Michele on the Africa Mercy: Mark

We visited our 26 year old patient named Mark today and I was nervous to go because it seems like there is always something wrong going on in his life. Mark has either basal cell or squamous cell carcinoma (a skin cancer) and, because he is albino, we can see that his entire body is covered in the cancer plus he has a large, protruding tumor covering half his face.

Mark is married with two little girls who are 4 (Olivia) and 2 (Angelina). Whenever we visit, he is home with Angelina while his wife works doing domestic work for a wealthy couple. His wife is gone from 6 am to 8 pm working 6 days a week and she is paid $20.00 a month. Of that $20.00, she pays $16.00 in taxis just to get to and from her job which leaves a net income of $4.00 per month. That is what this family is currently trying to live on.

Before Mark got sick, he was a mechanic working on big trucks and made a good living. I can tell because of the things he has acquired in his house. His family lives in one room of a house that is maybe about 12 x 12 but he has electricity, a bed, a tv, vcr, dvd player and a stereo. I have not seen any other family with these kinds of things. Most live in one room and only have a couple of plastic chairs and some mats to sleep on.

We planned on visiting Mark at the end of the day because we didn't want to have to rush to another patient in case he needed some support. Last week, when we visited, he told us his wife was leaving him that evening because she was afraid she would catch his sickness and she didn't want to deal with it anymore. If she left, he had absolutely nobody else to help him. He only has distant family left and they live far away. He had a few friends but they only visit every once in awhile.

So Mark was really distressed about this (as were we). He can't work because he is very weak and the large wound on his face bleeds a lot if he exerts any physical effort so he has no means of supporting himself. He also cannot do the wound care for his face because he only has one eye remaining and, because of his albinism, that eye sees very poorly. Not to mention he wouldn't get to see his little girl every day (the 2 year old lives with him, the 4 year old lives elsewhere with her mother).

When we left last week, we were very sad for him and his situation. So we started to pray...that God would change his wife's heart and that she would stay and want to take care of him. We tried (unsuccessfully) to find clinics where he could go to get his wound care done. We brainstormed with others to see how we could help him but we weren't coming up with any answers since we are leaving very soon.

So when we pulled up to his house today, we saw him sitting outside but little Angelina wasn't around as she always is. My heart just fell. We went into his small room and started to talk. He was really depressed and teary-eyed. I could see his dressing change on his wound had been done today and it was well done so I know he didn't do it. He told us his wife had had a change of heart and was very concerned for him and decided not to leave. Little Angelina was at a neighbor's house playing with her children.

He told us they had finally run out of money yesterday and he and Angelina hadn't eaten yet today (it was 3 in the afternoon). He didn't have the 30 cents it would take to buy a meal for the two of them. Of course, we gave him money for food but that was only a very short term solution. We couldn't buy food for them everyday and they only earned $4.00 a month which wasn't enough to pay their $10.00 a month rent let alone buy food.

So we started to brainstorm with him about how they would survive. He was very concerned about how they would live after he was gone. He told us his wife was very unhappy in her job (obviously) and she had told him earlier today that she really wanted to quit because it just wasn't worth $4.00. She had run a successful business in the past selling various products in the local markets and she wanted to do that again. So the more questions we asked, the more we could see that he understood how to run a business. And this type of job would allow them to work together as a couple just a few blocks from where they live. And Angelina would get to see her mom all the time.

Jean just looked at me and said "Are you thinking what I'm thinking?" and I said "Absolutely!" So we (meaning Mercy Ships) gave him the money to get his business off the ground right there on the spot. We didn't even have to pray about it as we usually do. Mark was just so grateful and relieved and excited. He would tell his wife when she got home that she didn't have to go to her job ever again and they were going to the wholesale market tomorrow to get started.

It's such a great experience to see God answering a prayer so clearly. We were praying that his wife would have a change of heart and Mark was praying that God would make a way to earn more money.

Just getting to be a part of helping Mark and his family makes every hard part of this job worth it. I experienced true joy and peace in my heart today. I don't feel that often but when I do, it reenergizes me and makes me want to do this work forever.