We are sailing!

So today we sail out of Liberia!!!! I have already taken one of my special seasickness pills from my friend that are meant to be better than generic as they are from Switzerland and have the slightest amount of caffeine so you stay awake to enjoy sailing! So here`s believing in faith that it will do the trick!
I feel like a small child anticipating a holiday!
So exciting.
We did a lifeboat drill this morning this gives us one more practice but also allows for us account for all crew before the sail. This is known as a "mustering".
When the first alarm sounds emergency teams go to their stations. At the second alarm all crew go to their muster station which is on deck 7 while at sea. We await the captains order`s and if appropriate he would call for an "abandon ship".
Here is a picture of my lifeboat station, Michael is on the bridge(the part of the ship where the sailing happens and orgnisation during these drills occurs) as assistant purser its his job to help account for everyone as muster sheets are handed in and then would just walk out the door and join me if we had to go in the lifeboats.



Goodbye Liberia....



Love from the smooth seas of West Africa.

Last days in Liberia

This is little Kwelyon. He is the boy that needs lots of prayer. We sent him to a local NGO pediatric hospital on friday until a neuro surgeon sees him in a few weeks. He is doing better.



This is little Eddie. He was burnt at 1 month old by a mosquito net catching on fire while he slept. He has had skin grafts to his eyes and scalp. His scalp was severely burnt. He will need a lot of surgery in the future to release the tight tissue but for now he at least doesn`t have horrible open wounds!. He is a beautiful baby that brings tears to my eyes. He is cuddly and loves to touch your face. His mum Fatu is sassy. She is all of 19. She was in school before he was born and loved to play basketball. She has no one to teach her how to be a mum. She has loved the supportive environment of the ward and will miss it a lot she said!. She insisted on Eddie having a photo with Michael too :). I have been trying for days to upload more photos without success!.

I am looking forward to sailing now!
I will miss Liberia but I feel like our goodbyes are done. It is time for rest and recuperation and then time to take Hope and Healing to a new country!. God was here before we came and he will be here after we are gone. We are merely his hands and feet wherever he sends us!.

Great things He has done Greater things He will do.

be the Solution

be the One

be the Restored

be the Miracle

be the Story

be the Daughter/Son

be the Voice

be the Hands

be the Change

Every 3.5 seconds someone dies of hunger. Every 11 seconds someone dies of aids. Every 15 seconds a child dies from a waterborne illness. Forty Million people live with HIV /AIDS. One billion have no access to clean water and 2.6 billion live without basic sanitation. Five million live in refugee camps and 1.08 billion live on one dollar or less per day. Two million children die each year from preventable diseases and 11 million children die before they reach their 5th birthday. Enough food is produced to feed everyone on earth and statistics tell us that in a modern and supposedly sophisticated world, 27 million precious sons or daughters live enslaved.

We live in a world that is full of injustice and hardship, but we are called as followers of Jesus to reach out and do something about it! Sometimes the biggest thing we can do is PRAY!

The numbers are overwhelming I copied them from a website today. I see a small part of the reality everyday here in Liberia and it is still hard to grasp. I know its hard to feel in touch with this as you read it from your office or home. We are so blessed. Did we choose to be? No!.

Right now we have patients on the ward that are feeling desperate. We close at the end of this week to pack for our sail next week. We need your prayers we are praying 24/7 for our patients literally, the whole crew can sign up to pray in our prayer ward! in particular we have 2 little boys. Kwelyan is 6yrs old and has a contagious smile. He is from neighbouring Guinea so speaks no english. He had an encephlocele repair which is facial deformity but also has neurological involvement so he is leaking CSF which is the fluid in the ventricles of your brain. He will end up with a brain infection if this is not healed! PLEASE PRAY FOR DIVINE HEALING! there is no room for anything else! There is nowhere local to send him the closest we have heard of is Kenya!

Then there is beautiful Nicholas who is 4 and has suffered from a closed oesophagus since he was 2 yrs old from accidently drinking caustic soda (an awful phenomena here in Liberia). He has survived by having a PEG tube for feeding. He has had a very complicated surgery last week and is in a lot of pain and discomfort. We are praying he would recover very quickly. He has a little sister who has been in hospital since she was born because of her brother her name is "Surprise" the best name ever I think. She has never had the attention she needs! I asked her what noise a chicken makes the other day and her mother said she doesn`t know what a chicken is because she never goes outside. she is always in the hospital. Over the last few weeks we have had many of these chronically ill children who are unable to eat due to caustic soda burns of their oesophagus. They struggle to swallow a sip of water. One boy was 14yrs old and only weighed as much as a 5yr old. Crazy!. The surgeon says he has kids like this die from malnutrition everyday. Without education this will continue to happen! Not even a disease just a preventable accident! Caustic soda looks just like water when it is being prepared to make soap apparently.

I am sorry if this is depressing! Its hard not to get upset about the inequality of life for so many people in the world. I believe Our God is just and that it was not his intention for life to be this way.

We took our friend Chris to the airport this morning to head to Ghana for DTS so that mid next year she can join the ship. I believe God has the best plan for her life even if it doesn`t look how we expect it to or want it to! Our God is just and good in all his ways.

Please join us as we pray to finish this outreach without any problems.

What a year it has been starting with our wedding in february and who would have thought that by our first wedding annniversary we will have spent more than half of that year in Africa again. What an amazing adventure!.
" Great things He has done Greater things He will do!" as the african song says.

FOR HIS EYES ONLY

As we head ever closer to the end of outreach for the year the heat is only more intense. We are trying to fit in surgeries that have not yet been done and there is something in the air that feels like the whole of Liberia is aware of our nearing departure. We are having regular "swimmer watch" now as we have already experienced a security breach. It is sad to say that I feel the desperation of people increased at the thought of our now familiar prescence being gone.
The dayworkers here on the ship have been doing outreaches with us for more than 3 outreaches and when we leave they will be jobless in a sea of unemployment! This breaks my heart. These are Godly men and women with plenty of potential but no means to achieve their dreams. I feel like it is so unfair that I can "go here or there", "do this or that" and for them there is no choice. You don`t change jobs when you get sick of it. I have such a western mentality that I can`t bear the thought that some of my favourite translators from the ward will go back to selling water on the side of the road to earn enough to feed the family. I want to send them to school and see them become the women and men they have the potential and desire to be.

My friend and ex patient Chris Sayon went for her interview for a visitor visa to the US and was denied. She was so downhearted, it was heart wrenching. She is now going to go to Ghana in December to do a DTS (DISCIPLESHIP TRAINING SCHOOL) with YWAM (Youth With A Mission). She will be there about 6 months and then probably meet the ship in Benin to become a crew member. If you have read her story on my blog or were her nurse on the ship before and feel that you would like to help sponsor her to go to DTS please let me know as I am looking for people who want to see this young woman`s life go from strength to strength!.

I am ever so grateful for our amazing family and friends who are supporting us in so many ways. I am thankful for the opportunities that were not bestowed on us for who we were or what we did but purely out sacrifice by others in a love that is an earthly reflection of God`s love.

This weekend we went to a church we have been visiting and they had a special program to thank Mercy Ships for their work in Liberia. The thankyou is not why we do it and was quite embarrassing but I appreciate that they feel they have nothing more to give and that they see what we are doing could only possibly be done out of our love for God. This feeling of not being able to say more than thankyou is how we all feel with God for He did for us what we could not ever repay. He saved us by putting Jesus on the cross and gave us eternal life and I can never say thankyou enough so I want to live my life as a living sacrifice poured out for him that I may never think I deserved HIS GRACE! It would be easy to let such thankyou`s from man to be enough but if that is the sum of our reasoning for being here I would end up burned out and dried up with nothing to give such needy people, instead I want to pour out from the abundant blessings and love that I have in Christ.
This is not just something that we face here in Liberia it is something that we face everywhere in the world and if we wait for thankyou from those we serve in the workplace or anywhere else we will become very bitter people.
Lets fix our eyes on Jesus who
"made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, humbled himself and became obedient to the cross" Phillipians 2.
Jesus was looking for His father`s approval not man`s.
There is so much of my flesh that seeks approval by man even when I write these blogs I wonder who will read it and reply and give me the feedback I desire. I don`t want this to be why I write this so I pray the Lord would keep humbling me and reminding me that it wouldn`t matter if none of you read this because I am here for His eyes only.

Much love.xx.

Just another day!

It is a beautiful sunny tuesday in Liberia and the temperature is climbing! Just thought I would share some photos taken this afternoon of Michael and I at work! So this will not be too deep don`t worry!
Above is a picture of one of our patients we worked on in Ghana!Her name is Esi, she is 14yrs old. She came back to have a revision of her nose which was I believe missing because of NOMA a flesh eating bacteria usually caused by poor nutrition. She is a beautiful natured girl who loves people and loves being cuddled! She lives in an orphanage in Ghana and is here with a great carer who was also from the orphange and knew Esi as a baby! She is all of 22 and she is a great caring woman of God!


This picture is of Mougasabba . He is about 15yrs old. He is from Guinea. He speaks a language called Mandingo so communication is hard as our translators do not speak it. But he speaks "petit peu francais" (small french) and I speak even less! But he was the young boy in the ICU I spoke about last week! He is better and will fly home soon!. Praise God for his recovery!.

This is a picture of the beautiful baby Marie and her mummy. They have been with us a while now as poor Marie`s lip has been infected but is slowly slowly healing! They are beautiful!

Now for My gorgeous husband Michael! Here is him hard at work:


and here is one of the many container ships that may contain the one container we personally are waiting for! Believe it or not the distance from where it is to us is about 400m but it is near impossible to get our fabulous Liberian port people to deliver our containers to us! It is one of Michael`s daily frustrations!



Just a little taste of a day at the office from us!
Please do drop us an email about your everyday life as it is the small things that make up life! I want to hear about your trip to the hairdresser, post office, lunch, work etc! its all good!
We love you guys and need you in our life!
Love and blessings
Sarah and Michael
xxxx

Weekend wakings and transformations!

I thought it was about time for a background update! Do you like the new colours?
I am in the mood for a bit of a blog today! It has been a long week and my 3 days on the beach seem like an age ago!
On Saturday morning we were awoken to an overhead page in our room at 5:50 am! It was a call for the Emergency Medical Team to the ward! being after hours any ICU nurse that hears this should attend in case people who are on the team don`t turn up! But being so early and everyone did turn up so I left not long after arriving and went back to bed for a half hour of laying in rest before I had to drag my tired self out of bed to work for a 12hr day of ward craziness! The patient who had the emergency turned out to be my patient! After handover I went to examine him and he appeared tired and working a fair amount to breathe and within an hour he once again started to panic as he found it difficult to breathe through his swollen airway!(apparently his tonsils were nearly touching) So we called the EMT again and we ended up putting a tube down his throat to help him breathe (this is called intubation) we then put him in the ICU for 2 days and had him on the ventilator! He was extubated - that is the tube removed yesterday! He is doing fine! So my weekend was spent in the ICU by myself with a translator and the patient! It is amazing that we don`t have ICU patients regularly actually as our surgeries we do to peoples faces and jaws are massive and at home they would probably all go to at least a high dependency for a few days! Not straight back to the ward and up and moving within hours of removing tumours that weigh a few Kg`s!

These tumours I am talking about are rare facial tumours called ameloblastoma! They are for some reason more common in West Africa and other countries in the developing world! They are formed from a tooth cell often from unerupted teeth! then with nowhere for the growth to go it bursts forwards or sidewards or even backwards depending on the place it is on the jaw! They are benign tumours but the problem is they end up suffocating the person! They are often very unsightly to look at if you have never seen it before! I will never forget how shocked I was at my first screening day in Ghana! Actually it was the day before screening that I was at the church it was to be held and I saw a lady hiding behind a tree! She was already there for screening!She had a scarf draped over her head to hide her face! She was only the first of many that I have seen here!
We remove the bone in the jaw that has the tumour growing from it and replace it with a metal plate. Then 3 months later we take bone from the hip (iliac crest) and graft it onto the plate which then makes the jaw stronger as the bone grafts itself onto the plate! The person can in 6 months have a set of dentures made if possible! The result is transforming!!





These patients have often lived with their tumour for years! as it grows slowly! They have been told they are witches or are cursed! People won`t stand near them if they are pregnant in the fear their child will be born deformed! To us this seems like crazy thinking but witches and curses are real in Africa and don`t underestimate how much this can form someones thinking! It is a struggle to understand their worldview sometimes!

We are so blessed to have one of the world`s most amazing surgeons here onboard to operate on these patients- Dr Gary Parker. He has such a heart of compassion for these people! He has given up 20+ years of living a materially rich and comfortable life in the USA to serve the people of Africa with Mercy Ships! That is sacrifice!

As I make the finishing touches on this blog I am sitting once again in the ICU on a night shift with a different patient and I am aware that the Lord`s timing was here for her too! She walked into the dental clinic this morning and was brought straight to the ship for immediate surgery that without she would have probably died! Our God is so good and I have to believe that we are here for such a time as this to do His work!
Lots of love to you all
xxxxxx

Sunshine in Liberia

The rainy season continues here in Liberia with rain at least every day at some point but today a ship holiday that lasts from Friday to Monday, it is sunny and clear and I am praying for the sunshine to last!I am off to the beach both Saturday and Sunday as it is a nice cheap day out and I have a great book to read!!
Well I expected that I would blog more often than this! I really will try to but somehow this last month seemed to go by quite fast and I think that is a sign of beginning to settle in more!. I think I tend to blog and email more when I need to feel more connected. However sometimes it is too hard to email as I find thinking of home and family too heart-wrenching! I have definitely felt a bit of homesickness this past month and 2 years sometimes feels like it will be an eternity! For me the homesickness is the hardest part of being here! Yes even when I see sad and awful things! Selfish hey!
I am still loving the work here and this month has had many beautiful patients to care for and many beautiful babies to cuddle and be slobbered on by! The babies that are the same age as my gorgeous niece Evie are probably my favorites! 6 months to a year is such a cute stage! There has been happy and sad things this month on the ward! We had a baby born to a mother of a patient on the ward overnight a few weeks ago! She was only 8 months pregnant! A beautiful Aussie midwife onboard Mandy Kruegger delivered her safely. It was a little girl weighing in at just over 2kg but has done well and they named her "Mercy" a fitting name for a baby born on the Africa Mercy! But that very same week we also had a baby pass away. He was very sick and he had everything the western world could offer in terms of care but he was beyond us even when he arrived so he went to be with Jesus! Very sad but his parents were grateful for our love and professionalism in his care. Somehow death feels less normal on the ship than in hospitals at home where it is a common occurrence here it is not on the ship as our patients on the whole are healthier despite ridiculously large tumours! I had a patient recently who had a 9kg growth removed (I won`t tell you where from!) lets just say he is a new man (smile!)

Michael has moved departments this month to the Purser`s office which is part of Deck Department. He is working as the assistant purser which means he sorts out visa`s and immigration, chases down where our shipping containers and very important where our mail is! All this is not made easy by classic african time schedules! He is enjoying the challenge of it, and I enjoy the uniform he wears (smile)! Poor Michael has also had health problems the last 6 weeks stemming from that stomach problem he obtained 6 weeks ago and has finally been diagnosed with a very exotic but treatable bug! I will let him share that in our newsletter!


We celebrated Chris`s 23rd birthday the other week! She got her new hair and we went to the beach and had dinner! She loved it! She went to the beach again later that week and ate Pizza for the first time! She said it was very good and took it home to share with her neighbours! She is currently working as a dayworker onboard the ship in the laundry and she is earning money doing people`s laundry for them which she is saving to come onboard as a CREW member! This should happen in November! She got her passport the other day and showed me so proudly when I went to visit her in the laundry! She is eventually headed to the USA with her "adopted" mother Sheri! Please pray for her visa!

What God has been teaching me this month: The last few months beginning at Gateway the Lord has really been challenging me about where I get my satisfaction! There is always a sense inside that I am not quite "there" wherever "there" is! Even when I love my husband, family, job etc.
He has shown me that I will never feel satisfied while I search for satisfaction other than in him! These empty feelings are holes that only God can fill and everything else is Idolatry! That`s heavy hey! When I place anything even what I feel I am called to do "FOR HIM" above Him is idolatry because it is putting something in the place of God! When I seek Him first I am filled up to overflowing and it is from this place that I can live an abundant life! Not a life of sucking energy and love out of others but instead I am secure in His arms and I can be a source of refreshment to all around me! What a healthier place to serve from! I am starting to get better at recognising the signs of my emptiness when I need to go and be refreshed in my Saviour! I become cranky and insecure! I look for ways to fill my own needs and not to the needs of others!! I hope my point of learning can somehow benefit you and that you would head to the source of living water to take a big deep drink so that you would be able to pour out into others in your world!

So beloved friends and family I just want you all to know how much we love you and our flesh would jump on the plane tomorrow! But I know that the Lord will sustain us and give us the grace to continue here even when it feels like we can`t cope without you all!

Love and blessings from Liberia
xxxxxxxxx

A hope and a future!

I am feeling a lot of emotions today so I don`t know if it is a good idea or not to write but actually I have found that my best writing comes from being stirred in this way!

It has been a big work week for me! I have worked 12hr days last weekend and then 3 x 10hr nights the rest of the week and now I am at a time of rest! Last weekend was a fantastic weekend on the ward hanging out with the beautiful VVF ladies! I love it so much! I can`t express how happy I am when I work with these ladies! It makes me feel alive! I feel like I am doing what I was created to do when I am with them! They are beautiful but also sometimes demanding as they get closer to the end of their time with us! 2 weeks is a long time to be kept in a tin box with no windows! They do craft until they are sick of it! They are so talented at things like crocheting and knitting! I can`t knit to save myself! They have also seen as much Jesus film`s and biblical stories on dvd as could possibly be watched! Sometimes they are just plain restless! We take them all up on deck (if they are well enough) via the stock elevator! It is a feat getting them all up there in 5 person loads then they sit and watch the boats in the port and look at the crew walking down on the dock! It is such a strange environment for anyone!

Some of the girls are as young as 17 and others as old as 50-60yrs but they are united in their suffering!.

My friend Chris who was my favourite patient in Ghana has moved to Liberia. She was a Liberian refugee living in a IDP camp (internally displaced persons) she was taken to Ghana when she was running away from the war as a 16yr old. She was fleeing the rebels when she went into labour. Her story is horrific and I love her too much to share it in a blog, She is now here in Liberia and she came for another surgery 2 weeks ago!. I prayed and was troubled because I didn`t want to see her suffer again. In Ghana she had many surgeries and she got sick and infections each time so it worried me!. I had to pray against the fear I had! I did believe that God would heal her in His perfect time however that was meant to be!. So she had her surgery and spent 2 weeks on the ward and yesterday was her dress ceremony!. She of course was beautiful! She didn`t share much but she told of God being faithful! and I realised the power of words! She said "Sister Sarah told me that the day would come when I would be healed and now I am" I know I said this but part of me said it in just hope not in faith! But she held onto those words!
Chris turns 23 this month and we are going to have a party on the beach she says! She wants to get "new hair" as every african girl loves to do (they get braids with hair extensions). I asked her what she wanted for her birthday from me and she told me the next day that she wants money to go and buy new clothes! She is coming to work on the ship as a dayworker! She has an amazing "adoptive" mother Sheri who loves on her as one of her own!
I am excited to spend this birthday with her dancing on the beach in Liberia as 2 years ago we spent it in the refugee camp in Ghana when she turned 21! When I think of my 21st bday with my castle bday cake and all the amazing gifts I wish I could have given it all to her! She was happy and excited to have her own room with a mattress!
I look at the future for her and I see that the Lord really has used people to significantly impact her life and change her destiny!
He has given her a hope and a future and she will grab it with both hands! I said to someone yesterday that she is story that no one could make up! There is even more to this story but it is not mine to tell!

"For I know the plans I have for you" declares the Lord "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you a hope and a future." Jeremiah 29:11

Faith to touch his hem...

I have been worried that if I blog too much that I may wear you all out! But I have decided that the key to a good blog is actually recording random musings (thanks Steph.B for the inspiration!).
The past week has held its own share of struggles! Why not share the burden, a yoke shared is a yoke lightened hey!

First of all, Michael has been sick with "runny tummy" as Liberians call it! For 5 days now! we are both suffering! But as we promised 6 months ago... "In sickness and in health"! He has barely left our cabin! The Dr says there is nothing he can do so he must just wait it out! As a nurse I would like to find some Antibiotics which you can buy anywhere here in Liberia (but they aren`t necessarily what they say they are) and say goodbye to the nasty bug that is keeping us from a good nights sleep!

My struggle of the past week has also involved being overwhelmed again by the pain of these people! The patients we care for on the ward have often seen more pain than any human should have to endure yet to their credit most of them praise God where we would shout at him for the hand dealt to us! I am so confronted when faced with how I would deal with the same situation!.

One of our translator/ patient counselor on the ward was a patient here on the ship a year ago. She told me how she suffered for 10 years with VVF before she came for the surgery. She told me about how she was only 22 when it happened. She was so embarrassed by her leaking that she refused to see people and would spend days at a time crying. Imagine how hard it would be to watch your family and friends living productive lives while you sat in a room out the back of the house hiding because you smell so bad!. I can`t help thinking of the faith of the bleeding woman who ran after Jesus and had the faith to think that if she touched just the edge of his robe that maybe she would be healed!. These women have the same faith! They are so desperate they believe that if only I come to the ship and have surgery that they may receive their healing! What an amazing step of faith to beg someone for money and despite the embarrassment you will endure to get to a place you have only heard about you would travel for hours in the heat and rain and finally arrive to a ship where they look strange and sound strange. THIS IS FAITH!!!!!
Some receive their physical healing after their first surgery for many other VVF ladies they have multiple sugeries and for some their bladder is so ruined from the trauma of obstructed childbirth that they will have problems forever unless they have supernatural healing! It so hard to watch them go through a rollercoaster of emotions! I have a lovely lady on the ward at the moment that I have no words for!. She is sad and has had multiple surgeries! We leave liberia at the end of the year not to return for maybe a number of years! There is no VVF surgeon in this country! So hard! I have to believe that the Lord has something for her and has her here for a bigger reason!
My friend/patient Chris is here from Ghana! I still will tell you about her as she too has recieved her I think fourth surgery the other day but I will wait to tell you when she is better!

Lord I pray that you would increase my faith that I would have as much faith as these women who would do anything to just touch the hem of Jesus` robe!

"Young`s are finally out fishing!"

We are finally here!!!!!!!!! It has been nearly 6 months since the Lord spoke to us about coming back to the ship to serve in West Africa!. Last Sunday, 3rd August 2008, we arrived after nearly 30 hrs of travelling and layovers in Washington D.C (USA) and Brussells (Belgium). It was so good to walk out into humid and rainy Liberia!. We had some good friends meeting us at the airport which was so lovely!. The drive through Monrovia brought back so many fond memories for us! We had to pinch each other to check that we were really here! It is all so familiar! but then we arrived at the Dock in the Port and our beloved old Anastasis (the ship we were on last year) is gone and the Africa Mercy looms out of the Ocean like a huge white box!. She is not as pretty on the outside as the Anastasis but she is bigger and more modern inside and much more functional especially in terms of being able to help more people which is wonderful!. Our cabin is awesome!!!! It is definitely a good thing to be married when it comes to having more space! We have a big bed, a lounge area,desk and lots of cupbooard space and even a kitchenette and small bathroom. Its sort of the size of a small motel room and about as functional!. We are looking forward to making it more homely when our own bedspread and pillows arrive in the next shipping container (we put them on the container in texas being sent from the base there). Our room faces the dock otherwise known as port side!.

Work wise: I (Sarah) am back on the ward as a ward nurse taking care of the patients who have had surgery! It is such a privlidge! I still love it! I have had beautiful babies to play with who have had club feet repairs! They cry for the first 2 days post op then they start to smile and play! they are in casts for many weeks so it is frustrating for the poor little things who just want to play! There are also VVF ladies being operated on for 6 weeks!. I haven`t been taking care of them yet but I hope to this week as this is probably my favourite type of patient! I love seeing Jesus touch their heart! They are patients who need a lot of love and we love to show it to them! Their testimonies at the end of their stay here make me cry every time! They are so rejected and such outcasts and they have often not been touched in years and then they come here and they are fussed over and have their nails painted, a surgery, lots of love, making craft, worship and a new dress to celebrate their new life and they are forever changed! These women have often had multiple pregnancies with not even one live child to show for it! Can you imagine what that is like? I don`t think we can really understand how much grief these people have been through!
I took care of a baby the other day who was called "Small Joe" He had a twin brother called "Big Joe" but he died and so did his mother so his fatther has lost a son and a wife in less than a year! and this baby he has left has been unwell with an infection in the bone! So hard! Hard lives and yet they keep going because they must! It is a fight to survive! If small joe makes it to 5 yrs old he is a miracle! Arggggggggggggggggghhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!! Things are improving here in Liberia but still such along way to go! Nowhere near enough health facilities or the ability for people far from the city to get treated for minor problems that grow into Large ones!

Michael is working in the sales department at the moment! This is the ship shop (our little shop that sells all the necessities like toiletries etc), snack bar and cafe! Yay for Coffee! very cheap coffee too only $1 for a Latte! The nice part of working here is there are some perks! It is a contradiction of worlds as we live with internet access, satellite telephone and even TV and then outside is the 3rd world! I know its a little crazy but it means we can actually achieve and do more work here in the country because our time is not spent on surviving! This is modern mission work, not like the old days when people took their coffin to Africa because they were never coming home!
Michael is on the Fire team again which he loves! He loves all that manly stuff!

So I guess I have wrote too much already but want to try and give you some idea what our life looks like here!
I will write again soon! Oh I have a great story to tell about a patient named Chris (a VVF lady) who is a lovely girl with a beautiful story but I will share that next time....
(I have to keep you hanging)
Love always
Sarah and Michael :)

The Young`s fight fires!

What does this mean I hear you say!!!

Well we have been here at Gateway, our training course to go to the Ship long term for nearly 5 weeks now and today was the day I had personally been dreading as we geared up to learn to fight fires as part of Basic Safety Training that is compulsory for us to do as part of living in an environment that has unique problems!. Michael was on the fire team last time we were on the job but has not had to put out a real fire only participated in drills thankfully!.
We headed down to the "barn" where the fire gear is kept at 6am this morning!!! Yes really! It was still dark but this was because of the intense heat that was coming when the sun came up! It was close to 40degrees by 10am!
So I overcame my fear and wore a SCBA which is the darth vader mask firefighter`s wear with the Oxygen tank. We were taught to use the fire extinguishers on real fires, use a hose to put out a fuel fire, rescue a body blindfolded in a small environment (the dummy weighed over 80 kg so it was quite difficult to drag) and enter a building with fire in it with a hose!
It was pretty fun despite the intense heat wearing all that gear in the blazing sun for about 5 hours!
Later in the week we have sea survival and we get to put on what is called gumby suits and float in the pool and learn to get in and out of life rafts and more fun stuff but before then we have first aid and CPR! Its a full on week!.

This week follows 4 weeks of intense learning!. We have been learning about the organisation, missions, Biblical worldview, Living with purpose, Prayer, Spiritual Warfare, community development and more!. It has been a time of God stretching us spiritually and emotionally!. I feel like He is doing a work of intense growth and pruning in us just as a plant has to be pruned in order to have a growth spurt as it in order to flower and bear fruit! We are being prepared for the season where we will see the fruit of the labour!.

What an awesome God we serve and we are so excited to be on our way to Love the people of West Africa with the 2 hands of the Gospel- that is words and action! Love without deeds is dead!

We thankyou for your continued support of us as we head ever closer to Africa for this exciting journey!
God Bless ya
xxxxx

Getting closer.........

We get ever closer to our leaving date and Thank goodness we now have our tickets purchased all the way to Monrovia. Liberia. We have been busy presenting Mercy Ships to our church and related groups which has been so encouraging!. We have been so touched at the way people have taken not only Mercy Ships but also us into their hearts and are committed to supporting us while we are away!. Last time I went was a solo effort in a lot of ways and I feel like I go this time with more prayers than I can count and that is truly a covering that brings such peace! We also see God`s hand at work that even when we have moments in the future where it gets hard we know without a doubt that we are called to be serving on the mission field in West Africa. I have even been asked to come and share about Mercy Ships with my old highschool! What an amazing oppurtunity to share with those girls how Jesus took an ordinary girl and gave her a crazy story of adventure, love and more stories than she can share!
People keep telling us how great it is what we are doing but I feel that we are the ones who are blessed beyond belief!

There are so many emotions going on for Michael and I right now! Grief mixed with excitement! Hows that for confusing! Grief of the long drawn out farewells and future grief of the family moments that will be missed..... First words and steps... graduations, 21st`s..... death`s??? Can`t even bear to think about that too much! But its like a bubble in my gut that rises up sometimes and catches me unawares! I am more aware than ever of the call and cost of being a disciple! In all of the gospels we are told that such things are the cost but its only when I am away that I really feel like there is much of a cost! I think my life in general is quite comfortable!

I feel so incredibly human in my desires sometimes! But at the same time I am compelled forwards as I think of the plight of the weak, poor, enslaved, outcasts, sick and dying in the nations of West Africa and I am once again pulled towards a foreign land because my heart is burdened that now I know (like the line in the Brooke Fraser song" Now that I have seen I am responsible, faith without deeds is dead!"). When leaving Africa last time I vowed I would not forget the need and our responsibility as Christians to reach out to in physical ways to those around us who are in poverty!
However I know how easy it has been for me to try to push those thoughts away as comfort has taken over! Once again I will find myself back in dirty, sweaty, diseased Africa and I pray that I never get numb to the pain and suffering! I pray it breaks our hearts forever! I want to be changed forever because of it! Even if that means never being able to live in Australia again!

As our family and friends I pray that you won`t see us leaving as personal but instead see that you wouldn`t have all of us if we were here because when you aren`t living out what you were created for, you are like a shadow of the real you! I feel like I am almost a shadow here..................

The love story continues....

So this is our first offical blog entry! We are off to the USA in just 4 weeks to do a course called " Gateway" that will allow us to serve with Mercy Ships long term!. Mercy Ships is a non governmental organisation but more importantly a Christian organisation that has a Hospital Ship called the M/V Africa Mercy. The Africa Mercy is based in West Africa where it gives hope and healing to the world`s forgotten poor!.
This is the continuation of a love story!
It is a love story because the reason we want to go and serve as volunteers is because of the love God showed us when He gave His son for us on the cross at calvary!. Because we have this salvation and thereby know God`s love we want to share it with the world! This blog is called "Gone fishing" because thats what the Lord called us to do! He called us to go and make disciples of all nations and be fishers of men!. We will be doing this in varying capacities. Michael is still to find out what his offical job will be and my job is as an ICU/ward nurse caring for patients post surgery. The suregeries include cleft lip and palates, eye surgery including cataracts, large maxillo facial tumour removals, club feet, VVF (fistulas on ladies post obstructed child birth), plastics including release of contractures and skin grafts, goiter and hernia removals and more!.
Our surgeries are done for no cost to the patients and we do not discrimanate according to race, gender or religion.

The love story also continues in that this is where Michael and I met and now because of God bringing us both from opposite ends of the earth to Africa to serve we now get to do Mission work together as a married couple!. We have had nearly a year away from the ship to grow together and now we are so excited to get back to doing the work we feel we were created for! We are really excited to share our journey with you!
So here we go...................