Guinea Bound
There it is… that pull again. Steve felt it first, I just kinda tagged along in the beginning. But it made sense… it was time to leave Liberia. If we ever wanted our team to step up into leadership and really run this clinic, we needed to step away… far enough away where we can’t be pulled back in.
We also had Maylynn to think about. Life growing up on the mission has been wonderful for her. She has friends and the freedom to run around and get dirty on a daily basis. But, her educational needs are increasing- she is going to need an international education that would be hard to provide in Liberia.
We sought wise counsel, and they were unanimously supportive of our decision to transition. Ok, God, I hear you. When it comes down to it, as long as we’re seeking God and being obedient to his direction we will wind up just where we’re supposed to be… even if that meant staying put (spoiler… it didn’t).
We went on furlough in June (2023) and started looking into other missionary opportunities. One thing the last 11 years has taught us is we really enjoy a life abroad. We started looking in countries we knew people, or places we’d been. India, Rwanda and Uganda floated to the top of our list. We also found an opportunity in Italy and another in Nepal. Even a few in Ohio. As we further delved into each mission we hit road blocks- no school for Maylynn, found a position for 1 of us but not both, or didn’t find anything at all. We needed a place where both of us would fit, an engineer and a nurse. We slowly started scratching lines through each location we were excited about.
Steve was browsing Linked-In and came across a post from a former colleague who had moved with his family to Guinea. The article was about his wife, a pediatric cardiologist, who was running a new pediatric hospital outside of Conakry. Steve messaged Adam just to find out how life was in Guinea, how was the education system there, what organizations were working there. Adam was excited to hear from Steve.
Adam and his wife, Rachel, started Sacre Coeur Pediatric Hospital to meet the lack of pediatric care in Guinea. The hospital had opened with out-patient services and specialties in April 2023. But they wanted to expand to in-patient services, including an ICU. Adam said they had been praying for 2 things: a hospital administrator and a nurse with critical care experience. They also had a school for their missionary kids. It was a divine fit.
We talk about how God doesn’t call the prepared but prepares the called. Our experience before missions and over the last 11 years in Liberia had perfectly prepared us to be able to fill the needs at Sacre Coeur and join their team. To make things even more inticing, Conakry was only a 12-hour drive from Monrovia. In January (2024) we made the drive up to Conakry to meet the team. The trip went very well and the team at Sacre Coeur invited us to join their ministry.
Since our trip in January we have been diligently working to get all our ducks in a row to make the transition happen. We have seen God work out all the timelines- VISAs, language school, last minute shipments from the states- better than our type-A personalities ever could.
Our final days in Liberia will be very bitter-sweet, but we are looking forward to what God has in store. He has proved Himself faithful time and again.
Looking out from the roof of Sacre Coeur Pediatric Center at the mountains in the distance