VVF Celebration

After completing my morning tasks in the dining room, Joanna and I looked at the clock and decided that we wouldn’t be too late for the celebration ceremony happening down in the hospital deck with the VVF women. Trotting down the steps I wondered where it would take place. When I got to the bottom, the generators a deck below were loud (the ones that make the ship vibrate three decks higher as I now type), but the singing and drums fifty meters down the hallway were even louder. As we walked down the corridor it became louder and louder until I could peer through the group congregated at the doorway. They were having genuine ‘church’.

It was a time of celebration for the women who had healed after their operations. They were celebrating the beginning of a new life. When they head home, they will be accepted again, many for the first time in years. For some, it will be the first time in over twenty years. There was singing songs of worship and dancing, lots of it. After a few songs, one of the healed women would step forward and share for a few minutes about their story. There were stories of being turned away by families, but also of being healed. They were thankful to God, to Jesus for a new hope. They were thankful to the doctors, and crew, and for those back in the crew’s home countries for making all of this possible. But mostly, and most importantly, they were thankful to God.

It was a pure time of worship. It was so joyful and free. It was a time of reflecting and of looking ahead. It was a time of singing, dancing, and of sharing stories. It was a time of thankfulness. It was so good. Each woman was wearing a new Sunday dress and had a new Bible to take home. Both were gifts and symbols of new life for them. These sisters in Christ will head home on Monday! Truly good things are happening.

(Insert smooth transition here.)

‘Behold, the kingdom of God is at hand’ said Jesus of Nazareth. He said this in different forms and in different ways. He said this in ancient Israel in the social context where it was declared by the occupying Roman army that ‘Caesar is God’. Caesar was God according to the coins in the monetary system, according to the might of the military, according to the political system, and according to the empire’s state religion. Jesus suggested that another way of life was possible.

By Eugene Peterson’s paraphrase of the scripture of Luke (in the middle of the story)- He (Jesus) came to Nazareth where he had been reared. As he always did on the Sabbath, he went to the meeting place. When he stood up to read, he was handed the scroll of the prophet Isaiah. Unrolling the scroll, he found the place where it was written, God's Spirit is on me; he's chosen me to preach the Message of good news to the poor, Sent me to announce pardon to prisoners and recovery of sight to the blind, To set the burdened and battered free, to announce, "This is God's year to act!"He rolled up the scroll, handed it back to the assistant, and sat down. Every eye in the place was on him, intent. Then he started in, "You've just heard Scripture make history. It came true just now in this place."

At the end of Jesus’ life he shared that even greater things would happen amongst those who follow him and his way of life. It is a tremendous privilege to see pieces of this happening around me here in this community. It is an honor to live and work in such a place. ‘Behold, the kingdom of God is at hand!’