God's plans are bigger than ours

So this past week I had a crazy schedule and I had switched with someone to go camping so I ended up working nights last weekend and then had to work eve. shift Mon. I still got 5 hrs. of sleep in between which has become more normal for me than is probably healthy. I was ready for work and feeling fine and awake and actually excited to come to work again...which is also pretty normal for here...God is awesome:) Anyhoo...I showed up and Red was like...I can't believe you are working eve shift after you just got off nights...you must be so tired. I explained how it was kind of flukey and I felt fine and was ready to take the full patient load. She said they were going to be getting an infection patient into C ward later and a nurse would have to be in there so I would just get one patient. Usually I would get patients in D ward as well as that new admit...who was not even here yet. She said I could take it easy and play/ do activities with the kids on the wards and help out where needed. I kind of argued with her cause I really wanted to work and was fine. We had enough nurses though and she insisted. Then we were talking and discussing one of the guys who had been here for quite a while and was supposed to go home a while ago but his wound keeps oozing so he is still here. We were discussing how that was kind of odd and wondering why God still had him here. He is french speaking and often translators come here to lead worship songs and share scripture/testimonies on the ward, but since he is french speaking he probably does not take too much of that in. He can speak small small english but not much. Anyhoo...to make a long story short I used that eve. to grab one of the french speaking translators and talk to him a little bit. He is muslim and I didn't convert him to Christianity but hopefully planted a seed. I also ran into Andrew outside when I was looking for the translator and we had a really good talk for about 30 -45 minutes. He is back home now but now his house got washed away since it is right by the ocean and the water came up and I guess washed out several houses. Andrew has awesome faith, but was cool to be able to encourage him through that situation and talk to him about some other things as well. I believe God used that converstion to speak to both of us. I was able to help another nurse out later that evening who was super super busy, start an IV, and play some games with some of the patients as well. It ended up being a great evening. I was just really frustrated at the beginning and prayed that God would give me peace about the situation and it's so cool looking back and seeing how God had different plans for the evening and it ended up being great.:)

Patrick

So I was going to do a blog about Patrick...the "patient" who was here a while ago I had written about. He was from Sierra Leone and here for plastics screening. He did not end up getting surgery while here but hopefully will if Mercy Ships goes to Sierra Leone next year which is the tentative plan depending on if the government there will allow us to come.

Patrick is 14 or 15 and lost both of his parents in the war. After the rebels killed his parents they threw him into the fire. He lost his siblings as well. He is blessed to have an uncle who he now lives with. He has an amzing story. With all the scars he has he looks like he is 15 going on 60. Despite all that he is the most joyful guy. I took him up to deck 7 after work one day and for whatever reason none of the patients on any of the other wards came up that day. I ran into Ali on the way up who was not working but came up just to hang out for a little while. That was the most wonderful hour or we had. The 3 of us had so much fun that day and the next few days he was there. That day on deck 7 Patrick was telling us all about Sierra Leone...teaching us the language Creo and teaching us the dances they do there. We were laughing so hard and having such a good time. What an amazing kid. He is another one we would visit everyday. The day he left Ali and I walked him to the end of the gate. That was another hard one to say bye too. We got the address to the tailor shop his uncle owns so if Ali and/or I are here next outreach and go to Sierra Leone we can find him. Not sure exactly why he came all the way to Liberia only to get told he will prob. get surgery in Sierra Leone..but I know God had a plan in the time he spent here. There is another patient here now who has been here forever and has continuos oozing from his wound and not sure why God has him still here except that God probably has a plan behind that too. Anyhoo...sorry to get off subject. But here are some pictures we took that day on deck 7. Cool to see the contrast of how much joy he has, but at the same time, you can see the pain and hurt behind his eyes. I wish I could get the videos of him teaching us how to dance on here. I do believe Ali tagged me in one on facebook that you can get to from my page.

Alfred "the scientist" Renner

Where do I begin about Alfred. One of my favorite patients....although Auntie Ali was the one he was acually in love with;) Ali and I (auntie Liz) had a great time with him. He is a 14 year old boy who was here for quite awhile after he had surgery on his leg. He was very mature for his age for the most part. Ali and I would visit him pretty much every day even when we were not working..although sometimes he would not talk to us. We decided this happened when his dad would take off and leave him for the weekend and that really hurt him. I think there is some pretty deep emotional hurt in that boy. He has no mother, only his dad. We would hang out with him in the hallway during the day and at night when he wasn't sleeping. He is the one that told both Ali and I serperately that we would not get married because we are too crazy...lol. He told me I needed to be more serious. I said, "well, what if I find a crazy husband" to which he replied.."he stupid"...lol. He told me about growing up and explained the games to me that they would play in the river. He had the biggest smile and always made us laugh...unless he was in one of his non-speaking moods. He was an expert at the whole eye brow raising thing. I think I wrote about that in a previous blog...often Africans when they say "yes" to something just raise their eyebrows...and often very subtly so it takes a while to pick up on. But Alfred would always do that when I would ask him something.
One day I was visiting Alfred and he asked me why we allow muslims on the ship. That was a cool opportunity to talk with him. After explaining that to him I realized his bed neighbor was muslim and that is why he asked. I was probably talking really loud when I answered him too..but maybe that was a good thing. Ali said that one of the days she was working that muslim patient was doing their prayer and Alfred starting singing "we worship you papa"...(one of the worship songs sung here) at the top of his lungs until she stopped praying. That was a little immature of him but slightly amusing too. He is a boy trying to figure things out...at least he recognized the difference there. It was a sad day when he went home.

Mother Fatu

So I am going to try to get caught up on some blogging finally. It's been way too long. Im workin night shift tonight, and even though a nurse called in and I have all 15 patients to myself it should be a pretty quiet night:) Yeah for flexability.:) Ali and Phil just stopped in to say hi and hang out for the last hour...that made my night.
So I have been going to Mother Fatu's orphanage a few times on off days with one of my good friends who has been going there since they have been back in Liberia for this outreach. It is about a 30 minute taxi ride away. They have been working on painting the classrooms. I love it there. It is run by a mother Fatu. She has an awesome testimony and felt God called her to start this orphanage. She lives with her husband there, although he has had a stroke and pretty much stays upstairs. He was very highly educated in the states but missed Africa too much to stay there. He helped write speaches for the president here before he had a stroke. The kids are so fun to just hang out and play with. They love singing, dancing, braiding our hair, running around and climbing all over you:) It's so fun to see all of their different personalities. They never cease to entertain:) The kids have school every day until about 12:30. One of the older girls was teaching me how to dance. And before we left that day most of the kids ended up in the room that was being painted and singing worship songs for us and other songs they had learned in school. Some of the little boys use the wooden chairs as bongo drums. The kids have so much energy...sometimes too much ...in which case a game of follow the leader may be necessary to get some of the kids out of the room so that at least some work can get done in between playing.:) I hope to get back there again before I leave in a week. And hope to get mother Fatu here to the ship for dinner one night. She is such a blessing to those kids and an amazing woman to get to talk to. Im gonna miss the sound of little kids constantly calling my name..."lizbet, come here.....lizbet"...both at the orphanage and on the ward. The last time I was there it was raining so we went into the church building and were listening worhsip practice and dancing all around. I love watching the kids interact with each other and run off to play games with each other. Oh, to be a child again. Earlier I had tried having them build a pyramid...bad mistake...lol. It ended up with a huge "lets all pile on liz" game. I was pretty much covered in sand by the end of that one. And if you ever sit down on the steps be prepaired to be swormed and tackled:) It's neat to think about how each one of those is God's precious child and how God has a plan for each one of their lives.