God is full of adventure and surprises!

Good bye Mercy Ships! (see you in a few months)

Hello Ghana!

or... Change of plans!!

Hello USA!!

Love you Jacobsen's!

Surprise!!! 

God decided 3 weeks before we were suppose to leave for Ghana to bless the Kulah family with a visa to the US.  God is a god of adventure and surprises!!

Guess who's coming home?

Thanks Rob and Denise.  Now time to surprise the Annie and Greg.  

Surprise again! 

Actually my parents knew we were coming home (especially since we'll be living in their basement for the next 5 months) but my mom still looks exceptionally surprised. 

Now for the real surprise. 

YAY!!! 

She had a small inkling that we were coming 5 minutes before we rang their doorbell but that may have been due to the fact that my parents rented a car and that no one ever rings their doorbell. heheh!

First stop: Virginia for Annie's graduation.  Great job Annie we are so proud to have a doctor (JD) in the family!! 

Not even one month prior to this picture being taken was the thought of being together with all these lovely people even a possibility.  Thank you God!

Next stop: Home!

Baby Kulah is still getting ready to enter this big world but because of God's love and faithfulness I am so excited to announce that he or she will be born in the US surrounded by our amazing friends and family.  

"I will sing of the Lord's great love forever; 

with my mouth I will make your faithfulness known through 

all generations."  Psalm 89:1

Grace at work

             As of April 21^st Mercy Ships has done about 600 surgeries here in Togo plus many other procedures and programs.  These are the specifics: 161 maxillofacial surgeries, 19 cleft lip and palate surgeries, 66 plastic/reconstructive surgeries, 151 general surgeries (hernia, goiters, lipomas, etc), 19 VVF surgeries, 13 palliative care patients, 474 cataract surgeries. And there is still another 6 weeks left of surgeries.  In outpatients we have had over 1200 wound care visits in eleven weeks.  Some days are manic while other days are just ‘busy’ but all days are an adventure. 

The other day while working on a plastics patient and trying to deal with their complicated wound, one of my day workers said to me “It is all about God’s grace.” I then asked, “What do you mean? The surgeries, the healing, the wound care?”   He said, “All.”

This really got me thinking about grace in the context of Mercy Ships.  As I looked over the numbers stated above I know that God’s grace was upon each and every person touched.  Even the thousands that we had to turn away God's grace was still at work.  But as the day worker said this to me I started thinking about the many graces God gives us all as we work for Him here.  Whether it be the surgeons performing complicated operations, the deckies working with heavy machinery in the hot sun, the 50 children on board who have teachers and a curriculum to prepare them for the next step in life, and in outpatients where each day we view the intricacies of the human body and how it heals.  There are times when i leave work and get down or upset as certain patients wounds arent healing the way they should or in the time they should.  But the other side of grace is it is all about God's timing and his purposes and not our own.  There are some wounds that we look at and cringe knowing that it will take weeks before it heals and then by Gods grace they come back and by the next week their wounds are beautiful.  For some of you this may not mean to much but for any nurse out there (happy nurses week by the way... MGH girls, love ya) you can appreciate these things more.  To watch somebody who has had their body so badly burned that they are unrecognizable and hindered from doing basic activities, to see their skin come anew after a basic plastic surgery is truly Gods grace.  As we work with each patient trying to decide which product to put on their slow healing or infected wound, it is only by Gods grace that these troublesome wounds heal. 
So yes we have troublesome wounds but truth be told we also have troublesome patients and caregivers.  Mercy Ships looks for and works on physical deformities but as we care for these patients we come to see wounds that are seated deep inside.  Some of our patients aren’t healing the way they should because their parents choose not to obey the directions we give them.  Where as others are dealing with alcoholism, depression, drug abuse, trauma, and/or domestic abuse.  A lot of times these are the patients that stay with us day after day, week after week, and (to be honest) these are the ones that you are hoping will just heal so you can get a break.  But again, it's God's grace that knows when the person will heal but it is also God's grace working in my life as well to rely on his grace and strength and not my own.

In conclusion, after working in Africa for about three years, I have found that the western world and Africa can be SO different but also SO alike.  One of the ways that we are SO alike is in regards to our brokenness.  I have found that our brokenness is the same no matter where we come from.  Our struggles may not be exact but the feelings can be the same.  So no matter where you go in the world you will see broken people with not only physical problems but social, spiritual, and emotional ones as well.  Each one in need of a personal Savior that can make them whole again and heal whatever brokenness is in their life.  His name is Jesus Christ.

“Grace, grace, Gods grace

Grace that will pardon and cleanse within

Grace, grace, Gods grace

Grace that will save us from all our sins

Grace that is greater than all our sin”

            Written by Daniel Towner

Prayer: As Mercy Ships finishes up its last few weeks of surgeries, I pray that Gods grace would be upon the crew, day workers, and patients.  I also pray that as outpatients continues to work diligently on these patients, that Gods grace would flow around and through each one of us here. 

2 Corinthians 13:14~ May the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.

I love my job...

Colossians 3:23-24~ Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as for the Lord and not for man, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is Jesus you are serving.

Have you ever had a job that you just loved? You wake up in the morning and get excited for 8am to come. You finish at the end of a long hard day and still say “I love my life”. Well if not then please don’t be envious of me because that is the kind of job I have.

Last September, after finishing the Church Leaders Conferences, I switched back over to the Hospital to take care of patients again. My boss asked if I would be willing to work in outpatients doing wound care. Outpatients is the place that patients get discharged to once their wounds are manageable (i.e. no narcotics needed for dressing changes, wounds aren’t too badly infected, only once a day dressing changes, etc.). At first I was pretty nervous due to the fact that throughout my 7 year nursing career, most wound care had been done by ‘wound care nurses’. But in talking with my boss she explained that due to my Mercy Ships nursing experience with all the different specialties that she believe that I would be able to learn and adapt quickly with some mentoring. So going into outpatients I knew I needed God as my guide and helper to have wisdom and discretion with the variety of wounds I would see. After the first few weeks of working there I came to LOVE my job. At the end of last year my boss asked if I would be willing to stay in outpatients for the Togo 2012 outreach and I of course, accepted.

So here I am, Togo 2012, wound care nurse and LOVING it. We deal with facial tumors, cleft lips/palates, hernias, goiters, lipomas, plastics, and a few other surgical procedures. On average, right now, we see about 170 patients a week. But as the weeks continue and more surgeries are performed we will be seeing between 250-300 a week. Besides doing the wound care (which is sooooo fun) the other reason I love my job is because I get to do a lot of teaching. We do malaria teaching, hygiene teaching, mouth care teaching, nutrition teaching, and even sometimes wound care teaching. Its like I have found the best of both worlds for the giftings God has given me, nursing and teaching. Also since we are the last stop before the patients are sent back home we also have a lot of opportunities for the patients to share with us their thankfulness and joy to God and/or Jesus (depending on if they are Christian or not) for all that has been done for them. Being able to talk with and pray with these patients has been an amazing experience as the Holy Spirit moves in and through these each one. God is soo good!

Some patients’ wounds are extremely difficult. Some patients’ personalities are extremely difficult. But all patients are a joy to serve. In February of this year we had a screening day where over 3500 people came to be assessed to see if they would be chosen for surgery with Mercy Ships. So even though some patients are harder than others I know how special each one is because God chose each one.

Joy. Throughout my life I have found joy whenever I am doing what the Lord has called me to do. I have found joy during hard times and I have found joy during the most amazing times. I have found that you can be happy doing a lot of things but to be joyful that comes from the Lord.

As we finish out these next two months of surgeries please continue to pray for these patients to find that joy that only Jesus can supply. That they would trust in him and that their hope would be restored.

Romans 15:14~ May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.