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!

More fun & work

Well, this has been another great work week...we were able to finish with the foundation of the dining room and started putting up the walls...Sharon and I had fun with that part! I really love our team...everyone works so hard and works so well together! There has been a good balance between doing the hard labor, visiting patients with medical needs that we have been able to treat, and spending time with various families...we also had a soccer game on friday with some of the domincan guys...wanna guess who won that one...ya, we ended up buying them all sodas afterwards...


As much as I have loved pouring cement and laying bricks (one of the guys told me I was in my element doing that ha ha), I love spending time with the people the most....We have been able to get to know some of the families more this week...Ezekiel's mom asked me and a few others to come over for lunch on Friday...this was a special treat for us...We were able to give them some rice and sodas to help out with the meal and also printed some pictures we had taken of their family. These are all the kids....they are all such beautiful children.

A few of our work team after a long day

This weekend, I get to visit my friend Julia out in Santiago and spend time with her and some of her young life kids....I'm excited to catch up with her! I met her 2 years ago when I came to the DR with our high school kids from Scottsdale Bible....After this weekend, we'll just have a few days left in the DR...but I'm excited to see everyone back home...I'll post some more pics when I get back! Keep us in your prayers!

Life in the DR

Well, things are going well in the Dominican Republic! Our time here is going by really fast! Our main focus this week was working in a school in a village called Villa Ascencion. The majority of the people in the village are Hatian and they are all such amazing people. I have been working on my Creole vocabulary, as that is their main language...the majority speak some Spanish too, so that has come in handy. I had the opportunity to spend time in some of their homes, which was quite an experience. The people in the village are poor, but they are also very warmhearted and hospitable.

The kids here are so beautiful!

Me and my chicas

The majority of our time this week has been spent in a school run by a Christian organization called Kids Alive. It`s an after-school program for kids where they reinforce learning and teach them about God & the Bible...We spend a small part of the day in the classrooms doing skits, songs & crafts with the kids and the rest of the day has been spent on work projects. The main work project we are doing is extending their cafeteria which barely fits all the kids right now. Once the cafeteria is bigger, they will also be able to have more students in the program. So, needless to say, we were really tired by the end of the week after digging, mixing concrete, and hauling tons of wheelbarrows....it has been a lot of fun at the same time though and everyone has shown great team work.

One thing I really like about our trip is that our leaders have emphasized the importance of relationships and showing the love of Christ to the people....so they have given us freedom to follow God`s leading in our work days....if we have a specific person that invites us over or if we want to do a prayer walk through the village, we can. They recognize that the relationship aspect of ministry is just as important in leaving an impact as the physical work we do in the town. So, I took advantage of this on Friday and spent the afternoon at Tania`s house...she is a 17-year old girl that my friend Rachel and I met...She is a lot of fun, yet very broken at the same time...she has a 6 month old baby and the father stopped talking to her after she got pregnant....I tried to speak words of encouragement and hope into her life as we talked...it is obvious that she has a very low self-esteem, as is the case with many of the women here. Please pray that God continues to use me as a light in her life.

After our long week, we headed out yesterday for a relaxing day on the beach. The beach was beautiful and we had a good time swimming in the water and riding the banana boat...the typical beach activities....but one thing that really struck us was the huge amount of prostitution that was around. It was so sad and made us all sick to see not only women, but little girls with these old European men who had no shame over what they were doing. We were all shocked at how public it was. I had seen things like this before in Thailand, but I never realized it was such a huge problem in the DR. I found out that the DR is actually in the top 3 nations for the ratio of HIV positive people in the population.

My friend Annie and I were sitting there on the beach as some of the trafficking was unfolding before our eyes and decided to pray. We were definitely reminded of the spiritual warfare that we talked about during our Gateway training. Today, our whole group had a discussion time about the issue and had a time of prayer for the girls involved and the rampant problem in the country.

Another thing that really hit me this week was the poverty of the people and the conditions they end up in when it rains here. I have seen flooding in the US, but never anything like what we saw wednesday night...It started raining really hard and we had to go pick up some of our team in a place called Aguas Negras (this literally means black waters...I understand why they call it that now!) Even though our leader was driving an SUV, we nearly got stuck in the water...it was so deep that the motorcycles were half covered and barely getting through...the water comes up to the level of the houses and floods inside...but it`s not just rainwater....it mixes with the sewage, creating more problems with disease and contamination. Families were walking through the dirty waters...it was unlike anything I have ever seen....It`s amazing to me that the people can survive in these conditions....this is part of their normal lives...I couldn`t help but look out at the people wading through the water and pray for them...It is encouraging that in spite of what seems like hopelessness, the community is improving quite a bit. A woman named Sandra that Mercy Ships works with has a ministry where they build houses for needy families...the houses are higher up so that they won`t flood during the heavy rains...We were able to walk around this town and see several of the houses on our first day. I know they still have a long way to go, but it is great to see the progress taking place in the community.

On a more positive note, things are going really well with our team as a whole...there is a great sense of unity and everyone gets along well and works well together....We have a really great group and we have all been having a lot of fun together. The kids are amazing...I love the way they just latch onto us...There are several little girls that I`ve already bonded with...you can tell that many of them are starved for love and affection...it is a lot of fun to love on them.

This next week we`ll be working with the same school in Villa Ascencion with the work projects and doing some more things in the classrooms...please keep us in your prayers..thanks!

discovering our purpose

One of the big things we have been studying this week is purpose. Sometimes it's a little intimidating to ask those big questions.... what is my purpose in life?...where am I now, how did I get here, and where am I going?...these are some of the things we've been discussing...For the most part, feel like I have a pretty good understanding of God's purpose for my life...at least for the season I am in right now...But it's good to be challenged and forced to answer the hard questions...Because if we don't understand our purpose we will just "float through life" (no pun intended :) without any direction....and I definitely want to live up to all the potential God has for me! So, it was great to spend some time this week discussing purpose and studying how we can use our gifts and strengths to be most effective in the kingdom of God!


I was reminded this week of old song that says:

"Could it be that He is only waiting here to see if I will learn to love the dreams that He has dreamed for me

Can't imagine what the future holds, but I've already made my choice. And this is where I'll stand until He moves me on and I will listen to His voice"


God never ceases to amaze me at how He is so good at orchestrating all the events in our lives...He is aware of everything that we need and has such a perfect plan for each of us if we will just be willing and obedient in following Him...I can't say that I have always been obedient, but He has still been so faithful and hasn't given up on me....He never lets go of us and the dreams he has for us...Lord, let us learn to dream those same dreams that You have for us!

NYC in Thailand

So I finally decided what Thailand reminds me of...well, at least Bangkok does anyway...New York City! It just dawned on me today...there are so many similarities...faster pace of life, crowded streets, tons of taxis, lots of people everywhere, subways, and people from a variety of different countries...Just today I met people from Germany, China, Hong Kong, England, Sweden, Italy, and of course Thailand :) It's crazy...but that is one nice thing about being in a tourist-packed place!



So I have to catch you all up on the last few days...I got to spend some time with the kids at the children's home that Terra works with during my last few days in Mae Ton...we got to share a little devotional with them one night and play games, then did another game time on Saturday morning (we also taught them a dance...that was really fun!). Then sunday we got to help teach sunday school and spend some more time with the kids before heading out...so that was a lot of fun! The kids were so much fun!




We also got to visit another place where a bunch of the kids from Agape are living on our way back to Mae Sot, which was awesome because I really wanted to see as many of the kids as possible! There were about five girls there and three of the boys...they have all gotten so big and it was so great to hang out with them for a little while before going back to Mae Sot.

So we had dinner at a Thai BBQ where you cook your own food so that was quite an experience....it was awesome too because it was all locals (aside from us that is!)...I always like avoiding the tourist attractions if I can help it!




Anyway, I took the night bus from Mae Sot and then spent my last day in Bangkok! It was a very long, but fun day! I went to the Grand Palace, the Wat Pho (one of the temples...beautiful not really my thing to go look at a ton of statues of Buddha), and the MBK (probably the biggest mall in Thailand)! It was all very fun but exhausting! I also got to meet up with one of the girls from Agape who now lives in Bangkok! She is 17 so she has been working here...We met up for dinner and I got to take her to the Siam Center...she had her first experience on an elevator...it was so cute! She told me she was a little bit scared and was holding onto my arm...what a cutie pie!



So, I've been awake since my bus arrived this morning at 4:30 am and I've now officially been awake for over 21 hours so I think it's time to check out....I'll be off on my plane tomorrow and hopefully sleeping the whole way home! :) Goodbye Thailand...I'll see ya when God brings me back here again!

Back in Mae Ton

Today we got to see the kids at the Hoi Bong School where I taught with Andrea last year when I was here. We were really excited to see a bunch of girls from Agape and got to hang out with them for a few hours! It was great to catch up! They are such sweet girls!


If you ever want to feel like royalty, just take a trip to Thailand and go to this restaurant, "Khao Mao Khao Fang". There's waterfalls and nature all around you and the servers pretty much stand by your table waiting for your beckon call :) You also get all this for the very low price of about $5-6/person. Andrea and I were willing to spend the big bucks to treat Teep and Terra to dinner :) They hadn't been to that restaurant for over a year, so it was fun for all of us to get the chance to go!