Africa Mercy....Home Sweet Home!

After 4 months of planning, 5 weeks of training, 4.5 day stopover in Paris and a 7 hour flight from Paris to Benin....I have walked the gangway of the Africa Mercy and made it my home! I am still trying to adjust to walking straight on a moving surface! If you'd like to know how it feels to be on the ship, here is a fun experiment. Step 1 - Spin around 25 times. Step 2- Immediately try walking in a straight line down a narrow hallway.....Welcome to the Africa Mercy!! :D

In all honesty, it is absolutely surreal walking around on the ship I have only seen in pictures and on Youtube for the past few months. My bedroom really is as small as it seemed in the online tour! And....I am sharing a bunk bed with the only Danae I've ever met....and she is from Canada! What are the chances of THAT!?

We had a tour of the whole ship today and got to see the hospital waiting room and got to peek into some of the recovery rooms. I think this was the moment I realized where I was, why I am here and how excited I am that God brought me here. It hit home that this is more than an non-profit organization....this is a place of people who have come together to see the lame walk, the blind see, and those who have been cast out of society, healed. This is a place where the heart of God is being lived out by ordinary people in extraordinary ways.

Basic Safety Training

After 5 weeks of training here in Texas, I have finally reached the end of the course! My time here has gone so fast and I've met some incredible people that I will be serving on the ship with! 13 of these people left for an outreach in the Dominican Republic and will be coming to the ship within the next month.


This past week was Basic Safety Training. We were trained on how to fight fire on board, first aid/CPR as well as basic survival at sea (using life rafts, cold water immersion suits etc.). After taking this course, we were certified to be able to work on board any marine ship according to the US standards. Here are some pictures!!


Top: Haley, Terri and me using a fire hose

Bottom: Gearing up in our water immersion suits




Though I'm hoping to never have to use these skills, the training was very fun and I feel very prepared for helping with an emergency on board the ship!

I have been blessed with an amazing opportunity to have a stopover in Paris for a few days before going to Benin. I will be travelling with my friend Christina and we will be staying with a missionary family that she knows in Paris! We are so blessed to have our accomodations taken care of while staying there! We will be flying straight from Paris to Benin on July 27 to start orientation for the ship as well as with the school and will spend the next week preparing our classrooms and lessons :D!

Thank you so much for all of your prayer so far. I am so excited to put everything I've been learning this past month into action!!

The Road You Walk

I have been broken.

Mentally – I have come to realize that my view of the world has been shaped completely by the fact that I have been born in Canada…where poverty exists, but usually goes unseen. My problems seem significant simply because my need for food, water and love have been met… which unfortunately gives me permission to worry about the insignificant.

Emotionally - The only thing that separates me from any other person in this world is the fact that “I” have been born into this body in this particular country into this particular family...Why me? Why wasn’t I the one who was born into a tribe where the value of human life is so small that human sacrifice is justified? Why wasn’t I the one who was sold into the sex trade so my family could afford to eat? Why am I not the one who picks through trash daily, in hopes that someone has thrown out a valuable item or extra food?

I am now facing the question “what will you do with the privilege you have been given?”

We were asked to write a reflection of what we have learned this week….here it goes.

The Road That You Walk

If I walked a mile in your shoes

I’d soon realize that our shoes are the same,

Though we walk a different road.

I would realize that the potholes and dust you face daily

Sometimes make it difficult for you to see your destination.

If I walked a mile in your shoes

I’d soon realize that the steps you take look small,

But in the face of your reality are really quite big.

I would realize that the size of your step is not as important

As the energy and willingness you put into each and every step.

If I walked a mile in your shoes

I’d soon realize that though your shoes are tattered and torn

They are valuable because of the mere fact, that they are shoes.

I would realize that they have the potential to carry you through an endless number of roadblocks that I may never face.

If I walked a mile in your shoes

I’d soon realize that though the soles and laces may look dirty, you aren’t asking for new shoes.

I would realize that giving you new shoes would not help.

Instead, I can walk beside you and hold your hand and be with you on the road that you

walk.