Following The Stars

Yesterday began under the hospital gazebo, which is named in memory of Noah Ampen, who greeted each of our fourteen Ghana Health Teams. His absence is palpable and his epitaph at the NEA entrance inspires us to follow his example of a wholehearted life of service to God and humanity.

At hospital devotions, I wanted to encourage the Leyaata Hospital staff and our Ghana Health Partners with a quotation from St. Francis of Assisi that says, “Start by doing what is necessary. Then do what is possible. And suddenly, you are doing the impossible.” Brenda Mensah shared this quotation with me in the early years of the Ghana Health Team when I could so easily become overwhelmed by what to do next in the face of the massive needs and lack of access to any health care. Together with our Ghanaian partners, we began doing what was necessary in the remote villages of the region — providing primary care to one person at a time. Then we moved to the possible — things like surgery, glaucoma care, and dental care. Suddenly, we are serving in the 130,809.06 square foot Leyaata Hospital run by a Ghanaian staff. As Luke 18:27 says, all things are possible with God. In these overwhelming early weeks and months of getting a new hospital open and running, I pray these words will encourage us all and inspire the next steps that we should take.

Everything about the Leyaata Hospital is colourful. Each department is marked by a different colour of staff scrub. Leyaata chose such vibrant colours for these hospital uniforms — royal blue, sea blue, emerald green, and bright purple, for example; however, these colours really do pale in comparison to the colourful personalities of our friends. Teasing and laughter is very much a part of the culture here. Our nurses Sandra and Anne were delighted to be presented with their own vibrant blue scrubs, which they wore with great smiles and great pride as they spent the day helping strengthen the nursing program here.

Our paediatrician, Anne Smith, and I continue to work with the young and enthusiastic Leyaata Hospital midwives doing emergency training for babies who struggle to breathe at birth or who develop danger signs in the first hours of life. Neonatal mortality is extremely high in Ghana, but it will be low at the Leyaata Hospital because of the skill of these midwives. They are so passionate about saving babies that when they successfully resuscitate “Natalie” (our neonatal mannequin), their eyes fill with tears and they cover her with kisses while exclaiming, “Don’t ever do that to me again, baby!” They are absolute stars.

Speaking of stars, as David arrived to dinner last evening, he asked if we noticed Jupiter and Venus in the sky. We all looked at each other embarrassed…we wouldn’t know Jupiter or Venus if they were standing in the bright orange carrot/papaya/ginger soup that we were enjoying so much! David marched us outside the cafeteria door to show us. His people know the stars well, using them to guide their movements when hunting deep in the bush. The Mo tribe has their own names for each star in their local language. Jupiter, the largest of the two, is called “chief.” The name for Venus (which is smaller but right on the shoulder of Jupiter) translates to “die and I’ll be chief.” How good is that!

So it has been a colourful day in Ghana and we continue to be inspired as we follow the stars of Leyaata Hospital and serve the patients in this brand new hospital system. There is a role for everyone to play and I am grateful to each one who, like Noah, are pouring their sweat and tears into serving God and humanity.

Until next time,