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.