Ya’ll … things are a little crazy right now…but in the most beautiful and amazing ways.
Another element to this CHAM news I recently shared is that the MOH has created what are called Staff Establishments for the different sizes of healthcare facilities. Based on the size of our catchment area and the services we currently offer, they have deemed Blessings Hospital to be a Community Hospital. Therefore, the MOH has an established and standard number and types of staff that they have decided are necessary to run a Community Hospital appropriately, and these are the type and number of positions they will pay the salaries for. Currently Blessings has around 45 employees and the staff establishment for a community hospital has allocation for significantly more staff than that.
We had been thinking that when approval came we would have a few months to strategize the who’s, when’s, and how many’s of hiring and recruiting. However, things are a little different than we expected and we learned last weekend that our window for recruitment is actually only until the end of this month! Woah!
Don’t worry though, the Blessings management team is full of rockstars who all came for a meeting after work on Monday night and spent a few hours discussing which of these positions are critical for hiring now and how to balance meeting our needs without out growing ourselves too quickly. What resulted was a list of almost 70 positions! So on Tuesday, Harold (our administrator) worked quickly to get our vacancies drafted, posted, and submitted to the newspaper. Within minutes of posting the vacancies on the hospital wall we started receiving emails…and they haven’t stopped since! We’re getting emails and hand delivered applications around the clock – which is a beautiful ‘problem’ to have.
Confession: I always want to be the kind of person who’s diamond is revealed when she’s put under pressure, but more often than not I find that what gets squeezed out is a shorter fuse, a sharper tongue, and maybe even some quicker tears. I don’t love when God lets things be bigger than I can keep under my control, and it’s showing this week 🙂
HOWEVER – the beautiful part it, wow is He doing a work on and in me! I recognize that this season for Blessings Hospital has not been curated specifically for my personal growth…but…I can see God’s hand allll over these last few years and how He has been teaching and transforming me in the waiting. Even though this version of Ashley hasn’t perfected grace under pressure, thanks to His faithful work and grace she’s much further along than the Ashley of 2018.
I’m a little scared at the speed at which we’re moving, but God is reminding me in the quiet parts of my spirit – and in so many faithful friends and encouragers – that He is not surprised by this timeline, He is not surprised by the magnitude of the task, and He always knew it was gonna be just like it is right now. He even already knows exactly who is going to fill every vacant position. So instead of letting the enemy comandeer this beautifully answered prayer with lies of impossibility, I’m trying to remind myself that every application, every interview, every moment of stress right now is a beautiful answered prayer and a reminder of His continued faithfulness to provide Blessings Hospital with exactly what it needs when it needs it.
There is no other explanation than He loves this place even more than I do, and He’s gonna continue this good work He started in it.
The purpose of this update is twofold..
- The update itself 🙂 for those of you who have been on this long journey with us.
- Plea for Prayer!
Please pray:
- Our Blessings Hospital managers – we continue to actively and intentionally pray the prayer of Solomon for wisdom to lead His people well. I work with some incredible humans on this management team, and I know every one of their hearts desires the best for the hospital and their colleagues, so please cover us all in prayer for wisdom and discernment to continue to see the best ways forward.
- That He would put the right people in the right positions and that those He has raised up for critical positions in leadership would be the clear choice. Please pray that every hire makes our family better, stronger, and more equipped to give excellent healthcare and love to our patients.
- Please pray for me. I want to still choose and see joy, blessing, and beauty even when I feel like timelines are impossible and tasks are too big. I want to trust that the beauty of this current season is that it is too big for me to manage and that means I have to ask Him in where I “might” …ok..would…have just run with it in my own strength. Please pray that my fuse would be long and flame resistant, that my tongue would only pour out kindness, grace, and encouragement, and that the tears of an overwhelmed heart and mind would come only in appropriate times and places 🙂
Ya’ll we’ve walked this loooong road together so far and He has been with us every step. He is actively answering our prayers and it truly is beautiful. I hope you are all feeling as joyful and victorious as we are, because the victory is ours. A lot of people have congratulated me as an individual, and I appreciate the encouragement, but I know there are a lot of you out there who have been praying over this as long as I have – and some of you even more faithful and consistently than I have. He has given this victory to US, so let’s celebrate every beautiful – crazy, chaotic, and messy – step forward into the frontier 🙂
Much Love,
Ash 🙂
love is a verb 