"4.5 months is a long time!"

"4.5 months is a long time!"
- Liz Chevassus / Yesterday

"Poseidon's Bane"
By Liz Chevassus

Certainly volunteers stay on-board even longer... most of our friends Africa Mercy are serving for +2 years. It's a tough environment.  By no means is Mercy Ships a cruise liner, nor do they choose destinations based upon how nice the beaches are.  The local people in Sierra Leone are even tougher.  Ask an Africa Mercy surgeon about the Sierra Leone women's posture, and he’ll respond with, "It's very difficult to position them in surgery."  That's because everything is carried on their heads, whether it's a purse or a motorcycle engine, and their neck muscles are overly developed.  And they start when they're 4 years old.

Living in an environment such as this can make one callous towards life.  If you were a Salone and had both your hands chopped off at 15 years old, how would you respond?  With bitterness or grace?  Actually the answer is the latter; a whole lot of grace. Bambay (“Bomb-bay”) is a man, about Beau’s age, who had his hands amputated by rebels who were high on gunpowder and blood.  And yet still, as Beau stood across from him with a camera, Bambay enthusiastically waved his arms in the air, speaking excitedly how God has sent “you,” Mercy Ships, to teach him how to farm.  “We used to slash and burn our fields. We would work like elephants and eat like ants.  But through Biblical principles, we learn to care for God’s land.” The man has unstoppable forgiveness in his heart, and a grace that only Christ can infuse.

Apart from 1,000s of surgeries and operations, this is what Mercy Ships does.  We didn’t know about these programs before coming to Sierra Leone. Did you know that Mercy Ships teaches Biblical agricultural skills (Food for Life), they hire hundreds of local workers to equip them with desirable work experience, they train local doctors, they show the Jesus Film to 1,000s of people, they establish orphanages for street kids (Mercy Children), and heck of a lot more?  Nor did we.  But that’s why Beau films what he films… to broadcast these things.  And that’s why Liz does what she does… to keep the Jesus example going. 

"Boy with his Catch"
By Beau Chevassus

Now, and we’ll attempt not to sound too cheesy here, but it’s the truth, and it has to be said: We’re not the ones doing these things.  It’s you.  His people.  Christ has equipped people like us, and our friends on-board, through you.

For Beau, one of the biggest lessons I’ve learned (and I’ve learned a lot while being here), is the importance of giving.  It’s not ours—our time, our possessions, and even our health—so why cling so fervently to it?  Certainly we are to be good stewards, God wants us to be wise with what He’s given us, but never to the degree of making us worry or making them our number one priority.  After all… these possessions are technically not ours.  Be good stewards, but when it comes down to brass buttons (wrong expression, I know) give it away!

We have a deep respect for those who do crazy stuff like this for Jesus, and those who support those crazies.  We only wish we could offer more.  We will be finishing our work here in two weeks, and we're looking forward to rest, family, friends, and pie (pie first!).  We’ll talk to you all soon.

-Beau & Liz Chevassus

"The Fisherman's Crew" By Beau Chevassus