First Challenge

It’s been a week since we arrived and already it has been very eventful. On the Sunday after our arrival the church family lost the Chairman of the Kailahun Circuit – Rev. Peter Lebbie - through illness. I worked with Peter during our first tour of duty in my role as Business Manager of Nixon Hospital – as he was on the Board of Governors of the hospital. He was a very enthusiastic person with a very good sense of humour. He had a vision to help transform the hospital into something nearer to its former glory. We pray his soul may rest in peace.

Then there was the search for accommodation. This meant dealing with estate agents and middle men trying to earn a living from the large number of ex pats working in the country. There is a dire shortage of decent houses especially at the lower end of the rental market (the bit we are able to operate within). Houses rent within US$4 – 5k per year - which on its own sounds manageable - until you realise they require rental payment in advance and sometimes for two years. There are houses to rent for a year but in areas that are very questionable, especially for someone who may not know their way about town. Presently, none of the 6 houses we’ve seen are suitable and so we are working with the church on a solution – to be housed for six months in a temporary accommodation until early next year when hopefully one of the church’s property would become available. In so doing, the rental money could be used in repairing this church property which we believe would be a better proposition rather than paying a very high rental on the open market.

Joelle came down with a serious bout of malaria on Friday night. She was running temperatures between 38 and 39.8°C, making it a very difficult night for us. As it happened we had made contact with a friend who is a doctor and who works at the Military hospital in Freetown the day before. A quick text, followed by a phone call found us at the hospital on Saturday morning around 10.30 am. After blood tests malaria was diagnosed. This is exactly a week after our arrival and despite religiously taking her malaria preventive tablets. She however, was not properly protected as she played with her friends outside after sun set, and we think this exposure increased the parasitic load, hence her getting ill. Saturday night was also challenging, but the fever was not as high or as persistent as the previous night.

We really saw God’s hand move in our circumstances especially with this situation. It was by God’s grace that made us contact our friend the doctor, on that Friday afternoon after we ‘accidentally’ came across her number. We know God does not do ‘accidents’ – he decrees and His promises are fulfilled. His promise that ‘He would never leave us nor forsake us’ was truly manifested on this occasion and our thanks and Praise goes first and foremost to God almighty.

PRAYER POINTS.
Please pray for:
1. Speedy and lasting recovery for Joelle and thank God for her health and protection for all of us - especially the little one - Janelle against any future health issues.

2. Pray for our accommodation to be resolved - still living at the guest house and despite the help of the church in this regard we really need a permanent base.

Back to the Lion Mountains

On 8th Oct we finally returned to Sierra Leone after a year in UK. We were originally meant to stay for 3 months – which would have been the duration of our furlough - but a combination of family issues had us prolong our stay in the UK. All is now sorted enough for us to return and we are grateful once again to all who held us up in prayers and helped during our stay in the UK.

Before we left the UK we wrote to BMI to request extra weight allowance for our luggages and I am sure those of you who have travelled with infants and children may understand. This request was graciously granted by BMI and we were given even more weight concessions, so on that front we were very grateful to the airline. Soon after that things started to go ‘pear shaped’. We were informed, after the flight had been called, that there would be a delay of about an hour & half due to technical problems – so instead of 1300 boarding we boarded at 1430. The flight then had to make a refuelling stop (about 45 mins.) at Malaga before finally arriving in Freetown at about 2145 local time – which meant we had been travelling for nearly 14hrs having set off from home at about 0930 UK summer time. Of course this was not the end of our journey. We had a ferry crossing to ‘enjoy’ and this did not set off till past midnight to arrive at the mainland at about 0100 hrs. The good thing was the ferry was not full, so loading and off-loading was pretty quick and even then we still did not get to our guest house till nearly 0230 hrs. This is where we must say a big ‘thank you’ to the Church in Sierra Leone for organising transport to pick us up from the airport to the mainland. Without the help of the Church we don’t know how we would have coped with two very tired and irritable children plus the carting of our considerable number of suitcases.

Despite all the challenges we faced with the flight we arrived to a warm welcome and of course a very hot Freetown – and considering that the weather was beginning to turn in the UK, this was very welcome albeit a bit too warm for us considering we were all tired and wanted to hit the sack.

Since arriving we have met with the President of Conference of the Church in SL together with the Accountant of Nixon Hospital and of course Peter and Janice Clarke, Mission Partners working at the Theological Hall. As mentioned above, we are at the moment housed temporarily in a guest house and the plan is for us to view a selection of houses that the Church thinks may be suitable accommodation for us.
We have also visited Joelle’s new school and hope to complete the necessary paperwork for her to start school as soon as possible. Finding answers to ‘I am bored’; ‘I want to go to the beach’ or ‘I want to go to school’ are now becoming very challenging. But God has provided playmates in the children who live at the guest house and best mate F is a regular playmate (mostly on the weekend). Joelle is coping.

Janelle started crawling properly the day after we arrived and we are blessed to have sole use of a very large airy veranda. She has also started pulling herself up on the furniture and she seems relatively happy moving around and being the attention of all the adults. So far, so good.

We thank God for travelling mercies and for a relatively comfortable ‘kotch’ at this guest house. We` pray for appropriate accommodation as soon as possible and maintenance of health. We thank God.

PRAYER POINTS:
1. We thank God for safe arrival in the country and please pray for God's protection in the country.
2.Please pray that our stay in the country is a useful and successful one.
3. Pray for a quick resolution of the accommodation issue and that we find a decent place to stay very quickly.
Thank you.