It's so good to be home! It’s surreal to turn on a tap and have clean water or to turn on
a light at any time. What a true luxury to wash my hands or have a flush toilet!
These are just a few of the contrasts
to ponder and process after returning from the NT-NL synod mission work in Sierra Leone.
What feels a lifetime ago, our group of 12 left Texas for Sierra Leone, eager
to meet our missionary, Kate Warn, in London before continuing to Lungi airport. As you’ve no doubt
heard, we set the record for the longest travel time between Dallas and Sierra Leone, since our inbound trip was interrupted
by snow and ice in London where we were stranded for four days. This was quite a contrast to the planned-for
heat and humidity as well as to our unusually short return time of about 27 hours.
Ours was a trip of strong contrasts far beyond length of inbound and outbound
flights. We saw a beautiful land of sea and mountain, rich with natural resources yet the poorest English
speaking nation and the highest maternal and birth mortality rate in the world. Freetown has a massive
population of 1.5 million people living in dire poverty, yet with dignity and determination to “make do with what they
have until they have what they want.” As the saying goes, when you answer God’s call you may be surprised. And we were.
We had over
1500 patients registered so had a grueling schedule at the new clinic site in East Freetown, the poorest part of the city,
keeping working hours and conditions our American system would never tolerate and seeing more patients than we could have
imagined possible. We neared 1000 patients seen at both locations, most with symptoms of Malaria as well
as hypertension, malnutrition and diabetes, with HIV an unknown. Hundreds had to be turned away daily to
return at a future time to register. Those who did see medical personnel had spent hours and many miles
walking, to then wait and were most grateful for the little we could do, knowing the “white doctors” could offer
more. I’ll keep this in mind next time I’m waiting in comfort for an appointment with a specialist
with equipment and medications beyond the wildest dreams of those we treated. And if ever in need of hospitalization,
I’ll be grateful it’s not the Connaught Hospital where we found no running water. There, family
members must bring everything from bed sheets to medications or IV’s for the nursing staff to administer.
The day we left was a Sunday and I preached at King of King’s, which gathers
in the fire station below the Jubilee Center, still under construction. Since pastors from remote areas
had traveled to Freetown for the installation of Pr. Kate Warn, our new missionary, I had four SL ministers in attendance
and was honored to process in and share leading the service with them. In my comments I spoke of our gratitude, for they had
given us the greatest gift anyone can give... their trust. And while we live on opposite sides of the world in so many ways,
it was a joy to find that among the contrasts of lifestyle and opportunity, we have much more in common... all striving to
build a better life for our children while worshiping the same God. We are all God's beloved children.
Our return began immediately after dedicating
the new medical clinic in the Cabala Town section of Freetown. We left in our van and jeep, to travel through
streets packed cars, vans, trucks, wheelbarrows, bikes and pedestrians all using the same pathway. Beyond
any paved streets of Freetown, we traveled through the red dust to reach the ferry site to wait 2 hours for the 45 minute
travel time… the pattern of hurry up and wait of “African time,” driven by the meager power and multitude
of people. After ferrying over the Sierra Leone River, we drove on to the airport of our arrival.
Where we’d met chaos and strangers in the dark hours, we now left dear friends and a pace which had become familiar.
That’s a nutshell of the past weeks. I’ll
be happy to share more pictures and stories in the future, but if you’d like to see what’s happening since our
departure, Pr. Kate Warn, our NT-NL missionary in Freetown, has a marvelous blog www.onmissionsierraleone.wordpress.com.
