Liberia Health Conference

I am learning so much and connecting with great people in Monrovia. I am at the Heath Conference that is being hosted by the Liberia Annual Conference. There are people form the Repubulic of Liberia government, Liberia UMC Health Board, Liberian UMC clinics and hospital leaders, local churches from America and Germany, Annual Conferences, Christian Blinded Misison, Dental Care For The World, Operation Classroom, and so many others who want to partner together to heal the sick and move Liberia forward. Rev. Gary Henderson is here with the UMC's Global Health Initiative. A great ministry connecting people and United Methodists from all over the world. We just finished with the first day of meeting, February 18th. We will meet again tomorrow. I sit at the meeting with Meliah Toby, the certified mid-wife from the Camphor Clinic. It is good to be here again.

After the two day conference, I will travel to the Camphor Mission Station on Friday until Sunday. Monday-Wednesday will be spent in Monrovia meeting with Bishop Innis and hoping to gather some supplies for Camphor. It is great to be here and feels really right, a bit like coming home. It is really strange not traveling with Danny! I miss him VERY much and people here keep asking about him. I will be back in the US on Thursday, February 26th.

Peace.

Great Generosity!

As I make plans to head back to the Camphor Mission people have been very generous with donations for me to take. When Jordan Martin heard that some children in Africa don't have toothbrushes or toothpaste she went to work! Jordan has collected 311 toothbrushes and 65 tubes of toothpaste for me to take with me to Liberia. Did I mention that Jordan is only 12 years old! Way to go!

The congregation at Garfield Memorial UMC in Beechwood is also responding to need. There are sending over bibles, medical supplies, communion sets, and other resources to benefit the community and congregation at the Garfield Memorial UMC at the Camphor Mission Station.

Just the beginnings to the hope for connecting with the folks in Liberia.

Things are moving forward!

With the start of the new year comes exciting new starts to our future work and plans for returning to the Liberia Annual Conference. Danny is back to work generating income. Kathy has been speaking at local congregations, at UMC district events and to the EOC leadership, and in the community about our Rosemark year.

We are focusing on our future work in Liberia at the Camphor Mission Station. (Learn more about the Camphor Mission Station at www.camphormission.org) We are looking for partnering churches or organizations to help to support us as missionaries and mission station programs. We also need your prayers for the people of Camphor and for us.

Kathy is returning to Liberia February 15-25 for a meeting in Monrovia with the leadership of the Liberia UMC, people from UMCOR and GBGM. We will be discussing health care needs and goals within the work of Methodist Church in Liberia. She will also be spending a long weekend at the Camphor Mission. She is excited to return and be with our Liberian friends again.

Home

We made it home!  We are back in Cleveland back in cold weather with our family and dog.  Danny is back at work trying to generate some income.  Kathy has returned to Mentor UMC.  Our repatriation is going well.  Thanks for following us around Africa this year.  The following is our end of mission report.  

Mission Accomplished
Our initial goals were to learn more about travel in Africa, meet and work with health care workers and missionaries, learn from other people’s successes and failures, and to build relationships with people in Africa.  We did it!  We stayed healthy and we still like one another. We both plan to talk to God and the bishops of The United Methodist Church in Liberia and Ohio to discover what we are suppose to do next. We will keep you posted!


Rosemark Stops: an intentional destination or a stumble upon where we learned about missionary work in Africa. We stayed between 6 hours and six week at the places we listed below.

Buguruni Anglican Health Center
Amana Hospital Lecture
Mvumi Anglican Hospital
Mvumi Medical School
St. Andrews Anglican Church
Dodoma Christian Medical Center
Pen Trust
Mvumi Anglican Secondary School
Mama Clementina Foundation Kilimanjaro Medical Center
Nairobi Youth Ministry
Mama Pilista Bonyo Memorial Health Center
Maua Methodist Hospital
Aga Kahn Hospital
Mt. Olives UMC
Mbabaali Orphanage
Humble School Orphanage
Rock Foundation School
Enfuzi Orphanage
Edirisa Community Outreach
Rwandan Genocide Memorial
Sons of Thunder Village
Zimbabwe Annual Conference Africa University
Kensington School Startup
Queen Elizabeth Hospital Malaria Project
World Relief
Schnabel Foundation
Chicuque Methodist Hospital
Cambini Mission Station
Crossroads and Charity and Faith Mission
The Love of Christ Ministries Mfeluni UMC
Kigmotso Girls Club and Primary School
Child Rescue Center
Leader UMC
Mercy Hospital
Mangama Clinic
Camphor Mission Station
Ganta United Methodist Hospital
Winifred J. Harley School of Nursing
McCallister UMC
Curamericas Community Based Health Project

What we did during our Rosemark stops:
We birthed babies. We held babies. We prayed for babies. And we buried babies.
We traveled on planes, trains, automobiles, boats, buses, dug out canoes, motorcycles, bad taxis, matatus, dala dalas, pin pins, and boda bodas
We slept in $100 a night motels (other people paid!) and $1 a night truck stops.
We washed feet. We washed bottles. We washed wounds. We washed linens and clothes.
One of us started IV’s while the other started youth ministries.
We swam in the sea, a swimming pool, oceans, lakes, and craters.
We slept under tin roofs, thatch roofs, and mosquito nets.
We climbed on termite mounds and Kilimanjaro.
We watched people labor in the fields and women labor in the maternity ward.
We taught preschool and medical school. We taught swimming lessons. We were taught how to haul water on your head how to greet people in many languages.
We changed burn dressings and dirty diapers.
We organized medical supplies and library books.
We took temperatures and blood pressures. We took Holy communion when churches could afford the elements.
We walked through the Holy Land one day and stood on holy ground often.
We ran on dirt roads and ran pediatric ward rounds.
We saw wildlife. We saw penguins. We saw great joy and great grief. We saw the Cape of Good Hope and experienced great hope in war torn Liberia. We experienced dynamic worship. We worshiped with Muslims and Christians. We experienced amazing food and over the top hospitality.
We were blessed. Our lives will never be the same. Amen.

To all of you who came to our wedding or supported the Rosemark in other ways, we would like to say, “Thank you!” We feel like we put your gifts, donations, and prayers to good use. We have been filing monthly reports with the East Ohio Conference of the United Methodist Church and Mentor UMC, but wanted to share our end of mission report with you our partners.

Heading home!

We are back in Monrovia after two great weeks in Ganta, northern Liberia. Danny enjoyed running the pediatric ward at the Ganta United Methodist Hospital where he did real hospital medicine, saving babies. Danny also did weekly health talks for the staff. Kathy preached most mornings at staff devotions. She also sat in on a start up community based health program training.

This is a photo of Kathy with Marylou, an OPD nurse. They are standing in front of a mosaic cross and flame. The red shattered glass that was swept up from the chapel after the war. It had been a window in the old chapel and it was reclaimed and made into a piece of art. The red shattered glass is now the flame of the United Methodist cross.


Our time in Monrovia has been productive. We have met with Bishop Innis to discuss the possibilities of future plans and ministry in Liberia. The Bishop introduced us to THE President of Liberia, Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf. It was a great honor to meet her!



This is probably our last blog entry until we get home. Thanks for following us along the continent. We will be meeting with our Bishop to talk about what we may do next. Stay tuned!

Ganta United Methodist Hospital

We spent a short time in Monrovia between work at the Camphor and Ganta Misison. While in Monrovia, we were able to complete our absentee ballot and vote for the next president of the US and see friends. We arrived at the Ganta Mission on Saturday. We have very nice housing with Sue Porter, GBGM, a UMC missionary here at the Ganta Mission. She is the Director of the School of Nursing. Danny is busy with the Out Patient Department and is excited to be scrubbing for surgeries. He will be working with Dr. Wilhcor, the local surgeon here at the Ganta United Methodist Hospital. It is a perfect place to spend two weeks as we wind down our work in Africa. Before we left the Camphor Mission Station the people hosted a great good-bye ceremony for us. We were presented with African clothes and Bassa names. Kathy is Madayee and Danny is Gadayee, woman has come and man has come is what they mean. They mean that when this woman or this man arrived, all of our problems are solved and there is nothing more we need to worry about. An answer to prayer or sorts. Not sure all of that is true, but is in an honor to have been given Bassa names and to be considered family.

Here's Kathy looking like Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, the President of Liberia!

Camphor Mission Station, Liberia

We are winding up our time at the Camphor Mission Station in Liberia. It has been a great month here at the school, church, and clinic. Danny and I will be heading to Ganta, Liberia next. There is another UMC mission there with a bigger hospital. We will be there for about two weeks. Here are a few photos more photos from the Camphor Mission.

Some of Kathy's ABC class at the Camphor Mission.

Danny with the rest of the clinic staff at the Camphor Mission.

Kathy with a baby girl that was delivered at the Buchanan Government Hospital.
This weekend we had to transfer a bad labor patient to the government hospital in Buchanan,about 15 miles away from the Camphor Mission Station. The mother was not progressing and Danny could not hear a fetal heart beat. Danny went along to the hospital. On the way to the hospital our old,broken Jeep ran out of gas on the bad road leaving the mission. Someone had siphoned the gas to put into the generator so they could watch a video the night before. The laboring mother and about 10 family members were very patient as our driver took off running to find some gas. They were also patient 45 min later when we had to stop to bleed the brakes because the master cylinder leaks to fast. After all of these trials we finally made it to the hospital only to find that there is no doctor at the government hospital. The doctor had left for training in London and has not been replaced. Danny is the only doctor in Grand Bassa County. Buchanan is the second biggest town in Liberia and there in no doctor! This place has some challenges. The mother and baby are fine and even delivered naturally, it's a girl! Danny was recruited to do ultrasounds on all the mothers in the OB Department.