Heroes: a Glimpse of Screening Day, 2012

When some hear the word “heroes”, they think of huge red capes, abilities to fly, magical powers, or superhuman strength. After February 1st, Mercy Ships Screening day 2012, my personal definition was drastically revised.


The heros we know well; Superman, Batman, the Incredible hulk, are all about people who had supernatural abilities who were stuck on an ordinary earth. But what if ordinary people were able to do extraordinary things in the midst of this less-than-supernatural world? What if prayer, hard work, vision, team-work, and the unity of people coming together in the name of Jesus Christ to bring compassion and love could actually be a little piece of the supernatural here on earth? I say yes.

This year for the large 2012 screening in Lome’, Togo, I was (much to my shock) chosen to be one of the Team Leaders for the Escort team; the group of people responsible for managing patient flow to and from all of the different areas of the screening. Whether it was escorting a “no” patient to the prayer area, or walking with a “yes” patient to and from their many stops amidst the maze of pharmacy, surgeon specialty, history taking, and laboratory stations, our 80+ person team were positioned throughout the entire Lome’ Football stadium, where our screening took place, to help every patient get where they needed to go. We have four FANTASTIC sub-leaders (who were all nurses, of course!) who helped us manage this 80 person team. They were Ana G., Lynn M., Gea vB., and Brenda H.


Being a Team Leader at screening day meant a couple of things…

1) I had (got) to wear a naval uniform complete with a black skirt, pressed white shirt, and shoulder epilates. Impressive, right?

2) Be the proud bearer of a walkie-talkie,

3) Work with one of my favorite British nurses, and old Togo-2010 Mercy Ships friend, Frances Douds!

Frances and I made such a great team! I was so thankful to be partnered with her for this whole experience as she had been the solo Escort Team Leader in Sierra Leone in 2011. She claimed she was also glad to have a co-leader and sub-lead team this time. It made a HUGE difference and allowed things to run so smoothly! As a little side note about Frances and I, we have a joke around the ship that the two of us make up two of the “top 4” loudest laughs on the whole ship. That, and the facts that we are both “ESPN’s” (actually, ESFPs for all you Myer’s Briggs fans, but Frances can’t ever remember that, so she just says ESPNs), can both be caught singing in the wards or down the halls at random times, and are overall fun-loving people made us a fabulous team! I love you, Frances!

In addition, as I mentioned earlier, our sub-leaders where PHENOMENAL! They made our job easy with their mad organizational skills and competent leadership abilities to manage their smaller teams of escorts. In addition, our head-leaders, Jane and Esther were also FANTASTIC!!! I was just amazed from a Team Leader standpoint how much each person truly fulfilled the full meaning of the word “team”. I cannot commend everyone enough who worked at screening day, from the Togolese Day Workers and Translators to the surgeons and down to some of the Academy students who came to provide a children's ministry, on how wonderfully they all worked together. I felt like it was truly a small picture of how the Body of Christ, with its “many members” comes together to function and care for one another. The incredible amount of energy, effort, and team work left me stunned in sheer amazement.


For some of us, our work started at 8pm the night before screening, to “pre-screen” anyone who decided to get in line the night before and sleep in line, not wanting to miss their chance for a life-changing surgery. Others of us (like myself), awoke at 3am the morning of screening to be part the first group of crew to arrive and complete our final set-up at the stadium. Our goal was to be ready to begin screening patients at first-light; 5:30am. After a few delays that morning, we were able to started seeing patients from about 6am until our final patient left around 6:15pm. I was on my way back to the ship when we heard the cries of celebration over our radio as the last landrover pulled out from the stadium!

While that day was full of much hope and excitement, it was also a day of difficult decisions and heartbreaking responses. I won’t pretend that everything was cheery and happy; so much of what we did that day was say “no, I’m sorry, Mercy Ships can’t help you” to so many of the 3500 people who moved through our screening that day. However, it is that courage that truly speaks to the depth of love and compassion I witnessed that day. I saw person after person pour themselves out, giving one hundred and ten percent to serve and love the people of Togo. I saw unfathomable strength in those who prayed with the hundreds of people we had to turn away. In the end, I saw Jesus. And that is why my heroes have changed, because I witnessed every day, normal people offer themselves to a supernatural God to work and act according to His purposes and accomplish supernatural things. Praise, Glory, and Honor to Him! I was privileged to simply be a part of it.

Thank you all, as well, for being heroes along with the rest of your “Body” across the world. The amount of prayer poured out over this event was so evident. Thank you for being a part of such an amazing day!