I decided today that it was time to come out of hibernation. I have been home in Colorado for a week now and left today for Phoenix where my job is waiting me to be started on Monday. I have spent the last week getting used to things like cold milk, (which was the first thing I ordered after getting off the plane), cell phones or phones ringing in general, TV, News, the constant flow of information, driving a car on a highway without having to stick my arm out to single that I am turning or changing lanes. There are so many things that when they aren't around they are so easily forgotten and life adapts just fine without them. Cell phones for one I keep forgetting about it and when it does ring I am like oh what is that. I got in the car today to begin my journey to Phoenix, part of me has been dreading this day for some time now, the other half of me is excited.
Phoenix means that life must go on that I am home now and it is time to move and so much of me wants to put life on pause on hold and run back to Africa run back to the ship and to the ministry there. Then there is this part of me that is so excited about returning to Arizona so thankful for the job that I have there, for the people I will be working with and my friends and family that are in Phoenix. I think living so divided like this has thoroughly exhausted me plus the fact that I think something is living inside of my stomach, every time I eat something aside from bread, yogurt some fruits or crackers my stomach goes crazy hurting and miserable. I think I am growing some bizarro African parasite. We shall see;) I will keep you all posted. I learned on the ship to live in expectancy of the great things that will be accomplished by each of our lives if we just surrender them. So while it is exhausting to live like this sometimes I know that God has great plans!
In my time back people keep asking me what is the one thing I will take away from this trip. I have thought about an appropriate answer but always seem to come up short. I don't know if words are good enough. When I look over the blog I have kept throughout this trip and I check out the pictures of the kids and the patients I am reminded of how awesome our God is. That I was given this incredible opportunity to be a nurse in a place where yes my nursing skill was needed but more than that the patients needed to know that they were an important and vital part of life that they had a place in society that they were valued. The nursing that these people needed was love, compassion, mercy and hope instilled into each one of them. The opportunity I was given to instill that into human beings was incredible. To know that my words of love, kindness or hope changed their hearts little by little. I told a friend today that my favorite part about working on the ward was seeing the change in people. They came in the ward scared and frightened before surgery often hiding under their blankets on their bed and usually within 2 or 3 days after the surgery they are full of life. Their eyes sparkling and dancing, their voices making laughter for the first time in a long long time, or for the first time ever. They responded so amazingly to love the change in them was magnificent something that I won't ever forget to see their eyes go from full of sorrow and shame to dancing with hope and life and joy. Oh the sparkle!
Aside from the patients I posted some pictures above of my favorite people and closest friends on the ship. These are the people that I worked beside and became incredibly close. These are my brothers and sisters that I was blessed to be around. I am so thankful for eternity because I will see each one of these people again. They challenged me, argued with me, loved me and pushed me to be better than I was when I started. They are the life of the ship and I miss them tremendously. I am thankful that God allowed me time with them to be touched and changed and bettered by each one of them.
My prayer and my hope is to return to the Mercy Ships in June. They will be in Liberia and my hope is to go from June to December. We shall see what the Lord has, until then my heart has been tremendously blessed and grown in ways that can never really be verbalized. Thank you to every person that faithfully read this and kept up with my trip. I am indebted to your support and your love.