Time

Time seems to be rushing away from me! I was meant to have written this on New Years day, so it's only 19 days late!
Christmas was spent working on the ward with patients who had had surgery a week before and some who were waiting for their life changing surgery. It was great to be able to share Christmas with them all!

The ward on Christmas day! 

One of the patients waiting for surgery.

New Years Eve

New Years Eve was a bit different this time from my usual, I spent it at the local church I go to every Sunday, and where I feel at home!

I have been going to the Assembly of God church here in Pointe Noire. This is the first time in Africa that I feel at home in a church, the worship is amazing and the presence of God fills the church, I might not understand every single word of the song (as it is in French) but that does not matter when God is in control and His presence fills you. The teaching is like what I get at home in my church in Swansea, and feel God speaks to me through it.
Then there is also the people who attend, they have made us feel like part of the family. I am so grateful for the church and really feel it is where I am meant to be .

Pastor Gary and Mama Janice with the 3 of us

Also which has been such a blessing and I do not think they know how much it has meant to me being part of their family for the last few months is getting to know Pastor Gary and Mama Janice. They are a missionary couple from America, they have been in Congo for 20 years and most of that has been building this church up. Unfortunately for me and for the church they have been called to go and work in Gabon. It has been amazing to see how well loved they are by the church and how much they are going to be missed.  They have made me and my friends feel really at home and they have welcomed us into their lives even when they were so busy packing things up to move. Going to miss them a lot but I am sure I will see them again someday!

The ladies group giving the Pastor and his wife a gift as a leaving present

An amazing worship group

On their last Sunday the church had a special service for them, it was such a special moment, so glad I was able to be part of it. A few days later I was back at the church to bring in the new year. As I was not going to be back in time for curfew on the ship, I signed out for the night and Mama Janice sorted a bed for me. This meant I could spend a bit more time with them before they left the next day, which was a bonus for me.

New Years Eve service was so good, worship and prayer before midnight, with an amazing presence of God, what a way to bring in the New Year! Then midnight came and everyone started hugging, singing, shouting and dancing, it was fantastic! The music kept going more worship songs and dancing, at 02:00 Mama Janice and I called it in and headed to bed. The service kept going till 5 or 6 in the morning. Once in a while I would wake up to them singing a worship song, ohh my heart kept rejoicing at hearing them.

Celebrating the New Year by dancing and singing

It is so hard to put in words how I feel, just thinking about it makes me smile and my heart filled with so much love for God. You see New Years to me has always been something you do, never really liking it much. But this has changed for me, and I am so grateful for the church family, for making me feel welcome but really all praise goes to Jesus and for what He is doing in my life.

Brazzaville Screening

 I was going to write about the screening trip to Brazzaville, but I can't seem to get the words out. Sometimes I want to share everything with you, to let you in to some of my thoughts but today I am just going to put photos up, I hope you get a bit of an idea of how the day went.

The screening site was at a church

This little girl was seen and given an appointment to come to the ship to be seen by a surgeon and hopefully will have surgery on her burn scars (contractures). Hopefully I will see her when I change her dressings!

People waiting in lines

The team

Change

The incredible team

Change is upon us now, as the Plastic Surgeon left a week ago and an Orthopaedic surgeon has arrived. This means our dressing changes are slowing down as patients heal and are sent home. In a few weeks I will be joining the ward and nursing orthopaedic patients as their will not be any more plastics patients.
It has been an incrediable 8 weeks, very busy at time with highs and lows, but the amazing thing is the team I am part of. The photo here is the plastics team, from surgeon to rehab team (physio's and OT) plastics team leader, physician and the dressing team. All from different countries and a few whose English is not the first language but we all have the same goal, to see the patients life change.

a social outing with some of the team

Morning rounds

It is so great to see the patients leaving to go home after being on the ward for so long having dressing changes. I find it a blessing that I am able to get to know the patients as I do the dressing on a regular basis. To see their wounds looking fantastic and their smiles at being able to use their fingers for the first time in years or be able to walk, as their leg contracture is released and can put their leg down straight!
I feel it is such a blessing to see what God is doing in this place and in their lives of not just the patients but the crew as well.

See what I can do now that I have straight arms!

Father's love

Change can sometimes be hard, but it is made easier when trusting God fully. At the moment I am in a Bible study group and we are going through Psalms, Songs of ascents.
Psalm 121

1. I lift up my eyes to the hills-

where does my help come from?

2. My help comes from the Lord,

the maker of heaven and earth.

3. He will not let your foot slip-

he who watches over you will not slumber;

5. The Lord watches over you-

the Lord is your shade at your right hand;

6. the sun will not harm you by day,

nor the moon by night.

7. The Lord will keep you from all harm-

he will watch over you life;

                                                              8. the Lord will watch over your coming and going

                                                      both now and ever more

A little miracle

Love the patients, they teach me so much

Plastics Dressings

Dressing room

Plastics dressings is my job title at the moment. This job means my whole day is taken up with changing dressings (bandages) on the plastic surgery patients. As some of you know I have been working in a plastics ward back at home and are used to dressings. But here on the ship is slightly different, as there are different dressing we use and the way we clean the wounds is different. It is good to see what works here better than what we are use to at home.
It has been 4 weeks since we started plastic surgeries here in Congo. There have been up's and down's. One of my own struggles is when we have a patient with an infection in their wound. But I pray that God will healed them that the infection will go and I trust Him that He can do it, he is a God who heals.

dressing room

One of the best things is when you see the change in the skin graft, it is healing!!! The infection is gone or is going and it is not longer a problem.
When the skin graft is healing so well that soon the patient will be able to go home. The telling of the patient that they should be going home soon, that the surgery they have had has worked, that they will be able move their limb or use their hand which they have not been able to use for years, their precious smiles and their eyes glistening from happiness, their thank you's. Then in that moment I realise why God has brought me here.


 I love the fact that God has a plan in everything, little did I know when I moved to Swansea 8 years ago, that God had bigger plans for me. I got a job in Burns but then they added plastics to it. From there I have been able to gain knowledge and now I am able to use my skills and knowledge which God has given me.

One of the patients with their dad

Playing on the ward floor

 To be able to use my skills and knowledge on the people of Congo has been such an experience and reward, which  I would never have thought possible.

Beautiful

Screening day/ Selection day

A few days after screening day I have been able to digest some of what happened that day. Still even writing this makes me emotional.

Lets start with numbers around 7,000 people queued up all day to be seen. Around 6,300 went through the main gate. 4,200 of them were potential patients. Over 1,000 went through the pre-screener and onto the surgical specialities. This selection day was the biggest in Mercy Ships history. They are amazing numbers but it also shows that there is a big need in this country.

The people queued for hours during the day just to be seen by a doctor, for some the last hope they have. It was great to see the people who received the appointment card to come back to the ship, their big smiles and their "Merci" (Thank you), some were so excited, it made my day all so worth the pain and aches of walking miles. But of course I dealt with a lot patients who unfortunately could not be helped. It was heartbreaking to see the people walking the line which meant they were not a candidate for surgery. In my little French I tried to show them that I cared, that I was sorry we could not help. At the end of the line we ask if they wanted prayer by our prayer team, it was encouraging to see so many take the opportunity to be prayed for. That maybe we could not help them physically but we could help spiritually.

The most frustrating thing of the day for me is that some of the problems the patients had and that the ship could not help with could so easily be sorted at home, they would see the GP and then referred to the right doctor and have their health issue sorted in a matter of days/months. While here they suffer with their problem for years and years.
What do you say to a teenager that has deformities in her legs which means she has to walk with crutches or stick for the rest of her life, as we cannot help her, as she sits there sobbing, all I could do was give her a hug and  I gave her a silent prayed that she would know she was loved. 

As you can tell I found it very emotional, and I have shed a few tears everyday since. But also I had moments of pure joy, as a little girl (the one in the picture) gave me loads of hugs and played with me for a little while, while her mum waited in line to get the appointment card to return to the ship. Or when a group of men were discussing why they had not been accepted, I explained why to them, I got the translator to invite them to prayer if they wanted to. One of the men wanted prayer, so I took him to the prayer room, while walking with him, he asked if I was a Christian, when I replied yes, he had a smile in his face, then he asked me if I loved Jesus, when I told him yes I did, his smile got bigger and said that was very good. I then told him I was sorry we could not help, but his reply was so good, he thank me and said that it is all in God's hand. It brought me back to reasons why I was there.
It is all in God's hand, he has chosen the patients we are going to have, and that we are here for a reason. I am excited to see what He has planned for our time here in Congo.

Thankfulness

I am back on the ship!!! I have been here less than 48 hrs, and already I am so thankful for what God is doing in my life by coming here! So I thought I would write a blog of thankfulness, and in the same time you can keep up to date with what is going on...

Thankful for my time at home with friends and family
Thankful for the house selling
Thankful I was able to sell or give away my furniture and bless others with it
Thankful for a supportive church
Thankful for the people who support me
Thankful for my health
Thankful for a safe journey
Thankful for an upgrade on my plane journey
Thankful for meeting up with friends
Thankful for His plan in my life
Thankful for a family cabin (with a sofa)
Thankful for the little things that make the day great
Thankful for all the nurses joining
Thankful for amazing friends
Thankful for the Peace in my life
Thankful for the opportunity to serve

I could go on and on but I think you can see how thankful I am.

reunited with friends (and a fantastic cabin)

Next Thursday is our big screening day, please pray that the right patients may come and be given an appointment to have their surgery done. That it will all go smoothly. 

  

Amazing?!!?

People come to me after they find out what I am up to and say 'what you are doing is amazing'

Well to me it doesn't feel that amazing, to me it feels like I am doing what I have been called to do, it is exciting as I love the work I do on the ship, and I feel very privileged to be part of such a great work that God called me to do. But to be honest I do get days that I don't want to go, I want to feel settled in one place with friends and family. Then I realise that I would be miserable doing that!

At church the services have been on singing a song, even when we don't feel like it, when everything is going wrong, when you feel there is no hope, that's when we need to sing more. Well my song since coming back is the Hillsong 'I surrender'. To me it is personal as I needed to surrender everything to Jesus, and I feel like in the last few months I have been. And the difference in my life has been amazing! All the stress and work I needed to do to get ready to leave has been pretty high but then I give it all to God and the peace I have is Amazing!

So I might not feel like I am doing anything amazing, but God is doing amazing things!

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