Things have just started to slow down and we have started to catch up on the regular maintenance of the off ship facilities. The past month has been hectic we had a massive storm that damaged the patient exam tents and threw canopies across the dock and into the water and caused a lot of damage to the rehab tent causing it to collapse and be unusable. We moved the rehab into the eye screening tent which wont be used until January luckily. I have also been acting vehicle mechanic as well as maintenance assistant in charge of 30 land cruisers regular maintenance as well as the various off ship facilities. We have had 20 accidents so far with the vehicles and numerous issues with the buildings we are using for the Dental clinic and the Dental team house as well as the Hope center. My daily routine is do a service on a vehicle in the morning and then run out to the HOPE Center in the afternoon to fix the wiring/plumbing or any issue that has come up. There is one other maintenance Man that i work with he is a very experienced man from Benin that was hired as day crew and now has become crew, we get along really well and can get a lot accomplished in a day. We are able to have fun even while working hard making it a really Enjoyable and rewarding mission!
We just got a new vehicle mechanic from Alberta last week so i have been handing over the vehicle work to him so i will only have to do off ship maintenance which will be nice break.
The Max Fax surgeries are well underway and this week the Orthopedic surgeries start the Hope Center and Dock space are filling up with children with severe bowed legs and knock knees as well as club foot patients who are very excited to be finally receiving safe and FREE healthcare!
the children are opening up and really starting to be kids again as they are surrounded by people with the same conditions as them and are being shown the love of Jesus by the nurses and crew members. I heard about a Man who's granddaughter is a patient on board and through the love and acceptance of the doctors and nurses he started asking why we would care so much about a Muslim man and his family when they told him about Jesus he asked to hear more and over the span of several days of asking questions and seeing the practical faith of everyone on board he gave his life to Christ!
I am so happy to be a part of Gods work here in Senegal! I want to thank you all for the Prayers and support!
I would ask that you pray for continued positive interactions with the patients and for the surgeries taking place in the OR rooms on board here and the healing and recovery of the patients.
The Screening nurses have also asked for prayers as they have to turn down so many people for injuries or illnesses we are not equipped to handle, it is very hard on them as we can only help a fraction of the people that come to us. they work long hours trying to find people with the life threatening illnesses and severe medical conditions that we are able to help out with.
I also ask that you pray for the Crew on board as we are away from friends and family for a long time in a foreign country and sleeping in small rooms with up to 10 people. and put in stressful situations in our work and daily life on board.
Thank you All again for your love and support!