Take 5

Every week someone from Mercy Ships writes a short column for our internal website. Last week it was John's turn. I believe what he wrote is a great reminder and challenge for all of us!

This week's Leadership POV (Point of View) is written by John Wall, the Finance Director on the Africa Mercy. John, Tracey and their family joined Mercy Ships in 2012.

Lord What Do You Want Me to Do?

Since our arrival here on the Africa Mercy, we have seen and experienced so much. We jumped right in and things were difficult at the outset. Especially early on, I felt in over my head and had no idea how to approach the various situations I encountered. This was the case both in my work duties in finance and situations with my family. Even when I thought I knew what I was supposed to do, it didn't always work out so well.

Somewhere in this time frame, we heard a word from Donovan encouraging us in every situation to take a few seconds and just ask, “God what would you have me do?” As I heard this message, my mind went to my last job before joining Mercy Ships. I worked at a mine in my last job and we would “Take 5” before doing any task, whether it was something dangerous like raising an engine with a crane or simple like moving a desk. We wanted to pause and think about the situation and any dangers that might come through doing that task. We asked specific questions about what could happen and what the consequences could be. The goal was to do everything safely. “Take 5” was a part of our culture, it was part of who we were. It helped us win many safety awards in the industry and most of all helped us at one point go over a year without a single injury to any of the 250 employees we had (not a common occurrence in the mining world). It even affected the way I was at home as I would “Take 5” before doing things like shoveling snow off a roof, fixing the car, or even mowing the lawn.

I have tried to now take this and apply this safety motto to my life here on the ship and my interactions with God. I want to “Take 5” and ask “God, what would you have me do here” when facing a situation, whether easy or hard. Honestly, I have not done well. First of all, I still struggle with asking God in the first place and just pushing on ahead using my knowledge and experience. If I do pause, I struggle hearing God and knowing what He would like me to do in that situation.

In the last couple weeks, I learned what it is like when you do it the right way. I learned it from my wife, Tracey (where else would I learn a great life lesson?). Recently, God put it on her heart to wean our baby girl. “But why God, it makes no sense.” She is in the medical field with a mother who is an expert in all things related to the feeding of babies. She asked me to pray about it too. I did but I didn't really try to listen. I just assumed I knew the right answer (based on what I learned from Tracey and her mom no less). Tracey continued seeking God and asking Him what she should do. Finally, we talked about it and we decided to start weaning because Tracey felt like God was telling her to. It’s a long and beautiful story (see last 2 posts), but by listening to God, another baby here in Guinea who lost his mom at about the same time is able to live by drinking Tracey’s milk. Tracey asked and listened when it didn't make sense and God showed her why after she decided to obey. I didn't “Take 5” going into this like I should have as another life hung in the balance. What a joy we have had getting to know this little boy the last few weeks and what blessings we would have missed out on if we had just done what we thought we were supposed to do without Tracey asking “God what would you have me do?”

I am a proud husband and I have learned a great lesson. God should be a part of every situation I confront. My knowledge, experience and whatever else I can muster isn't enough. I also learned that God will give us direction if we are willing to listen. He doesn't always give us an answer as to why but he does want to have a say in what we are doing. As I was able to be a part of this and learn, I am so much more inclined now in every situation to “Take 5” and ask “God what would you have me do?” I hope it becomes a part of who I am and what I do.



John Wall
Finance Director
Africa Mercy

Milk Delivery

There is so much to say about our day Tuesday that I feel I could write an entire book. My heart and emotions are overflowing and it is difficult to sort through them all and write about what I feel needs to be heard about our morning.  Tuesday morning we (John, Cora and I plus my two baby mama friends Ali and Becca and their babies and our amazing friend and photographer Chelle) headed out to see the ministry BabiesWithout Milk in action.  And, of course, to see baby Alseny (If you haven’t read the last post, read it first). Along for the ride was 3 coolers full of over 150 oz of breast milk I have pumped since seeing Alseny last.  I couldn’t even sleep the night before as I was so excited to see our little adopted (in our minds, anyway) baby boy and to see this beautiful ministry in action.

Babies Without Milk was started by a woman named Estel who saw babies dying after their mothers had died because they had no source of healthy nutrition.  If you have a baby in Guinea you are 20 times more likely to die in childbirth than if you have a baby in the United States.  That number is staggering to me.  The result of that statistic is hundreds of babies who are left without a mother and, in most cases, without good nutrition.  It is no wonder, then, that almost 6 out of 100 babies die in this country as so many babies are left without proper nutrition and care.

But Estel saw that need and with the Lord’s blessing created a ministry.  She now has around 200 babies who come to this courtyard compound every 2 weeks to receive formula.  They are brought by siblings, aunts, grandmothers, neighbors, or whoever has decided to take on the duty of caring for them after their mothers have died.  It broke my heart to see all these babies and know that they would never know their mothers but also so thankful that they will, hopefully, avoid that second statistic thanks to their caregivers and this ministry.

Driving the 45km to get to the distribution site (the furthest I’ve been away from the ship) proved a bit more difficult than we anticipated since all the lanes of traffic go the other direction in the morning. But after 2 hours of traffic, wrong turns, unhappy babies, puking and wonderful policemen helping us with directions, we made it.   We walked into a courtyard filled with women and babies and immediately our three babies were snatched up by the women and tiny African babies placed in our hands.  To say the difficult journey was worth it would be an enormous understatement. 

We stayed in that courtyard for a couple hours passing around sweet babies and allowing our babies to be passed around.  It was beautiful.  Cora, I will say, gets baby of the year award for being a total trooper the entire day.  She loved the attention and was happy to be with whoever wanted her. 

While Cora was happily distracted I went searching for Alseny.  I needed to get my hands on him again.  He slept peacefully in my arms for quite a while and I was amazed that this tiny baby has had such an enormous impact on us and so many others in such a short time.  As he began to awaken looking for food I was again blessed by the opportunity to nurse him again, this time amongst a sea of curious African women.  My prayer is that God will use this act to open their hearts a little towards changing perceptions in their own culture about nursing orphaned babies.

Slowly the women and babies trickled away and we were treated to an amazing African meal. With bellies and hearts filled to bursting, we packed back into the Land Rover for the ride home. 

 

Becca is on the left and her daughter Hailey is in green. Ali and Zoe are in the front.

Thankfully it was not nearly as traumatic as the journey there.  As we arrived back at the ship I got the sense that we all couldn’t believe how blessed we felt to have experienced the Lord’s work so intimately.

 Sometimes it is so easy to get overwhelmed by the need here in Guinea.   We have seen and been privileged to be a part of ministries doing amazing things in this country but there are still thousands of people with illnesses we can’t treat. There are patients who have surgeries that aren’t successful.  People still die.  Sometimes you wonder if we are even making a difference, but then you spend time holding babies that are most likely alive because of one woman who saw a need and reached out.  We cannot possibly help everyone we come in contact with but we can continue to touch each person that enters our life and show them the Love of Jesus.

Many have asked if Alseny may someday become a permanent part of our family.  John and I love this little guy but I don’t think either of us feels strongly that we are truly supposed to adopt him, if that was even possible.  But we do plan on being a part of his life while we are here and we hope that we can be a part of his life in some capacity after we leave.  Our Chief surgeon Gary Parker says, “We cannot change the whole world, but we can change the whole world for one person.”  If we allow God’s love to flow through us to others we can be a part of changing the world for someone and in the end we might just realize that along the way our own world has been changed more than we ever thought possible. 

You must also go read Ali’s blog account of the day here as she has an amazing gift of painting pictures with words.

Thanks to Chelle for all the amazing pictures!

Hearing God

Do I hear God speak?  Not audibly, but I know that He does and there are times that he speaks in such clear ways that it feels that the heavens open up for just a moment to give us a peek of all we have waiting for us.  I experienced that today.

To properly do justice to this, I must back up a few months. While we were in Texas for our training for Mercy Ships I was on a walk and felt God tell me that I was about to enter into a journey of growth in my prayer life.  I did not see a neon sign or hear a loud voice from Heaven.  I just felt it.  I had no idea what that meant but I was excited to learn more.  Since that time I have been trying to better understand what it means to communicate with God and take the time to truly listen to Him.  I have been learning a lot and there are many things to share but that will be for another time.

 

This blog is about one specific message he gave me.

Rewind again to a couple weeks ago.  I finished reading a book called Kisses fromKatie by Katie Davis (here's her blog).  Whoa.  It’s a book written by a woman who has given her entire life to Africa (see why I like it J ). She gave up everything she had and moved alone to a village in Uganda.  The book is amazing, inspirational, challenging, tragic, joyful. . .and a million other emotions.  I LOVED every page.  But what hit me most about the book was the way that Katie seeks God’s direction in everything she does.  She asks and she waits for him to respond and lead.  I was convicted while reading this book that so often I go about my life and hope that God will meet me where I am.  I hope I’m doing the best thing but don’t often enough truly wait for him to speak to me.  I’m often too busy to listen to what he has to say. 

So after reading the book I decided that I would really try to be more intentional about shutting up and letting God speak to me.  It’s not easy to hear God’s voice when we have a million other voices competing for our attention (not to mention a 2 year old and 11 month old).  But over a few weeks I saw God open my heart to some amazing things and “heard” him more clearly and in new ways (another blog post).  But then a couple weeks ago I felt like I heard God tell me it was time to wean Cora.  What?  I was certain that couldn’t be God. Why would he ask me to do that?  I thought for sure it was my selfish desires getting in the way of hearing him.  I wanted my body back, I wanted to sleep through the night, I wanted my hormones to not be out of whack anymore, I wanted to stop feeling hungry all the time. Surely this couldn’t be God.  So I wrestled with it for several weeks.  Then last week I had a trusted friend come and pray with me about this. I didn’t want to take such a huge step unless I was SURE it was from God.  After spending some time together in prayer I really felt again like this was what  I was supposed to do. 

 

 I knew I may never know why but he was asking it of me so I was going to obey.

Later that day I was given a gift.  Sometimes we obey and don’t know the “whys” and sometimes God opens the heavens to give us a glimpse of himself.  The same day I agreed to wean Cora I felt like God told me that there was a baby who needed my milk.  Seriously?  I couldn’t make this stuff up if I tried.  Our ship has partnered with a ministry here called Babies Without Milk. It is a ministry that provides formula for babies who’s mothers have died and would otherwise have no source of milk.  I called Estel, the director of the ministry, and told her my story.  Her response was. . .”we have your baby”.  Just a few days before a 2 week old baby had been brought to her who’s mother died in childbirth.  He hasn’t been able to tolerate formula.  I could barely finish the conversation with her as I was overcome with emotion and gratitude for God for showing me so clearly that he had indeed spoken to me.

So starting that day I began to wean Cora and continue pumping and saving my milk for this baby.  Cora hasn’t missed a beat (another answer to prayer)!  Today Estel brought little 3 week Alseny to the ship to retrieve the 64oz of milk I have pumped for him since last week.  He is allergic to cow’s milk but that is all they’ve had for the last couple days so he has a rash all over his body and has been vomiting.  He was starving when he got here and I hadn’t pumped.  It seemed silly to defrost some of the milk I’d frozen or go pump so I just sat down and nursed that little blessing from God right in the dining room of the ship.  Words cannot even begin to express the amazing feeling of joy and thankfulness I felt as I saw God’s goodness, faithfulness and love in that precious moment.   

 

Sometimes he speaks in such clear ways that it feels that the heavens open up for just a moment to give us a peek of all we have waiting for us.

We can hear God’s voice. It’s not always easy, it’s not always clear, it’s not always as straight forward as this, but he is there waiting to speak to us and invite us into some pretty amazing blessings.  I hope and pray that I will never forget how it felt today to have such beautiful confirmation of his words to my heart.

 

Alseny

With Estel. Cora says "Here's the baby sharing my milk".

He didn't think this was weird at all.

Happy after his feed.

John got to meet him too.

 

24 hour prayer vigil

Tomorrow morning at 8am our time (2am Colorado time) we are starting a prayer vigil for some of our patients. I would love to invite you to pray along with us! I was going to write more about it but found that my friend Ali wrote it so beautifully that I will just share her link.

http://alirae.net/blog/archives/679-twenty-four-hours-to-pray.html

Thank you for your prayers!

Yaya

Wanted to share this great story written by our friend Joanne about one of the little boys that spent many weeks on the ship. The girls got to play with him several times and his smile and joy were infectious. It was really miraculous to see his progress.

Written by Joanne Thibault

Edited by Nancy Predaina

Photos by Debra Bell and Michelle Murrey

Rather than joyous celebration, the reaction to Yaya’s birth was broken family ties. Yaya’s mother, Salematou, and his father, Abdulaye, were not married when their son was born. The tradition that Salematou’s father lived by did not make room for a child born out of wedlock. Despite Salematou’s pleading with her father to allow her to keep her child, his decision was final. As soon as Yaya could leave his mother’s breast, he was sent to live with Kadiatou, his grandmother on his father’s side.

Living with his grandmother turned out to be a wonderful blessing for Yaya. Kadiatou personifies the bottomless heart and limitless space that African grandmothers offer their children and their children’s children. She assumes whatever responsibility comes her way, no matter the burden. Kadiatou explains, “There are many mouths that I feed in my family. In addition to Yaya, five of my children and their nine children need my support too. Everyone shares in the work of the household, but earning income in Conakry is very difficult. My husband now, Mamadouba, is very old. He gives what money he can, but he has family to support too.”

Yaya stole his grandmother’s heart from day one. His ready smile and eagerness to be close to her formed a thick bond. When tragedy struck Yaya, Kadiatou was distraught. “Yaya started walking when he was one year old, but after taking a few steps he would fall. We tried many traditional medicines, but his condition grew worse. At eighteen months, his legs started to twist and curl up. They failed him entirely.”

Yaya’s uncle, also named Yaya, remembers this as a time of many trials for his mother. “Kadiatou was so afraid for Yaya. He often had a high fever, and his legs would cramp up terribly. He would cry for hours from the pain. Kadiatou tried everything to soothe him. She held him for hours. Then my father and sister died very close together. My mother’s heart was broken into so many pieces.”

Kadiatou, who had taken in her daughter’s five children, decided that moving the family to Conakry, the capital of Guinea, was best for Yaya. “I hoped that the medical care Yaya needed was in a big city. As well, I knew that Conakry had schools for handicapped children that Yaya could attend.” Another important reason for the move was that Kadiatou was protecting Yaya from the villagers who thought that children with disabilities were cursed. She would not stand for her grandson being tormented, ridiculed, or forced into hiding.

When Yaya reached five years of age, he started attending the school for handicapped children. “I was so happy for Yaya. He started to learn his letters and bring home things he made,” Kadiatou says. Although there were no school fees and transportation was provided, Kadiatou still had expenses to cover, like school supplies. She made ends meet by going to the Grand Mosque daily and helping with cleaning and cooking. After a full year of being a volunteer, she was finally included in the group that received a weekly stipend, plus donations of money and food from appreciative people attending the Mosque.

Yaya often joined Kadiatou at the Mosque after school, and he soon became a favorite with everyone. In the Muslim faith, people are eager to help the needy as a way of observing sadaqah, the duty to overcome miserliness. Many Muslims wanted Yaya to join the group of handicapped people who begged, so that people could give to him. Kadiatou was against Yaya’s doing this, regardless of the enormous struggle she had to support the family. “I faced so much pressure to allow Yaya, in such obvious need, to help people fulfill their duty to sadaqah. I finally relented,” she explains.

Kadiatou continued to be distressed with Yaya’s participating in sadaqah. She prayed that Yaya would get his education and find an occupation where he could use his sharp mind and very able hands. Kadiatou had many doubts about her prayer being answered, but she remained faithful, clutching that thin bit of hope to her heart.

Yaya himself dared not hope. But then an incredible set of circumstances unfolded around him. Nick Veltjens, who worked with orthopedic patients, saw Yaya at the patient screening location the day before consultations began. “I waited all screening day for Yaya to come because I thought we could help him. We didn’t see him that day, so I sent an email around asking if anyone knew where he was.”

According to Yaya, “I did go to the screening with my friend, but I lost my courage.” Yaya left without being examined.

The next day, Dan Bergman, a long-term hospital volunteer, came to Nick with a video of a possible orthopedic patient that he had just seen outside the Mercy Ships Dental Clinic. According to Nick, “What a coincidence that Dan found the same little guy that I was looking for!”

For Dan, this series of events said loud and clear that, “God wanted Yaya to find Mercy Ships. He kept putting him in front of us!” Dan tracked Yaya down at the Mosque and delivered the news that he had an appointment at the hospital ship.

But Yaya missed his appointment. As he says, “I did not believe I could be healed, and so I did not want to tell my grandmother to bring me. She would be too disappointed.” But another divine coincidence occurred that finally put Yaya and Mercy Ships together. A government official, Cellou, who had befriended Yaya at the Mosque, was at the Mercy Ships Dental Clinic that same week. He casually asked what a young boy with deformed legs needed to do to get an appointment. It was quickly realized that the boy in question was Yaya and that he just needed someone to bring him to his appointment.

Cellou immediately went to Yaya’s grandmother with the news about Yaya’s appointment. They agreed that Cellou would go to the hospital ship with the boy. When Kadiatou received the telephone call from Cellou telling her that Yaya was accepted for surgery, she experienced a mixture of emotions. “I was so grateful that Yaya could be helped. It was all that I had prayed for. But I was also very uncertain and afraid. I wondered how it would be possible to fix Yaya’s legs and what he would go through.”

Dr. Frank Haydon, volunteer orthopedic surgeon, was able to fix Yaya’s legs. According to Dr. Frank, “The condition that Yaya was born with caused his bones to be very brittle. As he started to walk, the pressure on the bones caused multiple fractures. The surgery he had aligned his leg bones properly, and the two rods I installed will give his legs the needed strength and structure so he can walk.”

Each day Yaya does grow stronger. He is starting to take his own steps with the help of a walker, and he has progressed to simple below-the-knee leg casts. But at the same time, each day wears on Kadiatou. She shows the strain of being away from family and being indebted to more and more neighbors. She has borrowed money from them for food and malaria medication. However, regardless of the hardship, Kadiatou’s commitment to see Yaya through his healing journey is unwavering. “I would endure anything so Yaya can do what he longs to do more than anything else – play football. By suffering for Yaya and my family now, I know that there will be great happiness in the future,” she says.

According to his uncle, Yaya’s journey to hope and healing is summed up in a few words: “Yaya is so loved by everyone on Mercy Ships.” And, still, even with so many kind hearts embracing Yaya, there is one who continues to occupy the most special place in his heart. As clear as a bell, Yaya declares, “I love my Grandmother so much! She has done everything for me.”

Paperclips to billions

When we were considering taking this role one of the reasons we were excited about it, was that I would continue to have challenging work in the accounting arena and get to participate in the ministry that happens on this ship. But when we talked about it, we spent most of the time talking about what the ministry does. I would certainly let people know what I would be doing, but there really weren’t very many questions or discussions came up about the actual finance director position. I was not surprised by that nor hurt or anything like that. I know accounting and finance is not the world’s most entertaining subject, except to people who do what I do (and maybe not even then).  Admittedly, my job at the mine was pretty boring except for getting to talk about the cool machinery I got to be around all the time.

That being said, I really had no idea what my job would entail when we were preparing to come. Turns out I get to be involved in a ton of things. Things that have many numbers, some that have just a little to do with finance and some that have nothing at all to do with finance and accounting. I have been asked the best part of my job several times and I am never quite sure what to say, because I still don’t know exactly what my job is from day to day. I have said, the best part of this is the finance and sales staff. They take my ideas and make them reality. Most of the things up here I am just involved in the ideas and others actually get them done. They serve without notice and I am so blessed to serve along-side them.

So now that my role has a little more excitement, we thought we would let you in a little bit on some of the things I have done in the last 45 days that somehow fall under the category of finance director.

Check writer - Wrote a letter requesting bank to pay our fuel provider. 3,900,000,000 (3.9 billion, yes that’s billion) Guinea Franc. I control all of that!!!!

Banking – received 280,000,000 Guinea Franc (about $40,000). It was delivered to the ship in 2 laundry baskets.

Payroll – Processed payments for our 200 day workers (once every two weeks). 

Personal Financial consultant - Helped our West African crew organize their finances, so they could attend the Gateway course in Ghana. (Gateway is the course new crew take as part of joining Mercy Ships, similar to what Tracey and I did in Texas in June and July of 2012).

Tax Consultant - Helped friends on the ship with taxes and W4s

Financials – Designed a new layout of our departmental financials to give a little more information to our managers (had lots of help from other finance staff on this as well)

Inventory and Supplies - Organized inventories of our ship shop and hospital supplies.

Sales – Worked with our sales manager on ideas to help have the ship shop and café open more hours. Also worked on the procuring of a new coke machine, so crew could have access to soda (or pop, or soda pop, or coke or soft drinks, or whatever you wish to call it) outside of the hours the café is open.

Office Supplies – Reorganized our office supply process. Went to the supply store to get some paper clips, laminating sheets and other stuff.

Customs - Visited our agent about 3 times or so in order to get about 10 boxes that had been held up in customs. Some for over a month.  Also helped get a container here that had been held up for a week.

Diplomat? – Went to the Marine House at the US Embassy to watch the Super Bowl. Got back to the ship at 430am.

Interior Decorator - Thought up a plan to make layout of our finance offices and supply closet more efficient. The staff actually took my ideas and made them reality, much better than I could have dreamt up.

Welcoming Party- Part of the group that welcomed the FIFA president Sepp Blatter on board during a stopover he made in Guinea (FIFA is the governing body of world soccer).

Preacher? - Was the speaker at one of our Thursday community gatherings. Profit and Loss was the topic and was generally about the post I did about Monday Night Football in Guinea. For all my accountant friends, I used T accounts in the talk and an excel spreadsheet was the slide background.

Dental - Helped organize dental appointments for some of the people at the bank we use here in Guinea.

Hospital - Attended a dress ceremony for our VVF ladies and gave a gift to one of them as part of the proceedings.

Surgery? - Gave blood that was used in an emergency surgery at 3 am. That was pretty cool.

Food Service – Gave ice cream out to the crew after one of our community gatherings.

Blessed - Met a family that takes care of 19 kids in their three bedroom house (see last post)

Travel Agent – Helped Tracey buy tickets to come home this summer. Yeehaw!

The best story is I ended one day by writing that payment request I mentioned for all that money. In the morning that day, I was helping the staff know how to get some paper clips in town. The full gambit.

Who said, being a finance director was going to be boring?         

Changing one life at a time

These last couple weeks I have been struck by the personal nature of our God.  There are millions of hurting and sick people in Guinea and around West Africa and there is no way that Mercy Ships can even make a dent.  Sometimes this can be discouraging, but when we have had the opportunity to get to know the individual lives that are changed by what God is doing in this country we are able to have a deeper perspective that God truly is watching out for each person and changing lives one person at a time.  In the last couple weeks we have had the opportunity to see God working to completely change the lives of many children in this country.

The Blind See

One of the most amazing things, in my opinion, that Mercy Ship surgeons do is to remove congenital cataracts.  Amazing not because it is so difficult, but because of the radical transformation and the lifelong implications for those children.  Thousands of children in West Africa are blind due to cataracts that they are born with or develop soon after birth.  A FIFTEEN minute procedure can restore sight to these kids for an entire lifetime.  Not only is sight restored but their lives are forever altered.  Being blind in West Africa is often a death sentence for these children. Those who do survive live lives of complete dependence on others both physically and financially.  Just in January alone 25 cataracts were removed in children who were blind and now see thanks to our amazing surgeons and the work God is doing here!

A couple weeks ago Adalynn and I got to go meet some of these children.  Adalynn brought a sheet of stickers to share and we headed down to the hospital.  She was eager to hand out stickers to anyone who wanted them.  We entered the ward that was also shared by several adult patients who were recovering from tumor removals and fistula repairs.  She walked around to each bed and gave stickers to everyone.  She placed the stickers on the foreheads of all the adults and they thought it was so funny. Their eyes lit up as she greeted them and shared the stickers.  While there, we got to meet an 8 year old girl who had received cataract surgery the day before.

She came to the ship blind and she could now see. 

She still had some see-through patches on her eyes but she could see well enough to greet Adalynn and was so excited to have a sticker.  This little girl sat on her bed coloring page after page in her coloring book.  What an amazing experience it must have been for her to have sight for the first time at age 8.  As Adalynn made her way around the room greeting patients and giving out her stickers I couldn’t take my eyes off of this girl and her proud father beside her.  I was struck by the miracles that God does through our talented surgeons.  Imagine an 8 year old seeing for the first time and knowing that she now has a full life ahead of her.  I found myself so choked up by the opportunity to witness this miracle and for Adalynn to also grow up seeing God’s hand at work in the lives of the African people.

A group of kids the day after surgery.  Seeing for the first time!

Handing out stickers.

Father to the Fatherless

This last weekend John, Adalynn and I spent Saturday morning at a local orphanage.  The God is Love Orphanage is run by a couple from Sierra Leone.  They fled here during civil strife in their country several years ago.  They have 3 of their own children and 19 orphans living in their 3 bedroom home.  The father is also a pastor of a nearby church.  The entire orphanage and church are run off of their own money and money from their small church.   Mercy Ships has partnered with this ministry while we are here and every week a group goes to hang out with the kids, sing and teach a short Bible lesson.  I have my mental pictures of orphanages and most of them are not very pleasant.  This orphanage, however, is a beautiful place of love and acceptance.  From the moment we walked in you could sense God’s love and presence.  The kids were loving and kind as they greeted us.  As soon as we walked in some of the ladies in our group pulled out puzzles and they all immediately started putting them together together.  They didn’t fight or argue or grab or shove.  They worked together, all of them, to complete all of the puzzles.  There are kids ranging from 6 months to 16 years and they have an obvious sense of love and care for each other.  This, to me, is a direct reflection of the parents and God’s hand working in their family.  The entire visit was this way.  I saw the older kids teaching the younger kids bible stories and helping them with crafts.  They encouraged each other and cheered for each other during the games we played.  They played with Adalynn and she gave them stickers!

 They were once orphans but now have a home.

 

Playing a game

Adalynn's new friend, Blessing!

Coloring.  The girl on the front left is deaf and she and I colored together
for a while and she wanted our pictures to look just the same so she would find
 two of the same color crayon and show me where to color.

Handing out stickers.

They loved the stickers!

Dancing and singing for us.

 

Once again I was struck by the power of God’s love and the miracles he is continuing to show us here in Guinea.  The blind see, the orphans have homes, the unloved are loved.  Mercy Ships is just a boat filled with imperfect people but God is using these imperfect people to touch and change lives in this country both on the ship and off.  The most amazing part, however, is that the lives of those imperfect people are being touched, even more sometimes, by the people of this country.  God IS a personal God and cares deeply about each and every one of us.