golden girl gabs

We have arrived at the airport in Dakar, Senegal! We did not have much trouble in Abidjan and only had to wait a few hours. We were able to eat a nice lunch there while we were waiting. It is now 7:30pm here in Africa and 2:30 back home. We do not fly out of here until 3am and cannot re-check our bags until midnight…so we have found a “cozy” place to sit and watch our bags for a few hours.

The morning went by fast as we had plenty to do before we left the hotel. I went to breakfast for the first time since last Friday morning and was able to visit with a few people there. We then went to worship once again where they recognized us briefly for our service to them. They also did something really neat that you might have seen before on YouTube. It was called “Cardboard Testimonies.” About 20 of the missionaries formed a line and walked up on stage. There was a hymn playing in the background and they remained silent. One at a time they held up one side of their cardboard piece – it told of their story before coming on the mission field, whether it was a fear they had, a quality, or a belief, etc. Then they turned it over and it read what that “thing” has changed to or how the field had addressed that issue. It was a very powerful presentation.
For example, one girl wrote, “My dad said I would die in Africa” with the other side reading “I have learned to die to self in Africa.”
Another example was “I used to serve at pizza hut” with the other side reading “I now live and serve in a mud hut.”
A third example, “I have never been overseas” and other side “I now live in Timbuktu.” (former AU grad)
Next, “How will my children handle this?” and the other side “They are happy, healthy and also sharing Jesus with others.”
The last one was very moving – it was missionary who is retiring soon after many, many years on the field – he is probably in his 70’s. His cardboard read, “I haven’t run since I was 16 years old” and the other side, “I now run with perseverance, 190 churches planted!” It was an awesome presentation.

It was sad to say goodbye to everyone – we had gotten to know several of them pretty well. Some of them asked if I could come back soon to visit them in their actual village or town. I am so glad that we got a broad view of what missionary life is like in West Africa through their presence there - if we had only been to one village/site my how much smaller our prespective would be. Now I wish I could go to each of their villages to see it first hand!!

Ok - I did not find internet in the airport until 11:30pm - then we had to start checking our luggage - sidenote: the Delta people were so professional and great to talk with...the first local people here that truly speak some English!! So now we are at the gate enjoying our last Coke Light. We also just found an African outfit for me to wear at my trip presentation I have to do in the fall - it is actually orange and blue...imagine that! Only 1 1/2 more hours before we board and head to the states. Thanks for reading and praying! We'll be home soon and I'll post the remaining pictures then.

We thought we would have a full day Thursday here at the conference, but our flight plans have changed and now we must leave at 11 am tomorrow to head to the airport. So it has been a busy evening trying to wrap things up, get packed and start saying our goodbyes! It is 11:30pm as I am starting to type…
This morning we again were able to worship with the conference and we should be able to again for the last session tomorrow morning. I know I have said how much I enjoy this time each day – besides the music, they share stories and statistics about the field that are also encouraging. The speaker has also been preaching through Hebrews 11 and 12 as the conference theme is "run with perseverance." During worship today a couple got up to talk about how much influence their volunteer teams have had on their ministry in the last year. Through their teams they have seen 90 people accept Christ and be baptized in the past year alone. They told one story about one of the first villagers who accepted Christ. He then decided to change his name to Paul and a Paul he became. He started going to other nearby villages to share the good news. When the M asked Paul what he said to them, he responded, “I said that if you become a Christian, it will be hard and people will not be nice to you. But it is the truth and you need to follow Jesus!” I thought that was a neat story and an example of the many we hear daily.
I have been wanting to share with you about One Story - The One Story team is a really neat ministry here in West Africa with the IMB. It is made up of 8 different teams of 2-3 journeymen (women) each. 4 of the teams are located in Mali, 2 in Guinea, 1 in North Africa and 1 in Burkina Faso. Their purpose is to create an oral recording of different bible stories in the language of the particular people group that they are working with. In order to do this they must first find a translator that knows some English. They learn about the culture in which they live and try to pick out the stories (besides the basic ones of the gospel, baptism, etc.) that would best apply to that culture. Once they know the culture a little bit they begin writing the stories and have them recorded by the local translator. They often have to find a back translator to make sure the stories recorded are biblically accurate and in the proper context. Once a story is heard by a few people in the village, they hope that they will then go and tell other friends in the village. They also have high hopes of getting these stories put on the radio. Please pray for this team and their ministry. The pictures I loaded earlier include one of the One Story team.
Today we were able to donate all of our left over supplies and medicines to the missionaries. We gave all the prescription drugs and surgical things to the Doctors and Pharmacist from the Baptist hospital in Ghana. We then made 7 different bags of OTC products for each of the guest houses in the countries (where missionaries might stay when in the big city of their country). After that we still had a lot of OTC meds left – so I took them down to the meeting room and set them up on a table. At first I didn’t think many would stop by, but within 10 minutes ALL of the supplies were gone! The missionaries were so happy to have the products and seemed to be in need of the specific things I had.
We saw a few more patients throughout the afternoon and then went out for dinner with 3 other journeygirls. Dad and I decided we good easily miss another meal at the hotel so we asked the 2 Auburn grads and another of their friends to go to dinner. We hopped in 2 taxis and ended up at an Italian/pizzeria restaurant about 20 minutes away. None of the girls spoke French fluently, but enough to get us there, order and get us home without much trouble. It seemed a little risky but it was really fun and we had some great conversations over dinner.
When we arrived back at the hotel there were several patients waiting to see us as well as several things to wrap up with vaccines, follow-ups, etc. We also found out that we would be leaving for the airport at 11 instead of 2 or 7pm as earlier expected. So, here I am in the room and we are all packed up! I can’t believe our time has come to an end here – it has been a great experience. We plan to go to breakfast and worship in the morning and then head to the airport. Praise the Lord the strike ended late morning today and hopefully we will not have much trouble getting on a flight to Senegal since we are getting to the airport so early. Once we get to Senegal we will have to wait for about 9 hours before our flight to Atlanta… We arrive at 8am eastern time Friday morning. Please continue to pray that things will go smoothly with our flights and we(I) will have patience during all the waiting. Thanks for your continued support!! I hope to report from Senegal, but if not it will be from Auburn Friday.
Aurevoir (that’s goodbye in French for you bama grads) from Cote d’Ivoire!

Well, it is 10pm and I am just now starting to write…so this may be short. Today we had another busy morning of cholesterol and CBC tests from 6am to 8:30 am. I am proud to say that we stayed on schedule and had 22 people’s labs run in that time! We were able to join them for worship again this morning which continued to be a blessing. The speaker is a young seminary professor from Southwestern – he has brought several great and encouraging messages. The choir continues to teach the M’s new praise songs – but most of them are not new to me. It’s funny how slow those kind of things trickle over here.
Once again we had several patients during the breaks, but not too bad. I decided to take a little nap instead of going to lunch today because I just didn’t seem to have an appetite for the kind of food I knew we would have. This afternoon we helped Dr. Rick pack up his stuff and get ourselves organized for his departure. Tonight was “Night off” for the parents/adults. They had childcare provided by the host church so they could go into town for dinner. We were able to go to dinner with Nurse Cindy (from Senegal) and her husband. We went to a quaint little Lebanese restaurant about 15 minutes away. As most of you know, I can be a picky eater so I was worried I wouldn’t like it…but it was delicious!! I can’t even tell you what we ordered because it was all in another language, but we had many different things for the table to share. And we had really great French Fries!! It was fun to be out of the hotel in the streets of Abidjan. After dinner they drove us past the IMB headquarters here and then we took Dr. Rick to the airport. It was great to see more of the town – so many people are out on the streets…very interesting but sad conditions. When we arrived back at the hotel we had a call from Dr. Rick to come pick him up from the airport because there was a strike among the air traffic controllers and no flights were leaving or coming from Abidjan!! This apparently started at 1pm today and by law has to be finished by 72 hours. SO…who knows if we will be able to fly out Thursday from here?! The only airline that has permission to fly in and out is Air France because they are under a different controlling mechanism. P lease pray that Dr. Rick will be able to fly out tomorrow – either the strike stops or he is able to transfer over to Air France. I hope things end soon or all the flights will be backed up and it will be difficult for us to get home. Well, I don’t have all t he pictures from tonight – but I will post them in the morning. Here is a few from the last few days. Also tomorrow I want to share about the “One Story” team and ministry here in West Africa…stay tuned!

I tried to upload pictures, but it is not working. I'll try again in the morning.

Good Evening from Abidjan! Every night I sit down to try and recapture the day’s events for you on the blog and it’s so hard to know where to begin!! The days are filled with so many events and interactions…I just hope I can show you a glimpse of our journey.
We started early this morning at 6:15 with fasting Cholesterol and CBC checks. I have to admit that I was a bit grumpy this morning for our patients because I didn’t have any breakfast and we were swamped with patients…it was a little overwhelming to keep everything and everybody straight. My attitude quickly changed when we went to the worship time shortly after. It’s so fun to watch the M’s worship knowing that they don’t get much corporate worship where they are on the field. It is something we definitely take for granted in the states.
Before lunch they had a little “store-time” with locally made souvenirs from all the different countries in West Africa – I was able to pick up a few more surprises for those of you at home! We saw a few more patients throughout the afternoon and Dad and I even had a chance to sit out by the pool for a few minutes. Below you will see the picture from the big lizard we came across. Dad was also able to speak to Mom through Dr. Rick’s computer today.
Dinner was actually pretty good tonight – it was chicken with vegetables. I had the opportunity to eat dinner with a “journeygirl” about my age who is from Greenville, AL. She has been over here for 3 years now and plans to spend a majority of her career over here. It was fun to share our life journeys with each other.
Funny story about the elevators here…we are on the 19th floor and sometimes it takes 20 minutes to get an elevator down to the lobby. But while you are waiting in front of them, I swear the whole floor seems to move/sway. That combined with the rides up and down make me very nauseous every time I have to ride them!! Tonight as I was coming down the African man working the elevators said “hello Jessica!” (he got my name from my nametag…) I said hi back surprised someone spoke to me since everyone here speaks French. I said hi and asked what his name was – he said “Max.” He then proceeded to ask me whether I would vote for Obama or McCain!! It took me a few times to understand what he was saying but it was funny moment and we both laughed. Maybe he was interested because his country is supposed to have elections for the first time in November?
Ok, I better wrap up – but I want to share a few prayer requests specifically for the Missionaries:
- There is a Baptist Hospital in Ghana that has been running for almost 50 years. There are currently two American doctors there and one pharmacist. Long story short, they are in need of more doctors to come and work there because one of the doctors is retiring soon. There is a chance the hospital will have to close if they cannot get enough American staff to keep it open. From what I have heard this hospital has done a lot for the area and made a large impact for the kingdom. I would hate to see this opportunity go away – please pray for those who will hear the call and respond if that is the Lord’s will.
- Another missionary lost his 22 year old daughter this year. She was in the states and had just returned from a visit to Africa. She became sick and even visited the hospital which helped for a few days but later passed away. The doctors and medical staff still do not know what the cause of death is. While they are still grieving and desiring to know what happened they still have so much joy overflowing. Please keep this family in your thoughts and prayers.
- Dr. Rick will be leaving us tomorrow evening – he has been a great leader for our medical team and we hope things will continue to go smoothly after he leaves. Please pray for traveling mercies for him.

Thanks for your time and I hope you had a great Monday. More from Africa tomorrow…


P.S. Sorry about the captions from yesterday - I only had 1 minute left on my internet time and wanted to get that post done. I hope you can figure out which caption went with each picture!

Our home – Hotel Ivoire (on left)



Would you pay $500 for a 12 pack of Dr. Pepper??

Wow…it has been a long day. To start with we overslept by an hour so I was late to help with the Cholesterol and Chem 7 screens this morning. But after that we were able to go to Church with everyone at 8:30. It was a great time of worship and it was good to see the entire group together. There are about 350 Missionaries and 50 volunteers here. The only unusual part about church was the fact that Dad, Dr. Rick, nurse Charlene and I sat in the back and filled about 100 syringes with the TB skin test fluid during the service so we would be ready during the break to give them. I wish we had a picture of this…it was quite funny. After lunch, which appeared to be a decent piece of beef and peas (our first vegetable of the trip), we left for the market to buy souvenirs. This was our first trip out of the hotel by car (taxi) since arriving from the airport. 2 women missionaries accompanied Dad, Dr. Rick, Nurse Charlene, another IMB Trustee and I on the outing. We rode in 2 of the small orange taxis first to the market. It was about 30 booths set up with various wood carvings, cloths, paintings and other African collectables. Just before we left the hotel we found out that we cannot bring any wood carvings back from Cote d’Ivoire unless we go to the museum and pay a small fee to make sure they are not valuable artifacts. It would be a big ordeal so we all decided not to purchase any wood items. It was interesting trying to bargain with them when they didn’t speak a bit of English. The missionaries helped us a lot and we felt like we got some fair prices for our purchases. After the market we went to the largest grocery store in Abidjan. It seemed fairly nice inside with many familiar items and nicely dressed customers. But right outside the store everything is so dirty and sad looking. I took a couple of pictures from the car so you can see the conditions.
When we arrived back at the hotel the group had just started an auction that benefits the Lottie Moon Offering. It was one of the funniest things I have ever seen! They were auctioning off various food items, electronics, games, etc that the TN church had donated – all things that the missionaries are unable to get over here. For example, a box of Oatmeal crème pies went for $200!! A 12 pack of Dr. Pepper went for $500 and a large basket of breakfast foods, starbucks coffee, bisquick, etc went for $1,000!! They actually are able to use some of their tithe money since this goes towards the Lottie Moon offering. It was an intense but hilarious event…I’ve included one picture below.
I chose to skip dinner tonight and use that time to get on the internet and eat a yummy Clif bar…I just couldn’t imagine sitting at the table again waiting for a “special” meat to arrive. After dinner they had an ice cream social which was a bit hit among the M’s. We had clinic time tonight from 7:30 to 10 and it was busy. The next few days should be a little bit more laid back because the M’s have meetings all day long and we will be doing shots and appointments only on their breaks and at night. We continue to meet so many wonderful people and listen to their stories. It has been a blessing to serve them!
Hope you enjoy the pictures and I’m sure I’ll write more tomorrow…Good night.

Captions for pictures...
The crowded streets of Abidjan

Dad and a man who called himself “Mr. Kulligan”

Dad leaving the market with our purchases – see my pretty painting?

Giving Tb shots

Lottie Moon auction

Paperwork…

Dad performing surgery on a toe

These are most of the women journeyman that are serving in Mali. They were singing together in a circle and it was so beautiful and moving.

Ok – Let’s try this again. I had to come back up to the room because it was getting deserted in the lobby…makes me a little nervous. But now Dad is here and I am trying this again… Today was a busy day – the Dad and Dr. Rick saw about 20 patients each with a few add-ons. They were doing a lot of yearly exams but had time to talk with them, get their story and do a little counseling. The missionaries conveyed over and over again how grateful they are to see American doctors. I know they are so thankful to have someone sit down with them, LISTEN, and care for them personally. Many of them have been able to open up to us with their concerns, stresses and life trials. They keep asking why we chose to come over here - as if they are wondering if anyone in America even realizes they are here and thinks of them. We continue to tell them how thankful we are for their service and for the hard work they are doing to tell others about Jesus. Even though we are not out on the “field” with them, we are able to get a glimpse into their lives and ministries here in West Africa. I have been working with 2 other nurses here – Cindy is one of them and she is the medical coordinator for the area. She keeps up with what each family needs as far as tests and vaccines – Cindy keeps our clinic very organized and running smoothly. The other nurse, Charlene, is an IMB Trustee from Virginia – She also came over just for the week and has been really fun to work with. Today I was able to give out a lot more of our medicine to families that are in need. Sometimes the Tylenol here is more expensive than the prescription drugs! I also gave over 40 shots/vaccines/Tb skin tests. Right before dinner, we were able to leave the hotel for the first time in 48 hours!! We went down the street to the “grocery store” to get a few more bottles of Coca-Cola-Light (Diet Coke – no they do not have diet Mtn Dew which is my new favorite back home!) and a few snacks in case dinner was bad. But we returned to a decent meal – a small serving of “African lasagna” – which was basically a beef lasagna that tasted like it was made from hashbrowns…I think they used potatoes instead of noodles?? It really wasn’t that bad – but we have determined that they only serve a main course at dinner and at lunch they serve salad, main course and dessert! Lunch today was some type of bird – I think someone called it guinea fowl… not the best. But I have not been that hungry and I find plenty to keep my energy up. I wish I could write a few blurbs about the people we met today but that would take a while…so many of them have been serving over here for 15-30 years!! We have made many Auburn/SEC connections which has been fun. Last night we met a 24 yr old girl who graduated from AU in 2006. She is a journeyman in Mali. She lives close to Timbuktu, Mali – yes, that is really a place - out in the middle of nowhere!! It was really great to hear her story and she was THRILLED to see Auburn family. I’m glad we could be an encouragement to her. Well, I better get to bed because we have another early morning. We are going to be able to go to church with the Missionaries tomorrow and I am looking forward to the worship together. We are also going shopping a little in the afternoon – should be an interesting day! A few prayer requests: John Mitchell – a family friend back in Opelika who is really sick right now at EAMC – he has a rare virus/fungus and needs to be transported to UAB or Emory soon. Please pray that he can be transferred tomorrow and start the healing process. As far as here in Africa – a lot of these Missionaries have needs and this conference is a time for them to “peel off” the layers, open up and renew their faith in the big picture. They all know they are called to be here but putting that into practice on a daily basis is as hard for them as it is for us. Thanks for reading and praying. Good night!

The Pharmacy near the hotel

Some of the missionaires waiting for the doctor

It is almost lunch time here on Sat. We have had a really busy morning - we started testing Chem 8 and Lipids before 7am. After that I gave about 30 various shots and Tb skin tests. I think I'm finally getting the hang of it! The only thing is I had to give them to many children who probably don't like me now... :-(
Off to lunch - wonder what meat will grace our plates today???

Today has been a good day but one of many adjustments. Sleep was not much of a problem as Dad and I both slept 9 hours last night without a stir. It was a little hard to get up though since it was 7am here but only 2am at home…
1st minor adjustment is FOOD --> I knew this would be an issue but wasn’t too worried about it since it’s such a short trip. Well, I failed to mention in the last blog what we had for dinner…it was RABBIT…yes, I said Rabbit. My second bite had many small bones in it so I chose to continue the meal with bread and butter only. Side note – the bread here is delicious and I think I could eat it all day long if need be. This morning they had lot of breads and pastries with some other unknown meats. Then for lunch today they served a “salad” of what looked like Spam… (Naomi do you remember this from Germany?) The bread and butter were also delicious at that meal. But then they came out with another dish of rice and fish that was quite good. I was starting to think that I could get by with what we had seen until I got to dinner… once again an unknown meat on the plate with a few noodles. We later discovered this to be beef liver or beef kidney. So I went straight back to the room after dinner to eat one of the Clif bars Mom so graciously packed for us to make sure I had some protein and energy. I don’t want to sound like I am complaining about the food, because I really am thankful for what we have – and I know I will survive just fine. I just thought it would be interesting for those of you back home to hear how different things are.
2nd minor adjustment is medical care --> The adjustment here is for the missionaries. Today we did comprehensive physicals for many of the families. They have to have these done every few years and they have very little resources in their countries to do this. The exams, test, shots, etc that we provided today and for the next couple of days will save them so much time and money because of their limited access. It also saves the Mission Board much time and expense to have them performed in Africa but with volunteer American physicians. They have been so appreciative of the services we have provided and I am very thankful we can help. Besides handing out a few medications I was able to take vitals, give Tb skin tests and shots, assist with procedures and some counseling. My favorite part of the day was hearing a little tidbit of each Missionary’s story - what country they are in and what their “platform” is there. Their work is very hard and a lot of them are in remote areas – but they all have been called to do this and know the Lord will provide for them here. A few examples:
- A 73 yo lady who has a prison ministry in the country of Togo (1/2 the size of TN). She relates that the prisoners get one meal of day, consisting of 2 bowls of mush. She provides some of their basic needs through a medical clinic. She first came when she was 59 and 14 years later is still going strong.
- A 30 year old woman from Birmingham, AL who has been here for almost 2 years. She works in a very remote area of Mali. They have no electricity or running water in her village. She is on a team of people that are trying to translate the bible into an oral story (chronological) because many of the people are illiterate.
- Another young family of 6 that work in Senegal had a great testimony. They were car-jacked the 1st year they were here and their young son was taken as well in the process. It is too long for the blog – but an amazing story of how they found their son and through many other complications in their lives at the time remained strong and true to their calling.
- An elderly couple from Montgomery – who after retirement decided to do the “Masters Program” with the IMB – they are serving a 3 year term in Ghana. We had a lot of mutual connections and it was neat to see their dedication to missions at their stage in life.

I could go on and on about the people I have met – but I’ll have to save those stories for the States. We had a good and busy day in the clinic and I know we will sleep well again tonight. Tomorrow is supposed to be our busiest day in the clinic – but I am excited to meet more people and hear their stories. I am thankful we have internet service in the lobby of the hotel and I am able to share a little bit about our trip – the only problem is having time to write it all down. Thanks for being interested and continuing to pray for our time here. I’ll try to write again tomorrow evening and hopefully include a few pictures then (but we haven't taken many yet!) Have a great day!

We have arrived safely at Hotel Ivoire in Abidjan. It was a long trip but all in all not too bad. We took off from ATL about 1 hour late – We flew 9 hours to Dakar, Senegal. Dad and I wished we had slept more on the plane but all the movies and TV shows were so tempting! I watched an episode of House, two episodes of My Boys and movies Smart People and 27 Dresses. I did sleep about 1-2 hours. We thought our 4 hour layover in Senegal would be long, but after arriving late, waiting for our bags for 1 hour (with a nice African man assuring me there were more bags for Golden), standing in a long line to re-check-in and getting to the gate we didn’t have long. There were about 6 other M families on our 2nd flight headed for the conference in Abidjan. All the kids seemed so excited for the “vacation” and to see their friends from other parts of W Africa. Dad and I did manage to sleep most of the 3 hour flight from Dakar to Abidjan. Once we arrived in Abidjan (around 11:30am here) some of the M personnel started getting concerned about our 2 trunks full of supplies getting through customs. Praise the Lord we did not have any problems – the trunks simply went through the “x-ray” machine and they didn’t even look inside. We attribute this to many prayers offered up for this request. Everyone was SO thankful! We joined all the M families on a short bus ride to the Hotel. The streets of Abidjan remind me a lot of Nairobi, Kenya – dirty, in disrepair and crowded. Hotel Ivoire is considered a “4-star” resort here and while it is not terrible, you can tell it is not what it once used to be. They are in the process of renovating it and I am very thankful that we have a comfortable place to stay. We are on the 19th floor and this is where our clinic rooms and pharmacy will be also. After lunch we started setting up the rooms along with the pharmacy – I was able to organize all the meds and supplies and we met to go over our schedule for the week. I then went with Cindy, the regional medical coordinator, to the local pharmacy and grocery store close by. It was a neat experience. I wish I knew some French so I could communicate – but it was interesting to hear Cindy talk with them. When we got to the pharmacie… there were 2 “techs” working there. They seemed interested to know that I was studying to be a pharmacist and we talked (through her translation) about the difference between American and African pharmacies. They do not have to have prescriptions for most medications – only a few narcotics and antibiotics. Anyone can just walk in and ask for Valium… We ate dinner, showered and are ready for bed! I don’t think I will have any trouble sleeping tonight as I am exhausted. We have a full day of physicals and clinic tomorrow.
Prayer requests:
- There is a church from Knoxville, TN here who is in charge of the meeting, logistics, childcare, etc. (Like Lakeview was for Thailand). 16 of their team members arrived a few days ago with the remaining 30 supposed to arrive today. They have been delayed and may not all be able to get here in time to make it worth the trip. Pray that they will be able to arrive soon and for the members of the team that are already here and will have to work very hard to pull it off if they don’t make it!
- We have already seen a few patients – 2 of which have Malaria. They battle very different disease states from those in the US - keep these M’s health in your thoughts and prayers.

I think that is enough blogging for one night…we’ll try to write again soon. Thanks for reading and for your continued prayers!

We're walking out the door to get Dad at work and then head to ATL. The morning has been a little stressful making sure our bags and supplies all weigh less than 50 lbs. each. Please pray for traveling mercies!! Hopefully my next post will be from Senegal where we have a 4 hour layover after our 1st 9 hour flight.

In about 24 hours I will be taking off from ATL headed for Africa. I am sitting here at home trying to get motivated to pack, but decided to start a blog instead. So here it is! I'll use this blog to share the details of our trip as well as ways you can be specifically praying for our journey. I'll start with the 5 W's:

Who: My dad and I
What: Medical clinic staff for the IMB's West Africa region annual conference
Where: Ivory Coast (aka Cote d'Ivoire)
When: July 23 - August 1
Why: From what I understand, this is the one time of year that all of the missionaries from this region come together for fellowship and renewal. With that said, this is the time for them to have annual physicals and take care of any medical needs that have arisen. Hopefully we will be able to supply them with many medications and supplies to last throughout the coming year. My dad will serve alongside another physician from Mississippi as well as a few other nurses coming from the states. I will be assisting in the medical clinic in whatever way I am needed (hopefully with the pharmacy needs). I am so thankful that this trip is counting as one of my 5 week rotations for my 4th year of Pharmacy School!! For more information on this region: www.gowestafrica.org

How you can pray:

• Traveling mercies
• We have packed and inventoried 2 full trunks of medications and supplies. We only had time to send one list ahead of time to be translated and approved by the government. So we are risking loosing the 2nd trunk full of supplies once we arrive. Please pray that everything will go smoothly Thursday morning with customs and that there will be no trouble getting these much needed supplies into the country.
• That we may be an encouragement to these missionaries and supportive of their hard work on the field
• Opportunities to share with locals, hotel staff, etc. that we come in contact with