Showing Love & Compassion to the Terminally Ill

Brenda & the team visit Danielle (centre) who has a tumour involving the ear. Danielle's daughter and friend are also pictured.
The following article was written by a friend who is room mates with Suzanne Zickell (right) on the Palliative care team. I think she captured the depth of heart exhibited day in and day out. Please keep these amazing women in your prayers. Brenda is privileged to go out with the team every month.
Even though Mercy Ships will provide free life-changing surgeries for thousands of people during this year’s outreach in Benin, there are cases where a person cannot be helped medically by Mercy Ships because of cancer or other terminal illnesses. However, there are still ways that Mercy Ships helps these suffering individuals. The Palliative Care (also known as Hospice ) and Outpatient Care project’s primary goal is to show love to those who are terminally ill and have little or no support from their families and community. This is achieved through the hard work of Palliative Care Coordinator June Fontes (2nd from left) and her team – including nurse Suzanne Zickell and Tanguy, their translator & Brenda Cole (Minor Job). During the week, the team visits patients in their homes or in hospitals – talking, reading Scripture, and praying. Sometimes, because of their condition, a patient may require regular wound care to prevent infection.

Adele (above) is one such patient that requires this care. A few years ago, a malignant tumor began to form on the right side of her face. Because of the unattractive appearance of the growth, she was abandoned by her husband. She now lives with and is cared for by her daughter, who has learned to effectively clean and dress the seeping lumps. “When I look at Adele, I am amazed that someone who has something that severe can still be singing God’s praises and laughing,” said June. Principles of basic hygiene, nutrition, pain control, and medication administration are taught to the patients and their closest family member or caregiver. Appropriate pain medication that they cannot afford is provided by Mercy Ships. Though June and her team bring physical relief, the emotional and spiritual healing that takes place is also notable.
“We’ve had numerous examples in this outreach of people telling us that they were initially hiding away, but when we came, we somehow gave them a level of value that they had not had before,” explained June. “We have watched people that were depressed become more joyful.”

Burkitt’s lymphoma is a type of cancer that occurs mainly among young children in equatorial Africa. If diagnosed and treated early on, the cancer can be completely eradicated. Seven-year-old Maurice (above) recently began his first treatment of chemotherapy to combat this disease. June and her team visit Maurice and his mother on a weekly basis. Though he transfers between his aunt’s house and a local hospital in Cotonou to undergo nauseating chemotherapy, he manages to remain joyful, joking and laughing with June, Suzanne and Tanguy as they visit.
“The thing I enjoy most about my job is that we make difficult situations easier for each person we treat,” said June. However, the job is not without its challenges and frustrations. June explained that her team does not always get the cooperation that they would like. “Maurice’s doctor does not share information with us, so it makes things difficult because we feel more could be done if we were kept in the loop.”
When all the signs indicate that a patient is terminal, there is concern for how the patient will cope when Mercy Ships leaves at the end of an outreach. “A month before the departure, we start transitioning the patient and their caregivers” said June. “For example, if we are providing them with supplies that cannot be obtained here, we will start to teach them what other things can be used and where they can be acquired,” she elaborated.
“We also try to find a church where people are willing to come and pray for and read Scripture with the patient. It’s hard to leave, but we’ve never left anyone that wasn’t being transferred to some level of sustainable care,” June concluded.
Working in the field of palliative care, death is always present. It is an area of work that can be emotionally draining and traumatic. In the event of a patient’s passing, June and her team function as a support-base by grieving with the deceased’s family and loved ones and maintaining relationships with them.
The Palliative Care Team has shared God’s model of compassionate care and its importance with over 500 church leaders in Benin. Through the continued efforts of June and her team, Adele, Maurice, Danielle and other patients will continue to experience hope in a dignified and comfortable manner.

Visiting the Programs Sites

MERCY SHIPS HOSPITALITY CENTRE
During our vacation time we have been able to spend some time seeing first hand more of what Mercy Ships is doing here in the country of Benin. This morning we joined a group of crew who visited 3 locations where our fellow crew members are working. Our eye team, dental team and our team working at what we call the "Hospitality Centre" which is a land based extension to the Africa Mercy Hospital. The Hospitality Centre (HC) - a converted warehouse facility, is located about a mile from the ship and a constant shuttle service by Land Rover is available throughout each day. This is a non-medical, temporary housing unit for approximately 38 national residents who will have a stay prior to hospitalization for an in and outpatient surgical procedure(s). Pictured above is the housing area. You'll notice each bed has a full mosquito net that goes floor to ceiling and the beds are designed so that the patient sleeps on the bed and the caregiver (usually a family member) sleeps on a mattress on the floor under the bed.
This unit is also used by national residents who have had surgery on the Ship and for logistical reasons may need non-medical housing in between outpatient visits to the ship, therefore freeing up ship hospital beds. Also housed in the same facility are what were formerly known as the Dockside Eye & Physical Therapy Units which cannot operate dockside due to lack of dock space here in Benin. The picture above shows an eye test in progress at the unit. The goal of the HC is to provide a clean & safe environment for pre & post-op patients. The unit is staffed by 8 Day Volunteer Centre Assistants, 4 generator operators / security guards & 4 professional contracted security guards. In addition there are 2 crew members managing the site as well as the crew who make up both the eye and physical therapy units on location.

MERCY VISION FIELD EYE CLINIC
Our eye field team go out 4 days a week to 4 different locations to screen eye patients. Today the clinic was based out of a local church - Action Chapel International in Ganhi. They are able to screen between 300-400 patients each day out of the many hundreds that show up at these locations. Approx 25% of those screened are scheduled for surgical procedures, the others are given medications or reading glasses where appropriate.

In the pictures above we see the crowds waiting to be seen by our eye field team and also on the right Dr. Bob Hicks is performing an eye examination. The goal is to evaluate and treat 20,000 patients. This will include 3000 specialized surgical procedures to remove cataracts, replacing the lense and therefore restoring sight. A further 250 surgical procedures for strabismus, pterygium & eviscerations/enucleations in addition to the distribution of 5,000 pairs of UV blocking sunglasses and 5,000 pairs of reading glasses. Our goal whilst here is also to train 2 local eye surgeons in cataract removal and 10 community eye care workers in ophthalmic care.

BENIN SMILES DENTAL CLINICOur Dental team are using a very nice local medical facility for the Dental Clinic. They have recently received some much needed upgraded dental equipment which includes Dental chairs, auto-clave machines for sterilization of dentistry instruments, new air compressors and generators for the equipment requiring electrical supply.

Pictured left new dental chairs and adjoining equipment and right the two new generators. Jessica Campbell Dental Team Coordinator is stood next to the very old unreliable and very noisy old generators! In front of her are the two new generators.

Our Dental team focus on reducing the incidence of dental disease by providing basic dental education and treatments such as restorations, extractions and cleaning. The target is to provide dental care for approx 12,900 people (approx 19,00 procedures) affected by tooth decay, infections of the mouth and small oral lesions.To provide dental hygiene services to 1,400 people. To provide basic dental health to at least 1000 elementary and secondary school students. In addition the goal is to train 20 teachers to teach oral health in their classrooms and to train 2 Beninese with the skills to be Dental Assistants and Dental Hygiene instructors.

Sharing from the Heart - Feedback

We sent out a Newsletter in April (you can refer back to it on the blog) called "Sharing from the Heart". Our intention in sending that out was to rally those who know us and care for us to pray very specifically for us in areas that we felt we had specific needs at the time.

We were so overwhelmed by the response to that Newsletter and want to first of all say "Thank You" to all who prayed, but we also wanted to give feedback about some of the answers to yours and our prayers.
I am going to simply list the issues I raised in that newsletter, followed by an update on each situation:

• Brenda - bout of sickness. Brenda is now fully recovered and doing well, back to her usual self.
• HR Staffing needs - This has been awesome to see the answers to prayer. I was down to one staff member during the summer. We now have a fully staffed HR Department, right through till mid 2010. A big thank you to our wonderful recruitment team at the Mercy Ships Head Office for all their efforts to help in this. This is the longest we will ever have been fully staffed. In addition one of our crew members who was the HR Manager on the Caribbean Mercy (former Mercy Ship - now retired) has stepped up to cover my 4 weeks vacation time during the summer. This is a huge blessing to me and means I can more fully relax and enjoy my vacation time without worrying about the mounting workload I would return back to.
• Andy's back pain - At the time when we sent out the newsletter we were very concerned about Andy's back after his previous very long and serious spell of back pain. We are very happy to report that within a couple of days the pain had gone completely.
• Engineering challenges - Engineering continue to have their share of daily challenges. Please continue to keep the whole team in prayer. Thankfully, Mercy Ships flew in a relief Chief Engineer for our vacation time. This is truly a gift to us, as once again it means Andy can relax in the knowledge that his responsibilities are in very good and capable hands.
• Emma, Chris & Josh - All sleep disturbances ceased. They did well on their mid term exams. You will have seen their reports on our blog about their Work Experience opportunities and what a great time they had, Emma in Engineering, Chris working with the Plumbers & Josh in the Deck department. After their work experience it was time to start preparing for their end of year exams. I have to give them all credit where it's due - they worked very hard. I put together a fairly rigorous study time table for them but they stuck to it and put in the hours. All three of them came out of school with their best ever end of year results - lots of A grades between them all. They are in the middle of 9 weeks summer vacations, but are each designated to work in ship departments for 3 of those weeks. So far Emma has worked on the main Reception desk, & Chris & Josh both in Deck. The boys both hope to spend time in the Galley working with our Lead Chef - Jesse, from the USA.
• Andy's trip to USA for training - This was a very successful trip. He spent 4 weeks in Maryland at the Engineering Training Academy undertaking a Refrigeration course. It was a fairly intense course but he did manage trips into Washington D.C one weekend, Gettysburg another weekend and a visit to his Aunt Pat in N. Carolina on the 3rd weekend. After that he flew to the Mercy Ships Head Office in Garden Valley, Texas and spent a week with the Marine Operations team there and had some very useful meetings and information sharing times. At the end of that week he started his journey back to the ship flying via the UK. He spent a week travelling on a whistle stop tour of all the family members there. Fleet, Birmingham, Warrington, Liverpool and finally Newcastle for a couple of days to spend time with our two older boys Matt & Steve. It was great for him to speand time with everyone and finally arrive back on board the ship on 22nd May after safe travels every step of the way.
• Our summer vacation plans - At the time of writing we are currently on vacation. We decided we would stay on board for our 4 weeks of vacation time. So far it has enabled us to have a really good break and do things we normally don't get to do because of our work demands. We have enjoyed a good mixture of lazy days on board the ship, doing lots of reading and playing games with the kids. We've visited a couple of local hotels on day passes to swim in the pools and have also visited some of the Mercy Ships programs we don't get to see first hand. Andy even managed to accompany me as we joined the Palliative Care team on patient visitations. It was a very moving day for him as we visited mainly children who are very sick. Our first week of vacation is over and we are into our 2nd week. We have the offer of a few nights off ship at a friends house who lives about an hour away from the ship. We hope to take her up on that.

Amazing Gift - One of our friends contacted us shortly after our newsletter went out and told us of an anonymous donor who would like to bless Andy and I with a couple of weeks away from the ship. This anonymous donor has paid for us to travel to France to a place called Le Rucher Ministries (a Missionary Debriefing Centre) We will be flying out on 18th September and returning October 4th. We spend our first week away debriefing at Le Rucher and then the donor has provided a week in a holiday apartment at the foot of Mont Blanc - Switzerland, for the second week including car hire costs. Our kids will remain on the ship and a young couple on board will move into our cabin with them in our absence. We are so overwhelmed by this gesture of love to us. God so knew what we needed. A debriefing time after 9 years with Mercy Ships will be a wonderful opportunity to reflect on all we have done but also get re-energised for the future. We will celebrate our 23rd Wedding Anniversary whilst away. We have neever been away from our kids together for more than 1 or 2 nights in the 22 years since Matt was born. We are so grateful to all the Lord has done in us as a couple, particularly in the last decade. He has rebuilt and healed much that was broken and we are excited as we continue to grow together as a couple and in our service and relationship with God.
As we share these things with you - we are so convinced all over again how critical a part you play in what we are doing. Your prayers truly are making a difference and I hope what we share today, will encourage you as you see the tangible results.
We continue to covet your prayers as we press on and as we continue to put our trust in Him.

Andy & Brenda & Family

PS - The above picture was taken a couple of weeks ago. We had a fun event on the ship called the Africa Mercy Film Festival in which crew could submit their own film clips. Our kids created their own film called "The Chins Talk" and out of 16 entries they WON!!

Mental Health Program - Weekend in Abomey

Mercy Ships runs a Mental Health Program which is led by Dr. Lyn Westman. Last weekend Lyn asked me to accompany her up north (4 hours drive away) to Abomey where she is in the middle of a 16 week (2 days per week), training program with Church Leaders in the area. The topic of the training is "Healing the Wounds of Trauma". The training will really help the Church Leaders here as they counsel their people and deal with situations they face daily. Unlike Liberia, the people of Benin do not suffer from the aftermath of war, but do however deal with many difficult situations resulting from extreme poverty, sickness including HIV and AIDS etc..

The training topics covered during the two days I was involved included:

• If God loves us, why do we suffer
• How can the wounds of our hearts be healed
• What happens when someone is grieving

My role was somewhat limited, but I did help with reading scripture, (remember all communication has to be done through a translator in French). In addition to that, I helped with an impromptu role-play involving a counsellor and a counsellee. It was done in two parts: 1. How NOT to counsel someone 2. How TO counsel someone. I played the part of the counsellee.

In the first picture I am sharing my fictional story with "my counsellor". In the second picture one of the training participants was giving feedback on the role-play.

During the 2 days in Abomey we stayed in a local Children's Home started and run by an ex-Mercy Shipper. Approx 35 children live in the home. We were there from the Sunday evening just till the Tuesday evening. I had my own room, very simply furnished with just a bed (complete with mosquito net), table and chair and toilet & shower. From 9am till 4pm were were at a local church were the training sessions took place and then we travelled back to the children's home for our evening meal, enjoyed time with the children before going to our rooms which were pitch dark until the generators come on.

It was a very successful two days and I appreciated the opportunity to be involved in something very different.
I am pictured here dressed in one of my African dresses with Dr. Lyn Westman and Arlette. Arlette is the leader of the children's home in which we stayed and was also one of the training participants. Many of the children in her care had a traumatic early start in life.

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Tomorrow, once again I will be going out for my regular visitations with the Palliative Care Team. We have some very sad cases, but it is a privilege to have the opportunity to visit and show the love of Jesus and His care and compassion to people in the midst of their serious sicknesses and final days.

Ganvie Stilt Village

There is a village 18 kilometers outside of Cotonou which is situated on a river that runs inland from the port. The entire village is built on the river and is therefore built on stilts raising the buildings above the water level.

The pictures show the boat we travelled in, and some of the sites along the way, including a riverside market.

We left the ship at 8:30 on Saturday morning and met with the rest of our group at a local hotel that provides a boat service to Ganvie. The boat ride along the river takes about an hour and half.

We saw some interesting sites along the way.
The staple diet here in Benin is FISH. We therefore passed many fishermen in their boats and also fishing farms, netted and with basket traps for crabs and other shell fish displayed in the pic below.

The village of Ganvie is a fascinating insight into African village life. All of this village life takes place on the water, not only with the fishing done predominantly by the men and children but also the market place is also situated on the water. This local woman is preparing her canoe and loading her produce to sell along the way. This pic below shows part of the market.

Canoe is the only mode of transport in this village.These are some of the homes we saw as we travelled by boat around the village.

The picture below shows a line of canoes waiting to collect fresh water from the local water pump station.
The people of Ganvie are hard working people who have grown accustomed to visitors to their village. They have a number of local craft stores along the way which sell local print fabrics, wood carvings and jewellry as well as an assortment of voodoo amulets and masks.

Zemidjan Madness

Here in Benin, travelling by motorbike, known here as by Zemidjan (pronounced zimmyjon) is the most common mode of transport. However it is also the most dangerous. The zemidjan drivers weave recklessly in and out of the traffic and lane discipline and rules of the road as we know them, seem to be non-existent. There are many accidents daily. Mercy Ships crew are strongly advised against using them, however these zemidjans provide the taxi service here and are very inexpensive.



















It is very common to see whole family's travelling on one zemidjan - small child on the handle bars, dad driving, child in the middle, mum on the back with a baby strapped to her back.

Some of the biggest and most dangerous loads witnessed on a zemidjan include a full sized fridge freezer, another crew member tells of a full 5 piece garden set - table and 4 chairs. The above photos are some of the amusing sites we see. My personal favourite is the one at the top of this post showing the goat travelling piggy back style! Some of these photo's are borrowed from our fellow crew members.

Click on the Flickr grid (left) for more similar pics.

Baptisms in the African Bush

Today a team from the Ship went to a village about an hours' drive away. This village of Hevie (pronounced HEAVY) has a history steeped in VooDoo and idol worship. According to the Pastor - Pastor Theodor, the land around the village was very unproductive, but he had a vision over 10 years ago that the land was to be used for the building of a Church. Pastor Theodor explained that as a result of the Jesus film the people really got inspired and motivated to see the fulfillment of that vision and the church was built. It is a simple structure - an open frame with a zinc roof.

Mercy Ships sends out teams 2 - 3 times a week into the villages around Cotonou to show the Jesus Film. This is done in the Crew's own time, evening & weekends. The Jesus Film is translated into the local languages of French and also Fon.
This is such a powerful way of sharing about Jesus and why He Came, why He died and how He was raised from the dead to save us from our sin, to transform us into Life Eternal. They don't just hear the message but get to see it through this powerful, visual representation of the Gospel message.

It's wonderful to see people responding and giving their lives to Jesus. Our teams ensure local Pastors are present so that any new Christians can be connected into local Churches so that they can be encouraged and grow in their new found Faith. From time to time we get requests to be involved in the Baptism of these new Christians.Andy shares a message before the Baptisms begin.

The visit today was three-fold:
1. It was to Baptize 12 people:
Andy & Arthur (also from the UK - our Chief Electrician) were asked to be those who Baptized the new believers. Other Mercy Ships Crew had some key roles in the proceedings. One of our crew preached the message, Andy & Arthur and Ananda prayed for the new Pastors and various crew prayed at different intervals throughout the service.










2. To dedicate this new Church plant in the Community and to commission the new Pastor. During the service they shared communion. This was a first - no.... not a first to share African communion, but a first where the "wine" was actually Coke!!
3. To dedicate a miracle baby to the Lord.

The testimony about the baby is remarkable. A month before the baby was due the mother went to the local hospital as she had gone into early labour. The hospital sent her home telling her that the baby had died in the womb and that she should wait till the baby was expelled naturally. The Church got together and prayed in earnest for the mother and for this child to be quickly delivered. 15 days ago the mother felt the baby start to move again in the womb and 5 days ago, she gave birth to a normal healthy baby boy that she & her husband have called Joshua. What a day of Joy!
It was such an exciting day, to see what the Lord has done and is doing in this Community.











These two lovely pictures above show Andy & Arthur in prayer at the end of the Baptisms with two African brothers. Andy & Arthur work closely together in Engineering, and are very good friends. Today, however was an extra special blessing for them to share.

At the end they shared a simple meal together of rice an egg and local vegetables.