Mission Responsibilities
After six weeks of pushing very hard to keep up with our mission responsibilities we have a little breathing room for a few days. Just enough.
Before we came to Cape Verde we trolled the internet for blogs about senior missions. And we were very interested in what senior missionaries actually do. So here is a small list:
We have general mission responsibilities, which include attending zone and mission conferences supporting the junior missionaries in random ways like rides and apartment help, and helping the other senior missionaries with their jobs. And we have a specific mission assignment to help with apartment inspections. In the past it has been all 26 apartments on Santiago, which we do in one week at the end of the transfer. We go out every day, and the real challenge is that this mission has the highest baptism rate in our area-- the European Area-- so our missionaries are very, very busy teaching and working with investigators and members. When we drive to do the northern island we go on their p- day and it's pretty easy to schedule. But the other two zones are mostly in Praia and we have to squeeze our visits in between their teaching responsibilities. Its really fun to see them.
Elder Biven was called as a humanitarian missionary and I am his assitant. He has a small budget for humanitarian work and member welfare projects. He spends one to two days a week managing the receipts and paperwork, and then we have multiple meetings and appointments each week to support our projects. We often, but not always, work with a translator to help with the Portuguese. We currently have about five open projects:
1) The chicken project in Fogo, chickens began arriving at their new homes this week. We were able to manage the work on Fogo by phone, and with the help of some amazing members and senior missionaries, (the Martineaus) on Fogo.
2) Nós Saude, the health clinic that is nearly complete. This has required more or less three trips a week to the site, with mornings spent purchasing the supplies and attending project management meetings.
3). Eyeglasses for the poor and needy in Cape Verde-- a tender mercy on this project is that the doctor who provides the service to the poor (we only buy the glasses) he has been on vacation in Portugal for a month. So we have 200 pairs of eyeglasses in our apartment awaiting distribution--the doctor did not leave the contact information for the eyeglasses with us before he left the country. It saved us that this work was delayed for a month
4). A school supplies project we have just gotten approval for, and
5) Beds for the Remar rehabilitation facility, interesting story there. We found bunk beds, we asked to purchase them and began the two to three week process of getting money transferred directly to the vendor from Frankfurt. It would not be wise to describe on this blog what it takes to get thousands of dollars into the country for the cash payments we make, but in this case we felt we could do a rare wire transfer. During the two week interim, while waiting for the transfer to arrive, Elder Biven was out of the country for a week, and then off on the island in Fogo for another week. So two weeks later we went to the merchant and asked if they had received the multi-thousand dollar wire transfer for ten bunk beds and 20 mattresses. They had. So can we pick the merchandise up right away? Well, no, it will be thirty days......? Our Portuguese was not sufficient to resolve the situation.
Our partner on the project, Pastor João, is Portuguese. He made a trip to the store and asked them where his beds went. They had been sold to the government, to the prison. No beds. Pastor João had already waited two weeks for the wire transfer and he needs the beds, he cannot wait another month. We felt the frustration with doing business in a developing country and we were tempted to feel overwhelmed and frustrated. But we were working with a very special partner. Pastor João and Elder Biven went shopping for beds one more time, they had looked previously, but one more time.....they went and looked at the one other bunk bed they had found, a wooden, fragile set. They did not want to buy this inferior solution. Somehow they found a sales person in this other store who told them, of course you don't want those wooden beds for men, they are for children. We have some metal bunk beds......and the sales person took them to another location where there were metal bunks beds -- of a higher quality than those that had been sold to the prison by the other merchant-- and mattresses that were significantly better. And..... because the Lord was in the details of this.....it was all much cheaper. They bought twelve bunk beds and twenty four mattresses. As Pastor João and Elder Biven left they agreed that things had turned out exactly as the Lord wanted.
Our partner on the project, Pastor João, is Portuguese. He made a trip to the store and asked them where his beds went. They had been sold to the government, to the prison. No beds. Pastor João had already waited two weeks for the wire transfer and he needs the beds, he cannot wait another month. We felt the frustration with doing business in a developing country and we were tempted to feel overwhelmed and frustrated. But we were working with a very special partner. Pastor João and Elder Biven went shopping for beds one more time, they had looked previously, but one more time.....they went and looked at the one other bunk bed they had found, a wooden, fragile set. They did not want to buy this inferior solution. Somehow they found a sales person in this other store who told them, of course you don't want those wooden beds for men, they are for children. We have some metal bunk beds......and the sales person took them to another location where there were metal bunks beds -- of a higher quality than those that had been sold to the prison by the other merchant-- and mattresses that were significantly better. And..... because the Lord was in the details of this.....it was all much cheaper. They bought twelve bunk beds and twenty four mattresses. As Pastor João and Elder Biven left they agreed that things had turned out exactly as the Lord wanted.
Here is a photo of purchasing electrical supplies for Nós saude. Our translator, Neome, is in the background
Delivering Drywall (Pladur) Supplies
Cleaning up the mess at Nos Saude
Nursing Duties
In the letter Elder Biven and I received, calling us to serve as missionaries in Cape Verde, in addition to our humanitarian responsibilities I was also assigned to be Mission Nurse Specialist, and Elder Biven is my assistant. So we work together. And generally we are able to carry our load, together.
Two weeks ago we had a mental health event with one of the new missionaries, and he needed to go home immediately. There was no time to bring someone in from Germany to escort him. The Area President, Elder Hacking, called my medical phone and asked for volunteers. I handed the phone to Elder Biven. I knew that we had been divinely blessed and guided in handling the crises that evening. I felt peace as I knew that the solution to the problem was going to be painful for me personally. Elder Biven said yes. Yes he would make the five day, eight flight segment, 70 hours of travel time, trip to the US. So I became both full time humanitarian missionary and full time nurse for a week. To be fair, Elder Biven did get a trip to a Walmart in a small town in Montana, and the Senior missionaries in Praia put in orders, blades for electric shavers, corn chips, I wanted new sheets.....things you can't find here. Vitamin pills.
This is a photo of the bounty he returned with.
I carry a medical phone 24x7. I help missionaries with gastric distress and skin rashes, I do a lot of teaching and a little counseling. I help President Amo watch over the missionaries, and he does his job very lovingly and tenderly, so I try to follow his example.
We have malaria in Praia now. It just appeared, and by the grace of God we are ahead of it and we will distribute prophylaxis to the missionaries in Praia Friday at their zone conference. We learned of the problem from a church member who works at the American embassy. He forwarded an alert from the CDC a little over a week ago. I sent it to our Area Medical Advisor who sent it to Utah. "Just watch, not yet", was the message they sent back on August 25.
Then one week later the CDC increased their warning, all travelers to Cape Verde should take measures. This was five days ago. Salt Lake directed us to take measures and get medicine immediately. Understand that the supply chains to Cape Verde are weak, we don't have interstates with trucks bringing us stuff, it comes in one container, on one boat, at a time. So I began on Friday, walking into every farmacia I could find begging for doxycycline, a medication only available by prescription here.
I was fortunate, the farmacias I frequent regularly just gave me the medicine, by Monday I had 25 boxes. There are 40 missionaries in Praia. Tuesday we drove north and hit each farmacia we found on the road, I would lay my missionary call, signed by President Monson, in English, on the counter, and my passport and say in broken Portuguese "I am an American nurse. I am a nurse for the missionaries (point to the name tag)". I lay a box of doxycyclina on the counter. "Eu Preciso isso". If they start to move toward their medicine cabinet I tell them I need lots, I need all that they have. Miraculously, except for one Farmacia which refused because they wanted a prescription, each one gave me everything they had, three boxes, eight boxes, I bought it all. One woman said she was a member of the Church as she gave it to me. Another said, you need a prescription but because you are a missionary we will do this for God.
I don't know where we are going to get next month's supply, and the missionaries on the northern island need it as well. But we can cover the missionaries In the most danger right now. Elder Biven had malaria as a young man, he had relapses for years. President Amo has also had malaria, it damaged his liver so badly he cannot take the medication to prevent it now. I think that after you do all that you can the Lord gives you grace. We are doing all we can.
We have malaria in Praia now. It just appeared, and by the grace of God we are ahead of it and we will distribute prophylaxis to the missionaries in Praia Friday at their zone conference. We learned of the problem from a church member who works at the American embassy. He forwarded an alert from the CDC a little over a week ago. I sent it to our Area Medical Advisor who sent it to Utah. "Just watch, not yet", was the message they sent back on August 25.
Then one week later the CDC increased their warning, all travelers to Cape Verde should take measures. This was five days ago. Salt Lake directed us to take measures and get medicine immediately. Understand that the supply chains to Cape Verde are weak, we don't have interstates with trucks bringing us stuff, it comes in one container, on one boat, at a time. So I began on Friday, walking into every farmacia I could find begging for doxycycline, a medication only available by prescription here.
I was fortunate, the farmacias I frequent regularly just gave me the medicine, by Monday I had 25 boxes. There are 40 missionaries in Praia. Tuesday we drove north and hit each farmacia we found on the road, I would lay my missionary call, signed by President Monson, in English, on the counter, and my passport and say in broken Portuguese "I am an American nurse. I am a nurse for the missionaries (point to the name tag)". I lay a box of doxycyclina on the counter. "Eu Preciso isso". If they start to move toward their medicine cabinet I tell them I need lots, I need all that they have. Miraculously, except for one Farmacia which refused because they wanted a prescription, each one gave me everything they had, three boxes, eight boxes, I bought it all. One woman said she was a member of the Church as she gave it to me. Another said, you need a prescription but because you are a missionary we will do this for God.
I don't know where we are going to get next month's supply, and the missionaries on the northern island need it as well. But we can cover the missionaries In the most danger right now. Elder Biven had malaria as a young man, he had relapses for years. President Amo has also had malaria, it damaged his liver so badly he cannot take the medication to prevent it now. I think that after you do all that you can the Lord gives you grace. We are doing all we can.
That's a really cool story about the pharmacies giving you medicine to serve God. What faithful people.
ReplyDeleteRachel Sanford here. I've been wanting to read through your experiences for a while now. Kirk and I are serving as Church Service Missionaries assigned to direct the Self-Reliance Initiative in the Independence Stake, and it's been a marvelous blessing. I am loving your similar experiences in a land so far away. I'm commenting because McLane was married last Friday in the Payson Temple, and we had a reception in Provo. We invited our good friends, Jim and Diane Hacking. Jim was president of the Missouri Independence Mission in about 2008, and we have kept in touch and visited often since. They recently returned from a mission of their own serving in Frankfurt, Germany. I believe that the Elder Hacking you referred to in this post is the same Jim Hacking. His responsibility in Germany was to do exactly the types of tasks you described, and the timing coincides. That is a small world, don't you think?! You undoubtedly knew them when they were here serving, and years later, you cross paths serving your own missions again across the world. Something like that can only be orchestrated by a loving Father with a good sense of humor!
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