Sunday 14 October 2012

NEWS FROM SIERRA LEONE AND UK


We left Freetown on 22nd June to start our furlough which we planned to coincide with the beginning of Joelle’s summer holidays. It was a welcome break for us as a family after two years in Freetown.
Our first task was to visit Interhealth for medical checks and a visit to World Church Office for debriefing with the Africa desk Co-ordinator and other members of staff. We are grateful to Jan Deakin for all the hard work she did in organising our visits to Interhealth, the meetings at Church office and most especially for organising the baby sitters for Joelle and Janelle.
After three weeks in the UK we went to Jamaica where we stayed for almost 5 weeks.
Whilst on furlough in the UK we visited a number of churches to talk about our work with the Methodist Church Sierra Leone.
The churches visited were
  1. BGMC – Bethnal Green Mission Church
  2. Chalkwell Park Methodist Church in Westcliff on Sea, in Essex.
  3. Sunfields Methodist Church, Blackheath. London.
We attended BGMC and Chalkwell Park Methodist Church on 8th July and 28th August respectively to talk about our work in Sierra Leone. Both churches have supported us materially, financially and spiritually with prayers so it was a pleasure to update the congregation on our activities over the past four years. Chalkwell Park organises an annual model train exhibition to raise funds for the work at Nixon. We were presented with a cheque for £1180 during the service. We are really grateful to both churches for their support, especially to Dr Gillian Webster and Reverend Mike Houston (BGMC) and John and Linda Wilson (Chalkwell Park)  for spearheading these efforts at their respective churches.
In addition to the above churches we also talked at our home church – Sunfields Methodist Church in Blackheath, London. We have again received tremendous support from the congregation and want to thank especially Rev. Joseph, Andrew and Juliet Gibbs, Paddy and Madge Booth, Jean and the rest of the congregation for their support and encouragement in various ways.
Our work in Sierra Leone has been going very well despite the challenges. Joanna’s work with the Nursing school, has entered another phase. Two Nurses from Nixon Hospital have now completed their midwifery training at the Makeni midwifery school and have now taken over the teaching of the midwifery module at Nixon Memorial Hospital. This is in line with the plans for the hospital when we first went and this was done with the help of a local charity.
We are grateful to God for some of the notable achievements we achieved with the module. This included:
-          The placement of students in surrounding villages as part of their practical training;
-          The development of a teaching plan for the midwifery module – based on the national curriculum.



Joanna will still have the responsibility to oversee (if necessary) the teaching of the midwifery module in addition to assuming responsibilities for Women and children’s health in the Health and Wholeness department. This will include MCSL’s work with some NGOs to develop a project for Mothers and Children suffering from HIV/AIDs enhancing MCSL’s work in the health and wholeness sector.
Michael still has responsibility for the Health and Wholeness desk and in addition he would be taking on the health sector component of the work currently done by the Development Desk.  This would include a Mother and Child project sponsored by World Vision. He will still have oversight responsibility for Nixon Memorial Hospital, among other things.
During the last two years there was work done with the Methodist Church Ghana (MCG) with a view to setting up co-operative work between Nixon Hospital and MCG’s hospital in Wenchi. The plan was for some medical staff from Nixon Hospital to visit Ghana to undergo on the job training at the hospital. Due to administrative and financial issues, MCSL is yet to take advantage of this opportunity but we hope that this opportunity would used in the coming months.
The Health & Wholeness desk has also established collaborative links with Tearfund, (a Christian charity based in the UK but with extensive presence across most the developing world). MCSL would like to work with Tearfund to train church workers in the principles of Church Community Mobilisation (CCM) 








The Health and Wholeness desk worked with friends in the US to secure a container load of medical consumables, together with some basic medical equipment, from a charity Medical Bridges  for use at Nixon Memorial Hospital. Work is already underway for another container to be donated to Nixon Hospital. The charity supplies medical equipments and consumables to hospitals in mostly Latin America and Asia and a few hospitals in Africa.
We are especially grateful to the Methodist Church of Ireland for a substantial donation towards the work of the Methodist Church clinic in Kenema.







The furlough also gave us the opportunity to visit various places of interest in both UK and abroad, and to visit our friends and family. We travelled to Jamaica to spend time with family. Whilst in Jamaica we had the opportunity to various places of interest on the island and one such place was the Dolphin Cove where the children had the occasion to ‘swim’ with the dolphins, go kayaking etc. 






  
      Amidst it all we underwent a number of medical checks and assessments to ensure that we were in good health. Janelle completed her immunisation regime to stand her on good footing for school. This meant a number of trips to the Nurse at Interhealth and the GP for injections – not a pleasant experience for her. She was a brave little girl through it all.
      We are grateful to God for the opportunity to take time to see friends and colleagues. We are also thankful for travelling mercies, good health and the opportunity given us to talk about our work and pray that the name of the Lord will be lifted up and glorified as a result of his work here in Sierra Leone.
   
      Prayer Points:

Please Pray
v  To give thanks to God for travelling mercies and good health during our furlough;
v  That the work here in Sierra Leone will continue to bear fruits and for the name of the Lord to glorified.
v  That the next two years will be fruitful and our work with Methodist Church Sierra Leone for those disadvantaged and marginalised by society would be successful.