House Keeping in Mattru

Some of you may wonder how keeping house in Mattru compares to keeping house in Atmore! In this blog we will introduce you to some of the differences:

One of the main differences is of course the frequent absence of electricity. This is worse in the rainy season when our solar panels struggle to charge. But I (Heleen writing this time!) am not complaining - in Freetown I have gone for many more hours without electricity and it makes for nice romantic candle-lit dinners and early nights!

Headlights, Rechargeable Lights and Candles - always within reach!

It also means we don't have a fridge or freezer which I sometimes miss. However, our neighbours have one and every once in a while we use it to keep some leftovers. If not, there are always hungry mouths to feed around us!

Another difference is the water supply. The hospital has its own well and water is being pumped into the water tank several times a week. However, money for fuel to run the generator and pump is not always available so we have to be prepared at all times! There are buckets with water hidden under counters and sinks and in the bathroom we have a big container. When there is no water we take “bucket baths” while standing in a tub so afterwards the water can be used to flush the toilet! Of course we don’t have hot water which is fine in the hot, dry season, but in the rainy season we sometimes dread getting our bodies cleaned! So every once in a great while we boil some water on the stove and indulge in a nice warm “bath”.

Although the water from the well is relatively clean, we do have to filter it before drinking. Again, compared to Freetown we are much better off, since the water over there is so dirty that the filter gets clogged up frequently while here we can go for months without cleaning!

When I moved to Atmore I was so excited I got to own a dish washer for the first time in my life! But alas, it is back to doing dishes by hand, and here we even have to boil the water to get all the grease removed from our plates. Many dishes here are cooked with palm oil and it leaves a thick, orange film of grease on anything it touches. We use a bar of locally made soap called “72% soap”. We have no idea what the 72% stands for but it smells so good I wish I could ship some to America!

We are blessed with Kadi, a girl who comes in for a few hours three times a week to help clean and do laundry. She is very good at her job and it frees us up to do our work as everything here seems to get dirty a little faster and takes more effort to clean up! The main challenge in the rainy season is to get our things dry. It can take many days, sometimes up to a week, for clothes to be dry enough to wear again. At the height of the rainy season (July/August) nothing will ever be 100% dry and we have had to adjust our standards of freshness as we stick our noses in our clothes and towels to decide if they are fit to be used J

Culturally in Sierra Leone, you can never give your underwear to others to be washed, so we have to do that ourselves. Many years ago my missionary sister taught me the trick of using a plunger to give our undergarments a good scrub!

So far we have survived our stay without ironing any of our clothes, but since ironing will also help to get our clothes to dry, Jon fixed our charcoal iron today. I hope Kadi knows how light it because I don’t have a clue!

I will keep our cooking adventures for another time, but from Monday through Friday we are blessed to have this basket arrive on our doorstep every day around 1.00 pm. It holds two cute bowls with our rice and plasas (sauce) for the day. Thank you Yealie, for taking care of us!

Decorating and creating a “nest” has been a bit of a challenge but I am so happy with the large selection of fabrics with beautiful African prints on the local market. And hey, I read on a Dutch website that bright red, yellow and blue are expected to be the new trend in home decorating so we are setting a trend here!

Thanks to several donations we have on special occasions been able to treat ourselves to a real cup of coffee. It takes some extra effort but the result is worth it! However by now we have almost come to appreciate Nescafé just as much, so we are quite content with that! We can’t wait to have some of you join us for a cup some day!

Well, just before I completed this blog my dear husband came in with some Zinnias from our garden! Now we don’t only have candles but even flowers to grace our table!

We are grateful for a house that has become a home! Much love from both of us! 

Jon and Heleen

Joy & Lament

    In the space of two days, we had three maternity cases that brought to the forefront all kinds of positive and negative emotions.   Sierra Leone has one of the highest maternal mortality rates in the world, and for a lot of reasons, Bonthe district, our district, is at the bottom.  One of the main reasons is difficult access to care, plus only 2 hospitals to serve a population in the whole district of more than 200,000 people.  Bonthe district consists of an island, Sherbro Island, which is only reachable by boat ride of 1-2 hours, and many villages that are 4-5 hours away from the hospitals.  The current rainy season increases these numbers as boats and roads are unreliable.

 On Thursday evening, we had a lady referred from a neighboring PHU (peripheral health unit) who went into labor, and the umbilical cord of the baby had prolapsed.  Often when that occurs, the baby dies, but fortunately the cord still had pulsations which meant the baby's heart was still beating.  (The 2 umbilical arteries carry blood from the baby's heart into the placenta, where it receives oxygen from the mother, and then returns the blood to the baby via the umbilical vein--our bodies our fearfully and wonderfully made as the Bible says.) The treatment for this problem is relatively straight forward, unlike some of our medical decisions here--the pressure needs to be kept off of the cord, and a C-section needs to be done.  The best way to keep pressure off of the cord is to press up on the baby with a gloved hand while preparations are done.  I had a difficult time getting anyone to persist in this job. Although I had several nurse volunteers, no one seemed to get the idea of staying there, so eventually I assumed the position.  My hand and fingers all went to sleep, but I stayed put, while my capable assistants, Pa French and Michael Josiah actually did the C-section. Soon we had not just 1, but surprise! 2 babies crying healthily.  A success story that makes everyone feel good, since the possibilities initially were not good.

Jon and his team preparing for a C-section.

 Less than 24 hours later, a lady due to deliver was brought by ambulance from a village about 5 hours away with respiratory distress and she was having bloody, frothy sputum.  This is a sign of pulmonary edema, or fluid in the lungs.  She had a very low oxygen level, and was unconscious due to that.  Her blood pressure was extremely high, so with our limited equipment (no xray, but it is coming, PTL!) we felt that she had pre-eclampsia (high blood pressure during pregnancy, or toxemia) with resultant pulmonary edema--a rare complication of untreated pre-eclampsia.  Once again, the decision to proceed to C-section was made, but this time before the patient could be transferred to the operating table, she went into cardiorespiratory arrest.  In an effort to save the infant, we did surgery right there, and although the baby was pulled out in no time while doctors and others were performing CPR and resuscitative measures, we were unsuccessful in saving either one.  As I went to talk to the father to tell him that his firstborn and wife had perished, this stoical father burst into tears.  To see an man cry in Africa is quite soul wrenching, and my heart and soul were crying with him.  

   The same day, a lady with term pregnancy was laboring, and although the labor was proceeding slowly, she was making progress.  I checked her with ultrasound in the afternoon (to rule out twin pregnancy which was a question) and saw the heartbeat of the baby, strong and reassuring. She was making progress, so a couple of hours later, I popped into the labor room. No nurse was present but I saw the mother of the laboring patient holding a baby in her arms, and felt that wave of relief that everything had come out okay.  That is, until the mother brought the baby to me and said, "Bebi don day" (The baby has died) with sorrow in her voice, and I looked at a perfectly formed stillborn child.  Once again, that thud of weight landing at the bottom of the stomach, and the questions came, "What happened?"  No answers from the nurse--an unexplained happening here in Africa..

   Laments from the Psalms speak to the despair I felt, "How long O Lord?", and " Will he never again be kind?  Is his unfailing love gone forever?  Have his promises permanently failed? Has God forgotten to be gracious?  Has he slammed the door on his compassion? But then I recall all you have done, O LORD;  I remember your wonderful deeds of long ago.  They are constantly in my thoughts.  I cannot stop thinking about your mighty works.  O God, your ways are holy.  Is there any god as mighty as you?  You are the God of great wonders!  You demonstrate your awesome power among the nation." (verses from Psalm 77) In this hope we go forward....

A little baby girl who arrived safely.

Our town

This blog is about our town in southern Sierra Leone.  The population is uncertain, and the surrounding villages rather obscure, but it is where we live and we think introductions are in order! Mattru Jong is on the Jong River, and is a town that is featured prominently in the book, A Long Way Home, a story written about the war of 1991-2002 from the perspective of a local participant, Ishmael Beah.  
  The main road is Bo Road, which traverses the 45 miles to Bo, the 2nd largest city in Sierra Leone.  The road is paved for about 1/2 mile. It is in very poor repair, and if you want to be sane, you will take about 4 hours to get to Bo in a vehicle.  Other than Bo road, the roads of Mattru are unpaved, and treacherous in the rainy season. There are all kinds of little shops and enterprises that line the road.  Everyone has some kind of enterprise to make a bit more money.  There are tailors, carpenters, money changers, hardware stores, even a tiny restaurant with one table--which by the way, makes very delicious food and serves it in a dainty way.  However, those wanting non-Sierra Leonean food here need not apply...There is a market, government offices, several mosques, a Catholic church, and a few small churches.  

    We often take walks through the town, usually on the less traveled paths and lanes.  If you do that, you need to be ready for the children to incessantly call out "Hello" or "Pumoi", which means white person.  Answering the Hello with any kind of greeting does not stop the Hellos, or for that matter the Pumois.  The average child says Hello 12-15 times before the urge to greet is gone and there are on average 10 children at a household area, so go figure. We have been able to teach a few children to say Bye-bye, and that seems to stop it 😊 In between the houses, we enjoy looking at all the nice gardens, loaded with similar things--potato leaf (white sweet potatoes), peanuts, corn, okra, egg plant, and hot peppers. 

   Thursday is the big market day. There are multiple stalls going all the way down to the river where people sell their wares.  Heleen is always remarking how everyone sells exactly the same things, and that is true.  It seems like that each one would find a niche, but that is not necessary, apparently...You can buy fish, sometimes oysters, and crabs, since we are in a coastal area.  There are some things that you need the bigger city for, but we have been surprised how much we have been able to purchase locally....But let's stop talking, and take you on a tour!

This is one of the main intersections in town, close to the hospital. 

The DHMT building, which stands for District Health Management Team.  They provide statistic gathering, and support for the medical work done in the community, and is a governmental agency. The building also houses the Ministry of Social Welfare, Gender and Children's Affairs, where Heleen sometimes attends meetings.

Mattru Jong is the distict capital and therefore houses the District Council.

Here is the local cabinet shop, with two employees hard at work.  Although it looks primitive, they turn out surprisingly nice furniture, anything from sofas, to stuffed chairs or tables,
or whatever you order. We are the recipients of some nice furniture from this shop.

Our cabinet shop is not too far from our tailor.  Tailors in Sierra Leone are almost always men, and mostly use the old Singer sewing machines with the pedals for power.  However, at the drop of a hat, and with only a few measurements, they can turn out fine clothes, curtains, pillow cases, etc.

Here is the Fleming United Brethren in Christ Church, where we attend most Sundays.  The pastor there is Reverend Gbando, who is also our hospital administrator.  This church is situated on the hospital compound, so is within walking distance for us (as are most places in town).

Market Day in Mattru is on a street which leads down to the River.  Here people congregate in great numbers on Thursday, but also every day of the week except Sunday for selling their wares. 

Perhaps you are in the market to buy fish or chicken feet. Usually you will be in luck.  

These children sell only onions in different sizes. 
Each little heap represents about 20 cents (US money).

This market area still shows the partially destroyed police station in the background.  It was destroyed during the war, but now functions somewhat as a warehouse and storage...

The one bank in town, and where we have occasionally gotten wired money.  This is not a task for the person with limited time, as it usually requires a long (up to three hours) wait.  

(Not unusual for Sierra Leone)

The one gas station in town fuels a lot more okadas (motorcycles) than cars, but it would be the only one for many miles.

A larger store where we can get milk powder, toilet paper, soap, etc.

One of the roads we walk on in the evenings...

Everywhere are gardens.... The laundry, sometimes spread on the ground, sometimes hanging on lines or bamboo sticks, takes many days to dry in the rainy season.

We have several contacts with Fula people in town. They are usually devout Muslims and often traders. At this store we often buy bread. These children are just coming back from fetching water.

We are very proud of these children living by the store, who no longer call us "Pumoi",
but Aunty Helen and Docta Jon! 

Thanks for coming with us on a little tour! Next time we will tell you more about what has kept us busy over the past few weeks!

Preparing a Place

The shovels rose and fell rhythmically outside the OR (Operating Room) on the hot Sunday morning.  About 30 laborers were working to level the field where the solar panels for the hospital electrification project are going to be placed.  Inside the OR, with windows wide open for some ventilation, we prepped for another C-section.  The amount of space separating the two scenarios was only 30 feet or so, and both were part of the plan that is in place to help Mattru Jong Hospital become a source of Christian compassionate health care.   Although quite dissimilar in many respects, the two venues illustrate much of the reality that is now Africa.  All the land leveling and site preparation that would normally be done by machinery in America was being done by hand.  In the operating room, we were forced again to do surgery without the help of electricity. Fuel for the generator had not been purchased, and so we decided to go ahead for surgery without it.  This attempt to save another child’s life in West Africa was necessary because the mother had already had a seizure, or eclampsia as it is called when occurring during pregnancy, and the only cure is to get the baby out as soon as possible. 

The OR on the left (yellow/brown building) and the proposed site for the solar panels on the right.

     We paused for prayer prior to starting the surgery, and soon we had a squalling baby on our hands. We turned our attention back to the mother, as we handed the baby off to the nurse in attendance.  It was good to hear the crying baby, meaning our task had been successful.  So many children die even before birth, owing to vagaries of malaria, anemia, poor nutrition, and poor pre-natal care.  Sweat dripped down my face, as another nurse swabbed in vain to keep it from falling into the surgical field.  We were soon done with surgery, and were even able to attend the last part of the service at the local UBC church there in Mattru, a short walk from the hospital.

    We joined our voices in song, as the congregation sang,

   “Sing the wondrous love of Jesus, sing his mercy and his grace

       In the mansion bright and glorious, he’ll prepare for us a place…

It was nice to sing that song with gusto and reflect on the work that has already been in progress here.  It feels as if we are joining something that has been a special place over the years, and we would like to do our part to help.  The frustrations of living in rural West Africa pale in comparison to the possibilities for God’s kingdom here on earth.  And so, even as we look to a heavenly mansion, we are grateful for his protection and care over the beginning of our time here.

    Heleen has been trying to get our house livable these days, not an easy process.  We can include some of the pictures of the process. We had some rooms painted (although we kept most of them in the original blue color as it would be too much to cover that up!), replaced most of the window screens and finally this week got tiles laid in our bedroom, living room and kitchen. Yesterday we hung the curtains and over the next few weeks we hope to continue with some decorating. There is still a lot that could be done to improve the house, but after a month we are ready for a break from dealing with carpenters, painters and tilers! After living for weeks out of suitcases, it is exciting to move our clothes out of our suitcases and organize our kitchen supplies on the newly made shelves and begin to feel our house is becoming a home!

The tiles were laid with cement which was mixed on our bedroom floor - the freshly painted walls had to suffer a little in the process! 

Camping out in our living room!

Our kitchen.

Our new shelves.

Our living room - still in need of some wall decorations! Notice the tiles - we got mixed messages about the numbers that were available and in the end had to use some creativity to get the whole floor covered! 😊

Our gecko is doing well, making friends with the many geckos that are living in and around our house! He was finally named - Greenie - and had a few more adventures which included a visit to the hospital! The nurse decided his weight was 0 kg and the doctor told him to eat more bugs! (which is an advice we welcome very much in our bug-ridden home!)

These first few weeks have been eventful and at times discouraging. However, we are grateful for God's faithfulness and your support. We'd love to hear how you all are doing too!

The First Week!

    Settled in Mattru Jong!  Settled is an exaggeration, as we are in a house that has potential, as they say in the realtor’s magazine.  We inherited 4 large overstuffed chairs, a sofa that rams springs up your buttocks, 2 beds, and no other furniture.  The house has two bedrooms, with a nice big European shower, separate from the bathroom, which is nice.  Both the bathroom toilet and the shower were right in front of huge windows, but as we are not exhibitionists by nature, we have found a way to cover those nicely with some homemade curtains.  The solar powered unit at the Guest house has been connected to our house, and so we have plenty of power at night to run our new fans, and to have a few lights on.  The fans are a necessity on these hot sticky nights of April here.  Wednesday might have been the hottest day yet, with a high close to 100 I believe.  But by morning, it is usually reasonably cool, making it necessary to pull on a sheet to keep warm.  The screens on our windows are actually mosquito nets, and since they are stretched slightly in the installation, we have plenty of bugs that can make their way through the mesh and cluster around the lights at night.  You will have surprise protein if you would eat under one of those lights, so it is good we do not have a table and chairs yet!

The front of our house.

The back of our house.

   

Harmony House, the guest house belonging to the hospital, where our colleagues Pam and Matt are staying.

 God has been very real to us for the first few days here.  We were able to get our vehicle the day before we left to come out to Mattru, and when we drove it home, I noticed some looseness in the suspension or steering.  It rapidly got worse, so I took it back to the fellow where I bought it at quarter of 5 on a Friday night, and they graciously took off the steering wheel that had 2 bolts that were quite worn, being the cause of the looseness.  We gave thanks to God for getting that fixed before we left.  And we were able to leave the next morning right on time.  We were pleasantly surprised at the journey. Although it took 7 hours, all the police at the check points were very nice, and we had no difficulties at all in finding it, thanks to a fellow who met us and rode with us the last 18 miles on a motorcycle.  The road up to the last 18 miles is nice enough, but after that, it is not that easy.  When you arrive at the Jong river, which passes by the town of Mattru Jong, you need to honk your horn for the man-powered ferry.  The ferry is made of metal and wood, but can carry 2 vehicles of normal size, along with several motorcycles, and people, and is propelled across the sizeable river along a cable which is grasped with a wooden tool and pulled manually.  The ferry is free, but you give a small token as a thank you, although if you don’t know that, they may try to charge you as well. 

    The road from there into town is a combination of dirt and blacktop, but the blacktop is finished, as they say, before we get to our house and the hospital, on the edge of town.  It makes it quite convenient to get to the hospital when you live this close.

Greenie, our gecko, of course traveled with us to Mattru!
Paved roads first, then a couple of hours on a nicely maintained, wide dirt road.

The last 18 miles are a narrower dirt road which was not to difficult to take now,
 but will be a challenge during the rainy season!

And finally we reached the Jong river! 

Getting on the ferry...

   Besides the work of moving into a house, (and a lot of cleaning, that first day) the work at the hospital started almost immediately, with rounds the morning after getting there late in the afternoon, and then a C-section the 2^nd day.  This was performed on one of the CHO’s wife, sort of the equivalent of our physician assistants.  So there was a bit more stress associated with that, and also because it was Jon’s first one in 28 years.  But surgery went well, and the baby was a girl, with mother and baby doing fine.  The second day, they brought in a child which was in the process of triage and admission, when he arrested and died, probably with cerebral malaria.  Although we did a bit of CPR, it is not a country where children can be placed on a respirator, so we soon stopped when it was unsuccessful.  It illustrated to us how that death is never very far away here in this land, and also shows there is only so much that can be done here.  But the compassion of Jesus is always available when medicine fails, and is available in every country.

Jon by the sign board of the hospital.

   The 4^th day, a lady was admitted with ectopic pregnancy with a hemoglobin of 4 (about 1/3 of normal) suggesting that she had lost most of her blood.  She was close to death, and not really responding well.  Upon opening of her abdomen, it was filled with blood.  Once we got everything drained, covering the operating room floor with blood, we were able to see the tube with its bleeding area.  This area was easily tied off, and surgery was successful.  I was starting to wonder whether this is the norm, but they said it was the first ectopic in a long time.  But praise God, she is doing well and is scheduled for discharge.

The front of the hospital.

Medical Wards

Pediatric ward.

Jon and Pam attending to a boy brought in after a bad fall on Saturday morning.

    In the meantime, Heleen is trying to set up a household. This is a bit different from setting up home in America, but thankfully, with many years of Freetown-experience and the help of local women, she is making progress. We sometimes run out of water so we need water stored for drinking, cooking, bathing, laundering and cleaning, which means we invested in lots of buckets! Cooking is a daily challenge as we learn to prepare meals with what is locally available – enough material for a separate blog post, so we won’t go into details about that yet, apart from listing the meals we’ve had so far: rice with sautéed potato leaves and ground peanuts, rice with okra stew, and white beans with a kind of eggplant in tomato sauce. As of next week we will have someone cooking for us from Monday through Friday one meal a day, which will be a big help! We ordered paint for some of the walls and tiles for the floors and hope that this work can be started soon. And Heleen can’t wait to go fabric shopping for curtains!

    Yesterday we attended the Good Friday service in the local UBC church, with the theme “It is Finished”, Christ’s finished work on the cross in our redemption.   And we are looking forward to celebrating Easter with them tomorrow morning.  The first week has been good but challenging and at times we feel overwhelmed, discouraged, and a little homesick.  So it will be good to be reminded of God’s power over death and sin.  We serve a Living God, a Risen Lord! We trust in Him as we go forward…

Freetown Again!

Freetown again!  Our team of Jon and Heleen Yoder and Pam McKee arrived Tuesday night March 21, at the Lungi airport.  Heleen and I were still relatively fresh, as we had only a 7 hour flight from Amsterdam, via Paris. Pam had traveled all night from the USA, so there was a bit of jet lag.  As usual, there was a mad scramble for bags, since between us we had 10 checked bags and several carry-ons.  We finally corralled them all and got on the van to take us down to the water taxi.  This has become the primary way travelers get from the peninsula where the airport is located across the 6 miles of bay to Freetown proper.  The water taxi personnel said ticket numbers 1-25 could go first on the taxi, and although we had bought the tickets from the same person, Jon’s ticket number was 20 and Heleen and Pam had in the 40s.  So it was decided that Jon would go first and work on the baggage.  It was a very windy night, with high waves in the bay.  So Jon went on down to the boat, and settled in.  Well, they kept just adding more and more people, until well over 60 were on the boat, and towards the last, Pam and Heleen got on board too.  Thankfully the trip across was quite uneventful, even though it took the captain two times around before he could dock properly, due to the amount of wind.  We were met on land by daughter Kristin and son-in-law Karlin, who are missionaries based in Freetown here, and also a driver sent by Dr. Dennis Mark, who works with the Ministry of Health. With two vehicles we had plenty of room to take everything to the house of our friend Janet, where we would be staying while she is on leave in the States.  So good to be back in Sierra Leone, with the heat and dust and smoke of sub-saharan Africa once more in our faces…

So good to see Kristin & Karlin again!

We have spent most of the last week-and-a-half doing things to get us ready to journey on to Mattru Jong, our destination here in Sierra Leone. Apart from the house, we have also been blessed with the use of Janet’s vehicle, a Toyota RAV 4 which has seen better days, but quite useful in putting your nose out into traffic and letting the nicer and BIGGER vehicles decide to let us in.  Freetown traffic has been interesting, to say the least.  After driving here for a week, Jon asked for some wages from his two passengers, but so far, they are reluctant to ante up. 

You can’t be very happy as a Type A personality here, as waiting and slowness prevail.  We have goals of getting maybe half done of that we plan for the day, and that has turned out to be quite accurate.

We came across this sobering monument when Jon was applying for his medical license...
It is in memory of the 11 doctors who died during the Ebola outbreak.

We did have an amazing answer to prayer in regards to a vehicle.  We felt that it would be good to have a vehicle in Mattru Jong, and because of the roads there, you need a 4 wheel drive.  So we initially looked at a Toyota Land Cruiser, but it wasn’t quite what we had in mind, but then Heleen’s friend Sengbeh, a mechanic, called us with quite a deal.  He has a Lebanese friend that had a Toyota 4-Runner, and just told the man that he wanted that car.  Well, the man didn’t even own it, but it was his brother in law’s...When he asked how much it was, the original price was $11,000. Sengbeh told him that $7,000 was the most we would pay (which is what we had told him) and then negotiated up to a price of $7,500 for us.  We went for a test drive and liked what we saw!  When we sat down with the owner and told him that we were going to work in the hospital in Mattru Jong, he said, “That hospital saved my life.”  Back in the 70s or so, he was very sick as a young child and diagnosed with malaria in a neighboring hospital.  It turned out to be typhoid fever, something that was not discovered until he got admitted at the hospital in Mattru.  So it seems that God was preparing the way for us!

On Sunday we were back in Heleen's church where we were blessed with a prayer for our marriage...

It is not all waiting in hot sweaty lines here in Sierra Leone.  We have had a few times of recreation.  We went to the beach on Sunday afternoon.  There we met Cami & Alan and Liz and her two adopted children, friends of us previously.  We also invited Phil, the missionary living next door to us to come along.  We missed the turn-off to our beach, but after multiple reassurances that we could get there on the next road, we kept going.  The road got rougher and rockier, and eventually we almost got there. Almost, because there was a rickety wooden bridge with missing slats and hand rails necessary to cross over to the beach.  Fortunately for some of our team, the river that it crossed was also able to be forded on foot by taking off your shoes, hiking up your clothes, and wading through.  Pam and Heleen chose that option, while Jon braved the bridge, even though at one point, he had to go on his hands and knees as he did not quite trust it, much to the amusement of the bystanders.  We stayed about three hours on the beach, had a delicious meal of barracuda in the shade of a mango tree, having a great time,  but when we went to leave, the tide had come in!  What was a gentle stream was now a raging river, much too deep to wade anymore.  So the only way out was to cross the bridge.  And older Sierra Leonean gentleman volunteered to take Pam – who has a fear of heights – across. It wasn’t easy, for anyone, but she made it, along with everyone else.  Those kind of experiences make you bond as a team!

Meeting old friends!

We were reading from Philippians the other morning from the NIV: ”do everything without complaining or arguing, so that you may become blameless and pure, children of God without fault in a crooked and depraved generation, in which you shine like stars in the universe as you hold out the word of life”...2:14-16a.  It is easy for us to complain in whatever difficult circumstances that we find ourselves, but our responsibility involves so much more--it is to hold out the word of Life to all that God will show us.  So we are not downhearted, even as we spend hours sweating in traffic, lack water, reliable electricity, and have trouble accessing internet (it took us about five days to post this blog!). We rejoice in the accomplishments so far: residence permits for all, medical registration for Jon, applications for driver’s licenses submitted, a courtesy visit made to the Chief Medical Officer, a car bought (not yet received – we are praying for speedy paper work!) and also the purchase of basic supplies to survive the first few months in Mattru! We appreciate your prayers as we round up in Freetown and set out for Mattru.

Our abode for the first few weeks - our bed is surrounded by suitcases and supplies!

Getting used again to limited water supply!

Ready to go!

 
Blogging has taken second fiddle to writing newsletters, and working on fund-raising in the past couple of months.  Neither Heleen or I are very good fundraisers, and so we have been amazed at the way support has poured in from various unlikely sources, as well as so many of our loving relatives and friends…And so tonight, we can give you the good news that we are the grateful recipients of a phone call from a stranger, who assured us that he would take care of whatever unmet needs we have in our fundraising when we go into service.  For that reason, we are rejoicing in each one of you, and for those whose contribution is prayer.  We are supremely grateful. March 13 we will be leaving for the Netherlands, and on March 21 we will be travelling on to Sierra Leone!

We have spent time in saying goodbyes, at different times and locations over the past 2 ½ months. This past weekend, son Stephen and his wife Amy came over from Mississippi, and so we spent some quality time together with them, and Robert and Michelle, and David and Amber, as well as the 3 charming grandsons.

It is hard to leave family especially, at a time where so many changes are taking place, but it is downright difficult to leave grandsons who tear your hearts into little pieces with their idolizing of “Papa and Omie”.  Heleen put together a very nice book for the grandchildren, which we gave them on Sunday.  In it, she has included some pictures from the past couple of years of their interactions with us, and also a bit of reminders of their grandparents, and a simple explanation of what we will be doing in Sierra Leone.

   We introduce in there the ‘Gecko’, a stuffed green creation of Heleen, who will accompany us to Africa, and will be used in story telling for the grandchildren.  And he may try to sneak into some of the pictures that we send back, we don’t know for sure, but they will have to search the pictures really hard just to make sure that he is not in them…We wanted to give him a name, but so far he is just ‘Gecko’.  Perhaps he will get an African name.

Cute, isn't he?
  
So this week, is packing, packing, and  more packing.  We are packing suitcases, three apiece, and then packing up things in the house that will be out of sight or so when we have renters here for two years.  

Our church had a commissioning in the morning worship service, so able put together by Pastor Carl Martin.  We were asked to come forward and he read the first part as we stood in front of the congregation.   He read these words, which were so meaningful to us:

We read in the book of Acts that the Holy Spirit set apart Saul and Barnabas for the work of mission, and the church at Antioch, after fasting and praying,

   laid hands on them and sent them out.

The early church gladly sent members to other people groups, to assist those who were already of the household of faith, and those who did not yet believe in Christ.

Today we relive this practice of the early church as we join together, in sending Jon and Heleen to serve the needs of Sierra Leone. 

The prayers we offer are an expression of the ties that bind us together in common purpose even as miles may separate us in the days ahead.

Then we knelt and Carl prayed this prayer…

As our Lord Jesus Christ stretched out His arms of love on the wooden cross,

   So that everyone might come within the reach of His saving embrace.

We charge you both, that with His Holy Spirit,

Your hands, reaching out in mercy, may bring healing and comfort to those hurting and abandoned.

And your lives, reaching out in love, may bring life to those who do not know our Lord and Savior,

This is our commission and prayer for you, Jon and Heleen, to the honor and glory of our Heavenly Father.  Amen

Then each elder prayed and blessed us with their heartfelt words, and then the concluding prayer

We bless you, O God, and we give you all the praise and glory.

     We ask you to bless these your faithful witnesses.

           Fill their lives with the power of the Holy Spirit.

 We send them forth as you messengers of salvation and peace,

        Marked with hearts of servants, and anchored in your mercy and love.

This is our prayer, in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.     

Our eyes seemed to be having a lot of drainage for some reason during this most meaningful time.  But our hearts were invigorated for the work, and the blessing of church support is so important.  We are vessels to be used in whatever way He desires. And we trust Him.

For those who have not received our March newsletter, you can download it here: Yoder Chronicles March 2017. If you want to receive our newsletter directly to your e-mail Inbox, please send a note to our Missionary Support team: yoders.mst@gmail.com.