My friend Elizabeth from the Dominican Republic and her daughter Isabella, husband Jan is not in the picture, probably because he took the picture. She had major complications at birth, though she is doing much better. They will be rejoining the crew of the Africa Mercy in January and soon we will see them here in West Africa.
Opportunities Binder
In Programs here on the m/v Anastasis, we have many different things going on. With permission from the council on board, I created an Opportunities Binder that is located near to the gangway. Inside there are many sign up sheets on what the crew can be involved with – from visits to orphanages, hospice, psychiatric hospital to helping on Saturday at the construction site. I am hosting groups on Wednesday to take them to 4-5 of the off-ship ministry sites – so for those on the ship, they can see for themselves what is happening in the various locations. There are other opportunities to sign up to share your testimony with the patients and to adopt-a-patient who will be in our wards.
AFM Crew
Our friends on the Africa Mercy up in northeast England celebrated as they met together to have their community meeting on board the vessel itself – this was a special event, regular meetings will start once they all move to live on board in December. Here is a photo that a friend sent to me of them. They are still in the shipyard and thus need to have their steel-toe boots, helmets and glasses on. We are planning to move out of shipyard next month.
Carrying goods on their heads start early
As I walk around town and in the countryside, I am amazed at the variety of different things that the African carry on their heads – from a simple platter with peeled oranges to sewing machines and tables. They learn while they are young and get such balance. Some use a cloth on their head to help with the balance, but others without. I can’t balance a book on my head and walk any distance.
Rice Farming Man
During a visit to a more remote village one evening, I was met by Richard and here he is telling me of all the types of rice, harvesting and marketing. I guess I really never thought about the different types of rice or their nutrition value – they have one here called ‘red rice’ and it is much higher in nutrients than most of the others.
Movie time in the village
One of our programs to aid women and getting them started in their own micro-enterprise (small business) is beekeeping. We are in partnership with the Ghana Forestry department and have 52 women enrolled in the program. Though for the Africans and my former neighbors in Indiana, bees can be scary and fear of being stung. So as part of the program, we visit each of the women’s communities as a form of follow up to see her set up and then for the entire community we show a film on bees so that they understand better and are more welcoming to bees and the woman’s business – in the photo I am setting up the screen. This has really ministered to these women and will allow them a way to earn money without much time invested everyday so not to take them away from their families.
Dr. Mike Visiting Mobile Eye Patients
We had the opportunity to host Dr. Mike Barrington from Rotary for a couple days last week. Here we are visiting with some patients who came to see the Mobile Eye Team in the community of Ashaiman. Usually about 150-200 people come each day to see the Mobile Eye Team.
Special Birthday Photo
An email arrived with this photo attached. This is what I received – from my nephew Jeremy and my neice Jaylie for my Birthday.
Life Guide Bibles
We received a container from the Netherlands and I was encouraged to see that there was an entire pallet of New Testament Bibles. They were produced by Health for Life, a project initiated by VVHS/BKV, International Bible Society and Mercy Ships-Netherlands. Their aims is to provide people in developing countries with in-depth information for healthy lives, both spiritually and physically. Primarily they will be used by the HIV/AIDS educators who are working with the local churches to create mercy coalitions. They have given us 250 for use by our disciplers and crew members as they are in relationship with, prayer and ministry with people here in Ghana.
Children at Well Drilling Site
This village has no electricity or water – they walk a good distance to another village to a well to obtain water. For these children, the well drilling rig is great entertainment as they had just started and were drilling through sand and it was flying up in the air. School is just starting up next week and so they were enjoying the show. Our team will usually work in a village for a week and besides the well drilling and sanitation lessons, they have time with the people and especially with the children to share our Father God’s love for each of them.