Well as the saying goes "all good things have to come to an end." It is absolutely crazy for me to think that in a week from now I will be flying to Paris. My time on the Africa Mercy has been wonderful and I have seen God do so many amazing things.
Friday was our last day of surgery for this outreach. We all are rejoicing for a successful 2008 outreach. The wards are getting so empty :( Friday of this up coming week the ward will close as well and then the following saturday the ship sets sail for the canary islands.
There are a few patients who desperatly need a touch from the Lord as there wounds are either slowly healing or not healing at all. SO we have set-up a prayer room in D ward. It has been beautifully set-up with African decor, scripture on the walls, prayer cards hanging from the ceiling with the names of the patients and their needs. We had the opening time yesterday at 1400h and will continue till Friday of next week. Please agree with us for the patients who need a miracle.
Here are the names and prayer requests:
Kollie: He had an encephalocele removed and is still leaking Cerebral spinal fluid
Jacob: Skin graft wound that needs to heal
Louisa: Skin graft wound that needs to heal
Sedeke: Very large infection, that is much better, but still needs to finish healing and also for salvation
Eddie: Wounds to heal
Thanks for agreeing with us in prayer!!!! Prayer changes natural circumstances into supernatural miracles!!!
Saturday, November 29, 2008
Sunday, November 16, 2008
Why.....
Do you ever have those times in your life when you desperately cry out to God WHY? There are at times one area of my life where I find it hard to control. It's a very intricate part of the human soul; it's my emotions. In these moments, my dilemma is that my heart will not agree with what my mind is telling me I need to do. It's in this moment that I cry out to God "WHY can't what I am feeling just agree with what I know I need to do/be/have." I haven't found the answer to this phenomenon or even what it's called; however, the past few weeks I have been battling it so much that I have many times asked WHY not only of God but also close friends. Here's where I found out I am not the only one that doesn't understand why these two parts of the human soul won't agree with each other. Let me explain.
I recall in one of my earlier entries sharing that I was struggling with fully being here. I kept struggling inside with not wanting to be here but at the same moment enjoying everything about it. After many prayers and words from the Lord, I felt much better. However, deep down it was still there but not as bad. Then 2 weeks ago the weirdest thing happened. It's like that feeling of not wanting to be here just rose up in me stronger then ever before and everyday was so difficult I found myself just sleeping, and working that's it. I was asking God WHY. My whole life I have wanted to do things just like I am doing now. I went to nursing school for this very reason. I have spent many hours dreaming of coming back to the Mercy Ships and working as a nurse. Why, now that I was here, was I feeling this way? I kept telling myself I shouldn't have these feelings but no matter what I kept doing and praying the feelings persisted onward.
One night I called a close girlfriend and just shared my heart with her. I so wanted answers to the reason why my heart was feeling one thing when I so desperately wanted to feel something else. As I was reading the Word I found a quote that someone had shared when I first came to the ship
"You are a success in God's Kingdom when you are faithful where He has placed you." I realized that God had brought me here to the ship and I have 5 weeks left and I am not going to let the enemy rob me of what I was brought here to accomplish. I had to kick myself in the butt and just realize that I was feeling this way BUT my feelings were not going to control my actions and destroy the work of the Lord. I shared this with my girlfriend and she told me "Lanita, I can't give you an answer as to why you are feeling this way, but you may consider that this is spiritual warefare and you have to fight through it." I meditated on her words and got a sense that yes indeed this is what it was. So I prayed that my mind would be the mind of Christ and that I subject my feelings and attitudes to the will of the Lord. I wish I could say that "boom" just like that the feelings left but that isn't the case, they are still here even now as I write this journal entry BUT they are not controling my life. In fact amazing things are happening inside of me, healing is happening, and areas of my life that were not in-line with the Word of God are beginning to line-up. I am realizing so much about myself and all the junk that I have allowed to take over my mind and heart.
The next time I worked, after having this conversation with my friend, it was the coolest thing, we were watching down in the ward the service from upstairs and it was native Africans singing and sharing their testimonies. Some of the patients were dancing in the ward and I joined in. My heart was flooded with joy. This is what it's all about, praising the Lord in the midst of our trials!!! "Bless the Lord O my soul and all that is within me bless His holy name." No matter what our feelings may be, we have to take control over them and tell our soul to bless the Lord!
My challenge: We need to take control of our hearts and not allow our feelings to interfere with the work the Lord has for us. We need to take control of our feelings and thoughts!!!
I recall in one of my earlier entries sharing that I was struggling with fully being here. I kept struggling inside with not wanting to be here but at the same moment enjoying everything about it. After many prayers and words from the Lord, I felt much better. However, deep down it was still there but not as bad. Then 2 weeks ago the weirdest thing happened. It's like that feeling of not wanting to be here just rose up in me stronger then ever before and everyday was so difficult I found myself just sleeping, and working that's it. I was asking God WHY. My whole life I have wanted to do things just like I am doing now. I went to nursing school for this very reason. I have spent many hours dreaming of coming back to the Mercy Ships and working as a nurse. Why, now that I was here, was I feeling this way? I kept telling myself I shouldn't have these feelings but no matter what I kept doing and praying the feelings persisted onward.
One night I called a close girlfriend and just shared my heart with her. I so wanted answers to the reason why my heart was feeling one thing when I so desperately wanted to feel something else. As I was reading the Word I found a quote that someone had shared when I first came to the ship
"You are a success in God's Kingdom when you are faithful where He has placed you." I realized that God had brought me here to the ship and I have 5 weeks left and I am not going to let the enemy rob me of what I was brought here to accomplish. I had to kick myself in the butt and just realize that I was feeling this way BUT my feelings were not going to control my actions and destroy the work of the Lord. I shared this with my girlfriend and she told me "Lanita, I can't give you an answer as to why you are feeling this way, but you may consider that this is spiritual warefare and you have to fight through it." I meditated on her words and got a sense that yes indeed this is what it was. So I prayed that my mind would be the mind of Christ and that I subject my feelings and attitudes to the will of the Lord. I wish I could say that "boom" just like that the feelings left but that isn't the case, they are still here even now as I write this journal entry BUT they are not controling my life. In fact amazing things are happening inside of me, healing is happening, and areas of my life that were not in-line with the Word of God are beginning to line-up. I am realizing so much about myself and all the junk that I have allowed to take over my mind and heart.
The next time I worked, after having this conversation with my friend, it was the coolest thing, we were watching down in the ward the service from upstairs and it was native Africans singing and sharing their testimonies. Some of the patients were dancing in the ward and I joined in. My heart was flooded with joy. This is what it's all about, praising the Lord in the midst of our trials!!! "Bless the Lord O my soul and all that is within me bless His holy name." No matter what our feelings may be, we have to take control over them and tell our soul to bless the Lord!
My challenge: We need to take control of our hearts and not allow our feelings to interfere with the work the Lord has for us. We need to take control of our feelings and thoughts!!!
Saturday, November 1, 2008
Does our life reflect what we say?
"Trust the Lord." Wow that is a powerful sentence and one that I have said many times in my life. My challenge of late from the Lord has been "Do I really live my life like I am trusting the Lord." My personality is such that I always have to be involved in making things happen, solving problems etc. But when we are trusting the Lord with situations in our lives, it means that our hands our tied behind our backs, our mouths are duct taped shut and we are completely letting the Lord work on our behalf. NOT EASY TO DO, for the record, or at least not for me. However, it is amazing how much peace comes into your life when you do this. How burdens are lifted off of your shoulders and how much time is saved because you are not trying to figure out how you are going to handle a situation. I am learning my job is to pray, bring my request before the throne room of God and leave it there. Even this is easy to do but the true test of trusting the Lord is after leaving it with him to not go back and "pick" it up again. When we ask the Lord to help us in a situation we have to believe that he will do it and it will be with our best interest in mind. Remember, the outcome may not be what we wanted but nonetheless it is the best for us.
Life on the ship continues on. It's weird because people that I am close to are starting to leave and that is one of the "not so fun things" about ship life. You meet great friends and then they leave and you are left behind:(
Last w/e a group of us left the ship for 3 days and headed to the beach!!! It was a beautiful w/e with lots of sun and fun. We stayed in a town called Robert's Port at "Nana's Lodge." This place was so cute. There are about 12 tents up on stilts and they have double-wide beds in them. This is the lodging. The resturant/bar is a small bamboo structure on the beach. The food was great as well. We spent the day in the water, reading, laying on the beach and scortching ourselves. I told myself I was not going to get burned so I applied 35-50 SPF 3X's and yep you guessed it I still burnt. I wasn't very happy.
Life on the ship continues on. It's weird because people that I am close to are starting to leave and that is one of the "not so fun things" about ship life. You meet great friends and then they leave and you are left behind:(
Last w/e a group of us left the ship for 3 days and headed to the beach!!! It was a beautiful w/e with lots of sun and fun. We stayed in a town called Robert's Port at "Nana's Lodge." This place was so cute. There are about 12 tents up on stilts and they have double-wide beds in them. This is the lodging. The resturant/bar is a small bamboo structure on the beach. The food was great as well. We spent the day in the water, reading, laying on the beach and scortching ourselves. I told myself I was not going to get burned so I applied 35-50 SPF 3X's and yep you guessed it I still burnt. I wasn't very happy.
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