Together we can do so much

The Rio Olympics opens tomorrow. Many athletes will compete for an Olympic crown. Some do so in team events, others solo. The solo ones will be on their own. On their own the moment the gun goes and they start the 100 meters, or whatever their event. In some cases, literally seconds or minutes from glory.  Others like Andy Murray will be alone on the tennis court for match after match as their attempt to defend their Olympic title. Some great explorers have also ‘gone it alone’. You can read about their solo attempts to sail around the world, travel to the south pole, climb Mount Everest. All these people exhibit tremendous courage and determination over many weeks and months. They train hard. They dig deep and motivate themselves when the going gets tough. But there is another side, one that is hidden from the limelight, but none-the-less essential. Their support team.

The support team is not with them during the actual event, but is alongside during the build up, the training, the fundraising, the preparation. The support team is the athletes/explorers foundation, their bed-rock. Without their support team the explorer or athlete would not get very far.

Helen Keller once said , ‘Alone we can do so little, together we can do so much.’  

Helen Keller was born June 27^th 1880, and died in 1968. She was apparently the first deaf-blind person to earn a bachelor of arts degree. Helen was born with the ability to see and hear, but contracted an illness (presumably meningitis) aged 19 months which left her both deaf and blind. She became a suffragette, a political activist and writer, publishing 12 books and several articles; and several films/documentaries have been made about her.

I like her quote, ‘Alone we can do so little, together we can do so much’  because, as I ponder the athletes assembling in Rio, and reflect on my time at Mercy Ships it seems to sum it all up. I am the person who quit my job 4.5 years ago and went to work in Africa. Alone. I am the one without a salary far from home. Yet so many people have made my journey possible. While I do it alone, it is also true to say, we do it together. Prayerfully, financially, emotionally, professionally -  numerous people have supported me, and I am very grateful for every single person’s support. No gift, no email, no word of encouragement, no prayer lifted to the heavens, nothing was ever too small. Everything was counted, and nothing was found wanting.

So it is with mixed emotions that I announce that I have decided to leave Mercy Ships at the end of the year. I will have served here for 5 years and I feel it is time for a new chapter. I shall return to London to work at Great Ormond Street Hospital, which is a world famous children’s hospital and I am delighted to have such a wonderful job prepared for me.

However, that is the future, and so returning to the present - I still have 5 months of work with Mercy Ships. In less than two weeks we will arrive in Benin. I have been to Benin twice before and it was there that God really gave me a heart for Africa, so it is poignant that in many ways, where my journey began, it will now end. ‘End’ for this season at least, as I hold the future loosely.

And so, in closing this months blog, thank you for your support on my journey, ‘Alone we can do so little, together we can do so much’  . Until next month….