Sunday, March 8, 2009

Fistula Surgeries Aboard the M/V Africa Mercy Hospital Ship.

For those of you reading here, you may have no idea of the magnitude your part plays in transforming lives in Benin, West Africa.

Women were dancing and singing to African drums and beaded percussion gourds before being discharged from the hospital after life changing surgery. We celebrated the transformation in two of the many fistula patient’s lives as their severe injuries from their
childbirth were repaired. They no longer leak urine and no longer walk with a wretched smell that accompanied them day and night prior to coming to the M/V Africa Mercy for surgery. In celebration, they donned a new set of clothes and a new pair of shoes that would have been impossible just a couple weeks ago.


Our celebration took place in the ward with other women in the beds either pre or post surgically, awaiting their turn to be set free. I watched some of the other patients clapping and singing along with us while one woman covered her head partially with a blanket and cried. The two surgeons, the nurses, translators, support staff as myself and crew members alike joined in the festivity.

Each person reading this is making this happen! Those who financially support me and the work of Mercy Ships along with those on board the hospital ship can rejoice. We all have given an immeasurable gift of transforming lives, not only by the skilled hands of the surgeons, but for all that support the body of Christ.


“For the body is not one member, but many. If the foot says, ‘Because I am not an eye, I am not a part of the body,’ it not for this reason any less a part of the body. If the whole body were an eye, where would the hearing be? If the whole were hearing, where would the sense of smell be? But now God has placed the members, each one of them, in the body, just as He desired…..so that there may be no division in the body, but that the members may have the same care for one another. And if one member suffers all the members suffer with it; if one member is honored, all the members rejoice with it.” (I Corinthians 12: 12-18, 26) So, rejoice with me in your part of giving!

New arrivals for surgery from the north side of Benin arrived on Friday. I walked past the ward right after there arrival. All of the women were sitting in rows of chairs, eating chicken and rice. They were absolutely quiet. It must be fearful to come out of seclusion with their incontinent condition, but now maybe feeling a bit of comfort knowing they are not as alone as they thought. And they each hold a hope that they can be repaired in our big, white ship.

Thank you for making all this possible! Now, hopefully you will have an idea of how much you participate in transforming lives.

For more information on fistula repair, please check out these excellent websites:
www.worldwidefistulafund.org
www.fistulafoundation.org

1 comment:

  1. Dear Kay, I see you in two of those pictures! The celebration looks wonderful, and for good reason, too. God is so good! He hears and answers seemingly unanswerable prayers. He is ever so good. May He continue to bless all of you on the Mercy Ship operation. I love you! Love, Patsy at home :)

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