emilyinwestafrica's Xanga

Tuesday, January 27, 2009

Tue, 27 Jan 2009 11:13:42 GMT

Final stretch

One of the things I love here is the formality of friendly visits. When you arrive at someone’s house, it's normal for them to formally welcome you, for you to formally announce why you have come, and to leave with a formal blessing. Blessings are important no matter what your faith.

For that reason, I’m preparing my final goodbye blessings ... some for fellow believers, and some for those who have heard. We all think Paul’s flowery greetings and goodbyes in his epistles hardly seem like normal conversation, but here, they are entirely appropriate. I’m working through my French Bible to create my own goodbye blessings from Paul's blessings, like Col. 1:9-10, Eph. 3:16-19.

“I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better … and that your eyes will be enlightened so you can know the hope to which he has called you …” Eph. 1:17

They will respond, "Amen," and possibly touch their foreheads to signify they have accepted it.

As you may know, telling people about Jesus here is often most effective by sharing Bible stories. I’m leaving them this week with the final story of when Jesus ascended into heaven. I will tell my friends the same kind of thing he told his friends before he floated up into the sky: “I’m leaving, but I’m not abandoning you because I’m leaving the Spirit of God with you. I have also left you my teachings and stories so you can continue to know Jesus, and so you can share them with others. Jesus is with you until the end of the age. Jesus rose up to heaven before the very eyes of his friends, and we can follow Him there and see each other once again.”

Please pray for:
- Me to persevere this last week in spite of a mean head cold that has sapped all my energy.
- Adema, the Koranic teacher that is seeking hard and wants to come see me one final time on Wednesday.
- Oumou, that she will truly seek to grow in her new faith while I’m gone.
- Olivier, as he figures out exactly how he will serve God with his life.
- All those I have shared with that have not responded.
- Me to tie up final media office work on a magazine and a video.
- Me as I figure out next steps in life.

Fatimata decided she wanted to paint my toenails bright bright red!

Sunday, January 11, 2009

Sun, 11 Jan 2009 22:22:43 GMT

The epic Christmas party went off without a hitch, (largely thanks to the lovely ladies of Tioga FBC who helped from afar!) We ended up buying 3 kilos of peanuts to make sauce to pour over about 9 kilos of sheep and goat meat with 10 kilos of rice!! We estimate about 90 people came!, (with just a handful of crashers...the more the merrier). My missionary neighbor, Mike, shared the Christmas story, and I can think of at least three seekers who were listening intently. Please pray for Zakaria, Allasan, and Adema. Pray they may respond to the tugging they feel in their souls to pursue Emmanuel.

Here's my neighbor, Mike, telling the Christmas story.

Here's Adema, who came with his two wives, listening intently.

Here's Oumou with the giant pots that hold the sauce and rice our friends made for the party ... (you didnt think I cooked, did you??)

I have about three weeks left here, guys. I have a lot of work still to do in the office, and of course, lots of goodbyes. God has been blessing me with some good closure on some relationships. But as I leave, I really need your prayers as I prepare what to say. I want to leave my friends, especially those who don't know JC, with an unforgettable sense that they have encountered Christ through me. I know they have heard the Gospel, and now I leave them in the hands of the Holy Spirit to help them respond to the life-changing Message. Please pray for all my goodbyes to be truly sweet and meaningful.

Also, please pray as I'm Finishing some office work. We're putting together one more GoWestAfrica magazine before I leave. Pray I can be diligent in the office and get all my stories ready to go!

So many of you have been asking about my future. Well, it's a big black void right now. I could use your prayers! I'm exploring some possibilities, mostly in writing, but the bottom line is that I just don't know. I'll leave here Feb. 1 and go to a conference in Virginia until Feb. 9. Then, I have a plane ticket to El Paso and ...

Here are the people I'll be saying goodbye to...

Sarah-O with baby Haziz on her back, waving from her courtyard where she lives. I visit her about every week. She likes the Bible stories, and I'd like to leave her with the last story of the Resurrection.

Here are my dear girls Oumou and Fatimata in our party clothes. Fatimata is a wise friend, but not a seeker. Oumou has recently started following JC, but boy issues are getting in the way right now. (Ah, boy issues!)

Here's the girls at the market (including Fatimata and Oumou) where I go visit every week. They're a riot!

Here's my dear counselor and friend, Louise (in the white shirt). She has helped me learn French and guides me through cultural conundrums in a Godly way. I went to visit her family for Christmas and it somehow erupted into a dance party! Good times! We're with Louise's daughter and sister.

Thursday, December 18, 2008

Thu, 18 Dec 2008 07:58:12 GMT

Etoneé at Noël

So I was pretty discouraged today.

I left the office about noon to head over to Cocody, an urban neighborhood across the lagoon. I had a gig to tell the high school English club about Abraham. Then, to the university campus to study the Bible with Oumou. (She’s the girl from the M0slim village who recently realized Jesus is The Man.)

I got to the high school and the meeting had been canceled. I went on campus, but Oumou was gone.

As I got in the car and started driving home, I actually said out loud to myself, “Alrighty then. O for 2 today. Great.”

Right then, one of my best friends from church called and said he needed to talk to me about something. On the way up to Olivier’s apartment, (where he lives with like 15 other people), I stopped downstairs where I had recently met a Muslim Hausa woman from Niger.

Rokia invited me in and mentioned something about the upcoming Christian holiday, (called Noël in French).

“Do you know why we celebrate Noël?” I asked. No, she didn’t, but she said I should tell her.

So I wove through the story. I told how Adam and Even were in the garden with God, but He had to run them out of the garden because they, just like us all, just continued to fall into evil. God sought a way to be with his people again, so he came to earth. Mary was a virgin, but she’s pregnant, and the angel reassured her fiancé that she hadn’t been with another man. Jesus was born where the animals sleep, and, finally, he was given his name on the eighth day in the temple, (something the M0slims actually do here, so they can relate).

“Ah,” Rokia said. She clicked her throat in the way women here show affirmation. “That’s good. I have never heard that before.”

How I love to hear those words. I’m not grateful that she had never heard, but grateful that now, she has. And thanks to Olivier being her neighbor, she will hear more…

How do I know that? That was one of the things Olivier wanted to talk to me about today. God is revealing to 26-year-old Olivier that he should be a missionary to his own people in the rural villages in the central part of the country. What amazing news.

As I was leaving Olivier’s house, Oumou finally called back. She was on campus, and since I was still in Cocody, I decided to go by.

We talked forever about Noël. I told her the same story I told Rokia, and she didn't miss a word.

“The light surrounded the shepherds, and they were…”

“Etoneé,” she said, finishing my sentence. Amazed. How did she know they were amazed? Because her face had that very same look of amazement that I bet the shepherds had. In her head, she wasn’t imagining the cute little neighborhood kids that dressed up as angels every year for the Christmas pageant. She was imagining the actual magnificent, brilliant glory of a company of shining divine beings in the open night sky singing praises to God. Etoneé, she said. She was there, and she was amazed.

And today, I am etoneé (Eh-toe-nay). I can’t begin to explain how amazing it is to share this story to people who don’t know. Everyone in the U.S. at least knows what Christmas is supposed to be about. It’s hard to see the story through fresh eyes, like I did today.

God sent Jesus in this incredibly miraculous way so we would all be etoneé forever. But what really amazes me is how we let this story get to be so ho-hum in our hearts after hearing it so many times. Today, I am amazed at how this story transcends cultures and oceans and languages and still, 2000 years later, can leave people etoneé.

I pray that somehow, some day, each one of you can have the thrilling experience of telling this story to someone who has never heard it before. Not only for their sake, but for your sake. There are few blessings that compare on this earth.

So the day started out 0 for 2, but God didn’t let it end that way. Just like he didn’t end the story when he had to chase Adam and Even out of the garden. I bet that day, he said to himself, “Alrighty then. 0 for 2. Great.”

But he made a happy ending. He found a way to be with us again. He came back on Christmas as Emmanuel, God with us. He was sure with me today. And I know He will be with Rokia, and Olivier, and Oumou.

And may he be with YOU this week and make you etoneé at His story once again.

Wanna donate to the worldwide mission? Most of my financial support comes from the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering, taken up in Southern Baptist churches every Noel. The Lottie fund supports thousands of missionaries all over the world! I don't know where I'd be without it! See a video of West Africa missionaries saying thanks here, and donate here.

Saturday, December 13, 2008

Sat, 13 Dec 2008 15:04:07 GMT

I want to share with you some notes from some African pastors I’ve interviewed recently who have lived in the center of conflict. Tough stories with amazing silver lining. Now, you will know how to pray for your Christian brothers and sisters in conflict. Please keep in mind these are pastors that lived through tough situations and not all ministry in West Africa is like this. (In other words, I'm safe mom! Don't worry!)

First, there were the Jos pastors.

If you didn’t know, the main city of central Nigeria erupted in riots Thanksgiving weekend over local election results that uprooted tension about everything from tribalism to land rites to M0slims v. Christians. Rioters destroyed homes, businesses, mosques and churches.

Jos has a thriving Baptist community. I had met some of them when I spent January 2007 in Jos, so I called to see how they were doing and wrote a short little story about it for imb.org.

I got Pastor A. on the phone. He was at the hospital with his sick daughter when the riots broke out. They watched dozens of people come in on stretchers. Some were burned. Some had been shot. Others wounded by machetes. He wasn't terribly upset when the hospital asked them to leave to make room for all the injured.

Then, I talked to Pastor M. Since the gunfire calmed and the federal curfew was lifted, he had ventured into the smoldering town to assess the damage to the Baptist Community. He saw at least 5 churches charred, a handful of pastors left homeless and churches mourning members who had been killed in the fight.

People told him in one church, people sent motorcycles into the sanctuary and ignited them like bombs. Another rural church said they sent their women to flee in the mountains while the men hid inside with bows and arrows to scare off any attackers.

The churches that survived are helping out those who didn't fare so well, and our missionaries are also finding ways to help.

Pastor M. himself actually ran into an unruly crowd about to overtake a man … he soon recognized the man as his neighbor, a local M0slim leader. Pastor M. somehow calmed the crowd so they would release him and his family. That's a huge gesture that I'm sure showed everyone around a glimpse of hope for the religious divide. What would I do in that situation? I can only hope I would be brave enough to do the same....

Jos is usually an amiable place where we have a lot of mission teams, and the missionaries expect that things will return to normal and Jos will still be a good jumping off place to take the Gospel to northern unreached regions. Pray it's true!

Then there's Pastor D. in the Ivory Coast.

His church is in Bouake, the central part of the country where the civil war hit hardest from 2002-2007. His church is actually just a few hundred meters away from where the rebels set up the border to divide the government-controlled south from the rebel-held north. That’s where the soldiers from both sides armed with automatic weapons set up checkpoints for anyone who wants to pass through.

When the war broke out, his church was plundered. Multiple times. They broke down the doors and stole everything. They even pulled the electrical wiring out of the walls and took the light bulbs.

“Through it all, I never had it on authority from God to leave,” he said, determined to serve the faithful Christians who stayed. He stayed. Even though his congregation had dwindled from 250 to 50. Even though his wife was eight months pregnant when fighter planes dropped bombs nearby that shook their home. He stayed.

After years of such strife, the pastor's church still stands. He is amazingly sincerely free of all bitterness and somehow still hopeful.

“I used to teach about having faith,” he said. “Now I can teach from experience because I know what it is to have to live by faith.”

I could write forever about how these men have inspired in me, about their churches, about my shame at how much lesser things have caused my faith to flounder. But I’ll just let their stories speak and praise God for their testimonies.

Tuesday, December 02, 2008

Tue, 02 Dec 2008 21:12:57 GMT

I found a guy to butcher a turkey for us for Thanksgiving, (but he charged me extra to cut off the head).We had a great holiday. The McAfee family hosted the dinner, and Heather McAfee made sure our “free range” turkey turned out quite tender! A few African friends came and ate, and we taught one of them, Safi, how to play American football. She caught on quickly! It was a tough match-up since she’s like two inches taller than I am. I know! How is that possible? Here's heather's turkey.

So I don’t have to tell you guys about the American economy. It’s in a bigger slump than those Texas A&M Aggies right now, (and that’s saying a LOT). So, in my heart I think I’d really like to move back to the states when my contract ends Jan. 31, but I’m just not sure that’s wise considering the job market. Should I stay on the mission field, or just head home and take my chances with finding a job? Please pray I can really hear from God about this. As I told someone recently, it would be really easy to confuse a calling to go back home with a serious craving for a chicken fried steak!

Updates on some of my friends:

Oumou – The college girl I’ve been visiting with Heather on campus. She’s lost interest in our Bible studies, largely due to some romantic drama. DRAMA! This boy has broken her heart. Pray she can learn to put her full dependence on Jesus and realize there is Life after this boy. Pray she can find some healthy diversion so she doesn’t stay depressed!

Hausa women – SarahO has been asking for the Jesus stories every week. She has even found a neighbor boy to read to her from a book of Bible stories she found, but she can’t read it herself. She loves talking about how the stories apply to our lives. But even if she thought Jesus was the right way, I’m not sure she thinks it would ever be possible to follow Him. “C’est inderdit,” she says. It’s forbidden. The culture here is so fixed, only God can work to change it. And that might not happen overnight. Pray I can make the rest of our conversations count, and that God can continue to reveal himself to her.

Zechariah – This is our M0slim office worker with the rough marriage. I set him up to start Bible studies with Mike McAfee he has been coming (somewhat) regularly. This week he told me he’s glad there is peace with his wife. He has really worked to keep from being provoked into arguing with her, (just like Jesus did when they led him to the cross). This is a seemingly small victory, yet HUGE! I love watching people choose to love, and watching LOVE WIN! (1 Cor. 13:7-8)

Two upcoming events to pray about:

The M0slim holiday of Tabaski is coming up this week, when they sacrifice sheep to celebrate the day God sent the lamb so Abraham wouldn't have to kill his son. Pray I have opportunities to share the rest of the story ... about the final sacrifice God sent in Jesus.

The epic Christmas party! This year, once again, we'll invite all our friends and neighbors to eat and hear the Christmas story. Some might hear it for the first time! Pray for our preparations.

Bonus picture: Here is a little Hausa girl that never has any clothes on! I call her Bebe-Nu. (Naked baby). I'm trying to get some clothes on the kid and she doesn't seem very happy.

Saturday, November 15, 2008

Sat, 15 Nov 2008 19:54:10 GMT

I really like my church, in all its cultural quirkiness...

It's a city church, which is much more western-style than the village churches out here. But it's still different. "Why are you a missionary where there are churches?" you ask. Well, while there are a dozen baptist churches in abidjan, I'd guess this town remains about 75 percent M0slim. In the north part of the country ... there are much fewer churches. Also, much of my work is for the mission in places like Mali, Niger and Senegal, which are like 90 percent M0slim.

(That's me in the red on the left!) So I thought I'd take this time to tell you about some of my favorite West African church customs. It's not too different than the church you know. Someone preaches. Everyone sings. They take an offering and serve Communion… BUT, they speak French, wear more colors than even the most eccentric old lady at you church, and they call out first-timers to introduce themselves to the ENTIRE church ...

And here are a few more things done differently in West Africa churches... I hope you'll love it as much as I do.

- At least once during the service, we “acclaimon Dieu.” That basically means we clap for God. We stand and give Him a hearty round of applause, and sometimes someone lets out a celebratory whoop. It seemed awkward at first to clap for someone who isn’t up front taking a bow … But I guess He’s God, ya know? He doesn’t need to take a bow.

- You just can’t sit still while the music plays. You’ve got to get in rhythm with the girls "gettin' down" in your row! I honestly think I’m blessed with a good bit of white-girl rhythm, but I have to admit that it takes some concentration to figure out what they’re singing in French and at the same time clap to the complex African beats. If it’s a lively day, I might get pulled into the conga line going to through the aisles. Some of the women will bring handkerchiefs to waive in the air as they go. It’s a party for Jesus! And the best part is that there isn’t a single soul judging anyone because we are all busy praising God!

- Sometimes the offering bag is just passed around while music plays and we drop our money in as it goes by … but sometimes we offer a little more than our money. Many times, they’ll leave the offering receptacle at the front of the church and we’ll form lines and dance our offerings to the front of the church. It somehow makes giving your money away more exciting, and in fact embraces the joy we should have in tithing to God’s glory!

- The unique extended times of prayer cater to my narcoleptic tendencies. You are probably wondering how on earth I might stay awake through a time of extended prayer. (Mrs. Kay says I inherited the "sleep button on her sit-down place.") Well, see, when the pastor says we are going to pray for something, (say, the upcoming Ivory Coast presidential election), we all put our heads down and pray our own individual prayers at the same time - out loud. That’s right, out loud. A passerby would hear chaos, but those of us praying stay focused more easily even though everyone is talking at the same time. With silent prayers, my mind often wanders and I end up peeking at the woman’s shoes next to me and wonder where she got them and why she doesn’t pull the straps tighter and shine that skid mark on the toe and would that toenail polish color look good on me and …. Ahhh… where was I? Oh yea, this praying out loud keeps me focused on God!

- Perhaps my very favorite element in some churches here is the pew bouncer. That’s the person who stands at the back of the church and keeps a keen eye out for anyone who might dare to doze during the sermon. If you’re caught in the act of the drowsy head-bob, the pew bouncer will slyly awaken you with minimal disruption to the service. In some churches, I’ve seen the pew bouncer armed with a long stick … one time that stick had a feather on the end. Honestly, I’ve rarely seen the pew bouncer in action since we all live in fear and therefore stay the heck awake…Wouldn’t you?

A few little differences that I’ve learned to love! Think you could incorporate any of this into your church service?

So pleast take a moment to pray for the Eglise Missionaire Baptiste en Cocodie Mermoz. It feels like home to me.

I'll post some other prayer requests very soon...

Thursday, November 06, 2008

Thu, 06 Nov 2008 15:11:34 GMT

I'm all alone!

I don't think I told you guys this yet, but all my media teammates have left to go back to America. I dearly love and miss Jesse, Mary Beth, and Deron. So that means I'm all alone in this office! There's plenty to do, though. I'm writing a bunch of articles for our next magazine and some other things. There are other missionaries in town, but none in my office. So I must say, Thinking Cap Thursdays aren't as fun without someone to look silly with you.

Although I'm alone in the office, I've had some great visits with friends. Oumou is a university student I've been visiting lately. She's from a M0slem village and has shown a little bit of interest in learning about Jesus, but I wasn't sure if she was really serious about it. I went to visit her yesterday and we talked about prayer. I showed her how to find verses in her Bible and once she figured it out ... she wouldn't stop reading! She was just so intrigued! I love to see someone for the first time just devouring the Word and realizing the amazing things that it says. Praise God for Oumou's curiosity, and pray God can help her understand the things she's reading this week. Pray we can continue to meet regularly.

I wrote about Zach earlier, and we had a great visit with him this week, too. I asked Mike, another missionary here, if he would start teaching Zach and he agreed. I sat in on their first lesson this week and it went really well! Zach is mostly struggling with his wife. We talked again about love and forgiveness and choosing not to enter into arguments. Pray that he will choose love and that God will show him that Love always prevails! Also, pray Zach might remain faithful in coming.

Want a seriously extreme and adventurous mission assignment? We have a new program called Project Desert Triangle to work with people living on the edge of the Sahara in Mali. I've been there, and I loved it! The program emphasizes team dynamics, specialized training, oral methods, and some human needs elements. Check out www.desert-triangle.com.

Here's a bonus from my time in Ghana:

Pahaps da most intarestin paht of being in Ghana is speakin Engleesh like dey do. At fuhst, iss like anoda language. Den, iss fun. I find dey undastand me much bettah when I try to sound moah like dem. I found dese gahls at da tailah shack one day when I was gettin a dress made. Dey were goin to sing with da chuch kwyah (church choir) at dah ceremony for dah hospital. I dought yah might like tah listen. Dey ah praisin Gohd!
Hiya Ground (a.k.a. Higher Ground)

Monday, October 13, 2008

Mon, 13 Oct 2008 16:23:40 GMT

Monday, October 13, 2008

Mon, 13 Oct 2008 16:19:55 GMT

While I was in Ghana, the jubilee celebration of Baptist Medical Centre lasted a whole spirited week.
Every day, I was delighted by the super-intriguing traditional African touch to every event. I learned a whooole lot about how African's celebrate God's work through the hospital! Let me fill you in (with more of William Haun's amazing photos...):

Day 1: The employee parade. The drummers showed up to lead the hospital's staff through the streets of Nalerigu to announce to the town the official kickoff of the celebration (Like they didn't already know!) The staff, made up of about 200 Ghanaians and three missionaries, danced in step and waved their handkerchiefs to the rythm. (Bonus info: The drummers, who were an integral part of nearly every event during the week, play squeeze drums, also known as "talking drums." They play it with a mallet and sqeeze the sinew strings stretched on the side to change the pitch. These drums are used to send messages to the village. People know the pitch for different announcements, like if someone important dies or if there's a celebration.)

Day 2: Clean-up day. The hospital employees and church members showed up with their brooms to clean up the main town square, which, of course, is dirt like the rest of the roads. So yeah, they sweep the dirt ... but somehow it looks cleaner! The brooms are typical African brooms with no handle. They all lined up and swept to the rythm of ... you guessed it! The drummers! They covered lots of ground by sweeping in a line.

Day 3: Visit to the mysterious Nayiri. Strangers in town have to go greet the Nayiri (nie-yee'-ree), the Paramount Cheif of Manprugu, a powerful and respected man who rules over the entire area of Ghana where the Manprusi people live. We took off our shoes as we went into his compound, which is surrounded by the huts of each of his wives. When we went inside, I was told not to make eye contact with him or any sub-cheifs, and to keep my head lower than his at all times. Whew! He spoke in proverbs I'm still trying to figure out ... And he welcomed us warmly.

Day 4: Health Talk in pink. Hospital employees gave a talk at a local high school, something they actually do quite regularly. The students, all clad in *bright* pink uniforms gathered under the shade of mango trees to listen in on the talk about tyhpoid, which is a rather typical and highly-contagious illness around here. I learned quite a few things! When you think typhoid, you think about Typhoid Mary and the rash, right?? Well, me too. I kept waiting for them to talk about the rash ... but then it dawned on me. Thesepeople are black black black. They wouldn't show a rash! So much for my diagnostic skills! but these high school students are just like any others. The man had to explain that when he said typhoid is passed through the stool, he didn't mean the thing you sit on ... and the place erupted in laughter.

Day 5: Jesus through the Cinevan. This night, the Ghanaian Baptist Convention sent their super amazing "Cinevan" that projects movies to show an evangelistic film in the town square on a giant sheet at night. Also, I saw the groundskeepers preparing for the big event the next day. The lawnmowers? That's about 15 guys with machetes swinging their arms for hours to cut the grass into a beautifully groomed lawn...

Day 6: THE big event, and the fate of the livestock. This six-hour event was perhaps the most ceremonious event I've ever experienced. First of all, everyone in town has to buy the hospital's commemorative fabric made especially for this event and get an outfit made... it was an amazing sea of blue. Tents and chairs were set up for people who came from miles around. (I went with some retired missionaries). Entire villages piled in the back of giant open lorries to come to the ceremony and dance their traditional dance to help celebrate. Two cows and six goats that I'd seen grazing on the hospital grounds earlier in the week were slaughtered to feed hundreds of people. And the cheif arrived - with the drummers, of course - and an amazing entourage that first brought his shade umbrella and cushion. The government dignitaries and former missionaries all gave formal speeches.

Day 7: A church service. Hundreds came. The choir was lively. The sermon translated into English and Manpruli. We all danced our offerings to the front in true African form. The spirited event gave God the glory for all He has accomplished in 50 years of Christian work in Nalerigu.

Monday, October 13, 2008

Mon, 13 Oct 2008 15:06:12 GMT

Celebrating Ghana's Baptist Medical Centre ... and the hippo attack survivor!

I just got back from an amazing trip to Ghana to help celebrate the 50th anniversary of our Baptist Medical Centre in the rural northern part of the country. The celebration was HUGE for the tiny town of Nalerigu... and indeed an authentic village experience! The week was filled with festivities, including a bike race, tribal dances, special health talks on things like typhoid, a march through town, field games (see below!) and a visit to meet the paramount chief of the Manprugu region. (Those of you who know my small-town fetish can imagine I was in heaven!)

The fabulous photographer and web guru William Haun, whose wife recently volunteered as a surgeon at the hospital, accompanied me and you can see a lot more of his amazing photos of the events in last week's blog entries at www.haunsinafrica.com. ALL the photos on this entry are his. Isn't he great??

Monday, Wednesdays and Fridays are clinic days at the hospital and I watched while as many as 600 people from allllll over the bush lined up to see a doctor. They had ailments covering everything from malaria to tuberculosis, giant hernias, snake bites, sadly malnourished children, and even a guy who survived a hippo attack! I can tell the hospital has built and amazing reputation throughout the region ... even the random strangers I sat next to while waiting for my plane to the interior told me so! Our organization, the International Mission Board, founded the hospital, but now the IMB only has two doctors and a pharmacist working there. How can you help?

Some interesting facts about the hospital:

Location: Nalerigu, Ghana.

Mission: Gives medical care, public health and Christ's witness to people from all over Ghana, Burkina Faso and Togo, representing at least 20 people groups.

IMB personnel: Dr. George and Elisabeth F., Dr. Earl and Mona H., pharmacist Jane P.

Ghanaian staff: About 250, including the administrator, but no doctors

Number of beds: 123.

First-day tidbit: Opening celebration in 1958 was attended by Ghana's first president, Kwame Nkrumah.

Annual count: More than 60,000 outpatients; 7,000 inpatients; 1,200 major surgical cases; 700 deliveries; 700 snake bites.

Long-term count: Estimated 3 million patient visits over the last half-century. Also, hospital staff has helped plant about 70 Baptist churches in northern Ghana where there were none before.

Legacy: First Ghanaian baby born at the hospital now works as the business manager/accountant. Founder George Faile's son is now the medical superintendent, and his daughter, Cherry, served 16 years at the hospital.

I interviewed some remarkable people, including:

* Florence Wuuni, who remembers the day when she was about 11 years old and she went with her friends to peek at the white doctor who came to their village to ask about starting a hospital. Now, 50 years later, she is one of the main nurses at the hospital's public health complex. When she was small, her father used to perform sacrifices and rituals to appeas the spirits. Now, Florence is able to share her faith in Christ to give eternal hope to her patients who test positive for HIV.

* Feisty little Adjua Heusseni, 36 months old but probably weighing 4-5 pounds. She put up a fight as she stayed in a special camp outside the hospital where mom's like hers come to learn how to make proper food to get their malnourished children to a healthy weight. But she's probably not going to make it. After she had a few stays in the hospital, her family left ... probably to take her home to die.

* John Koffi Boatenza, who caught tuberculosis nearly 30 years ago and had to live on the hospital grounds while he completed the 3-year treatment. He's cured, but he never left. Now, he and his family live in and supervise a special village set up near the hospital where up to 60 tuberculosis patients can live for the duration of their treatments.

I'll tell some more stories about the week, but here's a look at the tug-of-war game I got roped into (pun intended) during the field day events planned as part of the celebration. Cherry and I ended up on the same team, and they thought the weak white girls would slow them down ....

Here's the line-up!

(I forgot my hat)

We're pulling!

The other team goes down!

Celebration!

I'll tell some more stories later in the week... In the meantime, you can pray

* That more doctors will want to come work at this hospital to help relieve the ones working so hard right now.
* That the hospital will remain an institution that makes an eternal impact for the Kingdom.
* For me as I write stories about the events.
* For me as I recover from another case of probable malaria!

(points to those who noticed the important public service poster above my head in my photo with Florence Wuuni! Ha! Thanks, William!)