Ethiopia
2006
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Our team

 

 

Menlo Park Presbyterian Church (MPPC) has a very active missions group, sending missionary teams many times each year to various places around the globe. This team included ten people from MPPC, one from Saratoga Federated Church, and one from Peninsula Bible Church Cupertino. MPPC maintained a web site with daily updates from the field. Check it out: Menlo Park Ethiopia 2006 Team Site

 

 

Our leader, Frank Marsh, is especially gifted in organizational leadership and it showed. His lead work with the host organization and the pre-trip team building meetings paid big dividends. He also did a fantastic job of keeping everyone on task and focused during the trip.

 

His wife Sally is a nurse with many mission trips under her belt. She led the medical/nursing teams on the ground as we set up at the various clinics, and as one of the other nurses wisely noted, "Sally always seemed to have the right answer!"

 

Others on the team included other nurses (Sally, Tara, Christine), the doctors (Chris, Phil, Steve), the dentist (Marshall), and the hygienist (Arleen). The team was rounded out by a "dental assistant" (Judy - she had never done this before! What courage!) and a pharmacy tech (Sharon). We "adopted" another nurse - Abby - during our stay in Yetebon. She was there in the midst of a three month working visit and was exceedingly helpful to us as we got oriented to the place and the people. She joined our team for our mobile clinics and many of our outings.

 

Some of us were on our first trip, some had been on a few, and others had been on many. Some of us had known each other ahead of time, some were brand new to the group. We all came to respect, love, and care for one another deeply during our time together. What a great group!

 

We had a great group of translators. All were nurses from Addis, all were very proficient in English, and each was a tremendous help to us all! My translator Meskerem was a special blessing to me and I know others felt the same about theirs!