Been in Benin

Sunday, September 23, 2012
CANADA
Not always easy, but I am so struck by God's goodness to me and his faithfulness since being home.
I was never seriously sick, never injured in a serious accident, all my visas and flights worked out smoothly, my two needle stick injuries didn't result in my contracting any illnesses... I could spend a long time on this list!
All in all, I give glory to God for bringing me safely home to a loving community here in Canada.
For those that are interested in seeing photos and hearing a bit about my experiences in Benin, I will be organizing a presentation that I will give in both Oakville and in Ottawa.
The Ottawa date will be after Thanksgiving (I will be hanging out here with my family until then), but the Oakville date will be Sunday, September 30th at 7pm at 64 Cox Drive, Oakville, Ontario. Contact me if you need more information and I hope to see you there!
With love and gratitude,
Charity
Please continue to pray for more Christian staff to come and work at the hospital. Please pray that the existing staff would be growing and strong spiritually and living exemplary lives, that the message of the gospel would be seen as the most important piece in the care of these patients and not just the medical care.
With love, Charity
Friday, June 29, 2012
All in all it was a wonderful vacation, surprisingly relaxing for the 36 hours of bus travel we made, and we were very thankful for the opportunity to see another African country.
Wednesday, May 9, 2012
Sunday, March 4, 2012
We have said goodbye to harmattan and “le chaleur” has hit- and boy is it ever HOT. I take at least three showers a day and am so thankful for my bedroom ceiling fan! The rain is coming soon, and with it (I am hoping) some cooler temperatures.
We are finding lots of fun things to keep us busy- recently we bought a football (soccerball) in Parakou and have had our first game with colleagues from the hospital- le Benin vs. le Canada! It was a lot of fun, nobody took themselves too seriously and it resulted in a tie. We already have the next game scheduled for this week.
We have also discovered “les collines”- the big hills behind our house. Not sure why it took us so long to venture beyond the gate, but I’ve been enjoying running the many trails and going hiking, and it’s really quite beautiful- last week I noticed wild blue orchids growing all over.
At the beginning of February, Ryan, a former peace corps worker who lives near Parakou, granted a long-awaited wish and provided us with kittens! We took the two kittens into our home, an interesting cross between the domesticated cat and the wild borgu bush cat. We named them Baloo and Bagheera and they were incredibly entertaining little friends.
Unfortunately we underestimated the amount of work these cats would be, and with our busy nursing schedules and small home, it was only three weeks before we decided to find them new homes! Please don’t think we’re heartless- Bagheera went to the new Canadian missionary, Miriam, and Baloo went to our colleague Adam whose young kids are enjoying the cat very much.
I’m also greatly enjoying the deepening relationships with the locals here, especially fellow colleagues, a huge answer to prayer and something that I know often comes only with extended time.
Feeling much more settled in Chirurgie, although the things I see there never cease to amaze me. The other night we had a whole family come into Chirurgie at 4:30am after a driver had hit their house in the middle of the night, causing all the walls and roof to collapse on them. Two children under the age of five and a baby, all crying on a gurney. One of them was seriously injured and needed surgery for internal bleeding. A far cry from Canada, where building inspectors won’t approve living spaces they are not built “to code”!
One night an 8 year old child came in after being gored by a bull. One man (a thief, apparently) had been shot in the hands, then waited 4 days before coming into the hospital. By then one hand was gangrenous and had to be amputated. Lots of young men with compound fractures from moto accidents, lots of peritonitis, and lots of children with full body burns from spilled cooking oil or hot water.
Many difficult cases, but I’m somehow struggling my way through dealing with even the gory traumas.
One of my colleagues also suffered a serious moto accident- if he had not been wearing a helmet he would have died, but as it was he suffered a broken arm and badly broken jaw (the helmet didn’t cover his chin). He came into the hospital and I could not recognize him except for his eyes, his face was so swollen. It was quite a chilling feeling, to see someone I see and work with all the time have such a close brush with death.
And so, the fragility of life is much more visible here. And I do say ‘visible’- because even in Canada, for all our safety measures and accident prevention, medications and advanced lifesaving treatment, it is a lie (and from the Devil himself, make no mistake) to believe that we are somehow in control. We are finite- like grass that grows and then dies. I don’t say this to be depressing, but only because it helps remind me to not waste this life of mine that is so quickly gone. God is over all, and I am in His hands. But we have a hope greater than this world around us and our fragile bodies, because our God is not only in control, He is good.
The long-anticipated arrival of my dad and brother finally came, something we had been talking about nearly since we arrived here. They made a quick stop in Benin on their way back from my dad’s Medical conference in Kenya and where they also visited with good friend Charles Mully and spent time at the Mully Children’s Family (Quite a remarkable organization- check it out at www.mullychildrensfamily.org).
Amy and I made the long journey down to Cotonou again so that we could get our visas at the same time, and a huge highlight was definitely the hotel pool! We spent one day in Cotonou, then spent two days in Bembéréké. It was short, but so nice to be able to spend some time with them and be able to show them my life here.
Their visit also has marked the half-way point of our time here in Benin- how strange! I am truly falling more and more in love with this place and these people every day.
It’s funny how at the beginning the French was so difficult, while now it’s like a breath of fresh air to find a patient who understands French- less than twenty percent of our patients do. So now I am actually trying to add more Bariba words to my vocabulary each day, and the patients always meet these efforts with laughter and surprise over the “baturi” who can “speak Bariba”. Such beautiful and special people, I feel blessed for this opportunity to work with them and learn from them.
Please pray for the hospital, for more Christian staff. There is a great need for personnel and not enough people to hire to fill all the spots. Pray that this would not result in the compromise of hiring non-Christians, but that the hospital would remain evangelical, with the focus of meeting the spiritual needs of the people, not only their physical needs. Pray for faith to grow- belief that our great God can truly provide for all our needs, even when it seems desperate or impossible.
As the result of the limited staff, the hospital has had to begin decreasing the hours for the dispensary, which means that the patients are sent directly to the units for the consults... and this obviously greatly increases the workload, and can cause tension in the staff. Please also pray for unity and love between our existing Christian staff, that the Holy Spirit would work in hearts to a common purpose and goal.
Thank you, my Christian family! I am incredibly grateful for your prayers and for your love and concern for me.
With love,
Charity
Tuesday, January 3, 2012
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!
We drove down to have our visas renewed in Cotonou- it was very humid! I had gotten used to the cool Bembéréké mornings which required a sweater for the short walk to work and make the cold showers now near unbearable to get into... but the air is so dry anything wet you hang will dry in half a day. Cotonou is next to the ocean, a very different life from our tiny village of Guéré at the hospital.
Amy and I laugh that we are becoming the African version of a “country bumpkin”, used to the small town life, as we come to the city wearing our matching traditional clothes and find everyone wearing jeans and t-shirts.
Funny how quickly one forgets the things one has been used to- things like a big crowded city or having a grocery store with many varieties of jam, actual coffee, chocolates, even strawberries and peaches! In Bembéréké we can get nescafe, powdered milk, flour, eggs, canned tomatoes, soap, matches, onions, garlic, hot peppers, some other canned vegetables, and that’s pretty much it. We also have a vegetable lady who drives up from Parakou (2 hours) each Wednesday with some vegetables. Anything packaged (ie nescafe or powdered milk) is very expensive, so we try to buy those in Parakou. At any rate, going to Cotonou and having so much selection in the stores was very exciting! We enjoyed time with Manassé and Béatrice, playing in the waves at the beach and seeing some of the markets. Saying goodbye was sad, but we have planned to pass through Switzerland on our way home in August so we will be able to see them and Anja again before the year is out, which we look forward to very much.
How does one celebrate Christmas in Africa? The festivities began for us in early December when the missionaries gathered on the stone porch behind one of the houses and lit candles and listened to Handel’s Messiah under the stars. I am already a pretty big fan of the Messiah, and this was a pretty awesome way to listen to it. So great to sit and contemplate the incredible promises and prophesies of God, the enormity of what the Messiah coming to earth meant, the person of Jesus Christ.
Being in Africa and surrounded by a different culture can make certain biblical stories come more alive to me- for instance it was interesting when one missionary commented that she wondered if Mary carried Jesus around on her back like the women here do. Or seeing anew the compassion of Jesus in sending the angels to simple shepherds with the message that the messiah had come... I work with people groups who care for livestock as their means of survival, literally having next to nothing, seemingly insignificant in the grande, global scheme of things... but Jesus’ heart is so beautiful, he loves each person so individually and so deeply and he reached out to the marginalized and forgotten. Truly revolutionary in his compassion and love, unlike any the world had ever seen before. And the world has nothing like it. Nowhere to be found apart from Him.
Christmas Eve the hospital had a big fête with all the churches in the area- the francophone, Peuhl, Bariba, and Ditamarie congregations- and each had choirs who sang. The missionaries- aka the four of us- sang “Hark! the Harold Angels Sing” with only my guitar to accompany us. It seemed to come off okay, although stood in hilariously stark contrast to the lively, rhythmic African chorales... but the Africans were very generous and seemed to think it was great.
Amy and I decided to work on Christmas Day, so Christmas had a very different feel to it. This was my first Christmas not being with my family, and as I worked the shift at the hospital I reflected on how different it was from the Christmases I had become accustomed to- having breakfast together, opening gifts, dinner with extended family- I was really struck with thankfulness over being able to spend 22 uninterrupted Christmases with my incredible family, that my family was still safe and well and loving God in Canada. What a huge blessing.
I was able to have a Christmas brunch with Amy, Katrin and Marta during my break, which was really wonderful.
January has brought some changes in the staff at the hospital- I am now working in Chiurgie (Surgery), and Katrin is the new Chief in this department. I am really looking forward to working with her and learning even more. Surgery acts as the emergency room during the night shift, so this will be a new area of learning for me, as well as dressings and drains and prepping people for surgery. I will also be working with children as well as adults, whereas previously I was only working with adults.
Please pray for this new transition, that it would be smooth and would improve many things for the hospital.
Please pray for the Bariba church. The pastor has resigned under grave circumstances. Our friend Caleb has stepped in as pastor for the next three months or so until they find a replacement, and the church is currently searching for a new pastor. Pray for healing, pray for wisdom, pray for God’s word to prevail and for God’s people to be united.
The French is coming much, much better! Thank you for your prayers in this, God is truly answering them.
With love and gratitude,
Charity
Saturday, November 26, 2011
SLC conference
time again for a little update. Our internet stick lapsed and so we have been without internet for a little while, so I’ve been unable to post until now.
The hospital work is improving for us as we are getting the handle of things- IV starts that were once impossible for me I can now almost always get on my first try (which is great because I usually have to do at least 4 a day)! Our French is also getting better and better and we are able to communicate with our colleagues more easily.
Amy and I have also joined the hospital chorale, it is called “Shalom”. There are about twelve members, and so far it is a lot of fun! We are learning African songs or familiar songs with African rhythms, and we might teach them one of our own English Christmas carols next week. We will have a concert at the end of December.
The SLC conference was a wonderful time meeting such interesting, amazing people and being able to intensively study the word. Steve Schmidt (a Canadian/American), the SIM director in Niamey, Niger was the speaker for the conference. He preached on Romans 12 and he did an excellent job. He is such a humble man, and it is so evident that he is a lover of God’s word. I helped with worship with Walter and Bonnie Aebi (he is Swiss and she is American); throughout the week it was a mix of French and English! At the conference there were 40 adults and 15 children (all boys- only one was a girl!) coming from Togo, Benin and Niger.
We also had a lot of fun activities: for example one day we played a big game of baseball, one night there was a campfire, and one day we went to visit widows in the community with groceries and gifts. It was such a blessing to see the church meeting the needs of these widows as the bible so clearly instructs!
The death of Christopher Cherry, the 10 year old son of one family of missionaries, was still very fresh on everyone’s minds. He passed away from cerebral malaria just this past September. The Cherry’s have gone home for 6 weeks to be with family but will be returning soon. Their cousins, the Kauffman’s (they have 4 children), were at the conference and the loss has weighed heavily on them. The Cherry’s and the Kauffman’s work with the Dendi people in northern Benin, a very closed and as-yet unreached group of Muslims with in translation and evangelism. Please pray for them, for encouragement and for peace.
One night the group had an extended worship night and the opportunity to share songs. Paul Kauffman arranged a men’s quartet to sing an old hymn that had spoken to him, and he shared a story of missionaries who had been 40 years on the mission field and returned home on a ship. Theodore Roosevelt, who enjoyed very much to hunt, was returning home after a hunting expedition and when they arrived at the harbour the red carpet was rolled out and many people were celebrating his arrival. The missionaries arrived and found that no one had come to meet them, and the man said to his wife, “It’s not fair. He has gone hunting for a few weeks and the whole city comes to welcome him home, while we have given forty years in service and not even one is here to see us home.” His wife turned to her husband and said, “Dear, we are not home yet.”
Some words from the hymn that they sang:
“He bears from the fetters of darkness... Resplendant in glory to live and to save... Jesus hath risen and made us immortal to heaven ascend. Lift then your voices in triumph on high, for Jesus hath risen and man shall not die.”
What was really impressed on my heart throughout the conference was the incredible blessing it is to be a part of the family of God. To see the missionaries and their families who each have made great sacrifices of comfort and safety in order that they might bring the gospel to people who have never heard or understood the message of Jesus- how incredible to share in their lives! To be able to be challenged and strengthened by them, and also to pray for them and encourage them... that they are our brothers and sisters in Christ. The earnestness and the beauty of believers holding fast to Christ in the midst of suffering profoundly touched my heart. What a blessing, praise be to God.
For now we are back in Bembéréké. The Hegemans left this Thursday for New York and we are preparing for the parting of Anja on December 9th and Manassé and Béatrice on the 21st. Many goodbyes, but God will be faithful in providing many friends and things to be involved in for us, I am sure.
Thank you for your continued prayers, I need them! And also send me your prayer requests, I love to pray for everyone at home.
With lots of love,
Charity