First things first- by Kevin

Time: it is the one currency that we can not truly save.  Sometime it passes so fast.  Since our last post on July 9th we have slept in 9 different beds, changed countries 5 times (including Rachel and I dashing to the U.S. to keep her Green Card), and become Diamond Shellbacks* by sailing through the 0-0 (crossing the Equator and the Prime Meridian).  God has shown himself in the big things (finding us new renters for our house) and the small (playing on grass).

*^{The rarest Shellback status is that of the Emerald Shellback (USA), or Royal Diamond Shellback (Commonwealth), which is received after crossing the Equator at the prime meridian,[7] .}

The reading plan Mercy Ships is working through is called "First Things First" from Matthew 6:33, "Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness and all these things will be added to you as well".  And he has "added unto us" during our transition time, and these pictures are proof of His faithfulness: 

        Walks with Papa and Grandma (and Perry)

Ashani's first attempt to pick spinach leaves was a bit too vigorous as evidenced by the entire plant coming out of the ground (to Grandma's shock)

Spending quality time with my brother and nephew

Playing "500".  Clash of the super competitive Buzzard  and Yangas clans (many bruises but no broken bones).

Time with just "us"

                                                           Worship on the bow

                    Catching up with our classmates. "On-boarding class of June 2016" (best class ever)

Following God is not all unicorns and rainbows.  Sometimes its just the rain.  Cameroon gets over 12 FEET of rain a year!  We prayed to see more green this year, and we can:  We can see grass and trees from our dock space which will be home for the next 10 months.   

The Cameroon government gave us a generous dock space with a view of trees!.

The crew can walk and run through the port (which is a nice change that we really enjoy), and we even have a small area to play soccer and volleyball.  Rachel's favorite part is that we are docked on a tidal river. We can't go for walks in the forest, so God brings the forest to us: When the tide comes in it brings large amounts of the mangrove swamp which we get to see floating past our window.  Such is the kindness of God.  :D

Surgeries will begin Sept 5th and the ship has been buzzing with everyone in start-up mode, including us:  We have a couple of new team members in our 6-person Chaplaincy department and I have been getting my head around my new role as Senior Chaplain and all that that entails.  

We appreciate your prayers as we find our pace and the "unforced rhythms of grace" to sustain us for this 10 months, so that we can serve the crew well.

Click here for ways to partner with us through your giving:

http://www.ellensburgwellspring.com/yangas-family/

Faithfulness - by Kevin

I sometimes take God's faithfulness for granted.  I just don't think about it, until something goes wrong, and I need him to do what I can not.  The ship is now in ship yard and as you can see by the pictures we are in dry dock (dry = no water)

To meet the safety standards she must come out of the water every two years.  This year it was not a moment too soon.  As we arrived after our 11 days sail a pipe that uses seawater to cool the engines burst and water came rushing into the engine room.  God was Faithful to hold it together, otherwise we would have been adrift at sea until we sorted out the problem.

During dry dock children under 18 can not be on the ship for safety reasons.  So Mercy Ships finds housing for us.  This year God was faithful and 3 hotels offered us free room and board for the 3 weeks we would need.  It turned out to be a win/win because there was a press conference that shed a positive light on the shipyard, the hotels and Mercy Ships.  Our family was asked to be part of the fun.

I've continued to work on the ship and recently have been promoted to Senior chaplain for the Cameroon field service 2017-18.  Rachel and the kids have enjoyed the hotel to the fullest.  It is close to the ocean and we have all enjoyed the sand and sea...God is faithful.

There is so much work that is done during this time and some volunteers come specifically to help during this season every year even though it is loud, dusty and hot (no AC).  The doctors and nurses are often the ones who end up on the videos or photos with patients, but it takes a huge team effort to allow this ministry to bring free surgery to some of the poorest people on earth.  We are thankful for our supporters who are part of our team that allow us to serve with Mercy Ships.  Tomorrow we start 3 weeks of vacation to see family and friends and prepare ourselves for serving in Cameroon for 10 months starting in August.

Thank you for your prayers and support.

The Yangas clan

Making It Count - by Kevin

I don’t want money or fame. Like most of us,  I want my life count for something.  That is one of the main reasons I chose to follow this Jesus fellow.  He made people’s lives better.  It was not always butterflies and rainbows:  He used a whip to clear the temple, he let his anger motivate him to right a wrong.  I believe most, if not all of the worlds poverty is avoidable.  God is not the problem; I am.  I am selfish and self-centered and don’t want to give up my comfort.  

Mercy Ships is a small example of what can happen when people put aside their ways and follow the example and leadership of Jesus.  People get loved, the sick are healed, the lame walk.  I have seen it with my own eyes.  

Ashani and her class spending time with the patients on Deck 7

We have finished our 10 month field service to the country of Benin and we performed 1957 surgeries on 1793 patients.  The dental team did 15,109 procedures on 6992 patients, and the list goes on.  It’s not even the numbers that truly matter, if we did not do these things in a loving way.  We strive to not treat people as numbers, but as people that God loves, and values and cares deeply for; and so must we.  

Zaden MC'ing one of our shipwide Community Meetings

As a nurse what excites me most is our Medical Capacity Building program.  The focus is helping to develop the nations medical skills and capacity to care for their people so that one day Mercy Ships will no longer be needed.  The mentoring program included surgeons, anaesthesia providers, midwives, nurses, and every skilled person needed to perform safe surgery: 88 mentored, 1,874 students in all. 

With My friend Miguel and I made a short video of our time in Benin, which you can view here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cci4Nn_sPtM

If the link does not work just go to youtube.com and type: Yangas and Kamara Benin 2016-17.

Daniel playing soccer with recovering patients at Mercy Ships' "Hope Center" during his week of Work Experience

It is a privilege for us to be a part of the team that is Mercy Ships, and we look forward to continuing to serve as the ship will head to Cameroon, West Africa in August.

love, 

the Yangas family

Easter in Community - by Rachel

Easter on the Africa Mercy is a really special time, and many crew who have experienced it before look forward to Holy Week as a chance to immerse ourselves in Jesus' journey.  (With some egg-related activities thrown in along the way.  And most likely some Veggie Tales too.)

As Chaplains, it is our team's privilege to coordinate many different Easter events during this time, so that's what's been keeping us busy for the past weeks:  3 Easter services (Good Friday, Sunday Sunrise, and Easter Morning), 3 movie nights, 1 craft afternoon, 1 Open Cabin evening, 1 Easter Breakfast, and the Maundy Thursday events (more about that later) - all with the help of other crew and volunteers.  We also had an amazing Easter Sunday lunch put on by our Food Services department!

On Thursday we transformed one of our function rooms into the Upper Room...

which included the 12 Stations of the Cross and Communion, and the opportunity to come and find some solitude and stillness all weekend long.

There was a foot-washing station on Deck 7.

The International Lounge became the Garden of Gethsemane

...followed by a place to contemplate what Jesus did for us on the cross on Good Friday

...and then a place of celebration and praise as we filled the cross with flowers on Easter Sunday morning!

It was such a special time.  (Although I'm not sure if Kevin wants to see another palm branch for a while!) We were thankful to have time to experience all of these different aspects of Easter as a family and as a community.

I want to finish with this quote by David Janzen about community life, which we have found to be so true in our work and lives here on the Africa Mercy:

“There's no getting around the truth that community
life regularly brings out the worst in us. Yet what better place can there be for our weakest parts and crankiest moments to happen than among those who love us deeply? Living in community is the choice to lie down on God’s operating table and open our hearts to the Holy Spirit's healing through each another. It is an invitation to spiritual surgery . . . using and submitting to the "surgical tools" of gracious truth-telling and patient listening. God's strength is made perfect in our weakness.” 

May we all experience the depth of His healing and love through each other as we choose vulnerability over perfection.

February, The longest month -By Kevin

Living in the north (above the 47th parallel) I was finding it more and more difficult to survive the month of February.
The cold and darkness seemed never ending and it felt like it was seeping into my bones, pulling me into a foggy funk.  Here in Benin it is quite warm and sunny, but I still find that February seems like it's never ending.  When will spring come?  When will the flow of patients end? We have been working here for 7 months, the pace is fast and steady, the finish line months away.  We have helped thousands of people and our gangway will stay open for thousands more till the end of our field service in June.  Some of us are getting tired and even coffee is not helping.  Our greatest strength is our diversity and unity, but this begins to fray as our strength weakens.  

Following Jesus together we create tremendous amounts of synergy.  Synergy is the combined power of a group of things ( or people) when working together that is greater than the total power achieved by each working separately.  Most of you know what synergy is but I found a cool illustration. 

 “One of the largest, strongest horses in the world is the Belgian draft horse (I’m not sure why such a small country needs such a big horse). Competitions are held to see which horse can pull the most and one Belgian can pull 8,000 pounds (3636KG). The weird thing is if you put two Belgian horses in the harness who are strangers to each other, together they can pull 24,000 (10,909 KG) pounds. Two can pull not twice as much as one but three times as much as one. This example represents the power of synergy. However, if the two horses are raised and trained together they learn to pull and think as one. The trained, and therefore unified, pair can pull 32,000 pounds (14,545 KG), four times as much as a single horse.”  

I think its an amazing picture of what the body of Christ can do when we work at being unified and pull together.  

I love being a part of Mercy Ships because we all pull together and thousands of peoples' wounds are healed and lives forever changed.  The question is, how do we keep our unity when God had made us all so different?  What do we do when the winter drags on, we are tired and there is no time or place to rest?  When I get tired I get selfish, but Jesus recommends that I do the opposite, 

“ This [is what] I command you: that you love and unselfishly seek the best for one another.( John 15:17Amplified Bible)

How are you going to love unselfishly? Unselfishly means: generously, charitably, and helpfully.  The way I see it, God’s love is a fuel that I need to love others, but I must make room in my heart by surrendering.  We all need God’s help to love so we must surrender our wants and needs. Instead of looking inside, I look out to those around me.  We can seek ways to encourage one another and unselfishly seek the best for one another.  So this week I have challenged myself and encourage you to think of a person who you would like to value more and love better. Then surrender to God’s love.  God and us loving and pulling together.  Let the synergy begin.

This is "little Kevin"   -not all of us can be Belgian draft horses :-)

During the Celebration of Sight ceremony last week, this grandma who had had a successful surgery on board was praising the Lord: she was blind, but now she could see!  She even put her cane down so she could get "jiggy wid it".  God is good.

Thank you for your support and prayers as we continue to pull together to show God's great love.

The Yangas Clan

Christmas photos! - by Rachel

We've been back on board for 2 weeks now since our Courtesy-of-British-Airways-Christmas-trip-to-the-UK so I wanted to share some photos. We had a lovely time in England with family, lots of muddy walks in the beautiful countryside with wellington boots and dogs, and plenty of great food.  
For 5 days over Christmas, my brother and sister-in-law had 11 humans and 2 dogs at their house: our family, their family and my parents.  They were amazing hosts and we had a great time together:

Christmas morning!

Notice Priya's beautiful table decorations

Cousins!

Elsa was posing as Mother Mary meek and mild, so we may have put a nappy/diaper on Perry after this shot so that he could be baby Jesus...

After Christmas my parents paid for an AirBnB house for 3 nights for the 5 of us, deep in rural Dorset, which was really lovely and relaxing.  It was a tiny cottage with a wood fire, so we were very cozy: 

We went for some sunny walks with gorgeous views

and stops at the local pub with a log fire...

...and an ancient skittle alley!

This was followed by a night in London with Great Aunt Gill and Henry,

who took us to a Peter And The Wolf concert at St Martin in the Fields at Trafalgar Square on New Year's Eve, which was also Daniel's birthday!  I can't believe we have a 12-year old! 

Henry died very unexpectedly the following day, and we feel so honoured to have been able to share one of his last couple of days.  He was the quintessential gentleman who could tell great stories, and we will miss him. 

After this we spent 5 days at my parents' house in Sussex, which I'm afraid we have no photo evidence of, as Kevin caught a really nasty flu virus as soon as we got there.  It was lovely to spend time with my parents but difficult with Kevin being sick.  Unfortunately my Dad also caught it, which hit him really hard and he is still in the process of recovering.  

The rest of us also caught it on our way back to the ship (poor Daniel was feeling awful on the plane!) but we are all mostly recovered now and back to our usual routine.  With many crew having left just prior to Christmas and lots of new crew on board who arrived just after, there are lots of new people for us to meet and try to remember the names of!

In other news, Ashani lost both of her top front teeth in the last 2 days!  I was hoping for a shot of the cute gappy grin look, but the best we can do today is this slightly disturbing spin-off:

Thank you for your prayers and support!  We will continue to serve the people of Benin until June when the ship will sail to the Canary Islands for shipyard.

love, 

the Yangas family

'Tis The Season - by Rachel

Here we are doing some last-minute packing for our 2-week trip to the UK for Christmas with family, courtesy of British Airways (who grounded one of our flights over the summer and gave us some rather generous compensation - thanks BA!), and I realized it had been a shockingly long time since we blogged.... so here it is, a quick glimpse of Christmas season on the Africa Mercy.

Sinter Klaas came to visit us, all the way from the Netherlands.  Via Spain.  I think.

Daniel was less impressed with Sinter Klaas than he was with the cookies in his bag.  Can you spot him?

In our multi-cultural community there are many ways to celebrate, and so many amazing people who put on fabulous events to bring the community together:  Santa Lucia (from Scandinavia), Sinter Klaas (from the Netherlands), cookie baking and decorating, ginger-bread house competition, door-decorating contest, Christmas concert, craft night, Winter Wonderland Christmas bazaar, and Advent services to name just a few.  

Cookie baking!

Christmas craft night!

more crafts...

...and more crafts

The Elementary School Choir getting ready to sing at an Advent Service

...and here's your annual digital Christmas card:

Let me leave you with a thought expressed by one of my fellow-Chaplains at the last Advent service:  

There was no room for Him in the inn.  

There was no room for him.  No room. 

How can we, especially in the midst of what is often a really busy season, make room for him in our schedules, in our lives, in our hearts?

We wish you all a very merry Christmas filled with the peace and joy of His presence.