Week 5: B Ward

B ward is the OBF (obstetric fistula) ward, or women’s health. This is something I had never heard of, and it really impacted me when I learned about. From my limited understanding of it, a fistula happens when women have very prolonged labour, typically because they don’t have access to health care. Often the baby dies, and the women are left with a hole beneath their bladder which will constantly leak urine. This leads to them being rejected by their family and friends, and makes it almost impossible for them to live normal lives. There is a great need for fistula surgery in Africa, and many people have made it their mission to help with this. There is an organization called Freedom from Fistula that focuses on providing surgery and healing to these women. It is one of the surgeries that Mercy Ships provides, and it really helps these women come alive again. It’s amazing to see them become more confident as they stay with us, discovering that they are indeed beautiful and worthy of love. Every second Friday, they have a ceremony at the HOPE Center, called a dress ceremony, to celebrate the women who have successfully had the surgery and are healed. They get dressed up in beautiful dresses and hats and share their testimonies about how long they were leaking and what it means to them to be free of that. The perseverance of some of these women is incredible, with some leaking for 10+ years.

If you want to know more about this, I would encourage you to do some research – it’s a really amazing way to impact the lives of women in Africa, and something a simple surgery can fix. We can’t really comprehend what it’s like to be ostracized in a culture where relationships are everything. Of course, the surgery can’t heal the emotional and spiritual wounds these women have, and this is why I feel so strongly about the ministry of Mercy Ships. These women are showered with unconditional love while they are here, they are cared for, they are able to tell their stories and to laugh and sing and dance and spend time with other patients. A real process of spiritual healing takes place while they are with us, which hopefully continues as they gain confidence and re-enter the world.

I feel that God has really been putting this idea of stories, on my heart. We aren’t necessarily here to create our own story or to be the focus of a story, but rather to join into other stories, to join where He is working. I’ve heard so many amazing stories and pieces of information (sometimes random things), that I thought I would share some:

          -  The ship receives supplies from two shipping centers  - one is in Texas where the head office is, and the other is the Netherlands, where we get all of our food from. It takes around 3 months for a container to get here. When we run out of things, it’s not because of poor planning – the company that ships our containers, does so for free, so when they have a rush shipment or something else comes up, our containers get bumped back (understandably).

- The ship goes through at least 5 pounds of peanut butter a day.

            -  Mercy Ships doesn’t pay for its spot in the port, it is a ‘donation’ in a sense from the government. I find this really interesting because it means the government is truly invested in us coming to their country – they are giving up a prime spot in their port, that would normally bring in revenue from cruise ships and cargo ships, and they often undergo renovations to allow us to use the space.

            - One of the reasons Mercy Ships doesn’t buy food from the local town is that it would drive up prices, especially for meat, due to the increased demand, and this would negatively impact the people here. They have really thought of everything, including their economic impact on the area.

- Starbucks donates it’s syrups to us, which is how we are able to have a Starbucks café on board. The symbol for our Starbucks isn’t the same as back home, instead it’s the same as what you would see in Saudi Arabia. This symbol doesn’t portray the woman with long hair – they discovered that in one of the countries we went to, the mermaid was considered part of their African tribal religion (involving witch doctors/shamans/rituals of that sort). In Saudi Arabia, they don’t have the woman because it isn’t culturally acceptable for a woman to show her hair. 

- There is a Chinese ship that has been stuck in the port for one year. There are different stories about why they are stuck here (they may or may not have been smuggling rosewood), but their captain was put in prison, and the rest of the crew and ship have not been allowed to leave. It’s very sad – one man has missed the birth of his child, and the crew in general has lost hope. They are not allowed to leave the port, and the government only gives them a small amount of fuel every day to run the ship, but not enough so that they could leave. However, when the Logos Hope was here, the Chinese community on board reached out to them, shared the gospel with them, and started a small Bible study. Our ship has continued to build a relationship with them, and this Monday they will be having a small celebration on board the ship to celebrate Chinese New Year. They have invited a missionary pastor in the area who is from Hong Kong and speaks their language. Pray that they are able to go home soon and that they would bring the hope of eternal life with them and share that with their family.

- This week, an Indian ship came into the port and they invited some of the crew over for a very formal party, with food and dancing, and the following day their leaders came on board our ship for a tour. They said they had heard from the media what we did but didn't believe it, but then when they saw it, they said the media was underselling what we were doing and they were very amazed and moved by it. There was a great connection because currently our third officer is Indian (my friend Sushmit), and they seemed very eager to help and spread the word. It was amazing to see God's timing working through this and it has definitely been a huge encouragement for us.

       These are just some of the stories that have been whirling around, but there are so many more. God's timing is amazing and perfect, and He is always involved in our lives in such a real way.

    He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human heart; yet no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end. - Ecclesiastes 3:11