Speaking without Words

Aissa is beautiful; she is full of life, full of energy, spunk, and attitude. This 7 year old girl is a fighter, I like that about her. She was abandoned by her parents and taken in by her grandmother. Then about a year and a half ago she got a disease called NOMA. She is from a rural village in Cameroon and God brought her to this ship... His hand is so evident in her entire story. Aissa came to us by plane, with her uncle and Sarah a physicians assistant who works at the hospital in Cameroon that Aissa was brought to over a year ago. Last night, I had the opportunity to sit down and look through pictures of Aissa and listen as Sarah gently spoke of how God clearly saved Aissa, brought her into Sarah's life and how God brought them to Mercy Ships. When Sarah first saw Aissa she was severely malnourished and without quick intervention near death. Check out Sarah's blog to read through Aissa's journey. 

When you walk onto the wards, you can't help but notice Aissa. She is either running around playing or on the floor throwing a tantrum about something. It is written all over her that she is desperate for love and attention. We are more than happy to give her exactly that. Although we have no one (except Sarah) who can communicate with her or her uncle, through a little bit of acting and some expressive faces we can understand each other. My first night caring for Aissa we found a little game that kept us both amused, we would talk on pretend phones to one another, Aissa into a calculator and I into a stapler. We would say Hello, then proceed to have a whole conversation both of us in our own language having no idea what the other was saying but talking away. The "phone" would get passed around to translators and other nurses the conversation going on and on. 

The day before her surgery she sat on my lap as we prayed at the end of my shift, then she jumped onto my back and happily hung out there as I gave report on my patients to the oncoming nurse. This little girl that was merely a bag of bones now has a chubby belly making it hard for her to hold onto my back. Yesterday Aissa had surgery and today for the first time in a very long time she no longer has a gaping hole in the side of her face. Praise God!

"Jesus reached out His hand and touched the eyes of the blind, the skin of the person with leprosy, the legs of the cripple. I have sometimes wondered why Jesus so frequently touched the people He healed many of whom must have been unattractive, obviously diseased, unsanitary, and smelly. With His power He easily could have waved a magic wand but He chose not to. Jesus mission was not chiefly a crusade against disease but rather a ministry to individual people some of whom happened to have a disease. He wanted those people one by one to feel His love and warmth and full identification with them. Jesus knew He could not readily demonstrate love to a crowd, for love usually involves touching." - Dr Paul Brand (whose life work was caring for leprosy patients in India)

Yesterday started early we left the ship at 0530 (if you know me you know that my clock only has one of these a day). We left for one last screening. This one was a little farther out of the city than most of the others so the screening coordinator had asked if I could come along as she anticipated we would see a number of VVF patients. When we arrived there was a long line of people (we estimate we saw around 500) and my initial job was to start at the back of the line and ask each patient what they had come for. We were only taking very specific patients with severe problems as we have very few surgical spots left. This was not a pleasant job, it mostly consisted of I am sorry we cannot help you.

It wasn't long before I met my first VVF lady. I can almost pick them out of a crowd. She came up to my shoulder, was a tiny little thing who stood quietly all by herself with her eyes cast down at the ground. When my translator asked her why she had come she spoke in very hushed tones as to not let those around her hear. My translator quietly listened and then looks up at me and says, she is one of yours. I place my hand on her shoulder and let her know that if she will just wait I will sit down and speak with her myself, I am the one who works with women just like her. Within another 5 minutes I find out the screeners at the front of the line have found 2 more women and soon it was 2 more.

I spent the remainder of the day sitting with each women, 11 in total, asking them questions and listening to their stories. I sat and quietly listened as they shared their stories, I have had 14 babies only one is alive, I have had 6 babies die before their 5th birthday, I was pregnant at 18 and have been leaking since that very first delivery, I have been leaking for 22 years, the stories go on, my heart breaks a little with every one. As the day was coming to a close it hit me hard, I am finally seeing their faces and these are the faces and the stories of the women I came here for, the women who will shape the remainder of my time here. I prayed with each one, Lord begin the healing in them, prepare their hearts, their minds, their spirits, and their bodies for the journey that lay ahead, and Lord give us the knowledge to know how best to help them, let us be your hands, your feet, your voice, your actions. As each women got up to leave, she clang with hope to her patient card, she left a wet spot on the bench behind her, and then she would gently shake my hand and say Akpe Kaka (thank you in Ewe).  One month from today I will see them again.

In the next month please consider joining me in specific prayer for these women individually. Here is a link to my blog about that or just send me an email or leave a comment and I will get you a couple of names to pray for. Thanks

Good News

I went to bed discouraged after a very long and emotionally draining shift, two nights ago after publishing my post about Maurius. To be honest I was a little nervous what I hear when I checked on him the next day. I was scheduled in the office the next day so after lunch I went down to D ward to check and see how he was doing. I walked in just as the nurse was shutting off the breathing machine. Maurius was breathing on his own!!!!!!!!!! This was so exciting. He was doing really well and suprising us all.

I went today to see him again and he is still doing well. He was himself again. He was looking right at me and interacting. It was so good to see. Sometimes we just have to give God a little time. 

Maurius

A few days ago it was my birthday and I spent my afternoon working on the wards. I couldn't have picked a better thing to do for the evening. I had me some African baby snuggles. I had one little boy Maurius who has a cleft lip and palate, he came to us malnourished and became part of our feeding program.

Two months later he was all plumped up and ready for surgery. His mama could not be prouder of her little boy, she was showing anyone who would look his before picture and then proudly pointing to the little guy in her arms.... saying yes it is the same boy!  She could not have been more dedicated or worked harder to diligently care for this little guy. Her love for him poured out of her. During the course of the evening her pastor's wife came to visit and she went to chat with her for about 20 minutes and I was quick to volunteer to hold onto Maurius while she was out. 

Today was Maurius's day for surgery. We all know that surgery is risky but we do this every day, many times a day and we just assume they will go in and come back out fixed and healthy. Today during the operation Maurius ended up being very sick. They fixed his lip, but now is not able to breath on his own. When I came on shift at 2 we were just admitting him to the ICU and fighting as hard as we know how to keep Maurius breathing.  

When things settled down a little and he was a little more stable, although still on a breathing machine his mama came to see him for the first time. Her only request was that she could see him and pray over him so he could hear her voice. That is exactly what see did. As she walked in I cannot imagine how scary it all looked and how foreign, here was her tiny baby boy with tubes coming out of his mouth, his nose, his leg, hooked up to machines and just laying there motionless. But with courage I cannot fathom she walked to his bedside, lifted her hands, closed her eyes and sang a song of praise to Jesus. Then she held her hands over his precious little body and cried out to God in her native language to heal her baby boy. All commotion in the room stopped, with tears in our eyes we all stopped and joined her in prayer..... all of us crying out to one God for this one precious life. 

I wish I could end this post saying Maurius is doing good and that God has performed yet another miracle, but the truth is Maurius is still very sick. The fact is he is just as sick now as he was when I started my shift, he even ended up back in the operating room for another procedure to help him breath better. The whole time we were working his mama was on her knees by her bed pouring her heart out to God. So for now we continue to pray, we continue to lift Maurius and his beautiful courageous mama up to Jesus. 

Prayer by Names

Lately I have been thinking a lot about prayer and how important it is to everything we do. I have been convicted that I need to spend more time in prayer, I want my first instinct when something comes up to be to pray about it to take it and lay it at Jesus's feet no matter how big or small.

If you have read my blogs from last outreach or spoken with my while I was back in the US, you have heard about my passion for the VVF women. The women who are affected by a childbirth injury that causes them to constantly leak urine, resulting in them being outcast from society. Leaving these women destined to live a life on the outskirts, many of them basically waiting for death. Lord willing we will be doing surgery on 68 of these women coming up in about 6 weeks starting the end of May and running until the beginning of July. This last month and in the month ahead we are getting together names of potential patients and then will be screening them when our surgeon arrives in late May.

As the list of potential patients is growing, it has been on my heart that we need to begin praying for them by name. The referrals we have recieved so far is nearing 200 and as I said we will be doing around 68 surgeries. God has a plan for everyone of these names. Some of them we will be able to help and some we wont but either way I am praying God uses this experience to show them hope and to show them His love. If you feel led to join me in specific prayer for individual women please email me (inthedustonmyfeet@gmail.com) or comment with an email address and I will get you a list of a few first names you can start praying for. I trust that God has already started the work, but join me in praying that each women's mind, body, and spirit is prepared for the journey ahead of her over the next few months.

Kpalame

So, it was about time for adventure and Saturday was the day. I headed with 6 other girls from the ship out for a day trip to hike in a place about 3 hours north called Kpalame. We headed out early found the local "bus stop" and headed north.

We wanted to hike up a mountain here. Now when you tell African's you are going to go hiking you get a strange reaction, they just can't understand why in the world you would want to go hiking in this heat. So after our 2 hour bus ride, we then got a taxi and a "guide" to take us to the mountain. Now there was a little miscommunication between the taxi driver and us and he ended up driving us all the way up the mountain. So instead of hiking up..... we walked down. The thing about a day like this is you just have to be prepared to take the twists and turns of the day as they come. 

It was so nice to get out and get into the green. I find I miss the green when I live in the city or live on this ship. Every now and then I just need some fresh air and some green surroundings. It was Easter weekend and it was just good to have some time to talk to God and be away, even if just for a day.                                                                                      

As we walked down through some of the villages and met some of the local people on the roadside. I was struck again by how vastly different growing up here is compared to how and where I grew up, but yet the God I serve is here on a mountain side in central Togo, just as much as he is in the plains of central Illinois. What a great God we serve!

For more pictures from the weekend you can check out my facebook album