It has been 466 days since I was last onboard the Africa Mercy. It’s been a crazy, hard, lovely, wonderful, rough, confusing, blessing of a “forced furlough.” In the last 466 days I have visited 22 states, 15 national parks and flown on 33 flights. Today I board my 34th flight and I’ll be flying away from my home and flying back to my home at the same time!
Today I step back through the wardrobe. In the Chronicles of Narnia, Lucy finds Narnia by stepping through a wardrobe. I find Narnia by stepping onto a plane and up a gangway. I have on multiple occasions compared living onboard the Africa Mercy to living in Narnia. In many ways it seems like it’s own world with its own traditions, history, and story.
- The adventure that every day promises
- The significance of what we are fighting for
- The colorful characters we meet along the way
- The funny way time passes and causes you to feel that you’ve known other crew members a lifetime after only a week
- Seeing Aslan, I mean God, face to face, almost touching him
These all make living onboard feel a bit like Narnia.
I feel for Lucy and Edmund when they must leave a place like that…a place that is sometimes hard and scary, but nevertheless feels like a “thin place” where Heaven and earth almost touch. 466 days ago I left the Africa Mercy and it has been hard, lovely, sad, joyful, confusing, exhilarating, frustrating, and the greatest blessing of a year (well, 15 months actually). I have absolutely loved spending time with family and friends, going to the beach, visiting national parks, being able to attend weddings and funerals (ok, I didn’t love that last one, but I needed to be home for them), teaching Kids On Boarding for Mercy Ships, cheering at Charles and Kaylee’s t-ball games, and living life again here in my home in the USA. Time and time again God has shown me why it was important for me to be here this year. I love being here. My heart is here. But my heart is there as well, in Narnia, on a ship in the Canary Islands. I’ve prayed for the crew onboard, I’ve FaceTimed and written to let them know that they are not forgotten, I’ve written a book about teaching onboard, I’ve cried over memories, I’ve sung songs that remind me of being there, I’ve trolled the photos on navigator looking for familiar faces, and I’ve yearned and longed to be back. I think this must be how the children felt when they were away from Narnia.
So, after 466 days away, it’s finally time to return. And as I do, I want to begin this new adventure (or is it continuing an old adventure?) with the end in mind. There’s a quote from Voyage of the Dawn Treader when Lucy realizes she can’t come back to Narnia and Aslan tells her, “In your world, I have another name. You must learn to know me by it. That was the very reason why you were brought to Narnia, that by knowing me here for a little, you may know me better there.” I often write that quote in my letters to friends who are leaving the ship because, as hard as ship life can be, it also affords us a glimpse of God that I’ve never found anywhere else. I think He reveals Himself to us onboard in such a beautiful, tangible way so that we might know him better for all the days we have after our Mercy Ships chapters are closed.
I’m thrilled to start this journey back into Narnia, but I don’t want to let a day pass without realizing the blessing of living onboard, because someday I won’t be living here. I know what it’s like to leave the ship, both voluntarily (when I left for a year to teach in Houston) and forced (by a pandemic). I also know what it’s like to return. Like when the Pevensie children go to and return from Narnia, it’s a hard transition no matter how you slice it. They know the joys, the hardships, and the blessings of living in both worlds and as I walk back onboard, I want to choose to remember every single day to revel and delight in the fact that I get to live in this “thin place” for a while, and that when the day comes to step back out again, that I will know God better because I did.
The last way that living onboard reminds me of living in Narnia is that Aslan tells us, “Once a king or queen of Narnia, always a king or queen of Narnia. In the same way, “Once a Mercy Shipper, always a Mercy Shipper.”
So, if you’re a new crew member about to set foot onboard for the first time, buckle up, and welcome to the “thin place!”
If you’ve been a Mercy Shipper, but aren’t going back, and even if you never set foot onboard again, she will always be a home for you. Once a Mercy Shipper, always a Mercy Shipper!
And if, like me, you are a crew member who is finally coming back after what seems like forever (or 466 days as the case may be), welcome back! Welcome home!
