So what are you gonna do in Africa?

I have had lots of people ask me this question lately, so I thought I'd take a second to explain what I'll be doing next year. In January, I will fly to Tenerife (this is where the ship has its annual maintenance work done) and board the Africa Mercy, the world's largest charity hospital ship. From there we will sail to Togo, West Africa. Once we get there, we'll be docked in Togo for about 6 months. During my time in Togo, I will be living and working on the Africa Mercy. This ship was built specifically to function as a hospital and has six state of the art operating rooms, intensive care and ward bed space for up to 78 patients. I will primarily be taking care of pediatric patients who are recovering from surgery, but will most likely also care for some adult patients as well (Flexibility is important when it comes to missions!) Then sometime around August, we will sail down to South Africa for our next outreach....

So, during my last two months in Phoenix, besides working and fundraising, I am trying to prepare for the drastic changes I will experience when I get to Africa. Obviously things are going to be a lot different working with Mercy Ships...I will be taking care of patients who don't speak English...many of the people in West Africa speak French, so I'm working on learning a little French so that I can communicate with my patients. Otherwise, there are interpreters to help us out, but that is never as personable as speaking directly to the patients, which is what I prefer!

I'll also be living on a ship...tighter spaces (I will probably have at least 4 roommates!) and less alone time...there are about 400 volunteers from over 30 different countries that volunteer on the ship at any given time....so there is a huge range of cultures, languages, and personalities.

So, there is obviously a lot of preparing to do to serve on the ship...not just packing and fundraising, but preparing mentally and spiritually....A friend recently asked me what I thought God wanted to teach me during my time back home...I thought about it and prayed about it and decided that it was for patience and learning to be a servant....God is teaching me to be patient with people and with His timing for my life...and He's teaching me that it's not about me, but it's all about Him and how I can serve Him by serving others...there are so many needs wherever we are...there are hurting people everywhere and God wants us to have His eyes and His heart to see them and their hurt so that we can reach out to them.

The other day I was reminded of these words from a favorite song of mine:

Give me your eyes for just one second, give me your eyes so I can see

Everything that I keep missing, give me your love for humanity

Give me your arms for the brokenhearted, those that are far beyond my reach

Give your eyes for the ones forgotten, Give me your eyes so I can see. (Brandon Heath)

Home again

Well, time has flown by and I am finally home again. We had a great last few days in the D.R., a few last visits to the patients we were following up with, and many hugs and goodbyes with the kids. Our last night, we walked back to the hotel from dinner to find a bunch of candles and singing kids outside. Some of the kids from Aguas Negras, along with Sandra (who we call the Mother Teresa of the D.R.) came to express their gratitude for Mercy Ships and the lives that have been touched over the years (Mercy Ships has been taking groups to the Dominican Republic consistently for over 6 years). It was great to see all of the relationships that had been built over the years and hear about the lives that had been touched and just to be a small part of that.

We all traveled back for debrief...all except one of us. One of the members of our group decided he wanted to stay two more weeks to continue on with some needed projects in the community and to travel a little bit in the D.R. and Haiti. It was a little wierd leaving him behind, but I know God will continue to work through him as he is there. After reflecting on our trip and sharing lots of stories, pictures, and answers to prayer, we all packed up and said goodbye. Theo (my new 7-year old "little brother") came out to my car as I was packing up and put his arms around me and started crying, saying that he didn't want me to leave. It was really sweet. It's amazing how much everyone has become like a family to me...We all bonded so much and got really close...We really had an amazing team!