Medical Outreach and Evangel Hospital

Greetings everyone! Sorry about the last entry being so short. I want to thank everyone for the prayers in regard to the medical outreach I went on Saturday, it was an amazing experience.

The person who invited us to the outreach was Bola, the same man that took us to Benin City with NIFES. We weren't with NIFES this time around though, we were with an organization called The Gilead Initiative for the Less Privileged. Bola's wife is the executive director of this brand new organization which is mission oriented in helping the less privileged all around Nigeria. So to say the least, I was very blessed to have an opportunity like this. I was with the first ever outreach group of a brand new organization to a village that had never been reached out to by a large group... only individual missionaries. God's blessing was upon the entire process. Apparently, on the Friday before we were planning to leave, the prescription drugs for the medical side of the outreach still hadn't been obtained. Bola had called many different pharmacists and hadn't received any calls back or expressed interest in helping to provide the drugs. He spent the day on Friday praying for God to provide, and about midday he got a call from someone who had a very large amount of drugs available for cheap purchase. They also were worried that not enough volunteers would sign up since this is a brand new org. and this was their very first outreach. We had 49 people total which was entirely more than they expected. A majority of the volunteers were students at the university of Jos.

We headed to the Masira village, which is about an hour outside of Jos, around 10 am on Saturday morning. Due to various stops we arrived right at 12. All the volunteers piled into a small building on the outskirts of the village so we could get "briefed" on our mission. Bola and his wife introduced themselves, and then each one of the 49 volunteers including us introduced ourselves to everyone else. What happened next was one of the coolest experiences of my life. We began to pray over our day, and for success on the mission field, and for the Lord to ward off all attacks by the enemy. But this wasn't like prayer I'm used to in the states... where one person quietly leads the group and finishes with an amen. This started out with every person in the room praying out loud. All with one purpose but all separate prayers. And when I say out loud, I mean out LOUD. Then overtop of all these prayers, someone in the front was basically screaming scripture out loud and praying and it kept getting louder and louder and louder. It was the most intense prayer session I've ever been in, and it was absolutely amazing. You could feel the spirit of God in the room and it was whipping up such a great spiritual fervor. I guarantee every enemy of God was far far away from that room, because the presence of His Spirit was very strong. I only hope that my prayers can continue to be this energetic and bold when I return to the states.

We finished praying and divided into teams to take care of the different tasks at hand. There was a team of four dedicated to prayer that would stay in the building we started in and prayer throughout the entire day. Many of the students were medical students, so those that were doctors and nurses assumed their role with the medical team. Others were on the welfare team to pass out the supplies we brought to the villagers who were in the most need. Some were on a counseling team to counsel the patients and give them an opportunity to hear and accept the gospel before medical treatment was administered to them. And finally, the rest were on an evangelism team dedicated to going throughout the village and sharing the gospel. We all had such a sense of purpose and unity leaving that building, and you could feel God right behind us pushing us on to do His work.

For most of the day I was around the medical and counseling teams, but I wasn't in either of those teams. I was with the evangelism team, which was lead by Bola, but we couldn't get started until Bola had finished the program he was doing on basic health education. We got all the willing villagers together and Bola taught a "class" if you will on basic hygiene. Many of the people get sick because they don't wash their hands before meals or after using the bathroom and it is only because they don't know better. So education in this area is very helpful to them and will prevent many future sicknesses. When Bola finished up, we went into the village to begin our evangelism.

The evangelism group included Bola, his wife, myself, brittany, two pastors that came along, and the original missionary who was living in the village. All the villagers spoke Hausa, so brittany and myself couldn't communicate with them directly except the basic greetings we have learned. We had to use a translator any time we wanted to say something of much meaning. The only time we did that was right before Bola started his health education program. Many of the villagers there, especially the children had never ever seen a white person, and you could tell by the way they just stared and stared at you. I had a small message translated to all of the villagers who had gathered there just to say thanks for having us in their village and to offer God's blessing upon them all. Bola said they appreciated it very much, since many Africans in remote villages like that think seeing white people is a blessing in itself.

The first thing our evangelism team did was to console the villagers due to a premature death in the village. I don't know how old the girl who died was, but she was very young from what I understood. After praying with a large group, we went to one of the houses where the girl's father and his friend or brother was... I'm not sure which one it was. We consoled them and then one of the pastors with us shared the gospel of Christ with both men. It was such a blessing and encouragement, as both men decided to accept Christ as their Lord and Savior right there in that house. The pastors took them through their confession of faith and then prayed over them. After the second man made his confession, the pastor turned and asked me to pray. It was such a blessing to be able to pray over this man, and to encourage and love him. We proceeded on to speak with the chief of the village. Bola and the pastors introduced themselves and informed him of what their organization is all about and how they have a great desire to help his village. He was very willing to accept help and very receptive of all of us. The missionary who has been living in that village for many years now has had ample opportunity to speak with and influence the chief, and one or two years ago the chief gave his life to Christ.

There is so much hope and positive outlook for the Masira village. Especially with their chief now being a Christian, and this new organization partnering with them. The chief has future plans to build a secondary school and a hospital for his village with their help. Those are their two greatest needs right now, just after getting clean water. The missionary there was so encouraged and thrilled, and you could see it on his face. He has been alone in that village for some years now, and had been attempting to share the gospel to a very stubborn group. Many people there have their own religion and think they understand God, but they don't know anything of Christ. So when he would try to share Christ, many of the villagers would get angry and drive him away. It was truly God's plan coming together in front of our eyes. The way Bola and his wife very spontaneously felt called to form this organization and then to specifically go to the village of Masira. The way that the village chief had recently been converted and is now very willing and excited to being change in his village, both religiously and practically. It was an amazing view of the mission field and the successes and rewards that God can bring through that work. There was such a sense of fulfillment in everything that happened on our trip. After all of that, we headed back towards the building we started in to get the car and head back. The outreach was 2 days, but several of us had to be back that night. As we got closer to the building... I heard something that just gave me that much more encouragement then I already had from the days events. The four people who stayed back for prayer, 6 hours later were still praying... and those four people alone were almost as loud as the entire group was before. They were screaming out prayers to God and pleading before Him. Their dedication and devotion to prayer was amazing, and it was no wonder we had such success in everything that day. I want to thank everyone again for their prayers regarding this outreach. It was a true blessing to be a part of and was amazing to see God's plan unfolding before my eyes. Please continue to pray for the Masira village in the future. Please pray for the growth and spread of Christianity in their village. Pray for the strength of the village chief to lead all of them to Christ. Pray also for their material needs of a secondary school, a hospital, and clean water. I can't wait to talk to Bola in the future and to see what things are like there in Masira.

Sunday service was really good this week. The speaker spoke from 1 Timothy 6 on godliness and contentment. It was a very powerful message that involved being content with whatever God gives us, and not letting money become an obsession. I played with the band again, and that was a blast like before. It was been great to get to know the band members and be a part of leading praise and worship. Thanks for all the prayers in the area!

Today was my first day at the Evangel Hospital. Evangel is a hospital founded by ECWA, so it is Christian based and operated for the most part. I will be going there all this week, and the plan is that each day I will be with a different team. Today I tagged along with the medical team, and later in the week I'll be with the surgical team, the intensive care team, etc. The medical team was a group of doctors who went around to all the medical patients to analyze their condition and see how the treatment had been going as well as decide on future treatment. I got to see lots and lots of patients today, some who were in better shape than others. I felt called to pray for a few of them specifically, so I got to sit down by their bed and pray over them. It was a great blessing to me and an encouragement to them as well. Just after this one day, God has been teaching me alot about the frailty of human life. He is opening my eyes to the reality of time and helping me to see things from a different perspective. I am excited to see how he changes my perspective on things by the end of the week. I hope to be able to share what I have learned more deeply in the future.

Please pray for me this week as I continue to volunteer at Evangel Hospital. Pray that God would open my eyes to things I've never seen and that he would shape my mind in response to those things. Pray that I could be a blessing to the doctors and patients while I'm at the hospital and that God might work through me in some way. Pray for the continued guidance and wisdom of God in my life and pray for my continued discomfort. Thank you all so much for the prayers, its a blessing in my life to have all the support I do. I hope you all are as encouraged by this entry as I was by being in the outreach at the village. I did my best to share that experience with you all. I hope to hear from you all soon and I want you to know you are in my prayers. God Bless!

Grace and Peace