Let the Summer Games Begin!

TRAINING

The temperature is rising and my time left in Michigan is speeding by faster than I imagined. This Wednesday (June 1), I will be leaving Michigan to start my drive to Texas. I will stop over and see family in Indiana and Kansas on the way to the Mercy Ships IOC (International Office Campus) for my first stretch of training. During my week of training, I will be attending classes such as Mercy Ships History, Mission, Vision, and Values, Philosophy of Missions, Living in Community, Transitions, and Community Life Issues. I will also be attending a Support Raising Seminar. While at the IOC, I will similarly be having meetings with my “bosses” in the PR department and marketing department. I cannot express how excited I am to start my training. After six months of waiting and preparing, I will finally be on Mercy Ships campus learning all about my job on the Africa Mercy. 

I will be out of state from June 1 – June 14 and have a new cell phone number. If you need to reach me, please feel free to contact me through facebook or email. 

Please intercede with me in prayer for safe travels to and from Texas. In addition, please pray God opens my mind and heart to learn what He has in store for me, and to be flexible to the demanding schedule of training.

SUPPORT RAISING UPDATE:

I am currently at 69% of my two years budget pledged! I have exceeded my goal of 50% pledged by June 1^st. God has blessed me with some incredible donors and all I can do is praise God for you and ask the He pour His blessings on you!

I am a mere $50/month commitment away from be at 75% of my two year budget pledged and my entire first year and startup costs pledged! It would be amazing to be able to walk into the IOC office and tell them I have 75% of two years pledged! Would you consider helping me get there? 

Total Need: I need 5 donors at $25/month commitment and 4 donors at $50/month commitment to reach the total budget for two years of service. These amounts equal the $8,000 I have to raise before the end of August.

Prayer Request: With all that I have I know God will supply the means to follow His call. Please pray that these funds will be raised and those who are supporting me be blessed in abundance.

No Words Needed

Martha Jawaneh

Martha Jawaneh

Martha is two personalities in one ten-year-old body – a determined dynamo held back by extremely bowed legs, and a shy little girl who has a heart for others. She loves school and is ranked number one in her third-grade class of 78 students. English is her favorite subject, and she takes every opportunity to read stories in English. She is a very conscientious child who always tries to do her best.

A long time ago, Martha decided on her life’s goal.  “I want to be a lawyer. I want to speak for people,” she says.

Her uncle confirmed her choice, saying, “She’s said this since she was tiny.  She wants to be a lawyer because she’s seen many people at a disadvantage, and she wants to defend them.”

But Martha has two big strikes against her – she was born with extremely bowed legs that make walking difficult and painful, and she lives in poverty in a small village far from the capital city of Freetown, Sierra Leone. Her education is intermittent because school is not free and her father is often jobless. Yet, she clings to her dream.

Her bowed legs present a daily struggle, which is made worse by her classmates’ laughter and derision.  In spite of this ridicule, Martha maintains a positive attitude and greets everyone with a smile.

Martha’s parents took her to a doctor in Guinea, but he only gave her medicine that did not help at all.  Then a friend told Martha’s mother that a hospital ship called the Africa Mercy would arrive in Sierra Leone in a couple of months. Maybe this time Martha would find the help she so desperately needed.

Martha was excited when she was accepted for surgery after the screening, although she was also a little afraid to face the operation. She needn’t have worried.  Mercy Ships volunteer surgeon, Dr. Peter Stevens, is a well-known orthopedic expert.  In fact, he is the inventor of the eight-Plate, a guided growth system that harnesses the power of natural growth to correct deformed legs as they grow. Dr. Stevens installed the eight-Plate device in both of Martha’s legs without invasive surgery. The procedure requires no cast, allows for immediate weight-bearing and provides for rapid post-operative healing.

Martha was anxious to perform well during the therapy sessions.  She was so cooperative, the nurses declared her the “star of therapy.”

Here, Martha receives an admissions bag a church made for her.

Martha enjoyed her experience on the hospital ship.  She made many friends and even enjoyed making bracelets and coloring as she recovered in the ward.

Now Martha is focused once again on her future.  “I’m excited to go back to school!” she declared with a grin.

Story by Elaine B. Winn

Edited by Nancy Predaina

Photos by Liz Cantu and Tom Bradley

GARAGE SALE/BAKE SALE

THIS FRIDAY AND SATURDAY!

Large sale this weekend: Moving to Africa and Everything must go! 

Opens at 7:00 AM with Fresh Coffee and Hot out of the oven Cinnamon Rolls

**1940's Bedroom Set (3 piece set including Vanity w/Large Mirror)**

**Row Machine - Like New!**

**1940's Record Player**

**Futon**

**Kitchen Appliances**

**Vintage Travel Trailer**

**Antique Oak Round Table 54"**

AND MUCH MORE!

BAKED GOODS SALE!

Fresh Homemade Cinnamon Rolls (LARGE) 

Cupcakes

Hot Dogs

Chips

Sodas

Coffee

**DONATIONS FOR GARAGE SALE ARE WELCOMED BUT PLEASE DROP OFF BY THURSDAY NIGHT**

Garbage Disposal

When you sign up to serve with Mercy Ships, only the Lord knows all the ways you will be called to serve. Imagine yourself serving on the Africa Mercy as a nurse. Day in and out you are working hard to tend to the people in the hospitals on board. You work hard and you feel it is worth every ounce of energy spent. If only serving was this black and white – this simple of a plan. You are a nurse so you work as a nurse. 

The ship has recently encountered trials unlike ones they are used to. In Sierra Leone, there is no garbage disposal system. The reality is, the locals bring their garbage to the water to clean up the streets in town. Are they to blame for having nowhere to put their trash? Can we blame them for not understanding the ecological ramifications of filling rivers and the ocean with waste? You may wonder how this debris affects the Africa Mercy. Naturally, the ocean brings the debris into port and it accumulates around the ship. Generators that use underwater venting to keep them at a cool temperature run this ship. When debris is caught up in these vents, the generators shut off suddenly and without warning. THIS is a major problem. Surgeries are performed on board in the hospital portion. There are six surgery rooms on board and sometimes they even have two surgeries per room at one time. Electricity is crucial to these surgeries and with the power being unreliable; Mercy Ships had to come up with a solution. 

They gathered the crew to see who had their diving permits. There are three crew members that I am aware of: 2 nurses and another crew member. Every day after a long grueling work in the hospital, these men and woman volunteer to dive into the garbage and clear the way for the vents. I have read about the visibility being near zero as they swim through the waste of the capital city Freetown. 

Please pray for these volunteers as they work in unfathomable conditions to keep the hospital running. They dedication is clear and they are appreciated. 

75% by June!

Hello everyone!

I will be leaving for my first round of training in 22 days. I am currently at 65% of my first years budget and I am striving for 75% pledged before I leave! This only requires 4 - 5 people to commit to donating $25 a month! I have faith that this can be done - God can provide! Can you help?

Once I get back from training I am going to start to talk about my budget in different terms. I will be combining my first and second year budgets as one budget. I will not be able to return home until after a year and a half of service - at this time I will be mainly fund raising for year 3: so I need to raise as much of my funds as possible for year 1 and year 2.

I am currently at 43% of this combined budget pledged. This is due to many one time gifts. I have faith that God can provide this need by moving in the hearts of His people. Every amount can help send me to the mission field. $10 a month helps! Gifts from my Amazon gift list helps! Every amount that God is leading you to give makes a difference on whether or not I will be able to serve the worlds forgotten poor in W. Africa.

I can't thank you enough for your prayer support, encouragement support, and financial support! I pray God blesses you with an abundance you have never seen before!

Philippians 2:13

Fierce Grace

Grace

Do you know what “grace” means? 

It is the unanticipated and undeserving receipt of some positive benefit of love, protection, or favor. The bible talks about God’s grace upon us a lot. “It is by grace we are saved” or how about the song “Amazing grace, how sweet the sound, that saved a wretch like me. I once was lost but now I’m found was blind but now I see.” You know that song was written by a reformed ship captain who transported thousands upon thousands of slaves from Africa. He was responsible for almost all of their lives being lost, but then he found God…and it was God’s amazing grace that saved him…because he was a wretched soul.

I talk to you about Grace because as Christians we should #1 never forget God’s grace that saved us and #2 always try to show the same grace God has granted us to others in the world – regardless of their situation.

It has been my goal to always show “fierce grace” to people. It is what I’m called to do. I attached a picture. It is by an artist and he named it “fierce Grace” because fierce grace can also be “the undeserving strength in hard times.” This picture moves me. 

Today just think about this photo and thank God for His Fierce Grace in your life and also strive to have fierce grace – it will get us through the storms in life.