Five Walls at Sea: Making this place our home.

Greetings from Madagascar! The time of waiting for us to arrive in this country felt so long and yet time has flown since we have been here and we are sorry for our poor communication recently. Starting off a field service in a new country is a busy project, especially when we had such a shortened advance time of preparation. So many months of waiting on God's timing and his plan was difficult but now seeing all the blessings of being here makes it so worth it.

The hospital is fully up and running now! How wonderful to have patients on board again. When we walk down the hallway towards the dining room or John's office we can hear the patients singing only 2 floors below us. It is a beautiful reminder of why we are here and the work that the Lord continues to do in the lives of his people.

Last week we were able to go to the ward church service in the hospital and later that week to visit the patients in the ward. It was so great for the girls to resume their sticker ministry. The wards are full of kids right now recovering from various orthopedic procedures so it is perfect for the girls! They have had a great time playing with them and handing out stickers. Jack enjoys being passed among the ladies but is eager to get down and play with the older kids. The Malagasy (the name for the people of Madagascar) people have been amazingly welcoming and enjoy seeing the kids--just like other countries we've visited. We are even learning a little of the language!

Our hearts feel full as we see the work God is doing here. We had moments during the many months of waiting where we lost perspective of the ultimate goal of this ministry. When the hospital is empty, it is hard to remember how lives are changed. When patients aren't here, it is easy to get caught up in the petty things that happen in any work environment. Having the patients back, having the hospital running and getting to be a part of it all has redirected us and realigned our focus back to the important things. We are grateful for this!

Madagascar is beautiful! We are really enjoying being here and can't wait to explore more over the next several months. This port city is much smaller than other ports we've visited and so it makes getting around much easier. We feel much more free to get off the ship with the kids. There is even a paved sidewalk for the mile from the ship to the beach! This would have been unheard of in other countries we've been in. Most of the travel in the city is done by pousse-pousse (bike taxi) or tuk tuk (3 wheeled car) so the traffic is minimal and getting around feels safer and easier. With 3 small children, this has come as a very welcome change.

One of the things we were most excited about when we joined Mercy Ships was getting to be involved in a local church. However, in Guinea and Congo this wasn't really practical with the kids. Churches were too far away or too hard to get to in traffic or too loud. Churches we visited in those countries just did not seem like good places to take the kids and so we didn't attend. This has been one of the harder parts of being away from the States. We have a Sunday night service here on the ship but it is difficult as it is around bed time. The service is streamed through the TV in our room so we watch it as a family but it hasn't felt like "real church" to us and we have missed that. We have felt unsure about what Sundays should look like for our family and have been praying about it.

For the last 2 weeks we were able to attend church here as a family!! It is a great little church only 10 minutes from the ship. It was a really great experience for us. There is a little courtyard just off the building where all the kids played during the service. The girls had a great time playing with all the Malagasy children and when we returned this week they were so excited to meet again. It was really fun to see them all interacting and making up games. Jack also crawled around and played with them. The girls would speak to the kids in English and the kids would speak to them in Malagasy. It didn't seem to me like any of them realized they weren't speaking the same language. It was really beautiful! The service was translated for us and the church sang a few songs in English. The music here is much different than in West Africa. We love the music there but here it is a little more familiar to us. It was so beautiful! Aside from watching our kids play, my favorite part was when we were listening to the church singing and hearing the words Hallelujah and Hosanna spoken the exact same way in the Malagasy language. It was a beautiful picture of the God we serve being for all people, tribes and nations! We are so excited to have the continued opportunities to visit this church. This week they sent us home with a Malagasy Bible. We are excited to use it to help us learn the language. What a neat answered prayer!

Another huge answer to prayer is that I (Tracey) got to go back to work this week!! I am now going to be working in the Admissions tent. The tent is on the dock. My job is to see the patients who are scheduled for surgery the following day, do an exam, and be sure they are fit for surgery. We want to be sure patients do not have malaria, other infections or possibly an underlying disorder that would make it unsafe for them to be operated on. This allows me to have interaction with the patients and I am also excited to be able to follow some of them after the surgeries to see their transformations! I was able to see all children on my first day--one of them was almost exactly Jack's age. I loved having my scrubs on and getting to apply my medical knowledge. For now it will only be one morning a week, but in January I may be able to do a bit more.

John's job has been really busy, but also really good these last few weeks. He has been able to implement some great new changes in how the day crew are paid and has been challenged as he has worked through some big financial decisions. The start to our time here in Madagascar has gone so much more smoothly for him than it did in Guinea or Congo. He is so grateful for this. He is building good relationships with people at the banks and other businesses. He is excited about our time here and the work he will be able to do.

It feels, as we reflect on these last few weeks, that we are really starting to make this country our home for now. That feels really good.

Thank you for your continued prayers for this country and the people who will be on the ship for surgeries. Please pray that lives would be changed, not only physically but spiritually as well!

Here's some pictures from these weeks!

Loving the swimming pool!