Giving Thanks
Topic: Mission
Posted on behalf of Joel:

Cindy and I volunteered to work as medical doctors in a Christian Crusade that was held here in Jos during the first week of December. Believe it or not, a church from Houston, TX came out here to run a crusade in the Jos city soccer/"football" stadium for the entire week. The pastor of the church was originally from Jos, Nigeria, and is also a medical doctor. So they held free medical clinics by day, and evangelistic crusade services by night in the stadium. Considering the complexity of running such a medical clinic/crusade here in Nigeria, it was amazingly well organized, and we were blessed by our opportunity to be of service as part of the crusade. The crusade not only saw patients for free, but also bought and brought many drugs and had a "pharmacy" of free medicines for us to give to patients. They also paid the bill for many patients to receive elective surgery during the week of the crusade, or during the next week during their follow-up.

I thought I would have to try and function as a general practitioner, but there was plenty of ENT related needs for me to address without needing to branch out into Ob/Gyn or Medicine. Sadly, we saw many patients who could not hear for one reason or another, and referred them to our new Eye and Ear clinic at Evangel Missionary hospital to have their hearing tested formally. Some may be able to benefit from surgery when a functional ear operative microscope arrives, Lord willing, in January or February by container. Others may benefit from hearing aids. We are so thankful to those of you who have contributed financially towards the purchase and shipping of much needed medical equipment, and also to those of you who have contributed to cover the cost of the solar powered hearing aids ($100 per aid is a bargain!).

The amount of suffering that is part of the Nigerian peoples' lives is overwhelming and is something that I am not used to. and is something that I do not ever want to become "used to." Every time I saw a mother, and asked her how many kids she had, there was always a pause. Did the doctor want to know how many kids are still alive, or the total number of kids that there had ever been? I can't remember seeing a mother with more than one child who hadn't lost at least one other child. I was able to remove a plastic bead out of one 19 year old girl's ear canal that had been there for over 10 years! When I gave her the bead to go and show her parents, she started to cry and told us that both her parents had died, and she was the one responsible for her younger siblings. So we prayed with her and for her.

In many of the Nigerian church services they thank the Lord in their prayers for counting them among the living. Just yesterday one of two vans returning from an outreach in Bauchi state (that is where Cindy went on an outreach 3 weeks ago) was in a terrible accident. More than ten people were thrown from the van, and two people are still in critical condition. Pastor Joel is the Nigerian Christian outreach leader who is still unconscious and desperately needs prayer. Please pray for Lord to preserve the life of His servant pastor Joel. The van rolled three times, and it is a miracle that many did not die at the scene of the accident. The reality of death and suffering is so great here; and yet the Lord is still in control. And what is our response: to become more acutely aware of the blessing of being counted among the living this very day, and to give thanks to the Lord.