Village Health Care
Topic: Mission
Posted on behalf of Cindy:

In the last two weeks I (Cindy) have made 2 trips out to a small village in neighboring Bauchi State. The village of Dass is 3+ hours away and is home to a small ECWA (Evangelical Church of West Africa) health clinic. The clinic is staffed by a community health worker with some simple medications. We were asked to travel to Dass to see some more difficult cases and to encourage the church and clinic staff.

Our first trip was two weeks ago. Both Joel and I went along with an eye nurse, the supervisor of community health for Bauchi state and 3 very eager college students from the states here on a short term trip. We saw more than 60 patients, but we also left at least that many unseen. It is imperative for safety reasons not to be on the road at night so we had to leave in time to return before dark. Although we were frustrated by some disorganization, and serious lapses in crowd control, it was a good day. Joel and I got a chance to work together which was great. And we really got a chance to practice our Hausa as most patients spoke no English and we didn't have a translator (only occasional other patients waiting their turn who helped us) We saw many who had serious problems that could not be addressed in this simple clinic. We had a chance to stop and pray with patients and that was the highlight! I also enjoyed listening (through the curtain that divided our work station) to Joel dealing with lots of general medicine problems that he hasn't faced since medical school days. I was very proud of him (he should have been a family doctor!)




We had several patients come because the word had gotten out that Joel is an Ear specialist. One patient stands out in my memory. She was a beautiful little girl of around five from a Muslim family. She came because she had lost her hearing several years earlier. Joel examined her and counseled the father. She is a candidate for a solar powered hearing aid and she will travel with her father to Jos to have a formal hearing test in the sound proof booth in the eye and ear clinic at Evangel Hospital. Pray that she will be helped by the hearing aid and also pray that the door will be open to share the hope we have in Christ with her and her family.

We returned to Dass one week after our first trip to see the patients we had not been able to see on our first trip. This time Joel was not able to join us, but one of the Nigerian family practice residents training at Evangel came along, as well as 5 eager American college students. This time the clinic staff was ready for us. The line was orderly and I had a dedicated translator for the day. We saw 130 patients which mostly reflects the help of the Nigerian resident as his knowledge of Hausa and tropical diseases far exceeded mine. I still had time to pray with many of my patients. Many women came complaining of barrenness which in this culture is devastating and often leads to the husband taking another wife. There was little medical help to be offered in this simple setting, but God is the Author of all healing and we prayed for His solution to this painful problem. I also saw a woman, the mother of 5 children who was complaining of insomnia. As I questioned her more closely she revealed that her husband had recently deserted the family and converted to Islam. She was left alone to support her family and the stress was taking its toll. Please pray that her husband would return to the Truth and to his family, pray for my patient's comfort in this very difficult circumstance.

The last patient of the day on our second trip was the Chief of Dass. He was an old man (82 years) but very strong. He is a Muslim and has much power in the area. He came because he was having difficulty with his hearing. I examined him, and referred him to see Joel at his clinic in Jos. He is a good candidate for a hearing aid and we pray that his visit to Jos will begin a relationship that brings fruit for the Gospel.

Thanks to all of you that prayed for these medical outreaches. It is only by the power of prayer that we are able to minister here! We appreciate you all.

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.

Prayer Partner Letter
Topic: Mission
Date: Thursday, November 27, 2003 4:03 AM
Dear Prayer Partners,

The work of missions is prayer and you all have been working hard this week! I returned last night from the medical outreach I was helping with. I was exhausted but thrilled to have been part of what God is doing. I will give you all some of the highlights, but encourage all of you to come join us here and experience an outreach for yourselves!

We left early Monday morning to travel to our first village, called Miya. The team consisted of myself, the director of community health for Bauchi State, an eye nurse, a Family Medicine resident, and a medical student from Australia and his wife. When we arrived at the clinic in Miya, we went first to the chief's palace. He had given us his permission and blessing to hold our clinic and we needed to properly greet him. He is a Muslim and a very old man. We greeted him and the local pastor shared with the chief and all the people gather a short devotional and prayed in the name of Jesus. The chief asked if we would see him and his family at the palace. We agreed and while they were setting up a place for us to work we found out the chief has nine wives! We saw the chief and his key men and all of his wives. Then we saw the chief's oldest brother and his 4 wives. We had to excuse ourselves at that point as a huge crowd had gathered at the clinic and we needed to get there and get started. Thankfully we weren't asked to see all the chief's children as he has 57!

The clinic was very successful. We saw many patients, both Christians and Muslims. We administered health care and prayed for many patients. That night we held a meeting at the local Church and showed a Christian evangelistic film in Hausa. There were hundreds of people there and after the movie, the pastor shared a message and gave an invitation. One man came forward and prayed to receive Christ. We pray that seeds were planted with many others.

On Tuesday we saw more patients in Miya and then packed up to head to our next clinic. As we drove, we blew out a tire and God protected us as the driver was able to safely bring us to a stop. We had no spare, but thankfully we were able to hire a vehicle to get us to Bauchi and the ECWA office. We picked up a different van and we were off to Gar for our next clinic. We arrived in Gar after dark and were thankful to God for protecting us along the way.

On Wednesday, we began our day by going to the chief's palace in Gar. The chief had traveled to Bauchi to celebrate Sellah, the end of the Muslim Ramadan, but we greeted his two senior men. They thanked the church officials that had come with us and asked that we do more for the health of the local people. We went to the clinic and again saw many patients. After lunch I traveled back to Jos to relieve Joel of the solo responsibility for the kids. The team held an evangelistic meeting in Gar last night and will finish up the clinic today and then travel to Ningi for the last clinic on Friday. Pray for God's continued protection for the team. Pray that many more will respond to the Gospel as their physical needs are met in the name of Jesus!

Thanks for being apart of the community health team in Nigeria. Without your prayers we would not be able to bring the Gospel in word and in deed to the people in need!

In Him,

Cindy

The Fulani Family
Topic: Mission
Posted on behalf of Cindy:

Joel asked me to write the story that goes with the most recent pictures he sent so here goes.

Many of you read in our recent news letter about my trip out to a Fulani camp to do immunizations and to see some patients. It was there that I met Jao. Jao is the 20 month old son of Fulani Christian converts from Niger. His parents have come to this Fulani camp to be discipled and to learn Hausa so they can study the Bible. Their desire is to return to their Muslim families in Niger and share the joy of the Gospel.

Ten days before I met Jao, he had visited a local medical clinic with a high fever. He was given an injection of some medication and from the time of the injection he was unable to walk. When I saw him he had severe pain in his hip near where he had received the shot and was unable to walk or even stand. He cried out in pain if I touch his hip or his leg or tried to move it. There was very little I could do for him in the Fulani camp as the only medicine I had to offer was Tylenol. I told the pastor in charge to try to get him to Evangel hospital (where we are working) in Jos if there was no improvement.

Five days later, Jao and his family arrived at Evangel. He had not improved and was still unable to walk. The doctor who saw him in the clinic when he arrived thought he may even have polio. He was admitted to the hospital for treatment and tests. The family has no resourses, so Joel and I said we would pay for what ever was necessary. Jao received treatment for malaria and an Xray showed his hip was not infected as we had feared. We continued to pray for his improvement and tests were sent to the government hospital for polio. Jao slowly improved. He was discharged home this week able to not only walk, but run! The diagnosis is still unknown and the polio tests will not return for two more weeks. As I told the father, we don't know what he had, but we know who healed him! We praise God for his recovery.

Please pray he would regain all of his strength. As for the hospital bill.. Jao stayed six days, had several tests and received medication for several diagnoses. In the US six days in the hospital can cost thousands of dollars or more. Jao's stay with us at Evangel cost roughly $26. Now I will say that that is a huge amount for many here, but we were glad to be able to help. If any of you are looking for affordable health care come and visit us. I think even including the airfare our care is a real bargain!

New Pictures Posted
Topic: Website
The website (www.anthisfamily.com) now has new pictures posted under Photos - Nov 2003.

Kid's Corner: Austin
Topic: Family
We are making a lot of new friends, but we will remember all of you who are praying for us. Our school is very nice I feel accepted there. My teacher`s name is Miss Dykstra. She is very nice and she is a missionary. We are making new friends and adjustments. I am having fun learning new games but there is one I did not have to learn. SOCCER!!! We are also learning Hausa. Ina wuni(good morning). Ya ya yali (how is your family). Sai anjema (see you later).

Kid's Corner: Allison
Topic: Family
One day when I went to the market, I realized that little baby goats, and chickens, and roosters were running about. Sometimes if we are lucky we get to see baby chicks. My mom and dad are really nice to let Aunt Di send us poptarts. I am having a really good time. There are some things you can do in Nigeria that you cannot do in America, like having really high playgrounds. My sister Abby is very happy to see her new friend David.

To market, to market we go
Topic: Family
Posted on behalf of the Anthis family:

On Saturday, I decided to take Allison with me on my weekly shopping trip. Since I still am afraid to drive, we took a taxi. Allison enjoyed the ride with the 4 other passengers! Once we arrived there was still much walking to be done. There are no HEB's or Kroger's here! We went to each area of the open-air market buying our vegetables from some women on the sidewalk along the way. The vegetable ladies were thrilled when Allison tried out her Hausa for them. We even took some time to look at some Nigerian fabric. Allison wants to have a dress made, so we will return to the market to buy some colorful fabric when we have less to carry. All in all we probably walked well over a mile, but Allison was nicely rewarded with a pineapple Fanta and a package of TicTacs. She even said she would like to come again!

Language bloopers and blunders
Topic: Language & Culture
Posted on behalf of the Anthis family:

As we learn Hausa we realize how many interesting culture points can be learned by studying a language. It seems in Hausa the verb to finish "gama" is never used in the present tense. The project is either finished or it will be finished, there is no act of finishing. We have found this to be true in our life experience here as well. We have begun many household projects (new security doors, fixing toilets, having furniture made) but none seem to be finishing, all "will be finished" some time in the future!

It is amazing how many words in Hausa have more than one meaning. For example the word "kai" means 1. the head 2. some thing bad has happened 3. you (masculine) 4. to take something to someone. The meaning is determined by the tone and the context! We have so much to learn.

It is also important to use proper tone and pronunciation as some words sound very much like other words with very different meanings. The word "zuwa" means to come or go in the present tense. The word "zawo" means to have diarrhea. We were practicing saying "we go to school each morning" and managed to announce "we have diarrhea each morning at school." Pray for us as we do see the need to learn Hausa to have an effective ministry.

A family affair
Topic: Mission
Posted on behalf of Cindy:

We are here as a family because we feel God has called us all here. In many ways the children are missionaries as much as we are. There is a 13 year old boy in the hospital now undergoing a series of painful operations for a terrible scar that keeps his chin pinned to his chest. He is an orphan with no real family to visit him and bring him food. I told the kids his story after we met him at the hospital. Allison decided to donate one of her books to him and Austin wanted to give him something to eat. We went and bought him a bunch of bananas and visited with him. All three of the children talked with him and we had a nice visit. We plan to go back and see him during his stay. For school this week Austin is memorizing the verses in Matthew where it talks of letting your light shine among men so that men may see your good deeds and praise the Father in heaven. May He be praised!