Where there is love there is life

Kirstie (my good friend and the Africa Mercy Hospital Director) and I have spent the last few days in the capital city Antananarivo having various meetings. One meeting concerned our program to treat women with obstetric fistula. A devastating condition caused by lack of obstetric care resulting in permanent and constant urinary incontinence. The women are left as outcasts, stigmatised due to the terrible smell. At the end of the meeting one of the doctors told this story. 

He said that recently one of the Chiefs from a rural village had noticed how 'strong' one of the ladies was when she returned home after her fistula surgery The Chief had noticed it wasn't just about her physical strength but she seemed 'stronger'.  Another doctor in the meeting then piped up that she had looked at the Mercy Ships website and realised that we don't just care about the physical healing but about healing of the soul as well. She said that there are ladies far away in the south who could have the opportunity to have surgery there but they have refused because they want to come to Tamatave (several days travel away and where Mercy Ships is) because they know they will find love there. She flung her arms in a big embrace and said,  ‘it is like they know they will be surrounded by love if they come to you’.

Where there is love there is life

It is a quote by Mahatma Ghandi. I had not heard it before until Dr Elizabeth Sercombe from evolute ( http://www.surfmonasteryfoundation.com ) used it in a leadership training course she did for our hospital leadership team on the ship.

Où il y a de l'amour il y a de la vie

This is the French version of the quote. Elizabeth used this to start the Mercy Ships medical leadership training course at the local hospital. And it reminded me of a conversation I had a number of years ago in Congo with an orthopaedic surgeon. I was asking him about training needs in his hospital and how we could help. It was his answer to how we could help his nurses that stopped me in my tracks. He said  ‘can you teach our nurses how to care for patients?’ That answer changed my mind-set forever.

It led me to embrace the idea of ‘loved ones caring for loved ones’. Training is more than just a transfer of information - knowledge and skills. It is something deeper. Transformation is about the head and the hands and the heart.

If I had known of Mahatma Ghandi’s quote ‘where there is love there is life’ I might have used that instead. As part of Elizabeth’s teaching she explains the concept of an organisation as a living system where everything is reaching for life. She encouraged us to ‘stay present in the mess’ and to have those crucial conversations and to help and love each other towards life. Life that releases us all to be more of who were are created to be. It had echo’s for me of Marcus Buckingham’s book, The one thing you need to know…about great managing, great leading, and sustained individual success. The chapters on ‘great managing’ embody the concepts of seeing the best in others and helping them achieve personal success.

SO all that to say, today on Valentines Day, my heart is full. I have heard stories of ‘loved ones caring for loved ones’, and I want to live and work in a system that believes as Mahatma Ghandi said, ‘where there is love, there is life’. And I am grateful I know a God who is the embodiment of love.

Happy Valentine’s Day.

Transformation, as illustrated by a participant on our medical leadership course: Eyes to see, ears to hear, and a heart to love. 

Precipitation

Happy New Year! 

I have had to write two references for two people for completely different things in the last 10 days. One reference actually asked me to comment on the candidates major strengths and their major weaknesses. That was tough, I hadn’t noticed many major weaknesses when they worked with me. Of course there were some, and like most of us, often our major strengths can also be our major weaknesses.

Precipitation is the same. When it is cold enough precipitation becomes snow. A major strength if you run a business in the mountains in the ski season.

But if the temperature rises, then snow becomes rain, and the precipitation becomes a weakness as it washes away all the snow faster even than just a temperature rise without precipitation.

Whether precipitation is a good thing or a bad thing during the ski season depends on the temperature – external circumstances. Our strengths and weaknesses are like that too. They depend on the circumstances in which we find ourselves. Winston Churchill had strengths that made him one of the greatest leaders ……during war-time but peace-time was a different story. 

I have just been skiing (thanks to a generous god-mother and my parents) so we have been taking a keen interest in the weather. Precipitation has been forecast but it is of course the external environment, the temperature, that will determine if the water-laden clouds are going to release their contents as snow or rain. Skier’s heaven or hell?

I have now been a full time volunteer for Mercy Ships for 4 years. And as I reflect on my time and my leadership, I think that for the most part, my external circumstances thus far, have allowed my strengths to flourish. I am thankful for that and pray it continues.

But I also ask myself the question, what temperature am I setting for others? Am I allowing their strengths to flourish too? Just like water-laden clouds, the people I lead are laden-full of talents.  So as a leader I want to set the temperature so they can release their talents like thick chunky snow flakes, that bring a taste of heaven to earth.

Wishing you all a very Happy New Year, and may you find yourself in circumstances that enable you to grow and flourish and may you help others to do the same.

Decorating the christmas tree

The ship has had Christmas decorations up for 2 weeks already. It was Saturday November 30^th that was decoration day, and the place is beautiful. There is something about Christmas decorations that seem to lift your spirits. We have christmas trees in virtually every space on the ship. In the reception area, the cafe, the mid-ships long, the dining room. You name it - there is a tree!

My cabin-mate and I have a very small tree in our cabin. It lacks lights, but it has the borbles, some small figures and an angel on the top. In my mind, there is always– what goes at the top of the tree, an angel or a star? I say, ‘In my mind there is always a debate’ because in reality I don’t have a choice. On the ship all I have is an angel, and when I lived in England, all I had was a star! Does it matter?

DO you have multi-coloured lights, or plain white ones? Do you put tinsel on or not? Some people have a colour scheme – gold and silver, or red and green for example. So many choices.

 

As I ponder how to decorate  (or clothe) the Christmas tree, I have also been mediating on the following scripture which tells me what I should clothe myself with:

Colossians 3: 12 - 15 Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity.

 Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace. And be thankful.

Few would disagree that the historical figure of Jesus had these clothes on: ‘compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience’. That He lived a life characterized by love. As his follower I want to do the same. I know I fall short often, but just like my clothes get dirty and need washing and ironing, so does my life. So this Christmas as we celebrate the birth of Jesus, and we talk about ‘peace on earth’ , I want to keep putting on clean clothes - compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience, love and forgiveness. Then I don’t need to get worried or stressed; angry or offended; because peace will fill my heart instead and I will find myself with a thankful attitude.

SO as you decorate your Christmas tree, and admire the trees and other decorations you see around, consider how you are decorating your life, what clothes you are wearing?

Wishing you a very Happy Christmas.