Jacques Lapointe

When God in his infinite wisdom proclaimed the seventh day as a day of rest He certainly foresaw the needs of our dedicated medical team today. After six long grueling days in the villages and on the roads to get to and from them it was time to turn off the adrenalin and just allow our bodies and minds to be tired and to rest.

After a later breakfast this morning the vehicles loaded for the short drive to the Bamboi church for Sunday service. Words simply can’t do justice to the time of praise, worship and testimonies at a good African church. Simple uninhibited praise and jubilation expressed in joyful song and dance is so natural here that most of our team willingly joined in with the congregation. Somehow two and a half hours went by very quickly. The rest of the day afforded plenty of time for naps, chats or just plain vegging and for the few of our unwell soldiers to get back to full strength.

Having been in the trenches with this awesome group of people this past week I can only say to all who are reading this, whether children, spouses, relatives, friends or supporters of those here, that you can be very proud of what they are accomplishing. It is truly making a difference in this faraway part of world.

Today we could really see how the months of preparation by the medical team have paid off. Once we arrived in the village of Nyamboi, within an hour three truckloads of equipment and medical supplies were unpacked, set up and Medical staff fully operational to start seeing the crowds of patients who had been waiting since long before we arrived.

By the time we had closed for the day and packed things securely away for the night with the help of our wonderful Ghanaian helpers it was already dusk (there’s no electricity in Nyamboi).

Great stories from every sector were shared later over dinner. A patient who had suffered a heart attack just before the clinic was dispatched to a hospital and was later reported to be stable; then there’s the story of a young mother who had already lost the sight of one eye and whose other diseased eye was able to be saved with dispensed eye drops; and finally the eleven year old Fulanese “cow boy” who was diagnosed with multiple ailments and for whom our pharmacy staff delayed their close to provide him with his pouch of medicines before he had to immediately return to watch over his herd of cows.

The evening finished with a surprise birthday (she will have to tell you how many herself) cake and presentation to team leader Dr. Jennifer Wilson, affectionately known here as Dr. Jenn.

We thank all of you for your prayers and we thank God that every team member is healthy and doing well.

The four vehicle convoy carrying the entire Health Team and more than 150 pieces of luggage arrived in Carpenter at 6:30pm after a long eleven hour drive from Accra. [Read more…] about Health Team Arrived in Carpenter

It’s Saturday afternoon and everything is relatively calm here in Carpenter … at last.

For the past month the preparation work has been extensive and particularly intensive this past week. The grocery order is in (two days of open market shopping – two truckloads), the cow has been butchered, the beds are ready, the translators have been briefed, the drivers are waiting in Accra for the team, and that’ just a brief sampling of the pages of logistics in place to ensure that as many patients as possible are helped while the health team is here. And because this is Africa, for every plan A there often needs to be a plan B.

So, we are ready at this end. Bring it on.

I was reflecting last night on all the preparations that have been going on in Canada, in Ghana, and in the UK and how results will only be seen, and the purposes of the program carried out when all the teams come together here in Ghana. The Lord has a purpose for all of this as well and it is certainly exciting to be part of His plan.