Well, here we are again. :)
First of all, I have to say a big THANK YOU to Vineyard Fellowship for sending us that video of greetings. You will never know how much that meant to us! Branton, thanks for acting on an idea and doing it so professionally! We get these moments of “OK we know we’re supposed to be here” and watching that video was definitely one of those moments.
This post will be a little bit all over the place--some pieces of news and some updates on Mercy Ships life and our own lives. It’s been trickier than I thought it would be to write a well-balanced view of life--not all rosy, but definitely not all bad: just real. I hope that this post reflects real life to you. That’s the reason for the title: The Good and the Bad, but hopefully you don’t find it ugly. :)
We just finished our time with Brian, Sandy [Mom and Dad:)], Luke, and Sara. I don’t think we realized ahead of time just how much that visit would mean to us. It was incredibly surreal to see them walking around the ship! There were lots of highlights but I think the coolest thing for all of us was them getting to see our life with their own eyes. I am ever so grateful for internet and phone lines but there is just nothing quite like seeing something for yourself, is there? It was fun to introduce them to our friends and people really opened up to get to know them--the friendliness of crew who say hellos and goodbyes daily will never cease to amaze me! I felt like they got a good mix of what life is like--they helped us around the ship (Jordan more than me as my department is a bit slow this month with lots of people leaving), visited one of the Mercy Ministries (handicapped tailors), observed surgeries, participated in a fire drill, went to the beach one day, attended a community meeting, watched ships come in and out of the port, and sat in the dining room chatting waaaay after dinner was done each evening. Oh, and I should probably mention: sweated buckets!
The flip side (hearing about their lives) was just as important. A lot has happened in eight months and it’s way easier to relay news when you have 9 days to do so. :) As fun as it is to get to know people of different cultures and backgrounds, it was refreshing to be in familiar company. We laughed a lot. :)
Even more than that, it was a huge encouragement on a personal level to have them here. Another facet of real life: we have days where we don’t feel good enough and we compare ourselves to those around us. This still doesn’t quite make sense to me, but for some reason having them around helped me to put things in perspective--why we’re here and why we do what we do. Sorry if that sounds ambiguous because I know it does, but it was just really cool to have people that we respect and whose opinions we value affirm us.
It was wonderful and went way too quickly but to be fair, we knew it would. :)
Next: I assume that most of you have heard that we are no longer going to Guinea for the 2014-2015 field service. I’m sorry for not posting anything about that on my own but that announcement touched very close to home and I didn’t want to just say anything without thinking it through. In March, we received news of an Ebola outbreak in the southern region of Guinea--very close to Hope Clinic. We followed the situation, assuming it would clear up soon but also aware of the fact that even though the ship itself wouldn’t arrive in Conakry until August, there were other preparations that had to be considered--probably the two most important being that containers carrying supplies needed to be sent ahead and also the Advance team of about 10 people that would be living in Conakry from May to August to prepare for the ship’s arrival--arranging for visa waivers, negotiating with government and port authorities, finding a screening site for the first mass screening day, setting up the Hope Center, as well as finding sites for the dental and eye clinics, among lots more. There is more to this mission than just a floating hospital and I am constantly becoming more and more aware of that. The time came closer and closer for the Advance team to fly out and there was no word that the situation was completely contained. Finally about a month ago, the Managing Director for Mercy Ships sent out out the following email:
The Mercy Ships International Management Team has closely followed the Ebola outbreak in Guinea and Liberia since it came to light in March. The IMT has consulted with a broad range of outside experts and internal stakeholders. While the international response to the outbreak has been strong and decisive, and we believe it will be effectively extinguished in due course, the uncertainty it poses at this time compromises our ability to plan and execute the anticipated Guinea field service. Our operational requirements to function include supply and personnel logistics that do not give us the ability to further wait on prospective outcomes of the Ebola situation over the coming weeks and months. As such, we have chosen to postpone going to Guinea and will instead return to Cotonou, Benin, where the Africa Mercy last served in 2009. We remain committed to a long term relationship with the nation of Guinea, and look forward to a successful field service to the people of Benin.
I want to preface this next part by saying that I do not in any way want this to come across as selfish. And I also realize that in the grand scheme of things, it is really not a big deal. But needless to say, that email hit like a blow. I am honestly excited about going to Benin but to think that we would be going to Guinea when we didn’t expect to go there in the first place (since the ship just completed a field service in Guinea) seemed like a cruel trick. I hadn’t even realized all of the little things that I was excited for in Guinea until I found out we wouldn’t be going. Going to Guinea just seemed perfect on so many levels, both personally and professionally. I kept saying that it was such a God thing, especially since Mom, Dad, and Hannah would be living in Conakry for the first time and that’s where the ship would be docked! I haven’t lived in the same city as my parents for more than two months since I was 15. My new job will involve working with local day crew and it just seemed perfect that I could work with a culture and languages that I grew up in. Trust me, I was excited and it seemed like God’s plan was a pretty perfect one. :)
Picking up the phone to tell my parents and sister was not fun at all. The first words that both my parents told me were: “We have to trust that God has a plan in this.” I thought about that for several days and sort of came to two conclusions (neither of which are very deep but hey, they’re still conclusions):
First of all, I don’t think I have ever been more grateful for parents that live out the faith they teach. I’ve gained more respect for the hard things my parents have done while we’ve been on this journey: saying goodbye to their own parents and siblings and convenience (not very spiritual but still true), being away for the hard stuff (Pat Kaufman’s death and funeral), and good stuff (not being around for Ari’s introduction into the family). To already have all of that rolling around in my mind and then to give them news that I didn’t have any control over but would hurt regardless and hear them trust first and hurt later really meant the world to me.
[And let’s not forget that they’ve put up with slow internet for a really long time. Insert funny story here: I have a kindle and that thing is truly wonderful, especially for long trips and having access to the Troy public library all the way out here. But last night it took me 45 minutes to download a book. 45 minutes. I found it ironic that I didn’t even want to use the internet to “face chat” or “snap flap” as Jordan refers to social media--I JUST WANTED TO READ A BOOK!!]
Back to seriousness. Second of all, it forced me to come to the conclusion that just because the first plan seemed perfect, the plan to go to Benin must be even more perfect, despite it not lining up with my ideal. I have to trust that God has a reason for this, and to take that even further, He even has a reason for letting me think we’d be going to Guinea.
And I guess I’ll wrap up with what’s going on right now on the ship. We are getting ready to leave Pointe Noire--it’s so strange to think that the field service is nearly over. We weren’t here for the whole thing but it still feels like a long time! I think Pointe Noire will always be a special place for us, since it’s where we started with Mercy Ships. It’s bizarre to think that we’ll be living in the exact same place and a totally different place at the same time.
From here we sail to Las Palmas, which is in the Canary Islands, and the ship will go into a maintenance period until mid August. We’ve heard that the islands are beautiful so we’re looking forward to doing some exploring there. We’ll both be working hard too--Jordan is involved in a lot of the maintenance and I will be busy getting ready for the new field service in my new position, which will involve a lot of changing procedures (maybe more on that another time).
It will be fun to have a change of scenery and also to SAIL! We’ll be sailing through 0’0’ (the intersection of the Prime Meridian and the Equator) which I think is pretty cool! Apparently when any sailor sails through the 0’0’ intersection they become known as an emerald shellback. We’re not sure what advantage becoming emerald shellbacks is going to be for us but I guess we’ll find out.
Time to bring this post to a close. I don’t think there is a better group of supporters anywhere--you guys are fantastic! We receive emails, letters and packages, pictures, etc so often from you and each one is so special! We will definitely be watching that video of greetings over and over again as well. :)
