Call the Navy - fly the flag

I saw a Red Cross ship in the port at Suva this week, except it wasn't quite. It was the US Navy hospital ship 'Mercy' which has been with us in Fiji during the initiative called Pacific Partnership 2015. This is apparently the largest, annual, multilateral humanitarian assistance and disaster-relief preparation mission conducted in the Indo-Asia-Pacific region. The US Navy website states, 'While training for crisis conditions, Pacific Partnership missions to date have provided real world medical care to approximately 270,000 patients and veterinary services to more than 38,000 animals'. One of the primary missions of the ship is to provide rapid, flexible and mobile acute medical and surgical services.

In the screening queue at Suva's CWM hospital

The Fiji Sun called the arrival of the ship 'an opportune time for an expansion in relations between Fiji and the United States Government'. It carried close to 1000 crew with medical professionals providing some services that had never been done on board the ship before, as confirmed by the partnership’s medical planner Lieutenant- Commander Kevin Casey.

We will be doing a lot of surgeries. We will be providing arteriovenous fistula for human dialysis access, it’s one of the things that’s never been done before on the ship, so we are very excited and proud of that. There will be cataract surgeries, cleft lip, cleft palate repair, hernia repair, gall bladder surgery and a wide variety of other procedures.

It's terrific if you're in need, isn't it? And all free. But when the ship sails away....? 

The new(ish) Government here has a really big health care agenda to be attending to.

Also in the news, what do you reckon to these? Fiji's getting a new flag - or at least we are when the final design's been agreed. At the moment it looks like this on the left, but there's been a high-profile, nationwide appeal for new designs and the shortlist's on the video below. What's missing? Answers on a postcard...

I've not personally been doing surgery on a ship or designing a flag this past week, but the news immediately around me has seemed a touch more entertaining for the blog than photos of me glazing over at a computer screen! Have been editing the Bachelor of Divinity 'Ethical Principles' course this week and am nearly through. It's all meaty stuff and should make a great addition to the existing courses. 'The Prophets' are waiting in the wings. Splendid coffee from Papua New Guinea helps the addled brain of course - a gift from my dear and lovely neighbour Ana-Latu. 

And God Bless the Baptists! Supporting
ministry training through
coffee growing and marketing. I thoroughly approve.

Wonder if my most recent 
alma mater Spurgeon's
College has thought of
this? Do you suppose
the elevation of South
Norwood Hill and the
tropical rains of Thornton
Heath, Crystal Palace and
environs would produce
the goods?

A prayer

Faithful God,

continue to uphold and guide the work at Pacific Theological College Education by Extension we pray, and steer our course as we put extra effort into the Bachelor of Divinity Distance programme. 

We pray that your Spirit will speed and energise the work, so that new courses may be delivered soon to those in remote areas, excited by the prospect of further studies. 

Help us to meet this growing need as quickly, effectively and affordably as we can, so that practical, purposeful theologians are formed and shaped for the present age, in the Pacific. Amen.