Adventure Awaits

Meet the team:

• 1 doctor and 4 PAs 
• 3 nurses from CHOA
• 1 PharmD and 4 Mercer pharmacy students 
• Pastor Mike and another logistics lady
• Meg and Suze PA-S extraordinaires 

To preface this trip, I need to tell everyone how awesome Scarlet is! She is our fearless leader and this is her 50+ mission trip... So she knows what's she's doing! She negotiated a free 2nd checked bag for each of us to bring down donations and we were all asked to collect as much as possible. The Mercer PA Class of 2018 did an amazing job collecting donations during PA week and pulled together a huge box full!  Last night the team packed over 600lbs of donations into 19 suitcases. Talk about amazing!! It was like a game of Tetris to get every bag right at 50lbs! Then today we loaded up all of the luggage (36 suitcases total!) into a trailer and headed to the airport. It took a mere hour to check everyone in but we did it and not a single bag was overweight! 

And as everyone knows, there had to be that one "odd donation" that won't fit in a suitcase and this time it was a wheelchair and crutches. So what did we do? Naturally we made Pastor Mike fake a hip injury that required him to take a "personal wheelchair" through security and onto the plane. He was a champ and even let Meg try to pop a wheelie while pushing him in the middle of the concourse! A few concerned glances may have been thrown our way but they didn't know he's surrounded by healthcare professionals. 

The journey has officially begun and I know there are many good things to come! I can't wait to see what God has in store for us and hopefully we will be able to make a meaningful impact on the people of Malagasy. Au revoir from our layover in Paris!  

Daily devotion:

“And a vision appeared to Paul in the night: There was a man of Macedonia standing, beseeching him, and saying, Come over into Macedonia, and help us. And when he had seen the vision, straightway we sought to go forth into Macedonia, concluding that God had called us to preach the gospel unto them.” Acts 16:9-10

And over to Madagascar we head to serve the Lord as He sees fit. We don't always know why things happen as they do, but we must remain flexible and know there is a greater plan. As Pastor Mike said this morning, we do not go serve for the bragging rights, for the escape from reality, or for the love of travel. We go serve to spread the Gospel by way of medicine. And we must remember this when worldly reasons try to take precedence. So please continue to pray for us that we may remember to keep Christ at the center of our mission in Madagascar.