Last Sunday, my friend, Hannah, and I got invited to have dinner with one of the families onboard here. Not gonna lie to you, I felt like it was quite an honor to be invited over and have dinner with them in their cabin. Please also note, family cabins are awesome...especially in comparison to my open four berth.
It was really great for me to sit and chat with this family from Ghana, the Bineys. They have such an amazing story, and lots to know and share. I learned quite a bit about them (and I am sure, through conversation, they learned a lot about me and Hannah.). It was great to hear about the history of Mercy Ships and the making of the Africa Mercy through their eyes, as they were a part of it.
As always, the cultural differences and similarities struck me. It was interesting to hear the culture shock that they went through, both here on the ship (which, evidently does have it's own culture) and when they went to the "western world". You see, the Bineys are from a "hot-climate" culture...very community oriented, very warm (in personality and greetings), very open, very inclusive. Hawai'i is also a "hot-climate" culture...but, Canada is the opposite...yep you guessed it, it's a "cold-climate" culture. Not saying that they aren't warm in personality. But, in general, they go about things differently. "Cold-climate" cultures are more exclusive, more time-oriented, task-oriented, and selective in sharing and greetings (I hope that makes sense...in order to fully get what I am saying, check out a book that they recommend here on the ship called, 'Foreign-to-Familiar' by Sarah A. Lanier.). Being here on the ship, I have learned so much about myself...and where certain characteristics of mine can be attributed to.
The Bineys told me how they had to adjust and realize that people not greeting you and not asking how you are doing isn't because they don't like you and are snubbing you. It's just a cultural custom. Learning things like this and knowing where people come from can help you to understand what they do and why, to some degree. I guess, in part, it also explains why I went through some culture shock when I first moved to Canada. It's realizing that the little things that you didn't know were ingrained in you aren't necessarily ingrained in everyone else.
However, I think that the thing that struck me the most, and that I walked away cherishing is...realizing how important it is to play your part in the body of Christ. To know, that even if you don't feel like you are needed or a vital part...you actually are.
They were telling me how on the Anastasis, people on the ship would know when a surgery was over. How? It was announced...well, sort of, they announced that the patient transport team was needed. And, I guess now you are wondering why there was a patient transport team. It's because on the Anastasis (unlike the Africa Mercy), the OR was on a different deck than the wards. So, people from Deck and Engineering would take shifts on the patient transport team and carry the patients down to the wards when their surgery was over. Agnes said that it was nice. Nice knowing what was going on in the hospital...nice to be in the business of working for smiles.
And, it was wonderful for me to hear this perspective. Agnes works in HR, her husband works in the Engineering department. They aren't involved in the hospital at all. But, to see their joy in playing their part of making this ship work...it was amazing for me. It really made me sit back and re-evaluate my stance on things. I guess the adjustment continues.
Once again, God shows me that there is a reason to why I am here. There is a reason as to why I am a pharmacist. He has given me my role to play. He has put all the parts together to make an intricate work environment to bring glory and honor to His name. Who am I to tell Him that it should be any other way?
Once again, He's showing me and teaching me to find the joy in this journey of life that we are walking through together. It's not always easy playing the part that He has laid out for me, but in the end, my part is needed...however insignificant or significant I personally deem it.
12The body is a unit, though it is made up of many parts; and though all its parts are many, they form one body. So it is with Christ. 13For we were all baptized by one Spirit into one body—whether Jews or Greeks, slave or free—and we were all given the one Spirit to drink.
14Now the body is not made up of one part but of many. 15If the foot should say, "Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body," it would not for that reason cease to be part of the body.16And if the ear should say, "Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body," it would not for that reason cease to be part of the body. 17If the whole body were an eye, where would the sense of hearing be? If the whole body were an ear, where would the sense of smell be? 18But in fact God has arranged the parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be. 19If they were all one part, where would the body be? 20As it is, there are many parts, but one body.
21The eye cannot say to the hand, "I don't need you!" And the head cannot say to the feet, "I don't need you!" 22On the contrary, those parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable,23and the parts that we think are less honorable we treat with special honor. And the parts that are unpresentable are treated with special modesty, 24while our presentable parts need no special treatment. But God has combined the members of the body and has given greater honor to the parts that lacked it, 25so that there should be no division in the body, but that its parts should have equal concern for each other. 26If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it.
27Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it.
- 1 Corinthians 12:12-27 (NIV)
How happy am I to know that He doesn't give up on a work in progress?
And how lucky am I to also be in the business of working for smiles?
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