The journey continues...

I'm going back to Africa!!! After months of prayer and discussion I feel God's call to go serve with Mercy Ships again. I've committed to 1-2 years beginning in late January and will be docked in Togo and Guinea throughout 2012. I am so excited about what is to come and want to share this journey with all of you.  I hope everyone is having a blessed holiday season. Merry Christmas and more posts to come!

How da body?

Well, how are you? Or better yet "how da body?" It's an expression that I hear and say often. "How da body?" "Body" is not quite as all encompassing as "you" but in a land where physical needs are often not met, the state of the body is probably a good starting point.

These last few months have been really eye opening in that regard. I still remember my first day walking through town. The streets are so busy, so dirty, so loud, so poor. I have to admit, that first day I was overwhelmed. I mean, you come because you want to serve, you want to help, and you see all of this around you and you wonder if it will make any difference. It just seemed so big, so endless, so hopeless. Thankfully, the future of this nation is not up to me, or up to Mercy Ships. The future of this nation, this beautiful nation of Sierra Leone, is up to God. It is in his hands, not mine.

What I have realized is that I can't save Sierra Leone, but I can join with God in loving it, in walking with the people of Sierra Leone, and by doing my part in the things God has called me to. I have come to see that if change is to happen, it happens with individuals, one person at a time. And as one wise woman told me, that's how Jesus did it, just one person at a time. So here I find myself, working as a nurse, loving and caring for one person at a time. My last few months have been a time where God has shown me what it means to love. Each day I feel like he's giving me a greater capacity, to see what he sees, to fill my heart with this deep deep love that I know only comes from him.

We have a group of patients right now that have been here for a while. They all had some sort of skin graft to one or multiple extremities most likely from a past burn contracture that kept them from using that extremity. These kids are amazing. I love them so much, that even when I'm not working, I feel compelled to go down there and visit. The Patient Life Team that I talked about in my last blog comes down to the unit every day and leads praise and worship with us. And these kids love to worship God! They are so precious. I worked night shift this past week and every night I’d walk in and hear, “Stephanie, Stephanie, let us sing, let us sing” and we would open the song book together and pick 2 or 3 songs to sing before tucking them into bed for the night. They would have loved my mom! I know my nursing skills are needed here, and man, is it ever a blessing to be able to use them, but the thing I love the most is to just play and sing and love on these patients. To see joy in their faces, to laugh with my African brothers and sisters, ahhh, such a blessing.

As my time here in Africa comes to a close, I just want to thank you all for your encouragement, your prayers, your love and your support. This time has been such a blessing, one that I wouldn't trade for the world. We serve a good God, a really good God and I am excited to come home and continue to see what He has in store. Love you all!!!

Weekend Adventures



Playing at the orphanage



This weekend was full of adventure! Saturday I was invited to my day volunteer’s home to spend the day. Abdel works full time for Mercy Ships while we are here in Sierra Leone as one of our Patient Life Volunteers. She and several other Sierra Leoneans spend their days visiting with patients and trying to make their stay in the hospital a little easier. Similar to Child Life back home except with children and adults alike. They start each day leading praise and worship on the wards and then divide up to spend one on one time with the patients. Our Patient Life team has been such a blessing to the nursing staff and definitely to the patients. They are much more likely to talk to them about concerns or problems then they are to us.

Abdel and her husband Prince run a small orphanage out of their home with 10 kids from 8-12 years old. When I got to the house the kids greeted us with lots of hugs and gave us a tour. We played games and puzzles, colored pictures, and kicked the soccer ball around. Prince brought out the photo albums and told stories of how they met and started the orphanage. Abdel cooked an amazing lunch and we just hung out the rest of the day. It was nice to be off the ship and see how the local people live. I was touched by their love for these children and the desire to make a difference in their lives. Abdel and Prince don’t have a lot, but what they do have they want to share with others in need. 

Prince and Abdel

Sunday morning a group of 7 crew members and 8 locals set out for church. We left the ship at 10am, took a taxi to the water ferry, got on the ferry and went across the ocean to an island called Lungi, which is where the airport is, and then took another taxi to the church. It was suppose to start at noon, but when we arrived at 1230 everybody was still congregating outside. The service started around 1pm and man do they like their PA systems here in Africa. Although it’s difficult to understand them with the speakers, I’m pretty sure the preacher started out by saying “I love to yell!” into the microphone. There was singing and dancing and praising God all afternoon. There is a freedom to worship however you want here that I’m loving more and more every day. You can sing, you can dance, clap your hands and really have fun in worship.  The crew members sang a special song during the service written by one of our volunteers who is a leader in the church and the Patient Life team sang a song as well. 3 hours later, we had to leave to catch the ferry while church continued. So, we ALL piled in a van and drove back to the dock, boarded the very crowded last ferry of the day, waited an hour while a giant storm came and went, traveled back across the water to Freetown, got in a taxi, and finally arrived back at the ship at 6:30pm. 

Patient Life Team

It's officially rainy season

                                                                                                                               

And that concludes my crazy weekend adventures.  It was great spending so much time with our day volunteers. All that traveling gave us plenty of time to talk and share and really get to know each other. It was definitely a weekend to remember.

Missionaries of Charity

I went to the Missionaries of Charity home last week.  It is a religious order established in 1950 by Mother Teresa which consists of over 4,500 sisters and is active in 133 countries. These missionaries are assigned to specific areas to give "Wholehearted and free service to the poorest of the poor". They care for refugees, ex-prostitutes, the mentally ill, sick children, abandoned children, lepers, AIDS victims, the aged, and convalescent. They have schools run by volunteers to educate street children, they run soup kitchens, and any other services their community may need.  These services are provided to people regardless of their religion or social caste. The Missionaries of Charity home in Freetown consists of a men’s ward, women’s ward and mother/baby ward. Residents have TB, HIV, malaria or some other life threatening disease and are receiving treatment at the center. Sister Josianne is a nurse and holds a medical clinic on Mondays and Fridays at the home, on top of caring for the current residents.  Mercy Ships goes once a week to visit and encourage the patients and work alongside the nuns. Last week we took craft projects for them to work on, but my favorite part of the day was just sitting with them. Me and my friend Robyn found a group of mothers and their babies sitting outside the building under some trees and as we sat down and began talking with them we watched them slowly start to trust us and let us into their circle. I was surprised at how different these babies and little children are from our patients at the hospital. They were sick, lethargic and malnourished and very scared of us. They taught us songs in Krio and in return wanted us to tell them stories. Man, when you ask God for opportunities to share your faith, he gives them. We started telling bible stories and it was awesome! Before long our time was up and we had to say goodbye, but what a sweet time we had with them.

It’s been a busy week on the hospital ward. This was our last week of plastic surgery for a while so we had a lot of cases to finish.  Dr. Tertious, our plastic surgeon, is going home for several months and will come back at the end of the field service for a second round of surgery. We’ve had 5 weeks of plastic surgery and it was a great success! We had a few complications but the infection rate has been almost nothing compared to previous years.  It’s so hard to keep things clean in this environment which makes sterile dressing changes every other day a challenge, but it’s being done. I’ve become quite proficient at the plastic surgery dressing change and have actually enjoyed the wound care. Each patient is a little different and they all require a little creativity in the process. The remaining plastics patients will be with us at least another couple of weeks as their skin grafts continue to heal so I’ll finish up my time here in Africa doing wound care. There are so many individual stories I hope to share one day. Each of these precious patients has come to us with a debilitating problem and most walk away not only healed but with new hope.

Psalms 9:18

"But the needy will not always be forgotten, nor the hope of the afflicted ever perish."

Psalm 147:11

"The LORD delights in those who fear him, who put their hope in his unfailing love."

 

Water Water Everywhere

Well, it’s been an eventful week or so here on the Africa Mercy. Imagine a city of 1.2 million people without water. Well, that was Freetown last week. The city water supply has been irregular since the war, but at least there is water; the population is used to waking early and walking maybe miles to fill their buckets from public taps and leaking fresh-water pipes.

Wednesday night or early Thursday morning the main water supply into Freetown was damaged leaving the whole city dry.  1.2 million people had no water for washing, cooking or drinking. The wealthier ones were able to buy water from trucks for 2000 Leones a gallon, but as the poorer people live on only 4000 Leones a day, they could either afford water or food.  Meanwhile on the Africa Mercy we had limited reserves so we were rationing: cold showers, no laundry, paper plates and cups, etc.  The water company's engineers worked tirelessly to fix the broken main, and water was flowing once again into Freetown by Friday afternoon.  Hallelujah.  Water was running in the streets again - literally - and the local population could cook and wash again at no cost… and we opened the laundry room again.

The President and Vice President of Sierra Leone visited the ship on Friday afternoon.  They toured the hospital and then we had a program in the International lounge where we as an organization made a presentation to the President and to the people of Sierra Leone and he gave a short speech. We got a small glimpse into the struggles of life in this country along with many of the triumphs since the war.

The International Board of Mercy Ships is also here. They jetted-in from all over the world for a Board Meeting this weekend and most are staying for the week. We got to meet them this evening and hear about their part in Mercy Ships. It was a great time to look back on the history of Mercy Ships and at the same time look toward the future and where God is leading this ministry.



Psalm 147: 1-5

"Praise the Lord. How good it is to sing praises to our God,

 how pleasant and fitting to praise him!

The Lord builds up Jerusalem; he gathers the exiles of Israel.

He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds.

He determines the number of the stars and calls them each by name.

Great is our Lord and mighty in power; His understanding has no limit."

1 Corinthians 2:9 

"No eye has seen, no ear has heard, and no mind has imagined

the things that God has prepared for those who love him."

Around the ship

I thought since my time here in Africa is almost half over, I should share what life is like on the ship. I can't believe time has gone by so fast! I feel like I just got here.

My bunk! There are 3 bunks in a row in our room and 1 bathroom. We are hardly ever in our rooms but my roommates are great. 

 "Town Center" the middle area of the ship on deck 5. This is our local starbucks which is open at least for a little while each day. It's not usually so crowded, but this night we got ice cream! It was a big treat to be eating something cold:) There is cafe seating next to starbucks and upstairs we have the internet cafe and a small lounge area with couches and a tv (usually on BBC news or a football game). 

The internet cafe

This is the "ship shop" where we can get snacks, toiletries, Mercy Ships clothes...

On Thursday we celebrated International Nurses Day and all the nurses got to dress up in crazy scrubs and wear fun hats, shoes... These were a few of the more creative outfits.  We had a party that afternoon with baked goods from around the world and invited all of the hospital staff to join us. It was so fun. 

Barracuda delivery

Peace is my continual gift to you

“It flows abundantly from My throne of grace. Just as the Israelites could not store up manna for the future but had to gather it daily, so it is with My Peace. The day-by-day collecting of manna kept My people aware of their dependence on Me. Similarly, I give you sufficient Peace for the present, when you come to me by prayer and petition with thanksgiving. If I gave you permanent Peace, independent of My Presence, you might fall into the trap of self-sufficiency. May that never be!

I have designed you to need Me moment by moment. As your awareness of your neediness increases, so does your realization of My abundant sufficiency. I can meet every one of your needs without draining My resources at all. Approach My throne of grace with bold confidence, receiving My Peace with a thankful heart.”

This is a short devotional someone gave me when I came to Sierra Leone and as I read it last week it spoke volumes to me. It was attached to a passage about steadiness of faith and was exactly what I needed to hear in that moment. I love how God gives us the very words we need when we seek him. I may never understand everything that happens in this world, but God does promise His peace. 

Sunday mornings we have a church service in the hospital ward for our patients and since I worked this weekend I got the privilege of worshiping with my coworkers, patients, and our day volunteers.  We had a time of worshiping God through music and then a patient’s caregiver spoke out of Mark 5:21-43. Having the faith to touch the garment of Jesus and be healed.  It took a great deal of faith for many of our patients to go to the Mercy Ships screening day and be seen.  Some people in the community were too ashamed to venture out into crowds, some were afraid they would just be turned away…but whatever the reason, it was not easy for many to ask for help and hope for healing. However, if they do not ask they do not receive. I had never thought about it being a true step of faith for these precious patients to even go to a screening and ask for help. So the message was, we should all live our lives having the faith to touch the garment of Christ. God is at work all the way over here in West Africa and it is so beautiful to witness! He is making himself known in ways that I never would have noticed in the states.

 

These are a few of the special patients I get to take care of every day:

"I Love God"

I can't believe I've been here 2 weeks already. Time is flying by! Well, after I moved to day shift back home I said I'd never go back to working nights...never say never, right?!?  I worked the night shift this weekend and I have to admit, we had a great time!  Balloons have become the big thing on our ward this week. I'm guessing I blew up 25+ balloons in the last several days and decorated most of them. My art skills are lacking a little, but the kids get a kick out of my attempts at drawing cars, people and whatever else comes to mind.  One of my sweet patients last night asked me to write "I love God" on his balloon. They did a church service on the ward that morning and talked about God's love. I was both humbled and encouraged by his simple request. 

Some pictures I've taken since being here.

We had to take a water taxi from the airport to the ship because the airport is on a small island. It took about 30 minutes across the ocean to get to the port where the Mercy Ship is.



A group of us went to the beach the first weekend I was here and it was Beautiful!!



Local kids we met at the beach



A few of us went to church in town last Sunday morning.

A 30 minute walk there, 3 1/2 hour service, and 30 minute walk back:)





On my day off last week I went to visit the eye clinic. They screen patients for surgery, check their vision, and fit patients for glasses.  This is a picture of the machine John Wooten donated to Mercy Ships last year in honor of his wife, Vita. I was so happy to see it being used. 

“Be who God meant you to be and you will set the world on fire.” -- St Catherine of Siena

The Bishop of London started his sermon at the royal wedding with this quote and it has sat with me all weekend. The Africa Mercy crew joined the UK and the rest of the world in celebrating the royal wedding on Friday. We were able to watch the service thanks to our satellite TV system. People came and went most of the morning and that evening the British crew onboard hosted a street party where we had British cupcakes and chocolates.  So fun!

I’ve been on the ship one week now and I can’t believe how quickly the time has gone. I’m working on the pediatric orthopedic ward this week and I absolutely love it! The kids are so fun to work with and so stinkin tough. Some of them are up walking around with crutches just one or two days after surgery…and many have casts on both legs.  I’ve made friends with a group of boys I call the wheelchair gang. There are 3-4 guys around 10 years old that have casts on both legs and feet that ride around in wheelchairs all day. We have races in the hallway and every afternoon we take them up to deck 7 to get some fresh air.  I’ve attached a picture of my friend Tamba. He was born with club feet and our doctors have been preparing him for corrective surgery. He has had multiple casts put on since he’s been here, slowly trying to correct his feet. He’s scheduled for a final surgery later this week.

I am absolutely in awe of God at this moment. In just the last week I have witnessed God performing so many miracles! One thing that makes this hospital/program so unique is that we are constantly in prayer. At the end/beginning of every nursing shift we gather together and have a time of prayer, when we send patients for surgery we sit with our patient and the surgical team and pray over them before they go back to the operating room, people meet every morning on deck for a time of prayer…you get the picture. This place is bathed in prayer and it is just amazing. And God has answered prayers this week in mighty ways. In fact, he’s answered very specific prayers about a very sick little girl we’ve had in the ICU. She’s now had two surgeries and is recovering well, but there have been a lot of God moments/miracles involved. I feel like God has said very clearly this week that he hears our prayers and is at work in this place. “In the morning, O Lord, you hear my voice; in the morning I lay my requests before you and wait in expectation.” Ps 5:3. Thank you God for the gift of prayer and for your provision in our lives! Amen and Amen.

Happy Independence Day Sierra Leone

Today is Sierra Leone's Independence Day and they are celebrating 50 years of Independence. Everyone is wearing green, white and blue (their colors) and there are balloons and streamers everywhere. It's been an all day celebration on and off the ship. Music, dancing, cake and all kinds of fun!

I finished my last orientation this afternoon and start work on the ward tomorrow morning. I'll be working mostly with our orthopedic patients for the next several weeks and then we start a new specialty.  I can't wait to meet all of the patients, families, and day workers on the ward. I'm ready to get started.

It's such a unique environment here. People from literally all over the World living and working in community together. It's pretty amazing to see how God has brought all of these people here for a common purpose and to see how he is using each person's gifts to bring everything together. God is so good!!

Let the adventures begin

Well, I made it to Sierra Leone! It's been a long 28+ hours but I'm on the boat and settling in for the night. I met a bunch of people on my flights going to Freetown, in fact, the woman I set next to on the plane is from Freetown but lives in Virginia now with her husband and four kids...and she works as a nurse! She's here visiting her family for the next month and I hope to visit with her more during that time.  I can already see God at work and I haven't even started working!

So, last week as I was finishing up work and preparing to leave I just kept thinking about how perfect my week was going. It was one of the best weeks at work I think I've ever had, I got to visit my brother, and my sweet, sweet friends and family have been such an encouragement and blessing! It made me so excited about the next 2 months and what is in store but it also made me look forward to coming back home after this experience. God's timing is so perfect in everything!! Thank you all for your love and support, your encouraging cards and prayers. God has blessed me with amazing people in my life and I hope to be a blessing here in Sierra Leone.

Time to finally get some rest. I'm sure I'll have MUCH more to say after a few days of working here on the ship.