Francis

Francis is the cutest little guy. He came in with chronic malaria and needed to have a splenectomy (removing part or all of his spleen). He is the sweetest little guy and has the cutest smile ever. He has been involved with some math, reading, and English classes and he excels. His dad is always at his bedside and talking about when Francis gets better he will be able to go to school and maybe he will be the next Liberian President.

Missing Camera (stolen?)

Well my L60 Samsung digital camera is 'missing'.  It has been about a week now and I have checked the only 2 places I keep it, my cabin and the office.  So I am not optimistic about it re-appearing anymore.

I checked with 'lost & found', reception, and various other places...so I am now tempted to move it in the category of possibly stolen. SIGH

Stephanie still has a great camera that her parents purchased for her as a gift, so we will not want for one.  But it was nice when we had our own, and I used mine for work and blogging a lot.

If you are on the ship and reading this, let me know if you find one that looks like this with a possible black foam type case.

Outcast

Outcasts are people that are not allowed to even think they are a part of a community. Yeme was the definition of an outcast. She had this monstrous growth overtaking her petite 14-year-old body. Yeme believed the lie that she is unworthy of love and could not make eye contact when she first entered the ward. I can not express to you how much admiration I have for this little one. She was dropped off (from Guinea) at the gate by herself, does not speak English, and has been treated like a monster most of her life, but she came in took her place in the ward, and began her journey towards healing.

To say this tumor was huge is an understatement. I was in the OR as they were cutting away at this 7.5-kilo mass. Dr. Bruce took it off in parts and each part filled these huge metal bowls. Yeme now has an incision line from her ankle up to her bum where it overtakes all of the left side and some of the right side. She will need skin grafting on her bum and she also has a growth over her left eye that needs to be taken off as well so she will be here for a while, lucky for us.

I get a bit overwhelmed when I really think about what it was like for her living with that huge smelly growth. No one touched her, played with her, educated her, or loved her. Yeme looks like a different person now not only because of her surgery but because the nurses, translators, and disciplers have lavished love on this child that she could only have dreamt of. She has visitors constantly. I love her not only because she needs it but because I feel this pull towards her. She has such a sweet, gentle, and helpful spirit. When I did her GINORMOUS dressing yesterday she laid still on her tummy and lifted up when I needed her to and was incredibly patient. I have never met anyone so brave in all my life

Happy Birthday Mom!!

Have a great day Mama!! I love you!!

New Mercy Ships Logo

Subtitle ~ ...and loose chronological order of logo and missions statement

Mercy Ships first known web presence (web site) made its debut 'back in the day' in (that I can dig up online) is September 1996.  See for yourself! Mercy Ships -  Wayback Time Machine 1996

Here is a 'LOOSE' chronological order (meaning it may skip or miss a few things) of Logo (plus header/banner) and Mission statements:

1996 - Mercy Ships is a non-profit Christian humanitarian organization committed to a three-fold purpose of mercy and relief, training, and ministry. Mercy Ships has served the poor in over 70 port cities by providing medical care, assisting through development projects, and fulfilling basic daily needs in order to demonstrate the message of hope through Jesus Christ.

2000 - Mercy Ships utilizes ocean-going vessels to bring physical and spiritual healing to the poor and needy in port cities around the world.  The ministry encourages societal change by following Christ's example,
mobilizing volunteers to serve others through medical care, relief,
community and church development, proclamation, and training.

2003 - Mercy Ships, a global charity, has operated a growing fleet of hospital ships in developing nations since 1978.  Following the example of
Jesus, Mercy Ships brings hope and healing to the poor, mobilizing people and resources worldwide.

And now, can we have the drum roll please...(pause)...for the new Mercy Ships logo!

Some things to notice about the logo: The ship is more defined than before with a medical cross on the side & a Christian Cross serving as the ship's antenna.  A globe is transmitted from the antenna (or Cross) and envelopes our ship and the 'usual' Mercy Ships text has been brought in line to be more vertical or up-and-down and the tag line is still “Bringing Hope and Healing”. The Colors of the logo are now a deeper blue and more contemporary vivid green.  (this is a paraphrase by me of the actual attributes of the logo being described).

I am not so sure how keen I am on it yet, but hey...I will wait and see if it grows on me.  What do you think?

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For further fun use this link to see more archived pages of Mercy Ships - http://web.archive.org/web/*/http://mercyships.org

Or for some archive fun checking any website, go to the