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This newsletter is also available as an MSWord document, 2003q4.doc.

Report from Richard & Linda Benskin with Joanna & Daniel

Dear friends,

There are many good things happening here, especially with the work at the clinic. Of course, there are always struggles as well. The change of the weather to dry and dusty along with the soot and smoke from the traditional burning of the dried grasslands usually brings lots of sinus troubles and numerous other respiratory illnesses, and this year it hit our entire family: all four of us have been sick; some were even laid up for a few days. We are much better now, but please continue to pray for our health and the health of the clinic patients - your prayers and encouraging words really do keep us going during the tough times.

Clinic News

Peter Bombande, the clinic "matron," is currently upgrading his skills and qualifications. He is in Kintampo (a four hours' drive from Yendi) at the Rural Health Training School attending a special bridge program for experienced registered nurses. After the program, he should be comparable to a Nurse Practitioner in the USA. After 12 months of classroom work, the program calls for 6 months of practicals, which we expect Peter to be able to do in Yendi, so that he can come back to the clinic in October 2004. Our five-year commitment to the work here ends at the beginning of November, 2004, so the transition will be necessarily swift. During Peter's year of classroom work Linda is running the clinic. She has consciously avoided this since our arrival here four years ago. Fortunately, the big decisions are made by a Subcommittee composed of Ghanaian Christians, and the staff is aware that Peter is still the matron. We are looking actively for help, even for only a week or two. We especially need doctors and nurse practitioners to see patients - please email us with any leads.

With Peter off at school, Fran back in the 'States and some other shuffling that had to be done, the clinic staff is being stretched a bit to make everything work smoothly. At the same time the workers seem to be developing a greater appreciation for what we are about as a Christian clinic, and an increased desire to bring glory to God through their work there. In November we really noticed that they were looking for ways to improve the clinic environment. The clinic painting is finally finished, thanks to the driver, Majeed. He also put up new educational posters in the patient waiting areas. Diana, the cashier, is helping Linda improve the bookkeeping and has organized the reading glasses we dispense. Kojo and Victoria are keeping excellent records in the pharmacy. They worked all day the last Saturday of the month taking inventory of the medicines. Asana completely emptied and cleaned and sorted our supply store room, cleared the hall, and is now coming early to help with dressings every morning. Alhassan, the "day watchman" is keeping flowers growing in front of the clinic - an awesome accomplishment in the dry season. Recently a friend in the 'States sent the female staff each a scrub dress to wear rather than the uniforms they had previously. The scrubs are much more comfortable. They are so thrilled!

Meet Orli

One of our recent amusements has revolved around the adoption of a Senegal Chameleon we found near our house. The kids have dubbed him (or her?) Orli Greenleaf and he can be pretty entertaining. Orli lives for the most part on a makeshift hanging plant in our house. He is taken outside regularly for his own little hunting expeditions, generally in the evenings when there are a lot of bugs gathering near an outside light. He can consistently snag bugs almost a full body length away with his amazing tongue. His eyes are pretty impressive too. They pivot in almost any direction, completely independent of one another. It is good to take time to recognize the incredible intricacy and diversity of God's creations around us.

Incredibly busy month

The October PHCW class was a big success. Many people willingly sacrificed their free time to make it happen. During October we not only had the PHCW course going on, but the clinic also needed to keep operating at full capacity. We were also very, very short-staffed. Our cashier, Diana Tang, was a student in the course, but she came to the clinic early, worked during her lunch break and stayed in the evenings until dark to keep up the books. All this without overtime pay! Kojo, the pharmacy director, was taking exams (he is preparing to go to nursing school next year after Peter comes back). But he also came between times and stayed after hours to keep up with his work. All the other staff had to go out of town at least once during the course, so Samson Laar, an evangelist who is himself a PHCW, came to help interpret when we were especially short-staffed.

Linda coordinated the PHCW program, taught the bulk of the lectures, and took care of all the clinic wound patients. She began her day each morning at 6am. Mid-month we also had to take over the accounting and payroll for the clinic. During the first week of the four-week class, Peter saw patients at the clinic all day and often taught classes after the clinic closed. Then he had to leave to attend his own classes in Kintampo, so Fran Thornton took over seeing patients when Linda was teaching; Fran also taught nutrition. The third and fourth weeks Avril Keoughan, a Canadian nurse who currently works in Southern Ghana, came and helped both in the clinic and in the classroom. It was a wild month, but with God's help and by working together we were able to keep everything going at full capacity. And, this group of sixteen students, the first to use the new handbook in its final form, definitely has the best grasp of the material of any class we have yet taught.

Clinic Benevolence

The clinic subcommittee has asked us to mention the new clinic benevolence fund. All donations to this fund are used exclusively to pay for the treatment of patients who come to us with health needs but are unable to pay. People with severe chronic wounds and the prisoners at Yendi Prison are examples of patients who would get no medical treatment were it not for our clinic. They are almost always destitute. There are, of course, other individuals in this area with very little money whose bills are supplemented by the fund, as well. Please contact us for more information if you are interested in donating.

Pray for Samson

The end of October was a very difficult time. We have often mentioned Samson Laar. He has probably spent more time working in Northern Ghana than any other Ghanaian evangelist. He is also our very good friend. On the 30th of October Samson had a major stroke. His blood pressure is very difficult to control, and apparently it went up even higher due to malaria, causing a vessel in his brain to break. Samson is now in Accra for rehabilitation, and recent reports are excellent. Initially, and for some time, his entire right side was completely limp, and he could only manage a few words from time to time with great effort. He is now able to talk and to walk well without assistance. He may soon be returning to the North and the work in which God has been using him so powerfully. Please continue to pray for a full recovery and especially that his hypertension can be kept in good control so that this does not recur.

WBS Campaign and other Visitors

World Bible School has thousands of students in this area. WBS has sponsored two prior campaigns to Yendi, and another is scheduled for this coming February. Christianity, along with other religions, is part of the social studies curriculum in the schools here. Area schools eagerly welcome campaigners to teach supplemental lessons on Christianity and the life of Christ so that the students will be able to pass their final exams. WBS campaigners always enroll a lot of new WBS students as well, and they will hold a seminar with special classes for new and established WBS students on Saturday, February the 21st.

A few people have commented that they want to visit us, but they never seem to be able to make the time. Now that we have less than a year of our five-year term remaining, some are feeling an increased sense of urgency. Tom Lerma and Robert Depwe, each with his two oldest kids (teens), plan to come in late January. The six visitors are scheduled to do some preparatory work for the WBS campaign in February, as well as helping us and just visiting. We have been friends with these two families for about twenty years, and we are really looking forward to their company. Unfortunately, the wives and younger children have to stay in Texas.

Development in Yendi

The town of Yendi has now been under a State of Emergency for well over a year and a half. At this point the most inconvenient regulations have been eliminated, but there is still a substantial military presence and permission is still required for large gatherings. As soldiers from all over Ghana rotate through this area, we are happy to give them a wholesome way to spend their lonely off-duty hours in the form of free Bibles and WBS lessons. The crew of this armored vehicle was happy to receive these materials.

Yendi has improved in many ways in the last two years. Some of this may be an unexpected benefit of having so many extra soldiers and police in the area. They are all literate and may demand more than the local people do. Goods like apples, meat pies, and more ready-made clothes are now often available. The road to Tamale has been improved dramatically and is being paved; the main roads through Yendi are being paved as well! Airmail packets from the USA used to regularly take three to six weeks to arrive, but now they occasionally come in as little as 10 days. The Post Office recently put in a row of ten new telephone booths (shown with new paved road in the foreground). Just this month a cell-phone tower became operational in Yendi.

Shopping in Ghana

A few weeks ago Richard and the kids went to Tamale to run errands. They had to change money and get international insurance for our truck for our Christmas trip, and of course they also bought supplies. Overall, it was a very successful trip. Shopping in Ghana (even Accra) is a lot like going on a scavenger hunt. Need macaroni? There are six or seven little stores in Tamale that you should check. If you check them all, you will probably find some macaroni. The owner of the Tamale's one big "Cold Store" (where one can often buy clean meats that have been refrigerated/frozen) went bankrupt. So, we bought no meat this trip. We have not been able to refill our cooking gas bottles or those of all our neighbors in Tamale in months, but we did find new bottles that were already full for sale. We bought one. We bake everything from scratch, so we use a lot of flour. A full 50kg (110#) bag is not very likely to have bugs or be caked. The wholesaler had vanilla ice cream (nothing like Blue Bell^TM, I assure you) for the first time in months, so we bought two five-liter tubs. Joanna and Richard found nice stainless steel mixing bowls at a large store, but they could not buy one - no one knew the price, so they were not for sale. This happens incredibly often, but it still amuses us. After searching for a while, they finally had to settle for a different bowl. Shoes for Daniel are easy, even though his feet are close to the standard 12 inches long and growing rapidly. Brand new flip-flops (size is not critical) hang from wooden racks on many different street corners in Tamale. If we find three items on our list at a single store, it is like hitting the jackpot. We are glad that Yendi's general store has an increasingly large selection of the foods we use.

Hamidu and his father, Alhassan

Some of you may remember the little boy with third degree burns across his chest, arm and part of his back who was mentioned in our Sept and Nov 2002 newsletters. Visiting medical professionals have expressed considerable doubt that he would ever heal without major grafts. Well, after 18 months, Hamidu is still coming for wound care four mornings a week, and he is healing steadily, against the odds. Keep up those prayers! We were able to contact the manufacturer of the special silver dressing material we used on him so successfully last year and recently they donated another batch. The acceleration of the healing process has been dramatic, so Hamidu may graduate from the wound care group in another month or two. We expect to still see him regularly though, because his father has left Islam and is now attending church!

The Holidays

The holiday season in Yendi is always a difficult time for us. Finding the traditional foods is a problem, of course. Turkey was impossible this Thanksgiving, but we were able to buy a good-sized chicken, which we roasted with quite a few sides. Since it was only the four of us this year, we still had some Thanksgiving leftovers. Another problem with holidays is that the clinic is usually still open, so our celebration is shoehorned in around a busy schedule. This year the Tuesday before Thanksgiving was a major local feast day: the end of Ramadan. So, while the Muslims celebrated their holiday, we were able to celebrate ours without the usual interruptions. That went very well. We have been invited to join some missionaries in Burkina Faso for Christmas, and since Peter is getting a few days' break from school, he has agreed to man the clinic so that we can go. We are really looking forward to it. We will be even closer to Timbuktu there, but the kids are quite firm: visiting the other missionaries is great, but that is quite close enough to the Sahara for them!

Prayer requests

• Please continue to pray for our health, and that of our patients, especially in this dry season.
• Praise God for Samson's progress, and pray that it continues to a full recovery.
• Pray for Hamidu's continued healing, and Alhassan (his father) as he begins to learn more about Christ.
• We ask for God to protect those traveling here soon and to guide the Feb 2004 WBS campaign to God's glory.
• Pray also for Godly wisdom and continued spiritual growth for the many Christians in this area.

In the Service of Our King,

The Benskin Family

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