An Encouraging Report

We occasionally receive reports from unexpected sources. This note, posted today, was an encouragement that we are having an impact in Madagascar beyond the brief time we see patients on the ship.

While following up our medical training programs in Mahajanga, on the northwest coast of Madagascar last week, Dr. Michelle White and I met, somewhat by accident, a long-time missionary from the area named Jamie. Jamie was thrilled to meet us and eagerly told us story after story of how Mercy Ships' presence and mission has affected the people of his region, several days' travel away.

He had several stories to share but there were two patients in particular who found not only physical healing but experienced Jesus in a way they could not keep to themselves. These stories encapsulate beautifully the heart of our mission, to share the Good News through the incarnational model of Jesus, bringing hope and healing.

One woman was plagued for years by intense abdominal pain, trying time after time to get help from the local physicians and healers who were never able to ease her suffering.  She bravely made her way to the ship and had surgery thanks to our incredible volunteer women's health team of surgical and nursing staff, and has now returned home to Mahajanga. Jamie told us not only is she now pain free, but she has a newfound joy for life; a new level of compassion for others she has never had before.  She was loved and cared for on the ship in a way she had never experienced; not only did our medical teams heal her body but they healed her heart, and from that healing she is now eager and able to love others, to show compassion where she once had nothing to give.

Jamie told us another story of a man he had heard of way down in Toliara, the far south of Madagascar. He was a patient on the ship and upon returning to Toliara he could not keep silent. "I heard of Jesus my whole life," he said.  "I read in the bible that He came to love people and to heal people, but I've never seen it.  I'd never experienced that here on earth, until I was on the Mercy Ship."  His experience of Jesus, lived through the incarnational ministry of our crew, has changed his entire life and has given him the desire to speak out and bless others.  It's a remarkable story that spans the entire country; from the far north in Mahajanga we heard word of this man form the far south in Toliara who was healed on the ship over in the east in Toamasina.

The Good News cannot be kept silent!  Praise God for these and the hundreds of other stories of hope and healing spreading across this incredible country and impacting her beautiful people.  Jamie told us that many of the potential patients who were too afraid to travel to the ship for their first appointment are now eagerly awaiting the ships' return so they too can experience the hope and the healing and the Good News for themselves.

--Krissy Close, Medical Capacity Building Manager AFM