Final reflections

Last night we arrived in Freetown after a dusty and hot 10 hour drive from Kono. Today and tomorrow morning we will visit the American Embassy, meet with the in-country directors of World Hope and LOL (two members of Buffalo Sierra Leone Alliance), meet with the Cabinet Ministers who helped Phebian with the land dispute, and finally we will go to the hardware store to hopefully buy 800 pieces of Zinc roofing (crazy as it sounds the truck carrying our zinc finally arrived in Kono on Tuesday only for us to discover that they brought the wrong stuff!-so now we have to reorder and ship again all the way back to the site).

Tomorrow we leave this beautiful and challenging country. I will be sad to leave as there is so much to do here and one can make such a difference. This place has a way of touching one's heart and not letting go. But I am also excited to come home, to see Joyce and Peter and Tommy again and to rejoin the work of Jericho Road in Buffalo.

The highlights of this trip for me include the following:

1. Visiting the construction site daily and watching more than 30 men work by hand with no power tools to build the clinic. It is an amazing sight.

2. Doing the 6 medical clinics. Nothing matches the sense of fulfillment providing medical care to folks who so desperately need it.

3. Sharing this experience with my daughter. Seeing her work hard, connect to the people of Sierra Leone and experience firsthand the challenges of global health and medical missions is something neither of us will soon forget.

4. Building relationships with several key partners here in SL. Wellbody Clinic is doing great work here in Kono and they will be an excellent partner in the future. Jericho Road and Wellbody working together will greatly improve the access to quality health care in this region. Because we shared the same guest house with several of their key leaders we had ample opportunity to build friendship, learn from them and discuss ways to work together. This will serve us well in future.

The other key new relationship was with Karlin. As a nurse with experience working here in SL he was a huge help to our team. He shares our philosophy of mission and development and connected well with Phebian. We are discussing the possibility of him joining Jericho Road in SL for the next year working alongside Phebian and Pastor Joshua to operationalize the health center, build relationships with other NGO's, and to learn how to work with the Government Hospital and village health centers to improve the overall health care system in Kono. If he joins our team this will be really good news for Jericho Road and will provide Phebian with much needed support at a critical time in thus project.

5. Finally it is always good to be with Phebian, her family and Pastor Joshua. She is an incredibly committed and courageous woman and this rubs off on everyone around her. Her uncle told me that in the midst of the land dispute he asked Phebian to leave the country to protect her life and she refused. Now this man is one of the most faithful members of the construction crew showing up daily to do whatever is needed. He is faithful because he saw the courage of his niece.

When we visited the paramount chief this week he told us that his people were afraid that we would give up after hearing of the land dispute but that he is now reassured by our visit that we did not forget, give up or runaway.

Coming here so soon after the land dispute and in spite of the Ebola outbreak in Guinea (still no cases in SL) was a real encouragement to Phebian and the people of Kono that we support them, believe in them, and will stand with them to see this project completed.

As I prepare to leave Sierra Leone once again I thank each of you who are praying for Phebian and this work, who have given of your time (countless hours by our team in Buffalo to support this operation), your talents (fundraising, writing grants, accounting for money spent, buying the truck, writing medical protocols etc) and your finances (over 400 individuals have given to this project so far). Your involvement, hard work and sacrifice is making a real difference. Your investment may someday change the course of one of the remote and most forgotten parts of the world. You are being the hands and feet of Jesus demonstrating His Love on a daily basis.

Thank you!

Myron