Marie Elisa is a woman of great faith. Every morning, she trod the same path she’d taken for years, to her village church in Berangotra, Madagascar. This daily ritual gave her strength before she worked in her fields, tending vegetables and potatoes to support her family.

But when she turned 40, her daily routine was rocked. A simple toothache became an unrelenting pain that led her to the local pharmacy. The medicine she received only offered temporary relief. And as the ache dulled, her face began to swell.

“The painkillers helped for a time,” she recalled. “The swelling started, and it just kept getting bigger until it reached this point,” she said as she pointed to her lower jaw where a tumour had taken root, growing to the size of an orange.

“I’m praying to Jesus to be healthy and able to work again,” she shared.

As the tumour grew, so did her family’s hardships. Unable to farm, the family lost their source of income, and Marie Elisa had no choice but to take youngest daughter out of school.

“I could no longer work in the fields or sell at the market,” she said. “And my daughter had to stop school because I couldn’t pay her fees.”

Desperate for relief, she turned to traditional healers, but the tumour only continued to grow. Though a doctor advised surgery, the cost remained far out of reach.

“It broke my heart to see her struggling every day,” says Claude, Marie Elise’s husband of twenty years. “Because the tumour was painful and it kept growing.”

A miracle encounter

One day, Mercy Ships volunteers happened to drive through her village. A cyclone had just tore through the north of the island, leaving devastation in its wake. Forced to change their route due to the relentless rain and damaged roads, the team drove through a small village they hadn’t intended to visit. There, on the side of the road, they spotted a woman with a visible tumor on her face. It was Marie Elisa.

“We saw Marie Elisa walking through the market and three of us yelled, ‘Stop the bus!’” recalled Maddy Hartung, an Australian volunteer nurse.

They stepped off the bus, weaving through the curious crowd, introducing themselves, and sharing photos of patients who had received life-changing surgery on the ship.

“We explained that we’d seen someone we might be able to help,” Maddy said. “The whole village turned, pointing at Marie Elisa, rushing over to bring her to meet us.”

The team set up a temporary clinic on the village chief’s front porch to examine Marie Elisa, explaining the possibility of free surgery. Though initially cautious, she took a leap of faith.

“I was sick and willing to risk it – I had nothing to lose,” she said.

Emboldened by the possibility of free healthcare, Marie Elisa mentioned that her husband, Claude, had an eye issue. After the assessment, the team found him eligible for eye surgery. Both were ultimately scheduled for free surgeries on the Africa Mercy at separate times.

“She was meant to be on that side of the road; God had a plan for her,” Maddy reflected.