Winter slump….
Queen of
procrastination… that’s me! I’m back in the Liberia
Totally
blessed…
I had a great birthday on board back in
June, full of lots of love and reminders of amazing people in my life. It was
raining (of course) so after cake, a few of us jumped around in the puddles outside
and made rain angels! It was great fun! I also had a sneaky visit home for 2
weeks in July to fit in a few cuddles with the little people in my life and to
wish Mum and Dad a Happy 40th wedding Anniversary. It was too short
but great to have a bit of time out. So to all of you who I continue to miss so
much, I am soooo looking forward to coming home in October for 3 months. I
already have a few adventures planned to catch up with friends I haven’t seen
in far too long and look forward to making more! Then I’ll re-join the ship in
Tenerife in mid January, before sailing to Benin Benin
Surrender…
I’m in a constant whirl of saying goodbye to
precious friends in this place. It was doing my head in a few weeks ago, and
still does if I’m honest. It’s incredibly draining living in a world where your
friends come and go so quickly. I’m happy here for a time longer but for the
first time in a while, I realised that living here is taking its toll and I
look forward to a time of more stability with relationships at some point. It’s
pretty painful with weekly goodbyes… one of our first questions when we meet
someone is, ‘.. and how long will you be staying?’ if the answer is any less
than a couple of months then the conversation tends to dwindle! It’s too
draining to get involved in relationships that are so short. It’s bringing me
to a place where I feel God wants me to totally surrender everything I have… and that hurts. Yet I know deep in my heart that
if I give up my ‘right’ to have stable, cosy friendships, God will surely
reveal even more of His goodness to me. If I don’t, it’s like I’m holding something
back. But it’s a journey and I‘ve certainly not made it to a place of total
surrender just yet…
Pure
joy…
That’s what I felt
last week as I drove out to a newly built orphanage. The orphanage I have been
visiting for the last year and bit has been struggling to find the cash to pay
for their rent for a while now. That’s why a couple of friends of mine were
inspired and called to do something pretty amazing. They gave up living on this
cosy ship and decided to go to the extreme – to build the orphanage a place of
heir own. It’s been great watching the buildings go up and to imagine it full
of squealing children! So last week we packed the land rovers full of excitable
children, together with all their belongings and set on our way. As we
approached their new home (it’s about 45 minutes drive away) they were singing,
‘Hellooooooo, we are coming…. Hellooooooo, we are coming’ and it got louder and
louder… and more and more joyful the nearer we got until it was ringing in my
ears and I honestly thought my ear drums might burst!! The days I go to the
Orphanage to play, have my hair braided, body clamboured over and come back
home feeling sticky with sweat are always my more fulfilling Saturdays!
It’s also been a
joyful time on the ward these last few weeks too. We’ve been operating on
ladies with VVF (problems sustained during prolonged labour due to the lack of
medical help available and the baby usually ends up dying and the mother is
left incontinent). Often when we do this kind of surgery it can be a heavy time
emotionally because surgery is not always able to offer total healing and the
ladies can go home feeling very disappointed. However, this time most of our
ladies have gone home ‘dry’ and healed and the atmosphere has been full of lots
of joy… I’m so thankful to God and thank you for your prayers for them.
Desperate…
So, I‘m just
looking out of my window and can see this guy hanging off the jetty opposite
with barely any part of any limb attached to keep him from falling and he’s
sawing off a piece of metal that he’ll presumably be selling for cash sometime
later this afternoon. Talk about desperate. I thought I’d seen desperate, but
this is another sight that forces me to look at myself in my cosy cabin with my
lap top on my knees… something’s not right. What is it that seems so ok to live
a life that is half hearted in terms of being radical, meanwhile someone a few
metres away is struggling to even feed his belly for the day? I’m convinced God
has called us to live radical lives that are sold out for Him but somehow
compromise seeps in so easily. I’m preaching to myself by the way… Live simply so others may simply live… it’s
something I’ve been thinking about a lot lately and know I’m going to be
challenged with once again during my trip home.
Well, I think
that’s all for now, enjoy the new pictures too… see you very soon. Bucket loads
of love, KWW
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