Why we do what we do

This is the blog that I have been waiting to write for a long time, ever since I knew I was coming to west africa with Mercy ships. But now it's here....I realise just how difficult it's going to be to explain how amazing, moving, unbelievable, awesome and...well....you get the idea!

Last week, the hospital began to run its screening days at a number of different sites across Lome, to sift through the huge numbers of people in order to pin point those who the surgeons can work on. The first 7 days, which included the dental and eye clinics, saw well over 4000 people turn up - all of whom had need of medical care. We will be running these screenings for another 10 weeks.

How can I begin to explain the atmosphere at these places. The sense of excitement, the nervous rush of adrenaline, the huge crowds moving and swaying as one as they bunch together, all desperate to get into the lines to be seen by one of the nurses. The heat, the smell, the dust, the noise - the colour! I have had the privilege to go and help at 4 of the screening days so far, and I will never forget them. Waking up at 4 or 5 a.m, clambering into one of the land rovers and making our way down the pot holed roads. Getting ever closer to the sites and seeing the numbers of people increasing constantly. Pulling round that last corner and seeing a line of people stretching as far down the road as you can see. Pulling into the compounds and being in complete amazement at the hundreds of people who are already standing waiting.

These are the moments that I will never forget. These are the moments that help to put things into perspective. These are the moments that motivate and challenge.

In these moments of need and desperation, in the face of such despair and hopelessness, life becomes much more simple.

How good we look in what we wear all of a sudden does not matter. How important what other people think of us fades into insignificance. Those small irritants get forgotten and we become acutely aware of how blessed and fortunate we really are. In these moments, the words of Jesus become alive as I run them through my mind;

"I have come that you may have life to the full", "Whatever you do for the least of these you do for me", "You're blessed when you're content with just who you are—no more, no less. That's the moment you find yourselves proud owners of everything that can't be bought."

These are a tiny tiny tiny number of people who's lives will be changed for ever. These are the people for whom we are here. These are the forgotten poor.

Thank you thank you thank you for your support. I am blessed and privileged to be here.

Togo

As we slowly moved our way into the dock, the sounds of the drums, trumpets, horns and voices became more and more apparent. The colours of the clothes, the frantic movements of the dancers and the gleaming white smiles spoke of more than just the joy and happiness of the arrival of friends - it spoke of hope - hope for the lives that will be changed for ever.

As I stood there, gazing in wonder at the reaction of the crowd that was greeting us, I became completely overwhelmed. Overwhelmed at their joy and appreciation, but more than anything, overwhelmed by the reality that I have the opportunity to be involved in something truly significant and life changing - both for the Togolease people and for myself.

And Jesus said, "You know that the rulers of this world lord it over their people, and officials flaunt their authority over those under them. But among you it will be different. Whoever wants to be a leader among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first among you must be slave to everyone else. For even the Son of man came not to be served but to serve others" (Mark 10:41)

Helps to keep one's pride in check, eh?

I find it hard at times to convey the right emotions and sentiments when I blog or make facebook updates, I know that I have an amazing opportunity to be hear and that this is a very unique place to be. But i'm also continually challenged by the words and actions of Jesus and how I see them take shape the more and more I open myself to his truth. And it fascinates me, what would our friendships, streets, work places - dare I say it, churches - look like if we took Him seriously? If we left 'self' at the door and began to learn that through serving those around us, we gain more than we ever could by consuming. I am still learning this, I hope and pray that you can join me in this journey.

Tenerife to Togo

As I write this post, we are currently somewhere off the coast of Senegal, heading down to Togo to begin our next field service in Lome. It's going to be quite a culture shock once again after spending 6 very relaxed, stress free and fun weeks in Tenerife.

The ship was docked in Santa Cruz for some routine maintenance work and safety checks, which meant that the deck crew and engineers had a very busy time, but for most of us - it was a time where we had just a little bit more free time than normal.

But along with that, it was once again a time of great transition on the ship. Within the first 3 days of being on the Island, around 120 people left the ship - which left it very quiet indeed. From that day, we have slowly but surely been getting more and more crew joining, which has been great - but in an unusual way, kinda makes me feel like i've been here much longer than 2 1/2 months.

Within all of these new arrivals, the rest of our Gateway friends turned up, which has been great. It's so nice to have our little family back together again, share memories and make new ones along the way.

So all in all, Tenerife was a very peaceful time. I had opportunity to do some fun things, like doing a 4 day scuba diving course, going to a symphony at the Opera and times exploring the Island with friends and family - my mum was also able to come out for 10 days to visit!

But those 6 weeks are up and we are all very much looking forward to getting back to Africa and getting into what we all came here to do. It's going to be hot, dusty and sweaty - but it's going to be worth it. This ship is in the business of changing lives, bringing hope to people who have been forgotten and healing to those who have been rejected.

Let's be the change we want to see in the world!

Sublime sailing

SUBLIME: of such excellence, grandeur, or beauty as to inspire great admiration or awe.

Words can be powerful. However, we all know that a picture paints a thousands words; and i have had the amazing opportunity over the past 10 days or so to live in a picture of such sublime beauty as to make true the dictionary definition stated above.

With as few words as possible, I will let these pictures tell the tale of our sail from Benin, West Africa, up to Tenerife.

Photo's as we left the port in Cotonou, Benin.

A Water spout that we sailed past on the 2nd day of the sail.

DOLPHINS DOLPHINS DOLPHINS

We also sailed past numerous pods of whales, though they were slightly more shy than these guys!

Sunrise....

Sunset....

We also had the amazing chance to see a meteor show that lasted a full weekend, and though we couldn't get any pictures, trust me....a picture or two would not have done it justice.

I can only thank God for giving me this opportunity, and again, thank you all for your support.

Have a very blessed Christmas time and I hope and pray for each one of you that you can see, experience and be part of something truly sublime this Christmas time.

Arrival in Africa

Dear all,

This is my first post since arriving safely to the Africa Mercy and two weeks have quickly gone by. I'd like to say its all been smooth sailing up to this point (pun completely intended) but that wouldn't quite be true. I have been here for 15 days now, and last night my second bag finally turned up from its 2 week vacation in Paris. So it was an interesting first two weeks of rotating what little clothes I did have in order to stay somewhat fresh and clean!

As well as my continually rotating wardrobe, I've also been trying to get to grips with life on the ship; living in community, sleeping in a 4 berth cabin, working in an intense and hot environment and all in all a completely new style of life. At times its been more difficult than I initially expected, but having friends here already who I spent time with in Texas and the D.R. has made a significant difference and I think we've all been a positive help to one another (well....they have been for me at least!!).

We've also arrived at a funny time of the year, as the ship is coming to the end of its outreach here in Benin, so most of the medical work ended the week we turned up. So its been an unusual time to be here, as lots of people are leaving for the Christmas holidays, or their time or service with Mercy Ships has come to an end. Either way, the ship is getting quieter by the day, as people go home and we prepare to sail to Teneriffe for 6 weeks of ship maintenance.

But one of the most amazing things is that we have been able to walk into an atmosphere of reflection from the past 10 months of work in Benin. There have been lots of stories that have been shared of how people's lives have been changed by the work done by Mercy Ships. There have been literally tens of thousands of people who have had their lives changed through the care and attention of the medical teams that work in and from the ship.

Here is a snippet of one amazing young girl who's life has been turned

around by Mercy Ships:

“When the tumor first appeared, my husband and I took Alba to the hospital, but we didn’t have money to pay for it, so they wouldn’t treat her. We had to use traditional medicine,” said Ankosua, her mother. Alba was taken out of school so her mother could give her the traditional medicine daily.

When asked how the community treated Alba, Ankosua stared at the floor and remained silent. After a 10-second pause, she looked up, her eyes filled with tears, and she painfully replied, “Some people received Alba with good hands. They prayed for her and encouraged me. But others shunned her. They said, ‘Go away, we don’t want to see you.’”

After Ankosua explained that she had no money for treatment, the woman told her about Mercy Ships. “This woman had heard Mercy Ships was in town, helping people and healing people for free. She gave me directions to the Africa Mercy, and I immediately went,” Ankosua added.

Still attached to noisy monitors and IV fluids, Alba had been dozing in and out of sleep since returning to the Africa Mercy ward. Finally, a few hours after surgery, she opened her eyes and sat up. Seeing she was awake, Becca, her nurse, came to Alba’s bedside and handed her a small mirror.

Alba looked down, paused in a state of bewilderment, and began touching the empty space on her mouth. The tumor was gone. After 20 seconds of staring, a single tear rolled down her cheek. With great determination, she tried not to cry. But another and then another tear soon followed. Finally, she gave up trying to hold them back and cried freely. Alba’s tears were earned through years of heartache and rejection. They were mature and raw – heavy tears for an eight-year-old to cry.

Thank you for your support!

Lives changed in the Dominican Republic - mainly mine!

Well I have recently returned from an amazing 2 1/2 weeks in the Dominican Republic - and in all honesty - I don't know how i'll be able to even begin to share with you all just how much of an amazing experience it has been.

In brief, we spent the majority of our time working in a predominately Haitian community, helping to construct an extension to a dining room at the local school. This in itself was a real challenge, but one that the team rose to and more! As well as this construction work, we did some drama's in the classrooms with the children, played with the kids during recess and spent a lot of time walking around in the community, meeting people, getting to know them and building relationships.

I'm very aware that I have so many stories that I could talk for a days about, concealed in the few brief lines that I have written above, but am also very aware that if I did I would bore you to death and you'd never want to read one of my blogs again.....so instead, this video will try and focus on one of two stories that will begin to give you a glimpse of our time away.

I would like to introduce you to Ezekial. He is 9 years old, lives in this small house with his Mum, Dad, 3 sisters and one brother. Ezekials house has two rooms, two beds, small kitchen/living area.....and that is about it. I met Ezekial on our first day in the village, and had the privilege of meeting up with him more or less each day, getting to know him (with the help of becca N - who felt like my own personal translator) and playing games with him.

What was so phenomenal about Ezekial and his family, to me anyway, was the life and spirit they had in them. Despite their situation, they had a few of us over for lunch twice and, despite the language barrier, were some of the warmest most hospitable people I have ever met. It really made me think, about how easily little things can get me down and how I can easily let those little things affect my relationships with other people. Talk about helping to put things into perspective.....

The second person I would like to introduce you to is Jeffrey. He is two - and one day, whilst sitting by a fire that was heating a boiling pot of water, had it knocked over his little leg. He suffered second degree burns. Had it not been for the timing and Grace of God, that burn would have gone relatively untreated, more than likely infected and would have had to spend a life time with pain, discomfort and worst case scenario - only one leg.

However, this is not the case. Due to the skill and willingness of some of the nurses on our team, Jeffrey had his burn treated and dressed for nearly two weeks. He now has an opportunity to live a life that would not have been possible had these nurses not been there. I take two huge things from this story:

1) Nurses are truly amazing. This is no tongue in cheek comment. Having watched them work in some incredibly difficult, dirty and messy situations - I can safely say, Nurses are amazing!

2) This was a small, bite size picture of what Mercy Ships is all about. Bringing Hope and Healing to the forgotten poor of this planet. I feel even more privileged to be part of this extra-ordinary organisation and the adventures and challenges that lay ahead.

Thank you all again for your support!

A Week to remember

So the past 7 days have been 7 of the most memorable days I can remember. There is so much I could say, but if I said it all, you would be sitting reading this for the next hour....so I will endeavor to keep it succinct but informative too!!!

Friday 9th October - Went to see a band called Josh Weathers and the True endeavours. You all need to find their myspace....these guys rock!

Saturday: The Zoo and two stepping in the Electric Cowboy!

Sunday: Cowboy Church.

Monday: Started Basic Safety training, which in itself was great, but we also went to see U2 and Muse!!!!

Tuesday/Wednesday: First Aid & sea survival and firefighting theory.

Thursday: Practical Firefighting!!

Friday: Pool Practical for safety and survival at sea.

Saturday Evening: Fly to the Dominican Republic for 2 1/2 weeks to work alongside some community projects in a deprived community.

So as you can see, if I were to go into detail about all of these things, this would go on - but I feel safe to say that it has been an amazing week - and one that I am incredibly grateful for the opportunity to have lived.

As an overview, the Basic Safety Training (BST), is an official maritime qualification that states that a person has the basic skills, ability and knowledge to work aboard a sea baring vessel. So I can now say that I am an official mariner, which is very cool.

As part of the qualification, we needed to perform some basic firefighting skills to show that we were capable. This included putting a number of different fires out, rescuing a dummy from a smoke filled container and being able to put on all of our equipment, including oxygen masks, in 2 minutes! This was such a fun day - a highlight for everyone really!!

Going to see U2 and muse was obviously amazing, the 105, 000 seater stadium was incredible, and the entire production and stage show was mind-blowing!!

However, with all of this, it is still quite sad that our time here together in Texas has come to an end. It has been a fun, intense and busy month or so - but one that has been so so worth while in terms of preparation for going out to Africa. I have been reminded again of how much I take things for granted, and how easily I can slip into living in a safe place of ignorance - blocking out those things that go on in the world that are 'messy' or 'difficult'. I feel as though this month has been a wake up call to the reality of life for most of the world.

I feel so grateful for the opportunities that I have had an am continuing to have - but am looking forward to moving out of that place of safety and into a place where what I see isn't filtered by the BBC or Sky News - but is instead real life.

Thank you again for all your support.