While in Benin on our Gateway field service portion of our training, i was telling my roommate what my favorite verse is, it's Psalms 45:11 "the King is enthralled in your beauty; Honor him for he is your lord." I then read the previous verse 45:10 which im sure i have read before but never understood it this way before. it say's "Listen, O daughter, consider and give ear Forget your people and your father's house." When i read that i thought WOW is God telling me what i think he is telling me. and i may be taking this verse out of context but this is one of the ways God spoke to me. Those of you who know me know my family is very important to me and i missssssssssss them so much!! The idea of forgetting my father's house and my people makes my stomach hurt like really really hurt, i love my friends and family so much. At that moment i couldn't imagine God was asking me to forget something i love so much. So in my stubborn human nature i decided that i needed to be sensible and make sure that i really like the ship before i made any "rash decisions".
I got to the ship the last week of February and was so over whelmed by ship life, my job, and the culture here everything was so different i didn't know act. I didn't know what to do or who to do it with. It took weeks, lots of tears, tons of talking though it, annoying my roommates and finally a chat with the Chaplin for me to finally feel some peace about living here.The entire time i was struggling i knew that God was teaching me something, i knew that it was his plan for me to be here and that was the only thing that kept me from going home. I never stopped praying for God's will for my life to be evident but the idea of staying longer was not in mind i wanted to serve my time and go home to see what God had for me. Its been more than a month since i first felt that peace about being here. since then living here has gotten much better, my work atmosphere has been much more relaxed, things are running smoothly and i have a nice group of friends that i can count on.
This past Thursday as i was riding to work at 645 am the car ride was very quite, so i started to pray and ask God to protect us as we drove to work, to protect our employees, to heal all the patients that we were going to see and then the idea of extending popped into my head and i started praying my life is not own, a saying i got from my friend cyle, i started asking what were my reasons for wanting to go home were they valid? selfish? Godly? As we arrived at the hospitality center and my day began i continued praying i felt an over whelming amount of God's presence, i was finally at peace with the idea of extending my one year of service here to two years of service. I wasn't prepared to share my news with anyone just yet, i wanted to savor my moment with God. : ) Later that after noon i gave a tour of the Eye rooms at the Hospitality center and i was given Confirmation that i was making the correct decision. After Thursday there would be no possible way for me to think i was supposed to go home now. I am so thankful for God and how he prepares us for every part of our life. Please continue to pray for me as i continue on this journey.
Since i have decided to extend i will need to begin raising support again i am certain that God will provide exactly what i need. If you would like to help me continue doing God's work you can do so in two ways first and most importantly though prayer and second financially you can follow this link :https://connect.mercyships.org/page/outreach/view/crewmates/hickes
Thank you so much your love, prayer and support!
Apparently there is some confusion and some people think i live in a straw hut haha I live on board the Africa Mercy, a ship not a straw hut! hahah love you!!
Linda, Dulce and I
this funny little bike/car i saw driving down the road
some pictures of around Lome', Togo
traffic jam
"In January while in Gateway someone said something about people working for mercy ships for a time and then leaving where as in a paid environment you would work somewhere until you felt God was telling you to leave, Why is working with mercy ships different?"
ReplyDeleteIts not...you should work there as long as God is telling you to stay.
Usually Mercy Ships helps with that decision because most jobs are for a limited period of time, and/or are filled by availability of persons assigned by MS Human Resources, but even then God will make a way if he wants you to stay for a longer period of time, or even change positions while being with Mercy Ships.
Of course if you can't raise support to do it, that is a good indicator to re-assess what God is calling you to do...because God would not call a person to do something that he would not provide for.
I agree with you, the job --whether paid or unpaid-- can end based upon the job not being available any longer (lay-offs, getting fired, getting asked to leave, commitment being fulfilled, feeling God call you to something else), or God calling you to stay in that position longer. What does getting paid got to do with it?