August 19, 2008

Dear Family and Friends,

            Greetings from soggy Liberia! We actually had a lovely weekend with some sunshine and no rain! However, it is once again raining and probably will keep it up for a couple days. This country has received an amazing amount of rain since the rainy season started. It has caused a bit of flooding in some of the lowland areas. It also caused a rubbish buildup behind a small dam which recently broke and created a new river channel to the ocean. Unfortunately the new river ran right through one of the beachside resorts that Africa Mercy crew members occasionally visit and completely took out the parking area, one of the buildings, and part of another. It is very sad for them, since rebuilding will be difficult.

            Work in the lab and hospital was fairly slow last week since this past weekend was a 4-day ships holiday. On Thursday we lab folks rolled our sleeves up and gave the lab a good scrubbing. Our long-distance supervisor who runs the lab from Virginia is coming to the ship on Aug. 26 so we wanted to be ready for her. We cleaned underneath all the lab equipment, polished the glass cupboard doors, and thoroughly cleaned all the instruments. Our biggest task of the day was cleaning the floor. We had to strip all the old wax off the floor and then re-seal and re-wax it. It looked as though it hadn’t been done since the ship was put into service about 1 ½ years ago. We had to apply generous amounts of the chemical cleaner as well as lots of elbow grease. The completed floor looks absolutely wonderful! One could practically eat off of it (No, thanks! I will continue to eat my meals in the dining room off of a plate!). Things should start to pick up next week since our head surgeon, Dr.Gary Parker, returned to the ship this weekend after a 2 ½ month vacation.

            We had a rather interesting occurrence this past week in the form of a very absurd rumor. About a 1 ½ weeks ago someone in Liberia started a rumor that a large medical mission group was killing Liberian people in order to remove their organs and sell them. About 4 different people were found dead with their kidneys removed. Since we are the largest and only medical mission group in the country at the moment we were blamed for these murders. This caused some problems for crew members who had to drive the streets in Monrovia. There were several reports of people on the streets yelling hostilely at Mercy Ships vehicles and even running up and hitting the vehicles when they were stopped waiting for traffic to clear. Our off-ship dental team was approached by a man wanting to sell the organs of his mentally handicapped nephew. Fortunately, it just so happened that a police officer was at the clinic that day having a tooth pulled. The man was promptly arrested and hauled off to jail. We have not yet heard what has happened to him. On Friday, as we were all relaxing with a day off, we received an overhead page for all crew to report to the International lounge. The Minister of Health, two Senate representatives, and about 15 or 20 people from the Liberian press had just come to the ship and wanted to address all the crew. The Minister of Health started out by thanking us for all our hard work in this country. He then went on to say that whoever was starting this terrible rumor was someone who hated peace and the government and wanted to start the war again. Both he and the Senate reps. expressed their sorrow and embarrassment for the actions of their people and heartily apologized for them. They explained to the press how impossible it would be to save organs for transplant in this country, which does not have the proper facilities and supplies for such an endeavor. The press was also allowed to tour the hospital and speak to several of the patients, who willingly offered to tell of their experience on board the Africa Mercy. The Minister of Health is hoping that by getting some good media out to the people that the rumor and the harassment will cease. So far it seems to be working. We have had several instances of people going out of their way to be friendly. One car load of crew members reported that a police officer stopped all traffic at an intersection so that their vehicle could go first. A similar thing happened in a vehicle that I was riding in where one police officer gave us a very friendly greeting and another one waved us through an intersection even though it was technically not our turn! Hopefully the person starting these devastating rumors will be found and stopped as things like this do nothing to build trust in the Liberian people.

            On Saturday afternoon I went with a crew family to White Sands beach to just relax and enjoy the little bit of sunshine that we were getting. They have two young children so I enjoyed playing in the sand with them and hunting for shells and strange looking seeds from African plants. Some of these seeds actually look like nut shells but I don’t think there is anything eatable inside them. One of the larger ones is fairly flat and shaped like a heart! A few of us walked up the beach to the resort I mentioned in the beginning of this letter…you know…the one that washed away. The damage is truly devastating but they seem to be coping pretty well. The resort is still open and had quite a few customers, including some crew from the Africa Mercy. As we walked back to the White Sands resort we got to watch some fishermen bringing their boat ashore. It was very fascinating. They tied a long rope to the front of the boat and about 15 or 20 men grabbed hold of it while about 5 or 6 guys stayed by the boat to either push the boat or move the pieces of wood underneath it that they were using as skids. They were all singing some sort of chant in unison and would all pull on the rope at the same time. They worked together like one man; all moving at the same time and all putting their whole heart (and muscle) into the job at hand. The father of the family that I was with ran over to join them and you could see that it really pleased them to see him so willing to lend a hand. I could also tell that they really enjoyed the white skinned audience watching them. These fishing boats are heavy wooden affairs that look sort of like a very large canoe. This particular one had a small outboard motor attached to one side but it seems like many of the fishermen here usually row their boats out through the waves to go fishing or check the gill nets that they have placed off shore. We saw another man in a small dugout canoe checking his gill net which was not to far off shore. I was amazed that he didn’t flip the canoe or fall out. It was such a small, narrow boat and the waves were pretty big, but he could actually stand up in the boat and never lose his balance…at least, not while we were watchingJ. Saturday evening after dinner there was a talent show in the café lounge area. We have some very talented crew and it was a very fun and entertaining evening filled with music, singing, poems, and hilarious skits.

            Well, well….look at that! I have almost filled up two pages. Guess it’s time to send this letter on its way. Have a wonderful week and God bless.

In Christ,

Ruth

August 12, 2008

Dear Family and Friends,

            I am sitting up in the Mid-ships lounge to type this letter because the 2008 Olympics are on and all the crew on board are enjoying them, including me. The weather outside is very damp at the moment so most folks prefer to stay inside. August is apparently the wettest time of the rainy season and has really proved to be so lately. It poured two days in a row last week!

            A very exciting event occurred on Friday for the lab! The technician arrived to fix our malfunctioning instrument!! Hurray! He worked on the instrument most of Saturday and now it is up and running again! Now all we have to do is run all the specimens that have been stacking up in the freezer for the past three months or so. There are enough in there now that it will probably take a whole day to run them all. Everything else in the lab and hospital area is still running smoothly. The two patients I mentioned in the last letter must be doing well as we no longer have to run any tests on them. The little boy may have already been able to go home, although I don’t know for sure. Our biggest job in the lab right now is getting a better grip on our supply inventory. Daniela and I are in the process of compiling a very complete and comprehensive list, which includes expiration dates and amounts of lab supplies we have on hand at the moment. It has been a very interesting process since we are not allowed to throw things away when they are expired. We have found things that date as far back as 2002! (By the way….we still use said products)! When this project is complete we will be able to tell at a glance how much we have of any given supply. This will be a marvelous improvement.

            I had the most amazing day on Saturday! I had signed up to go on a day trip to the Hydroelectric Power Plant, which is no longer functioning (another war casualty). The sign up sheet had specifically stated that no sissies were allowed on the trip and that hiking was a definite and swimming was a possibility (sounded like it was right down my alleyJ). It was pouring down rain when we left the ship Saturday morning, which proved to make the day all the more interesting. For starters the “road” we drove on to reach the Plant was not much more than two tire tracks winding through the jungle. The portions of the road that were not covered with 6 to12 inches of water were thick mud. As we slid and slithered our way through the jungle I was very glad that we had two Land Rovers each equipped with very experienced drivers. The vehicle that I was in slid off the…um…out of the two tire tracks once and into the jungle but we didn’t get stuck. The other Land Rover almost got stuck once but managed to get out of the predicament without any help from us. When we arrived at the Power Plant we were allowed to explore wherever we wanted; even inside the large deep holes that used to house the turbines. The cement structure is still there but anything and everything that could be removed is gone. The river running by the Power Plant was very full and had lots of rapids and waterfalls along its course. We climbed up a long flight of stairs outside the plant to the where the flood gates used to be. Below the flood gates are the huge pipes that directed the water into the turbines. We climbed down some wet, slippery inclines, crossed a creek on a small slippery log, and inched our way along a narrow ledge with the creek to our back and a cement wall at our front in order to reach the pipes. These pipes were large enough to drive a semi-truck through! They were slanted down and had water at the bottom, so we walked or ran down to the water and braved the spiders, crickets, and bats to get some pictures (and scare the bats out). From there we hiked up river to check out some of the larger waterfalls further upstream. Our first main obstacle on the trail was a small creek entering the river. It was too wide to jump across so we had to wade (I was the first girl acrossJ)! The water was chest deep at the deepest point but not at all cold. In fact, it was fairly pleasant (and very muddy). While we were waiting for everyone to cross the stream it started pouring, which didn’t really matter since we were already wet, but it certainly made a more interesting hike! It made the trail very wet and slippery and you had to walk carefully in order to keep from falling in the mud. I didn’t have any trouble but there were a number of other girls in the group that were obviously not used to hiking. It made the going rather slow since we had to wait for them and help them over some of the more difficult areas. None of the trail came close to being as difficult as the easiest part of the Enchantments trail in Washington, though. The main problem I had was contending with the tiny fire ants, which were absolutely everywhere. They had no understanding of personal space and didn’t seem to realize that if they crawled on my feet and bit me I would very quickly end their career (the bites really burned too)! I ended up with numerous bites all over my feet since I was wearing my Keen sandals. I was very grateful for the “Heal All” salve that a friend back home gave me before I came here (thanks, Maranatha). That stuff works wonders on fire ant bites! Despite those pesky little critters we had a wonderful day. We arrived back on the ship wet, dirty, and tired.

            Well…finally managed to finish writing this letter. It has taken me several hours since the Olympics have captured much of my attention. It is now just about time for me to get ready for bed, so I guess I had better bring this letter to a close. Once again I thank you all for your prayers and correspondence. I know they have sustained me during my time here.

In Christ,

Ruth

God’s Light

I’m in a world that’s black as night,

Where all it’s people cry for light.

To them there is no hope at all

And so they vainly fret and call.

But as for me, I have the light

That glows around me in that night.

For it was at the cross I found

God’s pardoning love to all around.

This is the hope I want to share

To dying people everywhere.

Oh sinner, won’t you see and hear

God’s call to you so loud and clear.

-Ruth Payne-

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son,

that whosoever believeth in him should not perish,

but have everlasting life.”

(John 3:16)

August 5, 2008

Dear Family and Friends,

            Hurray!! It’s August! In less than a month I’ll be home! I am so looking forward to being able to go wherever I want whenever I want. Living on board the Africa Mercy can be very confining at times. I am on call at the moment and have been since Thursday, so I don’t really have much to report.

            This past Thursday we admitted a 14-year-old girl from Guinea with a massive neurofibroma on her leg. The tumor started near her hip and went all the way down to her ankle! I think she has lived with it for several years, but not sure how many. Her hemoglobin was low (8.6) upon admission and the doctor figured she would lose a lot of blood during the surgery so we gave her one unit immediately. The next morning the surgeon told us to draw another unit for immediate transfusion and crossmatch 10 more for possible use during the surgery! The first donor I called in has already donated once this outreach and he is terrified of needles but yet very willing to help save a life. He did very well when I inserted the needle into his vein and was fine throughout the whole collection time, but….when I removed the needle the poor guy turned white as a sheet and nearly passed out! He said he was dizzy and light-headed and it took a little time for him to feel better, but after laying there for a while and drinking the soda we had given him he was able to get up and go back to work. Fortunately he works in the Communications department and not the Deck or Engineering department! After that rather crazy start to our day it just got worse. Since the doctor wanted 10 units crossmatched we had to find 10 donors to get blood samples from to fill that request. I spent most of the morning on the phone calling and paging all the O positive donors I could find. Finally, right before lunch we found our last donor. It is amazing the way folks here work together to get things accomplished. Many people came to the lab to say that they heard we were looking for O positive donors and they were one but just not on our list. Other people would come down saying that they “didn’t know their blood type, but would we like to check it just in case”. The crew nurse was asking all the crew members who came to the clinic to see the doctor what their blood type was. She even sent her husband down to tell us that he was O positive! Unfortunately he was just getting ready to leave the ship for several hours and we needed all our donors to be available on a moments notice. The crew physician even came down so we could find out what his blood type was! The surgery started after lunch and about 45 min. into it we received the first request for a unit as they had apparently hit a vein or something like that. Yikes! About 30 min. after the OR received that unit they were asking for the next one! That worried us a little. We had sort of hoped that they wouldn’t need as many as they had asked for. Thankfully that was the last one needed and the girl was moved from the OR into ICU for recovery. I am not sure what the final weight of the tumor was but about halfway through the surgery the portion they had removed weighed about 10 pounds! The girl is doing fine now and has been given a new lease on life. I have not seen her since the operation but I imagine that she is pretty happy. You don’t realize how good we have it in the US until you see conditions like this.

            On Sunday an 8-year-old boy was admitted with an enlarged spleen. His hemoglobin level was very low, 5.4. We figured that his spleen was probably destroying his red blood cells. The surgeons decided that he better have a unit of blood right away. Unfortunately he is B positive and we are getting very low on donors for that blood type. Our ward physician, Dr.Wolfgang Edele, is B pos. and since he was one of the doctors who asked for the unit he was the one that got to give it! That’ll teach him to order blood transfusionsJ! The little boy’s surgery went well and they only needed one other unit during the operation. I think once the spleen is gone his body will start producing blood the way it is supposed to.

            Well, I am running out of things to say. Since I have been on call since Thursday and unable to leave the ship I have no exciting tales to tell you. Oh yes…I almost forgot…we had a different sort of a drill on Thursday. The captain called it a Level 3 Security drill. Level 3 is the highest security level for ports and ships. It basically means that there is something going on that poses a real threat to the port, such as riots in the city or dangerous objects flying through the air (i.e. bullets, etc.). For this type of a drill we are not allowed to leave the ship but have to muster in the International lounge where they make sure that everyone is accounted for. In a real crisis they would actually contact all the crew members working off the ship and tell them to return to the ship as fast a possible. If the threat were very serious they would take the ship away from the dock and anchor out in the bay, leaving behind everything on the dock…Land Rovers, tents, people, etc. The captain did say that if you accidentally got left behind they would send one of the small lifeboats to the dock to pick you up (certainly nice of them, isn’t itJ). He also said that we would be asked to stay off the open decks and away from the larger windows on the ship. Practicing a drill like that reminds us that we are in a country that could turn violent very quickly. Fortunately the presence of the UN keeps everyone pretty peaceful.

            I am eagerly counting down the days until I come home. It is hard to stay focused on my mission here, but I am doing my best. So, until next time may “the peace of God, which passeth all understanding,…keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. (Philippians 4:7)

In Christ,

Ruth

July 29, 2008

Dear Family and Friends,

            I am having a terrible time starting this letter. I keep trying to fall asleep, which is strange since I got a good nights sleep last night and it is not nearly time for bed. Guess I will just jump right into this letter and type something interesting so that I will stay awake!

            On Sunday, July 20, I went to the home of Pastor Thomas Smith to spend the afternoon with he and his family. Since they have no car they came in a taxi to pick me up. It was raining, as usual, but the taxi driver drove as though the roads were completely dry. A rather alarming experience to say the least! Fortunately there were not many pedestrians or motorcycles on the road so we arrived safe at the pastor’s house. The narrow dirt road leading from the main road to his house was partially washed out due to the rains and the taxi could only make it part way, so we had to walk the rest of the way. It was only a short distance and the rain cooperated nicely and took a short break and then started up again after we were inside the house. I stayed with the Smith family for a few hours just fellowshipping with them and enjoying the sound of the ocean barely 80 feet away. They served me the traditional African meal of rice and potato greens which was quite good. At about 4:30 pm Pastor Thomas and I started the trip back to the ship. This consisted of walking back to the main road to flag down a taxi. Once again the rain cooperated nicely. Getting a taxi is a very interesting experience here with many different signals to remember. First off, a taxi with room for passengers will be driving along honking its horn with the driver waving his hand out the window in the direction he is going holding up as many fingers as people he has room for. The prospective passengers point in the direction that they want to go also with the same amount of fingers as passengers. The taxi will not stop if the group waiting will not fit in his vehicle. I find it slightly complicated but it seems to work well for folks around here. There were not many taxis out where we were waiting but finally this guy with a personal car pulled up and offered us a ride. So many Liberians have so little money that many of those who own cars will give people a lift if they are going in the same direction. They charge as much as the taxis do and so earn a little extra cash. Pastor Thomas had me sit in the front with the driver, which was very nice of him since the driver picked up 4 more people. They all had to cram into the back seat of the tiny car since the police will pull you over if you have more than one person in the front passenger seat. When I first came to Liberia the taxi drivers could have as many people in their taxi as they could fit in. Consequently, one would often see taxis with about 7 adults and maybe a few children (this is in addition to the driver, of courseJ) squeezed into them. The taxi buses are even worse! These are small Minivan style buses and I think it is fair to say that sometimes these have about 20 people or more in them! Anyhow, back to my taxi ride. The owner of the car we were in was not going to Jamaica Rd. (the road by the port) so we had get out at the Jamaica Rd. /Broad street crossroads and wait for another taxi. We picked up our second taxi much quicker than the first one partially because there were more in the area. This time both Pastor Thomas and I sat in the back. We hadn’t gone very far before the driver started to pick up more passengers. By the time we reached the entrance to the port there were 4 adults and a tiny baby on the back seat of the small, compact car! It was a great experience but, don’t worry, I would never even attempt it on my own.

             On Saturday I once again had the opportunity to go to the Wulki Farm. This time we were only going to swim in the pool as it was Daniela’s birthday. We swam all day long, through several rain storms and everything! Swimming in the rain was really quite fun; it was not cold and since we were already wet it didn’t matter. A large group of Pakistani guys also showed up to swim. I think they were probably UN soldiers having a day off. Several Pakistani families showed up too, but only their children swam. We were all glad that the pool was nice and large with plenty of room for everyone. We left the pool late in the afternoon and didn’t stop to see any of the animals this time. It was raining lightly so no one felt like walking in it (or holding a damp chimpJ).

            On the lab and hospital side of things everything is moving along smoothly with no big surprises….yet. On Monday, July 21, we ran out of some supplies that we have been expecting for a long time. We informed the doctors that we no longer could run blood potassium levels on their patients. That very evening the long awaited supplies arrived! Talk about God providing our every need right when we need it! On Thursday we used the last malaria test we had in the lab. I went around the hospital and commandeered all the malaria kits that I could find which was not many. Once again we had to tell the doctors to take it easy on our dwindling supplies. The very next day a box arrived with enough malaria test kits to last several months! We also received about a year’s supply of reagents for the instrument that is not working. Hopefully the technician will arrive soon to fix it so we can start using our new supplies.

            Well, only a month left before I come home! I am really looking forward to seeing everyone and sharing all my experiences with you. Thanks for your prayers and correspondence these past months. I have greatly appreciated them.

In Christ,

Ruth

Fear or Trust

How nice t’would be

To have no fear,

To feel no trouble

Drawing near.

But peaceful lives

Without much fuss,

Is not what Jesus

Promised us.

He only gives

The needed grace,

The challenges each

Day to face.

Lord help me trust

And have no fear,

But lean on You who

Draws me near.

-Ruth Payne-

July 21, 2008

Dear Family and Friends,

            We had an amazing rain storm this past week. It poured almost all day! The wind was blowing very strong from the ocean and creating pretty big whitecaps in the bay. I watched the storm from Deck 8 for a while but the wind was so strong that the rain was horizontal instead of vertical. One of the chaplains on board told me that this is where tropical storms start and then cross the Atlantic to the US. Incidentally the day we were having this storm the US reporters were announcing that a tropical storm was headed toward the East coast of the US! So, I apologize ahead of time for the storm just in case it does hit youJ.

            Let’s see….where shall I start…? I usually start with the highlight of my week so I guess I’ll start with something else this time. We had a patient come in on Thursday with what we thought was a large goiter (tumor of the thyroid gland). The mass started in the front of her neck and went all the way around to the left side. It turned out to be a large malignant tumor which appears to not have spread yet. It had pushed her trachea to the right side of her neck and was making breathing and swallowing difficult. Her surgery was scheduled for Friday which was my day off. At about 3:30 Friday afternoon I received a call from the lab (more like a cry for help!) asking me to do a difficult draw, which I figured was just a patient with small veins. No such luck. It was a donor with small veins! Small veins + huge needle = YIKES!! Our lady with the tumor was losing massive amounts of blood and had already received 2 units. The lab was desperate and was calling in all the A+ donors they could contact. I ended up drawing 6 units of blood within about a 3 hour period! It was pretty much just one right after the other. The other two lab girls were kept busy cross-matching the donors with the patient and calling in new donors. I had two of the hospital directors and one of our Public Relations personnel helping me. We had about 3 or 4 donors on standby, fully expecting to need them some time during the night or the next day. Thankfully the surgeons were finally able to stop the bleeding and we have a very happy, grateful patient now quickly recovering from a near fatal condition. She spent the weekend in the ICU but is now in the ward and completely out of danger. Thank the Lord. P.S. I did manage to get a unit of blood out of the donor with small veins!

            Now for the highlight of my week….Saturday!! I went with a group of friends (most of them German or German speaking) to the Wulke Farm (pronounced….uh….any way you want, I guess). This is an actual farm with animals and fields and everything. The main attraction is the massive swimming pool that is still in the process of being built. It is actually almost finished and does have water in it and you can swim in it; they’re just doing some of the final touches. We can visit this place at no cost as long as we buy something at the farm’s restaurant (so technically we don’t get in for free). The farm is owned by one of the wealthiest men in Liberia who unfortunately acquired his money by embezzlement during the previous president’s corrupt term. Since he was not allowed to leave Liberia because of his crime he decided to use his ill-gotten gains to build the largest house in Liberia, which is even big and fancy for US standards. Besides the swimming pool, he has his own tennis and basketball courts. The swimming pool consists of three pools, two of which are connected by an underwater tunnel. One of the pools has a bar that you can swim up to and have a seat at without getting out of the water (it was not in operation yetJ). We stayed at the pool for about an hour before heading back to the restaurant for dinner. The two places were about a mile apart and most of us decided to walk since it was a lovely evening. Part way there we encountered the first animals on the farm; two little chimpanzees! One of them promptly walked up to me and held his arms out to be picked up. I was a bit startled and a little uneasy about it but was assured that it would be fine, so I picked him up! It was a very unique feeling holding a monkey. He was very much like a two year old child, especially when I put him down, because he threw a huge fit complete with shrieking and jumping up and down. He then proceeded to climb up my leg and back into my arms where he settled down with the most contented look on his face. He had succeeded! After playing with the chimps for a little while we continued on our way to the restaurant stopping to see the other farm animals along the way, which included rabbits, donkeys, and horses. One of the donkeys had a tiny baby that reminded me very much of Peniel Ranch’s little donkey, Flicka, when she was a baby. I am told they also have chickens, pigs, and ostriches but we didn’t see any of those. The restaurant was in enclosed gazebo-style buildings and we had one all to ourselves. The food was actually quite good and fairly reasonable for Liberian terms. There were about 4 or 5 people serving us and we still had to wait quite a while for our food! That is so typical of Liberia. No one here is in a hurry; they don’t mind waiting hours for something. Being at the farm was so nice. Just being able to relax in the quiet away from the ship and the city makes my next week look so much better.

            The rest of my week was pretty typical, although we did have a very busy Monday since it was thyroid check up day. Our instrument is still not fixed but we just froze the needed specimens and will run them as soon as our instrument is up and running (hopefully sometime in the near future). I was able to help pharmacy a little this week as well, though not as much as last week since we had a little extra work. It rained about 5 out of 7 days, which is to be expected according to our Liberian friends. They say once we reach August it will rain every day, all day (groan). We had a fire drill on Thursday and for once I got out of it. I was just getting ready to “evacuate” the ship according to protocol when I got paged to the lab to run some patient samples that couldn’t wait until after the fire drill. So, instead of mustering on the dock as usual I got to muster with the nurses in the ward and stay on the ship! Sure wish that would have happened during the last fire drill when it was raining!

            A quick update on baby Greg: his condition has become worse. He now has pneumonia on top of all his other problems. It is even hard for a fairly healthy baby to fight pneumonia and baby Greg will have an even harder time. We are all praying for God’s will in this matter, but it is very sad to see the little guy struggling for life. In a case like this it is hard sometimes to remember that God is in control and He knows what is best for this Liberian child. Please continue to pray for him, his mother, and all the Africa Mercy staff who are caring for him. Thanks for your continued prayers and correspondence to me. I am very grateful for it. I leave you with scripture passage that has really blessed my heart these past weeks. “He that dwelleth in the secret place of the most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. I will say of the LORD, He is my refuge and my fortress: my God; in him will I trust.” (Psalm 91:1, 2)

In Christ,

Ruth

                                                                July 24, 2008
Safe in the Arms of Jesus:

Just a quick note to let you all know that Baby Greg passed away last night shortly after I sent out Update letter dated July 21, 2008. Please continue to pray for his family and for the crew of the Africa Mercy as we all struggle to cope with this loss. 
In Christ, Ruth

July 15, 2008

Dear Family and Friends,

            I am sitting here in my cabin waiting for an inspiration for the start of this letter. Since nothing is coming to mind I guess I’ll just jump right in and tell you the happenings of this past week.

            The first entry in my journal will probably only interest the sports fans among you, so the rest of you can just skip this first part if you would likeJ. Sunday, July 6, a Vision group arrived from the US. It was comprised of pro-football player, Malcolm Kelly, his Dad, personal trainer, and a representative from a TV station in the US. Malcolm plays the position of Wide Receiver for the Washington Redskins. Perhaps I should say “will play” this position as he is a rookie and hasn’t played pro-football yet. The best thing about him is that he is a strong Christian and has chosen Mercy Ships as the charity he would like to support. This is a huge blessing for Mercy Ships as it will increase publicity for us in the US (not to mention the extra funds to keep us running!). Malcolm was only able to stay for three days and so they were very packed ones. He and his group toured the ship on Monday morning, which is when I first saw him. Tuesday morning there was a time set aside for all the crew to meet him. I went and had my picture taken with him as well as getting a signed photo of him for a young friend back home. I must admit that I care nothing for football but couldn’t pass up an opportunity to get a picture that some of my friends at home would almost die forJ. Another thing that this group did was teach the trainers of the Liberian Olympic team the techniques that Malcolm’s personal trainer uses. This gave Malcolm and some of our crew members a wonderful opportunity to be a blessing to some young Liberian athletes. Well, enough said about that! If my sports fanatic family and friends would like to learn more they just need to log on to the Washington Redskins official website and read about it there.

            Had a new experience this week; that of being a pharmacist! It happened like this. Apparently the two Pharmacists discovered that the lab staff are often not very busy (and are often seen playing computer games….shhh) so they asked if we would be willing to help them out a little. They are swamped with work at the moment. So, we are now counting pills in our spare time! The pills come in large bottles, which of course cannot be handed out in that form as the Liberians would probably take way too many. Therefore we must count out specific dosages and put these in the small plastic bags that will then be handed to the patient. We place a label on these bags which tell the type of drug, the appropriate amount to take in a day, and when to take it. It’s really a very simple, rather mind-numbing job but I find it much more interesting than computer games (which are even more mind-numbingJ). The Pharmacists are so grateful that it makes it very enjoyable and rewarding. So far I have counted several thousand children’s vitamins as well as several thousand Tylenol and some other pill with a long name that I don’t know what is for. Oh, by the way, the children’s vitamins were quite good….kind of like candy.

(It’s okay; we had permission to try them.)

            Other news of interest: We were told that a tech was coming from the Ivory Coast to fix our malfunctioning instrument. They gave us like one days notice! Yikes! We had no idea when he would be arriving or on what flight! Colleen gave us his phone number so I called and spoke with him. He was obviously African. About all the answer I got was that he was looking into getting a flight and would call us in the morning. These are the most unrushed people I have ever met. Anyhow, the next morning we waited and waited for his call, which never came and still hasn’t. We checked on flights from the Ivory Coast and figured out pretty quick that he wasn’t coming that day and the next flight was on Friday, two days later. He didn’t come on that one either. Well, back to square one again. Hopefully next time they give us more notice.

On Saturday we celebrated Christmas in July! Decorations, artificial Christmas trees, goodies, Christmas music….the whole bit! They even had a white elephant gift exchange, which I chose to not be part of. I don’t have anything to give away and certainly don’t need some useless object to either get rid of or take home. It did feel very strange be running around in summer attire and flip flops with Christmas decorations all over. If any of you out there are like my sister and are asking why we would do something like this I will tell you just what I told her. Because we can! It’s just another activity to keep crew members from dying of boredom or killing each other. With all the rain we need something to keep us occupied.

I went for my first walk in the rain last Sunday, July 6, with my friend, Sabrina. We got completely soaked and loved every minute of it. It was especially funny to see the faces of the Liberian people who happened to be about. You could just tell that they were thinking, “Crazy white girls, why don’t they buy an umbrella”! That would defeat the purpose! We only regretted that we had forgotten the soap! Like one other crew member pointed out, we could have washed our clothes AND taken a shower longer than the allotted two minutes! Oh well, next time maybeJ.

Guess that’s all I have to say this time so I’d better close this letter before I start rambling. Before I finish though, I would like to ask you all to pray for 5 month old baby Greg. He was admitted a couple weeks ago with what they thought would be a simple tumor removal, but it was much more complicated. His airway won’t stay open (some sort of special medical condition) and he is on a respirator at the moment. We can’t send him home like this and there is no hospital in Liberia capable of handling the case. Right now his only hope is a miracle and the whole ship is praying for him. Please join us in lifting this little life to the Lord. Thanks.

In Christ,

Ruth

Hope Thou in the Lord

My soul is cast down

And my spirit’s depressed.

My heart cries for peace,

My whole being for rest.

Have I been forgotten

And remembered no more?

I must discover

The peace my soul longs for.

Hope thou in the Lord,

A voice whispers to me.

And be not cast down,

For the light you will see.

So my tears are gone

And my heart has found peace.

For the Lord heard my cry

And made my sorrows to cease.

-Ruth Payne-

“Why art thou cast down, O my soul? and why art thou disquieted within me?

hope thou in God: for I shall yet praise him, 

who is the health of my countenance, and my God.”

(Psalm 42:11)

July 8, 2008

Dear Family and Friends,

            Another week has gone by and here we are….almost halfway through July! I must admit that this is the coolest (by this I mean temperature) July I have had in a long time. If fact the temperatures here are cooler than those my family is experiencing back home! Seems sort of strange to me since one would think a tropical country should be warmer than a non-tropical one.

            Went to a different church this past Sunday; one that neither I nor any other Mercy shippers had been too. It is a small, newly formed church called the Liberation International Church. They do not have a building yet and at present are meeting on a covered porch. They had grass mats for walls and I was amused to see the neighborhood children peeking through the holes in the mats to see us white folks. The church elders kept chasing them away since they were causing a bit of a disturbance. One of our ship chaplains was the speaker this particular Sunday and it was a very crowded service. They even had to bring in extra benches which barely fit. I sort of figured that some of the people came just because we were there. It was a very good service but the singing and drumming was sooooo loud for the tiny space we were in that my ears were ringing afterwards!

            A French Navy ship came into the harbor this week. They were here basically to establish a good relationship with the Liberian government. A whole group of them came to the Africa Mercy for a tour. They invited the crew members to come tour their ship as well. I was able to go Wednesday morning since it was so quiet in the lab. The French ship was very small and cramped but they were very happy to have us on board. They have about 100 sailors on board this very small vessel. Their ladders….I mean stairs….are very steep and narrow and one would not want to be very tall if they planned on sailing with this ship. The doorways had a raised portion that you had to step over, but you also had to duck at the same time or risk hitting your head on the upper portion of the door! The captain is the only one who gets his own cabin, which doubles as his office. The other officers are in two, four, six, or eight berth cabins dependent upon their rank. Those with no rank at all are either in the 24 or 30 berth cabins! They have two galleys on board, one for the officers and one for everyone else. The main crew galley was about the size of my cabin! The ship was equipped with torpedoes for sinking submarines and many large guns for destroying other things. They do such things as chase pirates and look for ships carrying illegal drugs. About the only thing they use their weapons for is to encourage a ship to stop that they want to board and check for drugs. Our guide told us that they first signal the ship and ask it to stop and allow them to board. If that doesn’t work then they fire a couple rounds from the largest gun on board about 100 feet in front of the ship. He didn’t say what they did if that didn’t work. One interesting thing we learned was that the pilot of the ship has no window to see out of. Therefore he cannot see where he is going! It seems a bit strange and rather dangerous to not allow the pilot of a large vessel to see where he is going. He pilots the boat strictly on the commands of one of the other officers who sets the course. Our guide told us that the reason for this is so if they actually are attacked the pilot is not affected by what is going on outside the ship since he can’t see it. He remains focused on the commands of his superior officer. We also got to see the control room which houses the controls for all the guns, the sonar for detecting subs, and radar for detecting ships. All the technical stuff was a bit over my head but the tour was very interesting non-the-less.

            Other activities this past week included a small 4^th of July celebration. Basically all of the Americans met out on the dock with their dinner and then had dessert. Someone had brought out a CD player and was playing patriotic songs. After everyone had finished eating we had a group photo taken with the Africa Mercy as the background. I ate my dinner inside because it looked like rain and I was too lazy to carry my plate of food out there. I did join the group on the dock for dessert and the photo. It didn’t really seem like the 4^th of July without fireworks, but even if they had been available it would not have been a good idea to use them. Not that we would start a fire or anything, but the Liberians would probably panic and start a riot or something! I guess some of the Americans had a video of fireworks from a previous year and planned on showing the video in their cabin later on in the evening. I didn’t go because some of my friends and I had decided to play a game of Scum. We had a great time!

            We had a medical emergency on Friday. A one-year-old patient who had been discharged on Thursday was brought back to the ship with seizures and convulsions! We ran a large amount of tests only to discover that he had malaria! Unfortunately it is probably his first bout with the disease, which can make it very serious. Due to the fact that he was having seizures we decided that he must have cerebral malaria; the most serious and deadly kind. He is doing okay now, but we are hoping that no brain damage occurred due to the severity of the disease and the seizures. Thousands of Liberian children die from malaria every year, but at least we saved this little guy. (His twin brother was also on board the ship for surgery!)

            Another interesting tidbit from my week….a group of Mennonites came to visit the ship on Saturday! They are here with Christian Aid Ministries and are working at various orphanages in the area, whitewashing, playing with the kids, etc. The most interesting thing was that they are from Pennsylvania! Lancaster County, PA!!! In fact, one of the girls was even from Terre Hill, PA! For those of you who don’t know my PA relatives this town is very close to where they live. I wish I would have had more time to talk with them, but they had to leave the ship and go back to where they were staying. The little bit of info above is all I got.

            Well, well, look at that…I’ve nearly filled two pages! Didn’t think I had much to say this time. Guess I had more than I thought, or maybe I’m just long-windedJ. Thanks for all your prayers and correspondence. It is much appreciated, as always.

In Christ,

Ruth

June 24, 2008

Dear Family and Friends,

            Greetings from “almost Equatorial” Liberia. Although at the moment I am really wondering if we are as near to the Equator as before; perhaps it has gone on a vacation or something. There are days now where I am actually happy to wear my sweat shirt outside! Right now I am sitting on the couch in my room with said shirt on and wondering if I shouldn’t go grab my blankets, some socks, and maybe even a stocking cap! Perhaps I should just get up and turn the AC down; that would probably solve the problemJ. It is certainly cooler now during the rainy season although we do still have a few nice days where it gets fairly warm again. We had a torrential rainstorm one day last week, in which it poured (and I mean POURED) for over an hour! I went up to Deck 8 to watch the storm from under the large tent canopy we have up there. Deck 8 is not flat, but slanted toward the outside of the ship so that the rain water can collect around the sides where the drains are. It was raining so hard that the water was several inches deep, so I went wading! I did get a little wet although I was still under the canopy.

            I went out for dinner on Wednesday for the first time since I’ve been here. My roommate from Australia, Gail, went home on Sunday so Jauntine (my other roommate) and I wanted to have a special evening with her before she left. We took a taxi into downtown Monrovia to the Palm Hotel, which has several restaurants in it. It was my first time in a taxi here and I must admit I was not very impressed. Basically all of the taxis in Liberia are ramshackled, rickety, and dirty affairs with stickers and decals plaster all over the outside. The one we took was certainly not an exception to the rule. It was slightly beat up on the outside but the inside was disgraceful! There was no interior paneling, no seat belts in the back, and the ones in the front didn’t work very well. The seats themselves were practically beyond words….completely falling apart is about as close as I can come and that doesn’t even completely cover it. There was a gap between the back and the seat portion which allowed a cool breeze to come in from the trunk. Apparently water could also come through ‘cause my back side was damp when we arrived at the restaurantJ. We couldn’t roll the windows down because the handles were gone. The car made all sorts of strange clunking, squealing, and squeaking noises, not to mention it smelled like a diesel truck. The restaurant was on the top floor of the four story Palm hotel and is called the Bamboo Bar. It is open to the air and has a very nice breeze blowing through (and the sound of taxi drivers honking their horns). It was very strange to leave the dirty streets behind and enter a restaurant that is very much like many in the US. I ordered pizza since we don’t get it on the ship and found it very good! There were about 7 or 8 employees, but we were the only customers until later in the evening then a few more people showed up; they were all Caucasians.

            Work in the lab has really slowed down in the past few weeks. Several surgeons have recently left and our directing surgeon leaves on vacation very soon. We are only using two of the four hospital wards and are not accepting very difficult cases since we don’t have the staff to adequately take care of them. We are very low on nursing staff and many of the ones we do have are working overtime just to keep things running smoothly. We are seeing a lot more positive malaria tests now as the rainy season progresses. On Saturday three of the four malaria tests that I did were positive! Fortunately no crew members have come down with it. I guess most of us are pretty good about taking our anti-malaria drugs. However, I know some crew members don’t and I certainly hope they don’t get malaria. It can be fatal for those of us who are not used to it. Here in Liberia they are used to malaria and usually know when they have it. When the doctors are asking for a patient’s medical history they don’t ask “have you had malaria”, they ask “when was the last time you had malaria”! Liberian adults seldom come down with the disease since their bodies are so used to it. The children are the ones mostly affected by it. Most Liberian children don’t even have a mosquito net to sleep under. Monrovia is surrounded by a large swamp so there are plenty of mosquitos. Fortunately since we are at the shore where there is always a nice breeze we have no mosquitos.

            Well, guess it is time to close this letter, because I am just prattling along and not really saying anything very important. I really appreciate all your prayers and would like you to especially pray for me as homesickness is starting to set in and I am eagerly looking forward to coming home. Please pray that I will stay focused on the task before me and lean on God to sustain me through these next 2 months.

In Christ,

Ruth

God Cares

In this world there are cares,

Grief and sorrow abound.

The evil grows stronger,

And encircles us ‘round.

But the Bible it says,

Cast your cares on the Lord.

For His love and His care,

Has for you been outpoured.

Lord, help me to trust You,

Despite all this sadness,

And continue to serve You,

With joy and with gladness.

-Ruth Payne-

“Casting all your care upon Him; for He careth for you.”

 (I Peter 5:7)

June 17, 2008

Dear Family and Friends,

            I decided to carry my laptop up to the Mid-ships lounge to type this letter. The European soccer championships are on TV right now and everyone is greatly enjoying it. I watched the game last night because Germany was playing, and since I am half German I figured I could cheer for them (they won!). Tonight the Netherlands are playing, so all the Dutch crew members are up here watching it and they make a lot of noise when anything interesting happens with the game. It is very amusing.

            First up on the weeks activities is an update on our malfunctioning instrument. Our lab supervisor, Coleen Conley (who is in the US), contacted the company who donated the instrument to us and explained our problem to them. She asked if they would be able to send a tech to the ship to fix the instrument. Amazingly they not only offered to send a tech for no cost, but they are also going to send us an additional instrument to use as a backup if this ever happens again! Praise the Lord! What an amazing answer to our prayers! We don’t know when the tech will arrive, but hopefully soon.

            On Saturday I had the wonderful opportunity to go visit the projects that the African Christian Fellowship Inc. (ACFI) is involved in. Pastor Thomas Smith, a Liberian that Mr. Guttromson introduced me to via email, is a part of this ministry. He came to the ship about a week ago to meet me, have a tour of the Africa Mercy, and invite me to go visit the ACFI projects with him. At about 9:45 Saturday morning he, his wife and youngest son came to the ship to pick me up. It was raining (surprise, surprise). The roads we had to drive on were very typical of Liberia….terrible. They had deep puddles (some of them almost a foot deep!) that we had to drive through. The vehicle we were riding in was a small, compact car with very little clearance and each time we went through a particularly deep puddle the poor thing would start coughing and gasping as though it were drowning. It did actually die a few times right in the middle of some rather deep puddles and I was very afraid that we were going to have to get out and push! Pastor Thomas kept telling the driver that he needed to race through the puddles as fast as possible so that the water wouldn’t get into the engine! I don’t think the driver was too excited about that. The car’s driver’s side window was either completely gone or just didn’t work and, since I was sitting behind the driver, I kept getting hit with raindrops! Fortunately it wasn’t pouring rain like it does sometimes. Our first stop was the Daniel Hoover Children’s Village. There are nearly 400 orphans living at this facility! The Village consists of 7 dorms, a kitchen/cafeteria/clinic building, school (grades K-12), various storage buildings, and living quarters for the director and his family. Each dorm has 11 rooms; one for the resident matron (a woman who lives in the dorm and looks after the kids), 8 for the children, and 2 bathrooms. The children are divided by age and gender except for the very little children who share dorm #7. They range in age from 3 – 17 with almost an equal number of boys and girls. With so many children, the needs for the orphanage are many. The biggest are probably medications for their clinic which has none at the moment, and also the necessity of a fence around the property to keep thieves out and the kids in (apparently they wander all over the jungle as they pleaseJ). After a tour of the Village we drove to an orphanage for deaf children. There are only about 30 or 40 children at this one and they only have one building. They are in the process of building a school, but I could only see the foundation at this time. They have taught all the children sign language and so they can communicate very well. They showed me one girl who is apparently losing her eyesight as well as being deaf. I told them to bring her to the ship so the doctor can see if there is anything he can do. Our visit there was short as we were running out of time. Our next stop was Pastor Smith’s home, which is situated right on the beach….and I mean RIGHT on the beach! I met the rest of his family there. He has four children, 2 girls and 2 boys. His youngest daughter, who is five, came tearing out of the house and gave me a big hug. She is not shy at all! The ACFI church is right there and is called the “Ocean View” church (for obvious reasons). We left there after just a short visit and drove into the heart of Monrovia to the worst slum area in the city. ACFI has a small clinic here. We had to park the car on the street and walk through these narrow, dirty, muddy pathways between shacks built out of whatever they could get their hands on to the clinic in the middle of the slum. I would never go there alone, not even in the daytime. The clinic is very small and very typical of the other clinics that I have been in here in Liberia; they have one doctor, a small pharmacy, and small laboratory. They often work for free since the people they are serving are very poor and sometimes cannot pay. All in all it was a very interesting day.

            I went to the beach with a group from the ship one evening this past week. It was the first time since I arrived and was really quite pleasant. We were hoping to have a nice sunset but there were too many clouds. The water was really quite warm and I greatly enjoyed wading in the surf. Two other crew members started making creations in the sand and had the rest of us judge which one was the best. I was for the massive sea turtle the one guy created. When it was too dark to see well one of the guys in the group brought out his guitar and we sang songs until it was time to return to the ship. It was very nice to just be away from the ship for a little while (even though we could still see it in the distance).

            Life in the lab continues to be pretty much the same as always; functioning smoothly and quickly. We still have our busy days and our….shall we say….not so busy days. The rest of the hospital is going through a bit of change as many staff members are leaving this month and there are new ones coming. That means new nurses to train….groan. We also have a new crew physician, which means change for the lab since the crew physician is sort of in charge of the lab. He is very understanding and will catch on quickly because of his willingness to learn.

            Well the hour grows late and I must finish this letter and go get ready for bed. Oh, by the way, the Netherlands just won their soccer match and all the Dutch crew members are celebrating. Anyhow, until next time God bless you, and many thanks for your prayers and correspondence.

In Christ,

Ruth

June 10, 2008

Dear Family and Friends,

            Well, well! It’s that time of the week again; time for me to recount all the happenings of the past week. Let’s see…guess I’ll start with the highlight of my week.

            On Saturday I went with a group to the God’s Children’s Home orphanage construction project (my, that’s a mouthfulJ). You may remember many updates ago that I told about visiting this orphanage here in Monrovia. Well, they are in the process of building a new one out in the country! The building they are in now is very small and the kids have no room to play (except out in the street). The new location is a large piece of property with plenty of room to run and play. The orphanage is being built by a young couple, Karl and Ilna, who are former Mercy Shippers. All of the work is done by hand, which included the digging of the well and septic tank. They also make the concrete bricks used for the walls of the buildings and the sides of the septic tank. At present there are two buildings almost completed and another one halfway done. They also have a small building for the two pigs that were donated to the orphanage. Our tasks on Saturday included hauling 40 wheelbarrow loads of sand to put on the floor of the pig house. One guy in our group was kept busy plastering the inside of the pig house with cement to make it easier to keep clean (the pigs are in a temporary shelter elsewhere at the moment). Once that is done they will shovel the sand onto the floors. We also carried homemade bricks to the septic tank so the Liberian workers could start building the walls of the tank (the bricks were very fragile and pieces kept breaking off). They had to pump all the rainwater out of the hole from a recent storm before they could start. There was almost a foot of water in it! After that I helped remove wooden forms from two cement pillars they had poured sometime the week before. We had to remove the screws and nails very carefully since they want to use them again. With that job completed I went to join the rest of the group in the task they were working on. We had to prepare several hundred pineapple plants for planting. The lower leaves on each plant have to be stripped off to expose the roots so the pineapple can grow. After they are planted it takes a whole year before they will bear fruit! There are already some pineapple plants producing fruit as well as several banana trees and many large gardens with cassava, peanuts, and other vegetables. They also have numerous chickens running around and one, poor, lone guinea fowl. Karl and Ilna also have a puppy, who, like all puppies, chews on everything (including our fingers!). We left the orphanage at 1:00 pm since we had to be back on board the ship at a certain time. We hadn’t gone very far when we came upon a Minivan stuck in the mud (the roads are terrible out there!). The driver had tried to go around a large mud puddle and had high-centered in the ditch beside it. We borrowed a rope from Karl pulled the van out of the mud. The owners were very grateful. All in all it was a very fulfilling day and I actually got DIRTY for onceJ!

            Now for the lab news….let’s see….the temperature is much better now in the lab and our instruments are much happier (the ones that are still running, that is). The one instrument that I mentioned in the last update is still down and waiting a decision on what to do. It most certainly needs a trained technician to come and fix it; some sort of optical calibration that only the company can do…go figure. Our lab supervisor in the US is working on it. This past week our two CBC analyzers decided to have a problem and had us very worried for a while. Fortunately, after a good cleaning and recalibration they worked better than before! Had to draw a unit of blood for a two-month old this week who had an encephalocele, which basically is a protrusion of the brain through an opening in the skull. The surgeons had forewarned us that this surgery would be dangerous and blood might be needed. Thank God the surgery went well and the baby is recovering quickly. We received a whole bunch of microbiology supplies this past week, which made us very happy. Now all we need to do is get them catalogued in the central supply system, labeled, and put away.

            I had the opportunity to visit another hospital here in Monrovia on Friday. Our dental team has their clinic set up at Redemption Hospital, not too far from the ship. On Friday (my day off) I was out on the dock enjoying the nice breeze when Vicki, the dental coordinator, invited me to come with her to pick up the rest of the dental team. She had brought some of them back to the ship since they needed to get ready to go home, but the rest had stayed behind to clean up. Since I was doing nothing important I was happy to have a diversion in my day. Redemption is very small and very much like the other hospitals in the area. It is a free hospital and so is very busy. The dental team sees somewhere around 30 or 40 patients a day and usually only has one dentist doing the work. They have four dental chairs with an assistant at each one and the dentist just goes from one to the other, pulling teeth, or whatever needs to be done.

            Well, I guess that about covers my life this past week. So, once again, I thank you all for your prayers and correspondence and I look forward eagerly to seeing you all in September.

In Christ,

Ruth

Nothing Can Separate

God holds my hand;

I cannot fall.

I’m in His grip;

I’ve heard His call.

Nothing can loose

The grip He has:

Not things to come

Nor things that pass.

God’s love is strong;

His hold stays tight.

He guides me through

The darkening night.

I’ll trust His grip

Through stormy veils,

Because I know

God never fails.

-Ruth Payne-

“Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?.....[nothing] shall be able

to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ

Jesus our Lord” (Romans 8:35a & 39b).

June 3, 2008

Dear Family and Friends,

            June already! Only 3 months left to go! I am eagerly counting the days and weeks until I come home.

            I went with my friend, André, to Karduma Community Church again this past Sunday (May 25), because I received a special invitation from the pastor to attend their Mother’s Day celebration. Here in Liberia they don’t celebrate Mother’s or Father’s Day on the same day every year, instead each church picks the Sunday they want. They do celebrate them in the same month that we do…just on a different day. They really put on quite a celebration! They give their women an active role in the church on this special day and have them doing most of the service. Unfortunately, since I had been invited, my name also appeared in the program, as well as several other ladies from the Africa Mercy (who were not there!). I was called upon to give the opening prayer for the service as well as the welcome remarks. Sort of strange to have a visitor welcome church members to Sunday service! The entire service was directed at honoring the Mothers in the congregation, so they had these women come up and sit in the front of the room with the honored guests (Andre’ and I). They crowned the “Mother of the Year”, whom they chose weeks ago, and pinned flowers on all the mothers. These were just plastic flowers and you had to pay for them if you wanted to pin them on someone. André bought enough for all the mothers present (which was about 3) and I pinned them on. I also ended up with some flowers although I informed them that I was certainly not a mother!

            Well, the inevitable finally happened. One of our instruments quit! Don’t know yet if it just needs some good old-fashioned TLC or if the heat made it give up. The surgeons were in a bit of a panic, but there is nothing we can do at the moment. I called the technical service department in the US to see what could be done for the instrument and they informed me that they would have to send a tech to take a look. Uhmm…that’s a bit of a problem…I’m on a ship in Africa. The fellow I was talking with was rather shocked to receive this little bit of information. We’ll see what happens, but for the time being we are unable to run thyroid tests on our patients. That’s okay, we were running out of supplies for it anywaysJ.

            Friday, May 30, marked the one year anniversary of the Africa Mercy, as last year at this time they transferred everything from the Anastassis to the Africa Mercy. Both ships were docked here in Monrovia so they had a “Passing of the Torch” ceremony from one ship to the other. The Anastassis had been deemed un-seaworthy and was on her way to being permanently retired. We celebrated this year with a picnic dinner out on the dock (fortunately it didn’t rainJ) and a comical relay race. Each relay team had four people on it from the same department on the ship. They all had to make “torches” to use during the race. Some of them were very ingenious while others (like the monstrous wrench used by the engineering department) were just plain hilarious. The relay consisted of four separate stations with one person from the team at each station. The first person had to sack-race up the dock to the second person who had to put on scrubs, complete with operating room cap and booties. They then had to race to the next person, take off the scrubs, and help that person put on a pair of work coveralls, hard hat, and safety goggles. This person then had to crawl under two Land Rovers and race to the final person on the team. This final person had to balance a slice of bread on a pancake turner and race to the finish line without dropping the bread. It was very funny and everyone enjoyed themselves greatly. All the participants of the relay received a gift certificate to our Starbuck’s and the winners also received $15 each to go out to eat somewhere. I believe the dining room team won, which was not surprising since they were all young guys. After the relay we watched a short video clip of the “Passing the Torch” ceremony from last year.

            This was the last week for us to have Lab Tech students here and we were all much relieved. It was not easy having them here as sometimes we didn’t really have enough work for them to do and other times were so busy that we didn’t have enough time to show them anything. In some ways it was not too helpful for them to come here since the chance to find a lab here with anything close to what we have on board is pretty slim. Most of the labs in Liberia have few or no instruments besides a microscope. Several CBC (Complete Blood Count) instruments were recently donated to a couple hospitals in the area but the donators neglected to send the necessary reagents to run these instruments. These instruments are the same as we have on the ship but we only have enough reagents to run our own, so are unable to help much. We are helping them set up the instruments as well as telling the government how much reagent they should get per month. Hopefully they will be able to obtain reagents now and in the future.

            Well, time to get my day started so I’ll close with a verse that touched my heart last week. I hope it blesses you too. “For the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to shew himself strong in the behalf of them whose heart is perfect toward him” (II Chronicles 16:9a).

In Christ,

Ruth

May 27, 2008

Dear Family and Friends,

            I have the day off today so am sitting in the Mid-ships lounge to type this letter. It is a very interesting place to be as so many things take place here. I see the kindergarten children playing a game with their teachers on the other side of the lounge. Several people are in the internet café checking their emails, and a few other folks are just relaxing, reading, and enjoying some time off. Outside there are many dark clouds forming, which means it will probably rain again today sometime. Only one small ship is in port right now so the activity is very low over there. When a large ship comes in we see a lot more activity as they rush to unload it. The port here is so small that they can only handle a few ships at a time, and, of course, the Africa Mercy has one of the docking sites all tied up. The one on the other side of our dock is taken up with a small vessel whose captain was caught smuggling drugs into Liberia. The UN is in charge of that ship now, but at present they are only guarding it so that the Liberian people do not walk off with it a piece at a time. Off the starboard side of our ship there is a metal dock with some sort of ancient crane on it. Nearly every day, and in all sorts of weather, we see Liberian men on that dock slowly disassembling it with hacksaws and hammers. When they get a piece of metal loose they tie it to homemade flotation devices and swim it to shore. They then sell this metal in Monrovia for a small price compared to the work it takes to obtain. No one I know in the US would work so hard for so little. Some of the metal pieces they are removing are like railroad tracks. Imagine cutting