Last year, Janet O'Shea visited Redruth Baptist Church in Cornwall to give a presentation about the work of the Sierra Leone Mission (SLM), including the building of a new Health Centre for children in Brama and surrounding villages.

After the meeting, Janet was approached by a nurse, Debbye, from Treliske Hospital, who kindly offered to collect discarded, unused items from the hospital that could be donated to the Health Centre. 

Some weeks later, Debbye delivered a car full of goods, and told Janet about a doctor, Anne Clarke, who is a Specialist Clinical Physiologist working in Neurophysiology at the same hospital. Anne had noticed that Debbye was packing up the materials and was interested to know what where they were going. When Debbye explained the items were destined for Sierra Leone, Anne announced, ‘That’s where I’m going!’

It transpired that Anne volunteers for the charity TeleEEG, visiting third world countries to establish clinics and train technicians in the use of EEG (electroencephalogram) technology, which records brain activity. Following a trip to Pakistan in October, Anne was scheduled to visit Sierra Leone in November. 

It also turned out that Anne lives only three miles from Janet!

Before leaving for Pakistan, Janet and Anne met up for a long discussion about SLM's work, following which Janet contacted Magnus to link him up with Anne.

As a result, Magnus collected Anne and her co-worker, Steve, from the airport, providing them with accommodation at the Health Centre and his services as a chauffeur to several hospitals in Sierra Leone. Typically, Magnus refused to be paid for his service, so instead, Anne and Steve treated the Bethesda children to a day at the beach for ball games and fun with bubbles!

Anne and Steve spent time with one of the Bethesda girls, who suffers from epilepsy, and they have promised to give her continued support. In addition, Magnus was able to connect with a number of doctors at the hospitals they were visiting, who could be hugely beneficial to the future of the Health Centre.

Janet, who has recently returned from a trip to Sierra Leone to visit the Health Centre, says: 'The sovereignty of God never ceases to amaze me. It is wonderful to take a step back and see how He weaves the tapestry of life to make a perfect picture! Whilst I don’t believe in coincidence, I do believe in God incidences!'