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 Sarah Miller with Mama Vic. By Heidi Zemach A dedicated missionary nurse from Johnsonburg is working in Liberia, on the west coast of Africa, with an NGO (Non Government Organization) called Mercy Ships. Sarah Miller, 29, the daughter of Shauna and John “Rick” Miller, works on an old ship, part of which has been constructed into a hospital. On board they do free surgery for people with cleft lips/palates, facial tumors, club feet, burns, and much more. Miller’s husband, Josh, whom she met in Africa, also works on the ship, as a deck hand and scuba diver.
This is the third time that Sarah has worked on board the Mercy Ships. She is completing her second tour of duty in Liberia—this one a full year in length. Her nursing work, seeing patients on an outpatient basis, can be “crazy busy,” Sarah said. “They come back to the ship for dressing changes, checkups, any reason you can think of, along with family members with every problem you can think of,” Miller said. “It’s different every day, challenging, exhausting, and really great most of the time.”
Josh spends hours chipping, priming and painting the ship’s open decks, trying to battle the endless rust. He spends a few days a month unloading a 40 ft shipping container containing new medical supplies; and as a scuba diver, inspecting the ship from underneath, and cleaning out trash in its intake systems.
Liberia has been in a state of unrest since 1989, witnessing two civil wars, the first from 1989-96, and the second from1999-2003. These wars displaced hundreds of thousands of people and devastated the country’s economy. It left behind a large population of orphaned and homeless young people and children.
While on her first trip to Liberia, the couple befriended Mama Vic, a local orphanage director and small-businesses woman. At the time, the ship’s deck department was building a new orphanage for Mama Vic and the 80 orphan children she was caring for in the countryside. Mama Vic also runs an orphanage in the City of Monrovia, which had about 60 children. A “motherly figure,” Mama Vic would invite children from around the community to her home on Saturday mornings, and would do “Kids Church” with them. Naturally, they gravitated toward this woman. With sparse, intermittent financial help from the government, Mama Vic funded her two orphanages mostly by running a small business from her home, and taking in renters. When Josh and Sarah visited Mama Vic upon their return trip to Liberia last February, they learned that her home and businesses had burned down the day before, killing her pregnant renter and child. Mama Vic did not ask for any money, feeling certain that God would provide. But with the national average daily income at $1, cement costing $15 a bag, and so many orphans for the director to provide for, Josh and Sarah felt compelled to do whatever they could to help her rebuild. Since then, Sarah and Josh have turned their efforts to helping Mama Vic rebuild by collecting private donations. Residents from Sarah’s hometown have been very generous, and the house fund is so far just $800 from Miller’s goal of $6,400.
Mama Vic is a determined woman, and immediately after making the first donation was made, she began employing local people to do the work, building just as fast as Sarah and Josh could supply the funds. The work continues despite Liberia’s hot equatorial climate and its particularly long, difficult rainy season. But even when her house and home-business is rebuilt, Mrs. Vic will still need furnishings, as everything in it was lost in the fire.
Meanwhile, Sarah and a few other women from the Mercy Ships have been visiting the 9 older girls at Mama Vic’s country orphanage every week to conduct Bible study. Men from the Mercy Ship have been doing the same with the boys. The living conditions are good there, and the children are healthy, Miller said. And she has grown quite fond of the older girls. One particularly memorable evening, the girls taught the volunteers how to cook “Liberian” food, sang songs, and just hung out.
“They are such lovely women who just crave relationship, and it is such a blessing to get to know them,” Miller said.
The couple explores their area via a motorcycle. Practically every time they go out, however, they are pulled over by a Liberian National Policeman directing traffic, who pull ever all the white people they see, Sarah said. After arguing at length, or bribing them, the police will eventually let you continue on your way, she said.
At times, Miller finds herself yearning for a more normal life with Josh, such as having a car, walking her dog in the woods, or settling down and starting a family. But then she realizes the importance of her calling, and that the hardships of their work in Liberia will only serve to strengthen their faith and religious commitment. So Miller stays with it. The couple plans to return to the U.S. in November. |
