Missionary aids nurses
BY CHRISTIE ZIMMERMAN
UMCONNECTION STAFF
"In the day I will restore David's fallen tent. I will repair its broken places, restore its ruins and build it as it used to be so that they may possess the remnant of Edom and all the nations that bear my name, declares the Lord, who will do these things." - Amos 9:11
Armed with faith, knowledge, determination and strength, Suzanne Porter, a Baltimore-Washington Conference missionary, is helping to repair the broken places in a civil war-torn Liberia by helping the country keep up with its health care demands through nurturing the needs of her nursing students.
Porter, a registered nurse who attended Reisterstown UMC, was commissioned as a missionary in 2000. Her first assignment was in the mountains of Central Asia.
Last year she began a new ministry as the acting dean at United Methodist University's School of Nursing, located in the Winifred J. Harley College of Health Sciences in Ganta, Liberia.
"One of my most challenging tasks is helping incoming students to understand what nursing care is all about," Porter said. "It's more than just handing out medications. It's also providing health education to patients and their families." Porter laments over the awful living conditions the nursing students face while obtaining their educations.
One dormitory has leaking roofs, unsafe electrical wiring, plumbing that only works on occasion. The other has no roof and is completely gutted inside.
"The students struggle a lot to obtain their education. I just have so much admiration for them," Porter said.
She depends on gifts to keep her mission operating. She also welcomes volunteer doctors and nurses or
Volunteers in Mission groups who want to visit Liberia to work in mission.
Porter is available for Covenant Relationship support in the Baltimore-Washington Conference. Contact conference Missions Secretary, the Rev. Richard Brown-Whale at Support for her may be sent to Board of Global Ministries, 475 Riverside Drive, New York, NY 10115. Her Advance Special number is 13929z.
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