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