Report from Richard & Linda Benskin with Joanna & Daniel

Dear Friends,

The last few months have been rather hectic. The work-load at the clinic has been steadily increasing, especially in the area of wound care. In this environment, any cut, blister, bite, or sore can quickly turn into a huge and persistent infection. It is a real blessing to share in the joy of patients who are recovering from a sore or wound that would not heal, often for many years. Linda will share the story of one of our wound care patients later in this report. Of course there are heartbreaking cases as well. Word of the successes, and hopefully of the compassion of Christians here, is spreading, and it seems there are always more people coming for wound care as well as treatment of seizures, malnutrition, and tropical diseases of various sorts. Pray that the patients will see the love of the Lord working through the hands of Christians at the clinic.

The weather is still quite dry and many areas look pretty desolate now. The single digit humidity of last month made some things quite interesting. Spontaneous nighttime light shows were possible by simply sliding a hand across a pillow case. This process would produce many brilliant sparks as static electricity was generated and discharged. Harmattan dust has also been much thicker this year than it was last year. It has often been thick enough that you could easily look at the midday sun on a cloudless day. In fact, Niipak (mentioned in our prayer request section) was recently working near a village about 20 miles away. He said it was so thick there one day that he needed to turn on the motorbike headlights in the daytime to avoid bumping into things. Now the humidity and temperature are beginning to rise as the moister air from the south begins to replace the dry dusty air from the north. Our days of cool mornings are over. Due to the shortage of rain last year, many of the hand-pumped wells are almost dry and many people are suffering and traveling far for their water. Despite the increase in humidity, this year's rains are likely still months away. We thank the Lord that the clinic well, from which we also get our household water, has been so reliable. We also pray that this will continue.

At the Beach

We spent the first week of February in the South. It was the first time we have been very far from Yendi since before Thanksgiving. We were in desperate need for a supply run and pretty ready for some R&R as well. We feel both of these needs were nicely met. We visited the new campus of Village of Hope (an orphanage the church and International Health Care Foundation operate: more info at www.ihcf.net ). This facility is located at Gomoa Feteh, about 1.5 hours west of Accra . We also spent a good bit of time at a nice beach near there. It was great. We played on the beach, got our shopping done in Accra and even got in a couple of pretty uninterrupted days' work on the Primary Health Care Workers' handbook. It was interesting to spend some time in the little fishing community. Watching the fishermen work with their small boats and seeing them mending their nets on the beach brought new life to much of the New Testament's imagery. Of course, the same could be said of many of the agricultural images seen around our home here in Yendi. The spiritual parallels are just as striking, as people are turning away from idol worship and many are even becoming 'fishers of men' and 'sowing the seeds of the Kingdom'. For the curious among you, yes, the young fishermen pictured above did take on a good deal of water as they breached this wave with something less than the best of timing. They were met by another boat just past the breakers. The second, more experienced, crew helped stabilize the nearly swamped boat while the two young men bailed out the seawater vigorously so that they could continue their day of fishing.

Primary Health Care Workers' Course and Handbook

We have asked you to pray for various aspects of the Church of Christ Mission Clinics ' Primary Health Care Worker Program, including the course and the handbook we are compiling, but I am not sure we have ever given you a good overview of this program. Most people in rural Ghana have virtually no knowledge of germs, anatomy, nutrition or disease processes, so they are unable to effectively prevent illness in their families. When they become sick, herbalists, witchdoctors, and peddlers with no medical background often persuade them to spend all their money on cures that are quite often completely inappropriate or dangerous. Our clinics recruit students who are literate Christians, usually from villages with limited healthcare resources. On a very basic level, we teach them how their bodies work, nutrition, community hygiene and related topics, along with some principles of teaching, assessing and caring for the sick. They are then able to promote good health and provide treatment for minor maladies at the village level, referring more serious cases to the nearest health center or hospital.

The PHCW program was started many years before we arrived in Ghana , using a commercially available book as the text. The approach of the older book has not meshed very well with the culture we find here in Ghana , and it has become out of date in a number of important areas. There are several other books on the topic, but we have not found one that is really well suited to this situation. Some are quite elementary and still difficult to navigate or demand a much higher level of literacy in English than most of our students possess. After much prayer and consultation with fellow Christians, about a year ago we began to compile a handbook specific to the needs of our students, accommodating Ghana 's Ministry of Health guidelines as well as a strong Christian perspective. We are grateful that the authors and publishers of many books covering the topics we teach have given us permission to adapt from their work in building the handbook for our PHCW program. We hope to "student-test" a draft of the book during PHCW classes in Yendi in March and in Kumasi in June, make necessary revisions, and get the final copy to the printer by August. Please continue to pray that the Lord will bless this project and the entire PHCW program, and that through it, He will be glorified.

Wound Care

One of our current everyday (even Sunday) wound care patients is Tena. She is very well educated, and was government worker, but in 1994 she developed what appeared to be a corn or wart on her heel. She had it removed twice: each time it came back worse than before, so she quit going to the hospital with it. She heard about our clinic only a few weeks ago. By this time she had a huge mass of bleeding and draining tissue on her heel. She was severely anemic and was in so much pain she could not sleep. She crawled to get from one room to the next. Despite all that she has suffered, Tena is perky and eager to help. Several times she has been waiting for a ride home from the clinic when we were at a loss to understand a patient from this or that far away village. Invariably, Tena, who commands a phenomenally large repertoire of Northern Ghanaian languages and dialects, has been able to communicate with them easily, enabling us to make a diagnosis and do significant teaching.

As soon as Tena arrived, Peter asked Richard to photograph her foot so we can monitor the progress of our treatment. We emailed the photo to our medical director, Dr. Frank Black, in the USA , who immediately replied, suggesting we obtain a biopsy. He gave us instructions on obtaining the sample via email, and we sent the specimen to the nearest lab that does this test (in Kumasi ). We hope to have the results in about a month - what a contrast to email!

On a recent Saturday morning, as I cleaned her wound, Tena smiled warmly, "I was able to sleep last night." "Good. I am glad. Maybe we won't need to do your dressing tomorrow." "But if you don't clean my wound tomorrow, how will I be able to sleep?" "You are right. We must do it tomorrow."

Prayer Requests

1. Two of our American co-workers, Jerry Thornton and Macy Kelly, are battling cancer. Please pray that they are healed quickly and completely so they can return to work with the Christians who love them so much here in Ghana .

2. Niipak Laar, the young man mentioned in our last newsletter, has recovered and is now attending Bible College . Praise God!

3. The Primary Health Care Worker courses in March and June will be testing the new handbook. Please pray that it is well accepted and that the students give us meaningful feedback for final improvements.

4. We ask you to pray for healing for the clinic patients, especially the many who have serious wounds including Tena.

5. The dust of the Harmattan always causes respiratory troubles, and we Benskins have not been immune. We thank the Lord that we are all well now, and ask for continued protection from malaria and other serious illnesses that are so common here.

In the Service of The King,
The Benskin Family

[Home] [Newsletters & Updates] [Prayer Requests] [Contact Us] [Ghana News and Information]
[Westover Home] [Westover Worldover]