u201cas a missioner of health, I will dedicate myself to devoted service for human welfare.\u201d It was always the word \u201cmissioner\u201d \u2013 \u201csomeone sent on a mission\u201d \u2013 that caught my attention. Called to be a missionary nurse, my mother was unable to be sent due to health issues, but she found her mission field as a pastor\u2019s wife and a missioner to the hurting, helpless, and hapless of her world. Likewise my new nurse friend was sent from her country to serve among a people new to her. Both followed the example of Jesus, who exclaimed to the Father, concerning His followers, \u201cAs You sent Me into the world, I also have sent them into the world. (John 17:18). Nurses are \u201cmissioners\u201d but they are not the only ones who bear that title. Have you been \u201csent\u201d to serve? Then you also are a missioner. Perhaps today, you can embrace an old word with all its meaning.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The first nurse I ever met was Inez Gilliam Crawford at Kings Daughters Hospital in Temple, Texas. She was my mother and that\u2019s where I was born. The most recent nurse I met was last week at the Texas Health Hospital Clearfork Surgery Center where my wife was having hip replacement surgery. Separated by decades,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_kad_post_transparent":"","_kad_post_title":"","_kad_post_layout":"","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false,"_kad_post_classname":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1766","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-monday-morning-manna"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/discipleallnations.org\/members\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1766","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/discipleallnations.org\/members\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/discipleallnations.org\/members\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/discipleallnations.org\/members\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/discipleallnations.org\/members\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1766"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/discipleallnations.org\/members\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1766\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/discipleallnations.org\/members\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1766"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/discipleallnations.org\/members\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1766"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/discipleallnations.org\/members\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1766"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}