So here I am, just a few days out from leaving for Guinea. I have been eagerly anticipating my departure for such a long time now, and all of a sudden it is almost here. I feel like I have spent months preparing for this trip: learning about missions, saving up and raising support, writing out endless to-do lists, strategizing how and what I will pack, etc. Yet despite all this planning, January 19th has managed to sneak up on me and here I am scrambling to say my last good-byes.
Let me just say thank you to all my friends, family, and co-workers, who have all made me feel so incredibly loved over the past few weeks. People have been so generous in supporting me on this mission trip to Guinea, and it has been such a humbling experience to receive this abundance of love. God has been so gracious to me, and I thank Him for each one of you. My hope is that I can bring the same love you have shared with me to our brothers and sisters in Africa and that this love will be a beacon of light pointing towards the true love of Christ.
I'm sure that if you're reading this blog you know where and what I'm doing for the next couple months, but just in case you don't I'll give you a quick run-down. I'll be traveling to Conakry, Guinea in West Africa to serve as a nurse with an organization called Mercy Ships. Mercy Ships has a huge ship called the Africa Mercy, which has been converted into a hospital for the purpose of serving the people of West Africa. Amid so many other difficult conditions, healthcare in West Africa is extremely limited, resulting in many untreated conditions which are life-threatening or debilitating. The mission of Mercy Ships is to follow the "2,000-year-old model of Jesus to provide hope and healing to the world's forgotten poor" and this is accomplished in part "by mobilizing people and resources worldwide". You can learn much more about some of the amazing ways the Lord is working through Mercy Ships by visiting their website at www.mercyships.org.
I have never kept a blog before, so please bear with me as I write. My goal is to keep a 'Rick Steves-style' guide to Mercy Ships, but I have a feeling this blog will be more like 'strange thoughts from Stephanie'. I'll try to keep it professional. See you in Africa!