Jesus is here!

Imagine a dock in Africa full of missionaries from around the world, day volunteers from all over Togo and West Africa, and hospital patients all singing and dancing together in the name of Jesus. We had a dock party last week and it was almost too much God for me to handle.  It was meant to be a time of praise and worship and dinner for the Africa Mercy crew and day volunteers and as we’re dancing and singing I look up to see our patients walking down the gangway to join the party! My heart was overflowing with joy and thanksgiving as they entered into our dancing train smiling from ear to ear. It was a sight like none other.  There is such freedom in dance in this culture. Nobody is judging what you look like or how much rhythm you have. When worship begins the dancing begins and people dance with all of their hearts.  You can almost see the delight in their souls as they dance and sing praises to God. We celebrated God and what He is doing here in West Africa all evening and the fellowship was so sweet.

I have a second story to tell today. A story about my friend Chantal, the patient I posted about last week, and what Thursday looked like for her.  Chantal, in her frail little body just wanted to go outside that day. That was all she kept asking for but she was too weak and sick to take a wheelchair to deck 7.  So we went up the chain of command and the captain opened the pilot’s door next to the ICU.  The nurses wheeled her in her hospital bed out the pilot’s entrance into the fresh air. As she sat with wind in her face and palm trees in the background she said over and over “Jesus is here. Jesus is here”.  Even when she went back inside she said, “Jesus is here, sitting with me.”  And oh, was Jesus ever there! As we were on the dock praising God in song and dance little did we know we were singing that sweet angel home to be with her creator, God. Chantal was taken to heaven Thursday night and what a sweet way to go. Surrounded by people who love her and Jesus by her side.

The devotional that I read from Jesus Calling the day she passed away said this:

“Heaven is both present and future. As you walk along your life-path holding My hand, you are already in touch with the essence of heaven: nearness to Me. You can also find many hints of heaven along your pathway, because the earth is radiantly alive with My Presence. Shimmering sunshine awakens your heart, gently reminding you of My brilliant Light. Birds and flowers, trees and skies evoke praises to My holy name. Keep your eyes and ears fully open as you journey with Me.At the end of your life-path is an entrance to heaven. Only I know when you will reach that destination, but I am preparing you for it each step of the way. The absolute certainty of your heavenly home gives you Peace and Joy, to help you along your journey. You know that you will reach your home in My perfect timing: not one moment too soon or too late. Let the hope of heaven encourage you, as you walk along the path of Life with Me.”

God is good and faithful and His timing couldn’t be more perfect.

Life without Jesus is not life at all

Hey guys! The following is a blog posted by my good friend Stephanie Fiduk about one of our precious plastics patients. Chantal has been a patient here since the beginning of our outreach in Togo in early February. This young woman has captured all of our hearts and although I've wanted to share her story with you I haven't been able to put my thoughts into words. Stephanie has done a beautiful job and given me permission to share her side of the story.

Chantal

"I've been sitting here staring at a blank page, watching the cursor blink rhythmically for a while. I can't seem to find the right words to express what's going on in my head and in my heart. I've been wrestling with Him for a while, trying to understand what His plan and purpose is for Chantal. She's been here since the beginning of the outreach; a burn contracture patient from the last time we were in Togo. She's come back because her graft became infected and her whole shoulder is a big, open gaping wound. It's been a long 2 and half months for her; a journey of ups and downs. She's pulled through so many times, but this time it looks like she's not going to make it. We found out a couple days into her stay that she is HIV positive. We don't have supply of HIV meds on the ship, but in order to do another surgery to cover the wound we would have to treat her HIV. So we prayed, and God provided free HIV medication within days. One night after a dressing change under anesthesia she stopped breathing on me. God immediately told me to move her chin forward, and she took a huge gasp of air! I was so thankful that was not the end for her. The plastic surgeon arrived and was able to graft her arm with new beautiful skin. We moved her out of isolation, which is totally foreign in West Africa where community is everything, and into the ward with all the other patients. We saw her spirits lift to a level we had never seen before. She was getting depressed being in the isolation room all day, having minimal interaction with people, especially people of her own culture. Even despite me dancing to "Chop my money" like a fool, all we could get out of her was a smile! (If you haven't heard that song, you should look it up!) One day we started noticing a difference in Chantal; she was so joyful, and there was a life in her eyes that was not present previously. She would just break out into worship songs that would start the whole ward worshipping. She was smiling all the time, and interacting with all the patients. It was a beautiful sight to behold. Come to find out, the night before she prayed with one of the day workers to accept Jesus into her life! What a cause for celebration! As is often the case with Chantal her highs are followed by lows; her body is fighting a raging infection that waxes and wanes. Her heart rates shoots up, her respiratory rates sky rockets, and she begs to give up because of the pain. She gets tired of daily 2 hour long dressing changes, and physiotherapy. This is a cycle that we battle all the time with her. We start her on new antibiotics, and she starts feeling better, but because of the HIV and antibiotic resistance we lose the battle. This last time we moved her to ICU we had to make a decision about what we were doing for her and if she coded would we resuscitate. That was so hard for me; we have been fighting for so long to heal her, and then here we were giving up on her. When I met her the first time in February, I envisioned fixing her wound, bringing her back to full function with her arm and sending her back to Ghana fully healed and able to interact with society. But God reminded me that He is Good and has a plan for her that far surpasses what we could ever imagine. I was confronted with my faith and trust in God. I had to answer the question, what is more important: full physical healing, but spiritually dead OR eternal life with Jesus and not being physically healed? Life without Jesus is not life at all. I can boldly say that, knowing in my own life the difference Jesus has made, and seeing in Chantal's life the difference knowing Jesus has made. Although we have not healed her physically, I know without a doubt that we did more for her than any physical healing could ever do. I leave you with a thankful heart to God that He gave His son for me, and you, and Chantal, that we don't have live apart from Him, and that no matter the circumstances we can have joy in difficulty with the hope we have in Christ. Love you all." --Posted by Stephanie Fiduk

Plastic Surgeries

We finished our 5 weeks of plastic surgery last weekend and said goodbye to Dr Tertius Venter, the plastic surgeon, who gives of his time and talents to Mercy Ships twice a year for 5 weeks at a time.  These surgeries were a great success and we've already sent so many of our patients out healed and ready for a new life. We still have a full ward of patients recovering and receiving daily or every other day dressing changes, but we are slowly sending them home or to the Hope Center.  Countless people in third world countries are burned in fires every year. Lack of electricity means more fires for cooking and light and poor water supply leads to boiling water....  At least half of our burn patients here on the Africa Mercy are children who fell into a fire or were burned with scalding water years ago. These people are often unable to seek medical attention and as their bodies healed, their skin contracted and left them unable to use an extremity or other body part.

I'd like to introduce you to Afi, one of my sweet B ward patients. She's an epileptic and years ago had a seizure, fell into a bonfire and was badly burned. She came to us with a severe neck contracture and burns all over her face and chest. Her cheek was touching her shoulder when she came to us, she was quiet, withdrawn, and never smiled. We did skin grafts on her neck, eye lids, lip and chin 3 weeks ago, and although she still has a long way to go, her grafts are healing well and she smiles all the time! This beautiful woman is so courageous. She has been through so much in her life and now stands a little taller and hopeful for the future.

He gives beauty for ashes

Strength for fear

Gladness for mourning

Peace for despair

"Beauty for Ashes" by Crystal Lewis

A few photos from the hospital wards

 

Elmina Castle

I got to spend a little more time in Ghana recently. In contrast to most surrounding countries, Ghana is considered stable, advanced ad prosperous. It is one of the largest cocoa producers in the world and is also home to Lake Volta, the largest artificial lake in the world by surface area. The coastline is amazing with lush green palm trees swaying in the wind and the blue ocean crashing against the white beaches. Sadly, some of the biggest tourist attractions in Ghana are the remnants of slavery along the coastline in the form of slave castles.

We spent one night on the beach in Elmina, a small fishing village with a population of around 20,000 and visited St George's Castle while we were there. Fishing boats were being made on the beaches as we watched, carved out by hand and then painted. Inside the Castle, I found myself standing at "the door of no return." The gate where hundreds of thousands of slaves fates were sealed. I stood on the stones where the slaves were brought the 30 meters from the dungeon in the castle to the ship that carried them to the plantations in America. As the tour continued I found myself locked up in a small ventilated cell, inside the rooms where slaves were held in inhumane conditions, in court where the governor pointed out his concubines, and I also enjoyed an incredible view from the top of the castle. The contrasts were great! That such a fantastic place could have such a terrible story...

The slaves were kept at the castle in order to determine who would bear the voyage across the Atlantic. The castle has been used by the Portuguese, Dutch and Brits for various things over the last 500 years, but slave trade was the most prevalent. Toward the end of the guided tour was a Nigerian word. He gave a monologue and there was silence. Reverently we all listened to this man who drew up the historic lines and spoke of forgiveness. That Africans today would free themselves from the past if they could forgive. It was an emotional moment, and all Africans said "amen" in the end.

Togo Facts

"One of the greatest stumbling blocks to understanding other peoples within or without a particular culture is the tendency to judge others’ behaviors by our own standards."

– James Downs

Below is some information I found interesting from the Human Development Report 2011. This report “argues that the urgent global challenges of sustainability and equity must be addressed together…”

Togo's Human Development Indicator is 0.435, which gives the country a rank of 162 out of 187 countries with comparable data, leaving it in the bottom 30 of member nations.  And can anyone guess which country is ranked #1?? I’ll give you a hint…it’s not the US.   Actually, Norway is ranked 1 out of 187. (For those of you dying to know where the US ranks, go to http://hdr.undp.org/en and check it out. So, I’m going to compare Togo and Norway a bit.

• Life expectancy at birth in Norway: 81 years; Togo: 57 years (WHO)
• The average daily wage in Norway is $170 per person per day; in Togo it is $2.31 per person per day (and 38.7% live on less than $1.25 per person per day.
• In Norway: there are 4,445 dentists for 5 million people (1 dentist for every 1,125); in Togo: there are 18 dentists for 6 million people (1 dentist for every 333,333)
• In Norway: 20,000 doctors for 5 million people (1doc per 250 people); in Togo: 318 doctors for 6 million people (1 doc per 18,868 people).

The West African worldview is intensely religious; people’s thoughts and actions are inspired or influenced by a religious point of view. Religion can not be isolated or separated from the worldview or life of the African.

Togo religion consists of:

African Traditional Religions: 51%

Christianity: 29%

Islam: 20%  

(US Dept of State)

African Traditional Religion (ATR): is an umbrella term that encompasses many different expressions of indigenous religious beliefs and practices. It is comparable to the variety of different expressions/denominations/doctrines that co-exist under the umbrella of Christianity. A few of these include animism, voodoo/voudon, idol worship, witchcraft, magic/ju-ju. It is the belief in a Supreme/Creator God; divinities (lesser gods who act as intermediaries); spirits; ancestors (intermediaries); the practice of magic and medicine. The ATR central point is that the Supreme God is distant and controls the universe through lesser gods and the ancestors. The goal is to minimize suffering/harm and maximize prosperity/success.

 

Ghana borders, motorcycles and marriage

Last weekend a few of us set out on an adventure. We traveled about 5 hours North West to the Ghana border where the tallest waterfall in West Africa stands.  Transportation itself is an adventure over here as I showed you last week. 5 person cars hold 7-8 people, 12 person vans hold 18-20 and motorcycles, well, the most I’ve seen is 5….

So, we took a taxi up to a town called Kpalime where we argued with 3 zemi-john drivers until we finally settled on a reasonable price (45 minutes later) to take us up the mountains to the border crossing in Wli where we would stay for the weekend.  We camped overnight in a little village by the border with no electricity or anything like that. A family in the community cooked us traditional African Banku (fermented cornmeal and cassava dough that you dip in stew) and we ate outside by the moonlight listening to music and watching the village kids dance around us.  It was so cool to experience a “normal” night in an African village.  Sunday morning we woke up early, crossed the border into Ghana, left our passports and tent with immigration to ensure we were coming back, and began our hike to the waterfall.  It is said to be the tallest waterfall in West Africa and was absolutely beautiful. Thousands of bats make their home among the cliffs surrounding the falls and woke to greet us as we swam in the falls.  After a few hours of soaking up the sun and relaxing by the water we headed back to immigration where the border patrol returned our passports and tent in exchange for a “small gift from our hearts” aka money.  In Togo we made our way back to Lome and our home onboard the ship. Oh, and I almost forgot. My zemi-john driver declared his love for me and was convinced I’m going to stay in Togo and marry him. Don’t worry, I told him no. We get a lot of marriage proposals here…and they’re usually followed by “and you can take me back to America.” 

On a different note, things on ship are going very well! The hospital is filling up quickly and tomorrow we start admitting patients for plastic surgery. I’ve been working in max/fax the last several weeks and have really enjoyed the patients and challenges that come with that specialty, but I’m looking forward to our precious skin graft children joining us soon!  I oriented to charge nurse over the weekend and will take on that new role this week.  Thank you all for your continued prayers and words of encouragement! I am loving my time here and trying to take advantage of every opportunity to meet new people, go on adventures and spread God’s love to this beautiful nation.  It is a blessing!!