Greetings to you all.  Another KRB Update to share what is happening with my service with Mercy Ships.  My season in Freetown, Sierra Leone has finished.  So thankful to report that all is going well there with the surgeries and the education and training on the ship and off the ship at the primary hospital in the country – focusing on anesthesia students and providers and nurses.  Mentoring is taking place on the Global Mercy in our operating rooms and with the simulation lab.
 
We have just complete a five day training in Saly, Senegal.  A time of coming together for relationship building – four team members, I had only met via Teams online and many sessions and group activities to better equip us for our duties.  Subjects included diplomacy (which I would love to learn more), transformational development, patient selection, programs, cross cultural interactgions, wins and challenges, Clifton Strengths, monitoring and evaluation, servant leadership and devotions daily.  They counted and we represented 16 nations for this training.  The Africa Services team includes all of us on country engagement teams in Sierra Leone, Guinea, Ghana, and Madagascar. 
Two counselors joined to provide one-on-one member care, shared at a session, and spent time with us all.  Thankful that they are available to us over Teams as needed while we serve remotely.  As I move from country to country and ship to ship in my Port Liaison role, I truly enjoyed being together this week.

Photo:  Participants at the Team Training in Senegal

Photo:  Group Sessions with various scenarios – ie. Meeting with Port Director, Meeting with Dean of the medical school, and Meeting with Ministry of Health leaders related to patient selection.
 

Photo:  All but one meal was at the venue – for the meal out we took two small boats to travel to the restaurant with the specialities of fresh fish and seafood. 

I am en route back to Madagascar.  For Mercy Ships, geographically we focus on West Africa, Senegal is the farther north west, to Central and Southern Africa and to Madagascar – the East Coast – port city of Toamasina.  So my travels this week take me from one extreme side to the other. 
I remain so thankful for the opportunity and privilege to continue to serve.  I will take care of all port related activities, helping the Africa Mercy as she prepares to leave for annual maintenance period, for the time they are gone and then arrangements for their return in February.

Praise:  * Documents signed with the government of Madagascar  * Surgeries ongoing on both ships  *  Training happening on both ships  * Lives being impacted

Prayers:  * Additional documentation for customs with Madagascar  * Continued safety for all involved (I will move back into the same apartment building where I lived before) and good health.

Mercy Ships – Global Mercy – many activities are restarting here in Sierra Leone

Open Hospital on August 28th – the once-a-year opportunity for the crew to visit the hospital: wards, biomedical, pharmacy, operating rooms, sterile processing, patient selection, pre-operative, rehabilitation, low care unit, dental clinic, crew clinic, and other locations.  Many of our children living on board have shared how impactful their hospital visits were and when they had work experience opportunities -which are coordinated by the Academy.  Once the hospital opens, most areas are off-limits to the crew.  The hospital crew provides fun, educational, and interesting activities.  I enjoyed dressing as a second surgeon with our Captain as the primary surgeon – pulling out gummy bears from the abdominal area.  

Photo:  the state-of-the-art MRI machine in our hospital – no scan but rode the bed in and out listening to the recording (in Espanol as requested) – for our patients here, they have recorded the messages in the local languages so the patient understands.
 

Partners Welcome Event on August 29th – for Country Engagement Team we were greatly involved with the invitation of partners from the government, non-government organizations, businesses, churches, ministries, and others.  As Port Liaison, I had guests from the port, our agents, mayor’s office, waste removal, fuel providers, and others.  We expressed our thanks for the last field service and thank them for their continued partnership with us for the next ten months.  We were honored to have the First Lady of Sierra Leone as our guest of honor.     

Photos:  Program and with the Deputy Harbourmaster and Emmanuel Mendi, Third Engineer, from Sierra Leone.  

Photo:  First Lady of Sierra Leone sharing with all the guests and crew present
 

Prayer Walk in the Hospital on August 29th – all crew who were interested joined a group and went to three spaces in the hospital as we spread out as not possible to go to all locations.  While there, the crew that serve in that area shared some prayer requests with the group.  I was with Group #6, lead by Dan B, we went to the biomedical, rehabilitation, and pharmacy spaces for prayer.

First Patient Admissions – today, September 2nd – admitted to the wards on the Global Mercy in preparation for their upcoming surgeries. 

Prayer Walk – HOPE Center – September 2nd – to pray around the compound, in the rooms and common areas.  Most surgical patients and caregivers from the provinces will stay in the HOPE Center before and often after their surgeries before they are healthy enough to be discharged to return home.

Prayer for the Start of Surgeries—It is a tradition on the ships to pause on the morning of the first surgery. Normally, the Chief Medical Officer leads in a powerful prayer over the public address system, and we all agree with ‘Amen.’

First Surgeries for this seventh visit to Sierra Leone start tomorrow, September 3rd.  General Surgical Cases.  Most of all the surgical patients have already been selected by our amazing Patient Selection Team who conducted Patient Registration and Field Consultations in 12 locations around Sierra Leone.  The Global Mercy surgical team plans to provide over 1,400 free life-changing surgeries for the people of Salone from now till May 2025.  

Exciting time to be on board the Global Mercy.

Prayers:  * Successful surgeries for our patients, * All of our patients showing up for transport to the ship, * Our training participants being mentored in the operating rooms

In my next KRB Update, I will share some updates on the Africa Mercy also.