15 Jan On the Way to Sierra Leone

Six people, destination Sierra Leone, fly out of the airport in Fort Wayne, Ind., this evening around 6 p.m. A predicted blizzard left some doubts about their flight plans, but everything’s sunshiny right now, and they should escape this Hoosier cold spell on time.

They’ll fly to Chicago, meeting up with Robert and Fonda Cassidy, from Mt. Olivet UB church in Mt. Solon, Va. Then it’s on to London, where they’ll meet up with:

• Ken Graham, a retired minister returning from a trip to Israel.
• Mamee Simbo, on her way to join her husband, Rev. Billy Simbo, in Sierra Leone for the next six months.

They’ll arrive in Freetown about 7:30 Friday night, stay in a hotel near the airport, then go up-country to Mattru early Saturday morning.

The group will be in Sierra Leone until January 28. Then a second team will arrive. They’ll all stay in a house directly across from Mattru Hospital.

“Our primary purpose,” says Donna Hollopeter, Associate Director of Global Ministries, “will be medical work at Mattru Hospital, which will include doing daily rounds, seeing patients at the clinic they run daily, doing surgery, organizing the pharmacy, and whatever miscellaneous medical work needs to be done. Then three men will work on gathering information for future construction trips to Mattru to help with upgrades for the rooms and equipment.”

Here are the group members:

• Donna Hollopeter, Associate Director of Global Ministries.
• Jason Hollopeter, pastor of Corunna UB church in Corunna, Ind.
• A former missionary doctor at Mattru.
• Karen Sibery, a staff nurse at Auburn Family Medicine.
• Sharon McDonald, a nurse from Auburn who works at Parkview North Hospital in Fort Wayne. She attends Corunna UB church.
• Ray Proud, a mechanical engineer, going as one of the construction consultant. He is from Corunna UB.
• Robert and Fonda Cassidy, from Mt. Olivet UB, Mt. Solon, Va. Fonda is a nurse, and Robert is going for the construction part. They have previously led trips to Central America.
• Ken Graham, retired pastor from Mainstreet Church in Walbridge, Ohio.