3 months mark

I can't believe I've been on the ship for almost 3 months now. Time really flew by. I enjoy my time here tremendously. I am definitely experiencing God, and am growing closer to Him. I met a lot of people, and it's fascinating hearing their stories. I've made almost 3,000 loaves of bread thus far, plus a wide variety of desserts, and have been met with compliments. Life on the ship is not always easy though. There were times when I became frustrated, confused, or angry. However, when I remind myself that God called me here and that I am working for God, I feel much better.

I'm keeping myself busy with activities on and off the ship. In particular, I've been involved with prison fellowship. Every Saturday morning, for the past two months, I've been going to Monrovia Central Prison with 10 or so other Mercy Shippers visiting prisoners. I have never been in a prison before, and have never done anything like this. I was really nervous the first time crossing the threshold into the prison compound, wondering what would happen, and what I should say. However, as I met and spoke with the prisoners, I felt the presence of God. I was able to share scriptures with them, and speak words of encouragement and comfort to them. It was an amazing experience. I feel privileged to have the opportunity to share hope to some of the least fortunate people in this impoverished country.

"Two boiled eggs dot blogspot dot com?"

I interrupt my infrequent blog update on my new life in Liberia for this comic relief.

Last night, I was having dinner with several people, one of whom I just met. The topic turned to my blog. The new person asked what is my blog address.

"tuborgx dot blogspot dot com", I replied with a mouthful of cucumbers. Tuborgx is pronounced too-borg-x.

"Two boiled eggs dot blogspot dot com?"


On a more serious note, the UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon was in Liberia yesterday and today.

Liberia Living – Home Sweet Home

Some of you are probably wondering what my cabin looks like onboard the Africa Mercy. In this post, I will give you a glimpse into my humble abode.

There is a wide variety of cabins on the ship, family cabins, couple cabins, and cabins for 1, 3, 4, 6, 8, and 10 persons. Based on my gender, age, length of commitment, position, and previous Mercy Ships service, using an undisclosed formula and points system, HR assigned me to a 4 berth cabin. This means that I share a cabin with 2 bunk beds with 3 other guys.

There is a tiny bathroom called the wet unit, and due to limited water supply, when we shower, we can only use 2 minutes worth of water.



A narrow hallway leads to the 2 sleeping compartments, each has a bunk bed, closets and cupboards. I have the top bunk in the 2nd compartment.





At the far end of the cabin is the lounge area, where we can supposingly chill and relax. However, given the minuscule size of the room (lounge can just fit 3 chairs, so where does the 4th guy sit?), I rather hang elsewhere on the ship.



In the beginning, I found my cabin inhumanely small and the bunk an accident waiting to happen. I used to live by myself and had lots of space. There is hardly any storage space in my cabin. After many days of agonizing, I was finally able to fit all my worldly belongings in my one closet and cupboard. I never slept in a top bunk in my life, and remember how sick I was when I first arrived? Climbing up that ladder on the first night felt like climbing a mini-Kilimanjaro. Climbing down was worse. There is a horizontal bar on the top bunk designed to prevent people from falling off while sleeping. However, the bar is flush with the mattress, so it offers no protections whatsoever. The only good it does is when I roll around in bed, and my knee bangs against the top of that bar, I am painfully reminded of the threshold.

One night, I rolled around in my sleep and all of a sudden, WOOSH! I felt cool air all around me, and a weight was lifted off me. Then I heard a soft THUD. Fortunately, it was my duvet, not my body, that fell on the ground. I got out of bed, climbed down, picked up my duvet, put it back on the bed, climbed back up, and went back to sleep. That was annoying, embarrassing, and funny at the same time. However, I was too sleepy to laugh.

After living in the cabin for a month, I am getting used to it. I appreciate its easy-to-reach-ness. Once I was already in bed when I realized my alarm clock (aka cell phone) was in the cupboard. Instead of having to climb down, get the phone, and climb back up, I simply leaned over, opened the cupboard, and retrieved the phone. I also developed a method to safely climb up and down the ladder in low light environment while half awake. This is not the best cabin on the ship, but also definitely not the worst. I suppose this is all a matter of perspectives, and I think I am beginning to gain some.

Soon, I will introduce you to the rest of the ship. A la prochaine!

Liberia Living - Month #1

Finally, a post on life in Liberia.

I've been living on the ship for a month now. There have been ups and downs, moments of assurance and anxiety, fun and frustration. I am settling in nicely, getting accustomed to ship life.

In upcoming posts, I will describe, in words and kilo-words, the ship I live on, the people I live with, and the city I see, hear, and smell everyday.

Accounts of Dominican Republic by a missionary newbie - Part 3 of 3

In short, this trip exceeded my expectations.

During the first few days, after witnessing the poverty and the disheartening living conditions, I became very negative and skeptical about our efforts. What can we possibly do in 2.5 weeks to have any long term impacts in these people's lives? We may be able to provide short term fixes, but they will not be sustainable after we leave. So why are we here?



After much prayers and sharing my struggles with others, I came to the realization that although we may not have the perfect solution for the situation, our Father in heaven does. He has the perfect plan for the Haitian refugees, and I was simply called to do my part in His plan. I needed to trust Him more. With this new perspective, I took on a different attitude towards the mission. I was energized and eagerly took on new roles and challenges. I participated in different activities and reached out to a wide range of people, both in Villa Ascencion and in the surrounding communities. In addition to being a lesson and opportunity to strengthen my faith, DR also offered a good transition from living in the 4th most developed country in the world, to a country that did not even make it onto the UN’s Human Development Index ranking. I now feel better prepared physically, mentally, and spiritually for the challenges and adventures that lie ahead in Liberia.

Accounts of Dominican Republic by a missionary newbie - Part 2 of 3

Most people go to Puerto Plata for its tropical weather, sandy beaches, and low cost of living. However, 20 minutes from the all-inclusive resorts, a very different reality exists. Dominican Republic (DR) shares the island of Hispaniola with Haiti. Years of civil unrest in Haiti results in a large number of Haitian refugees in DR. These Haitians have no legal status in DR, and are often subject to discrimination. They live in slums, often makeshift shacks built on top of garbage dumps. Their deplorable living conditions in DR are often no better than what they left behind in Haiti.

The focus of our trip is various projects in Villa Ascencion, a village started by a Canadian philanthropist five years ago to help some of the poorest people around Puerto Plata.

I spent most of my time on Team Rabbit, where we taught the locals how to raise rabbits for food, and helped them build their own rabbit hutches. Since it is crucial for them to take ownership of the project, they were responsible for the actual building of the hutches, while we provided material and assistance. During the building phase, I observed a wide range of personalities and mentalities. Some were highly motivated, excited about this new opportunity to improve their lives. They took care and pride in building their hutches, and even helped others to build theirs. However, there were also some who demanded that we do the work for them. I was inspired and encouraged by the motivated ones, and saddened by those with no desire to put in the effort. I was also impressed with their resourcefulness and creativity. Since we did not have enough tools for each team, they had to share. Some decided to resort to local tools for the task at hand, such as using rocks to pound nails, and machetes to cut wood. In the end, we built 55 hutches, and distributed rabbits to all participants. I was really pleased with the result.

In addition to Team Rabbit, I also got involved with several other activities. I played with the kids, hiked around the village, installed a computer at the village council office, made the first ever map of the village and presented it to the council, helped with a mobile clinic by being an unregistered nurse, unlicensed pharmacist, and a mean looking bouncer at the door.

It was a busy trip, a fun trip, and one where I grew a lot. I’ll reflect on the trip in my next post.

Safe and Sick in Africa

Hello everyone, my luggage and I made it to the ship safely Sunday night. However, I've been sick as a dog, a coughing, phlegmy, achy dog.

I caught a cold on Friday night, the night before le grand depart. Perfect timing! Then the flights just made things worse. The cabins were freezing. I was shivering the whole time. Usually I love flying, but there was no joy in any of the 4 flights I took last weekend. In fact, I was almost led to believe Chicage and Brussels are on 2 different planets! The supposingly 8 hr flight went on forever and ever and ever. It doesn't help that they're showing Apollo 13 on the screen, that movie goes on forever and ever and ever too. I would sleep for a little bit, wake up due to aching back / cramped leg / coughing fit, look out the window and it's pitch dark, look up and Tom Hanks' wearing a spacesuit doing something, go back to sleep, wake up again, still dark outside, and this time Ed Harris is saying something to somebody. Repeat the above about 100 times. That's my ORD-BRU flight in a nutshell. It was the most pain I have ever endured in a seated position.

I didn't remember much about the rest of my trip. I was so numbed by pain and discomfort the chaos at the Monrovia airport didn't bother me at all. I was just thankful that the journey was finally over.

Although the journey may be over, my sickness certainly isn't. I saw the crew doctor today, and he prescribed some medication. So hopefully it'll clear up in a few days. I never thought I would become a patient before spending a single day working in the galley. On the other hand, I got to spend some time on the hospital deck, and I'm impressed by the professionalism and passion of the medical staff.

Lesson of the day: Don't fly when you're sick, but if you must, you have my deepest sympathy.

Next Stop: Liberia

This is it, folks. I'll be going to Liberia tomorrow morning. After 7 long years, my dream of returning to Africa is finally becoming a reality. I can't believe this is actually happening.

I'll continue with my blog once I get settled on the ship.

Thanks for reading. Stay tuned!

Accounts of Dominican Republic by a missionary newbie - Part 1 of several

I was in the Dominican Republic (DR) for the past 2.5 weeks, completing the practical portion of my ministry training at Mercy Ships, putting what we learnt in the classroom into practice. Since this is my first mission trip, and the first time to the Caribbean, I was both excited and nervous.

I’ll give an overview of the trip in this post. Descriptions of our work and my reflections will be given in future posts.

DR is a developing country in the Caribbean, sharing the island of Hispaniola with Haiti. As soon as I stepped out of the airport terminal, I was greeted by the humid tropical air. During the drive to our hotel, I enjoyed watching the lush green countryside and endless sugar cane fields go by. Over the next 18 days, I experienced many facets of this fascinating country. We were blessed with hot and sunny weather most days, while that was good for our work outdoors, it also meant I had to get used to the constant whiff of garbage and open sewer, slowly decomposing under the tropical sun. I had the opportunity to savour many local food, including avocados the size of cantaloupes and sugar canes that I chopped, shaved, chewed, and spit with sweet delight.

As with most developing countries, traffic rules and safety regulations are highly optional. It’s normal to pass on double solid lines with oncoming traffic. A family of four fits comfortably on a scooter. My favourite image was a guy on the back of a motocycle taxi, holding onto a birthday cake big enough to feed 30 people, uncovered, with candles inserted, wavering in and out of traffic en route to the party. I wonder if the white buttercream will turn a shade of grey.

During the weekends, we attended services at different churches, and I enjoyed the very lively and spirited worship. Just have to remember to bring a bottle of water as the service usually last 3-4 hours. We also went the beach, hiked a nearby mountain, and enjoyed God’s beautiful creations.

Despite liberal application of bug spray, I still got a lot of bug bites. By the end of the trip, you almost could play connect the dots on my back and legs. I must have left behind a lot of fat and happy bugs in the DR.

I’ll write about the work we did at the village in future posts. Stay tuned.

More tales from the Lone Star State - outside of class

As my time here in Texas draws to a close, I want to share with you a few interesting things I’ve done/seen/experienced:

• When I first arrived at the Mercy Ships HQ, in the orientation package, there are 2 pages of warnings about the natural hazards in the area. These include various venomous and otherwise snakes and spiders, poison ivy, fire ants, and scorpions. Welcome to Texas! After the initial urge of grabbing my bags and going home subsided, I figured that since it’s winter, I probably won’t see any snakes. I’ll wear jeans and boots and stay on the paths to avoid poison ivy. I’ll steer clear of any mounds of red dirt as they’re fire ant hills. I’m not afraid of spiders, but I’m not sure how I’ll react to scorpions, as I have never seen a real one before. Then one day, I found this right outside my room. It’s a fairly small scorpion, but it still got a mean looking sting. If the baby scorpion was hanging around my room, I dread to speculate where the mama scorpion might be!

• First Monday Trade Day – the world’s biggest flea market. It takes place in the weekend before the first Monday of every month, about 15 minutes from the Mercy Ships HQ. It is GINORMOUS! You can find everything under the Texan sun there – food, clothes, furniture, artworks, cosmetics, pets, farm animal, farm equipment, and even farm equipment manufacture paraphernalia!
• Cross Brand Cowboy Church – a bona-fide cowboy church attended by cowboys, wranglers and ranchers, where 80% of the vehicles in the parking lot are pickup trucks, where kids practice calf roping in front of the church, where the pastor uses saddle horns and jeans and pickup trucks in his analogies, and where even the toilet paper holders are made of horseshoes!
• Texas longhorns – a breed of cattle with really long horns (duh!), and is a symbol of Texas. I had the good fortune to see two type of said animal on the same day, one made of bronze, and the other made of flesh and bone.

• Southern words such as y’all, big old, fixin’

That’s all for now from Texas. I’ll be in the Dominican Republics for field service for the rest of this month. I will update this blog and post more pictures upon my return, so check back in March for more of Eddie’s adventures.

Tales from the Lone Star State - in class

I just completed my extremely intensive 5 weeks classroom training at the Mercy Ships HQ in Texas.

We covered a great variety of topics that are relevant to ship life, missionary work, and life in general.

Some of the topics covered include:

• Mercy Ships – its history, mission, values, approaches
• Personal and interpersonal development
• Conflict resolution
• Prayer life and the nature of God
• Spiritual warfare
• World view and the root of poverty
• Relief vs development
• First aid and CPR
• Fire fighting (that's me in the fire suit!)
  
• Survival at sea

I'll be off to the Dominican Republic in a few hours (early Sunday morning), where we'll have the opportunity to put what we’ve learnt into practice. I'll return to Texas on Feb 28, and fly out to Liberia to (finally) join the ship on March 1st.

Perfect Strangers, New Best Friends

It’s hard to believe I’ve been in Texas for 3 weeks already. Sometimes, when I recall the terror of that Greyhound bus ride, I feel like I have just arrived. However, when I look around at all the friends I’ve made and how comfortable I am in my new surroundings, I feel like I’ve been here for months.

I’m having a great time at training. I learnt a lot about Mercy Ships as an organization, the God we serve, various aspects of missions, life skills, conflict resolution, cross-cultural communications, etc. We had a silent retreat last weekend. It was very refreshing just spending a day with God in silence. I will definitely do that again.

Even though our class of 32 started as strangers, due to the open and safe environment fostered by the instructors, there has been a lot of deep and meaningful sharing of personal experiences, and a lot of tears have been shed. It is very inspiring and encouraging to hear others’ stories. I learnt that many people are facing the same kind of challenges I am. Together we can encourage each other, and grow to be the kind of person God intends us to be. I think by the end of February, we will become a very tightly bonded group.

A few notes about living in East Texas:

• It can get cold! 2 days ago, the temperature was around -10C with windchill! I am totally not prepared for this kind of weather.
• Unlike the weather, the people are very warm and hospitable. They ask how your day has been, and they actually care about your response.
• My stomach is adjusting to a new schedule. Dinner is served from 5 - 5:45pm. I can't even remember the last time I finished dinner before 6pm.

Riding on a Greyhound, praying all the way

After a very eventful bus ride, I finally made it to the Lone Star state!

In an attempt to save $150, I decided to take a 16 hours Greyhound bus from Atlanta to Tyler, Texas. Since I have taken many long bus rides in Africa, I figured this wouldn't be too bad. Afterall, the Greyhound bus seats are big and comfy. It would be like flying longhaul in business class, right?

Some lowlights of my trip:

• The bus terminal was in a shady part of town, with lots of people loitering around outside, reminded me of East Hastings in Vancouver. It was around 11pm.
  
• At soon as I saw the inside of the bus station, my heart sank and wished I had flown instead. The place was totally packed, lineups everywhere. Total mayhem.
  
• I stood in one line to check my first bag, and was told I need to be in another line to check my second bag. That line wasn't moving, and they were already calling for my bus number to prepare for boarding. Yikes!
  
• 2 hours later, I finally got on the bus. It was a full bus, and my seat wouldn't recline.
• I was trying to get some sleep, but was wakened up at about 3am by some noise and a sudden jerk of the bus. The bus has drifted over the right lane onto the grooves on the side of the road, driver woke up, and jerked the bus back into the lane. That was scary. However, whoever came up with the idea of cutting grooves into the side of roads was a genius.
  
• I was really tired, so was trying to put that incident behind me, and get back to sleep.
• 5 minutes later, it happened again. Sound of tires on grooves, and a sharp jerk to the left.
• I was wide awake for the rest of the trip, praying all the way.
• On the way into Jackson Mississippi, an ambulance with sirens on was behind us. Bus driver moved over to right lane, let ambulance pass, and immediately moved right back over to suck the wheels of the ambulance. Cyclists would appreciate how smooth that pacelining maneuver was. We were passing EVERYONE on the interstate. A Greyhound bus tailgating an ambulance, can you picture that in your mind? I prayed even harder.
• Fortunately, the bus just couldn't keep up and the ambulance finally dropped us. Whew!
• They changed drivers at Jackson. I was happy to be rid of the sleepy crazy speeding driver. Unfortunately the second driver didn't show up for 2 hours! At least I hope he had plenty of sleep.

The rest of the trip was fairly uneventful. I arrived 2 hours behind schedule, safe and sound, with all my luggage. What a crazy beginning to my trip!

I want to thank my adopted family in Atlanta for staying with me at the bus station, helping me navigate through all the madness. If I were there by myself, I would have freaked out for sure.

I'm now comfortably settled in the Mercy Ships campus, meeting a lot of interesting people, and enjoying my training.

Mission, Baking, Liberia, Ship

I'll be going on a mission trip, baking on a floating hospital in Liberia!

Mercy Ships is a Christian medical charity that runs the world's largest civilian hospital ship and offers free medical operations to people in 3rd world countries. They'll be in Liberia, West Africa, in 2008, following the example of Jesus in bringing hope and healing to the forgotten poor. I will be serving as the baker on board, baking bread and making desserts for the crew of almost 500.

I am extremely excited about this opportunity. I feel clearly this is the direction God is leading me. I am privileged to be able to use my passion and skills to serve others and to glorify God.

Please keep me in your prayers. Please pray that I will continue to strengthen my faith and trust in God, that I will obey Him and continue to do His will. Please also pray for my health and safety while travelling and in Africa.

I am amazed at what God has done in my life in the past year, and I am excited to see what He has in store for me this year as I serve in Africa.

Stay tuned!