a weekend to remember

This past week at work was the busiest since I arrived. Once a month a new shipment of inventory comes to the ship, and we must carry it all box by box to different storage closets all over the ship. After four long days of heavy lifting, a three day weekend was well desired. Six of my friends and I decided to go up to a small fishing village called Possatome for our holiday. Dorothea, our friend from Switzerland who speaks french pretty well, made the arrangements through on of the day volunteers on the ship. Our cab was supposed to pick us up from the ship at 8 a.m. Friday morning and drive us straight to our hotel. From the hotel we could walk to the beach and lay out Friday and Saturday then Saturday afternoon the cab would come pick us up and bring us back to the ship. Everything was worked out with the taxi company and the hotel, so we were all completely ready for our relaxing, stress-free weekend getaway.

Unfortunately, not everything went quite as planned. In fact, this weekend turned into probably the most eventful and unforgettable weekends of my entire life.

From the very beginning we knew it was going to be an adventure. We awoke Friday morning to tumultuous storms. I have been in Africa now for a month and have not seen more than a drop of rain the entire time. Of course, on the day we plan to go to the lake, the thunderstorms hit. The rain was pouring so hard that we could not even see past the gangway onto the dock. Slightly discouraged, nevertheless happy to be leaving Cotonou, we sat and waited for the taxi. And we waited. And we waited. After almost two hours of waiting, several confusing conversations with other Mercy Shipper's cab drivers, and multiple sprints through the pouring rain, we decided to call our cab driver to see where he might be. Dorothea, the girl who made all of the arrrangements, asked him if he was going to be here soon. He assured her that he was close, it would be very soon, he was on his way. She then asked him if he was actually even in his car yet, to which he replied "but it's raining! I cannot walk to my car in the rain!" He assured us that he would arrive within half an hour. Soon after a man came up the gangway claiming to be our cab driver. I'm pretty sure that he was one of the drivers I had talked with earlier in the evening who had assured me he was friends with Michel, our driver, and knew that Michel was on his way. Now he was claiming to be Michel himself and he showed us to our cars. The car that I rode in leaked water through the doors and the entire windsheild was cracked. We all just smiled and laughed, somehow knowing that this was only the beginning of our adventure.

As the car pulled off the dock, we realized how much it really had rained. The streets were completely flooded! At one point, the car was driving through so much water that even the outside door handles were covered by the "puddle." Eventually, the rains stopped and when we arrived in Possotome two hours later, the sun was shining and the sky was clear.

Once we got to the hotel, there was some sort of confusion about our reservation, then we were led to a different hotel. We are not sure if we were first brought to the wrong hotel or if the first was out of room, but eventually we were taken to the right place.

We arranged with our taxi drivers to pick us up the following afternoon then proceeded to pay the previously agreed upon price. They were unhappy, however, with our payment. Apparently, since they had to bring two cars, they expected us to pay double the price we had agreed to. Thankfully our hotel owner argued with them and got them to let it be. We were glad that the ordeal ended without a fight, but nervous that the drivers may not return the following morning.

After a quick lunch and change of clothes, we headed down to the beach. The beach was absolutely beautiful, perfect to begin our relaxing afternoon. Besides the chickens that roamed and pecked at our feet and the bird that left an unwanted package in one of the girl's hair, our afternoon at the beach was uneventful. When we were ready to eat dinner, we were told that we were already at the restaurant! Apparently the little picnic area we saw was the restaurant. We were not sure where the kitchen was or who was really in charge of the restaurant, so we decided to find another place to eat. Thankfully, at about this time another group of Mercy Ship women who were spending the holiday at Possotome passed by our spot of beach. They invited us to their hotel for dinner. Our meal was nice, though we did have to serve as translators for our new Mercy Ships friends who had quite a complicated order. We were ready to head back to our hotel, but quickly realized it was already dark! It is too dangerous for white people to walk at night in Africa because we stand out so well and all of the Africans blend perfectly in to the darkness of the evening. We could be perfect, unsuspecting victims to a nearly invisible attacker. We needed to find an African to walk us back to our hotel. We were able to convince one of the workers at the restaurant to walk with us if we paid him.

Once arriving back to our hotel, which was really just two seperate brick buildings, each containing two rooms and covered by a thatched roof, we all gathered in one room to talk. We were sitting around the beds eating cookies when all of a sudden the electricity went out. What little light we had in the room turned into pitch darkness and the fan turned off. We all laughed, thinking that nothing else could possibly go wrong. I jokingly said "Oh we should just be grateful for all of our little problems, because they just add to our adventure!!". Everyone agreed that even though everything had been frustrating, we would prefer this adventure to a boring, uneventful weekend. Of course, we thought that the worst of our frustrations were over.

Then we heard the loud crack...the bed broke beneath us. It just snapped apart and fell to the ground! At this point, the whole situation was absolutely hilarious and we were dying of laughter. Unfortunately our laughter was so loud we could not hear the screams of our friend Kaylee, whose foot was caught underneath the bed. After realizing what had happened we helped her to get her foot free. It immediately began to swell and bruise, we were afraid it might be broken. We had no access to ice or any sort of medical care, but thankfully some of the girls on the trip were in the middle of their medical training. We were able to soak towels in cold water in lieu of ice, then use tape from a first aid kit to stabilize her foot. We contemplated trying to find a cab home, but knew that at this point it would be too difficult.

By this point, we decided to pray that no more adventures befell us and also that Kaylee's foot would be okay to make it through the night. We each took a turn praying, some in english and some in their first languages. It was really neat to hear everyone praying in their own language. Since we all speak English on the ship, it is easy to forget that for the majority of Mercy Shippers, english is not a first language. For many it is a second or even third language, therefore a very difficult language in which to pray. After our prayer, the only other small issue that came up was when the top of the toilet seat snapped in half. I am not quite sure how exactly this happened, but it was just the icing on top of the cake. But considering that the toilet already did not flush unless we scooped water from the giant bucket provided for us into the toilet seat, we figured that it was not too much of a loss.

The second day was for the most part uneventful, only a few little problems here and there. Kaylee was feeling slightly better so we returned to the beach, and some of us went out in a boat to learn how to cast nets in order to fish. After a long morning, we headed back to the hotel to pack up. Finally, the cab came to bring us home. The only problem was that there was only one car with four seats. The second driver had gotten so upset that we wouldn't pay more that he decided to not return. So all seven of us had to pile into four seats for the entire two hour drive back to Cotonou. I sat in the lap of Kaylee (who is already crippled at this point) in the front seat. The roof of the car was so low that I had to lean my head out of the window in order to fit. The funny thing is that this was not abnormal for an African taxi. We have seen cars driving down the streets before with between six and seven people sitting on a three seat bench!

Our cab driver decorated his entire car with pink and white fake flowers and filled it with strawberry scented air fresheners. He also had a bunch of bananas sitting on the dashboard. His car also housed a large collection of cassette tapes, each containing some sort of traditional african chanting music. So with the volume blasting as loud as possible and the scent of fake strawberries wafting through the air, we endured the two hour long treck back to the ship piled into a tiny car.

Thankfully we all returned to the ship safely and for the most part in tact. After sharing the story several times with all of our friends on board, we still laugh everytime we think about it. While some could see our holiday as totally ruined, we our grateful for our eventful little adventure. This past week in my Bible study, we talked about how living a life in God's peace does not mean giving up a life of adventure. If nothing else, this weekend definitely helped to reinforce that wonderful lesson.

another week gone by...

yet another week has flown by here on the ship. every day is so busy and times goes by so quickly! I have had several little adventures in the past week, something exciting happens almost every day! i don't have the time or the energy to share everything that has happened, but i will write about last tuesday night.

every tuesday and friday night a group goes out to a different part of the country and shows the Jesus film to groups of people. I have always had hesitations about the effectiveness of Jesus film ministries. I always hear stories of people going into obscure places, showing the film, somebody shares their testimony, then their is a call to prayer and have the crowd prays to give their life to Christ. But I've always wondered if these people truly know what they are doing? Do they know what it means to have a relationship with Christ? Do they know the day to day struggles they are going to face? Do they know what it really means to have theirs sins forgiven by Christ? Also, what happens after we leave? Will they remember the commitment they have made? Will they grow in the faith? How can Christians really hope to reach into the hearts of a group of people if they just drive in to town for a few hours, just long enough to show a film, then leave as quickly as they came? There is no sort of discipleship, just showing a movie!

The second hesitation I've had towards a Jesus film ministry is because of the cheesiness and unprofessional quality that I've observed as an American who is used to well made movies. The characters are so stereotypical, the sets are low budget, the film quality is poor. If you were to show the Jesus film to a group of non-Christian, American teenagers the result would be endless amounts of mocking. It never occurred to me that in another culture, the results could be so vastly different!!

I decided to go ahead and go on the trip last tuesday because I wanted to really see how this ministry worked. I thought that if I was going to be judgemental about the ministry, I should first actually see it in action. Also, most of the outreach opportunities are during the weekdays, so my work schedule does not allow me to get involved in many of those opportunities. I really wanted to go out and do some sort of ministry and the Jesus film was my only opportunity.

Throughout the entire film I prayed that God would please just help me to gain something out of the experience. I hoped that I would be able to view the experience in a different light, or at least have some sort of peace about the effect of the ministry. When we arrived at the sight, there was a little girl who stood by a tree just beaming from ear to ear at the 3 white girls. I went up to talk to her, and she was immediately thrilled that I spoke french. Although she was very shy and my french is not very good, we were able to communicate fairly well, and by the the time the movie started she would not leave my side. For the entire two hours of the film I sat on a hard wooden bench with this little girl cuddled up in my lap.

Although I couldnt understand the movie (it was in Fon, the main tribal language in Benin) I of course knew the story well. Because I have heard and seen the story over and over and over again, it just seems so mundane and not that exciting. Sure we hear the analogies to fishermen and shepherds, but as an American who does not have to fish for a living or guide sheep or cows, the stories have never truly amazed me. But in this crowd the reactions were totally different. Most of these men spend their days out in the ocean fishing for hours every morning. They cast their nets out in the morning and work all day to bring them in. When they saw Jesus filling the nets with fish, they all gasped and talked among themselves! They fully understood the effect of this miracle. Throughout the entire movie, they all had the most amazed reactions to every scene! They were completely oblivious to the poor quality or the cheesy character stereotypes because they had nothing else to compare this too. It made me so sad that I could not hear the story of Jesus life and be filled with such awe and wonder every single time.

Once we got to the scene of the crucifixion, it was the innocent naivety of the little girl I was holding that truly helped me to feel the full affect of what Jesus did for me. I have seen different renditions of that scene so many times that it never really seems THAT horrific anymore. I just think, yeah He was whipped, yeah He was beaten, yeah He had to carry His own cross, yeah He was nailed to a cross. But I've heard it so many times it becomes just words running through my brain. But to this little girl, it was her first time to witness this scene. She had watched the whole movie with such joy, had gotten so involved with the characters. But she didn't know what to expect in the end! When she saw her Jesus get arrested, she gasped! As she saw Him being beaten she held her hand over her mouth in disbelief. When she saw Him carrying His cross, she was shaking uncontrollably, and when she saw Him nailed to the cross she started to cry. After watching the emotions of this little girl, it finally occurred to me how truly incredible Christ's gift of salvation is. I finally fully understood the true horror of what He endured for me.

After the movie was over, the person in charge proceeded to share his testimony and call up anyone who wanted to give their life to Christ. The little girl in my lap jumped up and ran to the front. But so did almost every other person who watched the movie. Again, all my hesitancies arose. I wondered how many of these people have given their lives to Christ before? How many of these people have heard this story and were so full of emotion that they immediately ran up to pray? But how many of these people ever got past only the awe and wonder of Jesus and really had a daily relationship with Him?

I then remembered Paul's words in Phillipians 2, "He who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion in Christ Jesus." At that moment, I did not need to worry whether these people were truly saved. The white people with big technology did not begin the good work in the hearts of these people, it was Christ who did that. We merely followed His commands to reach out to them. It was not our movie or our words that began a good work in them. And it was not our words or our actions that will carry it on to completion, it is Christ who will do that.

While I still firmly believe that their is a major lack of discipleship happening in many ministries, I was extremely encouraged and eased after seeing the efforts of evangelism in these people. I do believe it is important for more people to consider the same questions I have, for more people to focus on not just evangelism, but discipleship. Not just coming in showing a movie and leaving, but getting to know the people and teaching them about the full effect of their relationship with Christ. But on Tuesday night, I was reminded that God is not limited by our humanity. His kingdom is not limited by our lack of discipleship. God will be faithful to reach every nation and reach the hearts of every people group. At this point, it is not necessary for me to look down on the ministry of the Jesus film because here in Africa, it is an extremely beneficial evangelistic tool.

fabric market

I am now almost 10 days into my 7 month trip and still never cease to be amazed that I am actually here. I have been working a lot so it has been very tiring. Still, there is so much to do in my free time. This afternoon I visited the fabric market in order to pick out fabric to have a skirt made. The market is just one street of vendor after vendor selling tons of fabrics. I found the one I wanted and was told it would be 5,000 CFAs for 6 yards, equal to $10. I was so overwhelmed by all the fabrics and all of the people and so stressed about trying to barter in French that I just took it at his price and left. Of course this was way over priced so the vendor was extremely happy. While I am somewhat upset I paid too much, I realize that a reasonable price of 3,500 CFAs is only $3 less, so it’s not really a big deal for me in the long run. I also received a marriage proposal. His name was Jean, and he absolutely did not understand why I did not want to marry him and bring him home to the states to meet Obama (the people here are obsessed with Obama).

Tomorrow morning I am going with a group to visit a local prison. We will get to talk with the prisoners and just get to know them and their stories. I am very excited because this is my first real opportunity for outreach. Most of the day trips take place on weekdays and because of my work schedule, I am not able to participate in any of these outings. One of the harder things to remember while working on the ship is that this ministry does not so much focus on having each individual on the ship work in outreach ministries, but instead to focus on the impact we provide altogether. As a whole, the ship is a fully running community and every job is necessary to make the ship run well. While not every job directly ministers to the people of Benin, as a whole the community has brought about a world of change for these people. While I would love to be directly interacting with the people of Benin every day, I know that this is not possible given my position on the ship. Still, I am able to see the profound impact Mercy Ships has provided among these people. Yesterday as I was walking through the streets with a friend, several people pointed and called out “Mercy Ship! Mercy Ship!” Just the people on the street knew who we were and how much we had helped their people, and they were all so excited to see us walking through town.

one week already?

It is hard to believe that I have already been gone a full week!! Even though I have settled in here well, it doesn't seem like I've already been here a full week! I have adjusted pretty well to ship life, although not completely. It is a very different atmosphere than living at home, but also very different than if I were actually living in the city of Cotonou. It is a nice transition phase, but also comes with problems of its own. The thing that has been most difficult for me to adjust to is the constant rocking of the ship. I constantly find myself swaying from side to side, at times it is hard to keep your balance. Another difficulty is that many things are written in 24 hour clocks, or army time. Trying to decipher that as well as figuring out the time change has caused me lots of confusion in calling home. I have also had to figure out how to estimate conversions from celsius to farenheit, lbs to kg, and USD to CFAs. Not to mention all the while trying to understand dozens of differing accents! While I have been told that the full adjustment phase takes about a months time, I am happy to report that the first week has not been too difficult.

At this time please pray that I am able to keep my energy up! Working regular work hours, 8-4, 5 days a week, is exhausting!! By 9 o'clock in the evening typically I am yawning and fully capable of falling asleep for the night!

Please also continue to pray also that I am able to raise a bit more money, I am still in need of between $500 to $1000. There are lots of opportunities to take weekend trips to neighboring countries or various parts of Benin. While the costs are extremely cheap, I am having to limit my spending due to my tight budget. While I am here, I hate to say no to a low-cost backpacking trip through Ghana or a safari in Northern Benin, as these opportunities are once in a lifetime!! But without knowing how I will pay for a plane ticket home, I am having to limit my spending money. So please pray that not only will I get the rest of the support I desperately need, but also that I will be able to be wise in my spending habits while abroad.

another day down

Today I began my work on the ship. On Friday mornings the Cafe sells waffles, so I got to help with the waffle serving. The Cafe is really relaxed because in the morning because most everyone on the ship is working and all of the children are in school. At 10 o'clock most everyone gets a coffee break for half an hour so that is really the only time the Cafe is busy. The rest of the time we just got to stand around and talk. There are only 6 people that work in the Cafe, so we always work together and will get to know each other very well. After the morning rush died down we cleaned things up and were free for 2 hours. When I came back in the afternoon I learned how to work the computers so I stood in the snack bar and helped check people out when buying their candies and sodas. The snack bar has lots of treats from different countries, trying to please everyone, so I'm pretty excited to try some of the things they have there.

This evening I joined a group to go out and play ultimate frisbee. A group goes to the police academy to play every friday, but today there was a big group of guys already on the field. We tried to talk with them and explain that we always get these fields on Friday and tried to arrange a way to split the fields, but they would not listen and kept yelling and yelling. They are a very physical culture, so whenever men are talking, they always hold each others hands or arms. At one point during the argument one of the African men put his hands on one of our men's forearms. He tried to shake that African man's hands off of his arms, then apparently the African men thought we were trying to fight! A bigger group came up and surrounded our person and yelled even louder. At that we agreed to just go and find another field somewhere else. We drove to a different field that was close by, but because of the terrible traffic here it took a long time to get there. Once there we attracted quite a lot of attention -- everyone wanted to see this strange sport and so many white people. Then we began to slowly see water bottles and keys disappearing from where we had put them. Thankfully we caught on to this pretty quickly and moved the rest into the cars before they got taken. We played for about an hour, until it got too dark to play anymore. It felt so nice to be able to get off the ship and run around. It was also nice to actually be in Cotonou, sometimes on the ship it can begin to feel like America so it is nice to go out and remember where you really are. I also got to meet lots of people this way which was really nice. Alot of them go play soccer two nights a week and volleyball once a week so there is plenty of opportunity to get off the ship and play games.

There are also alot of ministry opportunities off of the ship, but I havent been able to participate in any of them yet. Hopefully I will get to do that soon, but just getting oriented here has kept me pretty busy so far.

arrival

I’m finally here! After 24 long hours of flying and layovers, I arrived in Cotonou at 7 p.m. last night. The next hour was probably the most stressful of my entire life! Everyone on the plane and in the airport was either French or African therefore spoking only French (or very broken English with a thick French accent which was even more confusing than French itself) and although I have taken French all of my life, I could not communicate at all! I could make out bits and pieces of what they said, but when I tried to speak everyone looked at me like whatever came out of my mouth was just mindless blabber. Finally one man on the plane noticed my US passport and came up to talk to me in English – of course the first thing he asked was “It’s your first time in Africa isn’t it. I can tell”. Great, I actually do look as lost and confused as I feel. We chatted for a bit (turns out he was an American and also used to live in Missouri) and I was able to get my way past security and into the baggage claim. This was just one room probably about the size of a basketball court (think the actual court that is played on, not the whole gym area) with the conveyor belt holding bags snaking around the room and tons of metal carts to help people carry their luggage. Now add in the 250 people on the plane, all of their luggage, the 25 people in uniform “helping” with bags, and the 90 degree humid heat and you make for a very overwhelming experience. After about 20 minutes of pushing my way through people, standing on my tip toes, and jumping, I finally caught one glimpse of the conveyor belt. It took about half an hour, the help of 3 African men, and lots of broken attempts at speaking French, but I finally had my bags. I got ready to push my way back through the crowd of people towards the exit, and soon discovered that one of the wheels on one of my duffel bags had broken. I pushed through the exit doors completely exhausted and disoriented, dripping in sweat, and dragging two 50 pound duffels and could only think of wanting to be at home. Thankfully, I immediately saw the group holding a Mercy Ships sign. Once we recognized each other they were all so nice and excited, and I soon forgot about how much I had hated my first hour in Africa.

The drive from the airport to the ship was another long adventure in itself… in Cotonou, traffic laws are merely vague suggestions. Throughout the entire drive I was tense and terrified, but the most frightening part of the ride was when we drove for two miles down a one way street going the opposite direction. I swore right then that I absolutely will not drive as long as I am here.

Once on the ship, I had to fill out a few papers then got to come to my room. I share a cabin with 5 other girls, all much older than me. It is very close quarters with no natural light, but it is actually fairly comfortable. I was able to unpack all my things and settle in a bit before finally getting some much needed rest.

on the way...

The day is finally here, I am on my way to Cotonou! I am currently sitting in the Detroit airport waiting for my flight to Paris. I will be arriving in Cotonou, Benin, tomorrow at 7 p.m. local time (1:00 p.m. for those of you in St Louis). Saying goodbye to my family was undoubtedly the hardest part of my trip so far. Emma Claire’s loud sobs could break anyone’s heart, but Isaiah’s silliness helped to lighten the moment. But once I got past the tears, I realized again how incredibly excited I am to be going to Africa. While waiting to board my first plane, I was texting with some friends and thinking myself crazy for what I was about to do. But right as they called my flight to board, I got a text from a friend saying “You’re not crazy, you just wanna serve God! So go!!” That small text gave me the strength to step onto the plane and leave my beloved St Louis behind. Once I turned my phone on in Detroit, I had received several texts from friends and family encouraging me and saying that they were praying for me. It is so exciting to see how many people back at home feel just as much a part of my travels.

I have been amazed over the past months to see God’s hand so clearly orchestrating these plans for the next 7 months. Now that the time is here, it feels so surreal. When I was making the plans, I of course knew what I was getting myself into, but it never really feels like the day is gonna come. Even as I bought my plane ticket, packed up my bags, and said teary goodbyes to my friends, it never really seemed real. It first hit me the realness of the situation last night as I was putting my little brother and sister to bed. They sat cuddled up in my lap for half an hour, showering me with hugs and kisses. Isaiah looked up at me and, in his sweet little voice with pleading eyes, begged, “Kendall, will you miss me while you are gone?” All summer I have asked him if he will miss me, but last night, for the first time, he wanted to be sure I too would miss him. Today, standing at entrance to security, I had to hug everyone goodbye for the last time. That is when the whole situation felt completely real.

At this time my prayers for the next 20 hours are for safety over the rest of my trip. Also, please pray that I will look with excitement at what is to come, even though I had to leave my family and friends behind. Jesus asks us if we will be willing to leave everything we own in order to live a life serving Him. While this is probably one of the hardest steps to take, He promises a life full of joy in serving Him! I know that throughout this trip it is inevitable for me to feel sad at what I have left behind in the States, but the rewards, both in this earthly life and in heaven, will be well worth it! Please pray that in the midst of saying goodbye, I remember that I am heading towards the most incredible adventure of my life so far. Pray that He will also comfort my family as they all struggled to say goodbye, especially Emma Claire. Please continue to pray that upon arriving in Cotonou I will make close friendships quickly in order to make up for (but not replace!) those I have left behind.