To Know Him and To Make Him Known
Dear Family and Friends,
Wow- it has been a long time since I have written! So much has happened in my life since December! Where do I start!
First I Pray that this letter finds each of you in good health and spirit for the year 2007. I Thank God for 2006! What a Year!
While in Africa serving on the Mercy Ship it was truly a Blessing and Privilege to serve the Lord!! I truly learned and saw the Grace of God and the deliverance and healing that He brought to the patients we served in Ghana! True healing from the inside out! We treated many patients with facial tumors and growths, goiters, cleft lip/palate, hernias, lipomas, burns, and VVF (leaking of urine after birth trauma). The testimonies from the patients of the years of suffering, the lack of medical care, and the Revelation to Christ is a Reminder of How Great our God is! I will try in emailing out some of our patient stories. I am unable to attach the stories to the Blog!! You can also read some of stories at the Mercy Ships website: http://www.mercyships.org/.
I continue to stand in Awe of our Lord and Who He is!! As many of you know that I will be serving on the Africa Mercy until December 2007. I arrived back in Africa on Feb. 4. Since that time the ship has left Ghana and we sailed to Monrovia, Liberia over a 3 day sail and arrived on March 1.
So we are now here and getting ready for surgeries to start on Monday March 19!! When we arrived in Monrovia we were greeted with 
a huge Celebration on the dock with the Vice President and many local churches cheering us into the Port. It was a Blessing! When we arrived we were not able to get off the ship until 24 hours later after clearing immigration.
In learning the history of Liberia it makes my heart heavy because of the suffering that occurred and is still present because of the 14 years of war!!! 75% of the population live below the poverty line which is less $1/day and do not have access to health care. At this time, the majority of the health care is provided by Non-governmental organizations (NGO’s), humanitarian, or Christian organizations. If these organizations were to pull out and leave Liberia the people would have limited or no access to health at all (most of the NGO’s will leave Liberian in 2008). I hope that you will join me in Praying for this Nation and for a special Anointing and Blessing!! I Pray for the Year of the Lord’s Favor in the country of Liberia!!! Please see below for some Liberian history.
I will continue as a Ward Nurse on the Anastasis until the New Africa Mercy arrives in mid May!! At that time we will have a time of transfer for 2-4 weeks onto the new ship!! It will be an Amazing Time and Celebration in the Lord!
The other news that I want to tell everyone, is that there is someone that God has Blessed me with!! His name is Gert Jan and he is from Holland! He has been serving with Mercy Ships for 2 ½ years in the Deck Department.It has been an amazing journey in getting to know each other and the cultural differences. We have been and continue to be in Prayer about our future together. We met on my first night in Ghana! It was not Love at first sight- sorry for you romantics!! On my first night here for those of you that have read my blog know that we had a flat tire on the way from the airport. It was an adventure. We remained safe and the Driver- Gert Jan was full of jokes and remained calm as he had 5 women to assist him! Praise God that He sent some locals to help us in changing the tire on the Range Rover in the Rain!!!
After that, we became friends and started with a group of others going to an orphanage. Our friendship continued and developed as we spent time together talking, praying, and getting to know each other! It has been a time of laughter, fun, and joy in the Lord as we have Prayed together and encouraged each other on our journey with the Lord!
As most of you we know, we were able to experience each other families over the holidays! We were in USA and Holland and spent time meeting and getting to know each other’s family and friends! It was lots of fun and an amazing experience! I Praise God for the opportunity! We are excited and we ask for your Prayers as we seek the Lord for our future. We are keeping open minds and hearts!!
Last, as I am away, I am standing in agreement with my Church Home (Grace Bible Fellowship, Cary NC, Pastor Norman Peart) and the Theme for our church family:
Beyond all Limits with the Lord- To Know Him and to Make Him Known-
Phillipians3:8
Yet indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish,that I may gain Christ.
I Pray that I will be used by God without limits in Liberia in the name of Jesus!
Blessings to each of you!
Love
stephanie
Liberian History
A question of freedomSix thousand miles from the United States lies a country whose flag bears a striking resemblance to the American one: alternating red and white horizontal stripes and, in the upper left-hand corner, a dark blue square. Against this blue background is a lone white star -- the star of liberty. The flag is a symbol of the history of the Liberian state, its relationship with America, and its search for its own identity.
The present-day Republic of Liberia occupies 43,000 square miles (slightly more than Tennessee) in West Africa. It is bordered on the southwest by the Atlantic Ocean and surrounded by Guinea, Sierra Leone, and the Ivory Coast. From antiquity through the 1700s, many ethnic groups from the surrounding regions settled in the area, making Liberia one of Africa's most culturally rich and diverse countries. Settled in the early 1800s by freeborn Blacks and former slaves from America, Liberia, whose name means "land of freedom," has always struggled with its double cultural heritage: that of the settlers and of the indigenous Africans.
After the war, most of the country's infrastructure and public buildings were destroyed. Two hundred thousand people were killed, and another 800,000 displaced from their homes. Close to another 700,000 became refugees in neighboring countries. Recent reports from international political, environmental, and humanitarian groups point to Liberia's sky-high unemployment, continuing human rights violations, and the uncertainty of the upcoming 2003 elections.
Today, the Liberian people are just beginning the slow process of recovering from the economic, social, political, and psychological trauma of the war. The world waits and watches to see if the cycle of clashes between different populations has truly been broken, and if Liberia can rebuild itself as a unified nation to achieve the promise of its star of liberty.
posted by Stephanie @ 8:43 AM
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