Conflicted

How is it possible to be so happy to be going home that you get an excited little bubble inside when you think about it and ,often the same time, so sad at leaving that you feel as if you where going to burst into tears? That has been my last few days starting with Friday when I got my disembarkation paperwork on my door. Such a roller coaster!

Thought you might like to read a little more of the story of the first 2 VVF ladies that left the ship. This was made available on the "Navigator" page which is the ships crew member web site.

“Those who saw us laughed at us,” Justine said. “We were suffering.”

Justine and Parra were the first women healed from VVF during the 2009 Field Service. They were also the first to participate in a dress ceremony – a ritual in which they get a new dress, tell their stories, and sing songs celebrating their new lives.

Parra’s journey to the Africa Mercy from a far northern region in Benin demonstrated both desperate need and immense trust. A mother of three, Parra sustained the fistula during the birth of her third child, who survived the delivery and is now almost a year old. Parra speaks a tribal language unknown to any of the local volunteers that Mercy Ships employs as translators.

Despite difficulties communicating, she trusted that God would watch over her. Her faith was rewarded when she received her free corrective surgery and was able to sing a song of thanksgiving to the doctors and nurses.

Justine delivered four healthy children, but her fifth child died during a long, complicated delivery, causing a fistula to develop. Justine had been closeted inside her home for the entire nine years afterwards.

“Every day, I was very tired, ashamed, and people laughed at me,” Justine said.

Justine’s husband tried to find a solution. He went to different hospitals in the nearest city of Porto-Novo. One—ironically called the Good Samaritan—wanted almost $200 US to perform the repair, an impossible sum in a place where the average income is only $50 a month.

She heard about Mercy Ships because her sister had surgery with Mercy Ships a few years ago. She came onboard the Africa Mercy, and only a week later, she was healed and ready to go home. “I have so much to thank God for, that God has delivered me and that the doctors have worked very well,” Justine said.

“I feel no pain in my body, and I feel happy in my heart.”

See you soon, looking forward to cooler temps......missing already the African days....