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This newsletter is also available as an MSWord document, which might be preferable for printing: 2003q3.doc

Report from Richard & Linda Benskin with Joanna & Daniel

Dear friends,

It is astounding to me as I write this newsletter and look at the new family photo to see how clear it is that Daniel's height has shot past his sister and mom and is quickly gaining on me. It is interesting how these things sneak up on us sometimes. Similarly, it is a bit hard to believe that we came to Ghana four years ago (as of November). We hope these quarterly newsletters serve to keep you informed, connected and prayerful with regard to our family and the work of the Church in northern Ghana.

Bandages to the Boondocks

Many of you know of the growing role the clinic here is serving in treating burns, skin ulcers and other wounds for patients from a very wide area. In order to better meet these needs, we attended an international wound care conference in April while we were in the 'States. We learned a lot about the latest techniques and materials in wound care and made promising contacts with a good number of suppliers. Many of them gave us an abundance of samples on the spot, and some seemed truly interested in longer term donations of very valuable modern wound care materials to the clinic. So far, only one of these has followed through, but that one has been a real blessing. They have agreed to keep us supplied for at least 6 months with a high-tech dressing material they manufacture. Naturally, there was some uncertainty as to how best to get the materials to us in Yendi. The manufacturer decided to send it via Federal Express. While FedEx advertises their nationwide delivery on billboards in the big southern Ghanaian cities, we had a little trouble imagining their truck pulling up at our house or the clinic in Yendi. Well, one Sunday morning before church services, we got a phone call. This is already a little unusual, but it gets better. It was the FedEx agent (pictured displaying his company ID card). He, and our package, were on a street corner on the other side of Yendi. He had taken "local transport" to the "station" in Yendi. Could we come and pick him up? He also had an envelope to deliver to our side of Yendi and would like a ride. Of course, we were happy to pick him up. Many patients have already benefited from that shipment of dressing material, and another shipment is in route as I write this. While we try to provide the best medical care we can at the clinic, we know that it is God who provides the healing. It is our hope and prayer that Christ and His compassion are clearly reflected in the Christians working at the clinic here in Yendi. We ask that you pray for that as well.

Preaching Students Learn Health Care Basics

Linda taught the first week of the PHCW course at Ghana Bible College in Kumasi in August. The students there were just as enthusiastic as the students at the Heritage Christian College in Accra were last November. Religion and health are inseparable here in Ghana, and the preaching students are acutely aware of the reality that families will often call upon religious leaders to aid sick people before they attempt to locate a professional health worker. The class had almost 30 "official" students in it, not including the dean of students, his grown daughter, several professors, the driver for the University, and even the main secretary, and others who "audited" as they were able. We pray that we will be able to schedule the remaining three weeks of the course for both of these Bible Colleges in the coming year and that the knowledge the students gain may help them as they try to assist people both physically and spiritually in the name of Christ our Lord.

Friends

We had as many as 22 people around our table for meals in early July when our longer-term guests, Rachel and Macy, were joined by IHCF director Dr. Frank Black, his wife, LouAnn, Janice Bingham (the missionary nurse practitioner with whom we worked in Tanzania in 1998), six of her Harding nursing students, another instructor, plus two drivers. These visitors were co-hosted by our neighbors, Isaac and Janet Adotey, and Isaac's Uncle Frank. Uncle Frank and Janet cooked a large Ghanaian meal for supper most evenings, and they also joined us at the table. The visitors helped in the clinic, taught about AIDS in the schools, and assisted with mobile clinics in several villages. In their spare time, they painted the recently remodeled front area of the clinic. We especially enjoyed the great devotionals with the students each evening, and house seemed very quiet when everyone left in mid-July.

A new missionary group has been living in Burkina Faso, but very near the western border of Ghana, for about a year, and we met them in late August at the annual West African Missionaries' Retreat. We hope to visit them when the kids have time off of school, around Christmas. They especially want to show us around the capital of Burkina, Ouagadougou, which is actually closer to Yendi than Accra. Although Burkina is much less developed than Ghana overall, it is a former French colony, and Ouagadougou reputedly still retains French bakeries and a strong emphasis on quality restaurants.

Heavy Rains

Last Saturday the sky was threatening rain as the patients left their houses to walk or bicycle to the clinic for wound care. Twelve came, despite the fact that only one had an umbrella of any sort and none had raincoats, ponchos, galoshes, or any other raingear. When Linda began treating patients before 7am, it was already raining. By 8am, we were in the midst of what we Texans call a "gully-washer." We got 3 inches of rain in that hour alone. Walking down to the clinic from our house (only 100 yards), required wading through 6 - 8 inches of rapidly flowing water. The swift water crossing the dirt roads of Yendi knocks over people riding bicycles, and they struggle, alone and drenched to the bone, to lift them upright again without losing their heavy loads into the mud. Water enters houses in Yendi, and sometimes mud walls collapse, causing injuries or even fatalities. The people here have so little - they are truly at the mercy of the elements. Saturday, by 9:30am Linda was done at the clinic, so she (using an umbrella and feeling a little guilty) went home. Two hours later most of the patients were still huddled on the clinic porch, held captive by the steady downpour. Yendi gets as much rain as Austin, Texas, but all of it comes down in only a few months. Hard rains such as this one are typical at this time of year, especially September, and right now the grass is high and the crops are doing well. People who visit in the rainy season have difficulty imagining the dry, dusty, desolate conditions which prevail most of the year. Then too, the people are at the mercy of the elements, usually without even an electric fan break up the oppressive heat.

News and Notes

Soon the Yendi congregation expects to move into its new meeting place near the center of town, adjacent to the main Yendi market. The congregation from the nearby village of Kuga plans to join us there on Sunday mornings, although meetings during the week will still take place in each "zone." The Yendi Leadership Training for Christ students recently performed last Spring's chorus and drama at the congregation in Kuga as a way of inviting their children to join ours for this year's LTC program.

Prayer requests

• Please remember to pray for our health, and that of our patients
• We have a full PHCW class scheduled for October, and we are a bit short-staffed for it
• The Thorntons are back in Ghana for a few months, but they both continue to struggle with health issues
• We ask for God to lead those considering joining our next WBS campaign, tentatively scheduled for Feb 2004
• Ask for Godly wisdom for the church leaders here in Yendi as they rely less and less on missionaries

In the Service of Our King,

The Benskin Family

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