Mercy Ships Screening Day

The definition of Hope has never had so much meaning as it did for me in the last 2 days.

"Bringing hope and healing to the poor" is Mercy Ships motto and I saw that motto being put into action on June 26th-27th.

The que (aka line) began forming last Saturday, this line was full of hopeful hearts and faces willing to wait for 3 days just to see if they passed an intial screening. The line was unsettling quiet. People speaking softly to their families and as the Mercy Ships personnel walked by they looked up with hopefuly faces, just waiting for you to pull them out of the line so they could see the doctor and possibly receive a free surgery for a removal of tumor, keloid scars, goiters (not sure how to spell that word), or cataracts. My role that day was to hand out water for the 1/2 mile long line and to pray for the people who Mercy Ships was unable to help. I would have to say between the two jobs the praying was the hardest.

Each person you passed that day, walked by with a huge hope in their eyes as they passed through the entrance for their surgery screening. While most exited the building that day carrying with them hope in their hearts and an appointment card in their hand. Some however, had a different look on their face as they left.....

A women sat down at our prayer station with her 10 week old daughter, her daughter's right eye was bulging out about the size of a golf ball due to a tumor, unfortunately mercy ships was unable to help this tiny girl. What do you say to a mother who has waited in line for hours and has carried her daughter from one doctor to the next each one with more discourageing news than the previous. Here she is sitting at the final station, starring at you with her watering eyes and beautiful daughter in her lap, knowing that what started as a hopeful day, has now just become the same as the last 10 weeks of her daughter's life. As we began praying for her my own words escaped me, but God new exactly what this women needed to hear and by the time we finished praying for the small baby, the mother looked like she had a tiny bit of that hope back in her eyes.

This has been the most amazing deomonstration of hope I have ever seen in my life let alone in one afternoon. Children playing, puppet shows going, and lots of nurese and doctors making very diffcult decisions. Just being there and seeing how Mercy Ships can tangibly bring hope and healing to the poor, made me realize how God can turn any hope into reality.

Love Seren

World Cup.....Ghanian Style

World Cup Crazy!!!

All I have heard the last 5 days is "OHHHH you are from America our people score you 2-1" " Go Blackstars"!!!!

Last Thursday when Ghana played US the game was at 2:00, we stopped work promptly at 1:30 (along with the rest of Ghana and trust me nobody works during the game) set up a projection screen and found ourselves amongst 40 Africans shouting and screaming when Ghana scored!!!

Ghana has gone World Cup Crazy, at approximetly 3:00 today all shops, most schools, and people will leave work to watch their country play Brazil. This is the first time Ghana has ever qualified for a world cup and now that they have made it past the first round all you see everywhere is Ghana flags, hats, shirts, and whistles with red, yellow, and green ribbon attached! It's so much fun, I have never seen such national pride and cameraderie. Every one is chatting on the streets about the game, and yes I have officially "jumped on the bandwagon" ( I even got my cheek painted with the Ghanaian flag) and I am having a great time!!!

GO GHANA!!!!!!

Seren

Amazing Grace Plumbing.....

I have observed that many people in Ghana know about Christ, but they only know Him at church. I have noticed this nation is full of the gospel, but people's hearts are empty. You see tons of signs for businesses saying "God is King Fitting Shop", "Amazing Grace Plumbing", or "God's Way Aluminum Co.", and these are just a few. Signs like the picture above line the streets of Ghana. At times it feels like there are more churches than homes and on Sunday's everyone but the tro tro drivers (bus drivers) are in church. While visually at first glance this nation appears to be full of God, when you take a second look at the hearts you see a different story. But really is this story any different in any other nation?

While in the US our streets may not be lined with visual signs of God, but do our hearts look any different??? This observation made me stop and think about my own life and ask myself some questions....
1. Am I leading a life that says I know about Christ or am I living a life for Christ in my heart?

2. When no one else is looking or when I am not at church am I making decisions with a Christ-like heart?

3. Am I just a visual picture of God on the outside, but on the inside it's a different story....

Just thought this little observation might spark some questions in your own hearts.... it's nothing I hadn't thought about before, but sometimes different things in life bring up these questions.....

Would love to hear your thoughts.... love Seren