Revelation No. 1. God doesn’t go on Holidays J
Ok so let me start by saying something I am realizing more and more as time goes on… God wants to use us wherever we may be (even if we think we are on holidays). Now the reason I say this is because I spent about three weeks in the states “on holidays” before arriving in Freetown and I was amazed at all the opportunities God had presented to show His love… the strangest one was that I got asked to be a guest speaker in a high school to talk about Health issues in a third world country…. Obviously this was the last thing I thought I’d be doing whilst on holidays…. Anyways I said to the Big Guy a long time ago that if He ever gave me the opportunity to share what He has done and is doing in my life I wouldn’t argue… so I jumped at the chance…. And it was amazing. Lots of kids came up afterwards and were definitely moved with everything we were doing with Mercy Ships… The awesome thing was that I got asked to speak to three different classes… it’s funny to look back at times like these because doing something like this would have been the last thing I though I’d be doing in the states…it was a good reminder that God never goes on holidays and even if we are.
Revelation No. 2. God has special ways of confirming where He wants us J
Now I have been here in Freetown Freetown
And as I looked down at the title of my book "Don't waste your life", my eyes started to tear up because I had this resounding feeling that I was exactly where God wanted me to be... I was home again J
Revelation No. 3. Don’t let tough times stop you from doing something you love
Ok so this revelation comes from one of my room mates – lets just call him Rob (because that’s his name)…. anyways he is a funny kind of guy… one of the first things he told me was that he had diarrhea but didn’t want to miss out on going surfing on the weekend (which he loves). Ok so anyways when he was out surfing he didn’t want to miss any waves but needed to do a number 2… anyways lets just say that he didn’t miss out on anyway waves…. Hearing this just cracked me up…. it gave me the revelation that you should never let tough times stop you from doing something you love doing J funny funny…
(practice makes perfect)
Revelation No. 4. God can give us the strength and grace to forgive
So let me tell you one last thing which was pretty amazing which really did blow me away…. It showed me what true forgiveness and grace looks like…
I was talking to one of the doctors and they were telling me about a patient they had treated in the past…. The doctor was saying that they came across a father whose daughter’s arms had been cut off by a rebel in the war. Now the rebels would often cut off arms because it got a lot of international publicity for their cause and it was a strong reminder to everyone else to not mess with them. So the father has to feed her daughter everday and is constantly reminded of what was done to her… the father went onto say that even though the war is over and things are more settled now he is constantly reminded of the atrocities of the war… and what makes it worse is that the person who massacred his daughters arms lives just down the street… everyday he sees the person who cut his daughters arms off… and he said everyday he needs to ask for God’s strength to forgive that man and not go and harm him…. Now hearing this blew me away…. So much forgiveness and grace was shown by the father to forgive this man who hurt his little girl so awfully…
It kind of hits you hard when so many of your patients have literally been hit in the cross fire of war… fleeing for their lives… seeing your friends and family die all around you… When I step outside of my world for a second and think about what I am doing here, I truly feel so blessed to be part of something small which is helping to bring healing to so many lives…
I know this kind of work isn’t for everyone but I am glad that it is for me J
God truly is good and I am soooooooooo excited to be back on board the ship J
Nick J
