Not gone; just moved on...

Hello there,

Thank you for checking out my blog; however, I am no longer updating this site. If this is your first time to my blog please feel free to browse through some of the old blogs as the stories, sentiments and experiences recorded here still hold a place dear to my heart and have contributed largely to the reason I am still serving in missions!

As of August 2013 we are serving in the Republic of Congo. If you are still interested in staying in touch with me and/or partnering with me, Mercy Ships and the underserved poor of Africa please write me an email at carol.tanzola@gmail.com and I will happily add you to my monthly newsletter - simply sent by email. :)

♥ God be with you!

♥ Until next time…

♥ carol out…xx

                                                                            ♥      ♥       ♥

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  :)

I’m back in Sierra Leone…

Dear friends, family and supporters (of every kind) Thank you! Thank you from the bottom of my heart. I am so grateful to God for you, for each of you in my life. You are why I can do what I am doing (apart from God of course ). I feel so loved and encouraged and thoroughly enjoy all the amazing encounters we share. I am blessed to know you and to be a part of you lives and have you a part of mine – my cup overfloweth.

I’m back on board now and very busy. 3 months away is long-time and there is lots to catch up on; not to mention the addition of a new job. My job as Office Supplies Manager for the ship has been amalgamated with the Post-office position, so I am very busy learning a new position and trying to catch up with my old one;  nothing that wasn’t expected. I’m still not sure if I will be able to keep my minor job (1 afternoon a week) at the Hope Center working with the patients that don’t need nursing care but still need wound care? I hope so…I’ll let you know.

Just for those of you whom I haven’t talked yet about the results of my “suspicious mammogram”… all is well! The second mammogram came back completely clear and there is nothing to be concerned about. Thank you for you concern and also to those of you who prayed.

Please know that this blog is my priority to staying in touch with you and bringing news, stats and stories of what Mercy Ships is doing in West Africa and my part and feelings about those things along with tidbits of my life here. I simply have too much to do for the next couple of weeks to catch-up on for the lengthy time I was away, so I don’t think I will be blogging until the end of the month. The good news is I have a ton of ideas to blog and only hope you think they are good ideas too once you read them. ha, ha, ha :) My goal is to blog once every two weeks. I am always interested in your feedback, so please feel free to leave me comments if you would like to suggest, encourage, give advice (such as, every two weeks is to often,. hehe) , or just to say hello.

The Lord be with your spirit. Grace be with you!

Love, hugs and prayers,

CT :)

Off-Ship

Hi there,

I will be returning to the ship (from time home in June/July) later than planned and will be taking a bit of time to catch up when I get back, so I don't expect to blog again until mid-Septemberish....

Boy, do I have a bunch of good ideas to blog you. I look forward to sharing my/our future with Mercy Ships with you.

"The LORD bless you and keep you; the LORD make his face shine on you and be gracious to you; the LORD turn his face toward you and give you peace!”

Talk to you in Septmeber!

Love,

Carol :)

P.S. If you would like to visit past blogs you can keep scrolling down from this one straight down to the bottom and click on "older blogs," or you can go to the end of the side bar on the right and chose a past blog by: year, month and title! Please feel free to pass on your feedback at any time. Enjoy!

My Ministry vs. Mercy Ships Ministry - Are They Different?

I don’t think sooooo, as described in 1 Corinthians 12; One Body, Many Parts….

My Missions Pastor Asked Me for a Story He Could Present to the Season’s Ministry (my church’s seniors ministry).… I decided to share with you what I shared with him as it summarizes a lot of what you have been reading about over the last 3 months and how God is being faithful…

The infrastructure in Sierra Leone is fragile to say the least: the port we are docked at in Freetown became privatized shortly after arriving here. With the turnover from government to private our containers which come from Holland and the US have been taking an inordinate amount of time to clear customs. Our containers are filled with hospital supplies, food (frozen and regular), maintenance supplies, IS equipment etc. etc.  Being without these supplies affects the entire ship from the galley to the hospital, and thereby, the care of the patients and crew alike. As you know we have been in a South Africa shipyard for 5 months replacing 4 of our generators. We use 2 generators at all times to supply electricity, vacuum system for our plumbing, air conditioning (it sounds like a luxury, but it is not when you have the humidity and heat of Africa onboard a 499 foot ship with around 700 people moving about it on a daily basis). I’m sure you can imagine how much the air conditioning is needed for the doctors providing surgeries and the patients recovering. Not to mention, that an air conditioned environment controls mosquitoes which in Africa are Malaria carriers (yes, this has a personal bent as I was very ill last year with Malaria if you remember?). Air conditioning is not just a luxury! Our divers have to dive daily to try and keep the intake valves from being plugged up from the incredible amount of garbage carried down the river. The intake valves get plugged up with plastics and debris and the generators are being stretched to their maximum capacity running with continuous blocked power that is impossible to keep clear. One of our generators is not working at all leaving us with only one back up at present. The hospital only runs if the generators run! The river is dangerous and has fast monivig currents that pull the divers away from the ship consequently making it so they can only dive at low or high tide. The water is extremely polluted and the divers are all a little unwell. One that I know of has an infection in his calf from diving and is now on anti-biotics and can’t dive for at least 5 days. In addition, there was a major rupture to the entire water system in Freetown today which ‘coincidentally’  occurred on the day we are supposed to be topping our tanks, so as a result, our reserves are low and once again (as this is not the first time since we’ve been here we are on water rations) we are in a water crisis and have closed the laundry room, have converted to paper plates and plastic cups (very expensive), turned off the hot water and are in a situation of severe water rationing to conserve water – all the while, singing the limerick if it’s yellow, let It mellow; if it’s brown flush it down. This is not just affecting us, but everyone in this part of Freetown known as Kissy. I cannot even tell you what that means in terms of the filth in the streets…the pollution in the city and the garbage in the river! To make matters worse rainy season is upon us (I am glad I brought my rubber boots :))Furthermore, once they get the rupture fixed (????), we still will have several days before we can get water and then several more days before we can use it because it has to be treated. This brings me to my final point; there has been an unusually large amount of crew ill on the ship from sinus infections to stomach cramps and stomach infections etc.. Is it because of the water, the fruits and vegetables (often watered with sewage water), or some other  by-product of something coming onto the ship??? We don’t know!

In the grand scheme of things this is just a small amount of general information that I am giving you about the difficulties we are facing here in Sierra Leone. To paraphrase what the Captain said to me this morning, the entire process of being here is challenging and difficult on every level. But in spite of all I have mentioned, let me tell you what God is doing here that we have to be thankful for in the midst of so much strife….First and foremost, people are being helped. People that wouldn’t be able to have a hope and a future if Mercy Ships wasn’t here are finding their way to us. And as an additional bonus employment is being created for upwards of 200 people for such a time as this…God provided a building for us to be able to care for up to 100 recovering patients that require only wound care(or to prepare patients for surgery) and their caregivers, so we do not have to use the 70 beds we have onboard for patients that are recovering. (Unfortunately, however, with rainy season upon us the entire building known as the Hope Centre floods.) This building is only a 10 minute walk from the ship. We are able to have a dental clinic in the same building because it is large enough to house 2 different ministries and we had volunteers here that were able to build a series of partitions inside the building. Our dental team just went up north with 3 dentists and saw over 200 patients in one day extracting over 550 teeth between them to people who have never even seen a dentist. They were able to work for 3 days, in addition to one day of travel each way. We had a Mercy Team come and build a module on the same property with toilets and plumbing for decent sanitary conditions. The Lord has also provided an air conditioned module on the dock for the eye team to be able to see an exorbitant amount of patients, again with plumbing that a team from the states was able to come and construct. He has provided a team house within the compound of the Swiss Embassy for our off-ship crew to live in safely and within an hour of the ship (on a good day). He has provided enough volunteers who also have diving licenses so the team leader can rotate the divers, so it’s not only the same 2 or 3 who are diving in addition to their regular jobs. We were also able to raise enough money from an offering to buy them proper diving gear to better protect them. For the first part of this outreach we have had enough surgeons available to perform the projected orthopaedic surgeries (stats to follow) up to this point and now with our with our plastic surgeon on board are able to address other types of reconstructive surgeries as well. He has provided a full-time crew physician during this time of unusually large numbers of crew getting ill. He has provided an amazing engineering and deck department who work tirelessly without complaint to keep everything running while everything and everyone is being stressed to capacity….

I could go on and on, but I would like to end now and just remind you that our God is providing even while we are being stretched and while we are being stretched we are trusting Him, and in my opinion exemplifying what it means to love God and love others whilst having the love of God in our hearts. I am humbled and honoured (most days :)) to work and live with so many brothers and sisters who keep cheerful, caring and goldy attitudes throughout some of the most difficult and challenging of times. 

My prayer request is for the patients that are selected for a life changing surgery, the ones who are not, me, the crew, the senior management team and the mission of Mercy Ships to be in the will of God and not our own…

Darcy, as I finish this email with your request I feel that it is enough. I know that I haven’t written a personal story of my own personal ministry, but on the other hand, I have, because what involves the ship on a whole is also my ministry as we are a community and each part works to the good of the whole which is the ministry offered by Mercy Ships to “be love in action;” thereby glorifying God! You, the church, my family and my peer group, are too, a part of this community and that is not merely words because without the encouragement, finances and prayers of you all I could not be here doing my part which happens to be the tactile ‘sent out’ part.

It is midnight now and I’m off to sleep. 9 more sleeps and I am home for a visit. See you soon!

I pray that Darcy (missions pastor) and his assistant Jeri-Leanne are blessed in abundance by every story that is sent to them in response to Darcy’s email. May the Season’s ministry be blessed deeply by the stories they decide to share and may each of the ministries they pray over on Friday feel a renewed presence of the Holy Spirit living and working in their/my life.

In Christ’s Service,

Carol :)

Can you find me?

Crew Photo – Togo, August 2010

 

a  lA little help perhaps – mIddle bottom…:)

When I was home last year do you remember me telling you the story about Tani???

Tani touched and found a way into my heart; there is no doubt about it, and now she’s coming back…

We have the funds allocated to bring Tani, a caregiver and transportation back to the ship from Togo for Tani. Our plastic surgeon, Dr. Tertius, a plastic surgeon who regularly volunteers his time  is back on the ship and Tani can come back for some more reconstructive surgery of her badly burnt face. Praise the Lord!!! However, she has not been able to obtain a passport as yet and Dr. Tertius is only here for 4 weeks and has already been here for 1. He does come back at the end of the outreach though, so if Tani can not be seen this time there will be a next time as long as she can get a passport…please pray to that end for her!

You might remember me saying this young girl has more joy in her one eye than all of our eyes put together – I still stand by that and am thrilled that I will be able to see her again. I will still be able to spend some time with her and I feel blessed to be able to see this girl that inspires the best of me; sometime while we are here in SL!!!! :):):)

  TANI NAKABE

By Elaine B. Winn

In one of the northern most villages in Togo, W. Africa, food is cooked over an outdoor wood fire that is kept burning for warmth in cooler weather. When little Tani was a year old, she awoke from her nap and toddled outside to find her mother. Drawn to the fire, she put her foot on a protruding log. It flipped up and hit her in the head, knocking her over. The burning log quickly enflamed her hair, burning her head and face before her screams of pain brought help from family members.

She was taken to a small local hospital, but no burn specialist was available. Not knowing how to properly treat the burns, they applied alcohol, further drying the badly damaged skin. The fire destroyed her right eye, her nose, and all but a trace of her right ear. When the skin above her mouth burned, it pulled up and constricted the right side of her upper lip. She has only her left eye and ear to help her function.

Nevertheless, Tani is a very bright child and is in the second level in school, where her classmates taunt and insult her. Still, she has a joyful spirit. She attends her village church and loves to sing there. Her parents were not moved to bring her to Mercy Ships, but her church family was. The church leadership elected a deacon to escort her to Mercy Ships for surgery without charge. The deacon left his wife and three children for a month to bring her to Lome because he felt it was his duty to afford this opportunity for Tani. After a month, the deacon got word that a wind storm had blown the roof of his house off. He had to return home. So, the pastor’s son, who was just completing exams at a school nearby, came to stay with Tani in the hospital.

I first saw Tani sitting by herself on a bench at the Hospitality Center about 6 weeks ago. Her frail little body and horribly disfigured face I didn’t find repugnant at all. In fact, I was drawn to her partly because she sat so straight on the bench, and partly because she didn’t present herself as a figure to be pitied. My translator and I found her escort and interviewed him about her life. Surely, I would have to write this courageous child’s story.

Tani will need another surgery and maybe a third to rebuild her nose and possibly provide a socket for a glass eye. Funding is being sought to allow her to travel to Sierra Leone where she can receive her surgery in the next field service early next year.

It’s now early next year and she will be here soon whether it be now or later. Please keep her in your prayers and I will keep you posted on her progress.

God go bless you! (Krio)  xx

Stats for the 2010 Outreach in Togo and the Republic of South Africa…

For consistency purposes, I am basically copying and pasting the report I sent to my church for their the missionary booklet that they update once a year. For those of you that read my blog and the Northview Missionary Booklet, you will find some differences as the page in the booklet doesn’t have room for many pictures, they had to edit some of the information I provided because of space and I edited requests for support because I didn’t feel that for this particular blog it was appropriate… here goes:

New outreach, new cabin, new job, new season…

There is so much to share with you in this yearly update on what was accomplished in 2010. How, then, do I decide what I will include? I guess the obvious is I have prayed about what to write, and I thank God in advance for the wisdom and discernment of what I am going to include in this blog…

So much has happened since I was home last June and July. As our past CEO (even he has changed) said, “We have had volcanoes disrupt our travel and supply lines, political uprisings block our paths, and a little detour to the ship yard make 2010 a very unique year indeed. We had to shorten our Field Service in Togo to allow the Africa Mercy to be retrofitted with new more efficient equipment. 

5 Month Dry Dock in South Africa

 

Me with some Zulu children in the province of Kwa Zulu Natal where some of the the crew stayed in a community called at Appelsbosch.

 

 

 

 

 

Jim Paterson, Senior VP of International Operations commented, “As an organization, we have just completed one of our largest undertakings in the generator refit project in the Durban shipyard.” Here are some of the things we accomplished during this time:

Replacement of 6 old, noisy, unreliable and dirty generators with 4 super efficient, more economical and environmentally friendly brand new MAN generators; Replacement of 2 old and unreliable air conditioning SABRO units with 2 shiny new and reliable Carrier units;  New engine room piping for cooling salt water, fire mains, heavy fuel, diesel fuel, fresh water, etc; Replacement of engine controls in engine room and bridge;  7km of new cables between engines and bridge; Modification of electrical switchboard; New shelving in Deck 6 and Deck 2 food stores; All lifeboats, life-rafts, and lifeboat davits serviced and all cables renewed; All fire-fighting and SCUBA equipment repaired/serviced (Scuba equipment needs further attention); New Mercy Ships logo on funnel and along side; Pool modified with installation of wave catchers;  More sprinklers installed in cargo hold; Damaged windows replaced with new ones; Main engines overhauled; Tons and tons of provisions loaded; All Land Rovers and Nissans repaired and serviced; Elevator converted from manual to electronic, with fancy new controls. The estimated costs to get these repairs done is approx. 8 million USD. It is not exact because they are still working on the final dollar amount.

Whew, there was a lot of work done and as you can read, our time in South Africa was very necessary and very busy! We are still working out some of the glitches and details in making all the new machinery work and in some instances still waiting for parts towards that effort, but as the Captain said, our sail here was without the usual generator problems and the new ones have already proved worthwhile.

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Leaving Durban Dry Dock in the Republic of South Africa

One of the Mercy Ships VP’s announced, “There was discussion that we would not be able to perform many services while in South    Above & to the right: Dry Dock Crew. Below: Appelsbosch Crew wearing “ I survived the Bosch t-shirts

Africa, but yet our Crew took the challenge and not only provided services, they have helped us to make 2010 a new record for the number of people impacted with Togo and South Africa combined.”

We have just released our 2010 Field Service numbers and we were able to impact over 480,000 people this year!  Praise God!” Again for you statistical minded, we were able to perform over 77,000 procedures with over 59,000 direct beneficiaries. Some further statistics include 30,265 eye consultations, 1,150 reconstructive surgeries, 15,702 dental interventions and 12,215 students trained in village health. These statistics don’t include of course the volunteers trained to do lay work, doctors trained in specialized areas of surgery, relationships made, a multitude of programs and ministries offered, and God being represented and glorified in all we do! I have shared previously some of those stats that were performed in South Africa which you can find under ‘old posts’ on the sidebar.  Below are a few pictures of just a few of the people those stats made a difference to in Togo.

 

Patrick after Maxillo Facial Tumour surgery.

 

 

Loveless below is 4 years old. Unfortunately, her tumour is malignant and we could not help her. The truth is the doctors were quite surprised that she had made it thus far…. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Aissa - NOMA

 

 

Alimou – Maxillo Facial Tumour

 

 

 

                               Marthlynn – Cleft Palate

 

Look at the beauty, the peace in her right eye…

How, when carrying this around???

Wow! Isn’t she unbelievably beautiful? 

What is it they say, “The eyes are the mirror to our soul.” I’d say with eyes like hers and a such a smile to match that Akuavi is one special treasure …

 

 

And how about Kossi (below). As a mother, his situation pulls at my heart, and without a doubt reminds me why I sacrifice being at home with my own son! Abel – Orthopaedics: unbelievable aye?

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 VVF (Vesicovaginal fistula) ‘Coming out Celebraton!’ (I hope you remember my stories from last year of what this terrible affliction is about and what all these women in West Africa have to suffer – unnecessarily!)

  Although, empowering VVF patients is one of our passions, we won’t be doing these surgeries while we are in Sierra Leone (SL)as they have a VVF Clinic that was established our last time in SL and is still up and running. We will come alongside them, but we don’t usually do surgeries that can already be done in the country we help.

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Of course I can’t share about all of the 480,000 beneficiaries Mercy Ships, you and I have impacted, but I did want to share a few of the above statistics of the incredible life-changing surgeries that are done on board the ship with you. 

As of 27 February 2011 we have docked in Freetown, Sierra Leone for a ten month long Field Service bringing hope and healing to a country rebuilding itself after years of civil war, conflict and instability.

I have to admit, it is a little scary to be here where human devastation and poverty is at the bottom of the World’s Human Index Scale. However, I am challenged to serve God in a way that is totally outside of my comfort zone and humbly look forward to how He plans to use me in this new season…This last sentence reminds me of a couple of quotes, “To get something you never had, you have to do something you never did.” And, “The will of God will never take you where the Grace of God will not protect you”

The Anastasis was Mercy Ships predecessor to the M/V Africa Mercy and was retired in 2007 when the M/V Africa Mercy was put to sea.

 

 

The picture on the right is painted on the wall outside the port in SL (Thank you Murray for the pic)

Before we started our mass screenings in the Capital of Freetown…,

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…some of our approx. 60 person advance team (including 2 doctors) had gone to 5 rural areas, and had already screened 4948 people from crowds of over 7600;

scheduled 368 surgeries, 139 surgeon screenings, referred 503 people to other departments,  

 

 

 

 

created a waiting list of 708 and were able to perform 26 minor surgeries

 

 

 

 

This list does not begin to include what the advance team prepared for our arrival including hiring, giving orientation and TB…

 

Sailing into SL

 

 

Some more members of the advance team below:

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Below: Managing Director and his wife (Donovan & Mae Palmer) with Captain Tim Tretheway; the raising of the country flag, and the pilot boarding to bring us in.

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There was a lot of fanfare: Above: Marching Band & Some of the land-based media team – Below: Welcome Banners & Minister of Health with the Head of our Advance Team and the boy (past patient) I speak about on the sidebar; his story yet to come.

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Okay, the below pictures having nothing to do with anything other than coming into port. I just thought you might want to see a few pictures of me now… LOL :) The port coming into view behind me; Penny (my South African friend) and I holding up the sunrise which actually looked more like a sunset, and Alice Maude & I (my Sierra Leoneon friend)

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Above: I am just posing for this momentous occasion. (yes Tracey, I will be printing the above pictures, so you can see them close-up :):):):))

… testing and immunization shots of more than 150 day workers to work with us once our ship arrived and an abundance of other factors I couldn’t begin to list here. I look forward to providing more details to you through my blog and my next visit home in June and July 2011!

 

Freetown

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Congested City of vehicles, people & vendors all fighting for a spot on the same narrow street….

 

It can take 2 hours to move 6 Km.

 

 

 

 

Freetown has national clean up day once a month.

But….

and now with the rainy season it’s couples with mud etc. and is quite a mess! (Thank God I brought my rubber boots!)

Please pray for me about all the things in my opening sentence; each one presents a challenge of it’s own kind and I could not be here doing this work without your faithful prayers, encouragement and financial support.

Okay, okay, this blog ended up being quite a bit different than the original sent to the church for the booklet; a little more embellished should we say…I’m blaming it on prayer…lol 

“Around the world today, billions of people live in fear and desperation, with impure water, inadequate food, and little or no access to health care. Behind every statistic is a person waiting for hope and healing. Utilizing hospital ships, Mercy Ships delivers medical excellence with integrity and compassion to the world's forgotten poor by mobilizing people and resources worldwide. Mercy Ships serves all people without regard for race, gender, or religion.” -                                                      -Marianne Huurman, HR Manager

I have no medical training, but I have the love of God and love for others that I can share along with some administrative skills and an open heart and mind to learn and participate in whatever I can do, to help make a difference here in West Africa; where living one day at a time is harder than anything I’ve ever had to do – ever… !

Come, let us bow down in worship,                                            ; Let us kneel before the Lord our Maker;                                     ; For He is our God and we are the people of his pasture,            The flock under His care. – Amen! 

Thank you from the bottom of my heart for whatever your part was in bringing hope and healing in 2010 to the 480,0000 and to the successful implementation of our new generators plus, plus, plus….

Mercy, peace and love be yours in abundance!

Love and hugs,

Carol  XX 

P.S. More to follow on the new job and new cabin