So, Screening Day was last week. This is the day when Mercy Ships officially opens up for business, as it were. We rented a huge building (called the 'People's Palace') and in a jaw-dropping feat of organization and planning, saw some 4,300 people with various health concerns, which resulted in 800+ appointments made for life-changing surgeries. The people we could not help (and anyone with a basic grasp of mathematics can tell that there were more than a few) were escorted to a tent where volunteers offered to pray with them before they went on their way. For some with terminal conditions, we will be providing hospice services over the next nine months, visiting homes and helping people adjust to the knowledge that their condition has a name and a grim course to run.
Because Mercy Ships is awesome, my Jr. High and High School students got to be part of this amazing event. For six hours, my students and I got to color and play soccer with the kids who were waiting to be seen, pass out bottled water and sandwiches, and escort people from the incredibly long line that snaked out of the yard and down the street to their first interview with our medical personnel. One lady that I spoke with said that she had been waiting in line for more than nine hours. It was amazing and heartrending and mind-numbing and gratifying all at once, and I am glad I could be part of it. The students did a great job. They jumped into the work whole-heartedly. I was inspired. (This picture, by the way, was taking by the Mercy Ships official photographers, since it would be in pretty poor taste for all us westerners to be snapping pictures of people as if we were on vacation. If you look carefully, you can see me serving cookies somewhere in the middle of the crowd. Two of my students are also passing out snacks in the upper right corner. You can tell it's us because we're wearing our snazzy blue Mercy Ships Academy polo shirts.)
To tell the truth, I'm kind of having a hard time putting the day into words. It was all so big and I'm so small. There were so many people there, and every one of them waited in the sun and the rain (yep, it's still rainy season here) for hours so that some impossible dream might come true for them. And for many, the answer was no. But for others, a great miracle began.
And you know, small as we are, each one of us had a part in that miracle. Because a logistical masterpiece like Screening Day doesn't happen without tons of small folk doing a million little things that add up to something enormous. We have an impressive God, who instead of instantaneously restoring 800+ bodies with a snap of his Great and Holy Fingers, works to bless countless hearts by asking His children to help each other in the ways He has gifted us to. I know for certain that my heart was stretched and blessed by the people I met at Screening Day, African and Western alike.
Pretty awesome.
1 comment:
Sarah, may I say that though you are still processing and though the words you were looking for to say what you were trying to say may have been hard to find, you tell a beautiful story about how your heart can be stretched and pained and filled with joy at the same time. Thank you for sharing this beautiful story with us. By the way, I found you in the picture. It was fun to find you...like playing Where's Waldo?. It sounds like you are having many adventures, and I pray that the Lord continues to bless and keep you in His perfect peace while you're adventuring. Peace & Joy, Angela
Post a Comment