Orphanage Visit

One of the things that I love about Mercy Ships is Mercy Ministries.  Mercy Ministries provides off-ship ministry opportunities for our crew to work with existing organizations such as the infant rescue centers, orphanages, prisons, and schools for the deaf and blind.  This gives those of us who do not work directly with Africans on a daily basis a chance to serve in the local community.  We are not allowed to take pictures while we are on a Mercy Ministry trip, so the pictures in this blog post are various pictures taken here in Guinea by Mercy Ships Photographers.

I am especially thankful for these opportunities because I am able to pour out love, and these experiences, in turn, fill me up.  So far I have participated in two mercy ministry opportunities.  First, I visited the infant rescue center, and then this past Saturday, Caleb and I visited a local orphanage.

The Baby Rescue Center (which rescues abandoned unwanted infants) is located in the village of Kobaya about a one to two hour drive from the ship.  It was a one hour trip going and two hours returning due to traffic.  The baby center is in a very nice house with an outdoor area for the little ones to play.  Currently there are 12 babies living at the center.  Several of the babies are in the process of being adopted.   Two will be heading to Ohio, one to Canada, and two others will be going to Guinean families.  I was so glad to know that the center works with an adoption agency to find these sweet babies homes.  The center often receives babies found by the police, but one of the sweet babies was found wrapped in plastic on the train tracks.  The babies can stay at the center until they are around four years old, and then if they have not been adopted they will move to another facility that takes care of older children.  I spent a lovely two hours holding, cuddling, singing to, and loving on these sweet babies.

One sweet boy, David, could use your prayers...I am not sure of David 's age.  Age is often difficult because children are usually malnourished before they come to the center.  This stunts their growth and development.  He appears to be around 15 months, but behaves very much like a new born.  He cannot roll over, and at first he seemed to be in pain.  Several of the ladies who visited the center with me focused their attention on David.  Exercising his stiff limbs and playing peekaboo.  He seemed to just soak up the attention, and he started making happy sounds.  I loved hearing him giggle and I ask that you pray God will provide a home for David where he will have loving parents to help him develop into the best David he can be.

All of the children were adorable, and seemed to just want to soak up every bit of the attention we came to give.  I certainly enjoyed my afternoon, and was blessed by the opportunity.  There are so many opportunities like this on the ship.  I feel so blessed to be able to sign up and serve in so many different ways.

The visit to the orphanage was different for two reasons.  The first difference was that I took my youngest son, Caleb, with me.  Second, the age range for the children was larger, probably 1yr-7yrs old.  When we first opened the gate and stepped in, most of the children who could walk came running.

My first impression was that the children are cared for.  They have food, clothes, and toys to play with, but with all of that they are still starving for affection.  To be held, loved, and cherished. these are what children NEED more than worldly things.  They need moms and dads who will love them unconditionally and who will make every effort to love them like we are loved by our Heavenly Father.  My heart broke for these sweet babies...they knew that if they could get us to pick them up we would hold them.  Once we had picked up a child they would not let go.  Little arms wrapped around my neck and legs around my waist.  I could let go but these toddlers would hold on. They wanted to be held.

Within minutes I had two sweet children in my lap, and then I saw Caleb.  My sweet, sensitive youngest son standing frozen.  I am not sure if it was fear or shock, but he would not move.  I tried to get him to come sit by me but he wouldn't respond.  Several older children rubbed his blond hair but he didn't react.  I tried to put the babies down to go and get him, but my babies were not going to have that.  After a few minutes he walked over beside me and crouched down, and watched some more.  I wondered what he was thinking.  Was it the smells, the flies, or the fact that this place looked so different from an American pre-school.  Whatever it was he was soaking it all in.  After another few minutes he stood up and went over to one of the blankets to attempt to play...I was so proud.  The children at the orphanage are rather territorial about their toys, and one got upset when Caleb picked up a little guitar.  He grabbed it out of Caleb's hands, and this shattered what little courage my sweet boy had mustered up.  His lower lip quivered, and a tear ran down his face.  He came over to me and asked to get back in the truck.  I tried to encourage him to sit by me.  I told him that each of these children do not have a mommy or daddy to love them, and that we were here to give them our love.  He seemed to understand and he calmed down.

The couple that leads this Mercy Ministry have two daughters, the older daughter took Caleb under her wing and asked him to be her helper during Bible Story Time & Craft.  Once Caleb had a sense of purpose he turned back into his normal self.  He helped show the children the play dough craft we were going to make, and at the end of the time he was playing happily in the courtyard.  It was interesting to watch my son grow over a few hours.  I hope that we are teaching our children how to love, and be kind to others.  I hope that someday Caleb will look back on this day as a good memory.

For me the day was so GOOD and so DIFFICULT.  I kept wondering:  What kind of future will these children have?  Will they receive forever homes in this life?  Will they know what it is to be loved abundantly?  I pray that they will.  I pray that we are making a difference and that we are showing them the love of a Father that will never leave them.

Will you pray for these children?

The Face of Dental Pain

These pictures were taken by a Mercy Ships photographer at one of our recent screenings.  We screen every Monday and Thursday morning and the line is pretty much always the same.

Line starts forming 1-2 hours before we arrive.  Security Volunteers keep things organized

Men,Women, and Children are separated for safety

My Team Leader, Sieh, is an expert.  He will screen all these people in 20-30 minutes.

Bangaly, one of our Day Worker interpreters explains the procedure so everybody knows what will happen

Have you ever had a tooth ache?

Soldiers who have been shot, say it is like being shot in the mouth.

The pain lasts anywhere from several days to a couple of weeks.

The only thing that hurts worse than doing nothing is touching anything.

Sometimes the pain goes away and then comes back every couple of months.

Sometimes your face swells.

Children particularly have a hard time understanding why the pain just won't go away.

Have you ever had a toothache?

Then you stand in line all day to see a free dentist.

And then there is hope that your pain can go away.

This is the Mercy Ships Dental team.  Some are here for only a short time, some are here the entire 10 months.  We come from many nations, but with one purpose.  We are who God sent to heal the pain.

The Prison Ministry

 

From Mark:
Last week I went to a local prison with 7 other men, 3 westerners and 4 African crew that are regulars on the prison ministry.  A group of ladies also went to an adjacent women's prison.  This was my first outing to a prison but the prison ministry group had been to this prison once already a couple of weeks earlier.  Sorry, no real pictures as we are not allowed to take cameras into the prison.  Also, Guineans are very touchy about pictures of locations like prisons.  This prison houses some political prisoners so our leader asked that we not bring cameras at all.  I tried to find pictures on Google that reminded me how things were.

First, a little description is in order.  This is not a prison like in the western sense with a lot of bars and high security.  This prison is basically a walled compound with with rows of tin-roofed rooms.  The prisoners seem pretty free to move around, there only seemed a couple of places where guards were placed.  It look more like an old-time frontier fort.  A few chickens ran around.  I think the prison only provides a bowl of rice per day, so prisoners have to get other nutrition as they can, from family, friends or what they can grow on the inside.  Inside there is a Chapel, roof and benches, no walls; with a large wooden cross and old picture of Jesus.  If I had my guess I would say this was a catholic chapel but it's simplicity did not give a lot of clues.

We arrived and we were required to wash our hands with very heavy bleach solution that I was told not to wipe off on my cloths because it would bleach them.  This is an attempt to prevent the spread of Cholera into and out of the prison.  The eight of us filed into the chapel and after several minutes of waiting and no one coming, we just started to sing.  After about 4 songs the place began filling up.  As to not bore everybody I will just give some of my thoughts.

This is where our faith was designed to be.  I was surrounded by perhaps 40 men who, for just a few short minutes, were free from their prison. 

If there was ever any question that God is everywhere, he was there.  Yes, God can be found in prison in west Africa.  More than His presence I felt his hand moving.

The Word was spoken, the Word was sung.  The power of hope came.  The Love of God, the Truth of the Gospel was poured out on the dirty ground of this prison.

While sitting and worshiping with these men I came to the realization that apart from the Holy Spirit that we receive through the blood of Jesus we are all in a prison.  Our prison may not look like the one these men were trapped in and the bars that hold us are not always as visible, but it is a prison.  Dirty, confined, lost.  I began to see that the true power of God is, that even in a prison, God can come.  I know that if those men can embrace the Truth that we told them and make their prison a prison worthy of God and the sacrifice of His Son, they will be free, even in prison.  What's more, if our prison truly reflects the Gospel, other men will fight to break in, to come into our prison, just for one touch, one feel, one glimpse of the Glory of God, Jesus Christ.

Cascade de la Soumba

We left the Africa Mercy at 9:30 in the morning hoping to find some waterfalls.  We had a map, a picnic lunch, and an idea of where to go.  Two hours later we still had no idea where the waterfall were, but we had made it out of Conakry.  We found the city of Dubreka.  We understood that the falls were somewhere around Dubreka.  We spent several minutes driving around the area stopping and asking various Africans, "Ou est cascade de la soumba?"  We were told they were east.  We were told they were west.  We still had no idea where these waterfalls might be hiding.  Then someone in the land rover had an idea...lets ask a taxi driver he might know the whereabouts of theses infamous waterfalls.

Gabe helped me out.  We just kept repeating ourselves.  We smiled really big.  We repeated ourselves louder and added some hand motions that we felt depicted waterfalls beautifully.  Still no one understood.  Then I said in my 'excellent' french, "I would like to look at the waterfalls of Soumba?"  Ah Ha!  Understanding.  Then our new African friend who up until this point only spoke French said, "I give you this man to show you waterfalls."  I squeezed in the back with the boys, and our tour guide pointed.  Thirty minutes later we arrived at the falls.  I will let the pictures speak for themselves.

Hat Day (Lots of Pictures)

A dinosaur, a fish, and a volcano.

A dinosaur attacking the fish.

Super excited about school Spirit Day!

He picked a blue shirt to match his fish.

He picked a red shirt to look like lava.

My favorite part of hat day was Matthew's volcano sound effects.

Caleb was amazed by Miss Leah's rather large hat!

I love that toothless grin.

Jacob wore his dinosaur shirt...the shirt was three inches too long at Christmas last year.  It was a 3/4 length sleeve shirt today.  These kids grow crazy fast!

Pain of Change

Mark's Reflections after a Mercy Ships screening

For those not in the know, Mercy ships general screening is something our organization does at the beginning of every field service.  It is usually a single day event where people are told they are to be selected for free surgeries.  The poorest of the poor show up.  Not to say they are all materially poor, but they are all poor in the sense that they are searching and hoping for healing they can not provide themselves.  I want to start with a story, a story about a man, a man whose name I don't know.

Photos courtesy of Mercy Ships photographers

This man stood in the line above all day to see if our ship could help him.  Behind that bandana is a physical disfigurement that he refuses to show this world and for good reason.  Most of us would not want to see it.  I want to look past the disfigurement as God looks past the disfigurement of us all.  Looking into this man's eyes I can see a weariness.  I will tell you I saw this man later, when his bandana had been removed and his shame was visible to the whole world.  The look in his eye changed from weary to hopeful when another man, a healer, touched him.  His hope was in man and that is a sad hope indeed.  I wish I could tell you this story has a happy ending, but this is a true story, a biblical story.  I do not believe our ship will be able to physically help this man, though I do not know for sure.  His physical condition will end his physical existence.  The only happiness I can offer is a hope, a hope that we share with this man.  Our hope is that we, the eternally poor, can receive a healing that we can not provide for ourselves.  Jesus Christ

I pray for the man above daily and I lament that I did not even get to know his name, but God knows his name.  God knows his pain.  I encourage you to pray for this man also.  The prayers of the righteous have power.  God's presence in Guinea has the power to save.  Pray for the harvest and the harvesters.

Our faith is a faith of hope, so I want to leave you with some encouraging images.  The day was not all pain and suffering.  There was joy and beauty in the Spirit, even here, among the disfigured poor. Many here will be healed by our ship.  Many will put off physical pain and suffering for a while longer and that should be celebrated as well.

Photos from Guinea General Screening.  Courtesy of Mercy Ships photographers

I will leave you with one last thought.  We are all the disfigured poor.  Were it not for Jesus, who came to save me I would be weary and without hope.  Are you ready to die to yourself and be born in Him?  You will see as He sees and feel as He feels, touching the disfigured, hopeless masses with a love so powerful it made the universe come into being.  To follow Jesus is to know the pain of change.  Are you ready to be holy?