Please Pray

The following is a recent letter from my brother in law, a doctor, who is serving a month in Ghana, Africa helping out in a local hospital there. Please pray for him and for those who serve there.

Family and Friends,

It is much harder being here emotionally than I had imagined, even with my years of medical experience and trips to Ghana.This hospital is the "tertiary" care center for all of northern Ghana. Things work here. Medications are available here. Surgery is available here. Doctors are available here. The people and the equipment work. Yet, there are many things that we do not have. We do not have an ICU, ventilators or even oxygen. We do not have IVs at a constant rate--only slow, moderate or good rate. We do not have chemistry panels or even potassium levels for patients in ketoacidosis. There is no CT and only minimal xray. There are no code blues or even emergencies. This is the burn center, pediatric hospital, obstetric hospital, trauma hospital, cancer hospital, and any other kind of fancy whatever you can think of. There are three very dedicated men who are the physicians supported by equally dedicated wives. Two have children growing up here. Please, pray for all of these wonderful Christian men, women, and children as they dedicate their lives to His service. To date, we have had three pediatric deaths and at least that many adult deaths. They die from cancer and meningitis, liver disease and unknown causes since diagnostic capabilities are so limited. This kids have died from malnutrition, severe burns, and malaria anemia. The last one died as she was brought into my office today. I had written the admission orders and was preparing for transfusion (direct from family since there is no blood bank). She was bradycardic when I listened to here and her tiny heart stopped as I was doing the paperwork. I have a child in diabetic ketoacidosis right now. I cannot have a constant IV rate, an insulin drip, or even regular blood sugar levels or potassium levels. There is only one bottle of regular insulin available for entire complex. I tell you all of this, not to depress you, but to make you aware of life here.BUT, if this hospital were not here, many more would die. There have been two children with perforated bowel from typhoid and one with an intra-abdominal abscess who certainly would have died if they had not had surgery. I focus on what we CAN do, not on what we cannot do. We have had at least a dozen snake bites who have received antivenin. I doubt if they would have died but they would have suffered loss of function of their hand or foot. Baptist Medical Center is a true oasis in the desert of need. Pray for the future of BMC as it prepares to undergo transition over the coming years. Pray that a surgeon will be raised up to replace George Faile. May God bless each of you this night and always.

Jim Howard

Jim and the Medical Team in Ghana Update

This will be the last email from me from Ghana. I will not have access to email before we leave. Thank each of you for praying for all of us.

Today, we went in two directions. Linda and Rusty Simpson and Barbara Graves have been working with a village east of Accra named Mamakrome. They have gotten every child in the village sponsored by World Vision. They went there today to visit. They had raised money to drill a water well for the village. We all got back so late that we did not get to hear about what all transpired but will tomorrow.

The rest of us went west to Cape Coast. We visited one of the slave castles on a rocky beach bluff. It is a beautiful structure and very well maintained and preserved. However, as you hear of the horrific conditions and treatment, its beauty diminishes greatly. The men's dungeon held about one thousand men at a time in a room no bigger than most of our houses. The rocks on the floor are worn smooth from hundreds of thousands of footsteps. They were herded down a tunnel to THE GATE OF NO RETURN, loaded onto boats, and then placed onto ships. It gives an awareness of man's inhumanity to man that still exists today. There are over 26,000,000 slaves in the world today. There are probably 50,000 in the US. The slaves were herded by other Ghanaian tribes to he castles and shipped literally all over the world. All told, somewhere between 12,000,000 and 26,000,000 were shipped from twenty or so slave castles over 300 years. I write all of this to make us all aware of that inhumanity still exists in many countries all over the world.

Today, I asked Pastor Lewis why Ghana has had political stability since March 6, 1957. His answer was very simple, "by the grace of God." Pray that God will continue to grace Ghana. This is an election year for them. They have discovered 600,000,000 million barrels of oil in the Atlantic off their coast. Pray that a leader will be elected that will us the tremendous resource wisely and not just for personal gain. Also, pray that the US will turn back to God and not be like post-Christian Europe.

God bless each of you.

Jim Howard for Mission Builsa Team 2008