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

This newsletter is also available as an MSWord document, 2004q3.doc.

Report from Richard & Linda Benskin with Joanna & Daniel

Dear friends,

We leave Ghana in less than a month! In many ways it is hard to believe we have been here five years. Some of our goodbyes have begun already. We are still busy tying up a few loose ends at the clinic, but it seems things are well underway for the clinic's transition to 100% Ghanaian operational personnel. Brother Peter Bombande, who is normally in charge of the clinic, has been away at school for the last 12 months upgrading his qualifications from Registered Nurse to Medical Assistant. This has been pretty tough, as Linda has had to do all of the patient care and clinic management in his absence. Peter is now officially a Medical Assistant and is very happy about it. We are happy for him too, but also happy that he is back in Yendi and taking charge of clinic matters again. We will briefly share Peter's story later in this report.

Fushiena

Skin problems like psoriasis are annoying and uncomfortable in the USA, but in Ghana, where one health problem generally leads to another, the consequences of a simple skin problem can be life-threatening. Fushiena came to the Mission Clinic about 4 years ago with a striking case of ringworm - an ordinary fungal skin disease which is usually easy to treat. But apparently Fushiena has an underlying condition much like psoriasis. So she develops skin infections easily, and each case is difficult to cure. Moreover, her head-to-toe rashes can look ominous. Last year the rash became so severe that her family decided she had been cursed and stopped feeding her. The next time we saw Fushiena at the clinic she not only had another fungal infection, but it was exacerbated by malnutrition and a blistering bacterial infection which covered her entire body, including her face. She also had malaria and a respiratory infection. In addition to our usual treatment, which includes both medicines and prayer, clinic interpreter Asana began sending two boiled eggs to Fushiena every day to improve her nutrition. Asana also talked to the family about her skin problem. Very gradually Fushiena began to recover. She had a few terrible weeks when she developed a reaction to a medicine, but in time she progressed. Her skin diseases became less noticeable and she began to smile. A year ago she was always dressed in rags and her face was covered so that no one could see the rash. Last week she came to the clinic in a beautiful new outfit. Her smile was visible to the world, even though she didn't show it for this photo. God is good!

Peter Back from Medical Assistant School

Peter Bombande, Linda's Ghanaian colleague at the clinic, is now officially a Medical Assistant! We are rejoicing with him. Medical Assistants in Ghana have training similar to that of American Nurse Practitioners, but they are expected to work independently like Medical Doctors. This means that Peter will be able to do many more procedures at the clinic. The Church of Christ Mission Clinic in Yendi is the only private clinic in a very large geographical area. The Yendi government hospital has not been able to keep sufficient medical staff to meet the local needs. Peter's training will be a tremendous asset to the community.

Peter's journey has been a long and difficult one. He was born into a nominally Roman Catholic family in Bawku, north of Yendi on the Burkina Faso border. He was the second of the twelve children his mother bore. The first child died before Peter was born. Of Peter's ten younger siblings, eight more died in childhood, leaving him with only one brother and one sister. He recalls trying desperately to save his other brothers and sisters, only to be rebuked by adults. He was not a doctor - how dare he try to tell grown-ups what to do about sick children? He vowed that he would get the credentials needed to make people listen. Since Bawku is in one of the poorest areas of Ghana, the early education available to Peter was not very good and he was not able gain entrance to medical school. Determined, he went to nursing school. In the early 1970's Peter graduated as a registered nurse - one of the only men in his class.

After graduation Peter worked as a nurse for various hospitals in the south among the wealthier and more educated Ghanaians. During this time he became disillusioned with what he saw as a lack of seriousness about God among his fellow Christians. The Muslims seemed more devoted to God, so he converted to Islam. Through a very odd turn of events, the Church of Christ Mission Clinic in Kumasi was pressured into hiring Peter as one of their consultants. Then in 1996, when the affiliated Church of Christ clinic in Yendi had only been open a few months, the matron resigned. A Registered Nurse was needed immediately so that it could reopen. Few educated Ghanaians are willing to work in the north; this really was a crisis. Peter decided to return to the north so that the Yendi clinic would not fail.

Ironically, the new Christian Clinic now had a Muslim nurse in charge. But God truly works in mysterious ways. Peter met the evangelists who had worked to establish the Church of Christ among the Muslims and traditionalists of Yendi and found Christians who really were serious about God. This brought him into a better position for comparing the two religions based upon their teachings, rather than their flawed followers. After much study, Peter chose Christianity. We arrived in Ghana shortly after he made this decision. One of the exciting things we have been able to see during these past five years is how God has helped Peter to mature and develop patience. In addition to his work at the clinic, Peter often preaches in villages. What a blessing it is to us to be able to leave the work here in such capable hands.

Current Prayer Requests

• Please continue to pray for God to guide the work here as the church and clinic become more completely Ghanaian operations.
• Thank the Lord for the rains; they seemed a bit late this year, but the farmers are now bringing in good harvests.
• We ask also for your prayers for Godly wisdom as we begin to transition our family back to life in the USA.

In the Service of Our King,

The Benskin Family

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