Faith of a Mustard Seed

As things have settled down a bit this field service, the hectic pace has become ‘normal’ in a sense. Every day brings new challenges, new mountains that seem insurmountable, but somehow surgeries continue, lives are transformed. It’s almost like living in two different worlds – the world of Deck 5, with the offices and the planning ahead and dealing with all the big problems; and the world of Deck 3, with patients singing and praising God, Day Crew laughing and loving with patients, crew and patients dancing, children screaming and learning to walk again, and so much more. I went down there the other day and our lovely fistula ladies were walking up and down the hallway singing, as part of their exercises. There were two patients sitting just outside the OR, awaiting their cataract surgery. One gentleman was stretching for no apparent reason – the Day Crew told me he had been doing that all morning – and cracking jokes, telling me that it was about not being scared and just trusting. The other man was sitting there was clearly getting a kick out of all his jokes. I learned that this other man used to be a big star for the Cameroonian national team. Standing there, at the bottom of the stairs, with the men laughing, the women dancing, children learning to walk again, I was reminded that no matter what struggles we have or think we have, God’s got it. We may look ahead one week or one month and see all the insurmountable mountains, but God has taken every mountain we’ve faced to date and thrown it into the sea. He will do the same, every day, with every problem. We just need the faith of a mustard seed.

A few weekends ago, some friends and I stayed off ship for a night and went to visit a Chimpanzee sanctuary. It was an amazing experience. When we first arrived, we got to hold and play with the baby chimps. Each chimp has a human ‘mom’, a Cameroonian man, who is always with them, sleeps with them, for the first 4 years of their lives. I’m not a big animal person, but you can’t help but love these little guys. They resemble human babies in a lot of ways. Then the guides took us out into the forest and called the older chimps, those who are between 4 and 9 years old. I’ve never seen anything like it – 6 chimps came running and when they saw one of our guides that were SO excited and all jumped on him. It was like how a child reacts when their parent comes home after being away for a while. Then, we all got to play with them. That was an experience. They are quite rough! Think of the Trashin’ the Camp scene from Tarzan, and that’s basically what was happening. Afterwards the guides took us out on a boat and brought us to see an island where the older chimps are. These chimps were HUGE and clearly very aggressive. The guides said they go on the island once a day but that visitors need to stay in the boat. I soon saw why. They pointed out the leader of the group, and he turned away from us, grabbed a small tree and then chucked it at us. He also threw back the fruit that the guides were throwing to them. Then we drove off to another island, one that had a whole clan, those that had been around the longest. The guide proceeded to jump in the water to get closer, so we followed suit! It was a refreshing swim but it turns out the current was quite strong – I was swimming as hard as I could just to stay in place. We soon climbed back into the boat. The whole thing was a crazy, awesome adventure.

That night we slept two to a bed in the cheapest hotel we could find, and I loved it. The feeling of sleeping without air conditioning, waking up to the sun, waking up feeling alive. It was exactly what I needed. We spent the day driving around, exploring some back roads, making some friends in a village where they kept telling us that this famous football player came from (we didn’t know who he was), and enjoying the beautiful Cameroonian scenery. What a beautiful country! A one point, we stopped at a bridge to get out and look around and were immediately attacked by a swarm of gnats/bugs. Madness ensued. Everyone raced back to the car and once inside, proceeded to kill all the bugs that had come in with us. There were hundreds and by the end of it the windows were covered in blood. Most of us are still dealing with these bites, weeks later. The whole weekend was full of funny moments. Multiple people getting peed on by chimps, people getting bitten by them, or having their hair used by a chimp to wipe its butt, picking the one car where the sound system didn’t work so we actually had to talk to each other…I definitely need more adventures like this. 

It was the perfect reminder of what the incarnational model of Jesus looks like. Every person that we interacted with was aware that we were with Mercy Ships (the logo on the car kind of gives that away). By taking the time to talk with them, to get to know them, we can demonstrate so much. Because most of the group didn’t speak French, I ended up as the official translator and spent hours conversing with our guide. He soon told me he didn’t believe in Jesus and I got to talk about why I did. I’m not sure I’ve ever had to share my faith in French before, so that was a good opportunity to think about how I want to express myself. By the end of the trip, he asked me why I hadn’t become a nun, since I clearly loved Jesus so much. That made me laugh, and Carys helped me out with the answer. He clearly saw something in us because when a group from Mercy Ships came the next day he told them about how nice and lovely we were and how we talked a lot about Jesus. That group was able to pray with him. Who knows how he will feel after seeing Mercy Shippers for 10 months? I think sometimes we forget about the transformative impact we can have on others, and that was a good reminder.

I also got to celebrate Canadian Thanksgiving with all of the Canadian crew onboard – turns out there are way more than I thought! We were about 30 people, and some people kindly made Tim Hortons coffee and delicious doughnuts. We all had dinner together and shared what we were thankful for that year. It’s always good to reflect back and think about all the God has done. We also recently had a visit from our founder Don Stephens, and it was great to see him encourage the crew. We arranged an opportunity for him to address the Day Crew and that was really special to see. He thanked them for all their hard work and they asked him such thoughtful questions, about dreaming big dreams. You can see that many of them want to continue to have a big impact once Mercy Ships leaves, to continue to impact those around them. It’s incredibly encouraging to see all the passion they have. 

I also got to see this when I hosted CRTV on board for two days. Listening to the Crew, Day Crew and patients share their heart for this place is so encouraging. The team got to go into the OR to observe the morning team brief, which the OR Manager explained to me was a part of the WHO Safe Surgery Checklist. We have a team that goes around to all the regional hospitals and teaches this checklist. The media team was getting to see our team using it. Bringing together all the OR nurses, anesthetists, surgeons, everyone involved, to discuss each case for the day. Then, when the team interviewed one of the local surgeons who is being mentored, they asked her what was the biggest thing she had learned. She said that she had learned how important it is to have the whole team come together in the morning to discuss the cases they would do. We then went in to film her operating with our team, and as I stood there, I realized, here was a Cameroonian media team filming a Cameroonian surgeon operating on a Cameroonian patient. What an amazing thing! And that is ultimately what we are working toward. 

Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer.~ Romans 12:12