Here are just a few stories of hope and healing

John David
John David is a clan chief for a village in the remote south-eastern corner of Liberia.  Chief David proudly notes there are exactly 110 houses in his community.  Most of his neighbors earn a living by working on a nearby rubber plantation.
In 2002 a tumor began to form under the left side of his jaw.  Over the next five years it grew to the size of a baseball.  “I never had anything like this before.  I was so surprised to look in the mirror and see this thing getting bigger and bigger,” Chief David recalls.  “It made me ashamed to be seen in public, but as a clan chief I had to speak to the people, to meet them.”
The surgery was so successful it’s difficult to tell he even had a tumor.  “Oh!  My body is shining!” he now exclaims, using a Liberian expression for good health.  “I look like a young man again   I’m shiny all over.  I’m feeling no bad!”

Baby Sah
 “They said don’t go,” Bendu laughs. “My village really believed that the Mercy Ships people would take out my daughter’s eyes and sail away with us as slaves.” Comfortably perched on Bendu’s lap, Baby Sah is surrounded by a cluster of intrigued family and friends.
“My daughter had the cataract removed first on her left eye and now on her right. After each patch was removed she could see small, small. She was blind and is deaf but now she can see objects in front of her.”
Mother and daughter sit surrounded by the people who discouraged her from going to the ship. Baby Sah’s eyesight will never be perfect, but those same people are now murmuring praises to God.

Suah
Suah is beautiful, truly stunning.  Her face is radiant.  Her deep, dark brown eyes seem to emit their own warmth.  As she tells her story it is impossible to imagine the pain she has lived through.
“All my life people have rejected me,” Suah says. “I lost my eye when I was two.  Every day people have poked fun at me.”
Then, out of the blue, a doctor from her church called with some amazing news.  Mercy Ships was in Liberia providing free medical treatment, including ophthalmic surgery and the fitting of prosthetic eyes.  That was over five months ago.
Looking back now, Suah laughs.  She clearly remembers the first time she saw the prosthetic eyes.  They looked so real and yet they looked so strange.  A drawer full of eyes!
“Now people look at me and can’t even tell which eye is prosthetic,” Suah’s smile grows. “The ophthalmic nurse took so much care in choosing an exact match.  It’s a miracle!”

Cyrus

When Mercy Ships came into contact with Cyrus and his parents, the boy was unable to hold up his head … a gruesome tumour protruded from the baby’s neck. At only 18 months old the situation was traumatic.   Cyrus’ mother explains, says they just prayed that God would intervene in some way. 
The news of a Mercy Ship coming to Liberia was their answer to prayer. The whole family was ecstatic, surgery was possible.  Bumping and rattling over the dirt roads, huge potholes and torrential rain added to the discomfort of the journey. But almost five hours squashed into a car did nothing to reduce their excitement.
Today, the pictures speak better than any words.  The transformation is immense. After not even being able to hold his own head up, Cyrus is now crawling around. Reaching the side of the hospital bed, Cyrus grasps hold and wobbling, attempts to pull himself up onto his feet. His little face is intent with determination, his mom bursts out laughing.
With tears in her eyes she considers the huge change that has taken place in her son’s life. After all the family have been through her little boy now has a future.   “Praise God!” she exclaims, “Praise God! Praise God!”

Joy
Joy Harris went to the dentist.  That may sound like a fairly routine, even mundane, experience . . . unless you happen to live in Africa.
Joy is 42 and lives in Monrovia, capital of Liberia.  The visit was only the second time she’s ever seen a dentist.  Her parents took her to have a bad tooth pulled when she was a child.  It’s not a happy memory.  She probably wouldn’t have come at all if it hadn’t been for the intense pain and swelling.
Unfortunately, there are only three dentists in all of Liberia.  Joy’s boss mentioned a Mercy Ship was in port and had dentists working out of nearby community clinic, providing free treatment The team noticed Joy’s swollen face right away and moved her to the front of the line.  In addition to the pain, Joy was also worried it might be a wisdom tooth causing the pain.  African folk wisdom insists that pulling one of the back teeth will cause insanity or even death. She was just one of 40 Liberians treated by the Mercy Ships dental team that day.  Even with the potentially dangerous infection, hers was a fairly routine case.  But for Africans like Joy Harris, receiving quality dental care is anything but routine

 Tamba
“Throw the child away, it’s not worth keeping!  How will you ever afford medical care or even begin to look after it?”
Finela tries to cover her ears, each word piercing her heart.  Gazing at her husband, Ishaka, their eyes begin to fill with tears.  Their hearts overflow with compassion.  This is their newborn baby boy, Tamba.  The tumor protruding from the forehead is gruesome, one huge mass.  Little Tamba is a sight to behold, yet he is still a gift from God.
About to give up, Ishaka hears of a Mercy Ships clinic in Freetown.  Surgery was not possible in Sierra Leone but the people at the clinic spoke of a hospital ship in Liberia.  “And the most incredible news of all …” laughs Ishaka, “surgery provided by Mercy Ships is free.  Never in our life had we heard of free medical care.  This was a
“From Sierra Leone to Liberia, I have met people who really love and really care,” laughs Ishaka.  “Now I truly know there is a God who cares for me and my family.”  

Ishmael
When Ishmeal was born in Central Ghana, he was chubby and healthy but that was where the good news ended.  He was born with a severely cleft lip and palate.   In Africa, birth defects are often viewed as punishment from angry spirit ancestors or the result of witchcraft.  Ishmael’s father was so horrified by the child’s appearance he abandoned his wife and six children.
To add to his problems Ishmeal was injured in a roof collapse, leaving him with a nasty scar on the forehead, causing more people to notice him and stare.  Years later Ishmeal has now had surgery, and it went well.  Surgeons serving with Mercy Ships were also able to clean up the scar on his forehead, making it less noticeable.  His mother is grateful to Mercy Ships for providing free surgery and giving her son a second chance at life.

Kumba
Kumba lives in Guinea.  She had given birth eight times but only one child survived.  Every birth was so difficult.  Constantly leaking; the smell, the embarrassment, the shame; Kumba relays the last 14 years in graphic detail.
As civil war raged in neighboring Liberia, Kumba and her husband opened their house to Liberian refugees.  Years later it was these refugees, since returning home, who told her of a Mercy Ship docked in the Liberian capital.  After a three-day journey to Monrovia, she was scheduled for free surgery to repair the obstetric fistula.
Following surgery and recovery, now dressed in a glorious blue outfit to symbolize a new start to life, Kumba was the picture of health and happiness. 

Tenneh
Tenneh was a toddler the day in 1994 when rebel soldiers stormed into her family’s compound in a jungle clearing.  She was strapped to her mother’s back in the African fashion when the shooting started.  As they tried to flee, a hail of bullets hit mother and child, and Tenneh’s mother died with the baby still strapped to her back.
Tenneh was also hit by the bullets, one passing through her shoulder and another lodging in her left thigh.  Now 15 years old, Tenneh saw a doctor who could not help, but referred her to Mercy Ships.  X-rays revealed the cause of the leg pain, a bullet lodged against the femur in the left thigh.  Surgeons removed the bullet, but infection had seeped into the bone at both wound sites.  Chronic osteomyelitis apparently migrated from the gunshot wounds and settled in a rib.  Surgeons removed dead and damaged tissue at all three sites, and a round of antibiotics took care of the rest.
Tenneh says she is now free of pain and is happy about that.  But looking into her troubled eyes it is easy to see that a deeper, more personal pain remains.  The wounds of war, it seems, are not easily healed.

Benedict
Benedict suffered a birth defect, and the boy’s feet turned so far inwards that the toes were facing each other.  His feet also rolled forward, leaving the soles facing upward.
Now nine, Benedict learned to walk on the curled-under tops of his feet.
An operation to correct his left foot was completed without complication onboard the Mercy Ship in Liberia.  He is now working with Mercy Ships physical therapists learning how to walk on his newly corrected left foot … a slow and painful process.
He will have to travel next year to neighbouring Sierra Leone, the ship’s next port of call.  Then he will have the right foot straightened and the process of learning to walk will begin all over again.

Suah
Suah arrived for her surgery onboard the Africa Mercy.  She feared for her life, but left the ship dancing, singing and praising God.
She doesn’t know how old she is, but family members believe she is in her nineties, with nine children, and more grandchildren and great-grandchildren than she can count.
Three years ago, cataracts stole the last of Suah’s sight, and the loss was devastating for such a proud, active woman.  Her family shared with Suah what they thought would be welcome news – a floating hospital ship was in port offering free eye examinations and surgeries.  Far from being happy about the news, Suah was frightened.
The day after the operation, Suah returned for her first post-operative examination.  She has few teeth left, but her smile was big and bright