Part 1 – Open Eyes and Listening Ears to Serve

When we arrived back onto the Global Mercy six weeks ago, I (Jeff) already knew the hospital teams were busy. People would say things like, “They’ve got too much,” or “That team is working until 8:00 at night.” I heard those comments last field service too.

But here’s what I didn’t know: why. Why were they staying so late? Why did it feel like the hospital was always underwater? And honestly, even if I did figure out the why, I wasn’t sure if I had anything to offer. After all, I’m the finance guy. My day job was on Deck 8 — spreadsheets, budgets, bank accounts, petty cash. Important, but not exactly what you picture when you think of “bringing hope and healing.” 

Still, if there was a way I could help, I wanted to.

It Started With Excel

So I tried something simple. I put out a message to the crew along the lines of:

The Finance Office is going to be open on Thursdays and Fridays this month to host Excel Office Hours. Stop by if you’ve got Excel questions. We won’t do the work for you, but if your spreadsheet isn’t working the way you want, or you’ve inherited one that is hard to understand, or you’re just stuck — we’ll help you think it through.

Honestly, I figured a handful of people might stop in with random questions. What I didn’t expect was that this would be a doorway into the hospital.

One day, a nursing manager showed up. She told me about a spreadsheet her team used and how it was slowing them down more than it was helping. I said, “Sure, I’d be happy to take a look.”

Now, I already knew her team was slammed. They were leaving late almost every night, trying to juggle too much. I’d also heard from others about some of the challenges they were facing. But this was the first time I was pulled directly into it.

Calling in Reinforcements

I’ll be honest: I’m not the best Excel person on the ship. Not even close. Thankfully, my team includes people who are much, much, much better than I am. So I pulled them in, and together we started working with the nurse manager.

It wasn’t glamorous. It wasn’t some shiny new cloud system. (By the way, cloud systems don’t always work well here anyway — internet and cell service can be spotty when you’re up country. Offline spreadsheets are often the most reliable tool in West Africa.) It was still Excel. Still rows and columns. Still formulas and cells. But these got the job done.

Small Wins That Weren’t Small

The changes we made don’t sound huge on paper.

• An admin assistant saving about 30 minutes a day on reporting.
• A system that flagged 80+ duplicate entries with one click.
• Restructuring sheets so it was easier to track patients coming in from up‑country.
• Cutting patient transportation planning from one month to one week.

It all sounds pretty nerdy. And, well, it is. But here’s the thing: it mattered.

Those 30 minutes meant one less task at the end of an already long day. Catching errors early meant fewer late‑night scrambles to fix mistakes. Restructuring meant less time trying to piece things together and more time focusing on patients.

And maybe most importantly, it showed the hospital volunteers that a completely different team noticed their struggle — and cared enough to do something about it. 

Why This Matters

If you’ve never been around hospital work on a Mercy Ship, it’s easy to think the mission is only about the big things: surgeries, training local doctors, equipping hospitals. And yes, that’s true. But those big things are built on thousands of small things.

For the hospital team, it’s the small things that pile up: reports, rosters, bed tracking, scheduling. When those processes are slow or messy, the stress builds. When they’re made just a little easier, the difference is felt immediately.

That’s why we’ve come to believe that even something as nerdy as an Excel formula can play a part in “hope and healing.” It frees up time. It lowers stress. It gets people back to what matters most (the patients).

Open Eyes, Listening Ears

I didn’t have a master plan for helping the hospital. I just noticed that people were stretched. I listened when they said, “We’ve got too much.” And then I offered what I had, even though it didn’t feel like much. It started with just one thing, then became another, then another.

Sometimes service looks like someone from Finance sitting with a tired nurse manager, opening a spreadsheet, and asking, “What if we tried this?” It might not look like much, but when you see the relief on their face, or when they realize they can leave work 30 minutes earlier, you understand: it’s not small at all.

We're Back!

 We are back in Sierra Leone! 

First a little wrap up of the past few weeks....

We left the ship in mid-June, had some great family time to rest and enjoy being together and then met back up with the ship in Cadiz Spain. The Global Mercy (our ship) had been undergoing maintenance and was finally ready to welcome us all back on board!

Thankful for all the people who worked on our ship while we were gone!

It was completely different walking up to the ship this year compared to last year. This year it was like coming home. Not "home home" as the kids call it (Auburn) but still home. We were excited to see friends, sleep in our beds and get back to work and school. There are a few new families on board, so it has been good to welcome them and help them getting their footing in their new adventure. 

Berdien and Hanne (from the Netherlands) with Sadie and I while we were sailing into Freetown

We left Cadiz on August 3rd and sailed until August 12th through some beautiful yet rocky waters. I personally saw dolphins, flying fish, a sea turtle, a shark and a whale! Our last day at sea was the kids first day of school. What a busy day! 

At sea sunrises and sunsets are unreal! 

We are now back in the routine of school and work. In a crazy set of circumstances including the science teacher leaving unexpectedly at the end of the last school year I am stepping into teaching 6-8th grade science onboard! It just 3 mornings a week and will leave time for me to still be in the hospital doing physical therapy. It will be fun to serve the ship in a completely different way and use some science facts that have been stuck in my brain for 20 years! ha! 

I found this book in the science classroom. Not my favorite part of science!!

Patients will start coming in the next week or so. Right now the gangway is being set up, mooring lines tied and crew that didn't sail here are flying in. Its exciting to be starting afresh, cleaning the hospital and getting ready to transform lives. Mercy Ships social media has started to have some of the pictures of my patients from last year, so now I can share them! 

Check out this "after" picture of my girl Aminata! Those once bowed legs are SO straight. Even better news is that her and her auntie accepted Jesus as their Savior while here. PRAISE GOD!!!

Thank you for partnering with us so we can do this transformative work. It is an absolute blessing to be here watching lives transform and being a small part of God's big picture for the world. 

J^2, L, S^2

The End of Our First Year!

 WHEW!

We have just ended our first field service in Sierra Leone! The hospital is closed, the final paperwork is being done and people are flying out everyday to head out for a time of rest. The team that stays behind (called the patient selection team) will be traveling around the country for the next 6 weeks finding patients who need our help for the next field service. The work truly never stops. 

We have a million stories to tell, and try to give a glimpse into life here, but never can completely. I can only share with you approved patient photos due to patient confidentiality, but we would like to give you a small taste of what life has been like our first year here. 

Please enjoy this 7-minute recap video

We will be getting some much needed rest while the ship has its annual maintenance done. We will try to update this blog as much as we can during this time, but please understand we also need time as a family and to process this time in Sierra Leone. 

Thank you again for your support. It sounds cliche but really could not do it without you. 

Love, J^2, L, S^2

Emotionally Exhausted

 Most of the time I pretty positive on this blog. There are many amazing things our family is able to experience while serving with Mercy Ship in Freetown Sierra Leone and we are truly thankful to be here. But as I say almost daily to myself or to others "This place has the highest highs and the lowest lows". 

Friday was one of those lowest lows kinda days. Not that anything specific was truly terrible, but just a lot. I'll explain....

Friday started as a normal day... wake up, eat breakfast, kids off to school, etc. I get to rehab at 8am for our daily devotions. I know this will be a little different as 2 of our therapist are leaving this weekend... one at noon on Friday and the other 1pm Sunday. In a team of 7 people, losing 2 is a lot and I'm sure we will be talking about that at devotions. The therapist in charge of devotions that day (the one leaving Sunday) had asked a patient to come and give his life story during our devotions time. As you can imagine, all of our patients have a story of resiliency in hard circumstances. While it was a good story to hear, I was already feeling the heaviness of what my patients live through on a daily basis. 

Next up was my 8:30am patient. It was a 5 year old girl who was having her last appointment with us in rehab! She came to us in January to fix her bowed legs and we got to celebrate her discharge home!! I was fortunate enough to do her assessments before surgery, see her every appointment between and now do her discharge assessment. The hours I have spent with this girlie and her mama can't be counted. She is one who was very shy/scared/quiet when I first met her and now walks into the rehab gym like she owns the place. A fabulous tradition here is each kid picking their favorite song and we all dance to it at their last appointment. We danced, prayed for her and gave parting hugs. Both the patient and mom hugged me with tears in the eyes and she waved to me as she walked around the corner to leave. Gah! My heart breaks once again. 

Next patient was at 10am. This is a 12 year old boy who is living at home and coming to see me every 2-3 days or so for rehab. His mom is a single mom with 3 kids and she has to take off of work every time he comes to see me, but she is happy to do it to help her son longterm. Friday she brought me 2 big loaves of bread as a thank you for helping her son. I found out that is her job... she stands on a street corner selling bread that she bought from a bakery. She gave of the little she had to say thank you to me. Humbling to say the least. She would not accept money for the bread stating "It brings me joy to bless you as you have done so much for my son". Gah! Heart broken again for the third time in one morning. 

Next was lunch time. Thankful for a dining room to feed me and see all 3 kids in the middle of the day. After that kind of morning it was easy to squeeze them all, say how much I love them, and love seeing them. Down to the dock now to say goodbye to a PT I have known for 12 weeks. She was the only other PT from the USA so we had a special bond. I gave her a hug and we will definitely stay in touch, but once again, not a dry eye to be found. 

I don't write down these stories to be pitted or for you to say "Oh you are so amazing!". I write this is 1) Remind myself when I read this years from now what my morning looked like 2) Show you all the good and the bad. Like I said, the highest of highs and the lowest of lows. We ride a roller coaster of emotions here, but I am thankful for each twist and turn. 

We love it here. Truly. 

April 2025 Review

 April has been a busy month onboard. Not only some very special extra activities during the week before Easter, but an internship for Lauren, extra busy at work for me and special events for Sam and Sadie as well. 

Please enjoy this month in review in photos!

The month started off with a fun sleepover for Lauren with some of the other Jr High and High School girls 

My work in the hospital continues to be challenging, but taking a few moments to make balloon animals for the kids with 2 other PTs was super fun!

Two of my work friends who are also moms on board, Berdien and Rachel. 

Speaking of amazing mom friends, I spent the night off ship with some other moms by the beach! Great conversations and beautiful views!

First event for Holy Week was a special Palm Sunday Service. Sadie had a great time waving a palm branch and singing with the other kids. 

Next was the Passover Seder meal. We learned about the symbolism of each item on our plate and how a traditional jewish family would recite certain phrases and scripture. 

Every Thursday afternoon there is some kind of drill on board and Sadie was asked to be the "victim" so that the EMT (Emergency Medical Team) could practice. The story of the drill was that she fell and hit her head. She loved acting out the part and even got to lay on the CT machine down in the hospital. 

Thursday night we had another amazing Holy Week activity of different stations in different spaces on board... foot washing, communion, etc. 

Friday night was a Good Friday Service. Our all purpose room was decorated like a garden. We all sat own the ground and heard the story of the Last Supper and Jesus in the Garden, The room got darker and darker until they read "It is finished". It was a powerful night I will never forget. 

Then came Easter! We had a beautiful sunrise service watching the sun come up over the ocean and a lovely Easter brunch! 

Sam went on a field trip with his class to a chimpanzee sanctuary. 

Lauren has been working as Ward Admin Assistant 2 afternoons a week. She absolutely loves working in the hospital and serving our patients and crew in this way.

And then we finished off the month with a pottery class in Freetown with friends!

As you can see, we keep very busy here. This does not include the normal things of school, work, laundry, homework, etc etc. 

Looking forward, this season in Sierra Leone ends in mid-June when the ship has its annual maintenance period up in Spain. We will have some time off while the ship is in dry dock and then will sail back down to Sierra Leone the beginning of August. 

We continue to be thankful for all of you who read this blog, love and support this journey.

What does this Finance Director really do here?

It's a joy to be here. 

Yet my daily work serves as a reminder that "I'm not directly involved in the mission". 

It's much simpler and engaging for Jackie, the physical therapist, to tell stories of patients, how hope and healing arrive to patients and their caregivers — the tangible, real change. But when you're the Finance Director... you, uh, pay bills and make sure people have money so the mission can run. Right? You use an abacus, calculator, and lots of spreadsheets and use math. Yes?

It's still important, but if I ever want to feel very close to the front lines and yet struggle to answer, "So, what is it you do here?" then this is the opportunity. 

As I've reflected, I've found myself investing in three areas:

1. People: Enable their personal growth, maturation, and develop their potential
2. Internal Communications: Encourage the crew to feel more engaged, aware, and capable
3. Long-term processes and systems: Simplify "how to" tasks, make systems easier to use, and better outcomes for patients and crew

In short, I've embraced being a coach, communicator, and improver. 

While my workday includes of meetings, project tracking, finance work, and leadership, here are a few stories that may shed light beyond the assumable "I guess he just reconciles numbers and signs checks?"

People developer

I love investing in people. Many junior and middle managers onboard face various challenges: living on a ship, away from home, working in a multi-cultural environment, gauging how frustrated one of their team members is and how to respond, and simply learning to be a manager. This is a recipe for growth and tears.

Then there are those on the Finance team with the drive, the talent, and the desire to grow in their career. What does it look like to listen, guide, and nurture people to help them flourish — not just here on the ship (or in country!), but at their next role wherever in the world it may be? What if this time at Mercy Ships was not just about their service but also their personal and professional growth? What if they leave not just with being able to reconcile a bank statement quicker but approach interpersonal conflict with clarity, calmness, and curiosity? What if...they became leaders?

Internal communicator

Calling it "internal communications" gives it a sterile and robotic feel, though I want to distinguish it from external communications. Over January, I had the opportunity to cover for our ship's Operations Director and also a bit for our Chief Steward (think: dining room, galley, housekeeping, hospitality, and more). Daunting. It was quite an experience, but serving others in that way was worth it. It helped me see past the happy, smiling faces to discern the stress, difficulties, pains, and struggles. It also helped me see how tweaks in awareness, transparency, and accountability can yield dividends. Examples include:

• Make it clear and actionable: We rotate slides for 20-30 seconds with actionable information ("how to disembark the ship", upcoming events, "how much money do I need to explore Freetown?", weekly menu). We clarified these slides, made the fonts larger and more readable, and focused on actionability. Small, but mighty change.
• Trust but verify: It's easy to say "I'll get that done," but it's quite another to get it done and then report it back. For our management team, we reviewed all our meeting notes since August (the beginning of the field service) and wrote down every action item that should have happened. We then compiled it in a spreadsheet, brought it back to the Management Team, explained the process, apologized for the lack of accountability and transparency, and are making this a regular occurrence. To be effective, people must trust the systems, processes, people, and promises.
• Subtraction is just as powerful: Whenever we want to "make it better," we usually think, "ah, I must do something." However, removing is often better. Selectively eliminating helpful but non-critical information, instructions, and words focuses attention on the few critical items. Advertisers practice less is more: We took that opportunity to remove words, reduce the number of TV slides, and focus on just a few instructions. 
• Listening ear: Sit down, shut up, and hear what your fellow volunteers say. Empathy counts.

It is tempting to add more, but there is a breaking point—just like adding too much to a vehicle.

Improver

Imagine being stuck using a 20-year-old software tool: out of date, hard to use, doesn't work well, and takes more time from everyone to use than it should. It's frustrating for any person — now multiply that by 2,000+ volunteers who come to the ships each year. 

Optimizing and improving processes is one of the least sexy, trendy, or cool things. But when that is deeply connected to why we are here and how that transforms lives, that changes my perspective. Better systems, workflows, and time saved mean less stress on hospital staff, more patient time, and better surgeries. I'm on board. With great support, the Hospital can share presentations like this of successfully running operating rooms!
 

Here is an example: We have 280+ day crew who work with us and are paid every two weeks. It was a very manual process and, while it has improved over the years, when I arrived, it took at least 6-8 hours to process and another 2-3 hours to review. With some assistance from a friend back home (you know who y you are!), we automated it. Processing time 3-4 hours and review is 30 minutes — going from ten to four hours is a huge improvement. Oh, and far fewer errors and delays, too. 

Now, what if, instead, someone focused on modernizing those applications? There's a group here who are doing that. First, I'm trying to get the existing software to be as usable and straightforward as possible (quick wins!). Next, I'm working with our amazing onshore team to speed up the replacement of these archaic tools (Side note: It's wild to realize some of these systems won't be ready until we're about to or sometime after we leave. But even if they all come after I leave, my focus is on the next generation: bringing a better tomorrow to the crew, day crew, caregivers, and patients). That inspires me — even if I don't get the cute before-and-after hospital photo out of it.

Conclusion

Sometimes, communicating about communicating is hard. The esoteric and nebulous stuff is difficult to explain to others. Yet one thing I appreciate about being here is the focus on the mission: know where you're going. Here's a picture of the ship's bridge at 5am before the sun rose while most everyone were still sleeping. The ship's bridge is a frequent reminder about where we're going, watching our trajectory, and remembering why we're here.

May you be encouraged in whatever role you're in, regardless of whether you feel that you can communicate that well. 

Hospital Pictures and Updates!

I have been asked by several of you for more pictures of what I am doing in the hospital. While I would love to take silly selfies with all of my patients, this is not allowed. Thankfully our communications department takes photos and I am able to use those on this blog. So... ENJOY!

Mr A is a cheeky little dude with big personality and heart. He was here to have both hands and one foot repaired during Nov/Dec. 

These two (Miss M and Miss B) are pure entertainment. I love seeing the kids bond over their shared experience both at home and now in the healing journey. 

HAPPY FEET! 

This is one of our daycrew (locals from Sierra Leone who work for Mercy Ships). He does so much for the rehab department including translating, doing exercises with patients, cleaning up after the therapists and much more. Daycrew are invaluable!!

This is another daycrew worker with me and Miss A and her sister-in-law. Each patient under 18 needs a caregiver... most of the time a parent, but sometimes another trusted adult who can come be with the child for months. Miss A was slow to warmup to me, but now runs up to me with a big hug. 

Happy Miss A!

She really is a sweet kiddo. 

This is Miss S and she has been a HANDFULL! lol. But on a serious note, a lot of this kids have been through trauma/grief that we can't even imagine and need extra love and grace. She used to scream when I came into her ward and now I get high 5's and smiles. She will even start walking to rehab because she wants to come play with me. She still has a long way to go, but she will be one I remember forever. 

Oh little Miss M!! She had this sad faraway expression for the first few weeks she was with us. Now she comes running into the rehab room and has to hug everyone before she can start exercises. Her mom also hugs me when she sees me and thanks me for coming to Sierra Leone to help her daughter. 

Mama doing Miss M's hair. 

Thank you for all of your prayers for my patients. We are moving into a time where they will be getting their casts off and strengthening those legs that have been in cast for about 10 weeks. There is over 50 kids ages 4-14 who have had orthopedic surgery on their legs and are progressing right along. I'll keep you all updated as I can about their progress. This work is exhausting but the most rewarding of my career. 

As always, please reach out with any thoughts/questions/suggestions. We love hearing from you!