Team Blog: Friday, 25 October, 2019 Today was a busy day for the October Team under the bright blue sky in Sierra Leone. We started our day praising our awesome God with the incredible Mercy Hospital staff. We participated in the Mercy Mission Nutrition Program for infants. Mothers brought their babies from far and wide to have them weighed, and measured to determine the nutritional status. Where indicated, the mothers are provided with supplemental food to ensure the baby's health. The moms are dedicated in returning to clinic with their babies for monitoring, follow up and progression. (insert photo) Along with the Sponsor-A-Child (SAC) coordinators, the Team visited two schools where some of the sponsored Child Rescue Centre children were in class. The children were excited to be in school reporting that they are performing well and happy with their families. They greeted us with enthusiasm. It was clear that the children have a close bond with their SAC coordinators. Next on the agenda was a trip to the market for fabric and supplies with our amazing caretaker, Fudia. To end the day we had a visit with our miracle boy, Abu Bakarr who was burned over 2/3 of his body in December, 2016. He is successful in school and has successfully promoted to class/grade 6. He enjoys playing with his friends after school with his favorite game, of course, football/soccer. We visited him at home with his large family who has been supportive throughout his recovery. They lavished praises on the programs and support provided by Mercy Hospital,the Child Rescue Centre and the grace of God for Abu Bakarr’s current progress and school success. Please see the next Helping Children Worldwide newsletter for the full story. In the midst of these projects, facility work and maintenance continued. In Matthew 10:8 Jesus tells us, “Freely we have been given, freely give.” I see “church” as an action verb. We can follow Jesus in His gospel mission. We can: Welcome the stranger Karen Roeming
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One of Mercy Hospital’s pillar programs, Medical Village Outreach, filled our Thursday morning. The concept is simple, if the people cannot get to services - take healthcare to them! The team (minus Melody and Cynthia who left before dawn for meetings in Freetown) and Mercy staff members loaded into two 4x4 ambulances for a relatively quick ride out to Gbingboma Village where mothers and babies were already patiently waiting for us. The Mercy staff included a Community Health Officer (CHO), maternity nurses, lab technicians, a clinician, and several delightful nursing students completing their practicum through Mercy Hospital. Our team was spread out, each assisting at a different station. David, was a master of weighing screaming infants! Vicki helped the CHO with consultation and Karen assisted in the prenatal exams. Tina helped administered malaria and HIV testing to babies and pregnant moms, while Rob rounded out the rotation helping the clinician dispense the appropriate medicines - which included some pastoral high fives and fist bumps for the young ones. It was a busy morning, the time goes by so fast! When you first arrive, you are facing a crowd of moms and babies, it can be a bit overwhelming. But once the process starts, it really flows! We met Amos, a baby who was first diagnosed recently through a Village Outreach with two serious hernias. Amos had surgery at Mercy Hospital and was visiting the Village Outreach for follow up. He is doing really well. https://www.helpingchildrenworldwide.org/latestnews Mercy Hospital’s Village Outreach program is a literal lifeline to the community. The program visits each community in its rotation once a month, and the turnout is always high. The program's education, counseling and referral system is changing the future for the most fragile Sierra Leonean population. It was an honor for our team to briefly work alongside the Mercy staff who are responsible for this transformation. Tina DeBoeser Over in Freetown, meanwhile, Melody and Cynthia were representing HCW at the CRC and MTC Supervisory Board meeting, where big ideas were being discussed as Director Oliva Fonnie presented her vision for the CRC, including a name change to the Child Reintegration Centre! The meeting was filled with promise of the future. We problem solved, reviewed budgets, discussed old and new collaborative efforts and even witnessed seeds being sown as Bishop Yambasu challenged our friends and partners to consider a new idea for their work on the campus of UMC Bo Urban Ministries Centre. Then Olivia, Melody and Cynthia sat down for dinner with these old friends and new friends from 1MillionHome to discuss several exciting proposals, some of which will be presented to high ranking officials in the government on Friday. Melody Curtiss We started the day in worship with the CRC staff. Victor led with a devotion titled “Why Devotion” It was a fitting focus as we spent time in worship with our CRC partners. Following the devotion we took time to introduce ourselves and discovered that a few members of the staff have been involved with the CRC for almost 20 years. We also learned that five of the staff actually grew up in the CRC. JJ, JB, Rosa, Imourana, and Henry, went to University after their time at the CRC and are now giving back in gratitude for the blessings they received at a very young age.
Following devotion we spent time with the staff individually learning what each do for the CRC and the impact they are having on the mission. We walked the grounds and reviewed the different facilities and structures that make up the CRC. The Kulanda Town Early Childhood Program was taking place in what used to be the Dining hall at the CRC. The children’s laughter could be heard all around and this brought back fond memories for the veteran missionaries. After that we got right to work with budget meetings, facility assessment, staffing plans and even a treatment plan for a special young patient. All and all it was a very productive first full day. Just as we started the day we ended with worship with the CRC staff. It was a good day for the October team and we are looking forward to our medical outreach tomorrow. Dave Lewis Hello Friends,
Tuesday at noon the October 2019 team arrived at the Mission Training Center on the Helping Children Worldwide campus in Bo. The trip was largely uneventful, and almost all our luggage made it. (Sorry Tina.) We’ve been briefed and oriented. We’ve broken bread, renewed relationships and formed new ones. We are currently making preparations and navigating schedules for the weeks ahead. We wanted to take a moment and introduce you to the seven members of our team. Cynthia and Melody, both on staff with Helping Children Worldwide, are meeting with dignitaries in the country to pave the way for future initiatives. David, our team leader from Florida, is here to do some physical upgrades to the facility. Karen, an occupational therapist from Texas, will work with healthcare providers at Mercy Hospital. Vicki, from Virginia, is working on a new staffing plan to simplify and economize the work at Mercy. Tina and Rob, also from Virginia, are here to help launch a new village outreach partnership. Over the next two weeks we’ll be sharing regular updates right here on the HCW website. Thank you for being willing to experience this journey with us, and we’d like to ask one more thing of you. Please join us in asking our great God for fruitfulness, safety and the grace to glorify the name of Jesus. . More soon, Pastor Rob Lough Ebenezer United Methodist Church Today, Jen Green, an incredible teacher from California, and I (Sharon Gardner) finished our last day of collaboration with 8 inspiring teacher-leaders from Sierra Leone. This relationship and collaboration began last summer when these teachers and I were part of a group of 30 Sierra Leonian and 5 American teachers learning together and sharing our teaching lives with each other over 5 days. This summer, these 8 were invited to participate in a 4 day trainer-of-trainers professional development where, in partnership, we deepened our understanding of children and learning and developed a curriculum for these teacher-leaders to use with other teachers in Sierra Leone. Our time together was filled with laughter, strong opinions, serious conversations, respect, years of experience, a deep love for children and education and great joy! The last couple of days have been busy and fun filled with time spent directly interacting with children. Saturday was family fun day at the CRC and 70 children from the community and their parents attended the event. The team and children played “football”, volleyball, games like musical chairs, and even had an impromptu beauty parlor where the girls plaited some of the team member's hair. Many of the sponsored children were at the event which was especially great as we had the opportunity for extended time to interact with our sponsor kids. In the afternoon, part of the team traveled 2 hours to the village of Pujehun to visit a sponsored child and bring the family rice and gifts. The rest of the team bought fabric in town and visited the local tailor laden with colorful fabrics for pants, skirts and accessories. Dinner on Saturday was a special treat as we shared a delicious meal of sweet roasted chicken and yummy rice Jallop with German Missionaries who have been serving in Bo for the past 3 years. The evening ended with a movie night- Indiana Jones and fresh roasted popcorn.
Thursday - July 18, 2019
Everyone has been working hard with the CRC and Mercy Hospital! Julie and Jess worked with the CRC case workers on interviewing techniques and ways to gather information more efficiently. Sharon and Jen continued with TLC (Teacher Learning Collaborative) with nine Bo teachers discussing topics to cover when they teach next summer. Gary has been working on the donated medical equipment to get it all up and running. Gary, Misti , Beth and Mary Ann attended an Outreach Clinic where over 130 patients were seen and tested for diabetes and HIV. Patients received prenatal care and babies were weighed and measured for the malnourishment program. On Friday we all attended the wonderful celebration in honor of Mohamed (Nabs) and Kim Nabieu - Nabs for his work as the CRC Director and Kim for her work as the Mercy Hospital liaison. Several team members were able to visit their sponsor children. The July team has been busy in the last few days! From arriving in Freetown and traveling to Bo, to tie-dying team shirts with Fudia, the team has kept busy and Nabs has kept everyone positive!
Today was a productive and positive day for all of the team. Our team dietitian is starting a program to educate the hospital staff on diabetes care which once formalized, will allow for funding through insulin for life. Both the teachers and social workers started their discussions and collaboration with the community teachers and case managers and all reported positive responses. Nabs continues to work tirelessly with the leaders at CRC while always having time to encourage the team here and visit people in the community. It has been such a wonderful experience seeing Bo with someone who loves the country and knows it so well! Having Sam Rich, a professional photographer here doing a story on Nabs, has also been a great additional bonus! Not only is Sam a delightful person but he is a great photographer and is sharing all his photos with the team. Here are a few of them below. Our first full day in Bo started with devotions with the Mercy Hospital Staff. The staff was eager to learn that one of our team members would be educating the nurses on diabetes care. A second team member, who is visiting for the first time, was also put to work immediately by the Hospital staff and was instrumental in helping in a crisis birth situation.
The rest of the team spent most of the day meeting staff and preparing for the projects and activities planned for the week ahead. The team then toured Mercy Hospital and the Child Rescue Center. Our next adventure took a group of us out in the pouring rain to buy rice and gifts for our sponsored children. Although the rain limited our picture taking, the rain ended up being a nice relief from the humidity and everyone was thankful for a relatively cool afternoon. More news tomorrow- But we are all doing well and easing into life here in Sierra Leone and as Sharon says - becoming free to be “our best selves”. “For, ‘everyone who calls on the Lord will be saved.’ But how are they to call on the one in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in one of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone to proclaim him? And how are they to proclaim him unless they are sent? As it is written, ‘How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news’” (Romans 10:13-15 NRSV).
Her name was Madam Letitia Hawa Logan and she lived to be 100 years old. That’s twice the average lifespan of a typical Sierra Leonean. Due to the harsh environment, limited access to clean water, a lack of food, and minimal medical care, on average a Sierra Leonean lives between 48-52 years. And, yet, Madam Letitia lived to be 100. I know this because the worship service our mission team attended on our Sabbath was Madam Letitia’s funeral service. As in a typical American funeral service, family and friends were called upon to give a witness to this woman’s life. The consistent witness offered by each person was that Madam Letitia lived well and walked with God all of her days. What a beautiful legacy to leave to the generations who follow: “Lived well and walked with God.” Isn’t that truly what we all want out of life? I would articulate living well in this way: loving others without condition. I would describe walking with God in this way: clinging to Christ as the Lord. We are nearing the end of our trip to Sierra Leone and I am here to tell you we have sought to love others without condition and cling to Christ in the midst of this experience. We were task with breaking ground and erecting concrete walls that will serve as three observation rooms for Mercy Hospital. That work has been completed and, hopefully, within the next several weeks those rooms will be completely finished and ready for use. In addition, we served the medical outreach team on a visit to the Gbongboma village by assisting with various tasks, such as prenatal evaluation, HIV screening, Malaria testing and treatment, nutrition screening, and giving away medicine as needed. That worked was successfully accomplished. In the midst of the workload we carried, we had other meaningful (and fun) moments as we learned some African dances, interacted with dozens and dozens of children while playing soccer and ultimate frisbee, and toured Njala University. We sat down at the Children Rescue Center (CRC) one day and helped children in the sponsorship program write letters to their sponsors. Afterwards, they even taught us a new game, stoneball. On one night we even heard a lecture on the Ebola crisis that hit this country hard not that long ago (December 2013 - June 2016), claiming the lives of more than 11,000 people. Another example of the harsh realities that our Sierra Leone brothers and sisters face on the consistent and regular bases. There is no doubt in my mind, that experiences like this leave magnificent impressions on the soul. Many of us are left wondering, “What’s next? What do we do now?” Mission trips our wonderful opportunities to muster up these types of questions. One could say that they provide the right ingredients to cultivate a “lifestyle of service.” Thinking of Madame Letitia, mission trips have the ability to position people to set (or reset) in order to “live well and walk with God.” “What next? What do we do now?” I, personally, say, we go back into our homes, our churches, and our communities and keep loving without condition and keep clinging to Christ.” After all, there is need all around us. The hungry need food, the parched need a drink, and those in hospitals and prisons need to be visited. Also, there are people who don’t yet know Christ in real and personal ways. Anywhere we go, I am confident that there are people whose souls’ are thirsting for a relationship with Jesus; we have a responsibility to tell them. We have to keep on keeping on. As one team member (Sam Bundren) liked to say, “all gas, no brakes.” So, where do we find the strength to live a “lifestyle of service?” Where did Madame Letitia find the strength to “live well and walk with God all of her days? First and foremost, we find our strength in the Lord. We also find replenishment in community, in worship, and at the Table. In a few days time we will be on a plane heading home. We look forward to embracing our loved ones, sharing our stories, and together making God’s kingdom that is in heaven more of a reality here on earth. And, we long to do that alongside of each of you, whether that place be in our homes, our communities, back in Sierra Leone, or anywhere else our great God calls us to go. Blessings, Reverend Jared D. Priset |
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