Christmas on the AFM

by the way, AFM is the way we shorten the ship's name--Africa Mercy.

this Christmas season has been strange. i have found it quite difficult to get into and remain in "the Christmas spirit". part of this is the fact that in early december i was still playing in the water at the beach (and even now when it is decidedly cooler here in tenerife, it is still mid to upper 60s in the daytime and i can see palm trees.) part of it has been the fact that i am not home and don't have "home" coming to me (family visiting) or plans to go home during this season. part of it is the lack of bombardment of holiday stuff from the stores (due to lack of stores) and tv screen (again due to lack of tv viewing). and this one i am actually thankful for. i didn't have to start seeing Christmas decor and sales in the shops beginning before halloween was even over.

but there is a lot to do to "bring" Christmas here on the AFM. the normal community areas of the cafe/midships lounge/dining room are decorated with trees and garland and lights and ornaments. and our activities schedule is actually much more full than normal.

3rd--winter wonderland (craft booths and yummy winter treats to eat/drink)

9th--santa lucia (scandinavian holiday celebration usually on the 13th but we were sailing then.)

holiday movies on the weekends (White Christmas, The Christmas Story, Elf)

14th--cookie baking/decorating (i was a bit seasick then so i baked mine the next day)

15th--kids Christmas craft night. (adults helping kids do Christmas-y crafts and santa pics)

18th--kids Chrismtas play (written and performed by the academy students. they did a great job! it was funny and thoughtful and no mean feat for them to perform while sailing and having to do lines and maintain balance)

24th--Christmas dinner and service along with the dutch tradition of leaving gifts in shoes (although that happens on the 5th in the netherlands i think)

25th--Christmas brunch

31st--new year's eve ball and fireworks put on by the harbor

and we have had beautiful Advent services each sunday where Scriptures are read and Christmas hymns and carols are sung (although most of these are the british and not american english versions). each sunday we have a different special music offering...the first week was a song in portugese from our brazilian family, the second week was a song in the ghanian dialect by several african crew members, the third week was a song in korean and mandarin chinese by some of the asian/korean crew members, the fourth week was by some of our norwegian crew members.

below are some pics of the decor aboard. the first is a tree painted onto a glass door, the second a tree in the midships lounge, the next three are my cabin door and our next door neighbors and we combined our doors into a theme along the lines of elfyourself, the next is the cafe area and the last two are tayler and miriam in the miships stair area. not bad for a ship!

God's sense of humor

sailing (i know i still owe one about my thoughts on africa so far)
so, what does sailing have to do with God's sense of humor? well, let's see...i have motion sickness (planes, trains, cars, boats, ships) and i'm on a ship that is sailing. i also have a mild bit of claustrophobia (it has more to do with the amount of stuff in the space than the size of the space) and i'm on a ship sharing what used to be the size of my room at home with 3 other people--4 beds, 4 closets, a bathroom, a sitting area on a ship, where everything is compacted for space sake. and i have a serious fear of water that i can't see it and i'm on a ship in the middle of the ocean with nothing but water to see wherever i look.
God's sense of humor?
i enjoy the sailing apart from the motion sickness (which i did have a bout of this morning)
i like my cabin and cabin mates and even the compactness of things on the ship
i think the ocean is beautiful. watching the waves roll by, right now with white caps on the waves. the lovely colour of blue of the ocean caused by the reflection of the sky and light of the sun. the way the ship crashes down into the waves makes me smile (and a bit sick) but it is fun.

God is good...all the time. even when we don't understand.

"master and commander" and robert's port

robert's port first

we had a "dark" ship this past weekend as the main engines were off from some maintenance. so, most everyone who didn't have to be on ship went ashore. i went with a group of 10 others to a beach called robert's port. there are canvas tents on wooden platforms with 2-3 double beds in them to camp in. we drove up saturday morning and arrived right around lunch time. after a quick lunch it was down to the beach where we met up with another group of about 10 people from the ship who had camped out on the beach and into the water for a bit followed by some beach volleyball first in just a round robin style then later at the net the "resort" owner set up. this game was a bit challenging in that we had a dog who kept wanting to join and was only lured away by esther throwing the stick over and over and over for him. it was starting to get dark so we headed up for showers before dinner. we had a really nice african dinner at the restaurant there at the resort with some sparkly gear on to celebrate esther's 30th birthday! if you're going to have to be away from home in africa, celebrating on the beach is the way to go. after dinner and some dancing by a few in our group, we headed over to the meet back up with the other group and sit at a bonfire eating cake and smores and playing bonfire games. a moonlit walk on the beach and then bed. up to play again in the water for hours on sunday and then some more volleyball and showers and heading back to the ship. we arrived home tired but relaxed from the weekend. and back to a ship with power....yeah!

pics below are the inside of the tent, esther and i at her birthday dinner, breakfast group--paul/esther/karen/nina, keep away in the water, and me coming towards our tent



master and commander
we are studying the names of God in ward nurse devotionals this week. one of my 7 names to study was Master. and usually i think of this in terms of slave and master and more from the slave's point of view. but being that i am on a ship currently and the captain is also known as the master, i am seeing some new aspects of this. our captain (not sure if this is true of all captains) has made himself responsible and accountable for us. if we miss curfew, it falls on his shoulder's. and i was thinking about this in relation to our Master. He also has made Himself responsible for us and accountable to the Father for us. Cool, huh?!?! He is responsible for our keeping. that is so humbling and amazing.

and then there were none...

a bit of a morbid title i guess.

sorry it has been several weeks. next week (hopefully) will have at least 2 but hoping 3 blogs. but i did want to update you on what is going on right now. and teaser for next 3 blogs...robert's port, my thoughts and experiences on my work so far and sailing.

this last couple of weeks has been spent sending more and more patients home, closing down different parts of the hospital and saying goodbyes to nurses who are leaving and our liberian dayworkers who come in to help in various roles (ward counselors, translators, working in the deck and cleaning departments, etc). so, then there were none...we sent our last patients home and last days of work for our dayworkers on friday. it is a bit bittersweet. i am looking forward to the time "off" and holidays but i will miss my patients and dayworker friends. we will be sailing soon but before that, lots of cleaning and packing yet to do.

i know this isn't a lot of info for having been m.i.a. in the last 3 weeks, but i promise more next week.

Spreekt u Nederlands?

And the answer to that is no, I don’t speak Dutch. However, this past Sunday I rode into Monrovia with 8 Dutchies (as they call themselves) to meet up with another Hollander and her Liberian husband at their home. My friend Daniel said I was about to get a crash course in Dutch. I spent most of the ride over hearing Dutch in the background as I talked with Machiel—learning a bit more about him (like how to say his name properly) and Holland. While we were at Mabbu and Anneke’s home (Daniel’s friends) everyone mostly spoke English. When they did lapse into Dutch, Daniel was good to translate for me. Mabbu works with water sanitization and digging wells. Together they work with some of the poorest kids in the area to help them get into schools or at least keep up with learning and doing holiday celebrations for them. When we got to their home there was a roomful of children playing games, coloring and reading books. (of course this was my favorite part getting to hang out with the kids). Mabbu cooked some seriously yummy rice and stew for us. The last few minutes of our visit, we walked down to the beach and got our feet wet as we watched the sunset. (well, I got a little more than my feet wet, eh?)

To top of the trip, I was bitten by something just as we were leaving. Similar to a fire ant bite at home so guessing a cousin or such. Except that I have 9 bites on one toe, 2 on another, 1 on my instep and 3 on the outer side of my other foot. My one toe was quite red and swollen but that is subsiding as the blisters go down.

My friend Ben gave me a bit of a treat before he left to go home a few weeks ago. They needed to switch out the rescue boats to check the work he had been doing. So I got to ride in 2 of the rescue boats. The boats are on deck 7 and let down into the water by a crane. We were on the boat as it was let down and had to use the oars to make sure we didn’t hit anything as we went down. Then it was off for what was supposed to be a short trip. Two hours later, (because of some crane work on deck 8) we switched to the other boat and ran it a few minutes and then rode the boat as the crane pulled it up. It was nice to get out on the water and to go out to the landbreak . Below are a few pics from the trip…Ben steering, me steering and Trevor holding up something we found in the water…you find the strangest things in the water here!

sorrowful or singing single?

In church on Sunday, the text was from the book of Ruth. The pastor’s focus was surprisingly not on Ruth but instead on Naomi. We all like to read the “happily-ever-after” story of Ruth but often skip over Naomi.

Quick synopsis: Naomi left for Moab as part of a “we” and returned home single and childless. She called herself bitter and afflicted by the LORD. Two things I saw, the second a bit touched on by the pastor.

First is the problem of pain (as C.S. Lewis calls it). She calls herself afflicted by God. How hard it is to believe, to trust in God when presented with pain. “How can a just, merciful, loving God allow…?” Whatever the pain is…how can He allow it and still be a good God? (I have faced this question countless times in my career sometimes spoken but more often said with the eyes and the heart.) And there isn’t an easy answer—and certainly not one that someone hurting wants to hear. But often, we try to help, well-meaning, by throwing the Word of God at the one hurting and inflict more pain. How often do we hear quoted or say ourselves that even though there is pain now, “everything works for the good of those who love him” (Rom 8:28) or that “joy comes in the morning.” (Ps 30:5) There is nothing wrong with either of these verses (well the Word of God as a whole). They are both true but we must look at His Word in truth and not just what we want it to say. And sometimes, the joy takes a long time to come and sometimes our good is not an earthly good but an eternal good and we cannot see it this side of Heaven. His definition of good and ours are different most of the time. Then there is the other verse that well-meaning people often say that ends up hurting the one already hurting, “the pain must be sin related and if you will just repent, he will heal.” (II Chron 7:14) Of course this can be true. But we live in a broken and dying world and the prince of darkness currently has rule of this world and sometimes the pain is just from that, not sin. But who wants to hear any of this when we are hurting? And so we are left with the question “how can a good God allow…?”

The second thing I see is that Naomi couldn’t be satisfied in her singleness. She saw her married life and motherhood as being filled and her single life as being empty. But we aren’t supposed to find our fulfillment or satisfaction in other people or things of this world—only in God. It is easy (for me) to slip into trying to be fulfilled in others and not seek the Father. But it isn’t a true fulfillment. It is a precarious filling—a disagreement or someone not paying attention to you when you think they should or the drifting that can occur in relationships or even overwhelming the other with your “need” for them. It can all lead to dissatisfaction (as it should) because we are to be filled by Him alone. I often vascillate between being sorrowful and singing. Somedays I am content and singing in my singleness. Sometimes, I am a bit more on the sorrowful side.

church in africa

i have been to church in africa three times so far (well, if you don't include ward church services).

the first church i attended was a small church and very african. acapella music with dancing and lots of clapping. the building was just bare walls and a precariously done tin roof, wooden benches, some not looking sturdy enough to hold anyone much less the 10 people crammed onto it. we mercy shippers were given special treatment and seated up in the front next to the pastors and only 2 to a bench. the service was a couple of hours long and had several different messages as well as 4 different offering times. a couple that i went with were honored by the church since they had been recently married. i was asked to pray for the country of liberia during the prayer time. and afterwards, we were invited to eat with the church. while we had one bowl of rice and green leaf soup between 5 of us, they shared the same amount of food between quite a lot more people.

the second church i attended was probably close to 300 or 400 people and held in a "compound" and was very much like attending church at home. the building itself was very westernized, the benches were solid with backs, there was a worship band that sang praise choruses and the pastor's teaching time was limited to 30-40 minutes. there was also a slide show of announcements showing in the background. no calling on of visitors to teach or pray. no after church meal.

the third church i attended today was still very westernized but not like a church i've attended in a while. it was a baptist church and much like attending my grandfather's church. more traditionalistic. hymns only and the music as the hymns were written and not the new more praise chorus like way of singing them. very correct order of service. my friend eric would have appreciated the welcome time...i think i shook hands with almost everyone there (close to 100-150). and everyone kept singing until everyone had done their welcoming. the teaching time here as well was limited. the building was also very westernized, stained glass windows, solid benches with backs, oscillating fans for comfort. (those were standard desk units 16in across and mounted to the walls at regular intervals!)

i do appreciate the familiarity of the second two church services. but i also enjoyed experiencing african church the first time. hopefully i'll make it back before we leave liberia.