Game On!

It’s felt like I was stuck in an X-Box game lately. Every time I made progress, another more difficult obstacle would suddenly appear to replace the one just conquered. Finally though, a champion arrived (yeah for Matt!) and defeated the techno- giant that was preventing me from accessing our Walls Treat Journal blog! Yeah! It was a long fight, but we’re back! I hope you missed us.

Since we were last connected, Mercy Ships completed a six month outreach in Togo, so I have added a summary and some surgery details for those interested. Check out the side bar.

Mercy Ships ministry focus since August has been Guinea - West Africa. (We are not in the Pacific, so nowhere near PNG). Thousands of people arrived for their conditions to be accessed on the Screening Day (pictured above), and after seven weeks of ministry in Conakry, we have already been able to transform a lot of lives. Thankfully, this is just the beginning. We’ll tell you more about that on our blog next time.

We find it hugely important to stay connected with how our work here is affecting the individuals that Mercy Ships is touching in West Africa. I would think it’s the same for those incredible people in our supporter team. Here’s just one story of a family whose world was turned upside down just a few months ago. It’s one of the most impacting testimonies we have encountered in all our years of ministry. Pop across and have a quick read http://mercyships.org.nz/family-receives-sight

As Graeme and I continue our roles here in New Zealand; recruiting crew as well as raising finances and awareness, it’s is really exciting to hear the stories from Kiwi crew onboard. We love hearing what our nurses and other volunteers are experiencing during their service on the ship. A significant chunk of what I do is writing that into articles for their local newspapers. You can read a recently published story here http://www.stuff.co.nz/auckland/local-news/papakura-courier/7435369/They-really-need-our-Kiwi-nurses

Striving with technology has been a common theme for us in the past few months, and among other things Graeme has been focusing on changing our Mercy Ships communication from hardcopy newsletters to a digital Enews format. It involved a lot of database preparation and we are very pleased with the end result. (You can sign up on our MSNZ homepage www.mercyships.org.nz). He has also been speaking at quite a few Rotary and other service clubs, and is particularly looking forward to preaching his first sermon in a while – so big thanks for Rev. Simon Cornwall for the invitation to Greerton Presbyterian next Sunday. We are really looking forward to it!

Family news – (how to make this fast enough not to be boring yet detailed enough for those who want to know?) ... Jason is completing 2^nd Yr of his Communications/Business double major and still loving it. He’s been working hard with IHC and World Visions and buying a car this week – yikes! ... Chelsea only has a few days left of High School! She’s very focussed on her exams and has applied to do Nursing at AUT next year She has just landed a job with the new Warehouse opening in our area, which is fabulous ... Daniel got his Learner Driver Licence last week, so APB warning for road users in Auckland! He is sitting his first national exams next month (School Cert/NCEA1) so those are both milestone ... I also have an uni exam for the Public Relations papers I’m doing (only 2 to go – yeah!), so while other four of us are in exam mode, Graeme is very sensibly leaving the country! Each year he attends National Directors meeting at the Mercy Ships HQ in Texas. Aside from all the important work stuff, it’s always a great time for him to network with so many folk he has served with onboard the ships overs the years.

Phew, so that's us. Next time it'll be shorter- I promise! 

Togo Field Service Jan - June

Mercy Ships  recently completed our fifth field service to the nation of Togo.  Due to a change of our annual schedule. this was a short, five month outreach. For those who are interested in the details of what was accomplished, please find a summary of the information below.

Eye surgeries                                               732
Eye services & treatments                  6,083

Max fax surgeries                                      281
Cleft lip & palate                                         34

Plastics & Reconstruction                        72       

General (eg hernia & goitre)                292

Obstetric fistula                                          49

Palliative homecare patients                14

Dental procedures                             10,518

During the outreach 1373 mercy ministry visits were made by crew in their 'off' time, and they distributed 321 bibles. It is estimated that at least 738 people made solid commitments to Jesus (that we know of)

Counselling was provided to 2,390 patients, and another 290 HIV counselling sessions.

We are placing greater emphasis on training and capacity building. During this time 22 African surgeons participated in mentoring programmes with our surgeons.

54 people were trained in organic agriculture

186 health workers, police, teachers and prisons personel were trained in mental health workshops
30 children attended a 5 day trauma healing camp

1986 church and community leaders and day workers attended leadership conferences

Be-Kpota Anfame Clinic was significantly renovated.

New notches on the passport

The Africa Mercy is nearing the end of the current field service in Togo, West Africa. Many of the medical staff including a number of Kiwis are now flying home. The shore projects are wound up. The school children have finished for the scedemic year and many of their families have taken holiday time to visit family and supporters 'back home'. As the finial surgeries are completed, many tearful goodbyes are said with the amazing folk who have translated, served, and worked alongside us in Lomé and further afield.

Later this month the ship sails to the Canary Islands (located between Africa and Europe) which is the nearest fully-functioning dry dock capable of taking us. Annual 'Warrant of Fitness' will be undertaken in the shipyard, then supplies for the new field service loaded, and an influx of new short term crew arrive.

Early August will see the Africa Mercy sail to the port of Conakry in Guinea, West Africa where our ministry will focus to serve the local people for ten months.

Would you please pray with us for all that's on God's heart to be completed before the ship leaves Togo, and for the new field service ahead? There are still some key positions to be filled to have a full crew ready to hit the ground running in Conakry.

Down in the mouth!

Last week in Togo, the Mercy Ships dental team treated their 4,000th patient since February. That announcement brought back a lot of memories for me – some good and some pretty awful really.

Perhaps strangely, it’s my third-world experience in the dental clinic that brings back the good memories. While the ship was in Ghana and Liberia, I ‘volunteered’ (how do you volunteer for something when you’re already volunteering anyway? Never-the-less…) to help out sterilizing instruments in the on-shore dental clinic once a week. It was a huge learning curve to identify all the various instruments the dentists and hygienists used, as well as to learn to process of sterilizing -all in a very challenging environment. For the duration of the outreach, Mercy Ships had been given the use of a couple of connecting rooms in the local hospital for our dental clinic (pretty routine). The hospital itself has irregular electrical power, only a few taps with running water, and no window – only cinder blocks for ventilation, and very minimal toilet facilities. Every day we set up our own generators to enable the dental team with clinical lights and to use their state-of-the-art equipment to treat the constant stream of patients seeking relief from their pain.

The most remarkable thing I came across was one day a man came in with extreme tooth pain and infection. I must say when Lawrence opened his mouth, the horrendous odour quickly spread throughout the room despite all the fans! Dr Keith, who has served in these conditions for many years, quickly identified an abnormality and sent Lawrence off to the ship for an immediate x-ray. The resulting story was astonishing.

The xray exposed a foreign body embedded in Lawrence’s jaw. Stunned, he told us about being attacked many years earlier, and how the culprits had stabbed him in the mouth. Sure enough, what was imbedded in his jaw was 2 inches of knife blade! It had only recently started acting up again after the initial injury. You can see it here.....

Dr Keith performed a simple 30 minute surgery under a local anaesthetic, and Lawrence was free from source of pain and infection. He took that blade home though!

Helping people like Lawrence receive such significant healing was a source of healing from my own bad experiences as a child. I had a hereditary condition which meant the enamel didn’t form properly on my baby teeth, so I had a huge number of fillings. Small child, slow drills, no pain relief; you get the picture. Should I mention I was actually banned from all the dental clinics in my area because I’d bite the hygienist's fingers? It is really significant to me that while I’m still abit of a nervous patient in the dental chair , I have been significantly more peaceful since I helped in the clinic (haven’t bit anyone’s fingers in years now ! J). God blessed me with emotional healing while I was intent on bringing physical healing to others. Now, isn’t that just like God?!

In Liberia there is only one dentist per one million people! The patients queued from the early morning hours, and were admitted to a waiting areas where one of the local translators would provide oral hygiene instruction. They’d also watch the Jesus film in their own language while they were waiting. Their history was taken, then they’d be placed in one of our four  mobile dental chairs (mobile I the sense they were moved at the end of the outreach, not while the patient was sitting in it!) Mostly people had extractions, but often there were some very complex procedures to be done by the dentists. People’s teeth were so strong from eating tough food all their lives that it was physically exhausting for extractions, and sometimes the results of untreated cavities and fractures became literally life-threatening  because of infection.

Family Ties

We just gotta love those airpoints! Easter was a really special time for our family as we were able to attend a Jason-Smith family wedding in Australia, which was also a long-overdue extended family get-together. Such a special thing for our kids to hang our with 'the cussies' who are all young adults. As we are always spread throughout the world, it was a very rare event - last time Daniel was only 1 year old! It was a totally fabulous time.

The girls heels make this photo a bit deceptive, but the 3 lads all tower over us and we expect Daniel to take the lead very soon.Where has the time gone?

We were also able to get up to our old haunt Newcastle (NSW, not Upon-Tyne) and spend a little time with friends, supporters, and our sending church. Awesome!



Celebrating Sight

Yesterday on the dock beside the Africa Mercy in Togo, there was a Celebration of Sight. Patients who recently had cateract sugery with LAG laser treatment returned to the ship for a final check up. These men, women and children had received a mircale - their world of darkness was no longer! The

festivity is always in fabulous African style - the compelling beat of African drums inspiring dancing and clapping; an outpouring of joy over a changed life and a new future!

Globally, one person goes blind every five seconds—and one child loses his or her sight every minute. Of the 45 million blind people in the world today, almost half of them could receive their sight through a short cateract operation.

Our Chief Medical officer poignantly observed that every time a person's sight is restored, at least 2 people's lives are freed; the person who was blind, and the person who needed to lead them 24/7. (The nations we serve have no disability accesses, ammenities, or welfare benefits. The sightless are completely dependent).

 "The lame walk, the blind see, and the gospel is preached to the poor'.

1,600 patients booked

Screening Day. The ship is empty bar the on-duty crew as every person is assigned a role to help with the enormous task of facilitating the medical screening the thousands of people coming to seek help from the Africa Mercy in Togo, West Africa.

The ship arrived into the port of Lome in late January for our fifth field assignment in this desperately needy nation. In order to find those we can help, advance notice is given of a mass screening day, and this time 3.500 people came seeking help from everything from headaches and minor wounds, to tumours, blindness and incontinence.

You can catch a 90 sec glimpse into the heart of the day here                                  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UwrBKTbhaCc
The task is gruelling; emotionally, physically, spiritually. Initial descriptions with sometimes several translations from tribal to local language then to English, those we can help have their history taken under even more challenging conditions as people with minimal education and much superstition attempt to describe their symptoms. Those suffering from conditions like cataracts, club feet, cleft lip, tumours, contractured burns, and obstetric fistulas are the ones we can help as these are our dedicated surgeries. Surgeons examine, blood tests taken, patient ID photos made. Sandwiches and water are passed out to people in the impossibly long queues. Hugs and kind touches reassure frightened people who have been physically isolated by their conditions sometimes for years that God loves them and hope is on the way!