Still Sailing

It's hard to believe that we have been sailing for eight days now. We seem to be rolling a bit harder today, enough to make me feel a bit queasy, but it's still smooth and we've had good weather for the most part. A couple of nights ago there was a very nice meteor shower that we were able to watch from deck eight. The above photo was taken up there at night, but of course there are no meteors visible in the photo, just some squiggles where the stars are. Sailing at night with a clear sky has a way of making you feel really small with the huge expanse of the universe above and the expanse of the deep below. One can only dream of what may be out there in any direction, up or down.

On Saturday it rained and the kids decided to start playing in the little wave pool formed by the water that had accumulated on deck faster than it could drain. The water formed little waves as the ship rocked back and forth. The kids got soaked of course, but it was a great opportunity for them to burn off some energy, so we were happy for it. They even made "water angels". Of course you couldn't see anything once they got up except maybe a slightly cleaner place on the deck, but they had fun doing it. Sometimes the kids make "sand angels" too in Africa as there is no snow that I know of within 1000 miles of where we spend our time.

We had the annual Winter Wonderland on board a couple of nights ago where people sell Christmas crafts and snacks and stuff. The kids are working hard on play rehearsals for the Christmas play the Academy is doing this week.We have had our usual drills too. I got a photo of Jenny just before the camera battery ran out.

David and I got a little bored at lunch the other day. We entertained each other, and a few others, with napkins.

We're having a good sail, but we're ready for Tenerife. I just like land.

John

An Education

In the early fall of this year (I should probably say September since the idea of fall, or any of the other seasons for that matter, does not translate in Africa at all) I met a fellow on the dock who said that his name was Mark, that he was from Ghana and that he had come to Cotonou in order to work as a day volunteer with Mercy Ships. He arrived much later than February and there were no positions available by the time he arrived. He said that his friend who brought him here had assured him of being able to work with the ship and had stolen his money and headed to Nigeria. He claimed he had no place to live.

A couple of weeks later I bumped into him again as I was walking along the very polluted beach area not far from the dock. He said he had been sleeping in an abandoned building by the beach there and that he had no money, no job, and had been scraping by hoping to get enough money to replace his passport that had been stolen so he could return to his home in Ghana. I told him my name and left because the time had come for me to do laundry on the ship and I didn't want to lose my laundry slots.

Some days later Mark came to the ship and I got a call from the guard at the gangway that he was there looking for me. Well, his purpose was to ask if I would help him to pay the fee to get his passport replaced. He said that someone else from the ship had helped him with getting photos for the passport. It is normally better to say no and, if you really feel you want to help in a financial way, help only people that you have a real relationship with rather than give money to just anyone who asks. There are so very many of those kinds of requests where we live. Nonetheless, contrary to common wisdom, I believed this fellow and agreed to help him. I gave him some money for his passport, and on another occasion gave him some money for his return trip to Ghana and prayed with him. I expected not to see him again because I had helped him to get out of Cotonou and back home.

Well, that was not the case and he came back to the ship a week or so later claiming that he had returned to Ghana, had found out that his grandmother had died while he was in Benin and had left him an inheritance. He claimed that he had a valuable gold necklace and some property deeds that he wanted me to keep for him. He also claimed that his bag had been kept by the bus station until he paid the remainder of what he owed for his return ticket to Cotonou. At this point, I was certainly questioning the man's character and wondered if there was any truth to his story, although I really wanted to believe that he had been telling me the truth up til now. I did not agree to keep anything for him to his great disappointment. It was clear to me that that was not the thing to do, although I did give him the relatively small amount of money he asked for on the off chance that he was telling the truth.

Later that night my friend Olly spoke to me and said that he had seen me on the dock talking to "his friend, Mark". Olly wanted to know the story that Mark had told me. Olly is in charge of transportation and spends a lot of time on the dock dealing with the ship's vehicles. The story that Mark had told Olly about himself and his situation was very different from the story he had told me. It was very clear at that point that Mark, if that was even his name, was a spinner of tales. Olly and I had both compassionately given him money thinking that we were really helping him. Olly also told me other really interesting stories that he had heard in his interaction with shady characters on the dock over the years.

I confronted Mark the next time he came asking for me and told him that I did not believe his story and he did his best to spin his way out of that too including stories accusing others of diamond smuggling. I began to wonder why he would talk about smuggling and at the same time be so eager to get me to take and keep something for him on board the ship if he were not engaged in some kind of smuggling himself.

It became clear to me later that he most likely was trying to see how difficult it would be to get some cooperation from crew members in smuggling drugs or even people on board the ship while lying to get some money in the process. It was so educational for me to go through this that in the end, although it didn't feel at all good be lied to, I felt like it was worth the money I gave him to have the knowledge I gained on how to recognize criminals despite how silky their tongues. No great harm had been done and I feel much wiser for the experience.

John

Green Thumb

On April 25 Jenny wrote about how Joey and I had gone into town to work on an orienteering requirement for Boy Scouts. That was the beginning of a story that I didn't write about then, but has now played out much more fully. Our final destination on that walk into town, following a map and using a compass, was a mosque nearby that had a couple of towers that Joey could measure the height of using some techniques from his Boy Scout handbook. Once we finished the scout work we were confronted by a group of people begging in the median in front of the mosque. We spoke with them and tried to help them understand what our purpose in town was. We explained about the ship and that the ship offered surgeries on board. I knew at that time that the schedule had already gotten very full and I wasn't qualified to screen people for surgery. There was one fellow lying there on the ground, however, who said he had "sickness" in his thumb. He unwrapped his thumb and showed it to me and it looked quite bad, tapering up from the joint to a greatly swollen, 1.5 inch diameter tip that was open and infected. He had been packing the wound with herbs in an attempt to stop the infection. I figured that he could easily die from infection with his condition and I thought I should really try to help him. I gave him what clinic information I could and gave him my name. A few days later he came to the gangway of the ship asking for me. I asked Jenny if there was any way to get his thumb looked at. She doubted it knowing how full the schedule was, but knew that there would be an orthopedic surgery team doing some additional screening soon and so she referred me to the orthopedic team leader. I had to go to a bit of effort, but was able to get him a card for the screening. By the time I worked that out he had left so I drove back out to the mosque the next day to deliver the card and, thankfully, Vincent was there lying in his usual spot in the median. After the screening, I was told that Vincent had gotten "the thumbs-up for a thumb off". I was happy that my extra effort had landed him a place in the surgery schedule. Well, Vincent came to the ship, had a portion of his thumb amputated and left. It was not the last we saw of him though. He returned multiple times afterward for more surgery on his thumb because it continued to get infected. I began to wonder why I had found him and worked to get him seen if he may be in no better shape when we leave Benin. I don't know how Vincent is doing now that we are gone. I pray and hope that his thumb is healing. What I do know is that there were a number of day volunteers (local people who work with us during the day as translators or who help in other ways on the ship) who began asking why we were helping him. They had apparently said that he had been cursed and that was why his thumb would not heal. They said that he had been caught stealing and had had his thumb slashed because of it. I don't know if there was any truth to their story, but clearly they thought he was not a good man and we should not be bothering to help him. I doubt all of this would have come about if he had not been returning multiple times to the ship for treatment. It all made me wonder if maybe part of the purpose for him being a patient on the ship and returning again and again was to help our day volunteers understand that, in following the example of Jesus, we do not turn away those who may need help the most. Jesus was a friend to all and spent time among the outcast and those who society considered to be evil and had rejected. If we are to follow Jesus example, we also have to reach out to those same kinds of people. I hope that the fact that we were helping this man, whom some of our day volunteers did not consider worthy of our help, helped them to understand more about the true character of Jesus. I don't know the full purpose of having found Vincent that day, but I'm sure that God knows and I will have to leave that for Him to sort out. I am encouraged, though, that perhaps the purpose for him to come to the ship was much greater and went much deeper than just helping to fix his thumb.

John

Sailing

We have now packed up, said our goodbyes, left Benin, and are sailing to the Canary Islands for some down time and preparation for another field service in West Africa to begin in February. The sail so far has been nice and smooth, but there are still some who feel a bit rough. It's a bit hard for me too to look at the computer for very long without needing to go out on deck and get some fresh air. Yesterday was pretty eventful, especially in the evening when we saw a water spout pass by us on our port (left) side at not more than about 200 yards away. I was able to see it change shape and size over time as it stirred up the water beneath it. It was an incredible sight. It lasted for probably ten minutes at various intensities. We are also seeing quite a few flying fish flying away from the ship as it passes through the water. They must think we are an awefully big whale and want to escape as quickly as possible. They sometimes are hard to distinguish from birds flying continuously just above the surface of the water. They often fly 100 yards or more before they disappear back below the surface of the ocean. Yesterday evening there were Christmas plays and stories told all over the ship in 20 minute intervals by different individuals and groups. Since we don't have cold weather to remind us that it's the holiday season like we're used to, its nice to have some Christmas spirit on board.

John

President's Dinner

In November we had the honor of attending a dinner in Cotonou given by the President of Benin, Dr. Yayi Boni. Not long after the ship arrived in Benin, the president issued an invitation to the entire crew of the Africa Mercy (all that could come) to a state dinner. A few weeks ago it came to pass and our family and most of the crew were able to attend. (That's Joey and me in the photo below on the left. By the time we entered there were no tables with five free seats so Jenny, Bethany and David sat at another table.)The president gave distinguished national awards to the founders of Mercy Ships (Don and Deyon Stevens) and three key administrative crew members. Don presented Dr. Yayi Boni with a framed photo of the Africa Mercy in Cotonou made up of many smaller photos taken during our work here. That was an honor to me also because I had taken that photo of the ship from the nearby fishing village. It was a very nice dinner followed by dancing by several dance troupes from all over Benin. It was one of the more notable events of our time in Benin. (Photos by Debra Bell)
John

Weathering Storms

During the initial time after we arrived back on the ship after our trip home in the summer, we experienced a pretty extreme case of homesickness. We really struggled with the blues to such an extent that it was difficult to get back to work and, frankly, I think that is the main reason there have been so few posts on our blog over the past few months. Now that we are less busy at the end of the field service and feeling better about things in general, I'm trying to catch up a little with blogging. I hope you will agree that late news is better than no news.

In the early fall this year, our community here experienced a period of difficulty. Three of our crew came down with malaria and spent quite a bit of time in the hospital on the ship under the care of our medical crew. All three recovered from their illness, but it was a very difficult time for them. Around the same time, Citra, one of our Gurkha security guards was out running in the morning with a good sized group from the ship. They had reached the usual turn-around point where our Gurkha friend was hit by a motorcycle while crossing the street. There was a doctor & a number of nurses in the group who tended to him. The physician in the group also insisted that the Beninese ambulance that arrived take Citra to the ship rather than to a local hospital. It took some convincing, but the ambulance driver ultimately agreed and they brought Citra to the ship. The medical staff suspected a head injury and probable internal bleeding. The cat scan and portable x-ray on board were very useful in determining the extent of Citra's injuries. He spent about a week and a half in the ICU on the ship and continued his recovery in his cabin. Despite his head injury, Citra made a full recovery from a situation that could have easily taken his life. Citra was thrilled to come back to work and has just recently gone home for his yearly scheduled vacation. We were all so happy here on the ship that he is doing well and we credit God and thank Him for taking care of our dear friend!

John

"One day Jesus said to his disciples, 'Let's go over to the other side of the lake.' So they got into a boat and set out. As they sailed, he fell asleep. A squall came down on the lake, so that the boat was being swamped, and they were in great danger. The disciples went and woke him, saying, 'Master, Master, we're going to drown!' He got up and rebuked the wind and the raging waters; the storm subsided, and all was calm. 'Where is your faith?' he asked his disciples. In fear and amazement they asked one another, 'Who is this? He commands even the winds and the water, and they obey him.'" Luke 8:22-25

Blackout, Ice & All That Jazz

What do the words blackout, ice, and jazz have in common? Maybe not too much ordinarily, but they describe our weekend pretty well. Last Saturday was the day at the end of a field service in Africa when all the power and most of the plumbing are shut off on the ship in order to do certain maintenance work that requires these systems to be off. So since niether Jenny or I work in the engineering department and we were aware that it would be happening, we planned to be away all day at the Hotel Du Lac letting the kids swim their hearts out in the pool there. It turned out to be a lovely day for us and we stayed until after dark and had dinner at the hotel eventhough the power and water were reportedly back on by early evening. The kids had pizza and how they love pizza, especially the boys.

Sunday held a couple of nice surprises. We had planned to have a potluck brunch with some of our friends, mostly to honor our good friends that we went to gateway in Texas with, Sam and Amy, who recently got engaged. We met up on deck 7 at 11 or so in the morning and it was almost 100 degrees F in the shade - very odd I know for the end of November back home in North Carolina. It wasn't long before the kids were all playing with water guns and wanting to turn on the hose. Our friend Peter went and filled up a cooler full of ice and dumped it out on the deck for the kids to play in. And, being the fireman that he is, did an outstanding job of manning the hose so that everyone had ample opportunity to get drenched. There were battles too between the kids and some of the adults who think they're kids to see who could get the other wetter.That involved treachery and sneaking around and also the more obvious usage of large tubs from the galley. It was quite a blast for all involved, even those who mostly watched.

On Sunday we broke with tradition and went out to eat again. A couple of our Canadian friends had been wanting to go with us to the Neuer Biergarten on the beach here because they had discovered that they have live jazz on Friday and Sunday evenings. Well, I didn't expect much and I hadn't heard great things about the food there, but Jenny and I decided to leave the kids in the care of our good friend Juan and go anyway. We invited another Canadian couple, and mutual friends, to go as well. It turned out to be one of the loveliest evenings by far that we have had since we arrived in February. The all-Beninese band they had was just fantastic, great musicians and wonderful rich vocals - and of course very laid-back. They sang songs, many of them familiar to us, in French, English, and Spanish. The food was quite nice too, and all in the gentle ocean breeze. It was like being transported somewhere else entirely for a couple of hours. We started wondering why we had not discovered this and some of the other really nice things that we have been recently discovering about Cotonou until right at time to leave!

Overall it was probably one of the nicest weekends for us in many months.

John

Port Police Escort

My friend, Craig, and I had been talking about trying to get a ride in one of the multitude of fishing pirogues that move about the waters along the coast of West Africa since we were in Liberia last year. Well, Craig made a connection with a local fisherman during the course of his work here. The man actually offered a trip on board his canoe and so Craig invited me along. We went to the fishing village with our two young sons in the harbor here on Saturday morning to meet the fisherman there. There were a few maintenance problems with the canoe so we got some net mending lessons from an older fellow there to kill time while we waited to see if things were going to work out for the ride. After a while, we realized we would have to come back another day, so it was decided that we would return this past Monday morning and try again. So Monday morning early we headed over there without the boys this time and watched as one of the fisherman's adult sons carried a boat motor across the slick, algae-covered landing to mount it on the boat. The motor slipped and fell into the water, but was quickly recovered and mounted onto the canoe. It wasn't long before we were invited aboard and headed out into the harbor next to one of the half-sunken boats here. There one son cast the anchor and while the other son helped the fisherman work on the motor to get it running. After a little while we were off and headed out past our ship toward the mouth of the harbor. It was really quite odd to see our ship and everything else around from the water level. We waited at the mouth of the harbor while one of the enormous automobile carrier ships passed in front of us to find its berth in the port. I felt a bit like a small fish at that point riding in a canoe next to one of those giant ships. Soon we headed out to sea and began paralleling the coastline headed east. We were gone not more than five minutes when a Beninese port police boat came screaming toward us. The boat carrying three uniformed men pulled alongside us and ordered us to return to the port. The boat followed as we headed back. As we arrived back at the mouth of the harbor, our motor stopped working again. The men on the police boat ordered us to throw a rope so we could be towed back into port. So we again passed by the Africa Mercy, but this time it was clear to all watching that we had been busted! Some of the deck crew were watching and waving to us from the ship to our humiliation. We were more concerned, however, about any consequences that may result for our hosts who had so graciously offered to give us a ride. Soon we arrived alongside one of the small gray naval vessels on the dock opposite our ship's berth and were ushered out of the canoe, across the deck of the vessel and onto the dock to the station there. (The gray vessels can be seen in the photo below taken earlier - we don't have any photos after we were confronted by the police boat as it would have been inappropriate to have our cameras out during that time.)Surrounded by uniformed men we were questioned mostly in French about what we had been doing. Craig, who has a very much better understanding of French than I, explained that we worked with Mercy Ships and had just been out for a spin around in a fishing canoe. Once they knew we worked with Mercy Ships and were apparently not involved in illegal activities (eg. smuggling, illegal immigration, piracy, etc.) the mood became much lighter. I guess we did look a little suspicious because it is very unusual to see a "yovo" (the fon word for white person) riding around in an African fishing canoe - at least in the not at all touristy port area. One of the officers there had trouble with his knee and so Craig, being a physician, examined his knee and gave him some advice concerning it, which the man was grateful for. We were then offered a ride in the police boat, which we graciously declined, and given permission to freely continue our voyage in the fishing canoe. Both Craig and I felt we had done all we needed to so we got back into the canoe with the fisherman and motored the short distance back to the landing. We were assured that there would be no further problems for our hosts, thanked them and returned to our ship home. Craig returned later in the day to follow up and to take photos we had taken of the trip to our fisherman friends. They were delighted and we had a great story to tell about being arrested in the port a stone's throw from the ship!

John

Wrapping Up

We are quickly approaching time to leave Benin. We will soon be sailing back to Tenerife and making preparations for Togo next year. There are quite a lot of things to be done before we can leave so we will be quite busy over the next few weeks. That's not anything new, though. The last couple of months have been very busy for us also. Preparing to finish the field service is a very busy time of year. It is also the time of year when we host most of our groups of visitors and donors who come to see the ship in action. During this time most of us on the ship are feeling a bit more stressed than over the summer months. We will be sad to leave Benin as this has been our home for nearly 10 months and we have developed relationships here, but we are really looking forward to finishing our work and heading out too. Jenny has been religiously counting down the days til the end of surgeries over the last few weeks . Officially the last surgery was this past Friday. This year has been very full of challenges for us. We are very happy to have passed through them. There have been many times this year that we have struggled to want to continue, but we are still here. At this point we are feeling much more positive about being here and are looking forward to a much needed break in Tenerife and to seeing what the coming year brings. We have certainly weathered a storm this year, mentally and spiritually, and are very grateful to those who have supported us. I think really for the first time since we left home 15 months ago we are finally beginning to feel a bit settled. I knew from our time adjusting to living in Italy years ago when I was in the military that it would take a while. I'm sure we will have more struggles coming, but its nice to see that "finding a new normal", as Jenny frequently refers to our process of adjusting to life here, is not completely outside the realm of possibility.

John

Over Board!

On Thursday night we had a special thanksgiving community meeting and it was all about ,well thanks , and I certantly have something I am thankful for! Just recently the ship has installed a bascetball hoop on deck eight. So just today we perchested a bascetball for five dollars and eighty five cents , and with so many people playing with it and we had not played with it for twenty minutes and it hit the back board of the hoop and BLOOP into the water it went! I had no hope and I thought it was gone forever cause some fisherman would come and find it and keep it for himself. I rushed down to the dock to see if I could save it , I waited until the ball came into veiw , then I was sure there was no hope. Then a man from a nearby boat dove into the icky water and grabbed the ball , he was going to keep it for himself , until mommy yelled -"it's her ball can you give it back?" And sometimes people want money for good deeds - he did. So we went back to our cabin , wrapped a few nougats and a 2000 cefa bill in a plastic bag and gave it to him , and he smiled so I got my ball back! and that is what i'm thankful for! It was a complete mirical until he said he wanted to marry me!

Bethany

Have You Hugged a Plumber Today?

For the past week in our cabin, we've been tolerating low water pressure from all the fixtures in our bathroom. The toilet would barely fill, the faucet was just a trickle and the small stream from the shower head allowed the water normally spent on a 2 minute ship-shower to be spread out over not less than 10 minutes!

Well, today I put in a work request and asked the plumber on the ship, Tom KenKnight, to "please help!" He came quickly to rescue us from this problem and had the water flowing to all fixtures by this afternoon. GO TOM!

We were all very excited about the restoration of water flow and there were gleeful giggles heard as all three kids (and Momma) turned on the shower and sink faucet to test and see for themselves the wonderful sight! As much as I love sitting in a bathtub, I thought to myself that our restored shower is almost as good as a bath! WooHoo!

Before

After

Hug a plumber today!

Jenny

Elisee Visits from Cote d'Ivoire

On Tuesday of this week I realized that a singer whose music I had become familiar with (when I was looking for music to include in a slide show to show on our visit home this summer) had been visiting the ship here in Cotonou. He goes by the name Elisee and lives in Cote d'Ivoire. All of his music has French lyrics, but he is working on Enlish versions presently. My favorite song of his is a very encouraging song called "Ca Va Aller" roughly translated "It'll be Okay". It was great to have an opportunity to meet him!

John

The Goat Wash & Feeding Monkeys

This past weekend was a three day weekend for many on the ship. The kids were out of school on Friday and we had another opportunity to go to Porto Novo, the capital of Benin, about a 45 minute drive away. Our family had been there some weeks back and visited the botanical gardens there, but had not seen the monkeys we had heard usually hung around in the trees. So Bethany and I decided to give it another go. Jenny was not feeling well so we left her to rest and the boys were more interested in being couch potatoes than getting out. When we arrived at the gardens this time, we immediately saw the monkeys coming to see if we had bananas, and we did. So we had a chance to feed them and watch them for 10 minutes or so until they lost interest in us.

During the drive we saw something interesting, which is usually the case for us here as we are still discovering many new things about the culture. This time it must have been time to give the goats a bath. We saw quite a few goats in a fairly localized area getting a good cleaning.

John

To Blog or Not To Blog

That is the question. And the answer is always TO blog. I just don't ask the question often enough! My problem is that I feel like I don't have enough interesting things to say, most days. However, I will try to overcome that feeling and write something anyway!

August 27 marked our first year of service with Mercy Ships complete. Can you believe that it's been a whole year already? In some ways, it seems longer. And in other ways, it seems shorter. There have been ups and downs, stormy waves and calm seas. We've seen many people come through the operating rooms, changed on the outside. But our prayer is that their hearts have been touched by the Love that lives in us.

The scripture verse from I John 3:18 has become a life verse for us as we serve the West Africans from this vessel. It says, "Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth." But we also realize that it applies to us wherever we are. Whether we are in Africa or in our home town, we are to have an attitude of love. We want to show love to those we serve AND those we serve with.

Thank you for loving us. Please continue to lift us up in the many ways that you do. The support of our friends and family means so much to us as we continue on this journey.

Mwah, Mwah! (Those are kisses!)

Jenny

Dirty Jobs

Dive, dive, dive!

Dirty job Every week two divers clean garbage and marine growth from the screens that cover the cooling water intakes on the Africa Mercy, so that the cooling water continues to pass, so that the engines and generators don't overheat. The visibility is usually very low, which makes their job extremely hard... Pictured: Olly Peet.

Sharing

"Will John or Jenny Rolland please report to their cabin...Will John or Jenny Rolland please report to their cabin?"

Well...it wasn't really a question that we heard over the ship's loud speaker today.

It was around 5:20pm and I was still in the OR, but about ready to meet the family in the dining room for supper. A few minutes before, though, I got a page on the beeper and the number displayed was our cabin number. I suspected that the page was from John and that he wanted to know when I would be ready to meet them. Then...everyone on the ship was silenced by the "BONNNNNG" that means "shhh...there is an announcement coming". And announcements over the ship's paging system are not granted lightly!

My eyes got really wide, I might have said "CRAP", and then I couldn't decide weather to run to the phone or up the 3 flights of stairs to Deck 6 and our cabin. OK, phone. The line went straight to voicemail. OK, stairs. Up, up, up..."someone must be hurt...where's John?...it must be serious for them to have paged..." When I got to the top of the stairs on deck six, I had a clue as to what was the matter. It was on the floor outside of the captain's cabin and I had to step over it very carefully as to not get stomach contents on my OR shoes!

John had already made it to the cabin, our friend, Juan, was dialing the duty housekeeper and another friend, Joan, was in the cabin and had assisted David from the hallway to our bathroom. David was dazed and pale, but felt better after his stomach had been emptied on the deck! John ended up doing the clean-up and had just finished when Bethany asked if he had gotten the spot in the hallway on Deck 5. Nope, it was still there! Mop to Deck 5. Finally, the clean-up was complete and three fifths of the family went to the dining room for supper!

I felt very famous in the dining room as many people gave me a glance and raised their eyebrows as if to ask, "what was that about?" Several did ask and were not surprised to discover that the bug-of-the-month had visited our cabin. That's the thing...we live in such close community that we share EVERYTHING! We love our neighbors, though, and believe that we ought to share each other's burdens. So, David is just doing his part!

But, really, we are very thankful for those around us who share our burdens even on days like this! Thank you to our friends who helped us out and enquired about our well being. It's nice to have such a big family here on the ship that looks after us!

Jenny

R & R

I can't believe it's been so long since we posted a note! We've been home in Pfafftown, NC at Mom-Mom and Pop's for a little rest and refreshment since June 23rd. Our bodies have not had much rest, but our brains have had a break and we are loving being at home and visiting friends and family.

These are some of my favorite spots at Mom- Mom & Pop's house...

The left half of the front porch.

The right half of the front porch.

The back deck where you can look out at the garden and Pop's "lean to" that houses the gardening equipment and such.

The chickens on the "farm". Each of the two hens that are left lay one egg per day. Yum!

The playhouse that Pop built.

Jenny

Our Father, who art in Heaven...

This week in our Thursday morning devotionals, Nari Palmer encouraged us to reflect on God for a moment and write down the first 7 characteristics of God that came to mind. I thought I would go through the list one by one and share each here as a post. The first one I wrote down was "Father".

I am blessed to have a wonderful earthly Father who has loved me and been an example of how my heavenly Father loves me. But I know that many people go through life never knowing or having been let down by their fathers. Our Father in heaven cares for us so tenderly, providing for our every need, drawing us to himself when the world disappoints us.


This week we found out that one of our little patients who was on the ship with us for many weeks passed away. Odelon was only a few weeks old and severely underfed when we met him. He suffered from a cleft lip and palate and had been all but disowned by his family. He and his mom came to the Africa Mercy and began a feeding program designed to help him gain enough weight and strength to undergo surgery to correct his deformity. The program was successful and his lip and palate were repaired by Dr Tertius Venter a couple months ago.


Odelon stayed with us for awhile after surgery so that his mom could get used to feeding him now that he was "normal". They were doing very well and finally returned to their village. But our joy over Odelon's triumph was turned to sadness when we learned this week that he had not been accepted back into his family and eventually died from lack of nourishment. Please pray for his family and village, that their eyes would be opened to the Truth and that the Truth will set them free from all that keeps them in darkness.

Psalm 68:5 ~ A father to the fatherless, a defender to the widows, is God in his holy dwelling.

Psalm 27:10 ~ Though my father and mother forsake me, the Lord will receive me.

Trip to Ghana

A couple of weeks ago now we had an opportunity as a family to go to Ghana. We took a few days off of work and took the kids on a little adventure. Our friend Miriam, our English pharmacist, and Philip, who is from Ghana and works in engineering on the ship, went with us. It was really helpful to have Philip with us because he knew the border procedures well and had made the trip before. We were also very grateful to our other Ghanaian friends here, Richmond and Esther, who helped us arrange transportation and lodging. We had a wonderful time. We stayed most nights at the YWAM base in Tema just east of Accra. Many of the African crew members aboard the ship are from Tema so it was very nice to see the place they call home. Our impression was that Ghana is still very much West Africa, but much more like home than any other West African country we have visited so far. There is quite a bit of development there and even a western style shopping mall in Accra! There were a few moments while driving around in Accra when we could imagine ourselves being in the U.S. somewhere, until we were jolted back to Africa at the red lights where dozens of vendors weave between the cars hoping to sell whatever they are carrying in the large containers on their heads.

On Thursday, April 30th we traveled from Cotonou to Tema. We didn't expect to have any trouble leaving Benin, but that was where we got stuck. The border police wanted us to pay for Benin visas, which, given the work we do, we are not required to have. So rather than paying $100 extra we made a few phone calls and waited an hour and a half til everything got sorted. After that, we crossed into Togo and then later into Ghana without any trouble. Altogether the trip to Tema took about 9 hours. That evening we met our gracious hostess, Betty. We were very grateful for all her hospitality while we were there. Philip went on to his home to visit until our return to Cotonou, but Miriam stayed and traveled with us. Friday we went to Boti Falls to the north of Accra along with Dixon, our driver. We listened to lots of African praise music, South African reggae, and some interesting Nigerian hip-hop during our journey. It turned out to take much longer to get there than we expected, but it was beautiful and the kids had fun splashing around in the water.

On Saturday we got up early and left at 5:00 for Winneba for the annual Aboakyir Festival. We had timed our trip so we could try and catch this event. During the night two companies of men had gone out to try to catch live antelope. So Saturday morning not long after we arrived they paraded in from the hunt with great fanfare carrying their catch. The local chief came out too with his entourage all dressed in their traditional clothing. It was fascinating to see all of this, but the crowds made it a bit difficult to see the animal and quite hazardous to get any photos. We had lunch that day at a little restaurant run by one of Betty's relatives. Below is a photo of the kids and Emmanuel, a wonderful man who does church planting and who was kind enough to drive us to the festival, at the restaurant.On our way back to Tema that evening we tried some tiger nuts we bought from a street vendor.

On Sunday we rested a little and left with Dixon for Elmina. We toured Elmina Castle, an old Portuguese fort used during the slave trade. It was a very interesting tour, but also very sobering. We stayed at a very nice lodge on the beach that night and tried some local food called kenkey, a smoked corn meal cake wrapped in plantain leaves. We also had a nice chicken kabob and spaghetti for the kids.

On Monday we went to Kakum National Park and went on the rope bridge canopy walk up in the rain forest canopy. It was quite high up and quite beautiful. It reminded David, Joey and me of the Ewok village from Return of the Jedi.

We tried fresh cocoa there too. The beans are white on the outside and taste very sweet. You only suck the flavor off the outside without biting the bean. Neither the sweet taste of the outside of the bean nor the interior of the bean if you bite into it taste anything at all like chocolate.

On our way back from Kakum Park we stopped off for lunch at a place called Hans Cottage Botel. The restaurant sits on stilts on a lake that is infested with crocodiles. There are also thousands of yellow and black weaver birds in the trees within arms reach. That was a really neat place to hang out. The caretaker let us watch her feed the crocodiles and let everyone touch the tail and hind legs of one of them. None of us had ever done anything like that before. I'm sure it would have been no big deal for people like Jeff Corwin, Bear Grylls, or Steve Irwin, but it was a big deal for us.

When we got back to Tema Monday evening we got to see Esther, one of the ship's photographers who just returned to live in Tema, her hometown. We visited briefly with her mother as well and Cathy who was also visiting from the ship.

Tuesday we linked back up with Dixon and Philip for the return to Cotonou. We said goodbye to Dixon at the border and crossed into Togo. Unfortunately, our ride was not there. We had a few refreshments at the Shell station and waited for a couple of hours for the van to come. It didn't so we got a couple of taxis in order to make it into Benin before dark. The taxi ride was a little unsettling. The drivers obviously knew the road very well, but even so 100 miles per hour through Togo is frightening! It was the first taxi speedometer that I had seen that actually worked and I'm pretty sure it was not measured in km per hour. Perhaps it would have been better for me if it hadn't worked. Nevertheless, the Lord was merciful and we all arrived back at the ship safely. It was a very nice, refreshing trip.

John