KRB Update #2199 – Preparing for Benin
Keith R. Brinkman                                                       01 July 2014

Greetings from the shipyard in Gran Canaria, Spain after almost a two week sail from the Republic of Congo as we finished our ten month field service in central Africa.  It was a good sail for most of the time and I was able to accomplish much work on Congo and Benin during that time.  Sailing provides a time of transition to close out one season and to begin to prepare for the next season and for us that is technical and the field service to Benin.  I am thankful for the time of transition.

You may ask what are you doing in Gran Canaria – well the answer is shipyard and drydock work.  We have two possible location options: Canary Islands (geographically Africa just off Morocco) and South Africa.  The decision was to return to the Canary Islands for the work needed which includes removing the drive shaft, propellers and rudder for inspection, repairs and maintenance plus work on our fresh water pipes throughout and some renovations in the hospital on flooring, etc.

Our Advance Team is already in Cotonou, Benin to prepare the way – with all the relationships with the government, church, port, sites for the Dental Clinic, Eye Clinic and HOPE Center, immigration, healthcare education participants, advertising for patient selection, and many other duties.  Our managing director always encouraged us to try to accomplish as much as possible ahead of time to allow a smoother and quicker start once the ship arrives.  Some have asked “What are the plans for Benin field service?” – we plan to offer maxillofacial, plastics, eye, pediatric orthopaedics, women’s health and general surgeries, dental care, palliative care, eye care and Education projects including mentoring for surgeons, anaesthesia providers, ward nurses, operating room nurses, sterile processing technicians and courses in Basis Surgical Skills, Radiology, Primary Trauma Care, Medical Leadership, Leadership for Community Leaders, SAFE Obstetric Anaesthesia, WHO Checklist/Lifebox Team Training, Newborn Resuscitation and others – it will be an exciting season.

I have finished most of my work on 29 individual project reports from Congo – the sections most important in these reports are Challenges/Responses/Recommendations and Worked Well in addition to the financial sections on our budget and actual expenses.  We want to identify challenges and suggest recommendations to improve our future projects.  I am now taking a break to rest and also to see some friends in Europe, thanks to cheap airfares with Ryan Air.  After my break, I will work diligently preparing for the Benin field service.

Please pray *Our advance team in Benin preparing the way *Safety for everyone during the technical phase of the ship  *For the right day crew to join us in Benin  *For the patients and healthcare education participants from in and around Benin

Welcome to WordPress. This is your first post. Edit or delete it, then start blogging!

Greetings from the Republic of Congo on the Africa Mercy for the last time as we  sail this weekend from this nation after the ten month field service.  One of my responsibilities is maintaining and publishing our statistics every week.  Below is a chart related to our surgical services.  Yes the numbers are important and I desire integrity with our statistics, but I never want to forget each number represents an adult or child (like those I visit in the wards) who has received healing physically and so much more for the whole-person.  The impact extends to the patient’s family, community and nation.

At the request of the president of the Republic of Congo, we formalized our healthcare education strategy and opportunities.  Through mentoring (one-on-one) and courses (designed for groups), we had 746 healthcare professionals who participated.  As I am working on the individual final project reports, I am reminded of the impact and difference the education is making as we address knowledge, skill and a professional and compassionate attitude.
Our Hospital Chaplaincy Team have ministered to all of our patients and caregivers, conducted over 1,600 individual counseling sessions.
Last Saturday was our final Mercy Ministries visit – I joined the team at Ngoyo Plaines Orphanage with the children and teens there (see the photo).  Our Jesus Film team shared the film based on the gospel of Luke and the discipleship videos in partnership with Navigators with over 2,800 people in Pointe-Noire – over 600 expressed a commitment or asked for prayer.  In total Mercy Ministries conducted 349 site visits with about 100 crew members every week participating.

It is a grateful heart for all that God has done this field service that I say ‘au revoir’ to the people of the Republic of Congo.
Please pray * Former patients  * Former day crew that they may find new employment  * Advance Team in Cotonou, Benin preparing for our arrival in August  * Safety and the completion of the work required in ship yard in Gran Canaria.

Keith R. Brinkman                                                       10 May 2014

Greetings from the Republic of Congo on the Africa Mercy.

Community:  I love being a part of the Mercy Ships community on the ships and previously on land and for the last seven years the community of the m/v Africa Mercy.  We are a community of faith as together we serve the forgotten poor with the love of Christ and acts of service as part of following the 2,000-year-old model of Jesus.  We represent a diverse range of Christian traditions and denominations.  The crew come from up to 40 different nations around the world.  During a typical field service, we will have over 1,000 crew come through the ship.  We agree to live and model our core values of loving God, loving and serving others, being people of integrity and excellence in all we say and do.

Crew Photo on the Dock August 2013

The ship serves many purposes, for many of the long term crew it serves as our home; my cabin #4236 on deck 4 port side is my home.  I am thankful that after many years of service and my position, I have a single cabin to call home.  In addition to being home, the ship is where we work, serve, eat, play, gather together with friends and also to host guests including heads of state, and where we come together for worship and prayer.  All of this is within a length of 500 feet (152 meters) by 77.7 feet (23.7 meters) wide on 8 decks – just think about that.  The population on board may reach up to 350 adults and 50 children + around 200 local workers/day crew coming in and out daily + over 100 patients and caregivers in the hospital on deck 3.  Living and serving in close community and working cross-culturally brings great joys and fulfillment, as well as frustrations and disappointments.  We use our experiences in community life to grow in character and love.

Next Field Service:  An announcement from Mercy Ships leadership:  “The Mercy Ships International Management Team (IMT) has closely followed the Ebola outbreak in Guinea and Liberia since it came to light in March. The IMT has consulted with a broad range of outside experts and internal stakeholders. While the international response to the outbreak has been strong and decisive, and we believe it will be effectively extinguished in due course, the uncertainty it poses at this time compromises our ability to plan and execute the anticipated Guinea field service. Our operational requirements to function include supply and personnel logistics that do not give us the ability to further wait on prospective outcomes of the Ebola situation over the coming weeks and months. As such, we have chosen to postpone going to Guinea and will instead return to Cotonou, Benin, where the Africa Mercy last served in 2009.”  My heart and prayers are with the people of Guinea during this difficult time.  I was in Benin in 2009 and have many good memories and look forward to an amazing field service with them starting in August.

Please pray * All final patients are able to go home and that we would finish strong here in the Republic of Congo  * People of Guinea  * People of Benin and our Advance Team already in country

Serving Together,

Keith

Email:  [email protected]  www.KeithBrinkman.com

15 March 2014
Greetings from the Republic of Congo on the Africa Mercy.  We are privileged to be able to serve in Africa and Mercy Ships is invited in by the head of state, President or Prime Minister, etc.  One of the special requests from His Excellency President Denis Sassou Nguesso was for healthcare education for his healthcare professionals.  So with his request and our desire to offer more in regards to capacity building – education, we worked together at a Programs Consultants back in March 2013 to come up with the healthcare education plan for the Congo 2013/2014 field service.  With our healthcare education the goal is impartation of knowledge, skills and professional attitude in individuals to affect transformational development and we aim to achieve this by increasing depth of education through mentoring and increasing breadth of education through courses.

Mentoring:  Surgeons in maxillofacial, obstetric fistulas, ophthalmology and orthopaedics.  Six Operating Room Nurses for the entire field service.  Ward Nurses in the surgical specialties in maxillofacial, obstetric fistula and general surgery care.  Anaesthesia with a focus on anaesthesia for children.  Sterile Processing Technician nurses in their local hospitals.  Team training on the World Health Organization Safe Surgery Save Lives checklist and pulse oximetry in Dolisie, third city of Congo.   

Courses:  Basic Surgical Skills with facilitators from Ghana.  Primary Trauma Care courses starting in May with up to 20 participants, Ultrasound/Radiology which has already taken place with 10 participants the entire week and others joined for special sessions.  Anaesthesia Course in Pointe-Noire in March, already conducted a similar course in Brazzaville prior to the ship’s arrival.  Disease Prevention/Infection Control Team working with local hospitals, part of our partnership with Rotary International and also a Cataract Vocational Training team in Brazzaville.  Added at special request of the neonatal unit at the government hospital the Newborn Resuscitation courses for 47 nurses.  Leadership Course geared for medical leaders here in Pointe-Noire. 

Basic education in oral health is offered to all patients at our dental clinic.  On the job training for our day crew (local workers) plus basic community health education classes for them.  Our non-healthcare related education include two leadership courses for community leaders and our 19-week agriculture course for 25 participants to become trainers of community farmers  and then follow up and one on one mentoring afterwards.

For us in Programs, this is a great increase in what we have officially done in the past.  So now we have published project plans with our goals and activities which we track in our statistics and I am responsible to accumulate and publish the statistics for the ship.  Plus we have individual reporting on each of our projects, which also includes our actual expenses as compared to our proposed budget.  As stated in one of our core values ‘committed to excellence’.  

Please pray *for our facilitators of the healthcare education mentoring and courses *for each of the education participants *for all of our patients, their surgeries and their recovery time period * for our plans for the next field service in Conakry, Guinea from August 2014 – June 2015. 

11 January 2014
Greetings from Congo on the Africa Mercy – we had some exciting news before Christmas and I wish to share with you all. Below is the official press release:

MERCY SHIPS TO BUILD WORLD’S LARGEST CIVILIAN HOSPITAL SHIP
Deal Doubles the Capacity to Deliver Free, World-Class Health Care
BEIJING, CHINA, December 19, 2013 –Mercy Ships has announced that it has reached an agreement with Asian and European shipbuilding firms to purpose-build a new 36,600-GRT hospital ship for Mercy Ships. Contracts were signed between Mr. Dong Qiang, VP of China Shipbuilding Industry Corporation (CSIC), and Donald K. Stephens, President/ Founder of Mercy Ships, together with Jim Paterson, Senior VP of Mercy Ships Marine Operations. The vessel will be built at the group’s Tianjin Xingang Shipyard where the shipyard’s Chairman, Mr. Gao Xuehu, and President, Mr. Hu Xiang, expressed excitement to be working on this unique project.
“This project will make this vessel the world’s largest civilian hospital ship, and delivery is being planned for July 2017,” stated Mr. Gao Xuehu, Chairman of Tianjin Xingang Shipbuilding Heavy Industry, Ltd. “We are thrilled to formally secure this important milestone for a project we have worked on quietly for quite some time,” said Stephens.
“Our goal with this second Mercy Ship is to more than double the hope and healing through life-changing surgeries provided to those with little access to specialized healthcare and to increase the partnership, training and educational support of health professionals within the developing nations our ships will continue to serve.”
This agreement comes on the heels of the Mercy Ships story, recently highlighted by CBS on “60 Minutes” (http://www.cbsnews.com/videos/africa-mercy-hospital-of-hope-50141230/ .

The 174-metre hospital ship will be designed by the Finnish firm Deltamarin. Stena RoRo will manage the actual project construction under the leadership of Per Westling, Managing Director.

The 157-year-old French ship brokerage company Barry Rogliano Salles (BRS) under the leadership of its Geneva (Switzerland) office Managing Director, Gilbert Walter, negotiated the successful contract and sale.
CSIC is one of China’s largest shipbuilding and ship repair groups and operates directly under the China state government with authorization for investment and capital management. The group has a total asset base of USD 27.54 billion and a workforce of 140,000. The group’s 28 R&D institutes employ more than 30,000 engineers, has eight state-level laboratory centers, seven enterprise technology centers and 150 large-scale laboratories.

The new Mercy Ship will be classed by Lloyd’s Register and flagged by Malta.
Please pray *for construction of our new ship *for the finances for this project *for all those involved in this project

Serving Together,
Keith
Email: [email protected]
www.KeithBrinkman.com

PS: Announcement on the next country for 2014-2015 will come soon.

KRB Update #2194 – Impfondo & DRC
Keith R. Brinkman                                                       07 December 2013

Greetings from the nation of the Republic of Congo.  I wish to give you a short update on our historical event with our patient selection/surgical screening in the capital of this country on 06 November.  After countless hours of preparatory work on the part of many, we had a successful patient selection – we had allocated 300 surgical slots for those from the Brazzaville, Plateaux and Pool areas.  We provided 294 people with their screening cards for the appointment for final approval from our surgeons.  I served as the Site Commander for this screening and had the great support of amazing screening and security teams and great cooperation with all the local officials – see below photo.

Photo:  on the right – outside when I went to     the crowds to search for additional patients

Just this week, our team has done screening in two interior cities – Oyo and Ouesso.  They are en route back to the capital by land and I will join them on Sunday.  We will fly with Mission Aviation Fellowship to Impfondo, town in the north eastern section of the Republic of Congo with a population of around 20,000 people lying on the Oubangui River.  It is the administrative capital of the district and region.  Our venue is the Pioneer Christian Hospital (Hospital Evangelique le Pionnier) – a 60 bed general mission hospital and the referral center for a greater population base of 300,000 people.  You can be a part of this event with your prayer:
* Patients from in and around Impfondo come for the screening on Tuesday (10 December) – nothing would hinder those God has purposes for with us at this time.
* Security and safety for all involved – peace and order * Good weather with clouds and no rain
* All the logistics of air travel, accommodations, ground transportation, meals, etc.  * Our partners in the government, local Christian hospital, local churches and local organizations.

DRC Assessment: With permission from the managing director on board, I joined for two weeks in November the Assessment Team in the Democratic Republic of Congo – which is the much larger and better known Congo here.  Three of us traveled from the ship, two from the US and two from Switzerland as we came together as a team. 
Mercy Ships already has a protocol agreement with the government.  A recent detailed port assessment of Matadi (up the Congo River) had already been accomplished.  Our team was to work on relationship building, with the hospital assessments and logistical arrangements.  It was challenging and fulfilling.  The people are friendly and loved when I used my limited Lingala (one of their major languages).  They need us and want us in their nation and so I believe that sometime in the future we will have a Mercy Ship there.
Serving Together,   
Keith

Photo on the left:  Port of Matadi on the Congo River and next with the Mayor of Matadi

KRB Update #2194 – Brazzaville
Keith R. Brinkman                                                       02 November 2013

The Africa Mercy is preparing for a historical event with our patient selection/surgical screening in the capitol and largest city of the Republic of Congo – Brazzaville without the ship’s presence nearby.  Typically, our largest screening takes place in the port city and that is normally the capitol or less than one hour from the capitol as in Ghana and Benin.  For those events, like 28 August here in Pointe-Noire, we have over 300 crew members involved along with another 100 local workers/day crew.  For Brazzaville, we are working closely with the President’s Office, our host, to make this a success.  Due to concern of the thousands of people who may come and how we are limited how many from the ship who can participate, we changed our strategy slightly.  Pre-screening/selection process took place this week at 11 hospitals and health centers in and around the greater Brazzaville area.  All of the participating doctors from those locations were briefed what we can assist with and what we cannot assist with.  The majority of the pre-selection registration forms have been reviewed by Mercy Ships’ Patient Flow Manager.  Only those who have a pre-registration form will be seen by Mercy Ships on Wednesday, 06 November at the site provided.  We are flying personnel from the Africa Mercy in Pointe-Noire to Brazzaville for this event – hospital staff and translators (day crew) along with the communications team, executive and security.  I hope to open the main gate at 06:00 on Wednesday morning.  For this event, I was asked to be Site Commander and I agreed to take on the challenge.  You can be a part of this event with your prayer.
Our prayer requests are:
* Pre-registered patients to come for the screening – nothing would hinder them
* Security and safety for all involved – peace and order
* Good weather with clouds and no rain
* All the logistics of air travel, accommodations, ground transportation, meals, etc.
* Our partners in the government, local church and local organizations

One short story from one of our patients from our first screening here in Pointe-Noire (I gave them their ticket at the main gate where I served): Vernel came with his papa as he had a cleft lip that needed to be repaired.  Through our Befriend-a-Patient I spent time with them in the hospital wards.  Amazing to see the change in this boy – see the other photo after his recovery – this was taken at his home in his village.  Life changed !!!  We pray for more to come from our upcoming screenings.

Thank you all for your partnership with me as I serve here.

Serving Together,   Keith
Email:  [email protected]
www.KeithBrinkman.com (web site new and improved with great thanks from my friend Paul in Guatemala)

04 October 2013

Greetings from Congo on the Africa Mercy. Mercy Ministries provides off ship ministry opportunities for crew working alongside existing national organizations, demonstrating the ‘face of love in action’. We wish to demonstrate God’s love, care and concern for those we have come to serve, through prayer, listening, counseling, teaching, building relationships, play and interaction. I am involved at various sites myself and provide oversight to the Mercy Ministries Coordinator, who is doing a great job. I am most thankful for our crew who volunteer to be site team leaders, our translators, and all the crew who sign up every week.

Here are our partners for Congo 2013-2014:
Espace Orphanage – up to 40 children, primarily those from the streets – Bible stories, games and sports.  I heading to this orphanage on Saturday.
Centre d’Accueil Boys Orphanage – 15 boys, age 5 to 18 years old – evening program with sports, arts and mentoring.
Amour de Dieu Orphanage – up to 20 children – in the process of moving, so some practical assistance for the new facility and time with the children and teens.
Mvou Mvou Creche Baby Center – home for abandoned and orphaned babies – time of play, nurturing – visits twice a week – our Infant Feeding Program is involved with some of their babies also.
Senior Community Center – a time senior citizens gather from the community – share story or drama, dance, exercise and encouragement.
Handicapped Tailors – up to 24 adults learning to be tailors – time of Bible study and mentoring with crafts.

Photo: With the seniors under a tree – Thomas is to my right and he was real helpful with my French and understanding.

Sewing Sisters – working with young women who have been chased from their homes and poor schooling, many have babies – time of Bible study, mentoring and teaching crafts.
Hospital Pediatric Ward Visitation – evening event to a local hospital to visit the children and caregivers there – basic crafts and loving on children.
HOPE Center – place where our interior patients stay after discharge from the wards but need to return for outpatient care – time of Bible stories, songs and crafts.
Men & Women’s Prisons – takes place on Saturday mornings – a time of worship and Bible teaching and study.
School for the Deaf – opens later this month – weekly visits and program with art with rotating classes.

Photo: With the children – showing my ID badge with a photo of the ship and showed where my cabin is and demonstrating my ‘snoring’ – they love it.

Pre-Operative Center – similar to the HOPE Center, but the place where the interior patients and caregivers come before coming into the hospital wards here on board.
Jesus Film – sharing the film in French and local languages in partnership with an association here in Pointe-Noire and local church leaders.

More about the Republic of Congo – Life Expectancy at birth: 55 years, Under Five years old Mortality Rate 128 per 1,000 live births, Median age: 17 years old, 0 – 14 years old 45% of the population, Literacy 83% (can read and write), School Life Expectancy 10 years and 62% of the population live in urban areas of Brazzaville and Pointe-Noire where the port is located. Refugee population in the Republic of Congo primarily from their neighbor Democratic Republic of Congo – though primarily in the northern sectors of the country and the capital of Brazzaville.

Please pray *Our mercy ministries partners, the relationships and all the activities with them *Our hospital staff as they care for our patients *All of our patients, their surgeries and their recovery time period *For the continued efforts with screening and patient selection in the capitol city of Brazzaville on Wednesday 06 November.

Serving Together, Keith
Email: [email protected]  www.KeithBrinkman.com

PS: Following our field service here in early June 2014 we will sail for the Canary Islands for a drydock period in Gran Canaria. Announcement on the next country for 2014-2015 will come soon.

KRB Update #2191 – Patient Selection Keith R. Brinkman 02 September 2013
Greetings from the hospital ship, Africa Mercy. I sincerely thank you all who prayed for our surgical screening/patient selection on the 28th of August at a local high school here in Pointe-Noire. As in previous years, I served at the main gate and had the wonderful opportunity to hand out tickets and to greet almost every potential patient/caregiver coming into the compound (see photo). I practiced my limited French with ‘Bon jour’ et ‘Bienvenue’ and a few phrases in Kituba, the primary local language in the southern parts of Congo. For example, ‘Mboté’, ‘Wa fa So’, and then if they responded with ‘Ka Bien’ I knew they understood me. For the toddlers, I would knell down to greet them and see if they would shake my hand, for some of the small ones they may never have interacted with a mundelli ‘white person’ before. For the adults, I tried to look them in the eyes one at a time. I got excited when I saw cleft lip children and others with visible maxillofacial tumors. I look forward to welcoming many onto the ship when they come for their surgeries. Plus through befriend-a-patient, I will have the great opportunity of starting and building relationships with the Congolese patients.

Statistics: estimated over 7,300 came for the screening, some left the line outside as they had a problem we are not able to assist with and then 4,236 potential patients plus another 2,118 caregivers came inside the compound. Almost 1,000 were potential eye patients and the others for our surgical specialties. After the nurse pre-screening, 1,326 potential patients continued through the process. Hundreds were scheduled for surgery and hundreds of others were scheduled for a surgeon screening (when the surgeons for that specialty arrive in country) and for overflow screening as we ran out of day light and time on Wednesday. Later on, I will have more exact numbers as one of my responsibilities is tracking our statistics for our activities – each number representing an individual. Our managing director shared that this was one of our finest moments in Mercy Ships screening and that “We made history on Wednesday. We broke all of our Selection Day records – it was a remarkable day for Mercy Ships and for Congo-Brazzaville. It could not have happened without the continued support of our donors, volunteers and local partners like FELBO.” This day is one our highlights of the entire field service with over 340 crew members involved, over 100 local workers, government officials and local partners. Praise to our Great God!!!

More about the Republic of Congo – Healthcare Structure – CHU – top hospital located in the capitol and then four general hospitals, two are here in Pointe-Noire – Adolphe Sice and Loandjili. We are working with both for patient referral and our healthcare education mentoring and courses and then Base Hospitals and then the lowest level is Integrated Health Centers which you see throughout the nation. During our screening in the interior, we will work with the government base hospitals in Oyo and Ouesso. They have various medical specialties in Congo – oncology, cardiology, pediatrics, OB/GYN and general, but for maxillofacial, trauma, orthopaedics, eyes, fistulas and plastics reconstructive their surgeons go overseas for training. Regretfully in Congo, infant mortality has increased in the last twenty years to over 80 per 1,000 births. Maternal mortality also increased to almost 600 per 100,000 live births.

Please pray *Our hospital staff as they care for our patients *All of our patients with appointments come and receive their healing *For the continued efforts with screening and patient selection in the interior including the capitol city of Brazzaville. *My better understanding of their culture and language
Serving Together,
Keith

Email: [email protected]  www.KeithBrinkman.com
Mercy Ships Mission Statement: Mercy Ships follows the 2000-year-old model of Jesus, bringing hope and healing to the world’s forgotten poor.