One of the amazing thrusts of this ministry is our medical component: seeing people healed through our surgeries and optometry programs is a sight to see indeed! But three days ago an awesome miracle happened that was just the ‘shot in the arm’ we needed and gave us a glimpse of what we should expect to see out on the field. 

One of our Discipleship Training School students (Naomi) has since childhood suffered a debilitating problem with her eyes. 

She was blind at birth and through the prayers of her mother received sight again, though her right eye was never fully restored. It always tended to be lazy and move toward her nose making her appear cross-eyed, and impaired her depth perception as a result.

She received countless surgeries and it seemed there was a lost cause that her eye would ever be restored. That was until her classmates (DTS students and staff) along with our crew prayed for her just three days prior to sailing from Tauranga. 
Needless to say there was quite a commotion throughout the ship as students and staff came out shouting and screaming to see the miraculous transformation - right before their very eyes. 

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The West-Africa team have just finished their time on outreach and will be arriving back in the U.K. this week for debriefing. Out in western Guinea-Bissau, with no access to the internet, they have only now been able to send a report of their time with Mercy Trucks.

Just before noon on Saturday, February 8^th, representatives from the Guinea-Bissau customs office arrived. Roy broke the seal on the lock and we began unloading the truck. Several people who live and work on the YWAM base volunteered to help. Roy brought medical supplies, hospital beds, dental equipment, tools and building materials to convert Mercy Trucks into mobile medical units. He also brought much needed items for the base, special scientific equipment for a school and several computers for the Jocum school here in Gabu.

One of the YWAM leaders referred to Roy as Santa Claus. He did bring much joy that day and was bearing many gifts, although he was just missing the white hair and beard – but after a few days of spray painting the trucks white, he was looking more like Mr. Claus than ever. His helpers, the elves (aka “the TIA outreach team”) were getting tanned from relentless days of working in the hot African sun. We would start at 8:30am working ’til 12:30pm when the lunch bell would ring and then we’d take a siesta to 3:00pm. It’s just too miserably hot and humid to work during that time. From 3pm to 6:30pm we’d start again - cleaning, sanding, painting, and various other duties. We’d work until the sun went down and dinner was waiting for us. This is how our days were spent for nearly three weeks.

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Wow, it’s hard to believe we’re already half-way through February and only have three weeks of outreach left! We’ve had a fantastic time of meeting a lot of different people here in Palestine and Israel, and working with several different projects. The people here are incredibly warm and hospitable and we’ve shared many cups of tea, coffee and meals with them while we listen to what life is like in this part of the world. Life is very difficult, opportunities to travel and work are limited by the occupation. Despite this the people hold onto their hope,their commitment to their families and their land, and young people in particular to their dreams of what they would like to do one day. This is something that has touched us deeply and challenged us in our perspectives of life and how we value relationships. One of our favourite opportunities has been to work for several days in a nearby village, helping to paint in two of their schools. More than painting, it was a great time to work alongside children, teenagers and adults from this village to support them, to hear more about their lives and to play football in between times! The people in this village have a particularly difficult daily situation to live with, but they too fed us too well and made us feel really welcome! It is easy to wonder what can be done to really help this situation and to wonder if it will ever improve, but on the other hand to see how people value what they do have is a good reminder for us to also be thankful for what we do have and not focus so much on the little that we don’t. If we can come away from this time haven’t learned to have that perspective, we will have learned a valuable lesson!
These are our last days in Bethlehem. We are visiting some more local projects, like the House of Hope, a home and school for children with disabilities, and we are making time to visit the friends we have made and say goodbye to them. It’s been fun to have a variety of different things to get involved with, to find out what is happening here and to learn more about how life is. It has also been great to return again to some projects and places to make friends with people we’ve met and worked with. We have been able to give a lot of work, but we’ve learned and received a lot in return!!

Monday, January 28th, for our day off we jumped in a taxi and headed out for the Western most part of Africa. Our driver could not understand our broken French and English, so he took us to the wrong location. We made the most out of the experience and explored the area he took us to. We ended up taking a native boat to a nearby island. We spent the day there combing the beach, watching surfers, and climbing the cliffs. At dusk we headed home for dinner and a movie.

Tuesday we spent the morning playing with the Talibe children and in the afternoon Meg and Makayla volunteered at the medical clinic helping in the nutrition center. Wednesday we attended the weekly prayer meeting. This week it was held at the Tissing’s home.

Friday Alex, Matt, Jon Paul, and Christiane went to Dakar Academy to cheer for Jonathan and Deborah as they completed in their annual school Olympics. Meg and Makayla were invited back to the medical center to sit in on consultations and operations for severe burn victims and other serious injuries. They viewed sights that would make most people sick to their stomach and others faint. That night the youth group came over and we had a huge sleepover at the community center. We played video games and watched movies until the wee hours of the morning.

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