Missions of Charity

Mercy Ministries on the ship is a department that works with different mission organizations in the visiting country - orphanages, hospital, prisons, youth centers, blind/deaf centers, etc. The sisters from Missions of Charity have a HIV/AIDS hospice/respite home in Kpalime for poor people diagnosed with AIDS without the means to provide for their health care & other needs. I have been working with the group involved with the Sisters. We visit them once or twice a month sharing Bible stories, discussions, singing, crafts, etc. The patients are mostly women, some men, & some children (approx 30-40 people).

The sisters are amazing women who commit their whole lives to serving Christ through ministering to the poor. The sisters, 5 present at this mission now, are great women who have such a heart for the ministry they're called to do. It's interesting to learn about the life of a sister. It takes 11 years for a sister to be trained/discipled/mentored. During this time period they can decide whether or not to marry. Before the 11 years are up, it's okay to decide to marry. If a sister decides to marry after 11 years, she is considered married to Christ and is then divorcing Him.

The sisters are assigned to a ministry and can stay many years. The only possesions the sisters have is contained to one bag...so when moving from to the next there is no need for shipping containers. They follow a very precise schedule of getting up early in the AM for prayers, eating, working, resting, and more prayers - how sacrificial! I can't wrap my mind around that lifestyle, it's such a different world! One sister was talking about the earthquake in Haiti...all the buildings around the Sisters mission were destroyed, but the mission building was the only building unharmed - how neat to hear of God's protection over them!

In discussion with the patients at the hospice, it's so interesting to hear their stories. Many times the HIV/AIDS and VVF patients are viewed as the modern day leper and deserted by their family members after hearing of the illness. One lady said when her family learned that she was ill from AIDS, they built her a coffin, but after she came to the hospice and started on medication her condition improved greatly, so the family burned the coffin.

'Charity begins today. Today somebody is suffering, today somebody is in the street, today somebody is hungry. Our work is for today, yesturday has gone, tomorrow has not yet come. We see a need, we go to meet it; at least, we do something about it.' Mother Teresa