“It took me 12 years to get across that stage,” says Arhonda Osborne, MSN, RN, of her challenging educational path in nursing. “All the way I held onto God’s unchanging hands.” Now, as a clinical manager in home health care, Arhonda still has a solid grip on God as she interacts with other nurses in a Nurses Christian Fellowship group in Delaware, serves in her community, and works to demolish racism in the body of Christ.
Excruciating Educational Path
Nursing became Arhonda’s passion--and an unexpected minefield of challenges--after she helped care at home for her grandmother who had Alzheimer’s disease. She earned a certified nursing assistant license for that purpose, and later pursued education toward an RN license. That route to licensure and advanced degrees was very rocky, until nursing instructors recognized she needed an alternative means for completing tests. Through that protracted journey, Arhonda said she experienced “too many miracles to tell how God led in my career” and she became certain that “the Lord is going to do for you and me things we cannot do for ourselves.”
“I love being a part of NCF,” she declares. The multicultural group she’s involved with meets monthly except in the summer, including remotely during the pandemic. “We award a yearly scholarship to a nursing student, put on a conference every year with a guest speaker to encourage nurses and students, and do a lot of community outreach: giving food to the less fortunate, making and delivering care packages for nurses who are working in hospitals.” The group is diverse, with working and retired nurses from the lower Delaware area.
The Hour of Power
Arhonda’s passion for encouraging nurses and other Christians found another outlet, The Hour of Power, a monthly online event. “This was a vision from the Lord that he gave me to demolish racism in the body of Christ. There’s no division of races with Christ,” she says. The event includes several speakers each month who share God ‘s truth. “These speakers don’t know each other, but the way God’s Spirit moves is like a domino effect” so that those listening are inevitably moved by the messages. “You don’t have to be a pastor to declare the goodness of the Lord; so many people who are desperate for a Savior never step into a church,” she asserts.
Through the NCF group, in her nursing practice, and through her outreach to demolish racism, Arhonda has a stalwart faith. “I go hard for Jesus and he goes hard for me. I know that the fire is the place to be—it’s where you get refined and come out as pure gold.”
Arhonda extends an open invitation to The Hour of Power on the first Saturday each month at 10:00 a.m. Eastern time. Join Zoom Meeting.
Find relationships that encourage you and support your faith and nursing practice. NCF groups for nurses and students meet all over the U.S. in person and virtually. Look at the many options on the NCF website.
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