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| The village of Tejeda in Gran Canaria. |
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| Random encounters. |
Now I have to leave lots of room to talk about one of my
favourite days ever. On the Saturday, Kees and I rented a two person
convertible (a 124 Fiat Spider) and explored the island. Driving this car was
THE BEST. When it’s sunny and beautiful, driving and basically being outside is
so sweet. When we first picked up the car, I said I wanted to drive first and
he asked if I was sure. I said YES! Well, I may have stalled it a few times as
I got the hang of the clutch… but it was so fun to drive. We were laughing the
whole time (well at least I was). We followed the road around the island and at
one point we randomly stopped somewhere to get breakfast. We wandered into this
café and of course, he knew of Mercy Ships! He pulled out some pictures of
Mercy Shippers who had visited before and we recognized some of them. What are
the odds eh?
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| Our sweet ride :) |
We followed the road all the way to the end and spent some time in
a quaint little town, swimming in the ocean, before heading off to see the sand
dunes in Maspalomas. Someone (not me), suggested that we take our shoes off to
not get sand in them. Terrible idea, it was SO hot! After that we headed up the
mountains in the middle of the island, with the most breath-taking drive. Long
winding roads and beautiful views. I was glad I wasn’t driving so I could look
at everything! We found the tallest point on the island and then headed to the
small town for dinner. That day happened to be the ‘Canada Day’ equivalent for
Gran Canaria so they had all sorts of things going on. Some sort of love night
celebration is what it sounded like. At a certain time, all the couples would
go to the church square and see who could kiss for the longest. It sounded
pretty funny to me! Afterwards we headed back to town and returned the car (L) and then went over to
the boardwalk where we saw what looked like every person in Las Palmas on the
beach. I’ve never seen so many people on the beach at midnight! They were
celebrating. And we got to watch the fireworks go off before having to rush
back to the Ship for curfew. Overall, a pretty amazing end to my time in Las
Palmas!
After some more hard goodbyes, I left the Ship for the
final time on Monday. Rose, Caleb and I headed to Barcelona where we spent a
day wandering around, exploring and trying new food (they made me). We saw an
old Roman wall, a very old church, and got a tour of a Catamaran that was for
sale and was involved in some sort of Arctic expedition (amongst other things).
And then it was another goodbye and I was off to Madrid. I took the train so
that I could see some of the country and it did not disappoint! And then
suddenly, I had just over 60 hours in Madrid by myself. It certainly gave me a
lot of time to think. I spent both days walking around – Madrid has an amazing
amount of green space and parks so I spent time exploring those and also time
sitting in the elaborate plazas and watching people go by. I took a funicular
thing and got a birds eye view; found a river that was more like a swamp;
checked out a random free art museum (I didn’t understand the art); saw an Egyptian
temple thing (it was closed); and just wandered around. At one point I came
across a Tim Hortons in the commercial sector and almost started crying. It
made me realize how happy I am to be Canadian and how much I love what we stand
for and how excited I was to be home.
There was definitely some culture shock happening. Whenever
I would stop to eat, the servers were very brusque, never seemed happy and
always rushed me. I think I’m still half on African time. It’s very strange to
go from a place where you know everyone – the person who serves you meals, the
banker, the person at the store, the teachers and families, the HR people, the
mechanic, the person who serves you coffee, the electrician, the person who
drives the shuttle, the nurse, the dentist, every single person. And you know
their stories. To go from that, to a place where you don’t know anyone and don’t
speak the language. It was quite jarring. By the end, I was very happy to be heading
home!
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| Reunited with these two beauties! |
And then, after a very long day of travel – I was home! It
was great to see my family and they organized a celebration to welcome me back
(my cousin even made me an early birthday cake J).
It took a whole 3 days before I had my job back and started work again (so much
for resting haha). In a lot of ways, being home has felt like going back in
time – living with my family, going back to the same job. I’ve heard people say
after they left the Ship that it all felt like a dream, and I understand that
now. I won’t sugar coat it - I’ve been sick for the last week and struggling
with jet lag (who doesn’t love to wake up at 4:30am every day?) and there has
definitely been a whole range of emotions to deal with. BUT this is where the
best part comes in. That we serve a God who is SO good and is always with us.
All that time I had to think in Madrid? Well God had a very
clear word for me. I happened to come across this song on my phone that I hadn’t
heard before (which is crazy to me because I had a temporary phone and only had
a handful of albums downloaded on it). It’s called Evidence by Elevation Worship. There is someone who is talking
through a large portion of it and he is talking about how the church needs to
move, how we need to move. He says it’s time to move from here to there. From
death to life. From darkness to light. From defeat to victory. From shame to
grace. From fear to faith. From sorrow to joy. And then he says this: From dread to expectation. And that hit
me so hard. It was time for me to move from dreading/fearing this change and
all that would come with it, and move to an attitude of expectation. Of
expecting God to work in this new season. Of saying, okay God, what do you have for me? Being expectant and excited to
see what He will do! Boy, did I ever need that shift in perspective. And so, each
day, no matter how I’m feeling, I come back to that – expectation. Okay God, what are you going to do today? Where
can I join in? And He never disappoints :)
I’m so thankful for every single person who has been a part
of my journey with Mercy Ships. The 8 part National Geographic series that we
filmed in Benin is now available online in the U.S. for those who want to see
more: https://www.nationalgeographic.com/tv/surgery-ship/ (hopefully it will be
available in Canada at some point). This is the last blog I will post as part
of my Mercy Ships Experience, but I may post more updates in a different blog
later. I can’t say thank you enough for all the prayer, love and support I’ve
experienced over the last 2.5 years. Thank you!
Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize. Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last, but we do it to get a crown that will last forever.Therefore I do not run like someone running aimlessly; I do not fight like a boxer beating the air. ~ 1 Corinthians 9:24-26
