Liberia Again 2007

We are back in Monorvia, Liberia for a third field service. Looks different around.... Or it the feel , a laid back and calm feeling, a peace is here. The first time I could get off the ship, I took a walk around Jamoca Road where the God's Children Home is to say hello to the children I knew from our last visit. Did they remember me? Oh, yea!! The recepation almost knocked my off my feet. It was great to walk the streets, smell the smells and wave to the people again. Liberia has been at peace now for four years, but it will take a long time for this country to get back on her feet again. They are still without water and many are withourt electric.
We started our outreach with screening for the eye clinic and surgery started this week for the clef plates of about 20 this week. Surgeries are a big part of the out reach and we are ready to supply the Liberian people with pently of good care.

The Africa Mercy will be starting her sea trails this week and then she will sail down to us. We are expecting her to arrive the middle of May. Transfering from one ship to the other will be the biggest part of the transition and many are being cued on how to do this professionally, making this as smooth as possible. After eight years from the start, this journey I am delighted to part of the ending. I am looking forward to the day she sails into port here and docking along side of the Anastasis. The pictures will be great with the two worlds largest hospital ships along side of each other. Our new ship will have 6 operating theaters and 88 beds, better to serve the needs of Africa and her needs of the future.

Please keep us here in your prayers as we move into the future. Points of prayer: Keeping our health good throughout the transisation. Africa Mercy to pass all her tests and arrive on time. That the crew on board be blessed with good health That the people of Liberian continue to live in peace and that the country be renewed in the promise of peace forever.

and the anchor holds

and the anchor holds

Another Interesting Day in Liberia

I wrote this letter back in May 2006. I thought it would be interesting to put in this blog.

I went shopping today with Wanda for building materials for one of the schools we are working with. On the way out, past the first gate to get out on the main road, I saw a man walking towards our ship carrying a child. The child was maybe five years old. He must be very ill and the father was bringing him to see our doctors, I thought, as we made our way into the morning traffic. It is a good mile walk to the ship from the main road. At the store I discovered that I forgot my money, ( not a good thing in an all cash society). So we made our way back to the Anastasis. Going past the first gate towards the ship again I see the father with the chld, but this time he is running away from the ship and the child was limp in the fathers arms. I noticed a very swollen belly on the child. I am sure the child died in his fathers arms. If I could have taken a picture of that very moment, the look of despair on the fathers face it would have made the cover of News Week.
Wanda and I continued our shopping by making a stop at the lumber yard, located in the middle of the gerenal market. A very busy place with heavy traffic. We inched our car along until we were almost at the lumber yard turn in, when we saw a large crowd standing in a semi circle near the street. People were staring down at a man that was beaten to death. He layed there with a piece of cardboard covering the lower half of his body. Sometimes the body will lay for days before someone picks it up. Where does it go in a country that has no electric? I do not know. Bodies are often time not claimed because there is a burial expense for the family.
Today I thought I was 'just' going to the store. This is a non thinking event for me, I like to shop. But 'today' God showed me Liberia through the eyes of an Liberian. I saw death, a dead child, a broken father, a man laying in the dirt from a violent death. I saw hopeless, decay, crowded unsanitary conditions. I saw saddness, heartache, struggles that of the world poorest of the poor. Today was not a day to be forgotten by me. Everyday happenings? Maybe.....for Liberia

I am still alive

I am still alive. I just have not written in a long time. I have spent all of 2006 on the Anastasis in West Africa. First in Liberia and presently in Ghana.
Since coming to Africa in Nov 2005, I have worked various jobs all over the ship. I have been been the recepetiontist, artist for the child delevoplment program, ships steamstress, and more, too much to write about.
I have asked God for work in the arts. Guess what? I have done many paintings since then.
Africa was a wonderful surprise for me also. I dearly love Liberia and her people. Liberia has been free of a fourteen war since 2003, but still has not recovered from its hardships. Water and electric are big problems for most of the population. Children are every where with half the population under fourteen. Our medical staff treat the huge tumors that come in daily. Wells are being dug, schools are being built, teachers are being trained, dental teams work daily to treat and extract teeth by the thousands.
The heat never lets up as it daily beats on the land and her people. People smile, never fail to call a greeting, love to touch and sing, are who are so grateful for anything you can do for them, without them asking. They love to return and honor all acts of kindness.
I have walked everywhere, I come to love the sounds, sights and smells! Dancing which I love, is a big part of the African culture. I am so comforable here, fear never enters the picture here for me. I still see pieces of the old world with their belief system in the witch doctors, and other acts that are to appease the gods. Change is slow here, but change is everywhere. It is not only the changes of Liberia that is happening but also in me. Slowly I have come to love the simple life, the jungles, the bush country, the mud huts, the bare feet, the fish and rice dishes, the drums beating sound, the cattle walking everywhere with out fencing, the goats in the market place, the fisherman swimming in the rivers, the emtpy buildings that thousands of people now call home. The needs are so great, it can be over whelming it can stop you all together. I am glad to be here, to have this experience and to carry this back with me to the place I call home. I sometimes feel I have two homes now after spending seven monthes here. Who could have guessed that I would come to love it here so much. Only God knew!!!

Serving the Servants

Serving the Servants

I am working these days in schools in Liberia. I paint murals on the classroom walls. It is interesting maybe only to me that I am doing this, something that I have been doing since I discovered anything that would make a mark, just ask my mother! My paintings are the ABC's, the maps of the world, Africa and Liberia. I also paint the blackboards and make them black again. I am amazed again by God. He and He only had prepared me for this work all my life. A few years ago after my husband died I went back to college for fine arts. I am an artist. Going into Mercy Ships which is a medical mission, I prayed to God that He would use me, hopefully use my training as an artist. Here I am working not only in schools, but also in orphanages, doing what I love, painting. Does God answer prays, you bet He does!

Monrovia, Liberia

The date is now January 21, 2006 and I am on the Anastasis in Liberia. I arrived here back in November 2005. Monrovia is something. If you a imangine a country without electric or water, without laws,without any rules fro driving on the roads, except to use their horns. A country that has to import everything to support it self. A country without medical services, without a way to educate thier people further than the 6th grade. A country with more children than adults to take care of them, because the parents have been killed, many times in front of their children. A country where the youngs girls are "women" at eight, mothers at ten, old at 20. Where the dieases, tumors, toothaches, are left untreated until you die. Where food is killed, cooked and eaten along with the flies. Where polio is still an issue. Where the lame can not work expect to beg. Where a boy can be beaten to death a left on the road side for days as an example for other not to steal. That's Liberia. The otherside of this country is the dense rain forests, the new villages, the organizional skills of the leaders of new villages, the love for their country that is showing to rebuild this broken country. I am thankful to be a small part of this, doing whatever I can collecting jars and cans from the galley to give to the village woman so they can preserse their food, to seeing a broken well and reporting it to our well people for repair, to painting the African map on school walls.
God is so good.

Going Home for a Visit Soon.....

I am looking forward to seeing my babies again. My babies are pretty big now, Michael 38, my sweet Jamie 36 and Tim 35. It is different having grown children, only in that they now have everything grown children should have families, houses, cars and etc. They basically do not need me to give them those needs. Nor do I have to provide them with a meal three times a day or clean clothes or run a bath or get them to school as when they where children.... But when I am with them, we reconnect emotionally and spiritually. When I open my arms wide and they recieve my hugs, I once again smell them, feel them and love them openly.... Again as I have done all of their life and most of mine.
It is because this of the deep love I have for my family, I can only believe this how we all will be received when we finally get to heaven. God will have His arms opened wide for me to bury my face in His neck. To drink deeply in the aroma of His body. The peaceful feeling of being in a safe place where there is nothing to fear.....Free from worries..... Loving Him openly.

One word for August in East Texas---HOT!!!

Has it really been one year since I first came to Garden Valley, Texas ? Wait a minute, Is it really 3 months already, since leaving the Caribbean Mercy? And did I have successfully conviced my boss to take me on as the Marketing Assistant, for which I will be forever grateful!! I found this to interesting work (and I have a great desk and office). When I think about I also have some great people I work with, (heh, not bad!).

Green grass, tall trees, pool, three squares a day, lots of people to talk too. I have nonthing to complain about. I am teaching these days on Wednesday night a watercolor class, which gives me and everyone who comes on Wednesday great pleasure and satisfaction. Kitchen 6 has the wonderful view of Texas sunsets, creating atmosphere for painting, plus enjoying fellowship, (what's all that laughing), and possibly learning. God is so good !!!!

Except for the heat, life at the I.O.C. is good. My legs are getting a good work out, walking from one building to the next, but for reason the weigh is not dropping, could have something to do with fresh bread in the Osias everyday!

I have been reassigned for the African Mercy, docked in New Castle, England for this November as the Special Events Manager. Some of the gals that will be working for me are also here. It has been wonderful to connect with them. They getting to know me and me getting to know them. I understand that it's getting pretty cold now in Northern England. Their winter last from August to May, blurr. The future looks cold and busy and I am bitting-at-the-bit to get there. We are set for our first sail late April 06 to spent 18 month continued outreach in Ghana, West Africa. African Mercy's maidein sail will be the World's largest private hositpal.

Until next time, God's Perfect Peace for you!

and the anchor holds......

To show great Love for God and our neighbors we need not do great things. It is how much Love we put into the doing that makes our offering something beautiful for God.
-Mother Teresa