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Series Code: TIJ
Program Code: TIJ002130S
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00:32 Near Piccadilly Circus on Waterloo Place in the heart of 00:35 London stands the Crimean War Memorial. It was built in 1861 00:40 and features Honor with outstretched arms standing above 00:45 the statues of three guardsmen cast in bronze from captured 00:49 captured Russian canons. Carved in the stonework on the side are 00:53 the names of three famous Crimean battles: Alma, Inkerman 00:58 and Sevastopol. The Crimean War marked a turning point in 01:04 history. It introduced major changes in society and war 01:07 operations. The war began over a seemingly minor and 01:12 insignificant religious dispute. For years orthodox Christians 01:17 supported by Russia and Roman Catholics backed by France had 01:22 squabbled over access to the holy sites in Jerusalem and the 01:25 middle east under the control of the Muslim Ottoman Empire. Both 01:30 France and Russia wanted to take charge of these sacred sites 01:35 and be the defender of the Ottoman Christians. The losses 01:40 on all sides were immense. At least three-quarters of a 01:44 million soldiers died, most through illness and disease away 01:49 from the battlefield. The French lost around 100,000 men, the 01:55 British about 20,000 and the Russians well over half a 02:01 million From the muddled chaotic catastrophe of the Crimean war 02:06 one person emerged famous alone. Not a general, not a soldier, 02:12 but a woman. Her statue stands as part of the Crimean War 02:18 Memorial alongside the three guardsmen. Her name, Florence 02:24 Nightingale. This is her story. It will encourage you and 02:29 inspire you and maybe Florence Nightingale brings a message for 02:35 us today. 02:36 ♪ ♪ 03:02 St. Thomas' is one of the oldest hospitals in London, England. 03:05 It's situated along the Thames in Southward near London Bridge. 03:11 St. Thomas' Hospital has been providing relief to the sick and 03:15 needy for over 900 years. Surgery was an extremely 03:22 painful undertaking back then because there was no anesthesia 03:25 and it was risky because a barber performed it. And to make 03:30 matters worse, there were no antiseptics. The old operating 03:37 theatre of St. Thomas' Hospital provides a chilling reminder 03:42 of the realities of surgery before anesthesia 03:45 and antiseptics. 03:46 It was built in 1822 in the attic of 300-year-old St. 03:52 Thomas' Church. It's the oldest surviving operating theatre in 03:57 Europe. And the equipment was to say the least basic and scary 04:04 including saws and hammers. So much so that the patients were 04:08 usually blindfolded before entering the room so they 04:12 couldn't see the terrifying surgical equipment. But one of 04:17 the biggest problems associated with surgery back then and 04:22 hospitals in general was the lack of professional and 04:24 properly trained nurses. One of the main differences between 04:28 hospitals then and now are nurses and never is this more 04:33 clearly seen than when you compare this old operating 04:36 theatre and hospital with the new St. Thomas' Hospital. Where 04:43 would we be without nurses. Most of us arrived on planet earth 04:47 with their help. A nurse's face was one of the first we saw and 04:52 we've always retained a sense of respect and admiration for 04:56 nurses. In fact in survey after survey, nursing comes up as the 05:02 most trusted health care profession of all. And if you or 05:05 a loved one has spent time in a hospital you'll certainly 05:10 understand why. Nurses are teachers, advocates, caregivers, 05:16 supporters and innovators. They are usually the ones who are 05:21 there for our first breath and our last breath. Their presence 05:26 and care not only heals and comforts but also genuinely 05:31 transforms lives. Nurses give up time that the rest of us take 05:37 for granted, weekends, nights and family time to work through 05:44 grueling shift nurse rosters selflessly committed to their 05:47 patients. And they do it because they really do care. As the 05:52 saying goes, care for one person that's love, care for 100 people 05:58 that's nursing. Nurses make a difference. Too often we take 06:05 nurses for granted and we forget that not too long ago nursing as 06:10 we know it didn't exist at all in hospitals and operating 06:15 theatres like this. Those were dark days indeed. And never was 06:20 more starkly evident than during the Crimean War. Let me take you 06:27 there. In the 19th century the great nations of Europe lined up 06:33 against Russia. It was really just another power grab 06:37 ostensibly over religion. Who should control the sacred sites 06:43 in Jerusalem and the middle east. In the autumn of 1854, the 06:48 allies, the English, French and Turks invaded the Crimean 06:52 peninsula. After securing a victory at the Battle of Alma 06:56 they went on to attack the vital Russian naval hub at Sevastopol. 07:02 Soldiers on both sides were forced to battle through a 07:06 brutal Russian winter under constant artillery bombardment. 07:11 Many soldiers fell victim to what was then called trench 07:16 madness and later shellshock. It would eventually take 11 07:23 months before a French assault forced the Russians to evacuate 07:27 Sevastopol. A year later after more sporadic fighting the 07:32 Russians finally admitted defeat The Crimean War was hugely 07:40 significant for a number of important reasons. The human 07:43 cost of the war was immense, 20,000 British, 100,000 French 07:49 and well over half a million Russians died. The startling 07:53 thing is that many of them didn't die in battle. Most of 07:57 them actually died of disease and neglect. 08:04 Florence Nightingale was born into a rich, upper class British 08:07 family in 1820. She was named Florence after the city of her 08:12 birth in Italy. And here's a piece of trivia. The name 08:16 Florence had never been a woman's name before but it 08:20 became popular as a result of her impact on the world. What 08:24 Florence went on to achieve in her life is all the more 08:27 impressive when you consider how socially restrained women were 08:31 in Victorian England. Women of Nightingale's high social class 08:36 didn't attend university or have professional careers. Instead 08:41 their purpose in life was to marry and bear children. But 08:46 Florence's father believed women should be educated and he 08:51 personally taught her Italian, Latin, Greek, philosophy, 08:54 history and most 08:57 unusual of all for women of the time, writing and 09:00 mathematics. Florence grew to be a tall and pretty girl. 09:05 Their life included many parties, much travel on the 09:08 continent. At the age of 16 two young men fell head over heels 09:13 in love with her and proposed marriage. She liked them both 09:17 but she wasn't ready to marry. The following year a strange 09:23 thing happened to her. She didn't consider herself to be 09:29 particularly religious but on February the 7th 1837 at the age 09:34 17 she felt that God spoke to her and called her to some 09:39 future service. She wondered about what this might be and 09:44 from that moment her life was changed for good. Young Florence 09:49 stopped the constant socializing and the frivolous parties and 09:53 started to look for opportunities to serve others. 09:57 She wanted to prepare herself for whatever God was calling her 10:02 to do. Florence started spending all her spare time visiting the 10:07 poor in their cottages on the family estate and bringing food 10:11 and medicine to the people who lived there. Florence was 10:15 beginning to wonder whether helping the sick was what God 10:20 wanted her to do. One day a doctor and his wife visited the 10:24 family home and Florence asked the doctor whether he thought 10:28 it unsuitable and unbecoming for a young English woman to devote 10:34 herself to works of charity in hospitals and elsewhere like the 10:38 nuns. The doctor answered that it would indeed be considered 10:43 highly unsuitable but he still told her that she should follow 10:47 her inspiration and so Florence did just that. She decided to go 10:52 and get some hands on experience and training at a hospital run 10:56 by a family friend. Florence's parents were shocked and 11:02 horrified. This was entirely inappropriate for an upper class 11:06 woman. Hospitals in England back then were places of degradation 11:12 and filth. In Victorian England the stench in hospitals was so 11:18 bad that it was normal for nurses to arrive drunk for work 11:22 so they could get through the day. But Florence was determined 11:26 Her stubbornness in addition to her intellect was one of her key 11:31 attributes. She got up before dawn every morning to do her 11:35 own study by the light of an oil lamp. And then she decided to go 11:39 to Germany to get practical experience. When Florence 11:44 returned from Germany her parents tried to get her to 11:48 settle down decently. But they were confused and annoyed 11:52 when Florence turned down yet another offer of marriage. 11:55 Florence refused to consider a normal life. Instead she 12:01 she traveled to Paris to serve in a hospital run by nuns. In 12:07 due course back in England the institution for the care of sick 12:11 gentlewomen in distressed circumstances needed a 12:15 superintendent and Florence was ideal for the job. So she 12:20 returned to England. It was then in 1853 that the Crimean War 12:28 erupted. The decision to go to war was made with enthusiastic 12:33 support from the British public. Queen Victoria wrote to the 12:37 king of Belgium, the war is popular beyond belief. At the 12:43 time English military hospitals were a disgrace. Any wounded men 12:48 sent there had almost no chance of recovering. To end up in a 12:53 military hospital was virtually a death sentence. But English 12:59 and French have always been great rivals and when reports 13:02 came back from the war that the French took better care of their 13:06 wounded, the English government was stung into action. Sydney 13:11 Herbert, the secretary of war, created a new official position 13:15 of superintendent of nursing for the military hospitals in 13:21 Turkey and then set about trying to search through all of England 13:26 to find the best qualified person to fill the position. 13:29 And the best person he could find was a young woman, Florence 13:33 Nightingale. She was to go to the Crimea with the nurses of 13:37 her choice and with total authority over nursing 13:41 in the hospitals. 13:42 Before this no woman had ever entered a military hospital. 13:47 But even then Miss Nightingale's reputation was already such that 13:53 her appointment was applauded by the public. Florence 13:58 carefully selected the women to travel with her to Turkey, 14:00 40 in all. What they found when they arrived in Turkey was a 14:06 total disaster. It was no wonder that so few of the wounded 14:10 English soldiers ever made it back home. They found moldy 14:16 bread, scarce water, filth and overcrowding everywhere. No 14:20 arrangements for hygiene. No bed sheets, no operating tables and 14:25 no medical supplies. The nurses themselves were allocated five 14:30 rat infested bedrooms and a single kitchen. Miss Nightingale 14:36 quickly started requisitioning supplies which was an unheard 14:40 of power for a woman to have in terms of the military. The first 14:44 thing she asked for were towels and soap. Then she started 14:49 insisting that the clothes be washed and the floor scrubbed. 14:53 She wasted no time in whipping the hospitals into shape. But 15:00 right away she started running into trouble. Some of the 15:04 officers complained about her power. Some of the doctors also 15:08 grumbled. How could this woman, just arrived, pretend to know 15:12 what needed to be done and have more authority than they had. 15:18 But there was one group of people who fully approved of her 15:22 and supported what Miss Nightingale was doing. These 15:26 were her patients, the wounded soldiers. They all but adored 15:31 her because she did for them what no one else had done. They 15:36 called her the lady with the lamp because at the end of each 15:40 day when it got dark and other staff had retired for the night 15:44 Florence Nightingale would take her lamp and visit the 15:48 wounded in the wards. 15:50 She made sure they were comfortable and their injuries 15:53 were tended to. The grateful soldiers spoke of kissing her 15:59 very shadows as she passed. A report describing how she cared 16:04 for the wounded was sent back to England. This is what it said 16:23 One of the very lamps she used is on display at the Florence 16:26 Nightingale museum near the Houses of Parliament in London. 16:30 The Turkish style lamp is a graphic reminder of her 16:34 commitment and dedication to the care for the sick and dying 16:39 under difficult and trying circumstances. Despite the many 16:43 obstacles Florence Nightingale kept on working. It seemed that 16:48 nothing could stand in her way when it came to caring for the 16:53 wounded and the sick. The changes that Florence introduced 16:57 reduced the death rate in the military hospitals from 42% to 17:03 two percent. And even from the war zone she started suggesting 17:07 changes to legislation that would help the men. One example 17:12 was the law said that hospitalized men had their pay 17:15 cut since they weren't on the front lines anymore. Often these 17:21 men ended up handicapped for life. Miss Nightingale wrote to 17:25 Queen Victoria opposing these pay cuts and the men's pay was 17:31 restored. There were many other examples of legislation that she 17:35 suggested or wrote which was introduced to Parliament and 17:39 subsequently passed. It had been a miserable war. Although the 17:49 war had started with a huge wave of popular support by the end of 17:53 it the English public were horrified and tired of it. 17:57 But amid the devastation Florence Nightingale emerged as 18:03 the hero. As one biographer said She had the country at her feet. 18:08 Upon her return to England Miss Nightingale was received by 18:13 Queen Victoria who gave her an inscribed diamond broach as a 18:18 token of her appreciation. Florence had returned to England 18:24 looking pale and gaunt suffering from several sicknesses. But she 18:29 had found her cause. Something that she could devote her energy 18:35 to and make a difference in the world. She had finally found 18:38 what God had called her to do. Health and hygiene and wounded 18:44 soldiers in general were neglected in the British army. 18:48 In other words, if you joined the army you were 18:51 overwhelmingly more 18:53 likely to die from diseases due to poor hygiene than and the 19:01 More soldiers were dying from hospital infections than from 19:05 battlefield injuries. Florence managed to convince Queen 19:11 Victoria that urgent reforms were needed. In fact, they 19:15 became friends. The queen would summon her to visit the palace 19:19 and amazingly, even made informal visits to Florence's 19:23 home herself. In gratitude to Miss Nightingale for her work in 19:29 Crimea 70 prominent people of England established the 19:33 Nightingale fund and she became its first administrator. One of 19:38 the first things the fund did was to establish in 1860 a 19:43 school for nurses at St. Thomas' Hospital which Miss Nightingale 19:48 also supervised. The school still exists today. It's called 19:53 the Florence Nightingale School of Nursing and Midwifery and is 19:57 part of Kings College, London. Although Florence remained ill 20:03 her health eventually improved somewhat. Still she didn't stop 20:07 working. During the night she wrote books about how to run 20:12 hospitals, care for the sick and on nursing. And these books were 20:17 translated into many languages around the world. Soon, however, 20:22 another war broke out, the Franco-Prussian War. During the 20:28 war Florence worked with the National Society for the Aid to 20:30 the Sick and Wounded which was later called the Red Cross. 20:34 After the war ended Jean Henri Dunant said this: 20:52 After this Florence reduced her public work for a time to nurse 20:56 first her dying father, then her dying mother and then her dying 21:03 sister. Florence herself lived on into old age continuing to 21:08 work and contribute and everywhere she went she was 21:12 treated with respect and awe. She continued to write until her 21:18 sight failed and her memory dulled. On August the 13th 1910 21:23 she fell asleep around noon and did not awaken. In 1907, King 21:31 Edward VII bestowed on her the Order of Merit, the first time 21:36 ever that this had been given to a woman. Florence Nightingale 21:40 also received many other rewards and honors. One of the amazing 21:44 things about her life is that she contributed so much and 21:49 continued to work for the sick and poor even though she herself 21:53 spent long periods of time bedridden with illness. What was 21:59 it that lay at the heart of Florence Nightingale's passion 22:02 for healing the sick, helping the poor and alleviating 22:06 suffering wherever she found it? What was the motivating factor 22:11 behind the way she transformed the care of sick in this world 22:15 and once she had founded the modern profession of nursing? 22:19 Well Florence Nightingale was intensely, personally devoted to 22:23 Jesus Christ and his ideals of unconditional love and 22:27 compassion. She believed that the work of her life was her 22:32 response to the call of God on her life. Throughout her life 22:37 Florence always looked for a deeper and deeper experience 22:41 with God. Not through outward rituals and religious ceremonies 22:46 but through the transformation of her heart. Florence 22:51 Nightingale treasured her Bible and this is another possession 22:56 she treasured, her prayer book. It's come all the way back to 23:01 England via New Zealand and Australia where it was taken by 23:05 a close relative over 100 years ago. It carries her name and 23:09 signature and is a reminder of the central role the Bible and 23:14 prayer played in her life. In everything Florence Nightingale 23:20 tried to follow Jesus. When she became a nurse at 30 years of 23:25 age she noted that this was the age when Jesus had begun his 23:30 ministry. She once told an assembly of nurses, Christ is 23:34 the author of our profession. It's fashionable today to forget 23:39 how it is that we have come to enjoy all the advantages and 23:43 blessings of our modern society and culture. It's easy to take 23:47 nursing and nurses for granted. We forget that we enjoy the 23:52 advantages we have because of the Christian roots of our 23:56 society. It's tragic when we forget the importance of God and 24:01 his word the Bible in our lives. It was because Florence 24:06 Nightingale made the Bible the very center of her life that she 24:10 was able to excel and become the person she became and change 24:15 out world forever. In those long dreary nights during the war in 24:20 Crimea as Florence Nightingale did her rounds in the hospitals 24:24 she brought not just physical comfort but spiritual comfort 24:29 as well. Do you need that kind of spiritual comfort in your 24:34 life? I'm talking about the comfort that only God can give. 24:38 If you would like to experience the inner peace and happiness 24:42 that God offers, please ask for it right now as we pray. 24:47 Dear Heavenly Father, we all hunger for more in this life and 24:54 we're encouraged and inspired as we look the lives of your 24:57 heroes like Florence Nightingale We admit that the weakness in 25:03 our lives is because we have relied too much on ourselves 25:07 instead of relying on you. We thank you because you have a 25:11 plan for us and that it's a good plan. Please come into our lives 25:16 and lead us back to your word the Bible. We ask this in 25:20 Jesus' name, Amen. 25:23 ♪ ♪ 25:28 Florence Nightingale's guidebook for her life was the Bible. If 25:32 you've enjoyed our program today, I'm inviting you to 25:36 receive the free gift we have for all our viewers today. It's 25:40 not one, but two Bible study guides to help you understand 25:46 the Bible and God's plan for your life. In fact, the titles 25:50 of our gifts to you today are: Does My Life Really Matter to 25:54 God? and God's Plan for My Life. Through these free Bible study 26:02 guides you'll be able to access the same insights to living that 26:07 Florence Nightingale treasured. Why not let the Bible guide Your 26:11 Journey Through Life. So don't miss this wonderful opportunity 26:16 to receive the free gifts we have for you today. It's totally 26:21 free and without any obligation. Here's the information you need. 26:26 Phone or text us at: 26:30 0436333555 in Australia or 0204222042 in New Zealand 26:39 or visit our website TiJ.tv to request today's free offer and 26:45 we'll send it to you totally free of charge and with no 26:48 obligation. Write to us at: 27:03 Don't delay. Call or text us now 27:08 If you've enjoyed today's journey through the life and 27:13 times of Florence Nightingale and our reflections on how she 27:18 transformed our world through her connection with God, then 27:22 be sure to join us again next week when we will share another 27:25 of life's journeys together. Until then remember the ultimate 27:30 destination of life's journey. Now I saw a new heaven and a 27:34 new earth. And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes. 27:38 There shall the no more death nor sorrow nor crying. There 27:43 shall be no more pain for the former things have passed away. 27:49 ♪ ♪ |
Revised 2020-07-20