Wow, what a week!

You know I have a list of things I want to blog you: My missions booklet write-up I wrote for my Church’s Missions weekend; so many patient stories, pictures of my blog and cabin, what’s happening with our off-ships programs; statistics from Sierra Leone ( I think I might pass on those at this point since we’re almost finished our Togo outreach and will just post the Togo stats when we get them.:)), and you know…thoughts! But today, I am just going to blog you about my week – what a week!

I’m going to start with two praise reports: First of all, I’ve had constant pain in my right shoulder for about 4 months now. Starting from my neck streaming down my right shoulder into my shoulder blade.I woke up on Monday morning, sat up in my bed and instantly knew something was different! Within a few minutes I realized I didn’t have any pain in my right shoulder! Halleluiah! During my morning preparations, I was thanking the Lord for my healing when I suddenly remembered I had forgotten to pray for this healing and asked God for forgiveness for my negligent prayers when the Holy Spirit instantly responded and said “I know what you need!” Wow, believe it! It reaffirmed so many things for me about what I believe about our relationships with the Lord. I won’t expound though and will let you draw your own interpretations. This is the second definite healing I’ve experienced from the Lord (that I’ve been aware of.) My faith has prospered! Additionally, as many of you are aware, as I’ve sought out your prayers (and you have seen me…lol); I’ve been wanting to lose the weight I’ve put on since joining Mercy Ships (MS) and have been very focused towards that goal (including prayer. :) :) Over the past 2 months I have lost a total of 14 lbs. I feel great! My cup overfloweth!!!!

On now for my second praise report: On Friday I had the privilege of being the driver for Dr. Lyn Westman who teaches for our Mental Health program. ( She is the program.) I don’t always get to be a part of what some of our off-ship programs entail, and I was truly blessed and again awed at how far-reaching MS is in what services we provide within a country. On this particular day she was finishing a 2 day workshop teaching 20 mental health professionals at a psychiatric hospital that houses long-term mentally ill patients as well as out-patients. She has extensive training in the medical field ending with a Doctorate in Psychology, with the added benefit of being  Medical Practitioner as well as an ordained Minister. She is a committed missionary and follows up with every country we work in. She embraces the church and widely teaches the leaders that shepherd churches as well as many other professional and holds children’s camps. Here in Lome, we have partnered with Pastor Samuel who works alongside Lyn while we are here and is a valuable and indispensable assistant to her. Anejo, Togo is approx. an hours drive so I was also able to see some of the country outside of Lome. It was great! And great to be off the ship during a work day! lol

Below: Dr. Lyn and Samuel

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Meanwhile on our ship in the hospital Chantelle passed away. Chantelle has been in the hospital since screening day. She was passed to the front of the line on screening day because she smelled so terrible – she had a very badly infected wound. When we were in Togo In 2006 Chantelle came to us badly burned. Her burn extended over the upper half of her right side including her neck, shoulder, and axilla(underarm). She ended up with contractures. However, several skin grafting surgeries later, as well as, intensive physio she was released to go home to start a new life…And she did just that, she married and she had a daughter. In 2009 she started to encounter problems with the grafting; her axilla grafting started to breakdown and create openings(the underarm tends to get dry and thick, so it continually needs to be moisturized), and eventually became infected. When we saw her in February the infection was extensive; it was open and very stinky, it had also spread across to include some of her breast closest to the armpit. To complicate matters she was HIV positive! She’s been in and out of surgery since screening day. She is very tiny (and beautiful), and coupled with the aids she was not able to fight off the infections, nor did she have the strength. For the last couple of weeks she had become a palliative patient and was going to be released to go home…Everyone loved Chantelle (I didn’t know her – only of her, and it’s only because of a good friend of mine sharing her story with me that I can share it with you.), and the nurses loved on her bigtime! We have the most amazing nurses all the time! One of the things Chantelle wanted was to be outside. Having been in the hospital since February she was missing the ocean, the smells, the fresh air – I’m pretty sure you can imagine! Anyway, she couldn’t leave her bed to go to deck 7 and go outside, so the nurses got special (and I do mean special) permission from the Captain to open up the Pilot entrance doors (where the port Pilot boards on the 3rd deck when we enter a new county) and they wheeled Chantelle’s bed to the door where she was able to see the ocean, smell the ocean air and see the birds as well as the landscape; she said she saw Jesus coming – she was happy!

Chantelle leaves a big part of herself behind – she was a beautiful spirit and though she was always in pain she found it within her to smile - a lot! I think because she received ‘love in action’ from our God-fearing missionary nurses; 2 weeks ago, she herself choose to accept Christ as her Lord and Saviour! Is that a combination of a blessing and a miracle, or what? She is now safely at home with our Father in heaven healed and in a new body. 

We will see her again – someday….

I’ve been asked not to post a picture of her wound as it is quite graphic and actually, quite horrifying!!!

Please keep her widow and her daughter in your prayers!

And on a more joyful note (excuse the upcoming pun – ha, ha, ha). We were honoured with a local choir troupe on the ship today (Sunday). They are a group we would spend money on to see perform at home. They were fabulous and sang in English. Our socks were blessed off! lol It was a great time. Some of my friends took a video, I’ll see if I can post one when we get to Tenerife in the summer as I can’t do that from the ship. For now here’s a picture:

How many praise reports did I say? LOL

Wow, what a week!

Que Dieu vous bénisse! (May God bless you!)

Love Carol  xox

HAPPY EASTER EVERYONE!

 

 

 

 

I have to admit Easter is my favourite holiday! It wasn’t always; Christmas was, but the more I am humbled and in awe by what our Lord and Saviour did for us on the cross the more I love spending time meditating with the Him on so many levels during Lent and Easter week!!! And, I am not the only one…here on the M/V Africa Mercy the Chaplaincy department spends a great deal of time and effort to create an atmosphere of benevolence to all the crew whom want quality time revering Jesus and what His resurrection means to us!

This is my 3rd Easter on the ship and I have to say the effort that goes into making Jesus’s death on the cross in reparation for our sins and the joy we can have knowing that He will fulfill His promise of us seeing Him again is indeed a time of celebration rather than sorrow and I have never seen that more clearly shared than right here on the ship…my Easter experiences here have definitely contributed to this being my favourite holiday…:)

This year many of us started our Easter celebration by including a Lent and Easter devotional to our department devotionals at the start of Lent. I went a bit further and got a copy from Chaplaincy to make it a daily devotional for 54 days. I have to say, Mr. Nouwen has given me a lot to meditate on and I have thoroughly enjoyed his devotional (even though sometimes I don’t agree with all His interpretations). I have been challenged on many levels, spent some great moments with the Lord and have grown spiritually in all I have been given to meditate on in great this little book.

Last Saturday we started  “Africa Mercy Easter:” 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Upper Room:

A place to go and take communion that is setup so that you can sit and spend time alone in silence with beautiful, meditative music playing softly in the background

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The foot washing command is confusing for me. My friend Susan and I washed each others feet, and then I washed a sister’s feet, and for sure there is awkwardness, but such gentleness and thankfulness too, yes thankfulness also???? I don’t really have insight into what Jesus wants to teach me in this gesture of washing each others feet; although, I have had a fair amount of people try and explain it to me – I will remain obedient to what He asks, but I think He will have to give me an epiphany!

The Garden of Gethsemane was an amazing place to spend time pondering the cross. It is open all night on Maundy Thursday and I was blessed to stay there until 3.30am. No one else was there at that time and I loved the time alone in such a profound setting.

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Friday night a number of crew put on the show “Godspell,” have you seen it? They did an amazing job and we laughed and laughed. Here’s a bare bone look at the cast…

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 Church this morning was very good.  There was amazing worship and 30ish different nations stood up and recited “Christ is Risen” in their native language.

There was a children’s choir…     …a Liturgical dance performed by 4 of the teenagers… and adult hand bells. ( no pic.)

 

 

Lovely, all of it!

 

Our Managing Director gave us an Easter message. In addition, there were passages read, blessings given and of course communion.

 

 

 

All told it was beautiful and special!   “Listen to your heart – It’s there [in your heart] that Jesus speaks most intimately to you. Praying is first and foremost listening to Jesus who dwells in the very depths of your heart. He doesn’t shout. He doesn’t thrust himself upon you. His voice is an unassuming voice, very nearly a whisper, the voice of a gentle love. Whatever you do with your life, go on listening to the voice of Jesus in your heart. The listening must be an active and very attentive listening, for in our restless and noisy world Jesus’ loving voice is easily drowned out.” ~ Henri Nouwen

Now on to brunch – food – yes - the bonding of all special events…In the devotional I’m reading by Henri Nouwen there is a quote from his book, The road to daybreak: A spiritual journey in which he states, “After the resurrection Jesus had breakfast again with his friends and showed them the importance of the small, ordinary things of life…It is such a comfort to know that Jesus’ wounds remain visible in his risen body. Our wounds are not taken away, but become sources of hope to others.” Hmmm, reflection…

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Seriously, we have sooooo much talent on board this ship that when an event like this gets organized everyone’s socks are knocked off, or should I say blessed off!!! ha, ha, ha LOL

What Jesus did for us on the cross!

And now I would like to bestow the Hebrew Priestly Blessing upon you…

The Lord bless you and keep you;                                                    The Lord make HIs face shine upon you, and be gracious to you;   The Lord turn His face towards you and give you peace.              (Numbers 6:23-27)            

God be with you!

Love, hugs and prayers,

xx Carol, (Daughter, Mom, Godmother, Bestfriend, Friend, Sister, Aunt and Great Aunt) :) xoxox

Togo Screening a Success!

There was a sense of peace and calm throughout the stadium all day.

Akpe Dada Ye Dze Ne! (He is worthy of thanks!)

We held the screening at the Kegue stadium in Lomè, Togo, West Africa. 

I was up 3 am to be a driver and help shuttle the crew to the stadium. We left with our first load at 4.30 am and our second around 5.30 am at which time we parked the landrovers for the day at the stadium, but continued to have one shuttle that went back and forth with crew that had to go back to the ship for one reason or another, a variety of items that had to be sent to the lab and for whatever other reasons popped up. I have to admit I think being part of a convoy is a ton of fun (even if we got lost      ), I’d even go as far to say it’s down right exciting!  We started returning crew home about 3.30 pm finishing around 6 pm. It was definitely a long, emotional (sad & happy) and tiring day that everyone gives everything they have physically and emotionally!

My landrover # was 444 the one in front on the motorcycle above and the one on the left below.

During the day I was part of the prayer team. Man, that’s a sure fire way to evoke a gamut of emotions. The prayer team is set-up at the exit gate for people who have been told that Mercy Ships can’t help them, but would like to be prayed with. It is a holistic approach. There were approx. 10 of us. 3 people walked around the stadium throughout the day praying over the different areas: the gates, the police, the command post, the photographic station, the writers, admissions, lab techs, the surgeons, the prospective patients, security,  etc. etc… The rest of us sat with a translator (Togo is a French speaking country, but the local language is Ewe), and prayed over a total of approx. 300 people who were turned away after getting through the first gate and wanted prayer. These people included 2 babies (one who was only a few months, but looked liked a skeleton of a very old man that some said was cursed). Neither child will probably live (it always pulls at ones heart a little harder when it’s a baby). There were many who came from upcountry and used any money they had or could borrow for the chance of getting medical attention (free medical attention), and now had nothing in the way of money or hope…. There were quite a few Muslims who came for prayer as well - it is good to know when you are praying for a Muslim, so the prayer can be respectful and the Holy Spirit can intervene with silent words as well as the choice of words spoken out loud. I really do feel that it is a special privilege to be able to pray with people who are in deep spiritual need! I had two translators who I worked with off and on. The first one whom I spent most of my time with and also translated for the palliative care nurse was Marilyn (I think we will become good friends),  and the second was John.

I have to digress here for a minute. This was definitely one of my most treasured blessings of the day getting to know a couple of our day workers personally. These two wonderful, God fearing Togolese along with Rogue (who helped me with directions back and forth to the ship at the end of the day) are 3 of the 167 day workers we’ve hired to work with us while we are in Togo. Because of the type of work I do, I don’t have a lot of occasions to get to know our day workers personally and I was so blessed to get to know these 3 a little more personally and hear a bit of their stories. I really look forward to getting to know these day workers better throughout these next 4½ months while we are in Togo. (I wish I had pictures, but one of the rules of screening is no one is allowed to bring a camera except Marketing and they really didn’t get any pictures of me, or the prayer station (other than the 1 below), out of respect for the patients who are in mourning for their loss of personal hope to have whatever ailment was bothering them treated. 

We were usually in groups of 4 (prayer person, translator, patient and caregiver) and sat all the way around this tree. It was nice to be in the shade I must say as it was a very hot afternoon. (There was a nice cloud covering in the morning.)

I can share one of my experiences with you that deeply humbles me and reminds me that it’s only by God’s grace that gets us through screenings like this:

A woman named Ruth and her mother came and sat with John and I. Ruth’s legs had many sores, some open some closed; all with bumps which resembled small tumours…they have been spreading. I don’t know why we couldn’t help her or what the sores were or why they were spreading, but she was afraid and desperate. She was young; maybe in her early 20’s. Normally I ask a few questions: how long has she had the ailment, did it start for any reason, how is it affecting her etc. etc and then we pray. We prayed, but her and her mother needed more – they needed to talk, so we talked maybe for 30-40 minutes. John is a wonderful translator and we got quite deep into the spiritual side of things and I spoke truthfully about the blessings Ruth could count like a mother who loved her and was upholding faith for both of them because hers was weak because of her demise; that she was able to walk; that she was beautiful; that she has a Father in heaven who loves her just the way she is, considers her special and has adopted her into HIs kingdom. That whether he heals her of this mutilation or not has no relevance to her being a child of the most high and she has to trust and lean on that fact. I assured her that she will know the reason when she gets home to heaven. I also assured her that our conversation doesn’t mean that God won’t heal her or provide the means to heal her, but her faith cannot rest on that but on the fact that she needs to see her cup half full regardless of whether she’s healed or not, or she can’t live with joy at being alive and a child of God! Blah, blah, blah, we talked a lot, and I shared quite a few pieces of scripture throughout our conversation. I shared some of my life so she knew my words weren’t empty which I never do as there’s usually no need too.  I told her she was my sister in Christ, and although I don’t usually offer to continue praying for people after they leave because obviously I wouldn’t be able to for everyone I would continue to pray for her; for her faith to grow strong so that no matter what would happen in her future that she would have the Lord as the foundation in her life, that her eyes would stay fixed on Jesus and her faith would be strong. The Holy Spirit gave me a confidence and the right words to speak the truth to this girl and her mother! I,nor John had any doubt about that!

Her mother told John that they, the black people (her words), know God and have always known God. They go to church every Sunday, that they know to how to pray, that God hears them if He answers prayer – they know God lives! She went on to say they don’t really try to have a relationship with him, or get to know HIs word so that they have it in times of trouble, and as a result they have an abundance of disease, death, poverty and voodoo. And then she added, you white people come and remind us that it is by faith that we have to live no matter what happens and that we need to be in relationship with Him to live a life that reflects Him and the fact that he is ever-present and for that she thanked us. She reached into her purse and got a pen and paper and I’m thinking yikes someone else who wants me to call and stay in touch and I am going to have to remind her that I don’t speak her language and it would be impossible to stay in touch when we can’t communicate when she hands the piece of paper to me and all she has written on it is ‘Ruth’ in big letters….Wow, am I in awe of this woman’s faith at that moment and the wisdom God has bestowed on her. She wanted nothing more than for me to pray for her daughter by name because earlier I had promised to continue to pray for her. I am humbled yet again as I am on so many occasions in this land where people give me and or Mercy Ships their trust just because! We are not here just for the physical, but also, and most importantly, for the spiritual!

“If you open your heart to the hungry and satisfy the needs of the oppressed, then your light will shine out from the darkness and your night will be as bright as noon. The Lord will guide you continually; he will satisfy your needs in a sun-scorched land and will restore your strength. You will be like a well-watered garden, like an ever-flowing spring.” Isaiah 58:10-11

More good news:

Here’s some of the stats for the day:

• Around 4000 people showed up at the stadium during the night and early morning on the 1st February
• 1609 passed through the 1st gate (the rest were told shortly after getting in line by 2 nurses with security that we couldn’t help them and sent home. They walked the line all night and early morning, so unqualified patients wouldn’t be waiting in vain)

 

                                    Once through the 1st gate we passed out water (donated by a local company) and sandwiches to all the people waiting to be seen by a surgeon or nurse

• 574 people came through the screening process

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• 475 people are scheduled for more lab tests, and/or x-rays (if a decision couldn’t be made without them), as well as, maxillofacial and plastic surgeries

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All in all it was a good day and we are thankful for how smoothly everything went.

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As you know from my last blog; in addition, to the big screening mentioned above we are doing weekly screenings for Dental and Eyes and are full for VVF patients from our waiting list when we were here in 2010. We are not doing Orthopaedics in this outreach because we are not here long enough for the rehabilitation to take place; however, we are trying to do follow-up on a 190ish ortho patients from our 2010 outreach. So far, the rehabilitation team has called 30 of the 190ish past patients and have only been able to reach 9 because of changed addresses and telephones etc. Please pray with us that God would bring light to these patients to contact us while we are here and/or the information we have to miraculously reach the ones we haven’t called yet so they can come for a follow-up.

I also ask you to pray for this outreach and the patients that we will be providing services for.

We learnt a lot from our tragic experience last year and there are many new processes in place that will benefit all future screenings and many West African people.

“And so I tell you, keep on asking, and you will receive what you ask for. Keep on seeking, and you will find. Keep on knocking, and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks, receives. Everyone who seeks, finds. And to everyone who knocks, the door will be opened.” Luke 11:9–10.

Please pray for Ruth with me…

Thank you!

Love and hugs,

xx Carol  

New Screening Day Fast Approaching….

Hi y’all,

I’ve been trying to post last years stats for you of the work we did while we were in Sierra Leone. I haven’t been able to copy it into my blog in a format where it is large enough to read, so I will have to give up for tonight…It is coming though. Watch this space…:)

We are starting a new field service in Lome, Togo. We were here in 2010 for 8 months. Usually we spend 10 months in a outreach, but because we had to have our generators and air conditioning system replaced and we could only book certain times to do that with the shipyard in South Africa we left after 8 months and went to Durban, South Africa (see past blogs in 2010) to get the work done. So, we are back now to finish our original time commitment with a little extra thrown in for good measure. LOL :) Seriously though because we had this discrepancy in our commitment and Togo being the 15th country from the bottom of the Human Index Scale (poverty and lack of access to fundamental needs, such as, water, electricity etc.) obviously needing our help, we are back to work here for approx. 5½ more months. While we are in this returning field service and can take advantage of extending our yearly maintenance to 1½ years instead of 1 because of our extended work in South Africa, Mercy Ships is going to change the outreach dates from the end of January to the the end of November to the middle of August to the middle of June. This change benefits the ship, the crew and most importantly the people of West Africa in a number of ways, but as far as I can tell the 2 main ones and most important ones are not being in West Africa during the heaviest part of the rainy season thereby avoiding mass outbreaks of Malaria with the crew, and secondly, working on the same schedule as the Academy onboard, so when school is out for the summer and the families want to go home or away for some family time and/or vacation and fundraising a large amount of our technical crew won’t be gone in the middle of an outreach. Makes sense right?

So as we begin this new outreach, this short outreach, our VVF (Vesico Vaginal Fistual) surgeries are already full from our left over waiting list in 2010 (approx. 200 cases) as well as the general surgeries (goiters, hernias etc).

We begin screening this Wednesday, 1 February and will be screening for mostly Maxillofacial deformities (including tumors, complications of injury, cleft lip or palate, infections etc); plastic reconstructive conditions including burn scar contractures and eyelid and ear reconstruction, Noma etc. (We will also continue plastic surgery on past patients like Tawny – do you remember her? I hope so because you will be hearing more about her soon. (you can find her in past blogs)); I believe we will also be performing a nominal amount of orthopaedic surgeries as the healing and rehabilitation time for this type of surgery is extensive.

My part in the screening is to make a number of early morning trips (5ish am) as a driver transferring the crew to the screening site and at the end of the day taking them back to the ship. In the in between hours I will once again be on one of the prayer teams praying with the patients that we can’t help. I seek your prayers for this part of my job as I began to find it very emotional and  difficult bearing the pain of these people whom we couldn’t offer any physical hope for last year….

In addition to the “big screening” above we will continue to hold Dental screenings and clinics every Monday and Thursday ; Eye screenings and clinics Monday – Wednesday with both specialties working with the selected patients throughout the week.

While these surgeries are being performed and rehabilitation is taking place there is also our hospital out-patient center known as the Hope center that houses between 40 and 80 beds. This facility houses patients that need help before surgery (putting on wait, etc.), or need to wait for surgery (if they came a long way from up north for example) and secondly to recover from surgery so our 80 beds in the hospital are not full with recovering patients; thereby, allowing for a constant flow of surgeries.

We will also be providing palliative homecare and training for the terminally ill and their families; leadership conferences and training; mental health teaching which addresses mental, neurological and substance abuse disorders.

I’m not sure I’ve exhausted the full gamut of what we will be providing while we are here, but I wanted you to be a part of it from the beginning and be able to pray with us that God brings to these screenings the people he would have us help and keep away the ones he wouldn’t and the troublemakers. Please also pray for the ones that need help that don’t fit into our specialties, the crew and their health and the surgeons for wisdom and steady hands! May we all be given a bounty full of love, joy, kindness, humility, grace, empathy and mercy as we spend time with the people here in Togo.

My prayer is the same as many on the ship this season…”[We} have brought you glory on earth by finishing the work you gave [us] to do. John 17:4

Pictures will come, but as yet I haven’t been out to get any – sorry!

Be well, be safe and God be with you!

Love,

xx Carol :)

Happy New Year!

This is my second blog to you today…did you get my first one? Okay, I have to be truthful right now – I’m a little more than frustrated! I wrote a blog this morning which I really liked, published it and then 3 hours later deleted it. NO I don’t know how, I just did it!

Apart from being very busy with the amalgamation that I mentioned in my last  blog and having very few days off since visiting y’all in the summer because of it, the above mentioned problem is a theme I’ve had since returning to  Africa and the ship – computer issues of one kind or another! I have had constant complications in transferring data to my new computer, losing ALL my folders  (pictures, music, documents etc.) from my hard drive with no backup (long story), and not having access to my email addresses and the Internet@#&*?!!

To make a long, long story just long (LOL), when I boot up my computer to write you and/or blog I've just had one issue after another, so consequently, I turn it off and don't look at it for awhile only to turn it on to another set of random problems, and on and on it goes…, AND now I am blogging you for the second time today and have to recreate the first blog which we know can’t be done and I am feeling like this won’t say the things as ‘eloquently’ as my first efforts,  but I am sticking with it and sending this today if it’s the last thing I do!!!!

So for those of you that know me at all, know that I have a love/hate relationship with the computer in the first place. I have had some real hate feeling and have been in mourning for my beloved pictures, music and information. You laugh, but as I’m writing this I’ve had an epiphany and stopped to pray against the bitter feelings that have taken over when I think COMPUTER because of the series and long lasting negative consequences I’ve been dealing with. (I prayed against oppression that might be an influence and not just me being electronically challenged...)

I digress… @#?&!! (Okay, I still have some praying to do…LOL)

My New Years resolution other than to blog regularly is to email you at least 3 times a year, as I have done in the past, so we can communicate a little more personally and privately. That’s not to say that if you are in need of prayer, or just a simple conversation that you can’t email me or call me. I am as close as an email or phone call away and I love to hear from you also.

Just because I have been electronically challenged by no means does that mean that you are not in my thoughts and on my mind – you are - and in my prayers too! Seriously, not having computer access to you all and being sooooo busy has been a monkey on my back and I feel guilty, lonely and disconnected as I’m sure you have felt somewhat as well @#?!! (Imagine what it must’ve been like for missionaries before the Internet!! I guess we can consider ourselves fortunate that it’s only been 4 months and now should be able to stay connected). Now that all my computer problems seem to be resolved (we’ll see) I promise even if I have to use my work computer  (which I have purposely not done) I will not let such a lengthy time exist between communications again! NO pictures for awhile though. :( --- :):):)

I’m excited to be a part of what Mercy Ships will be doing in West Africa in 2012, what God has prepared for us to do and sharing it all with you.

I look forward to our friendship continuing to flourish  in 2012; that you and yours are blessed with purpose, love and deep joy; and that the Holy Spirit confirms in your heart for the first time, or yet again, that without a doubt, God lives!

Bonne Année!

Love and hugs,

xx Carol  :)