Ada Foah

December 26, Steph, Kat and I set out for Ada Foah. What an experience- beautiful area between the Volta River and the ocean. The only thing there are the huts you stay in, hammocks, and a little hut where they prepare your meals. Local villages surround this peninsula, so it's very easy to strike up a game of soccer with the kids :)


Below are the absolutely delicious bananas pancakes we had the next morning :) amazing. Christine- you'll have to add this to your pancake skill list. You would have loved them!

Meet our new friend Whitafred. He is a strong believer and owns the property we stayed on. Here he was giving Kat and I a tour down the river. He has passion for music and restoring the African culture that was lost from ancestral worship. Many believers in Africa have no part of dancing or drums after they become Christians because of the association they often have with calling forth spirits. He loves to share his love of music and his love for the Lord with the guests.

This is what I would call a "water tro-tro". I'm sure there is a more precise term, but these boats are packed with people and supplies going to and from various village markets.

Below: Ada in the evening. This hammock and I had some bonding time while I was there. :) Great reading spot.

Local fishing boats. Old fabric is used to make sails and the flags you see here. Often times, there are sayings like, "Our God will save" or various verses written on the sides of the boats. I was delightfully surprised to see that.

While we were at Ada, we also got to go searching for sea turtles! And we found one! Amazing! From November to February, they come to shore to lay their eggs and then return to sea. I could not believe how huge they are. I am ever amazed at the Lord's creative hand. :)

Christmas

For unto us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. ~Isaiah 9: 6

Hope you all enjoy some pics and these snapshots from Christmas! More to come!!

Christmas Eve- everyone was excited for the next day and preparations were being made for a day full of fun. We spent Christmas Eve afternoon caroling around the Tema port to the different ships. A very hilarious experience I am not likely to forget anytime soon. :) Later we had a blast making Christmas ornaments with the missionary kids- here we have featured beautifully strung popcorn. :)

Twas the night before Christmas, and all through the ship....
Here Kat and I were getting into mischief on Christmas Eve. Not really- just sneaking around looking at all
the wonderful gifts people had outside of their doors :) We dressed for the occasion.



We were able to take all of the ward patients upstairs to watch the Christmas play- they loved it! So much fun~


This is after the Christmas Eve service- we enjoyed cups of coffee, cocoa and Christmas cookies in the lounge.



I was always bad at peaking before I should on Christmas Eve :) We all adopted Holland's tradition of putting a shoe out of our room on Christmas Eve- I was amazed at the generosity and creativity of the crew. By morning every shoe on the ship was overflowing with cards, candies and small gifts. A great and fun tradition I would love to adopt! Here is mine:


Christmas morning... one of the most memorable and meaningful I have had. Only a couple of us worked that morning, and when we came down, the night crew had packed gifts for the patients in individual pillowcases and had them at the ends of the beds. The ward was decorated and we were ready to wake everyone with some Christmas morning cheer! :)
The crew had donated so many gifts for the patients. Whole outfits, shoes, school supplies... and the list goes on. Samwuse, the beautiful girl below, was shocked as we continued to pull out shiny colored packages and gifts from the bag. She had never received anything like that before... The lovely lady on my left is her mom and has been the biggest blessing as she easily "adopts" the younger orphaned patients on the ward.

Here are some other very special ladies we have on our ward currently. Some amazing stories among them. Please keep them in your prayers.

Here are "my boys". I know that these boys have a very special spot in my heart- Let me introduce them to you :)

Top Left: Moses- handsome young man who is always goofing around with the younger boys and likes to be "my helper" on the ward. Currently I'm teaching him some dance steps and he's teaching me drums. Loves the Lord and is so hungry to learn and to ready the Bible. I keep telling him I hope he grows up to be a preacher one day :)

Top Middle: Fredrick- One of the boys. Always helps gives me instructions on how to do his dressing change better! :) Always excited to listen to whatever music I have brought down to the ward- currently learning to love... David Crowder and Vaunted Pleasures (shout out to you Rhenstrom!!)

Top Right: "dad"- one of the dad's of our patients. Very smart man- likes to keep me on my toes ;)

Bottom Left: Robert- oh my...melt my heart. My buddy and kindhearted friend. Shared his testimony on Sunday in church- very touching. Will be the kindest and gentlest dad one day. Loves card games- well all these boys do ;)

Bottom Right: Daniel- I know you shouldn't have favorites...but it happens. My little singer and performer. Drove me around yesterday on the kids "tro-tro" while we were on the playground. Loves Christmas- so excited about bubbles and surprises. He and I have our own little Gospel concerts on the ward. :)

Christmas Dinner with the crew. The dining hall was beautifully decorated with snowflakes and Christmas decorations. Such a great time to corporately thank God for His incredible gift- His Son Jesus Christ...

I bring you good news of a great joy that will be for all people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord...

~Luke 2:10-11

Kawume

Only 4 days till Christmas everyone!! Someone reminded me today that I'll get to celebrate Christmas 5 hours earlier than I would at home- that is every child's dream!! Everyone here is excited about celebrating Christmas. Many people are heading home for the holidays, but for those of us here, they have worked very hard to make it a very special time. It has been so unique and an amazing experience to watch how different countries all over the world celebrate our Christ's birth. I'm excited to share those experiences with you all in my next post. :) But here are a couple pics to enjoy until then...

Monday, a group of us traveled to a small village called Kawume a couple hours away. Since June, Mercy Ships has been working with these people, bringing the Good News along with clean water, latrines, and an elementary school. These projects are completed and now the continued care and teaching is being transitioned into the hands of a local Ghanaian ministry here in Accra called Wings of Love Foundation. Both Mercy Ships and Wings of Love are currently serving this village until February when the Anastasis will sail to Liberia.

We packed two Land Rovers and a large bus with volunteers, supplies and food for a Christmas Festival and feast! When we were approaching the village, we kept passing little kids piled on bikes excitedly peddling to get to the program. There were many excited faces and waves as we drove by. When we entered, tents, chairs and a stage were set up... and I was amazed when I turned and saw a huge slide being blown up for the kids. What a great idea! These kids had never gotten to experience anything like that- and it was not long before children everywhere started running to get in line. Christmas music was turned on... and the festivities started!

It was easy to see that there was a great relationship between these people and the missionaries. Greetings were exchanged and people everywhere came to help set up for the message to be shared. Below is little Cooper, one of the missionary kids, who must have been given that duck by one of the local children. I couldn't help but laugh as he came running out of a hut with that duck followed by approx. 100 village children- probably wondering where he was going. His dad made him promptly return it :)

The children in the school had worked very hard to learn Christmas carols and had prepared a Christmas play featuring the Nativity scene. Costumes were brought in for the kids- they did SUCH a great job, and the adults were delighted to watch the children perform.

Below shows a good view of the people sitting under the tents. It was my first encounter with "African time". We started at 9:30 am - and kept going strong till 5:00 pm- no one seemed at all bothered by the heat or time. They were perfectly content enjoying the day together.

Part of the festivities included dancing- lots of dancing and music. I think the children are born with rhythm- as featured here in these two!

Wings of love had prepared an authentic Ghanaian meal called fufu- made of mashed yams, with rice and a spicy tomato based sauce along with "biscuits" ie cookies, and Fanta soda :). We carried the dinners to the tents and distributed them among the people. For some reason, the Lord brought to mind the story of the feeding of the five thousand. Though I know it is different because here He had already provided the food, and we only had a few hundred people gathered. But it gave me a sense of how it must of been for everyone as they had been sitting outside all day listening to the teaching, and how the disciples must have felt as they served the people. :)

Pastor Paul shared the Gospel message once again with the villagers, and time was spent in prayer thanking God for His goodness, His love and for His provision for these people. Afterwards (as shown in the picture above), presents were brought out for the kids. Crayons and Bible readers were handed out to all the children, and even the village chief helped us with distributing the gifts.

An exhausting but amazing day. I have loved getting to use my days off to visit the off site ministries. It has helped to broaden my view of what the Lord is doing among those in various parts of Ghana.

"Let the little children come to me; do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of God. Truly, I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child shall not enter it." ~Mark 10:14-15

I miss you all so much! Thank you so much for the prayers, fun packages and emails :) The Lord continues to remind me of His faithfulness, both at home in the states, and here in Africa. Have a VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!

Mary

Mercy Ship Team (photo taken 12/12/06)

Here is a picture of the whole Mercy Ship Crew. It's hard to see, but I'm tucked in the bottom left hand of the gangway. :)

Today a group of us visited the Sisters of Charity Orphanage in Accra. It's one of Mother Theresa's orphanages, and mainly focuses on HIV pts and young children/babies. We went armed with Christmas crafts, balloons and hugs. For these individuals, something so small as getting to make a Christmas ornament out of foam shapes is a huge deal.

A little girl in a cute plaid dress was assisted to where we were by one of the Mercy Ships volunteers. It was easy to see that the little girl's eyes were severely damaged. Lois introduced the little girl to me as Mary. Mary is deaf and blind after an abusive history with her family. She was later poisoned after being taken to a witch doctor- but survived. This beautiful little girl loved playing with the blocks, dolls and balloons. It was amazing to watch Lois interact with her and to see Mary's determination. Mary learned to recognize who I was by touching the stretchy hairband I usually wear around my wrist. (amazing that it could be something that simple). This little one stole my heart away today-

The 'sisters' have their hands full at this orphanage. There are at least 25 babies under 1 year of age. Some are twins. They live with the children and provide full care with the assistance of some local workers. Their dedication to a life of service is pretty incredible. They were from all over the world and each serves for 10 years before getting to go home to see their family for only 4 weeks.

Here on the ship, over the past couple weeks, we have seen many thyroidectomy patients in the ward, and thankfully they have all done very well. The next couple weeks will be facial-max patients and screenings will begin for our VVF patients. It's like a little community here on the ward. Patients are here for so long that it grows into a very family-like environment. The risk of infection is very high if patients are discharged too soon, and often times, they live too far from a physician for followup, so they rehab here on the ship. Older parents pray and look after the younger children that don't have family. And the sweetest thing the other day was when one of my patients was helping another with his NG feed. -I am often in awe of the humility and love that is shown among them.

And the Adventure Begins...

Well... the adventure begins. This Friday was the first time I was able to enjoy the benefits of "community living"... a nice 24 hour virus. :) But by Saturday morning, I was feeling good, and able to take my first trip off ship to HoHoy and Wli falls along the border of Togo. First lesson I learned... how to flag down a "tro tro".

All was well for the first 2 hours of our journey until our tro tro needed a little body work. (enjoy the pic below!) (Big Ben- where were you? We needed you!)

A 40 minute break and all was well, but we put our time to good use as a couple of us walked into town and got to play with the kids. Here are some new friends:

Another two hours on the road and we were in HoHoy. We were able to stay in a little hotel run by a couple that used to work with World Vision. They were all so welcoming and at dinner, they put on an African concert, complete with drums, singing and dancing. In fact, they even had our team join in and then taught us how to play the drums! We were all having a good laugh at our lack of talent! :)

We were up early the next morning and excited about our hike. 3.5 hours steep climb to the upper Wli falls. But so well worth it. One thing that was funny... we all had this hiking gear and special shoes, Nalgene water bottles, the works... and our Ghanaian guide... he climbed the whole thing with just flip flops! Amazing.

Below: Looking over into Togo, and HoHoy

Below: I lovingly refer to this picture as my "happy hiker" picture :)

The Upper Falls (during our hike- we also saw Baboons along the mountain ridge. That helped us keep up the pace!)

"I am the Lord, who made all things, who alone stretched out the heavens..." Isaiah 44:24b

A Short Encounter

This week I was able to make the transition from orientation to being on my own in the ward- what a great feeling. I feel much better since now I can get into my own routine with the patients. I am alternating between 8 and 12 hour shifts, with 5 pts on days and 10 on nights. We only have two ICU beds currently so I will be pulled if they need a peds ICU nurse. There are two girls that I have already been able to build a good friendship with- Sabena and Esi. Both act much younger than their age and seem to be very hungry for friendship and attention. The other day, Sabena asked me if I believed in God, and from there I shared with Sabena about the Lord, His love for her, the price that was paid on her behalf, and the salvation He offers. She has heard the Gospel message before, but is at the age where she is sorting through things in her mind. She stopped me mid sentence one time and said, " Jesus will make me new just like the doctors made my face new..." Yes, Sabena, that's right.

Then today, a pretty incredible story. I had the day off, and was able to go with my friend Steph out to Accra. On our way back to the dock, we were stopped by three people, two men and a very pretty young lady. They shared that they had flown all the way from Sierre Leone, because this young woman, "Kep", needed to see a Mercy Ships doctor. By this time, the Mercy Ships captain had also stopped and was able to help. When we asked what was wrong, Kep opened her mouth to reveal a large tumor that was obstructing much of her throat. When they handed us her x-rays and paper work, it revealed that her surgeon in S.L. believed the tumor to be malignant and told her to seek treatment elsewhere. Her condition was not responsive to any type of treatment he could provide. As events went on, our surgeons at Mercy Ships agreed to do an exam, and look at her x-rays. It is not known yet whether our team will be able to help her.
As Steph and I were waiting with them, we were able to ask more about their families and personal stories. They shared at length about their devotion to Islam, and their criticism of Christianity. We were able to talk with them for awhile, and then spent time praying with them for Kep and the medical team.
My conversation with them has stayed with me this afternoon. First, I was glad that our doctors were able to see her. I wasn't looking forward to turning them away after they had come so far. And it gave me a taste of what Liberia will be like when we do the screenings for our patients. Many we will have to turn away...
Then my mind goes back to our conversation about Jesus Christ. Please keep this family in prayer- for their physical and spiritual needs. Many here in West Africa believe in tolerance of both Christianity and Islam- in fact, some churches are forming that combine the two together. I felt very inadequate today as I shared with them and answered questions. But I hope that the Lord will use that brief meeting today in their search for the Truth.

Anastasis Tour

Hey guys!! Who would like a tour of the Anastasis?? (Lovingly referred to as "Annie" by those who serve on her.)
Well, I just got off work, and would like to give you a missionary version of a virtual tour ;)

First, lets start at the gangway...








And oh look, here is the guard gate and where they have dock devos for the patients as they are waiting to get on the ship.













Ok, now lets go in. First, wave hi to the reception lady. They work 24 hours a day to leave messages for us if we miss calls from home :) So always feel free to call!

















Alright, lets first go to my room, it's conveniently located on the main level, also called "A deck". Here is the corridor. Notice the fun hurdles and narrow turns. Imagine carrying huge suitcases over these your first night. yeah...

This one is my favorite. Some mornings, I'm not very graceful getting over this... as demonstrated here.

Oh here we are! 6A... home to 5 of the greatest girls, but can hold up to 6. Did I mention that it slants to one side? (actually, both that far wall and the floor. You need to think of that when you decide which side to put your pillow.) My bunk is the bottom one.

And lets see what it looks like today out our window ;)

By this time its dinner and I'm hungry. Lets go to the pacific dining room.

Here's Debbie, Andrea and me eagerly awaiting our meal shown below. Depending on when we get a container with supplies in, it can be a very mix matched meal :)

















Next I want to show you some of the upper parts of the ship. We'll go up the main staircase that will take us up to the Med Lounge, Ship store and deck.



Here is the Ship Store. Always open to walk through with a little seating area. On the other side is the Mediterranean lounge. (ie the "Barnes and Noble"/hang out place on the ship) It's complete with the Sola Victoria coffee bar where you can buy your favorite caffe latte from donated Starbucks goods for 50 cents.

Before we go outside, lets take the back way down the steps to two decks down. I need to show you the medical corridor and the entrance to the "ward"...my home away from home.

This will take you past the three surgical rooms, pharmacy, the ship's engine room, x-ray room and CT scanner. Below is Daniella, one of my other roomies, who works in the lab where we send any lab work from our patients.
Notice the Christmas lights beautifully decorating the door.






















Here we pass the entrance to the ward. Home to 44 patients and approx. 6-10 translators.




Believe it or not, the black "zip line" looking contraption is the pulley system we use to lower our patients down with from surgery to the ward. Don't worry I'll add a picture later on to show you. It's quite the site to see.













And now on to one of the upper decks passing the lovely christmas tree our deck crew has made to ring in the season. It's complete with hard hats for ornaments :)





















Here we are! Finally outside! I hope you all enjoyed your little walking tour. Thanks for being such good sports! :) There are so many other things to see, but hopefully this gave you a better idea of where the Mercy Ships team lives and serves. Love you all!