If You’re Going to Travel, Take a Skill
Debra Mae Goehringer jumped into the dental field right after college and worked six days a week as a dental hygienist. She quickly found herself questioning her decision to be a dental hygienist. But a trip to Tanzania and the words of her father as she was growing up, “if you are going to travel, take a skill with you,” started to ignite dreams for something outside of the American dental office.
Debra Mae decided to volunteer for three weeks with Mercy Ships. Inspired by the need she saw while volunteering and the work being done, that short time quickly grew. Now, seven years later, she continues to volunteer and has wonderful insight to share.
In this episode, Debra Mae shares how growing up with 10 siblings prepared her for ship-life! She also tells of the joy she found while setting people free from pain.
Looking for a way to join our mission of bringing hope and healing? Partner with us through a gift, volunteering with us, or by joining us in prayer.
New Mercies Podcast Transcript
Welcome to the New Mercies, a podcast by Mercy Ships, where we’ll take you behind the scenes and on board our incredible hospital ships that are transforming lives all over the world. We invite you to join us each week as we sit down with our crew, patients, volunteers, and partners to hear their stories of life-changing hope and healing.
Debra Mae Goehringer jumped right into the dental field after college, working six days a week as a dental hygienist. But she quickly found herself exhausted and unfulfilled. Debra Mae decided to take a trip to Tanzania, and there she recalled her father’s advice, he had told her if you’re going to travel, take a skill with you. Well, this advice coupled with a trip started to ignite dreams for something outside of the American Dental Office, which led her to Mercy Ships. Get ready to be inspired by this amazing woman. Here’s my interview with Debra Mae Goehring.
Raeanne Newquist:
Debra Mae, welcome to New Mercies.
Debra Mae Goehringer:
Hello, thank you for having me.
Raeanne:
I’m really excited to have you on today because you have a unique role onboard the ship and we have not spoken with anyone yet on the podcast that does what you do. So this is going to be fun for me as well as our listeners, I get to learn some new stuff. So I’m really excited to have you. Why don’t you tell us before we kind of dive into your life with Mercy Ships, why don’t you tell us a little bit about where you’re at right now. And where you’re from.
Debra Mae:
I’m currently in Indiana, I’m from the U.S. originally, I live in Delaware. I was here for onboarding in January because I signed up for long-term last year and decided that January was the best time because the ship was in between the field services. So I came to the States. And I spent four weeks at onboarding in Texas. And it was really a cool experience. I really was happy that I went, unfortunately, I’ve been having problems with my passport, so I’m stuck here for a few extra weeks before going back to Senegal until my passport gets in.
Raeanne:
Why don’t you tell us how you first heard about Mercy Ships. I guess we should say that you’re a dental hygienist. How did you hear about Mercy Ships? And why did you go volunteer?
Debra Mae:
The story begins a long time ago. My sister is a nurse and when she was in nursing school, one of her professors somehow just mentioned the name Mercy Ships to her. And then she was talking to my mom about it. I was young, she’s like eight years older than I am, so it was tucked away in the back of my mind and I never even thought anything of it. My older sister was the one who was going to go into mission work with her nursing or you know, do something like that, but she never did. Later on in life, after I graduated from college, I went and lived in a different state, I moved to Tennessee with one of my really good friends and it was just so much fun. First time I left where I lived, left my home, and I really loved it. But I kind of just jumped into this world of working full time. I ended up working a lot. I didn’t work at one place full time, I worked at like six different offices as they needed me. I was a temp hygienist and I loved it. I could tell them yes or no, but the problem is, I can’t say no. So, I ended up saying yes to everything. And I felt like I was just working to work. You know, there’s no point to it and working six days a week. So I’m making all this money for no reason. And then I just start thinking like I’m in pain, I don’t even enjoy this anymore. I’ve only been out of school like six months at this point less than that, probably, and I was already questioning why I was doing what I was doing.
And a few years back, I had taken a trip my to visit my oldest sister, I have multiple siblings. I’m one of 11 children actually. But anyway, my oldest sister is a missionary and she was in Tanzania. So I was able to visit her for a little bit while I was in college and kind of just caught the travel bug. I couldn’t stop thinking about how I needed to get out of this country and go do something. I needed to do something new. But there was something in the back of my mind – probably my father who always said, “if you’re going to go somewhere, bring a skill or bring something. Don’t just go somewhere to go somewhere. So, I thought if I go overseas, maybe there’s a chance that I can bring my skill. And so, I was like, okay, if there’s some sort of short-term mission trip I can do or something that I can bring my hygienic skills, I would love to do that. So, I went online and literally, I hadn’t even thought of the name Mercy Ships since my sister talked about it, probably eight years prior, I remember this name and I just googled it. I looked through their job openings and what they needed and dental hygiene was an urgent position! And you know, now that I look back on it, it’s kind of crazy to think because people wait years to get on ship. I was on ship in three months. From that moment that I looked it up, I was on ship in three months. And it was the beginning of a seven year, I guess it’s been almost seven years journey for me and realizing that I’m not meant to be working in private practice. And I’m not meant to be just focusing on making money or anything people tend to think that they have to think about. I realized I do love my job. I do love the dental field, and I just really hate how I’m doing it. It was kind of a push for me to choose differently for myself and not go like with the norm.
So, I was only there for about three weeks and then I went home, but I wanted to stay forever. And I went home immediately and pretty much quit all of my jobs and started working as a nanny. And I was like, I knew I wanted to stay where I was for a little bit longer. So I just kind of shifted gears and I worked as a hygienist on the weekends. But ever since then, I have not allowed myself to go back to that full time in this mundane job that I just I know that it’s not for me, and I know it’s not fulfilling.
Raeanne:
Oh my goodness. Well, first of all, I love that your dad said, “if you’re going to go somewhere, take a skill with you.” Wow, what a really cool approach to travel. But you also mentioned, I have to just rewind for a second, that you’re one of 11 children?
Debra Mae:
Yes.
Raeanne:
So where do you fall in the birth order?
Debra Mae:
I’m number seven, the number of perfection.
Raeanne:
So, what was that like growing up with so many siblings?
Debra Mae:
Honestly, I mean, I don’t know any different. But I loved it. I loved every second of it. Some of my other siblings have different perspectives of it, but I think that’s just personality. But I think overall, we all truly loved it. And being raised by parents, I think first and foremost, who love God, love people, and choose to live their lives in faithfulness towards him, just having that foundation kind of allowed all of us to thrive. And you hear stories of big families that break apart so fast, but I can honestly say that almost all 11 of us are really close. We’ve had our struggles, of course, but we all love each other. We love to be with each other. And at this point, you know, there’s like nine of them are married and it’s just me and my sister left who aren’t married. And then there’s 20 nieces and nephews. But I think the foundation of having parents who actually modeled Jesus for everyday life. That was the most impactful thing for all of us growing up.
Raeanne:
Well, I can only imagine, just hearing the quote from your dad, that it seems like a missional mindset was instilled in you to love Jesus and to love others. Tell us for a minute, when do you feel like your heart for missions came to be?
Debra Mae:
When I was younger, I always had a perspective on what I thought my life was going to look like. I thought I was going to get married at 19, have 10 Babies like my mama, become a hygienist. The only thing that ever came true was being a hygienist. Everything else was actually God. It’s kind of funny how God works in my life because I always have these plans and ideas and instead of just directing me to something else, God usually presents those plans to me on a silver platter. Like here, this is what you want, right? And every time it’s presented, I’m like Oh, no, that is not what I want. My parents both are big supporters of mission, just mission work in general, while they haven’t gone overseas or you know, done that type of stuff, they push the whole model where Jesus says, The Great Commission — Judea, and Samaria, and the rest of the world. They are very much focused on their Judea. And if people feel called to go out, they want to support them as much as possible.
So, growing up, every year, my dad would do a missions week at our local camp. So we’ve had missionaries come in and talk and then they would come to our house, because my parents really just wanted to hear all the things, all the stories. So I’m grew up in this house where there was always a missionary coming in and out, or we have furlough homes and then my oldest sister decided to go into missions with her husband after they got married. So, I was constantly surrounded by the idea of mission work. So I really just knew that it was a beautiful way to spread the gospel, but also use your skills in different areas.
I am somebody who loves to just go and experience new things. And I didn’t realize that about myself until I had traveled to Tanzania to visit my sister. Because I only had a one world perspective, I knew about other places and heard those stories in my head of other people, but it was never a personal connection. And the second I stepped foot on the ship and was able to use the skill I’d worked so hard for, to help people and to be there for them, it was amazing. In the three weeks I was there, I had been more fulfilled and had more joy and contentment than any time in my entire life. I can only chalk that up to the fact that I was doing what God called me to do, and fulfilling His purpose for my life. And that’s kind of where it started for me, just knowing that that’s what I needed to do, but having the whole missionary background, and that was really helpful to have the confidence to just go and try it.
Raeanne:
And it sounds like the family that you grew up in was just an environment that really set you up to go do something like this, I can imagine that having 10 siblings probably prepared you for living in tight quarters on a ship with tons of people. You’re never alone on the ship. I tried to go to the library at five in the morning on the ship and I might be alone for five minutes. But then sure enough, someone else would come and join. So, you were used to that growing up with so many siblings. Why don’t you tell us about what you do on board, you have a very unique role. And as you mentioned, your first time on board was in Benin and 2016, kind of your three-week trial, then you continued to return because you loved it so much. Tell us about what you do on board.
Debra Mae:
So normally, the ship has a huge dental program that they set up. And you know, every time we go on field service, they set up and have a clinic off ship and see 80 plus people a day. And there’s so many team members and you have all of your local day crew and everything. And that’s what I was first introduced to and experienced, which was amazing. I’m still really close friends with the day crew worker that I worked with in Cameroon. We went on girl trips, and we did everything together, it was amazing. And I love her and that was so fun. And that’s kind of what I thought I was going to be walking into when I came last October. So I signed on for about two months and I knew that they were trying to grow the program a little bit or change it somehow because COVID kind of like threw a wrench into everybody’s plans. But currently we have a two person dental team. So it’s very different from what’s their normal. It’s just me and the dentist. So I work as the dental hygienist as well as the assistant and scheduler admin, we pretty much do everything. So the two of us, we work hand in hand, and we love it. But we kind of walked into a blank slate, actually, it was a really dirty slate, but we had to clean it. There was a flood in the dental clinic on ship when we got there. So we had to reload and then figure out what we needed to do after that, because it hadn’t been in use for about two years. So now currently, we are working on crew members. So we offer services to long term crew, emergency service to short term crew. And then we see daycrew workers, so the locals that we hired to translate and assist with us. And then we are now also seeing some hospital patients. And that’s actually been really awesome. That was something I think I missed when we had the big programs, because the patients would come in and go out so fast, you barely have time to remember their name. And I would kind of miss that connection with the locals. I missed it with the patients. So this past year, when we were in Senegal, being able to actually go into the hospital, sit in the wards, talk to patients about what was going on, and what their problems with their teeth were and like the pain that they had, that was really, really cool, because then you got to see them multiple times. And that’s different than I had experienced. But I really, really loved it.
Raeanne:
So if I have this right, when you first went to Benin in 2016, you went as part of the dental team that really exclusively works on patients, local patients, is that correct?
Debra Mae:
Okay, correct.
But every Friday while I was there, I actually worked on ship and just did like cleanings for crew members.
Raeanne:
Okay, yeah, because I think it’s important people know that we talk a lot about the surgeries that we do, but a lot of the surgeries that we perform, whether there are tumors on the face, or something of that nature, it requires a tooth to be extracted before they can actually do the surgery. And so is that correct?
Debra Mae:
Yeah, yeah, that can be correct. And a lot of times the surgeons will actually do the extraction. So there are times, because some of them are oral surgeons, so they kind of know what they’re doing. It’s sometimes faster and easier if we just do it. But they’ll do it in surgery if they feel that’s necessary.
Raeanne:
So you’ve essentially seen both crew and local patients. And that is another special thing to know if anyone’s considering going to serve with Mercy Ships — think for a moment, what if I get all the way over there and I break a tooth, or I have some pain in my mouth — we do provide dental services for our crew members. So that’s super important to note. So having been able to work on both sides, if you will, tell us what one of your highlights has been?
Debra Mae:
Having more connection with the patients has been amazing. Being able to walk on the dock, and one of the patients is there, knowing their name and knowing their face and then having them recognize me and come over to talk, that’s been really awesome. But I really have enjoyed the fact when working with the crew members, it allows me to really get to know them as well. As tight quarters as we’re in, it’s really difficult to get to know some people sometimes because you people are all over the place. So sitting down and being like, Oh, I’ve seen your face, but how long have you been here? What’s going on? Having those like connections is really fun. And this past year because of the mask wearing, it was actually really fun to see what people looked like! Every time they would take their mask off, we’re like, Oh, you’re really cute.
Honestly, just being able to help people out of pain and do it quickly, it’s great. You know, if somebody’s in pain, they come in for to see us and if it’s a bad tooth, we take it out two weeks later and they’re singing our praises. It’s just so nice to be able to help somebody.
There was a story of one of our crew members who was one of the first patients we worked on after we got everything all set up. But he comes in and he just always seemed kind of sad. You know, he always just looked sad. And we got to talk and we found out that he’d been in this terrible dental pain for months that he’s been on the ship. And he had tried to go to a dentist in Tenerife, to a couple of places, and just nothing really worked. So when we sat down, we did an exam and figured out that he needed a root canal. And we ended up doing it. We did a lot of other things for him as well. But he was a completely different person, completely, like he was whistling in the hallway and wearing silly hats, he was playing games and out with people and talking. Realizing that because of all the pain he was in, he wasn’t sleeping and so it was really affecting his work. It was affecting the way that he ate, it was affecting literally every part of his life. It was just really awesome. Knowing that we were able to provide that for him. And he got a girlfriend!
Yeah, get a root canal, you’ll get a girlfriend! That’s a good PR slogan, we put it on our door, there you go. It was just really fun to see that change.
Raeanne:
You know, that is so awesome to hear. Because oftentimes on the podcast, we hear nurses or people who’ve had interaction with our African patients talk about the transformation that happens and the patients, you know, they come in very withdrawn, very shy, very down and discouraged. They’ve been shunned for so many years. And then once their tumors removed, or what have you, they come alive, and they’re set free. I love that you illustrate this story about a crew member. Because it’s true for all of us. If you are in chronic pain every day, it just diminishes really who you are. But when that pain is gone, you are set free to wear crazy hats and whistle down the hall.
Being in Benin and Guinea and Cameroon and Senegal, can you tell us about an African patient that impacted you?
Debra Mae:
There was this patient who got surgery and after the surgery he had a palatal opening in the roof of his mouth. So, it kind of connects the nose and the roof of your mouth. So, when you drink water, the water will come up through and that it’s very difficult for patients with this kind of cleft palate. So, after the surgery, there was an opening left in the roof of the mouth. So, what they do is they usually put like sponges, or anything they can to close up that area while they eat and drink. And then they take it out, it’s very annoying and kind of gross and it’s just not the thing you want to do every time you eat and drink. So, they learn to deal with it over time.
So, this one patient came in after surgery and things were healing and it was the first time we’d ever even seen this. We were trying to think of what we could do and how we could help. And so, we’re taking a look and he was just amazing. He’s like, I just want this closed. I just don’t want to have to do this all the time. It’s just really frustrating for us and for me. And so the doctor and I take a look. And we’re like, you know, we could make like a retainer, you just put it up and it covers the whole, it’s called an operator. And we were like we have a week, we could definitely do this. And luckily, because we were in Senegal, we had gone to this like dental depot where we were trying to get supplies for certain things. And we ended up talking to the lady that worked there and she directed us to her husband who’s a dentist in Senegal who worked right across the street. So, we ended up having this connection with this dentist. He’s from Lebanon, very, very gracious, wonderful man. His name is Dr. Gazelle. He’s a great guy, but he also has a dental lab in Senegal. So, we started working with him and he said anything you need, tell me. So, we created a really cool relationship with him and we ended up doing a couple operators actually for several patients. So, we took the impression, sent them right to him, he got them done, made the molds that you need to make a retainer and we ended up making this retainer for this gentleman. And just the joy on his face was amazing once he figured out how to put it in and out and everything. So that was like, really, really fun. And we’re so excited. He just wanted to go home. And it was really cool to make this.
But fast forward to multiple months later, this patient comes back because they wanted to do a secondary surgery for him. They were trying to reconstruct his face, because taking off the mass that he had, they kind of took off part of his bone. So his upper jaw, part of it was gone completely. So they were trying to reconstruct it is what I’m trying to say. But it failed. So the whole thing failed. He ended up being one of the last patients to leave before the ship sailed because he wasn’t healing correctly, there was a lot of complications with his story. And the trust that he had in us was amazing. We asked what we could do and he asked for a new operator. So we ended up crossing our fingers and praying really hard. Because we weren’t sure if we were going to be able to do this. And we had two weeks to make it and figure it out. And it’s very painful to get the impression and there was a lot of things that went into it and having him come back we felt really bad about it. But we had to do what we could do and that was one of the things he wanted us to do. And we ended up taking multiple impressions, because we just weren’t getting it right. And it wasn’t completely covering the entire hole or wasn’t exactly what we needed. But we decided we’re like, Okay, we have two good impressions, we don’t want to put him through this. Again, it’s very painful, and just a lot on him. So we had two impressions and one had like most of what we needed, and the other one had the leftover parts that we need. And you know, like to both of them together would be perfect. So we ended up sending it to Dr. Gizelle. He got it back to us in like a day or two. And we were just like, Okay, we hope it fits. You know, it’s like one of those things, please just fit God, please. And when we put it in his mouth, the hole was perfectly covered, it covered the whole hole. It was a God moment there because we weren’t 100% sure in our ability at that time. And we kind of just had to leave it to him in that moment. And it was really awesome. You know, you just have to, there’s the only thing you can say, is awesome. Like, he is good in that moment. And he’s good all the time. But he was great in that. It was really nice to be able to give that to this man. And honestly, I just have to do like a quick shout out to the dentist. She is one of the most amazing dentists I’ve ever worked with in my life. Like, she’s awesome. She’s from the Netherlands and her name is Marike. She’s awesome.
Raeanne:
That’s so cool. Well, when you were in Benin and Guinea, Cameroon, did you find similar dental needs amongst the local people? Or do you find that things vary from country to country?
Debra Mae:
Um, I don’t think I see a big difference. I think the most important thing is just education, they just don’t understand certain aspects of even just brushing every day, because nobody’s ever taught them and nobody has given them that education. And that’s kind of where we have taken a pretty strong stance — we want to educate the patients, day crew but also Westerners that come! Just even educating people is really important. But honestly, in the actual state of some people’s teeth, there’s not a ton of difference. I wouldn’t say for most people, if there’s a problem it is usually just extraction, a lot of it is decay from sugar.
Raeanne:
So you would say though, that, overall, it’s a lack of education on the importance of dental hygiene and how to care for your teeth, maybe mixed with poor diet, that causes a lot of the dental issues?
Debra Mae:
Yes, poor diet is one of the main factors of anybody having poor hygiene. Dental decay comes from sugar. And so whenever we eat anything, you know, pretty much sugar is in everything, whenever we eat anything, there’s a change in your pH. And so there’s this like this whole science with it. So a lot of times when I’ll be walking on the street in Senegal and see kids chewing on sugarcane, or drinking a lot of sodas, you be shocked by how much soda is drunk, or even just like snacking on something all day long. Having anything in your mouth that kind of creates a poor environment and then decay starts.
Raeanne:
How do you guys go about educating patients? Is there some kind of program that you guys do? How do you educate them?
Debra Mae:
No program yet. I think that’s something we want to really start in the future if we have time and if we have a couple other people to help us in the clinic, but we’re constantly in the clinic ever since Marika got her license in Senegal and we were able to start working on hospital patients, we were just so busy. So a lot of it is chairside education. Every time they’re in the chair, we have conversations and talk to them and use that time as wisely as we can. I can put together an educational pamphlet or like this booklet that we hand out, we don’t hand them out to the patients as much because they have different dialects and don’t read French or English so mostly just to the day crew, we will hand out these so we made them in English and French so we’re able to kind of like share that. But I think we’re wanting to implement going into the wards next and having education, like little sessions and talking to people, I did that a little bit. When we were in Senegal, I went into the wards a couple of times, because I get a message from the nurses and they’re like, we have two patients here that say they’re in pain, I need you to come take a look. So a lot of times, I would go and just take a look, do an initial exam, and be like, Okay, well, we’re really booked up, but for this thing, I think you could just brush really well and give a whole little brushing demonstration for people. But what we also did is we started a little education thing at the Hope Center.
Raeanne:
Well, I think any education is so important, because some of those patients will learn things from you. And then they’ll go back to their villages and tell people and tell their family members. And so you’re really just at the tip of the iceberg, right? You’re just starting this education, but it can have ripple effects that go out to many, many people. So I think it’s wonderful to focus on not only taking care of people’s pain in the moment, but then educating them to have, you know, a healthier life.
Debra Mae:
Absolutely. Yeah, we tried to encourage the daycrew workers that were with us, or even those in the Hope Center, because we would talk to mostly the caretakers at the Hope Center. So sometimes it wasn’t even the patients that we’re seeing are talking to during those times, it was the caretakers, and their reaction to it all was so enthusiastic, they’re like, but I’ve never been, I have no idea, or this is crazy, or this is amazing. And one of our daycrew workers was like, I went home immediately and showed all my family.
Raeanne:
Well, Debra Mae you have gone back to the ship several times, multiple Field Services, what is it that compels you to return time and again, and now ultimately, has compelled you to make a long term commitment on board?
Debra Mae:
Yeah, Ithink the Lord has just showed me time and time again, that when I am trusting Him in all the things that I’m doing, He will fulfill me. And this has been something that is constantly like pointing towards Mercy Ships, you know, every little thing that I’ve done kind of has been pushing me towards this. I went back to school last year and in the classes that I learned that I wasn’t expecting to take, ended up helping me with where I am now. And I thought they were going to lead to something else. But they are helping me now. Or I ended up doing some teaching in a college as a hygiene instructor for a little bit of time and I didn’t realize that that could be something that’s pushing me towards teaching and educating and helping people. Every little thing that I have done in my life, or the things that I’m not sure where this is going to lead, has led to this and has led to me being on ship and ministering to these people in this way. And I’m making a long term commitment because it truly feels like home, it feels like a fulfillment that I’ve never really, truly experienced. And not only that, I kind of want to talk a little bit about like the community aspect of it all too. Because while I’m fulfilled in my job, I’ve never been as encouraged and supported and loved as I have been in this community, and I have a great community of friends at home, you know, and a huge family. And I love them. I love them so much. But I’ve always kind of felt like I didn’t quite have a specific place in that in that place, the physical place, you know what I mean? I know where I live in their hearts and you know, emotionally and I love them to death. But on the ship I am a worship leader, I’m a youth leader, I worked with HR for a little bit I’ve worked with so many different aspects of the community life and planning things and I don’t know, it’s just finding a place and a home and a community. Yeah, I didn’t realize it was at home. And it is been hard, it has been really stressful and I’ve cried more than I’ve cried my entire life in the past year and a half probably. Going through it with the people that I went through it and going through it with is kind of what keeps you going. And feeling that sense of purpose, I think that’s really where it all boils down to, just knowing I’m doing what God wants me to do. And how much I love it. Yeah, that keeps me going back.
Raeanne:
There’s no better place to be than in the will of God, for sure. Debra Mae, I am so grateful that you obeyed your father and when you went to travel, you took a skill with you. And now you are impacting many lives and as we’ve said, not just the patients you see, but through their education, you’re impacting their families, their communities, their villages, so many more people. And I love how the community on board has also loved you and impacted your life. I know that people listening might be wondering, Gosh, I wonder if my experience would be the same? Or I wonder if I have something I could offer? What would you say to somebody who’s listening to this now and they’re contemplating going and doing something like you’ve done with Mercy Ships?
Debra Mae:
I would say that you don’t have to go to Mercy Ships, even though it’s pretty cool. But I would say if you’re feeling led, go, just try it. A, you don’t have to make a commitment for long term, like you don’t have to go do something for so long. But if God is leading, trust Him in that, if God is leading you to be generous with people where you are right now, if God is leading you to share your money, even if you might not have a ton of money, if God is leading you to share your time with somebody, like it doesn’t have to be to the ends of the earth, it could be your Judea, it could be your Samaria, it could be to the ends of it, you know, like, it could be all of that. But wherever you are, if God is leading you to do something, he’s going to bless you if you are faithful in that, and trust in that. And I just tried to, like encourage people and like Don’t, don’t get stuck where you are, don’t get complacent. Because that’s where like the devil tries to really bring you down and, and shares lives with you that, you know, if you if you share your food with this person, you’re not going to have enough food or if you sharing, you know, money and resources, whatever you have with people, you’re not going to have enough that’s not true. It’s a false sense of security that we have in that. So just letting go of that like false sense of security and actually just just try it, just do some wherever you are, just do something that’s so that’s kind of what I want to say that’s, that’s, that’s what we’re gonna conclude there.
Raeanne:
Well, hey, I think it’s a good word. And I think you’re right, wherever you are, just be obedient to what God’s calling you to do. Maybe he’s calling you just to call your neighbor next door, and just let them know that they’re seen and they’re loved.
We are so grateful for what you are doing on board not only for the crew, but for the local patients and the Africans and you are making such a big difference. So thank you for sharing with us just a little bit of your journey. We’re all going to pray that your passport gets renewed quickly so that you can head back to Senegal and continue to care for people.
Debra Mae:
That would be amazing. Thank you so much for having me.
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