2 ½ months onboard the Africa
Mercy is not nearly enough to satisfy a heart craving to see hundreds of
lives changed and hearts renewed. But it
does serve to quench the thirst a bit. It
was hard for me to leave when so many of the patients I was caring for were
still in the midst of healing. I hated
knowing that I wouldn’t be there to see their skin grafts all healed and the
function that they would gain from their newly changed limb or face. But I knew that I was leaving them in very
skilled and qualified hands who would update me on the outcomes! All this said, it really wasn’t too difficult
to leave the ship because I was so excited for what was coming ahead!
5 days before Dogara and I left Guinea on our way to Sierra
Leone and Nigeria, we had a nice night out in celebration of his last day
working on the ship. Over the past few
weeks, we were both very feeling very tired of our time in Guinea; tired of the
political difficulties in Guinea, tired of long work days, and tired of him
living off the ship and me on the ship.
So celebrating his last day of work was a nice sigh of relief. We dressed up nice and went for a drink at an
open air- ocean side garden restaurant called Fugu-Fugu-Faga-Faga. Great
name, huh?! It was a nice and relaxing
place to sit and talk and debrief our time in Guinea and look forward to our
trips to Sierra Leone and Nigeria. After
enjoying the warm breeze and each other’s company, it was time to start heading
back to the ship. We walked along the
ocean until we came to a soccer field that sat on the ocean. We had never been there before, so we decided
to go in and explore. Dogara’s roommate was
also with us at the time, walking around snapping picture, trying out his new
camera. After a few minutes, we stood at
the side of the field by the ocean, and Dogara suddenly started talking real
serious and saying extremely nice things about me and our relationship... I was
starting to wonder if he was feeling alright.
Then I realized what was happening—in this perfect place, with this
perfect man—was about to be a perfect moment that I would never forget. I soaked in every detail of the moment as he
got down on 1 knee and asked me that fateful question, “will you marry me?” “Yes, of course!” was my ecstatic response as
his roommate started snapping shots left and right!
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| Me at the soccer field pre-proposal |
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| wondering why he is talking so serious... |
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| The moment of truth |
It was that beautiful moment that every girl looks forward
to and I couldn’t have asked for a better story to tell. We had discussed our relationship and future extensively
over the few months before this, and God had made it very clear to us that
marriage was the next step, so I had been anxiously hoping and waiting for this
moment, and couldn’t have planned for a better time. I asked
him later if he was nervous, and he said no, nothing could make him nervous again
after having the “discussion” with my dad on the phone!
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| post-proposal |
5 days later we left for Sierra Leone to visit some of my
old friends and favorite places. After 1
week there we flew to Nigeria to spend a month with his family and friends
celebrating the Big News with all of them, and on June 1st I will be
flying home to celebrate with all of YOU!
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| early morning departure from ship |
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| Enjoying our friends wedding in Sierra Leone |
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| visiting with old friends in Sierra Leone |
I have some serious prayer requests this time that I earnestly
ask you all to help me with:
- - We have applied for a fiancé visa so that we can
get married in the US. It’s not easy for
West African’s to get visas to the States, but we are confident that our
relationship is designed and encouraged by God and by His grace we will get the
visa! We ask for your prayers in this,
especially for a speedy process!
- - Also pray for wedding plans to come together
smoothly, as there is a lot of unknown as to when we will get the visa, and
once it is granted we have 3 months to get married!
- Last but not least, pray for our relationship-
that we will not get bogged down with concerns about the visa process and all
the logistics of the situation, but that we can continue to grow and remember why
we are doing all of this!
