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The Swiss ambassador came with gifts.
P.s. See if you can spot me ;) |
I want to start with an example of how diverse every single
day is. A few weeks ago when I was hosting a French media team, we started the
day bright and early, scrubbed up and filming cataract surgery in the OR (which is
CRAZY); then the fire alarm went off and I was rushing off to do my BA control
duties in the engine room; and in the afternoon we were all dressed up and
helping to host the Swiss ambassador onboard. I absolutely love it. And even
though sometimes hosting teams can be quite difficult due to cultural
differences or journalistic differences or a variety of other factors, last
week I got a reminder of the big, big things God can do with the little we
give. One of the guests that I hosted in Benin last year, just pledged
$50 million to Mercy Ships.
Apparently it’s the largest single gift in the history of Mercy Ships. That’s a
pretty crazy thing – and a big encouragement. Just like Jesus multiplying a few
fish into enough to feed 5000 people; God took the small amount of time and
money that myself and my supporters have given and turned into enough to give
free surgery to thousands.
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| Our Eye team hard at work! |
Recently I hosted a team that focused on our Eye team and
the MCB mentoring that accompanies it, which was a first for me. I got to
follow our Eye team from primary screening, to secondary screening, to surgery,
to the bandage removal. I was so amazed and impressed by our Eye team. Most of
their work is done behind the scenes and I was so touched to see how kind and
caring they were with every person that crossed their paths. We have one (super)woman
named Larina who takes her team of Day Crew and goes to different locations to
do primary screening every day. Each day she checks hundreds of people to see
if they have cataracts and decides if it’s severe enough to send them on to our
secondary screening site (we want to make sure we are operating on those who
need it the most). She has to balance finding qualified patients with trying to
not give people false hope. As she speeds through the patients, there are many,
many no’s. For each no, her Day Crew take the time to talk to the people, give
them information on their condition (if they have one) and talk to them about
how to take care of their eyes (ie. wearing sunglasses when working outside,
using eye drops, etc.). I was overwhelmed just watching her. On the day we were
there, she went through a couple hundred people and found one patient who was a
potential surgical candidate (now that we are nearing the end of the field
service and surgical slots are filling up, the selection criteria has been
raised). Larina and her team all did their work with such grace and patience,
while still accomplishing the task at hand.
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| From our last visit to see Valerie. |
This last week, I had the pleasure of hosting the Oculus
team as they came back to get some footage of our patient now that she has
fully healed. It was great to be able to go back to the village and see Edith
and Valerie again. We brought many pictures for them (including a big picture
of the Ship, as promised!) and took many more photos. I can’t share too much
about this just yet, but I can’t wait until the final film is released and you
all get to experience a bit of Edith’s journey! On the day that we went to the
village we were leaving at 4am and of course the fire alarm went off at 2am
(everything was fine). We ended up doing the whole trip in one day and got back
at 9pm – I may have been a bit grumpy by that point
J We also got to film some of
our MCB nurse mentoring happening in the ICU of a local hospital and that was a
bit difficult for me. I am clearly not built for hospitals, and so thankful for
all the compassionate people who go above and beyond in caring for people in
their most vulnerable moments. It was great to hear from our team about how much
the nurses had been learning and improving over the last few months, and how
well they were doing.
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| Limbe adventures with Caleb and Rose! |
While work is something I do fairly well, I have realized
how much I still struggle with the community aspect of this place. It’s
potentially the best and hardest thing about the
Africa Mercy. Lately I’ve been wrestling with the idea that
everyone thinks of me as very serious – this is because most people only see ‘work
Renee’ and she takes her job very seriously (and works a lot). For those who
know me, I seem to always be working on something internally – lately I’ve been
challenged to take interactions at face value and not read into everything so
much; and to be more relaxed and go with the flow. This second one was tested
during a very unplanned adventure to Limbe with Caleb and Rose, where it seemed
everything went wrong, but we just kept laughing. Our challenge was to get back
to the Ship using public transportation, with a very limited amount of money.
In the end we made it back with 1000 CFA and lots of great memories. With all
things, I tend to be more truth than grace and that seems to apply to myself as
well. Last week I was reminded by Michele to have grace for myself – it’s okay
if I haven’t figured it all out, if there are things I’m not doing well. It was
a good reminder.
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| Watching the Canadian women win their first game! (5-0) |
In my last couple of months with Mercy Ships, I’ve
challenged myself to make new friendships with different kinds of people and to
say yes more often. This has led to another local church
experience; a visit to a new tailor; laughing/arguing about cultural differences over
fish and plantains; discussing the ever present question, ‘would you marry an
African?’ over shawarma; playing basketball on the dock; hosting Day Crew and
their families on board; and many more adventures. My current joy is watching
the Olympics in midships with people from many different countries – I’ve already
met so many interesting people! If you need me for the next two weeks, that’s
where I’ll be, cheering on our men and women in red and white (including our
hometown boy, Derek Roy, who made the Men’s hockey team!).
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 about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong. ~ 2 Corinthians 12:9-10
