Saint Nicholas Day

Celebrating Sinterklaas with my Dutch friends. Last night, we put a shoe out before bed and this morning there were treats in it. Today, December 5, is Saint Nicholas Day and Sinter Klaas came all the way to the Africa Mercy from Holland. The black faced people are his mischievous little helpers. Fun celebrating new traditions!!

I got a carrot and little ginger cookies in my shoe

Some of our sweet ortho patients...

We're in week 5 of Orthopedic surgery with only a few weeks to go. So far we've done 53 ortho surgeries, 57 Ponseti clubfoot corrections, and 383 physical therapy sessions. We've had a great time getting to know these wonderful patients and helping them get back up on their feet. Here are a few pictures from the ward. 

Ward Service

This weekend I got to go to church while I worked. I love working Sunday mornings for this reason...and many more. As I started my shift at 7am patients and caregivers began to wake and get ready for another day. Except today they put on their nicest dresses...and they are nice! Within a few hours everybody was in their Sunday best and waiting for our ward service. It's a time set aside for patients, caregivers, nurses, doctors and ship crew to come together to praise God and worship Him, a message is shared and the healing process continues.

I love to be part of worship, anywhere really, but here it's so genuine. People sing and dance and praise God from their hearts. There was a joy in the air that I can't explain in words. The message was about faith journeys and I loved what was said. We talked about the paralytic who was brought by his friends to see Jesus and be healed. He came through the roof on a mat and walked out the front door. And Jesus said because of their faith you are healed. It made me think of our ortho patients. Great faith breaks through barriers, and many of our patients had huge barriers to break through to get here. Many of them came in carried and will walk out the door!

Psalm 121 says "I lift my eyes to the hills - where does my help come from? My help comes from the Lord, maker of heaven and earth." And James 4:8 "Come near to God and he will come near to you." I am so thankful that God can replace our fears with courage and as we draw near to him he will draw near to us.

Week 2 of surgery is underway

The wards are open, the wards are open! I just spent 3 evenings taking care of our first surgical patients in Guinea. It's so great to see all of our new nurses and day workers settling into their new positions and learning the ropes here on the Mercy Ship. One of our new day volunteers is named Judith...and she is wonderful! I walked onto the ortho ward the other night to see all 16 kids standing in line singing songs and praising Jesus. She got each child to go to the front of the line one at a time, choose their favorite praise song, and then everyone sang it together. After everyone had a turn singing and dancing, 2 of the patients got up and recited John 3:16, another couple The Lord's Prayer.... Even the caregivers got involved. Impromptu children's church before bed is the best! I have a feeling we'll have many more nights like that and I love that our day volunteers are so great! Tell Papa God Tenke!!

Guinea Screening Day

On August 22nd I arrived in Conakry, Guinea for my 3^rd outreach with Mercy Ships. It was a 6 day sail from Tenerife with calm water and lots of dolphins and flying fish. The sail was incredibly relaxing and we even got some work done in preparation for our arrival. And now, it’s finally time for the hospital to open.   

Screening day, September 3^rd, was a huge success in Guinea! We saw thousands of people in need of hope, love and SURGERY!  The first caravan left the hospital ship at 5:45am to go to the medical screening site and the last shuttle returned at 9pm.  Over 3,500 men, women and children of all ages and with all kinds of deformities waited patiently in line (some had arrived the previous evening) with one thing in common – a desperate need for hope and healing, a longing for someone to care. As I’ve heard Dr Gary (our Chief Medical Officer) say before, you think someday you will come to the end of the line, that the needs will be met, but every year the line is just as long as ever.  Energy and excitement was in the air as we started to meet our potential patients for the year.

I got the privilege of working in quite a few areas throughout the day.  As a

pre-screener I saw people as they came through the gates and did their initial assessment to see if they would potentially qualify for surgery.  Even though we say in advance we can only do certain surgeries on board and don’t act as a general hospital we still have people that come with stomachaches, back aches, and all sorts of medical problems that can’t be fixed with surgery. We have to turn those away and focus on the many people with medical issues we can fix.  It’s a challenging job for me, turning people away, but I’m learning that God has called us here for a purpose, and that purpose isn’t to heal everyone in Guinea, but instead He’s called us to be a surgical hospital ship that specializes in certain surgeries. And those are the patients we are called to treat.  There was understandably disappointment and grief when someone learned that we were unable to help them, but for the most part they were grateful for the help we were giving their people and their country. And they were each offered the opportunity to be prayed for.  

Later in the day I was moved to the Max-fax/plastics area where I got to work with some of our surgeons, learn from their assessments, and say yes to patients for surgery. It was a great experience and I’ll let the pictures do the rest of the talking. 

 

A few pictures from field service in Ghana

 

some of the school kids

The village chief and elders came to help one day

we built walls for one of the buildings 

End of field service...ready to meet to ship!!!

Ghana field service

After two and a half weeks in the Volta Region of Ghana I’m settling back in on the Africa Mercy. It’s been a memorable 2 months but it feels good to unpack and know this will be home for a while. 

Field service was an adventure to say the least. We lived and worked in the village of Pai Katanga: population ~7,000.  Our mission: to lead VBS and help build a Christian school in the community. We hung gutters on one building, built walls around another, and our biggest project was to move dirt from the mountainside and fill in the foundation of the last building.  It looked like an impossible task for two weeks time but we ended up doing more than planned. Kids from the school came running up to help us dig during their break times and the last few days we were there the chief and elders in the community even came to help.  Plans for VBS changed daily, but in the end the entire group pitched in and helped sing songs, put on skits, do craft projects and tell bible stories to the precious children in the school. Our teachers even taught the 4^th grade class for 2 weeks!  And one more project that was added once we got there was to help at the local medical clinic. There were 8 nurses on our team that split their time between digging on the hill and helping out in the clinic. That was one of the highlights of my time in Ghana. The clinic was well run, clean, and making a difference in the community.  It was good to see that the health care system in Ghana is pretty well regulated (by Africa standards at least). I got the privilege of going with one of the local nurses to a remote village one day where I gave immunizations to their children and did some health education.

Village life is quite different from Accra and other coastal cities, which are well developed.  In Pai Katanga people live in small huts/houses, there is often no running water or electricity, and internet is at least a few hours away. It was a unique experience to get to live in the middle of such a village and be part of their daily lives. We were stared at often and some times felt like zoo attractions (a petting zoo at times), goats and chickens ran around everywhere and were pretty fun until 5am when they woke us up every morning.  There were definitely some challenges on our trip. The insects and bugs there were so big they looked like they came out of a horror movie, the toilets leaked, the guys had a bat living in one of their rooms, and the other room had blood sucking insects that left blood splatters everywhere, we ate and gathered outside so when it rained…we got wet, we had 20 girls living under one roof with one shower, and one of our team members got malaria (not a good one to get). BUT, each of those challenges was countered by an amazing team full of positive attitudes, encouraging words, and unity I can’t even describe.  God was with us every step of the way and each morning I was reminded to trust in Him and He would meet all of our needs. It was an absolute blessing to work with such an incredible  group of people and an even bigger blessing to come to the ship with them and know that I'll be serving along side them for the next year.

We’re in Tenerife, Spain now and it’s absolutely perfect!  We have one more week on this beautiful island before heading back to West Africa next Wednesday. Pictures hopefully coming soon. I couldn't get any to upload today. 

Gateway 2012

 Howdy Texas! I’ve been stateside for 5 weeks now and it’s been so good! I got in June 2^nd and had a week to visit friends and family before heading to the Mercy Ships International base in Garden Valley, Tx. It was a whirlwind of a week, but fun to see so many sweet friends and catch up!

My 2 favorite girls in Arlington: Hailey and Brooke McDougall

I repacked my bags and moved out to the Mercy Ships base on June 9^th where we started a 5 week course called Gateway that will be followed by a 2 ½ week field service in Ghana. There are 36 adults and 9 kids from all over the world that have all committed to serving God long term with Mercy Ships. We've had a lot of fun learning and sharing life together over the last month. 

Week 1 was Basic Safety Training: fire fighting…water safety…first aid and CPR. I am now certified to fight fires and save lives at sea...or something like that;)

Week 2 was all about the foundations of our faith: who is God, why do we serve Him, how do we communicate with God, worship Him, hear from Him…..

When asked how we've felt toward God in our lives this is one end of the spectrum:

Week 3 was spent talking about personal and interpersonal relationships. We did a Spiritual gifts assessment, personality profiles, and lots of role playing about conflict resolution and values. If you've ever done the DISC personality profile, you'll appreciate this picture. All but 5 of us were S's and C's. 

And this last week was all about cross-cultural education and working with those we serve. We talked about world views, communication, the African culture, and so much more! The picture below represents America and what we value being from different areas of the country. I found it interesting to see how different our values are just here in the U.S.

West (Ca and Co), North East, and South (Texas mostly) 

It's been a great adventure so far and we still have one week left. We fly out on Sunday, July 15th and head back to West Africa.  It's been a huge blessing being so close to friends and family during this time in the states and although it's always hard to say goodbye, I'm so excited about serving along side this team for the next year. I'm going to Guinea with 35 new friends all eager to serve God and the West African people in so many different ways! Life is Good!!!

4th of July celebration at Father's Heart

Walk to Beautiful

marriage at a young age.

followed by pregnancy.

prolonged labor,

3 days, maybe more...

no money to pay doctors,

maybe no hospital to go to.

or just too long of a wait for care.

finally a surgery to take the baby out.

the pain of labor for many days,

and now a painful incision,

are no match for the pain to follow.

a stillborn baby.

maybe the only child she will ever have.

awake in the hospital,

alone.

confused.

in pain.

with no child.

and now a new problem.

why am I leaking urine?

this has never happened before.

but it will not stop.

A constant leak

a stench that cannot be hidden.

no husband will lay next to a woman who leaks

and smells.

so alone.

No community will accept this condition

The only acknowledgement

is a hurtful word

or maybe abuse.

So very alone.

  

What to do but hide?

But to feel ashamed,

and hopeless.

Years go by with no answers

no help

no hope.

How do you cope?

What keeps you moving,

believing,

living?

I want to introduce you to a group of women in the hospital.  They are women with obstetric fistulas, usually VVF’s (vesico-vaginal fistulas). There is a fistula, or hole, between the bladder and vagina, causing constant leaking of urine.  There are also women with recto-vaginal fistulas, in which both stool and urine leak uncontrollably.  These fistulas occur almost always as a result of prolonged, untreated, obstructed labor during childbirth.  The prolonged labor can last anywhere from 2-10 days. The infant's head pressing against tissue, causes the tissue to die from lack of blood supply, creating these openings.  Marriage and conception at a young age (13-15 years) before the pelvis is fully developed is a big reason for this.  In about 95% of these cases, the baby dies during labor and the woman is left unable to produce children again.  Many times, the husband and/or other children will disown her as she smells of urine constantly, and she is ostracized and cast out of her community. Alone, ashamed, and devastated.

These women come to the ward with faces that reveal years of shame and solitude.  They are uncertain, scared, and rarely smile. After surgery, some healing, prayer, worship, and lots of hugs, they start smiling and their personalities emerge.  These ladies are among the most beautiful, patient, loving, incredible women I have ever met. 

When they are "dry" (no longer leaking), we have a dress ceremony for them.  I went to my first one last week. Each woman gets a new dress (and jewelry to match of course) and they parade down the hall singing worship songs and beaming from ear to ear.  The joy is palpable.  They tell their testimonies, are gifted with symbolic items, and we celebrate their lives and the bright future ahead. There is no way to experience this and not be moved to tears. They are so deserving of happiness, good health, love, and of course, new dresses.