The song that is on my heart... (for KLF) :)

Be My Guide

Be my guide, God of Abraham
Lead me by Your hand
You are strong and wise
I want to trust in You and in all I do
Bring You honour and praise

How I love You
Great and mighty King
You are faithful
Through the ages You never change

Be my guide in the dark of night
Set all fear to flight
You are hope and truth
I want to trust in You and in all I do
Bring You honour and praise

Be my guide for the road ahead
And should I feel misled
You are just and good
I want to trust in You and in all I do
Bring You honour and praise

-Brian Thiessen

Ode to Frances

Today my roomate Frances is leaving. And I am sad. So this is my ode to Frances! Thank you so much for your joy, your contagious laughter, your amazing singing, your friendship and your beautiful heart for our Lord Jesus. You have blessed my life and the lives of so many here. And we will miss you. May God be your Guide in the road ahead... and may we meet again soon!

Bong Mines

Some Prayer Requests

Time is going by so fast here... and I feel the need to update as there has been a serious lack of blogging happening!  I am trying to get back in the groove:).  Things are going well on the Africa Mercy, and there are some things we could really use your prayers for!  So for those prayer warriors out there, THANK YOU, and here are a few specifics...

** We are extremely short staffed on nurses.  Our new schedule is reflective of this.  Please pray for more nurses to come (hint, hint.. nurse friends..) But for us here, please pray for endurance, joyful hearts, strength and stamina to do the work at hand and to do it well.  

** We have many patients with bad infections. Pray that God would do some miraculous works in healing them physically.  We have seen some miracles already.. lets keep praying for more!

** I am learning a new job as a charge nurse.  Some of you have been praying (THANK YOU!) and I will be doing more of this role in the weeks to come.  Please pray that I would be a quick learner and that God would guide me in this new position.

**God has opened a door for me to help with a Bible study at an orphanage in Monrovia each week.  It is with a group of 8 teenage girls, and we are going to be studying the book of John.  I am soooo excited for this opportunity... please pray that God would be present and glorified in these relationships that we are seeking to build with these precious girls!  Our first meeting is this coming Wednesday.  

** God has been teaching me PLENTY PLENTY (African way of saying A LOT) since I have been here!  Pray that I would have a soft heart to all He wants to do in me and that I would know Him more in all of these things.  What a great GOD we have!!

Thank you for your prayers, dear friends and family.  I love you and thank God for you.

Is anyone among you suffering?  He should pray.  Is anyone cheerful?  He should sing praises.  Is anyone among you sick?  He should call for the elders of the church, and they should pay over him... The prayer of faith will save the sick person, and the Lord will raise him up; and if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven.  Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, so that you may be healed.  

The intense prayer of the righteous is very powerful.  

James 5:13-16

Sadiatu

This gorgeous little one was one of my patients I cared for on my first shift back on board the ship.  Sadiatu is almost two years old and was brought to us by her mother because she had a protrusion from her forehead.  It turns out that Sadiatu had an encephalocele, which is actually a neural tube defect where a portion of the brain protrudes through an opening in the skull.  Back at home, these defects would be corrected through surgery when a child is an infant.  Without surgery, Sadiatu would likely not have lived into adulthood.  The week or so following surgery was difficult and painful... not just for Sadiatu, but for her tired and caring mother, who had to watch her child suffer... in pain, eyes swollen shut, made to go through multiple painful procedures.  

And it was a reminder to me of patience in suffering.  Because in this, as in many things in life, things actually looked worse before they looked better.  And sweet little Sadiatu definitely looked much worse... and while it was only for a few days... to her and to her mother, it probably felt like much longer.  

During these days that I cared for her, she would cry even at the sound of my voice.  I could see the exhaustion on her mother's face and reminded her that she would continue to heal.  That this was hard, but that it would pass and Sadiatu would return to herself.  And even as I reassured her, I could not have been prepared for the transformation that would take place in the next few days.  Imagine my surprise by the end of the week to have this little one giggling, toddling up to me, letting me hold her and laughing when I tickled her!  Praise God for physical healing! 

And praise God for His patience in our suffering.  As a Father, He must feel great pain watching His children hurt... but He knows the end result.  And so He is patient.  As we walk through challenges and trials of many shapes and sizes. Because He loves us enough to allow temporary suffering for much more lasting joy.  Perhaps in this context, it is easier to understand the exhortation in James 1: 2-4:  "Consider it a great joy, my brothers, whenever you experience various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance.  But endurance must do its complete work, so that you may be mature and complete, lacking nothing."  

May we have the courage to trust in our Great God, even when things may appear to be getting "worse" in our eyes.  May we endure, may we allow the process, and by His grace, cooperate with Him in becoming mature and complete, lacking nothing.  Praise Him for the work He did in Sadiatu's life!  And praise Him for what He is doing in yours!

I Was Made For This...

TO CLING

My soul clings to You; Your right hand upholds me.  Psalm 63:8

TO SING

Sing to the LORD all the earth.  Proclaim His salvation day after day.  1 Chronicles 16:23

TO WORK

Six days you shall labor and do all your work.  Exodus 20:9

TO REST

...but on the seventh day you shall rest; even during the plowing season and harvest you must rest.  Exodus 34:21

TO BE AT PEACE

The Lord gives strength to His people; the Lord blesses His people with peace.  Psalm 29:11

TO WORSHIP

This is what the Lord says:  Let my people go so that they may worship me.  Exodus 8:1

TO LOVE

If I gave everything I had to the poor and even sacrificed my body, but do not have love, I gain nothing.  1 Corinthians 13:3

TO GIVE

You will be made rich in every way so that you can be generous on every occasion... 2 Corinthians 9:11

TO RECEIVE

Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence so that we may receive mercy adn find grace to help us in our time of need.  Hebrews 4:16

TO BE FREE

It is for freedom that Christ has set us free.  Galations 5:1

TO BE

For in Him we live and move and have our being.  Acts 17:28

Remember this sweet face??

God is so very good in how He times things!  You may remember Martlyn... who was a dear friend and one of our little patients from last fall in Liberia.  And it just 'turned out' that she was readmitted this week for a follow up surgery... the very same week that I returned to the ship!  Thank you, Lord, for the precious gift of a reunion with this darling girl!!  Martlyn endured several very difficult surgeries last fall and several long months of recovery on our hospital ship.  To see her back again, a little bundle of joy and laughter and smiles was an absolute delight to my heart.  God has done great things in her life, and she is so FULL OF LIFE.  She was discharged already today, and I was truly sad to see her go.  But so very THANKFUL for her sweet familiar face to have been around this first week back in Liberia.  

Big kiss!!