Week 12: Easter & the Esther Project

He is risen indeed! What a way to rejoice in that! I have to say, I have never experienced Easter like this. Every moment of this weekend, and even this week, pointed to Him and his sacrificial love for us.

Natalih is full of joy and laughter.

I’m going to start by explaining what the Esther project was. All crew members who commit to serving more than one year, have to complete onboarding. This is what I will be doing this summer. As part of onboarding, the teams do three weeks of hands on, in country missions work. For the last four onboarding groups, they have gone to Akany Avoko, a foster home/orphanage in Tana, the capital. The lady in charge of onboarding has had a dream to bring some of these girls to the ship. Several things came together and her dream was finally realized this weekend! They paid for 50 of the girls to come to the ship and spend Easter with us. They called this the Esther project. Interestingly (and not knowing this), our chaplaincy has focused on the book of Esther for the 7 weeks leading up to Easter, encouraging the crew to read through the book of Esther each week and talking about where we can find God in a book where He is never mentioned by name. God was at work in so many ways in this project – for example, when trying to figure out sleeping arrangements, they decided the girls would sleep in one of our warehouses, and when searching for mattresses, they discovered that the HOPE Center had spare mattresses (in case a cyclone came and crew needed to get off the ship), and it turned out that they had exactly the number of mattresses needed.

I was so excited for the girls to arrive, and they planned so many amazing things for them. When their busses drove up, they were so excited and happy, greeting us with lots of hugs, and so amazed to see the ship. The first night, they had pizza and popcorn and watched the ‘Jesus Film’, in Malagasy. The next day, was the big day – they were going to get to come on the ship. I led one of the groups in a tour of the ship, including spending time in the wards with the patients, seeing the bridge, and enjoying some of our delicious Starbucks hot chocolate. They had lots of questions and were amazed at all the before and after pictures they saw. One of the girls had just finished nursing school and was in the process of looking for a job, so this was really interesting for her. After the tour, we took the girls to a restaurant to eat and then walked down to the beach. This was the first time seeing the ocean for many of them! We played in the ocean and bought each of them a coconut – another first for many. After that we headed back to the restaurant and had a pool party, and then dinner. After that, they headed back to the ship for a big dance party, but by that point I was exhausted and went right to sleep! The girls were incredibly loving, always holding on to us and holding our hands, and trying to teach us Malagasy.

Tinah blessed me with so much love!

I talked to the director and she told me that most of these girls were there because they had been removed from their homes by the government, due to physical or sexual abuse. Tragically, the government provides no money to the home, to help support the girls. She said their attitude is basically, you’re the one who opened this home, if you don’t want to do it, just put them out on the street to take care of themselves. The people who work at this home are amazing, and have clearly poured out so much love on these girls. Every month they aren’t sure how they will have enough money to take care of everyone, but every time God provides. They take care of around 180 children. Even though the government only mandates that they help the girls until they are 18, the director was telling me that often that is when they need the most support, so they have a house in town that they rent out and all the older kids stay there and go to university, which the home pays for. Those ladies then help out at the home during their free time. This is just so amazing to me! They are making sure these girls have a future and don’t have to turn to prostitution or crime to support themselves. If anyone is interested in learning more or donating money, you can visit their website: http://www.akanyavoko.com/index.html. On Sunday morning, the girls joined us for sunrise service, sang us some songs, had breakfast and then headed back home. It was hard to say goodbye – they were very sad to leave. On my way home I will be spending a day in Tana, so I hope I will be able to visit them again! The most beautiful girls you could imagine.

I have to share another amazing Easter story with you, that I was blessed to play a very small part in. Being a ship driver (which means I am allowed to drive the Mercy Ships vehicles) is a fairly rare thing here, especially among the short termers, who are only allowed because of their jobs. I am so blessed to have this ability and it has allowed me to help others and to witness wonderful things. We have a program where you can befriend a patient and follow and support them in their journey. One of my roommates befriended a plastics patient, and she has been here quite a while as it is a long healing process. Knowing that she hasn’t been able to see her 8 year old son in all the time she has been here, my roommate paid for the patients’ son and sister to come here and visit. She paid for their travel and meals, and found a day crew who generously offered for them to stay at her place over the weekend. When I heard of this, I offered to go pick them up (the day crew lives quite far from the ship), so at 5am on Sunday morning we got up to get them (that was a whole adventure – a story for another time). The moment we arrived back at the ship, the little boy was so excited to see his mom – he was crying and jumping in her arms. It was absolutely beautiful. I was so touched by the thoughtfulness of my roommate, and am really praying that God helps open my eyes to opportunities like this. I want to see how He is working around me and be part of these little miracles! I am so blessed every time I step out beyond myself, and I want God to continue to push me to do more.

On top of all of this, we had our Easter celebrations and services organized by the chaplaincy team and let me tell you, I was absolutely blown away by the amazing job they did. They thought through every aspect of the things they did and it was incredible. During the Good Friday service, the focus was the cross, which was set up at the front of the room and the speakers spoke and read scripture from the back of the room. They also had a cross laid on the floor of the room and they invited crew to come write down things that they wanted to surrender to God on a piece of paper and hammer it into the cross. Sitting there praying, thinking about Jesus dying on the cross for our sins, while listening to nails being hammered, was overwhelmingly powerful. On Sunday morning, during our sunrise service, standing there watching the sun rise and thinking about Jesus rising from the grave and conquering death, was equally moving. During our second service on Sunday morning, it basically turned into a dance party, as the worship team sang “Happy day”.  We sang and danced and clapped to these words: The greatest day in history, death is beaten, you have rescued me, sing it out, Jesus is alive. The empty cross, the empty grave, life eternal, you have won the day, shout it all, Jesus is alive, He’s alive. Oh happy day, happy day, You washed my sins away, oh happy day, happy day, I’ll never be the same, forever I am changed. I felt such an overwhelming sense of joy and peace! The last symbolic moment I’ll mention is that after communion, they invited people to come up and put flowers in the cross that was currently empty. This was to signify that the cross conquered death and is now alive. Christ is risen!

These are just a few of the wonderful, amazing moments that filled this marvelous Easter weekend. I couldn’t possible explain all the things that happened, but just know that it is a very happy day, because Christ our king is risen!

He is not here; he has risen, just as he said. - Matthew 28:6a

Seroga, Tinah, Tahina and Natalih - four of the beautiful girls I got to meet this weekend.

Week 11: Free Time – On the Ship

I get the sense that a lot of people wonder what there is to do on the ship when we aren’t working so here is a small window into our free time on the ship. There is a pool up on deck 8 so it’s wonderful to spend time swimming and reading in the sun. There is a gym on deck 2, so we can work out. There is an awesome midships/café area where we can gather and have coffee, chat, play cards, do puzzles, watch TV together (among other things). There are tables and chairs up on deck 7 where you can sit and read, pray, get some sunshine, etc. You often see people sitting in the dining room talking (a lot of that goes on here), or skyping home. There is a library where you can get some quiet time, read and explore the books (this is one of my favourite places on the ship). There are various conference rooms where we can have birthday parties or watch movies together. There is a galley for all the crew that like to bake or cook their own food. On top of all this, there are always lots of activities planned, whether it be trivia night, laugh night, movie night, smoothie night, dancing, Bible studies, workouts, etc. And this is just the stuff you can do ON the ship. Realistically we try to spend a lot of time OFF the ship, but I'll talk about that at another time.

One new thing: My friend Caitlyn and I decided we were going to rent quads (ATVs) and drive up to Mahambo (which is a nice beach town about 3 hours away). This was her goodbye trip in a sense, because she left the day after. We each brought one of the day crew that we had made friends with, and it was really special to share this adventure with them and allow them to experience their own country in a way they never had before. We were so excited but let me tell you, when we first got on those quads and she started to explain how to use them, I was SO nervous. However they were so easy to use, and we soon realized that we didn’t need to go around all the holes in road, we could just drive straight through them. The most beautiful views you can imagine, just rolling along as fast as we wanted. We explored the back roads of Madagascar, driving through small villages, and it was epic. Quads are the perfect vehicle for this because we could basically go anywhere. We went through giant puddles, down tiny paths, up hills, around herds of Zebu, into fields where children got so excited when they saw us. On the way back, we found an uninhabited strip of beach and spent some time racing along the beach, driving in circles and just having a blast. By far, one of the best adventures I have ever been on.

One thing I observed: It is very easy to be removed from the patients if you don’t work in the hospital. Last week I didn’t have a team and I don’t think I stepped down there once. Even though they are so close, it is definitely something you have to be very intentional about. It’s easy to get caught up in the little frustrations of daily life and work when you forget who we are doing this for. On top of the difficulties of having crew come and go constantly, the patients also come and go. Sometimes they are only on board for 2-3 days. It becomes startling when you go down to the ward and you don’t know any of the patients. I think it’s a little bit like the vision/media teams, in the sense that unless you are directly involved, you could have no idea that they have come. There are so many aspects and dimensions to this community, it’s sometimes hard to keep track of them all. But at the end of the day, we are one community, all working together for a common purpose, and I am reminded of this at every community gathering, when we all come together to laugh, to worship, to learn, to give, to praise Him. It’s definitely something I’m going to work on, being intentional about going down to see the patients and spend time with them, as well as meeting the new nurses.

One thing I felt God was telling me: There’s been one verse that’s been on my heart lately, and I spent some time looking into it a bit further. Ephesians 2:10

For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things He planned for us long ago. (NLT)

For we are God’s handiwork created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do. (NIV)

For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them. (ESV)

1) For we are God’s masterpiece/workmanship/handiwork

                -Masterpiece=a work of outstanding artistry, skill or workmanship; an artist’s best piece of work

                -Workmanship=the degree of skill with which a product is made or a job done

                -Handiwork=something one has made or done; making things by hand

We were actively made by God, by His hand and skill, made to be his best piece of work.

2) Created anew/created in Christ Jesus

                -Anew=in a new or different, typically more positive, way

                -Create=bring (something) into existence

We were remade in Christ Jesus. We were sinful so God sent Jesus to break that mold and make us again in a more positive (better) way. A new work of art.

3) To do good works/for good works

                -Good works=charitable acts; that which is morally right; righteousness

This is the purpose, why God created us, specifically for/to do good works. Created anew so that we have the ability to do good things when before we were too sinful and selfish to do good. Only God is good, therefore we need his spirit to do good things. Made anew for righteousness.

4) Which God prepared beforehand/in advance/He planned for us long ago

                -Prepare=make something ready for use or consideration

                -Beforehand=before an action or event

                -Plan=decide on and arrange in advance

God was ready, He did this ahead of time. He had already decided on His course of action and arranged everything in advance.

5) For us to do/that we should walk in them

He prepared the good works so that we could do them. Not talk about good works, but DO them. Not plan good works, because He has already done that. Just DO good works. We are to walk in them, as if they are ‘good work footprints’ that we can simply follow along in, completing the good works God prepared. Walking implies action, actively completing them, continuing to move forward with a destination or goal in mind. Walking the path God set. Being obedient.

Summary: Through His son, Jesus Christ, God has actively brought us into existence with His hands and skill, in a new, better way, so that we can walk in the path of righteousness that He has set out before us; so that we are able to do charitable acts that He has already decided on and arranged, giving us His spirit so that we can do these things.

When we are cursed, we bless; when we are persecuted, we endure it; when we are slandered, we answer kindly. - 1 Corinthians 4:12b-13a

Week 10: A Pause

I have been struggling so much with what to write about last week. The things I want to share, I can’t, for various reasons and that weighs heavy on me. It’s definitely a lesson in seeing the big picture and not just how things are in relation to me. But if I can’t share what happened this week, then I start to just ramble about myself and that’s no good either. This was the start of my rambling:

Every week, when it comes to write another post, I can’t believe how fast the week went. When I think back on what I did the previous week, it’s unbelievable the amount of things that happened. Not that it’s a series of highs and lows, but it is a mix of adventures and exhaustion; conversations and quiet time; revelations from God and distance from Him in the midst of craziness; encouragement and frustration. All of these things happen and it’s what makes this an absolutely amazing place to be because every day I am stretched – to extend grace; to trust that God is working for good; to trust that others have a heart for God; to realize when an argument doesn’t matter; to be intentional with friendships; to learn to set boundaries. Every day is a continued walk with God and brings new perspective to Psalm 84:10, ‘Better is one day in your courts, than a thousand elsewhere’.

I’m not sure I should share any more than that, so I think this week will be a pause in terms of sharing stories.

Tsoa & Claudia singing at karaoke.

One new thing: I sang karaoke for the first time in my life. We went out to a small little karaoke place and it was lots of fun. One of my Malagasy friends insisted that I come up and sing with her, so that was an interesting adventure. Thankfully she was an amazing singer and I couldn’t hear myself at all so from my view, we sounded great! Karaoke bars seem to be a pretty big thing here, or at least, there are several of them around. Usually they are full of Malagasy men who seem to just like to sing – and they're actually really good. It’s an interesting mix of songs in English, French and Malagasy.

Part of the team teaching us to speak Malagasy.

One thing I observed: Seeing the Malagasy people step up and lead is really exciting. They’ve started Medical Malagasy language lessons every second week on board the ship, and I like to go because some of my friends are involved in helping out (and it’s super helpful!). The Malagasy day crew work along side us every day but we are usually their bosses or co-workers and it’s really cool to see them be in charge. They lead a lecture on the basics of the language and then several day crew run various stations/games and help us practice. It’s really wonderful to see them in this capacity and makes me really excited to see how the young adults in this country will rise up and help their country change and grow.

One thing I felt God was telling me: I very much get the sense that this is a season for listening – or maybe not a season, but a permanent change that should be happening. Most of you know that I talk a lot, but I feel like God has really been enabling me to be a listener lately. This has definitely been a week of conversations and every conversation puts in perspective another aspect of God and how he relates to us. As people share their stories and their heart, I learn more about how God is working in their lives and how He is working around me and it always blows me away. The subtle, and not so subtle, ways that He calls us or shares truth with us is amazing. I’ve had several people this week thank me for listening; for allowing them to talk; for asking questions. I even had someone thank me for the things I haven’t said. I feel like God is using them to tell me that THIS is Godly behaviour, that this is living His truths incarnationally, serving others with love. I remember reading Proverbs a while ago and being struck by the importance of listening, and wondering how I would ever be able to do this well.

Do you see a man who is hasty in his words? There is more hope for a fool than for him. – Proverbs 29:20

A fool takes no pleasure in understanding, but only in expressing his opinion. – Proverbs 18:2

Even a fool who keeps silent is considered wise; when he closes his lips, he is deemed intelligent. – Proverbs 17:28

Whoever keeps his mouth and his tongue keeps himself out of trouble. – Proverbs 21:23

Now this is a lot easier said than done, at least for me, but I feel that lately God has been helping me to work on this and now He is pointing out the fruit of this behaviour. It is certainly much more rewarding than arguing passionately and isolating or upsetting everyone. However, I’ve far from mastered this and I’m sure it will continue to be a struggle for a long time to come, but that’s the beauty of it – I’m forced to rely on God every day, in every conversation I have.

Know this, my beloved brothers: let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger; for the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God. - James 1:19-20

 

One of our beautiful orthopedic patients, Fifaliana, whose name means joy.

Week 9: The Clinics

Let me start by explaining the remainder of our facilities. The complex that houses the HOPE Center and the local hospital, Hopital Be, also houses several of our clinics and infrastructure projects. The Ponsetti clinic is tasked with training a local team on how to use the Ponsetti method. The Ponsetti method is a method of correcting club feet without invasive surgery, in children under 3 years old. The patients wear casts for several weeks that slowly realign their feet (getting new casts every week), then they have a small procedure to cut the achilles tendon (which takes 3 weeks to heal) and finally they get another set of casts to wear at night for the next couple of years (the same way you wear a retainer to sleep), which ensures that the feet don’t return back to how they were (which is what they want to do). They then get physiotherapy that teaches them how to walk properly. This clinic will continue after the Africa Mercy leaves, being led by the team that we’ve trained.

We also have our OBF Clinic, which houses our ladies before and after their OBF surgeries. It is really neat that the ladies who are waiting to go for surgery get to spend time with the ladies who have already had their surgery. It is very encouraging for them and they build a wonderful community. This clinic will be handed over to the Freedom From Fistula foundation once we leave and they will continue the great work that is being done there. Our OBF team leader will also be staying with the clinic once the ship leaves, which I think is amazing and shows the love and care that our crew have for these people.

People lined up for one of our dental screenings.

The HOPE Center also houses the Dental Clinic, whose workload is enormous. They see upwards of 70 patients a day, which is incredible. They do a lot of work involving cavities and extractions, and use the opportunity to teach the people about preventative care for their teeth. These are the kinds of things that help prevent the facial tumours that we see, because often they are caused by infected or impacted teeth. The crew serving in the dental clinic often only come for 2 weeks because the work is intensive and far more than they would do at home. The dental team does 2 screenings a week, one on Monday and one on Thursday. People line up outside and the team leader goes out to see who they can help and provides them with a number. They have also gone to the local schools, prisons and orphanages. Our dental team is often not talked about, but they are doing amazing work. Typically we also have an eye clinic and provide cataract surgeries (among other things), but in Madagascar they found that there was no need. This is because the eye sight is fairly good, and there are other NGOs that are providing this service here. However they discovered that the teeth are particularly bad because of the high level of sugar in the Malagasy diet (including a lot of sweetened condensed milk).

Before/after of one of the renovated OR blocks.

The HOPE Center site also houses our Biomed facility, which is where we have trained 6 people to fix and maintain all the equipment that the hospital houses. This is a big problem when organizations donate equipment but don’t teach the people how to clean it or repair it if anything happens. The training of biomed technicians is meant to help ensure the longevity of donated equipment. Lastly, we have our infrastructure projects, which include a renovated classroom for the university that is attached to the hospital, as well as four fully renovated and equipped operating blocks. The difference in the before and after pictures is amazing. Our capacity and medical capacity building teams have done an amazing job of transforming these spaces and training people to make sure that our impact continues when we leave.

Two new things: I can’t pick just one, so this week it’s going to be two! 1) Last Sunday, my friend Caitlyn and I went to a church picnic that was hosted at the nearby lemur park. It was really fun to connect with the people in the church we have been attending. We played Frisbee with the kids, took lots of pictures with them, shared food with them, and had a great time. I think my favourite part was driving on the back roads of Madagascar with the windows down, singing to some country music with Caitlyn. Definitely one of the best adventures since I’ve been here.  2) On Saturday, we went to the ‘bus station’ and hopped on a ‘bus’ to go to a beach called foulpointe. The word bus is misleading because it was really a van where they crammed as many people in as possible. This was quite the experience. Our time at the beach was very wonderful and relaxing and we ate some delicious food. On the way back, the van broke down a few times, and the lights stopped working so one guy shone a flashlight out the front. That made for quite the crazy ride back in the dark, but we eventually made it back in one piece!

This week we said goodbye to Natalie.

Two things I observed: Again, it was such a crazy week that I have to go with two. 1) While my job can be loads of fun, it can also be exhausting. Monday started off with a 12hr day of filming and I was exhausted from then on. The media team was great but also pushed some boundaries, meaning I had to keep a constant eye on them. I definitely feel like I could have done my job better as some things slipped by me and had to be corrected later. I learned a lot, especially about how much leeway to give the teams. 2) This week was bittersweet because we said goodbye to Natalie, one of my closest friends aboard the ship. About mid-week, we walked up to our room door to see a notice that said two new roommates would be arriving Sunday. That was exciting but also very sad. On Friday night we had a wonderful bonfire on the beach, smores, dinner and then laid in the sand looking at the stars and sang songs together. Early Saturday morning she was gone, and Sunday brought in our two new lovely roommates. This month will be filled with these goodbyes as every Saturday means someone from our bus family is leaving.

Dr.Gary Parker with our founder, Don Stephens.

One thing I felt God was telling me: I always knew that God was a God of big miracles, but this week I learned that God is also a God of small miracles. I’m not sure if that makes sense, but this week I was really blown away by how He works everything out. The Friday before the team came, I had no patients for them to interview, no patient for them to take home and no maxfax surgery for them to see, which is what they wanted. All the things I had lined up previously had fallen through because either patients were sick or crew was sick or things just weren’t working out. I didn’t know what I was going to do. I was trying to do it too much on my own. But God took care of everything. Last minute on Friday, they told me of a good patient to follow but she was being operated on first thing Monday morning, and typically the OR team never lets observers in on Monday because they are doing orientation on new staff. However, miraculously, there were going to be no new team members involved in this particular surgery and the OR team graciously allowed us to film it. Chaplaincy talked to the patient as soon as she was admitted Sunday evening, got her consent and early Monday morning we went down to the ward to interview her before her surgery. The timing even worked out that in between when she went in for anesthesia and when we were to view the surgery, we managed to get a spontaneous, last minute interview with Don Stephens (our founder and President), who was leaving the ship in about one hour. The entire week was filled with small miracles like this, where amazing things worked out that had absolutely nothing to do with me or my abilities. It was very humbling and amazing to watch unfold. As a ship, we have been going through the book of Esther in the lead up to lent, trying to find where God is in this book of the Bible where He is never once mentioned by name. This week very much reminded me of this – I saw God in all kinds of places, working his miracles, even though He was never obvious or mentioned by name. “Every blessing you pour out I’ll turn back to praise”, I want to turn everything that happened this week back to God and praise Him for His love and goodness.

"Bless the Lord, O my soul;
And all that is within me, bless His holy name!
Bless the Lord, O my soul,
And forget not all His benefits:
Who forgives all your iniquities,
Who heals all your diseases,
Who redeems your life from destruction,
Who crowns you with lovingkindness and tender mercies,
Who satisfies your mouth with good things,

So that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s."
-Psalm 103:1-5 NKJV

Filming in a local village with the team from Denmark's TV2 Biggest program.