Great fellowship tonight

Tonight 14 of us had dinner together at my house. Everyone, including the missionaries, got together for a share time. Earlier in the day during our break time in the morning, Dr. Dunn and I were recapping the trip and about how appreciative we are for it. I finally let the tears out. I've been holding them in for a while. They are tears of "Wow, God, you amaze me by how you blessed us beyond what we imagined on this trip" or "I'm so thankful for this experience" or "How can I leave." Anyway, all of us go home at the end of this month or the beginning of the next month, so we all had the opportunity to put it into words somehow for each other tonight. The missionaries lit up. I hope it inspires them seeing how much we are inspired by what God is doing here and through them. Like I said about that new grass here after the rain, that's me, a renewed person after this trip. Psalm 23 talks about leading us to the still water, lying in green pastures, and how He restores my soul. Every one of us said it was life changing. I've been on many mission trips, and this one was one of those life-changing ones. I'm still processing the details. :) Dr. Dunn and Dr. Renfro put it nicely to me regarding the emotions, "We sweat from our eyes out here." In other words, "If your eyes leak well, your head won't swell." I think everyone's eyes have been leaking.


After that sweet time together, we went back and were used by God again and helped the sick. I saw something I have never seen before, along with countless other things that I have only seen here (too many to number), a child with meningeal signs of neck stiffness and meningitis, but what got me was when I did his spinal tap. Usually, you have to wait patiently for a drop or two of cerebrospinal fluid to come out of the needle you place in their spine. This boy's fluid caught me off guard. It sprayed across the room and hit the wall and was cloudy. This is another reason God brings us here to work. The boy was in need of some serious help. He had increased cerebral edema with meningitis--in other words, an emergency. Similar story last night with something only in Africa. As we were all in a prayer meeting, they came and got me for a sick baby. The baby was grimacing in the face and, as I glanced, the umbilical area didn't look clean. It was neonatal tetanus. I guess for a pediatric neurologist in training to learn about.

To top if off tonight, Doris, my second mom, found me during her off hours to tell me how wonderful God is to her in her life. Her husband died four years ago and she has four kids. She doesn't worry about money, because God provides. She said it is good to know God, so it is good to know you. Praise the Lord for these relationships. I can't explain it. Maybe one of the practical examples of the people here is how no matter where you go in any village or roadside, if a child is near the road, they light up, smile, and wave at you, practically chasing the car.



Remember the previous blog--that t-shirt, "I hope you are doing what makes you happy." I think I am. :)

I'm so glad I went to the village

I didn't get to share about my afternoon to the village yet. I went into the bush. Literally, Mrs. Baba, Mary Anne, several nurses, and I all went together in an SUV and off-roaded to a village an hour and a half away. We were on nothing but a dirt road, which she called the "highway." Then we took off and went straight onto grass and drove over bushes and weaved through trees. You really had to be there to understand this. She knew exactly where she was going the whole way. There was a narrow dirt walking path that she kept the tire on. She said the problem during the rainy season is that it becomes to muddy and the car gets stuck, so they are literally blocked from getting to the remote villages to give the people healthcare. They give immunizations to the children and, if anyone is sick, they will admit them to our hospital an hour and a half away. There is also a nutritional rehab center they can go to for malnutrition treatment. So, as we are driving, all you see is green shrubbery, trees, and dirt. At one point, when the road was a little wider, there was all of the sudden the most beautiful red flowering tree. It was next to the church. I thought it was so ironic that the one thing that catches your attention is near a church. That's how we should be. Bearing the fruit and radiating. This tree is called "flamboyant."

As we were driving, the radio was playing a station in Accra, the large city in the south. Today is "Malaria Day." The talk radio was encouraging people to recognize signs of malaria and not to ignore them, but to take action and go get medicine. They are even teaching people basic things like, if you have not had your menstrual cycle in two months, go to an antenatal clinic. Seriously, people do not think of prenatal care here. They want to have their babies at home and then miss all of the prenatal care. One segment of the show talked about the issue of time management with women such as how they can effectively manage time working in the kitchen, the introduction of modern technology, and what the microwave does to change their culture. Can you believe they are talking about the microwave? This is what it is here. I can't explain how primitive. Some who can afford it in larger towns will have cell phones. These people have skipped a whole generation of the land line phone. It's too hard with the terrain to keep up with that, so they are able to have a few cell towers, instead, to provide communications. No TVs. The cell phone with extra fees can provide internet exploring and emails, though.

Back to the village, we arrived and I saw some babies who were sick, then gave immunizations to many. These immunizations give these children promise. Then, I had a cultural experience. I needed to use the bathroom, and I asked Mrs. Baba if there was one in this remote place. We were literally out in the pasture with several mud compounds nearby. No town, stores, etc. So, they brought me inside one of the mud compounds. A lady who lived there let me come in. It was a circular enclosed mud area on the sides with open air on top and a hard mud floor with a form of a drain. That is the toilet, basically the floor. After that interesting experience, I was invited into her home. Most of the homes are circular huts about 5-6 feet in diameter. It seems like a privileged wife gets to live in the rectangle one about 9x 9 feet. It was a hard mud floor with no windows and jars stacked on each other that held their clothes. Their food was in one corner, which included a bag of peanuts and a bowl of flour. The rest of the floor was empty for lying or sitting space. It was hot and muggy in there. Mrs. Baba told me that meningococcal meningitis thrives in these types of enclosed climates. She's right. That's why it is so rampant. I asked, why can't they have windows? She said the men don't trust their many wives and don't want them to sneak out of the window and leave the mud compound. This was just a phenomenal cultural experience for me. It was enriching to be a part of how they live.

Today, worth a million

Today was a clinic day, but I was asked to go into a village and help out with public health. I asked Mary Anne, one of the new volunteers, to go with me. I worked in clinic the whole morning and then did public health this afternoon.

This morning was wonderful! I keep telling Dr. Dunn, "you just can't journal this." How do I express to you the line of people coming forward each day to accept Christ during the devotional. It is daily! They see the fruits of their labor here. Today Dr. Dunn had a special patient who just did not seem right. He was being treated for malaria, but I could tell something further was wrong with his spirit by the way he looked at me and at his surroundings. Just then, he started shaking some. It was not a seizure. My first thought was he might be on street drugs. Do they have those here? Yes. There is marijuana and another plant they smoke that can drive a person to psychosis. Well, after Dr. Dunn finished, I said I think we need to go to the chaplain, something is not right with this man's spirit. So, Mary Anne and I went with him there. That was great, because I saw first hand how they counsel them. We found out the man is on several drugs and drinks a lot. The chaplain, in a non-condemning voice, asked the man if he wanted to change his heart today and stop putting those things in it, since we are supposed to save our hearts for the Lord's temple. He said, maybe God had you come from miles away just so you can have the chance today to turn around without condemnation. Just start over, forgetting the past but being able to use it to help others turn around one day. The man said he understood and was willing. I pray for this man and for his life to change.

Today in clinic, I saw Joyce's son wearing a t-shirt saying "I hope you are doing what makes you happy." T-shirts here speak strong messages. Too much. It spoke to me in a good way showing how we all were there working hard and being made joyful every step of the way. Let me tell you about one person who exemplifies this t-shirt. His name is Cheney. He used to be a member of the tuberculosis colony, but he just kept hanging around, so they eventually put him to work here and he has sort of adopted the grounds. He does odds and ends with the land. He always hangs out around our house here. Every time I see him, you say hello to him and he says, "I'm fine" with the largest smile you can imagine. He will then say something about how he loves the Father and Jesus and says "hallelujah, amen." One day, he was working outside, and instead of whistling while you work, he was singing. The song was in English but with his accent I could pick up, "hallelujah, Jesus." Today, Cedrick and I were talking about him, and Cedrick goes, it's like he's drunk but not on wine. That's something to think about and be like.

The woman with a stick

Last week, a woman came in barely able to walk and leaned all of her weight on to a stick. She couldn't walk, because one leg was about three times the size of the other one in width. She had an enormous abscess in her right thigh. Now, I don't like removing large amounts of pus, but I'll step up to the call when needed. So, last week I volunteered to be the one to do her I&D, or removal of pus in her leg. First of all, we had to make sure it was an abscess, so I stuck in a needle to aspirate it. Sure enough, it came out. I'm sharing this with you because of the rest of the story to come. Mind you, to my surprise, a literal bucket full of pus came out of her leg! How does this happen to someone? Because they come from miles to get here. They do not know the value of going to the hospital right away when a problem starts. They even try local medicine sometime, which is stuff like cutting on one's leg with a razor or painting the skin.

Well, this week she came back in for follow up and she pointed to me that I was the one who fixed her leg. It all came back to me and I remembered quite well. She said, "I was the one with the stick." I responded to her how she wasn't using it anymore, how that was a miracle, and how that abscess could have made her lose her leg or her life. I told her that God uses His people and He healed her. This woman is no longer with a stick. Praise God!

Another amazing Mango Tree story

Yesterday we had another kid who fell from a mango tree come in. Unlike the previous boys, he was able to speak and was conscious. He never lost consciousness but was unable to walk, so he was carried in by family members. As I went to check on him, Clint, the son who is here with his father, wanted to videotape some patients and us to use back at home for encouraging others to help out. So, he video-taped me examining the boy and explaining his condition. The serious thing about this boy was that he could not lift his arms. If you held them up, they fell on his face. My heart sank. I knew he had neurological damage. What I liked about the use of the video was the fact that this was a chance for more people to hear and see a miracle. We prayed for him right then and gave him steroids. That night, still no change. Today, change. He lifted his arms for me!! Praise God. That is a miracle. We do not have modern science or neurosurgeons out here. Never mind, we have The Neurosurgeon. Again, praise God. I thought to myself today, God specifically healed him to lift his arms so he will lift his arms one day to praise God! Amen.

A need for another miracle

One more thing before I head back, since I need your prayers. Yesterday, we had a boy come in who was comatose and they had no history in the family of what happened or how long he had been like that. His family speaks another language and we don't always have that translator here. So, here we go. Well, first thought was he could have fallen from a mango tree, but his family denied that. Second thought was meningitis, so we start antibiotics immediately covering malaria, typhoid, and other common causes. Third thought when I checked his blood pressure and pulse was cushing's triad, when you have a high blood pressure and low pulse, which he had, explaining cerebral edema or increased intracranial pressure maybe due to a mass in his head. We started steroids. There is no way to image his head here to see inside it. We don't have extensive labs available either. You honestly rely on God giving you intuition and by recognizing the clinical exam. You pray. He is not responsive to pain. Anyway, I believe in miracles! So, let's pray for him. May the Lord's will be done.

This is the day the Lord has made and His surprises

Last night Elizabeth, the missionary, mentioned to me not to worry if I heard people coming in late last night, because we were expecting two more to arrive in the room next to mine. This morning I met them and we were blessed. It is a father and his grown son who were here in the 1960s as a missionary family that served in this very place. It has been their dream to return and see how it has changed, so they are on a father-son trip here now for a few days. Immediately after greeting them, the emotions came. They had tears in their eyes, as they tried to express what was beyond words could describe about how meaningful this place is to them. The son said sometimes you have those meaningful moments in your life you will never forget that may be as short as 5 minutes or as long as several years. He said Nalerigu is one of those moments for them. They lived here when there was no electricity and no lights in the village. They rode in amazed to see a partially paved road in one section of the trip and some lights. God changed them for life here. The father was a veterinarian and a farmer. He said when man landed on the moon, he was introducing some type of farming equipment to the people here in Africa. You can see the contrast. He said he preached with his hands. We had our morning devotional in Philippians and were planning to discuss it, but God had other plans to bless us with these men who showed us a powerful testimony. We did read Phil. chapter 2, but were able to apply it to them. We just had lunch with them, and I'm that much more blessed. You never know who's coming through. In fact, just today in the hospital as we were doing procedures, a missionary couple serving in Bogatonga came by, not to use the computer as missionaries usually do from outlying villages. Instead, they needed their 13 month old daughter to be checked out by a pediatrician. Can you believe Dr. Dunn pointed them my way. I had the pleasure and honor of working with spiritual gifts as the body of Christ to literally build up the church and help them out, so they can further the gospel. We squared away her immunizations, too. I could tell the mom was so relieved, since she knows her child is not getting the care of pediatricians in the U.S. It was a blessing. Well, I'm heading back to the hospital for more procedures and surgeries.