Back to the Ship

I think I got to see this beauty every day I was home; I can't
wait until we are back living in the same city.

It’s hard to believe that I’ve already been back on the Ship for two weeks! My last few days at home were a whirlwind of adventures: skiing with the cousins; archery tag and a creepy escape room with my sister; one last family dinner/surprise birthday party for my mom which consisted of pizza, beer and watching hockey (World Juniors!); and a slightly stressful last day where I couldn’t find my yellow fever car (it ended up being in my dad’s truck on the other side of town) and having my flights cancelled/rearranged due to the crazy weather. It all worked out because I got to spend my last few hours in Canada watching our Canadian boys bring home Gold! 

Ruben and I in front of the MS exhibit
in the Port of Antwerp.

Living on the Africa Mercy means making friends who live all over the world so before returning to the Ship I took a short detour to go visit Ruben in the Netherlands. I got to spend a day touring Utrecht (with the best tour guide), attempting to remember how to ride a bicycle, having delicious local beer and a homemade butter chicken meal. The next day was spent wandering Antwerp, Belgium as they took down all their Christmas decorations, and visiting the Mercy Ships Belgium office. It was a lovely end to my break and I am so thankful for kind people who are willing to lend you clothes when your luggage doesn’t come! 

A gift from a princess in Canada to a princess
in Cameroon!

Being back on the Ship has been wonderful – I feel very rested and ready for the second half of the field service! My passion for this place and for hosting visitors is back and I was excited to be able to host some day guests in my first days back. I was blessed to have absolutely lovely guests who were an encouragement to the crew and I remembered why I love my job so much. My first community meeting back was one to remember – not only was I so moved to be back worshiping with this amazing group of people, but we got to hear from Gavin Calver, who is the head of Spring Harvest church in the UK. His passion and enthusiasm for Jesus and the gospel was incredible and his message was a reminder to go and be all in for Jesus. 

Undeniably, one of the reasons I feel so at ease and happy is because I have made my decision about what’s next. I’ve decided that I will leave the Ship after the Cameroon field service and go home. I’m not saying it’s goodbye for good, but I do feel like God is calling me home for a period of time. I’ve committed to staying on and sailing to Senegal for our PR visit in June, and then on to Las Palmas, before leaving. I would love to remain involved with Mercy Ships in both the near and far future, and continue to look for opportunities to do so. In the meantime, I’ve applied for a Master’s program at home (more on that if I get accepted!). Making this decision wasn’t easy because I knew that from a worldly perspective I was walking away from many opportunities on the Ship but as soon as I made it, I was sure it was the right decision. I feel so at peace about my decision. I think deep down, I’ve known all along what God wanted me to do and I was just resisting. I look forward to throwing myself into the remaining 5 months onboard and being all in!

The Senegalese delegation.

Last week, I got to be part of a team that hosted a Senegalese delegation onboard, including the Minister of Health and some Senegalese media. After the field service in Guinea, the Africa Mercy will be going to Senegal for our first field service there in over 25 years. The guests were very engaged and lovely – from all I heard, I think the crew will enjoy their visit to Senegal! The evening after the first day, we gathered in the Managing Director’s office to debrief and prepare for the next day. I couldn’t help but think of West Wing when the whole team would gather in the Oval office to discuss something. I appreciated being able to work with a team, and was so thankful for all the amazing, dedicated people we have onboard. 

Our driver was very proud of his 1995 car and how much he
could fit in it - including lots of sugar cane.

My last story comes from an adventure I had yesterday. Myself and two Day Crew made the 17 hour round trip to Edith and Valerie’s village to see how Edith was healing. I told Christiane that she was in charge of our mission and she did an awesome job of getting us there and back in one day. This meant leaving the Ship at 5am, taking a 4 hour bus ride to Yaounde, a 1 hour taxi to the place where you catch bush taxis, a 1.5 hour bush taxi ride with 8 people and lots of stuff before we arrived at Edith’s school and got to see her beautiful smile! After visiting with Edith, we headed to the village and said hello to Valerie and her family, where she was so surprised and came running out shouting RENEEEE. She eagerly asked for news of the other members of the Comms team, the Ship, Dr.Gary, other patients. It wasn’t long before we needed to start our journey back. Along the way I got to try some raw sugar cane, got out to push the taxi up the hill several times, had some marriage proposals and an offer to bring me avocados, along with lots of laughter. So thankful for Kate who not only took me to the bus station at 5am but also picked up a very exhausted Renee at 10pm!! 

I am thankful for the time I had to rest at home and for the way God has restored my passion and excitement. I love this place, and I especially love all the ways I get to see him work every day. He uses humble, broken people to do absolutely amazing things. 

Your kingdom come, Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us today our daily bread. ~ Matthew 6:10-11

11 

It was so nice to be back in the hot weather of Cameroon and experience an unplanned weekend spent in Limbe with friends.

'You Must be Canadian' Nice

When they tell you to stay indoors...you go on a snowshoeing
adventure :)

I write this from Ottawa, Canada, which during my time here became the coldest capital in the world. When I stepped off the plane, it was actually nice and refreshing, no snow yet. But then, starting the next day, it started to snow and it has barely stopped. I went from 32 degrees Celsius to -30 degrees Celsius. It’s so cold that the radio and TV stations are telling everyone to stay inside. It’s so cold that they cancelled some big outdoor hockey games because the ice was cracking due to the cold. When it’s so cold that the ice can’t handle it… but to be honest, I’ve (mostly) loved all the cold and snow! I got to play hockey on the outdoor rink with my brother and to go snowshoeing with my mom and sister. I also tried to go for a run outside and almost killed myself because that was a terrible idea. But all in all, I love the things that accompany winter and how resilient Canadians are!

My last week on the Ship was a blur as I hosted a lovely group of Norwegians and then left Cameroon the same day they did. The first couple of weeks home were busy – seeing most of my family again, getting to meet my mom’s lovely church members, taking a road trip with my sister to go see my church family in Toronto and then on to Indiana to see Tyler and Anna and Will. I was really blessed to have this time with my sister and to get to see everyone. Seeing people from the Ship actually helped me adjust and feel much more comfortable at home. The first few days were a real struggle, even though I had prepared myself. As well-meaning as people are, they have no context for what you have experienced so they don’t ask questions. They don’t know where to start. Once I just started talking about it and sharing pictures, then people started to have more questions. Seeing Tyler and Anna and Will reminded me that it’s not necessarily the Ship I miss, it’s the people and the community. After all the Ship is just a place (although a very special place that encourages and enables close community). If I’m intentional, I can hopefully build the same kind of community here at home. It was also great to get to talk about the Ship, to people who understood. After all, this has been my home for the last two years.

Laying some concrete with friends!

It was amazing to get to meet Tyler’s family and spend time with them. I couldn’t help but laugh at some of the stereotypically American things (the need to protect your property from the government with guns; hearing a 6 year old say ‘waiting on a woman’ in an American accent), so we all went to a stereotypically Canadian place – Tim Hortons (yes, there are Tim Hortons in Indiana!). We also got to go to work with Tyler. It turns out that concrete is pretty much the same in America and Africa – however having it pour out of a giant mixer instead of mixing it by hand, was a nice difference! Hearing from friends how their adjustments home were going also helped. It helped me understand that it would take a while, and that it was okay to not always be okay. 

There have been lots of visits to Tim
Hortons and lots of sister time :)

The question on my heart these last couple of months has been, should I stay or should I go? To the many people who have talked this out with me, they have heard me come back to one thing: I felt like God was challenging me, asking me if I could still follow Him in the ‘boring’, the mundane, the every day. I Skyped my sister shortly before coming home and I shared some things that been happening on the Ship and then asked her what she had been up. She something along the lines of oh you know, my life is pretty boring compared to yours. But I love it. The last part hit me hard. This is what God was calling me to. Not a boring life. But certainly a much different life than life on the Ship. Life on the Ship is frenetically paced, go go go. In many ways, this suits my personality. And I had felt for a while that God was calling me to something slower. But also calling me to love it, to love Him and pursue Him just as much.

In many ways, I’ve been consistently surprised during my time here. While there are always some people who aren’t willing to engage (when I asked one lady at Timmies how she was doing, she just smiled at me and walked away from the counter), most people have been very friendly. Beyond just saying fine, when you ask them how they are, I’ve heard stories of people sleeping through alarms and running to work, people enjoying their busy day at work, people happily commenting on the snow or the cold. Maybe it was me that used to be too busy to truly see people and engage with them. It’s one thing to stop and talk to people now while I’m on ‘vacation’ and relaxing, but my challenge to myself is to keep it up once I’m busy with school, work, church, friends, etc. 

The whole family!

Other than being weirdly friendly, I don’t think I’ve made too many cultural mistakes. Only one incident sticks in my mind. When we were playing hockey on the outdoor rink, a lady came with a family size of hot chocolate from Timmies and asked if anyone wanted some. Her husband skated over and grabbed some but no one else moved. Maybe during our next break, I shouted over to her. So when I was all done for the day and headed into the little hut to take off my skates, there she was with her boys and husband with the hot chocolate. Could I have some hot chocolate now? I asked the boys. They looked at me like I had grown a third head. So I helped myself to some and smiled. I chatted with them a bit and shared that I had been on the Africa Mercy. I thanked them for the hot chocolate, the lady gave me a bit of a strange look, and I headed home. It’s only as I walked home that I realized maybe she hadn’t been offering it everyone? Maybe it was just for her family…I have no idea. My experience with warm cultures is that you would never bring out food or drink without offering to share it with others. And you’re expected to partake. So that’s what I assumed was happening, but things are quite different in cold cultures. I started laughing as I thought about how confused they must have been if their intention wasn’t to share. Here was this random girl coming and helping herself. 

I saw the funniest commercial during my time here, called ‘you must be Canadian’ nice: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cYuicoOti2M. It’s playing off the fact that Canadians are very nice, except when it’s game time. Being away for so long and coming home made me realize how much I love this country and its people. It’s been good to be home J But now it’s time to head back to the Ship and continue the work God has presently called me to.

“The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel” (which means “God with us”). ~ Matthew 1:23

Early December, after the first snow!