VVF? What's that?

Three weeks ago I mentioned the VVF surgeries that they are doing on the ship and gave an account from one of the nurses that is working in that ward of the hospital. The past week I have been reading the book The Hospital by the River. It's about the couple Reg & Catherine Hamlin who moved from Australia to Ethiopia and worked at a government hospital. After a couple of years they were seeing so many fistula patients that they decided that they needed to build a hospital devoted directly to treating these women. I won't go into great detail of the the fistulas but most of them are caused by pregnancies that in the United States or other developed countries would result in a C-Section. In undeveloped countries the women live way to far from doctors, don't do any kind of prenatal care, and usually loose the baby after several days of labor. After that they are left incontinent and smell of urine. Many of the women are pushed out of the community and almost always their husbands leave them. After their surgeries there is very little recovery from what I have heard only a week or two. On the ship and at most VVF clinics they give the women a beautiful new dress as a sign of their beauty and then they will have a wonderful service to celebrate being "dry". Allison, a friend from the ship, stayed in Sierra Leone when we left last December. After living on the ship three years working in the operating room she felt God leading her to stay at a clinic that Mercy Ships set up during a previous trip to Freetown. She's now the VVF Nursing supervisor at Aberdeen Women's Center and it has been great to keep up with her blog and the journey that she has continued in Sierra Leone.

Here at home I have been busy. Last update I released my t-shirt design and now I have 36 orders in. The first shirts will be finished this week and if you haven't gotten one I will be making another order due May 16th! The Orchid cards and Sierra Leone cards have sold out, and I have more coming in the mail. I have done a couple of different meals at church. One for a birthday, one for Awana workers and a great dinner for the fundraiser April 22nd. It has been amazing to see how God is sending supporters to help me on this journey. If you are still interested in helping me weather it be by getting a t-shirt, set of cards or with my monthly budget you can contact me through e-mail or Facebook.

I have only 2 more days left teaching class. It has moved by much faster than I expected. In January and February I thought May would never come. Next week I will get to see some people that I served in Sierra Leone with. We are really excited to meet up! After that I will only have a little over 20 days before going to Texas. I'm so excited!