Reality instead of masquerade

Welcome back !

Thank you for your interest in our lives and our experiences here in Benin, and through your friendship and support you really are part of it!

A lot has happened since we arrived here in Cotonou not too long ago - I will concentrate on some of the events .... and you can look forward to the next update in a week!


We heard that some of you experienced carneval in one way or the other - but I bet none of you saw anything like this! You can be sure - this is no masquerade, this is the sad reality of many in Westafrica! And one of the reasons why we are here....

On the 19th and 20th of February we had the so-called SCREENING DAYS in a big stadium - with approx. 5000 people from near and far coming, hoping for help for problems that could either not be treated here or even if, being absolutely unaffordable for them.


People stood in line for hours and hours, waiting for the doors to open and holding on to the hope for help. The Advance team has made this screening known for many months - through newspapers, media, churches, governmental means and personal relationships.



Even though we were warned to expect unrest and chaos, we experienced an amazingly peaceful and controlled crowd - we know that many prayed for these critical and very intense days... thanks!!!


We also felt the support through prayer - for it is an undescribable task to listen to all these (often so tragic) stories and find the people suitable for surgery on the ship and also having to say no to the ones we cannot help.... here some of the many many impressions we got:










Most of the people shown above received an appointment card for surgery on board of the Africa Mercy and will receive help free of charge.


Wolfgang saw many of the accepted patients for surgery for the medical check - seeing if a surgery can be performed healthwise.


Even though he had a translator he started to enjoy practicing his french... But often people spoke only their tribal language - the most common one is Fon - and you can learn one word here that you hear on the street so much that even Amy and David know it: YOVO! (White person!)


Once again the donated portable ultrasoundmachine was a huge help and blessing for diagnostics.

One of the many many patients Wolfgang saw was little 3 year old FALILA - in a very bad state with big (malign) tumor disfiguring her cute little face. Soon the diagnosis was made that this was a Burkitt´s lymphoma - a very fast growing lymphoma that is doubling the cells in 2 days. This is the only malign (in German: bösartiger) tumor that the ship can get involved with for it is very receptive to special chemotherapy.


Wolfgang and another doctor organized it for this girl to be taken to a local hospital and the ship provided the chemotherapy. When we accompanied Wolfgang 4 days later to look after her at this hospital she was looking completey different! The disfiguring tumor....


.... was almost gone! She still has a long road to go with some more cycles of chemotherapy needed after some weeks - but there is actually hope for complete cure! Without chemo and medical treatment this girl would have died within the coming days...

Back to Screening!


I helped with the orthopedic screening and it was always a joyful moment when we were able to tell someone that yes, we can help on the ship.


For example this guy had a broken metal plate sticking out of his leg - an infected wound creating excrutiating pain - but he doesn´t have the money to afford going to a hospital!


This is a man who was hiding his left hand under his shirt - and soon we found out why! These two enormous fingers caused the people of his village to believe that he is cursed by an evil spirit and they were avoiding him - he was an outcast with no hope. He will now get these two fingers amputated and can still fully use the other three - and no one will cast him out because they think he is cursed!


But there were the hard moments also of having to say no to people - one of the toughest things I ever experienced. This little baby boy was born with a missing lower leg on the right - the foot was coming out of the shortened upper leg, and there is nothing we can do. The mother started crying and we all suffered with her pain. I felt prompted to tell her that nevertheless her child is very valuable and special and that she should teach him that. I told her of Nick, the about 21 year old from NZL who came to the ship in Liberia last year - he was born without limps, no arms or legs! (www.lifewithoutlimbs.org) He was so miserable about it that he committed suicide as a child -but finally embraced the message that his parents had passed on to him: that he is loved and very valuable in God´s eyes! Now he travels around the world with a powerful message about the only real and deep acceptance we can find - and that is in God!


Every person who had to be sent home without being accepted for surgery got offered prayer. Many people are muslims here or are involved in Woodoo or other tribal religions, so even though prayer was just an offer and not part of the screening routines, we were surprised how thankful people accepted the offer and allowed us to pray for them or even with them. And God is the one who can heal the person from inside - no surgery can do that!


It was amazing to see at least two third of the about 380 crew members be involved with the screening in all kinds of ways but still supporting the same thing (just like the work on the ship functions!- medical people of course, but also non-medical in security (like Wolfgang´s brother Klaus), escorting, handing out water, communications, driving, prayer/counselling.....



.....and playing with the kids that had to wait for hours!
They loved the attention and care and the fun! They loved balls...


.... even though some still have to learn how to kick one!

Last year the main screening day was on the 18th of February, directly on Wolfgang´s birthday! On exact that day he was so sick with a flu and temperature - but he was so much needed at Screening that he had to drag himself there and survive one of the toughest birthdays of his life.

This year it was different:


We had time to congratulate him - David wrote his first selfwritten birthday card,....



....... and Klaus taught me how to bake real German "Zopf" for Wolfgang (and how to improvise a little bit with the ingredients....)

And who would appreciate this delicacy more than the Germanspeaking crew on board? So we invited the Germanspeaking people (Swiss / German / Austrian) to us into our new cabin....


.... and celebrated Wolfgang´s birthday with over 20 people in our cabin! Just good that not all the Germanspeaking crew was able to come - otherwise we would have had to sit on top of each other!


David and Amy were not able to join the fun for it was time for bed...
... but don´t worry, they have alot of fun, too!
Let me show you our two cute "energy-balls! All dressed up, but also not for carneval...


.... but for the International dress up day from the School! All students were asked to come dressed up with something typical for their country - and with us here on the ship representing about 39 nations the kids alone showed a pretty colorful picture!


This is David´s class - just 4 students in his grade of so-called Kindergarten (equals first grade in Germany) and just these 4 kids represent 5 different nations: USA, Canada, Denmark/Sweden and Germany! (Be glad this picture of David exists - he actually hated his "Lederhosen"!)


So much for now - be blessed and till next week!

Good byes and Hellos!

Hello everyone! Warmest - or shall I say hottest? - greetings from us being in Benin now!

It has been way too long since you heard from us - I really apologize and thank you who faithfully show interest for what is going on in our lives. With our last two months being very busy I postponed writing too long - but no more!!!!

I will start to write one short summary about each week now for you with the most current pictures - so you can stay updated and be part of our time here in Africa as much as possible! So checking out our blog will become rewarding again!!!!



As I was thinking about all that has happened in the last months and about giving it a fitting title, I came up with GOOD BYE and HELLO ( Auf Wiedersehen und hallo) - I think you will soon know what I mean!

Good bye Liberia! At the end of December 08 all the patients were able to go (which was a huge answer to prayer!), everything got packed and secured away, lots of hard good byes had to be said (after 1,5 years many good relationships had formed!), and in the end the gangway was lifted and we left our "home country" for the last 1,5 years - not knowing if we will come back one day...

....and hello sail! Let me tell you, it was a rough one! Not like here on this picture! 6 days of stormy sea - a lot of seasickness and me (Andrea) without Wolfgang to help me with the kids (who weren´t seasick at all and FULL of energy!) for he had to fly home to Germany already from Liberia to sort out some important things workwise.

Hello Christmas season! One thing that we got to experience on the sail was the pre-christmas time (quite untypical for us Germans in shorts and T-shirts as you see on the picture) with decorating doors, crafts night, a special winterwonderland , baking together ... and most of all talking and reflecting on the reason why we celebrate Christmas - the greatest gift of all that God made us through Jesus!


... and good bye to unreal hope for snow! This was one of the beautiful door decorations here on the ship (with Amy´s friend Nathanael hoping for snow in vain).....



.... for we got to enjoy the "real stuff"! No, it didn´t snow in Africa (you would have heard that on the news for sure!) and neither in Tenerife. Because of the important things Wolfgang had to sort out at home we decided to fly home from Tenerife where the ship was maintained and prepared for the next outreach and be home over Christmas. And even though that was not what we would have planned this time or even chosen we can truly say that God used this change of plans to really bless us (let alone finding airfares for 49 Euros including tax!)


Hello Munich! We were able to stay with my parents and are very thankful for a really good time, including Christmas - the kids absolutely loved it at Grandma´s and Grandpa´s! Why do I only mention them? Well, Wolfgang was very sick in bed over Christmas (not used to German germs anymore... :-)) ... and I was not there! Two friends of mine blessed me with an incredible gift:


flying with them to New York (hello NYC! - and doing it over Christmas was the cheapest time!) - a week "just me" (all moms will understand how great that alone is) together with two great girls!
Someone from Mercyships who lives in Boston blessed us with free accomodation and spoiled us rotten! (Thanks Luxanne!!!)


Hello rest! After Wolfgang worked for a few weeks at the private practice in Munich as part of working on his medical status him and I were able to take some time of rest including a really good debriefing for missionaries ...



....while our kids were spoiled and loved by their wonderful grandparents!
Too fast came the time for them though to say good bye to Oma and Opa and my brothers Thomas and Markus as well as many wonderful people again, but Amy also missed our cabin, the only place she remembers as our home!


Hello again Tenerife! After our time in Germany we had 4 days in Tenerife before the ship sailed away to our new outreach destination Benin.
Right from the airport we got "kidnapped" by a wonderful family living in Tenerife and were shown great Spanish hospitality!



School started again while we were still in Tenerife...
but David´s class started with doing lots of fun stuff while they still could enjoy them....



...like icecream in Santa Cruz Burger King! (The faces speak for themselves...smile!)



Hello to "old" and new people on the ship! While we were gone almost half the crew on board had changed .... as you see is saying good bye and hello something that is part of our whole time with mercyships! Here Amy and all of us are excited that our good friend Barbara from Munich is on board for 6 months...


.. and hello to Uncle Klaus!!!! We are excited that Wolfgang´s brother Klaus also joined the ship and is working in carpentry for two months. As you can see he is almost an African already! (smile) All the Africans on board think Wolfgang and him look sooooo alike and call Klaus "Hello doctor!"


During the sail we were busy getting our old cabin to this state - being offered a slightly bigger cabin to move to and using this chance to declutter and get rid of things that have accumulated and say good bye to cabin 6224...


... working hard to clean it thoroughly....


.... even using kids labour (Kinderarbeit!) - but don´t worry about exploitation - they got as much pay as we grown ups get here on the ship ...smile (what is nothing!)....


..... and saying hello to our new cabin 5222! We really enjoy our new home here on the ship and invite you to come over for a cup of tea or coffee!


Moving to this new cabin though meant a price to pay: For weeks we prepared Amy that once we move down she will sleep in a big bed (not her travel cot anymore) and then she is big enough to not need a pacifier (Schnuller in German) anymore! We decided to donate it to the poor little fish during the sail who would be so happy to play with it! We wrapped a nice colourful band around it, asked the captain for permission (for it is not allowed to throw things into the water to avoid false man-over-bord-alarm).....


... and celebrated this significant event in Amy´s life with a party on the bow! Amy was very brave and threw her beloved pacifier into the ocean, and believe it or not: fell asleep at night without even crying! (so why did we wait so long????)
But nothing seems to come without a price to pay - immediately with that she stopped her after-lunch-nap (Mittagsschlaf) - another reason why you haven´t heard so much from us latety.... I miss that time!


But maybe out there we made some wales happy with a little pink pacifier.... they for sure made us happy when we got to see them!



And it got even better! Hello dolfins!!!! What a priviledge to see such beautiful sealife in free nature! Not only the kids were so excited!


But even the smoothest sail can be long - even "pepped up" with a few firedrills etc.... we were ready to say good bye to sailing!
The plan was to arrive after 9 days but one hour before the shore our main engine (Hauptmotor) had severe problems, so we had to anchor and couldn´t go in. It really brought us together to pray - for protection (Benin is the capital of the Woodoo cult!), for the whole coming outreach, our unity on the ship with almost 40 different nationalities and many differences, for the people we will meet and want to help. We realized the importance of the bible verse in Psalms 127;1: Unless the Lord builds the house, its builders labour in vain. Unless the Lord watches over the city, the watchmen stand guard in vain....". We really need God´s help for everything we do in Benin!


The motor could be fixed, and one day later we were able to say hello Cotonou harbour!
Or better: Bonjour Cotonou! It was a very exciting moment!


Hello to our new dock - quite a busy workplace and not very secure for children.
But it is easier and safer to walk around in the city than it was in Liberia, so here some first impressions of Cotonou:


This is a typical view from the port - the houses are simple -, but not so destructed and burned down like in Monrovia through the terrible war.


People are very poor, but you can tell right away the difference not having had war in this country!


Hello to crazy traffic! These motorbikes are called "Jimmy Jean" and are EVERYWHERE! You will not miss them - just be careful to be missed by them yourself!



Another typical African impression - can you imagine all this trash and the smell it develops when it is 112 degrees Fahrenheit (40 degrees celsius) ? Better not....



The heat comes from this round hot thing here - that blessed us with the most beautiful sunsets on the sail! It is amazing to watch it and be reminded of God´s promise that his goodness (Güte) and grace is with us every day in a new way!


I want to close this post with a sign I saw in New York that says something we want to do during these next challenging but also exciting weeks and months here in Benin - and we like you to be part of it!

Thanks so much for all support and interest! Good bye and Au revoir - till next week!!!!