Screening Day - Take 2

Success!

"Therefore, as it is written: 'Let him who boasts, boast in the Lord.'"

On Saturday, March 26, 2011, Mercy Ships held a second screening day in Freetown and the Lord redeemed the first! The day was a testimony to the beautiful way the Body of Christ functions as many people from various departments on the Africa Mercy worked together so that we could link up with people that have conditions that we can help with our particular surgical specialties.

Our day began dark and early as we carivanned through town to the Minister of Health and Sanitation's "Pharmacy Board".

In fact, the beginning was really the afternoon before as a team of folks hauled truckloads of stuff to the site and began preparing for screening and crowd control. There was a security presence on site from that time forward as they not only managed the lines that were forming, but also educated those in the lines on the conditions that we can and cannot help. This proved to be a very productive exercise that kept people with inappropriate conditions from having to wait for many, many hours for nothing.

Daybreak came and we began admitting people into the gate to go through the stations to record information, health histories and then to be seen by a surgeon. If it was decided that we could offer surgery, the patient would proceed to the data entry station and on to the scheduling station where I was with a team of OR nurses assigning dates for surgery.

Below is a sweet baby with a cleft lip. She's holding an appointment card so she can come to the ship with her mamma for surgery.

A woman with a tumor of the mandible has her blood pressure checked. Here I am looking all serious & professional in black and white...assisting Orthopaedic Team Leader, Kathleen Haydon, in scheduling orthopaedic surgeries.

Our Managing Director, Donovan Palmer (in the blue ball cap) escorted the Minister of Health and Sanitation, Haja Zainab Hawa Bangura (in the light blue top), around the site.

The Lord blessed us with orderly, peaceful crowds and cloud cover until the line outside the gate was gone. Everyone was inside the gate and proceeding through the stations before 9:30am. And by 2pm, the last patient for the day was being scheduled. What a difference from the previous screening day! I believe that God wanted to remind us that we are not in control, but when we trust Him in our weakness, He shows Himself strong!

Jenny