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!