A painful reminder to not stop praying for my own nation. The states are a mess right now if you read the headlines which is about all I get, but hope remains so I pray.
I was reminded of my place in the Lord. As I studied Ephesians (see previous blog) I was reminded of who I was and who I have become. I am made new in Christ and I can walk in His promises and in my new identity.
This week I am also reminded of why I have come. Why I have left those I love and the comforts of home. This week surgeries began. All the planning and preparing has come to this moment. The first patient was carried up the gangway and into the hospital this week. She ( Justine) along with several others are the first patients in Cameroon to have surgery.
During the weeks we have been preparing you tend to forget. You get busy with the daily tasks, scrubbing walls, moving boxes, and all it takes to sail from one country to another. The days pass and life happens and you get tired. And sometimes you just forget for a while. What it is all for. Why your muscles are sore and why the uncomfortable bed is worth it.
The before pictures are dramatic. They have waited so long. So long without hope. So long without an answer to their dilemma. So long with being different or an outcast. So long being rejected and told they are not enough.
But God.......
God has not forgotten them.
Isaiah 49:15 "Can a mother forget the baby at her breast and have no compassion on the child she has borne? Though she may forget, I will not forget you!
God has heard their cry. He has moved heaven and earth for them. He has called people and resources from every corner of the earth to come. To come to Cameroon. To bring them hope. To bring the hospital to them. And not just to that but he has sent us out to find them. To find his lost sheep.
Luke 15:4
"Suppose one of you has a hundred sheep and loses one of them. Doesn't he leave the ninety-nine in the open country and go after the lost sheep until he finds it?
For months now He has sent His people out into the country looking for those who were lost and hidden. Those who were far away. Combing through the country looking for those who God himself wanted to bring here for a chance at a new beginning. Not just a new beginning in their bodies but in their hearts. Here they will have a chance to encounter the truth of who they are. The truth that they matter. That they are loved. That the God of the universe, the one who created all things has been pursuing them. Loves them, and wants to make them whole. Whole in ways we often don't even comprehend fully.
And not just them but us too. Another reminder this week. It is not just about the patients. It is also about us. What God wants to do in our hearts. In our spirits. In our fellow crew members. Conversations took place this week with people here on the ship that have never known the Father. Have never read his word. And yet they were drawn here. Led here by assorted circumstances and reasons "of their own" so they, and we, and I could have our own encounter with the one who made us.
It has been good. It has been humbling. It has been a great week of reminders. It has been convicting and it has been nothing short of amazing.
Continue to pray that God will have his way. In us and around us. That the light of His truth will be lifted high.
First surgery patient in Cameroon-Justine
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