In Route To Africa

In Route To Africa

I want to let everyone know that I am leaving today for Africa to spend one month at a rural mission hospital in Zambia. I travel through Nairobi for one night, then off early the next morning to Lusaka, Zambia where I will be met by the missionary pilot who will fly me to the far western part of Zambia to a mission hospital called Chitokoloki Mission Hospital. If you want to look my location up on Google Maps, look for Zambezi (the town not the river), Zambia. This will give you a pretty close idea of where I am.

The purpose of the trip is not only to help the resident missionary surgeon—Dr. David McAdams; but also to see if this might be a place that I could bring the family back next year to give Dr. McAdams a 3 or 4 month furlough.

Please pray for “journey mercies”, pray that my luggage (and supplies!) arrive with me so there is no delay. Pray that I would transition well to a new hospital and system and that I would be a blessing to the missionaries and the people that I am going to help. Pray for health and safety and for Jenn and the family while I am gone.

They tell me that the internet works at Chitokoloki, so I will try to send updates as often as I can.

Many blessings!
Paul

Ngaoundere, Cameroon

Ngaoundere, Cameroon

Several months ago I was asked to relieve a missionary surgeon in Cameroon for a couple of weeks in February. The first thing I had to do was to find out exactly where Cameroon is located! Cameroon is located in West Africa and is bordered by Nigeria, Chad, the Central African Republic (north, east and west) and by Gabon, Congo and Equitorial Guinea on the south. Even though I was tired from my recent trip to Haiti, I really felt like the Lord wanted me to keep my commitment to help this missionary surgeon and his wife. I really felt God’s confirmation when my sweet and beautiful wife Jennifer agreed to leave the kids in capable hands and accompany me!! It is the best I could do for Valentine’s Day this year!

So on Sunday afternoon (after speaking at the church that weekend), Jenn and I boarded a plane bound for Cameroon. After a brief layover and change of planes in Paris, twenty hours later we landed in Yaonde, the capital of Cameroon. We spent one night at a Christian retreat center hosted by 35-year career missionaries. We so enjoyed the two meals they prepared for us and so admire their “long obedience in the same direction” as they have followed Jesus and His great commission.

We then met Rob–our missionary bush pilot. Rob is a single young man, his parents were missionaries for almost 40 years with the Wycliffe Bible translator ministry in the Phillipines. Rob’s dad was a missionary bush pilot for many of those 40 years. Rob felt God leading him in the same direction and, after getting his missionary aviation degree from Moody Bible College in Chicago and after language school in Switzerland, has been on the field for three years in Cameroon.

It was interesting, Rob told us that much of Cameroon is unihabited and very remote with roads being very difficult to pass during much of the rainy season. His missionary organization (SIL) provides travel and supply delivery to missionaries in very remote areas in Cameroon and adjacent countries. They also do medical evacuation when needed. Our trip to Ngaoundere would have take 14 hours travel by car in the best of situations in the dry season. Needless to say, we are very thankful there are young men and women like Rob all over the world, doing what they are called to do to advance the Kingdom.

We flew in a single engine plane called a Helio Corrier. I found out (when we were an hour airborne) that our plane was built in the late 1940’s–in other words, about 65 years old!! Little did I realize our plane is one of the most reliable missionary planes that has ever been built. It can take off and land on very short airstrips. I also found out our plane had been in use in Papau New Guniea as well as several countries in South America before being sent for service in Cameroon. Thank God for the people who designed and built such a capable airplane.

Our flight took a little over two hours. We were met at the Ngaoundere airport by Phil–son of missionaries, raised in Cameroon, and whose dad had pioneered a radio ministry here in the mid-60’s. He and his wife (June) spent 17 years in the Central African Republic as missionaries until recently returning to Cameroon two years ago. What kind, hospitable, generous people Phil and June have been to us during our stay. They are some of the true unsung heroes of the faith and have been such a pleasure to get to know.

We are in far northern Cameroon at the Ngaoundere Protestant Hospital. The first missionaries to this area were Norwegian Lutheran missionaries who came here in 1923. And it was through the efforts of this missionary couple (he was a pastor, she a nurse) that the idea, funding and building of this hosptial took place. It now has 200 beds and provides great care to the people in this remote corner of the world. And it has been a light for the Gospel for over 50 years.

Dr. Jim is a surgeon and his wife Carolyn a nurse and they have been working here since 2008 without a break. Jim was so grateful to have almost two weeks off to be able to attend a Christian medical conference in Nairiobi. They graciously allowed us to stay in their home.
We are thankful for their kindness and generosity to us.

I “hit the ground running”, seeing patients, doing surgery. It has been a privelege to work with two surgeons in training–Drs. Nesoah and Jacques–fine men, capable doctors and wonderful Christians.

The Cameroonian people are so kind and gracious and welcoming to us. They are an honor to serve.

I am still “processing” all I have seen and experienced so far this trip. Let me tell you about one young boy who came to us this morning. He and his family are refugees from violence in the Central African Republic. He is probably 6 years old and suffered terrible burns to his leg in an accident almost a year ago. His leg has a huge open wound and a terrible contracture at his knee (he cannot straighten his leg past 90 degress because of scar tisssue). I thought about the fact that his father must have physcially carried his injured son during their long difficult journey to Cameroon. The father told us that they were robbed of all money and all possesions while travelling. They were found by the Red Cross(probably in a displaced person’s camp) and brought to our hospital for care. The young boy is so malnourished. Until his nutrition improves, he will never heal his wounds. And yet they have nothing. What a pleasure it is to help them–to welcome them to this hosptial , to give them food and water and some vitamins and gentle care. As I thought about him, I couldn’t help think about Matthew 25. He is hungry, thirsty, a stranger, and sick. And for us…He represents the face of Jesus. What an incredible privelege it is for Jenn and I (along with others and with you) to be the hands and feet that minister to “one of the least of these”.

Pray for us. Blessings!

Paul

P.S. Reading a great new book: “The Hole in Our Gospel” by Rich Stearns. I highly recommend it.

Headed to Haiti

Headed to Haiti

I know your heart has been moved over the last week as the tragedy in Haiti unfolded before our eyes. The needs are overwhelming, the resources extremely limited and the infrastructure almost non-existent. It has been so moving to watch the world respond…the Chinese, first on the scene, the Belgian search and rescue teams looking through rubble for survivors, the Israeli medical contingency and our own government’s massive relief effort, to mention just a few. As the search and rescue efforts continue, the major needs of the Haitian people are for shelter, food and water and medical care. I have the incredible opportunity to travel to Haiti Monday morning with a 10-member surgical team from Samaritan’s Purse. We will stay two weeks, working mostly at a fully functioning (but depleted in supplies) Baptist Hospital 4 miles from the center of Port-au-Prince. They have 200 patients presently awaiting us for surgical care. Please continue to pray for the people of Haiti. Please keep our team in your prayers as well. If possible, I will keep you updated on my time there. If you would like to make a donation to the Haitian relief effort…please go to the Lakewood website. Many blessings! Paul

Just Another Face

Just Another Face

I have probably treated hundreds of patients during the last 3 months here at Tenwek mission hospital. Sometimes our patients come to us through the outpatient clinics or through a referral from another hospital or often through the casualty. It seems the patients often come in large numbers, all at once. In just one busy night here at Tenwek we admitted fourteen patients to the surgery service alone. And the patients that come to us are usually very sick, or badly injured or burned or have advanced diseases. It’s not unusual to spend hours at night or on weekends operating on the endless emergencies that need surgery. Quite honestly, sometimes the patients come in at such a frenetic pace they become just a blur in the constant activity of trying to do what you can to help them. And try as you may, it is often hard to put a face with a name with a specific disease being treated or operation that has been done for them. But then there are patients that come to you…and something about their story, or something about their situation, or something about their illness causes you to never forget them. Names and faces like Benta and Jackie and Brenda and Tidcus. Names and faces that, for some reason I will never forget.

One such patient presented to us not long ago. His name is Kipkurui and he is fourteen years old. He is from a small village called Konoin tucked into the mountainside two hours from here. He presented to us because he couldn’t eat…when he tried he would vomit. This has been going on for two years and because of his illness he hasn’t grown properly, he has become emaciated, he can no longer run or play with the other children and he has fallen far behind in his studies at school. He is the last of five children, his dad is alcoholic, and his mother works tirelessly in her shamba (small farm) just to have food for her family. They are very poor. Kipkurui was wearing a tattered, dirty, flowered dress when he presented to us. Here in this part of Africa, you can recognize really poor people when the boys come into the hospital wearing the only clothes available, even if it is a dress. His eyes were sunken, he could stand only with assistance, he weighed just over fifty pounds (at fourteen years) and his arms and legs and face looked like a skeleton with skin tightly stretched over it. We were all very concerned that he had an infection with the HIV virus, but multiple tests were negative. We immediately started IV fluids and took x-rays which showed an intestinal obstruction. When I operated on him later in the week, his intestines were completely blocked by chronic scar tissue from an operation he had had several years before. He is now a few days post op and doing well—slowly gaining strength as he is able to eat for the first time in almost two years. Since I cannot speak his language—Kipsigis, our friend and hospital Chaplain Helen Towett is spending time with him, telling him and his dad about Jesus and letting him know that God spared his life because God has special things for Kipkurui’s future. We remind him of Jeremiah 29:11…the plans God has for Kipkurui are for good and not evil to give him a future full of hope. This past Tuesday Jenn and I took a trip to a larger city—Nakuru where we visited (our) triplets in the Baby Center. While there we bought Kipkurui some new pants and shirts, a warm coat and a back pack for his school books. We were very intentional about tucking a few shillings into every pocket we could find. Probably in less than a week Kipkurui will be leaving Tenwek hospital—on his way to regaining his health, with some new clothes on his back , a warm coat for the cool nights and the first-hand knowledge that here on a hill in western Kenya there is a group of people who demonstrate the love and compassion and care of our Savior.

I will be leaving Tenwek tomorrow, but I don’t think I will ever forget Kipkurui. I’ll never forget his story; I’ll never forget his emaciated little body and face but what is forever etched in my memory are his eyes. When you look into his eyes you might say you see despair or exhaustion or a someone very near death. But it’s interesting, I see something different. What I see in that deep, almost haunting stare is hope—just a glimmer, but if you look close enough, it is there. Hope that someone still cares for him, hope that someone might reach out a hand to help him, hope that someone might offer him treatment that could make a difference in his life, hope that someone might feed him and clothe him, hope that someone might still believe that there is still a chance that his future might be good and bright and full of meaning and purpose.

Just one face in the hundreds I’ve seen this trip…but one I won’t soon forget.

~Paul

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