I wish...

I had no idea how difficult it would be to process my experiences this summer.
It is so hard to put into words all the things that I saw.
It is hard to adequately portray the way the Lord changed my heart.
It is almost impossible for me to summarize into mere paragraphs the people and places that I absolutely fell in love with.

I wish that everyone could experience the summer that I had.
I wish that everyone could see the world the way I now see it.
I wish that everyone could have the chance to love on the children I met.
I wish that everyone's hearts would ache for the lost.
I wish that everyone would have a desire to share the gospel with those who need it most.
I wish...

I can wish all day, but these things I know for sure:

•  I am a daughter of the King [Jn 1:12]. 
•  I rest safely in His hands [Lk 23:46]. 
• When I am weak and think I can't go on, He gives me strength [Is. 40:29]. 
• When I feel defeated and crushed by the world, I take heart because He has overcome the world      [Jn.16:33]. 
• When I feel alone, I remember the cross and rest in God's never ending love [Jn 3:16]. 
• When I feel inadequate, I remember that I am God's workmanship, made perfectly to bear fruit   [Eph. 2:10, Jn. 15:16] 
• When I get too comfortable in this world, I remember that I am not a citizen of this world..my home is in heaven. [Phil. 3:20]

Remembering these truths has been crucial to readjusting to American culture. I never thought it would be difficult to come back to the place I grew up, the place I have always called home. 

The other day, I went to walmart and I almost cried from being so overwhelmed. I cannot count the amount of times I have been to walmart, but this time it was different. This time, I could not stop thinking of all the kids I met that would love to have just one thing from that store. I imagined taking them to the store with me and watching their faces as they experience the toy aisle, the candy aisle, and the clothes section. I imagined buying them new shoes, shirts, and toy cars to play with. I can just see their beautiful faces light up as they see the brand new items that are all theirs. It broke my heart to think that they will never be able to experience that. They will never get to do something that I think is so routine. 

Instead, they find joy in dragging around an old sardines container filled with sand and balls made of collected trash. When we gave them toy cars, stickers, and balloons, you would've thought we were handing out gold. 

I pray that one day, I will learn to see the world from these children's eyes. I pray that one day I will have the kind of faith in my Savior that sees beauty and joy in the "stickers" without needing the "Walmart". I pray that  I will never forget. I pray that I will always choose truth over comfort and challenge over complacency. 

To God be the Glory great things He has done!

Processing my Summer Part 1

It is hard to believe that a little over a week ago I was in Ghana. I was serving, living, loving and learning. It is hard to believe how much I have changed in these last eight weeks. When I boarded the plane to Florida eight weeks ago, I had no idea my heart could grow so much or my life be changed so clearly. I left America so unsure of what God was doing and I have returned still unsure but not scared. I know in whom I have believed and I am sure that He will be faithful to me. I have trusted in Him and He will make my path straight. I have seen Him clearly work in my life and I will continue to surrender to Him and let Him lead me.

I have been in America almost a week and I am still processing everything that happened during my time in Ghana. It is going to take me a very long time to reconcile all of the contrasts that I experienced during time. However, I thought I would do my best at recapping part of my time so you have a better idea of what I did everyday.

We started out as a team of nine in the capital city of Accra. The team consisted of 5 pre-med students, two nursing students, a future marine, and a future pastor. After a few days transitioning in Accra, we left for a small village about 9 hours away. The village was located at the foot of the mountains right on the border with Ivory Coast.

Everyday we would walk to the local clinic and work there for the morning. It was a small clinic and the only one for miles. The staff was two nurses, a midwife, pharmacist, lab tech, office workers and a few assistants. For the resources they had, they did an incredible job. It was such a pleasure to learn from them and to be able to assist in multiple different ways.

Throughout our time at the village clinic, I was able to assist with multiple births, draw blood, give IV's, stitches, etc. It was an incredible time of learning as well us understanding how to improvise when the resources are not sufficient. I enjoyed the pace and the people at the clinic so much. I loved being able to actively help the people physically, but then also following up and helping them spiritually as well. You can help people physically all you want, but if you do not share the gospel with them, it means nothing. On the other hand, how can you tell someone about God's love if they have never experienced love before. While on this trip, I learned the beauty of Matthew 25. I have seen the importance of clothing the naked, feeding the hungry, healing the sick and then sharing with them about the only Creator, our Loving Father, the Great Physician.

I have so much more to share but I've said alot already. I will update more tomorrow! Thanks again for all the prayers and support! There were days where I could literally feel the prayers and they were so needed.

                                    

Goodbyes

I hate saying goodbye. I hate knowing that it is not just a "see you later". But I would have much rather had these last few weeks of learning and living and then goodbyes than never experiencing any of it at all. I have learned more than I have ever learned in five weeks. God has stretched me and molded me and He is making me more like Himself. I had no idea that my heart could love the way that it has and it will take a long time to stop missing the kids and the people that I have fallen in love with here. We are spending our last week here at the beach doing a lot more touristy relaxing things and I'm not complaining about that at all. I can't wait to be home and show pictures and tell the stories of all that I have seen and experienced. I love you all! Mary

Real People

Before coming on this trip, I had heard a lot of stories of human suffering and seen a lot of pictures of children dying far to early. But it wasn’t until I saw it firsthand that it became real. The stories that you hear are real, the people in them are real. Real people with names and faces. People are dying everyday from preventable diseases. Children are suffering and dying because of their parent’s lack of simple education. They do not understand therefore, they do nothing.

 I have seen a baby born to a mom who didn’t care and then hours later die because of a lack of resources. I have seen a 8.3lb one month old literally starve to death because her mother didn’t understand how to properly breastfeed. I have seen a 1 and a 14 yr old die of malaria because their fevers got so high and their parents waited too long to take them to the hospital. I have seen a 12 yr old dying from HIV/AIDS, the same disease that killed his parents just months earlier. I have literally seen hundreds of people suffering from a disease that because of sanitation and prevention is virtually non-existent in America.

All of these things are too much for me to try to understand in a few weeks. I don’t know if I will ever understand the reasoning behind all of this seemingly unnecessary death; but, there is one thing I know for sure. I know that God is good. I know that He has a plan for all of this. I know that His will is being done here in Ghana. I know that He will get glory from everything I have witnessed here.

My prayer while being here has been simple: that God would break my heart for what breaks His. I can honestly say that He has. My eyes have been opened in ways that I never thought they would be. I have truly been broken and then built back up in God’s strength and for His glory.

Ecclesiastes 3:1 &4 says: “For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven: a time to be born and a time to die….a time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance.” I feel as though I have seen and experienced all of those in my time here.I have watched over 10 babies born and I have also seen children die. I have wept and mourned but I have also laughed and danced!! It has not been all sorrow, there is always hope when we are dealing with our Savior!

Since arriving, there have been over 20 people come to know the Lord and are being discipled. Countless others have experienced God’s love and heard about Jesus through our ministries to villages as well as our evangelism efforts. The children here have taught me so much about joy and laughter. They have essentially nothing according to American standards, but if you ask me, they have it all. They are always laughing, always joking, and always loving. I do not think I have laughed so much in my life. I am so thankful for their love on the days when life feels too hard.

Every day I am learning. Every day my heart grows more and more. Every day I rely on God’s strength to power me through. Every day He provides. I am so thankful for your continued prayers! I can feel their power in my time here. God is doing great things and I cannot wait to share them with you all soon.

Much love! Mary

My Prayer for Ghana

This has been my prayer during my time in Ghana. I pray that my heart's desire does not change when I get back to America.

 Father,
I give You my life. I invite You to have Your way in me. Take me and break me. Shake me and make me. Fill me and spill me. Change me and rearrange me. But whatever You do, Lord..don't leave me the same. Spirit of wisdom and revelation, I welcome Your work. Open my eyes so I can see, my ears so I can hear. I choose truth over comfort, challenge over complacency. Lord, make me forever Yours. And most of all, make me like You. Amen.

I have seen the Lord change me and break me. He has taught me and changed me. He has opened my eyes to the need here and the power of His salvation and healing in lives. We are going to a nicer hospital to help this week so it will be interesting to see the contrast between the clinic and hospital we have been working at and this new one. So far, I have learned so much about medicine and improvising in medicine but also so much about myself and my Savior. I cannot wait to see what more He is going to do in and through me.

so blessed

"I never knew what God was going to do next or whom He was going to bring into my life. I'd learned by now that sometimes people entered my life suddenly and that just as quickly as they entered, they left. I learned to accept them and adopt them into my heart no matter the circumstances. Some would become part of my world permanently and others only a short season. Some of those people whose lives interested briefly with mine made an impact that will live forever in my heart." -Katie Davis

This so perfectly illustrates how I feel right now. We just left a small village that we had been living in for the last two+ weeks and as we drove away I felt a piece of my heart left behind. I learned so much with those people. I learned a lot medically at the clinic (saw babies born, malaria diagnosed, and many wounds) but more importantly I learned to love people the way the Lord does.

The children that we loved on these past two weeks have never experienced running water. They barely have clothes to wear and just enough food to live on. Most of them have some kind of parasitic or fungal infection and none of them had ever used a real flushing toilet, so you can imagine the smells of some of them. But somehow, I didn't see any of that. The Lord allowed me to see each of them as individual and absolutely beautiful. I gave more hugs and piggy backs than I have in my whole life. I made sure to tell all of them that Jesus loves them and I prayed for as many as I could remember their names. I believe that is what God does for us. We are those kids, we are dirty and disgusting in our sinful state but God still looks on us with love. He sees each of us as a beautiful individual that His son died for. It is beautiful when You are able to show God's love in such a practical way.

We also were able to experience what it means to reach the truly unreached. We drove about an hour down an unpaved road and then about two hours through the african bush (we got stuck a few times and the darkness made a fun obstacle too)then we finally reached a tribe that had only seen white people a handful of times. None of them were educated at all so we had to share stories of the Bible because they had no way of reading or writing any kind of study of the Bible for themselves. I had no idea what it meant for people to be truly unreached. I am so thankful that the Lord opened my eyes to that reality. I'm so spoiled to have a Bible that I can read and studies and encouragement at my fingertips.

Please be in prayer for these people that they will be faithful in meeting together and that someone will rise up to teach them on a regular basis. Life here continues to be a challenge but one that the Lord has been so faithful in guiding me through.

 I can't wait to show pictures and share stories of my time here. Please continue to pray for us and the people here. That their hearts would be continually open to our words and that they will love the Lord more because of us being here. I love you all! -Mary

Marybeth

Yesterday afternoon i held a little baby girl minutes after she was born. Her mother didn't care to take care of her so we were able to love on her the first few minutes of her life. In Africa they don't name the baby until a week after they are born, so Janet and I named her Marybeth (my name and Jan's middle name). Marybeth was 2months premature and wasn't breathing well on her own. We left the clinic that night praying that she would be able to get to the hospital (about 2 hours away) and get the care she needed.

However, God had a different plan. Baby Marybeth died just hours after Janet and I spent time with her. We were the first to hold her and to talk to her. We told her that Jesus loved her and we prayed for her. Little did we know that we would be the only ones that would love on her or name her.

God has been doing so much in my heart. He has been not only letting me learn so much medically but He has been changing my heart. He is helping me to truly love, and showing me the importance of seizing every moment. We never how He is going to use us. Thank you for your continued prayers for myself and the team! We are all doing well and are truly loving our time here! God is good, even when life is hard.

  Love Always, Mary

"Our task here on earth is to show the world an accurate reflection of what God is like. To show them, through our lives who God is."