[Editor’s Note: Amie wrote this post just before her departure and is now on the ground in Ghana!]

I am currently visiting long-term Mission Doctor Doris Weaver, NP, and long-term Lay Mission-Helper Karlee Duffey, RN, along with our site partners in the Diocese of Damongo, Ghana.

Doris and Karlee are the first lay missionaries from both MDA and Lay Mission Helpers (LMH) to serve long-term at St. Anne’s Hospital in the Diocese of Damongo. They arrived in March of this year and, with the help of our dedicated site partners, have been navigating their new lives as missionaries together.

You can read more about their life in Ghana on each of their blogs: Doris Weaver, NP and Karlee Duffey, RN

I am eager to visit both Doris and Karlee and reconnect with our site partners, most of whom I met for the first time during my initial visit to the diocese in 2023. I have been told by the diocesan director of health, Aiden, that the hospital and several of the diocese’s health outposts and clinics have expanded in services. During my time here, I will tour the hospital with Doris and Karlee to get a sense of what their day-to-day will look like over the next three years and, if there is time, visit one of the diocese’s health outposts in Kalba, Ghana to see how the site has grown and how MDA can be a support for the wonderful work already being done by local medical professionals.

After three years away from the diocese, I am equally eager to see in person those with whom I have been in constant virtual communication. I am excited to share a meal with Bishop Peter Paul, Fr. Martin, Aiden, Fr. Peter, and all those who have worked so hard to welcome our missionaries into their community. After so much communication via email and WhatsApp, it will be a joy to finally sit together in person.

Of course, we also hope to have a little fun during my visit by traveling to the nearby Mole National Park for a day safari to see elephants, monkeys, and the other animals native to the Savannah region of Ghana.

Altogether, I am very much looking forward to reuniting with Doris and Karlee. I know that much of what is unfamiliar to me will be familiar to them and in that, I also hope to see how they have grown to be a part of the community in such a short time.