Becoming Familiar with Laura Nash

Today, you are asked to pray for Laura Nash and this post familiarizes you with her.  Laura is the other younger woman traveling to Sierra Leone.  Like her mother and me, this is her first mission trip to Sierra Leone.  I look forward to talking to her about her college experience at Murray State since I worked there for many years and probably know most, if not all her professors as well as many of her sorority sisters.  She will be such an asset on this trip because of her years in the nursing program.   

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"Hello all!  First off, I want to take a minute to introduce myself to you all. My name is Laura Nash! I just turned 22 years old, and am senior at Murray State University pursuing a degree in a Bachelor’s of Science in Nursing. After I graduate next year, I hope to attend graduate school and become either an advanced practice registered nurse with a specialty in geriatrics, or a family nurse practitioner. In my free time, I love participating in lots of musical activities at MSU. I am one of the three drum majors for the 250+ member MSU Racer Band, I am an active sister of Sigma Alpha Iota (a fraternity for women with a sincere interest in music), and I also love playing the clarinet, guitar, and saxophone. In addition, I love spending time with my Yorkshire terrier, Sophie, who lives in Murray with me.

With that said, I can’t believe we leave for Sierra Leone, Africa in 8 days! This will be my first mission trip and my first trip out of the United States. I have wanted to go on a medical mission trip for a few years now and am very excited that my dream has turned into a reality.

The opportunity to join the team traveling to Sierra Leone was one I learned about less than 2 months ago. I had returned to MSU the first week in January after Christmas Break when my mom, Tonya Nash, told me that our church was going on another mission trip to Sierra Leone.  I thought it would be cool to be able to go, but thought it was probably too late to sign up and there was no way it would logistically work with my college schedule. It turned out that it wasn’t too late to sign up, and to make things better, the trip conveniently fell during my spring break! The combination of these two things felt like a sign from God letting me know that he intended for me to serve on this mission team, so my mom and I tentatively decided to join the mission team. However, I did not have a passport or the needed immunizations. I applied for a passport the day after we joined the team. For those of you who have never applied for a passport, it takes approximately 4-6 weeks from the time you apply to receive your passport in the mail. I applied the week of January the 6^th, so to avoid receiving my passport sometime in late January or early February, I paid to have it rushed. My passport arrived on January 23^rd, my 22^nd birthday, and in time to be sent along with the rest of the team members’ passports to apply for our visas. 

Around this time, we found out that we needed to push our travel date up a day to Thursday, March 13. When we learned this, I honestly thought I was not going to be able to go on the trip anymore. Leaving on Friday, March 14 worked for me because I conveniently did not have the scheduled lab that normally met on Fridays that day, so I would not have to miss any classes. Leaving on Thursday was a completely different story though. I had four classes I would have to miss and a test scheduled for that day. MSU’s nursing professors are notorious for being very strict. I was afraid that they would not excuse my absence, but luckily they were okay with me missing that one day of class. After multiple emails, I had still not received a response from the professor whose class I had an exam in.  I spoke with our team leader, Robert, and let him know of the situation. He asked me my professor’s name, and it turned out he knew and was friends with him! He called him and my professor told Robert to tell me that he would excuse my absence and I could take the test when I got back. From then on, it’s been smooth sailing. Ultimately, all of these obstacles that have arisen have really shown me that God can move mountains when he has big plans for you.

In closing, I am so excited to be a member of the team, and I hope to be able to use my nursing skills to aid the team in any way that I can. I am so thankful to have this opportunity to continue my own spiritual growth and change the lives of many in Sierra Leone. Let’s get the show on the road!"

Laura