The Africa Mercy Arrives in Cameroon

What a moment!

Well this has to be up there as two of the craziest weeks I’ve ever had. The ship arrived in Douala last week, after months of hard work, and what an incredible sight it was. I could barely sleep the night before and had been up for hours, all ready to go, when we were sitting in the living room and Sandrine got a phone call that didn’t sound so good. The Ship wasn’t coming today? As KJ and Sandrine rushed to the port to figure out what was going on, we began to pray.The idea of having to unpack everything was demoralizing. Manda, Joan and I headed to the port gate to greet the Day Crew who were coming to sing for the arrival of the Ship, and we waited for word about the Ship. Finally, I got the most amazing phone call from KJ. She said something along the lines of, we’re good, you can come. When we arrived to our dock space, I could tell no one was going to believe the Ship was coming until we saw it. Some of our team hoped on the pilot boat and headed out towards the Ship. After several minutes we saw they were coming back, without the Ship in sight. What was happening? Apparently they came back to pick up some journalists – this was now going to be live streamed on Facebook. Off they went again.

This photo makes me laugh so much. Here I am answering
questions for journalists - clearly unimpressed (maybe because
they were interrupting my happy moment!)

And then, after much waiting, we saw the Ship come around the corner. I can’t explain to you that feeling. Until we saw it, we didn’t really believe it was going to come, at least not that day. We started jumping and shouting. What a good God we serve – He was in every moment of that morning, every moment of the last 5 months, doing it in His strength and not ours. As the Ship got closer, we could pick out friends and flags and we were waving and dancing and singing with the Day Crew, who put on an awesome dance party. And then something we hadn’t been expecting – journalists everywhere! I began to field questions in English and French, about the Ship and what it would do during it’s time here. I set up a mini-press conference for Sandrine to address them on camera. At one point while I was answering questions, I realized that a police boat had pulled up and two members of the Comms team had jumped off to capture video/images of the Ship coming in. I paused and ran over to hug them before we quickly focused on what we had to do.

Manda brought lots of laughter and joy this summer - I was
glad to have him on my team!

We were the first people to get to board the Ship once all the legal things had been finished and it was a crazy flurry of hugs. The hug that I had been dreaming about was from Abi, my Brazilian ‘little sister’, and there she was, waiting to give me a big hug. I finally got to meet the new Comms team and greet lots of old friends. We then had some time to settle into our rooms before getting back to work, so I headed to my room. I had managed to keep it together up until then, but when I saw my door covered with beautiful notes and arrival messages, that was it - I was home. That night, we had a Cameroon briefing with the crew and I was more nervous for that than anything else I had done all summer. God had put something on my heart and I really wanted to share it well. In the end, a crazy, marvelous day, which ended with falling asleep in my own bed!

A view of the Arrival Ceremony.

The next day, the full out sprint that is getting ready for surgeries, began. We first had to host the Arrival Ceremony, which was thankfully set up and organized by the government. We were not expecting the onslaught of media that we received. It’s like what you see in TV shows or movies. I had never experienced it in person before. After a lovely ceremony (who wouldn’t want drums pounding every time they walked?), some of the guests got to come on the Ship and see it for the first time. Our Management team did a great job, and once that was done, we began to unload containers and cars. The Hospital began to set up, the OR began to disinfect to be sterile, the Purser worked on getting everyone through immigration so that they were legal, etc. For me, the next few days were a blur of phone calls – between the Media and Day Crew, my phone never stopped ringing. 

Then came Day Crew Orientation. When we drove up to the meeting point and I saw all the Day Crew there, I was so thankful. So many people had been calling asking to confirm the time and place or saying they couldn’t make it, that my fear was that no one would show up. But when we showed up about 10 minutes before the meeting time, over half of them were already there. I was so proud. We transported everyone to the Ship and they went through a short orientation before being handed off to their team leaders. I spent most of the day dealing with late comers and hiring more Day Crew. I’m so thankful for all the people who came and told me they thought their Day Crew were wonderful – God was with us every moment, and for many of them, we just knew where they were meant to be working. One of my favourite moments was when our Chief Electrician came and told me that his Electrician’s Assistant was great. We had hired a woman for this position (she was hands down the best qualified on paper but we still weren’t sure how Engineering would feel), and apparently they tested all the Day Crew in various things and she was by far the best. That made me so happy to hear.

Setting up a hospital is a lot of work! Our crew has been
working hard to get everything ready for patients.

Some highlights from the last week: getting to take people out and show them Douala, including the gym, my favourite Indian restaurant, our off site locations, etc; working with Kate (the other Media Liaison) and seeing how quickly she picks things up, knowing this will be an awesome partnership; spending time with the new Comms team; going on another off road adventure and seeing the boys use our winch to help someone who was really stuck in the mud; realizing I have an amazing roommate situation this year; getting to spend time with the Silvas and playing with the kids; having the opportunity to help other departments, like getting all the paperwork for the cars taken care of and helping to build beds at the HOPE Center; playing Frisbee with the kids and other crew members; seeing patients on the dock for the first time ever in Cameroon (what an unreal moment); getting to know some of our patients at the HOPE Center and seeing how touched the Comms team was at meeting patients for the first time. So many amazing moments.

But with all those moments, there have absolutely been challenges. Walking into the Comms office and not seeing Windsor, Kat, Tiffany and Anna. The majority of people in the departments I needed to interact with are new in their roles and not exactly sure of what to do. Not having Tyler, Anna, Will and Michelle to confide in and be vulnerable with. As weird as it sounds, it’s been very lonely at times being on the Ship, surrounded by so many people but with no one understanding the things you’ve experienced or having a context for it. The dining room was overwhelming at first, with so many people all of a sudden. Having to build all new relationships when people are already very close and you’re working nonstop (they think I’m a workaholic haha). Many of these things just take time – and grace and patience, which God gives in abundance.

There are many things I want to work on this year: I want to train better, learning to let go of control and giving people opportunities to excel and succeed; I want to continue to work on being vulnerable and needing people, giving them room to be valued in a relationship; I want to be humble, feeling honoured when I am given more responsibility. I think this verse sums it up pretty well.

Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. ~ Colossians 3:12

Trying to take pre-arrival selfies didn't work so well aha. But it was a great moment of laughter and calm before all the craziness started!

The Ship is Coming!

This week the HOPE Center team started to set up beds...
Soon, these will be filled with patients! PC: KJ

I have to start with the most exciting news…the Ship is coming! After all these months of work, the Ship is on its way here and will be here very soon J We are all very excited to welcome the Africa Mercy and its crew to Cameroon for the first time. The Advance team has been full speed ahead with preparations as things like visas, license plates, containers, the container wall, final renovations, credentials, press releases, etc. get figured out and taken care of. God has continued to move mountains, with us starting a day being told something critical was denied, praying for it all day, and then at the end of the day…receiving everything that was needed! This team is full of warriors – knowing when to stop and pray and lift things up to God, but also knowing when they need to put in that extra effort and not just expect God to do it for them.

KJ running through the rain to direct the truck.

One day this past week, KJ was expecting the Advance container to be delivered to our dock space after months of waiting for it. Well day turned into night, and by the time they were going to be ready to deliver it, it was 10pm. So off we went to the port (buddy system!), for my first look at the berth that will be our home for the next 10 months. At around 10:30pm, a truck started driving toward us with a container and KJ got SO excited (I don’t even have an idea of ¼ of the work she put into getting this). Of course it was raining, so we hopped out and KJ ran through the puddles to lead the truck to where she wanted the container dropped. It was pretty perfect. This is the container that has everything needed for the set-up of the dock space, all the dock side tents, and some HOPE Center stuff. We stood there and watched the truck unload the container (some sort of hydraulic system) and I could feel the delight emanating off KJ. One step closer. 

As for the HR team, we had a really exciting task – scan every single document. Our Day Crew worked for about a week to get this done, as the rest of us focused on facilitating interviews for the HOPE Center caterer; Simply the Story training & Chaplaincy training for those who required it; start dates for the Day Crew who were helping with Dock setup and for the HOPE Center Day Crew; and a few last minute hires and personnel changes. It was interesting to hear the feedback the HOPE Center team had after meeting their Day Crew. The seemed to really like them (for the most part), although maybe they were just saying that to make me feel good! A lot of my time has been spent preparing for Day Crew Orientation once the ship arrives (the first day the Day Crew come onboard), and helping the rest of the team with various tasks. Because there’s so much to do, I’ve occasionally had to help make phone calls in French and help translate emails…always an adventure.

Our off roading adventure... :)

With such a huge influx of people in the house (we’re at 18 people now, and 8 women sharing one bathroom), even I was feeling a little overwhelmed after months of our small community. Manda and I thought this would be a good time to go on another off roading adventure, this time to test out the Land Rovers that the Ship had shipped to us. We picked some random village along a river and off we went. Well let’s just say it has been raining A LOT lately and so the road was fully mud and there were huge puddles everywhere. I’m not even sure puddle is the right word when the water goes up to the top of the tires. Sometimes Manda would turn to me with big eyes and say, my heart is pounding! It’s a good thing I know how capable a driver he is. At one point we stopped at the foot of a clay cliff face because I wanted to climb it. So I went up and explored and then came back down and right as I walked toward the car, I stepped and sank into the mud all the way to my knees. There were some locals nearby and they started laughing at me (Manda too). I did look pretty ridiculous. We thought it best to take the car to get car wash before returning it (most thorough car wash I’ve ever seen!) and I made sure to get washed off too. 

Last Sunday, one of our contacts invited me to come to a special afternoon worship service. It was led by a band of children wearing matching vests made of African fabric, and we danced and sang, in English, French and local languages, for two hours. At the end, they had a special time of prayer for various things, including the children, and the Pastor pointed me out and said he also wanted to pray for Mercy Ships. So everyone prayed for us. We’ve been hearing amazing stories like this all summer, of congregations praying for us, of groups of pastors praying for us every day, it’s just amazing. When the Pastor started talking, a young woman began to translate, and I thought, wow, she’s good, I hope we hired her. When I finally got a glimpse of her I realized, we had hired her! And the Pastor’s wife. One of the Day Crew who came all the way from Benin had been staying with this Pastor and so he was there to greet us when we arrived. Then one of his friends, another Day Crew from Benin, came and joined us as well. Then these two older ladies came up to us and said, oh, Mercy Ships! Bon soir. And I just smiled and shook their hands, not recognizing them. Jacquino laughed at me and said, you don’t recognize them? I asked if we had interviewed them and he said, yes, but we didn’t hire them. Ahhh…well that’s a little awkward. They didn’t seem too bothered though, so that was good. Everywhere we go (especially churches), we tend to run into people we interviewed. One time I was walking down the street and one of the Day Crew we had hired was sitting on the corner waiting for someone!

This is going to be the last post written while living in a house in Cameroon. By the time I write the next post, the Ship will have arrived. God has used this time to teach me a lot. I think my biggest lesson from my time here, is how much God is glorified through my weakness. It is through me having no idea what I’m doing, that God had room to come in and work and do amazing things. I’m thankful for this time and can’t wait to see what He will teach me next.

But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong. ~ 2 Corinthians 12:9-10

I love this picture that Sandrine took of four of our Advance Warriors in their battle gear: KJ, Caroline, Liz and Suzanne.