La fatigue et repose

Watching the sunset by the river on a Friday after work. It was so lovely to be outdoors!

My work seems like play some days. Pure joy to hold this little fellow and sing Sunday School Songs and tell him that Jesus loves him!

Paul has such joy in his work. This little one was so scared and just wanted Paul to hold him while he was put to sleep. Love this picture. Paul loves his patients so!

Sunday night Lessons in Carols at Sahel Academy...love the flags as it reminds us that Jesus is the LORD of ALL NATIONS

The service ended with Silent Night and candles....we weren't in the know as we should have brought our own candles!

Monday morning back to work training the nurses in SIR which is French for Basic Life Support

Nurses hard at work practicing how to ventilate babies and do chest compressions as a team.

Sodogas our physical therapist was in one of the classes.  He is a Moslem. He has two wives who I have met. He is such a wonderful worker and colleague. Please pray for all our staff.

Sometimes our work includes showing visitors around the hospital. This visitor was so happy to jump in and greet our out-patients who are waiting for their turn to have their dressings changed.

Gary Bellig came to visit from our Mission Support Center. We were so glad to get to know him a bit better! Kindred spirits!

Tanti Seffie, who is on our spiritual ministry team is sorting and filling the gift bags for the children at the Christmas party

Hannatou and Seratou  are also filling the bags. It was team work for sure!

I was even allowed to help with the bags, threading the drawstrings and stuffing the bags for the boys and girls.

Mama Mantou was very busy sewing over 160 draw string bags for the candy, cookies and gifts. What a sweetheart!The pattern for these bags comes from Robin Maddux, a dear friend in Lexington, KY. We have replicated it over and over!

 

This is Ali and his son Ishmial. He was very sick with malaria on one of my first visits to CURE Niger 2010. He is now 11 years old and a health young boy. He is so kind to come to the hospital especially to visit me. His dad reminds him of our prayers for his healing. This young fellow nearly died. Malaria is a killer for the young and old. Pray that Ali's family would all know Jesus our Healer, Helper and Savior.

Dr. Pelumi is a 3rd year Anesthesia resident from the University of Kentucky. She is hand delivering some cards made by children in a church in the USA. It was fun to help her and sing Jesus Loves Me This I Know to the little ones.

Paul enjoying a moment of peace and solitude after a full week of training and anesthesia in the OR

The beauty of Niger is found in many places. We spied this spot on a boat ride to see the hippos. It was a very restful one Saturday morning.

Every day we have a series of greeting in French. It goes like this:
Bonjour Papa et Maman Good morning Papa and Mama
Comment ça va? How is it going?
Ça va bien  It is going well
Ça va un peu Local way of politely saying it is not going so well
Et la famille And the family?
Ça va It's going
Et la santé And your health?
Et la fatigue  and the tiredness/fatigue?

Always the questions are about your family, health and fatigue. It may seem a little strange way of greeting but in this place it makes perfect sense. Most people here do not have electricity, hence, no fans or air conditioning in the heat. Likewise, now that the evenings, nights and mornings are comparatively cool, people have little to keep them warm. Life is fatiguing! Paul and I are the oldest folks on the CURE Hôpital des Enfants au Niger campus! So naturally, everyone wants to know if we are tired, ill or able to work. They seem surprised when we show up to work at 7am in the morning!
Weather and work are not the only things that contribute towards fatigue. For us, it is tiring listening and trying to understand and communicate in a language that is not our mother tongue. The daily routines of life here take longer too. Shopping, food preparation (washing everything in clorox solution) and cooking can be energy zappers too. Some days it is all we can do to stay up until 8pm. Haha!
So you can see that physical fatigue is a natural response to the many duties of daily life.
The daily drive to work exposes us to a world of suffering too as we see many disabled, marginalized and indigent people. It breaks ones heart to drive down the street knowing that one does not have the means, nor are called to help everyone. It is tiring and stressful being exposed to the devastating and extreme poverty. It is tiring to know the best way to help the many beggars on the street.  Our hearts are always alert and keen to obey what the Spirit prompts us to do.
We come to work and see many dear children who suffer from the after effects of burns, congenital deformities and trauma. This too is tiring to the soul as we long to see healing, wholeness and functionality of these young bodies.
Our call at CURE is to proclaim the kingdom of God and heal along the way (Luke 9:2). 
All of this would be unbearable if not for our Loving Heavenly Father who gives us rest from our labors and stresses. His love poured into our hearts gives us strength to respond with His love for those we encounter daily. He has provided the beauty of nature and the sweet fellowship of colleagues. Best of all, the LORD has given us His rest, salvation and His promises to sustain us along the way.
As with the other blogs, I have turned to an old hymn that expresses the beautiful rest our Heavenly Father provides in of who He is to us.

Thou Hidden Source of Calm Repose

Thou hidden source of calm repose, 

Thou all sufficient love divine,

My help and refuge from my foes,

Secure I am, if Thou art mine,

And lo! from sin and grief and shame

I hide me, Jesus in Thy name.

Thy mighty name salvation is,

And keeps my happy soul above,

Comfort it bring and prayer and peace.

And joy and everlasting love,

To me, with Thy dear name are given

Pardon and holiness and heaven.

Jesus my all in all Thou art,

My rest in toil my ease in pain

The medicine of my broken heart

In war my peace, in loss my gain,

My smile beneath the tyrant's frown

My shame my glory and my crown.

In want my plentiful supply,

In weakness my Almighty power

In bonds my perfect liberty

My light in Satan's darkest hour,

My help and stay when e'er I call

My life in death, my heaven my all. 

Charles Wesley (1707-1788)

 

 

Thankful and Thanksgiving

Dr. Margo Short and I are preparing an apple crisp for Thanksgiving dinner.

Here is the unbaked dish-Before!

Here is the after picture. I was so happy to have a basket to tote it to our friends home. I felt like Martha Stewart :) So thankful that I can bake something without my usual kitchen things like a mixer.

Julie and I are looking at the beautiful Thanksgiving dinner table that she set with some paper goods from the Dollar Store! She is an amazing hostess, just like her Mom Liz Kopp. So thankful to be a recipient of their hospitality!

We love Julie! Note the cute Thanksgiving decorations that she made even though they are leaving us before Christmas. We are going to miss the Korn family so much. I met them 7 years ago when we lived in the CURE guesthouse together.

Here is precious baby Emmett who is 9 months old wearing an 18 month outfit from Cracker Barrel. He is a big boy and so lovely.  His other brother Leon was at another party when this picture was taken. Leon is a popular young fellow with his friends. Josh and Julie are amazing parents!

At home in our apartment, we are thankful for the camping chairs that Mark bought for us to watch our grandson, George's soccer matches. They were so light and compact that we thought we would bring them to Niger with us. We did not know that we would use them every day! Sadly the two couches in our apartment are really terrible to sit on. They are not bad to lay down on at least!

Nurses are so thankful to Pappa Paul for buying them a new couch set for their break room. You cannot see it but it is black sturdy leatherette (AKA vinyl). It is very professional looking. He bought a similar set for the nurses in the Pavilion (Ward)

We are so thankful for Paul's generosity and commitment to training his residents from the University of Kentucky and all of the anesthesia and OR staff.

Thank you dear Dr, Margo for bringing her skills, kindness and love for the dear children. The feeling was mutual. They loved to run up to her and greet her. This particular day, Dr. Margo was having a sticker-fest. The children and even the mothers loved getting a few stickers on their arms, foreheads and clothing :)

Thank you to Josh (in the blue shirt) and his wife Julie for their service to CURE. Josh is the outgoing executive director of the CURE Niger hospital. Julie is the outgoing art therapist, par excellence! This week, even though she is packing, she made time to do special crafts with the children and give advice on some of the difficult patient situations. We are so thankful for these dear ones. Josh is wise beyond his years. It has been such a joy to work with him over the years. Thank you Josh and Julie!

George (our new executive director), Jacques (Controller) and Hannatou (our Spiritual Director) presented words or thanks and of course some parting gifts of thankfulness to the Korns. Thankful that our goodbyes are not forever! Josh and Julie will be relocating in the USA for now with new responsibilities with CURE. They have family in Cincinnati so we plan to catch up when we return to the USA in the summer.

Deux frères avec la même Père...this rhymes in French! It means two brothers with the same Father! Amen!! Emanuel works on our spiritual ministry team. He is awesome with the children and an excellent personal evangelist one on one. We are so thankful for his passion and faithfulness to the LORD and this ministry at CURE Hôpital des Enfants au Niger!

I know we are supposed to be thankful for our food....this is lamb entrails (intestines, stomach, liver etc0 in a sauce that is served before the roasted lamb. Many of us said....I 'll pass on this course of the meal! We are so thankful though that we were able to feed all the hospital staff, patients and their companions with the sheep that were bought for the farewell party for Josh and Julie.

Some didn't mind it too much. The tray with the green stuff was the salad course. It was Moringa leaves in a sauce with onions, tomatoes and green peppers served with powdered 'piment forte' very spicy pepper. I liked it with the piment, Paul skipped the extra spice. Thankful for the nutritious fresh green vegetables. We are eating a lot of canned vegetables as some are hard to find and spoil so quickly when you buy them. Carrots turn rubbery very quickly!

This grandma is thankful for baby cuddles when I am so far away from my own dear grandbabies. The Lord is so good to allow us to be involved with dear friends and their little ones. We are thankful!

This Thanksgiving I am thankful for Dr. Margo's visit and my A-Team nurse manager Fatchima!  We were all given CURE shirts for a group picture of all the hospital staff. When I get a copy I'll post one.

This blog post I have not shown any of our work at the hospital but instead attempted to show you our thankfulness during this season of THANKSGIVING! It has nevertheless been a full time of training and working with the staff on various aspects of patient care.  Every encounter with our patients, caregivers and staff we hope there is the love, light and language (word and deeds) that show the LORD Jesus Christ, out Savior's love.  We cling to the following verse in our daily work at the hospital:

Whatever you do, whether in word of deed, do it all in the name of the LORD Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father though Him.

Colossians 3:17

It is all for Jesus Christ our LORD!

Abundant Times!

Heading to Galmi Hospital for a couple of days to consult with the medical director

Paul and our pilot Joe! We are so grateful for the SIM pilots.

We had our noise cancelling earphones on....too loud without them

Up up and away as we fly over the airport in Niamey

We flew over farms attempting to grow vegetables in this hot and harsh climate

Yes, this is a desert! Very dry, sandy and desolate for the large part of the country

Dr, Margo Short in the OR at Galmi with the required long skirt! LOL a first for a University of Kentucky Anesthesia Resident

Paul and Dr. Margo doing anesthesia within minutes of landing!

Galmi Mission Hospital compound had some very pretty flowering bushes!

Dr. Anne-Sophie sharing morning devotions in Hausa. I understood the French sign behind her at least!

This was the hymnal. We sang Amazing Grace in Hausa. I can sing in Hausa because the words are written phonetically...aren't you impressed LOL!

Sweet nurse caring for a premature baby of about 2 lbs (1800gms)

This woman put the baby in my arms. I was not sure what this was all about. It turned out this was one of her twins and she was looking for help to feed the two. She did not not have enough milk. She was wanting another woman to help nurse the twins. The poor mother looked undernourished and dehydrated and suggested we find more food and water for her. Patients at the Galmi hospital have their food brought to them by the family members. Life is so complicated here.

Homeward bound to Niamey! We were so happy to be going home to our apartment and CURE Hôpital des Enfants au Niger

Home to Friday afternoon traffic!

Cattle have the right or way!

We are experiencing so many new things. We are seeing different types of healthcare in Niger. Paul has visited several clinics and other hospitals with his resident Dr. Margo Short. It has truly been an abundant time. Next blog I will post about our Thanksgiving.

It is easy to get so caught up in the needs and newness of all that we are seeing and experiencing. Each day we try to make sure that we turn to the LORD for strength, direction and wisdom. He is our peace and our Heavenly Father. His desire is that we grow more and more like the LORD JESUS CHRIST.  It is not so much what we DO but who we are in Him! Below is a hymn or prayer that is very old but it is one of desiring to grow daily. Do not be turned off my the old English. The message is sweet!

O Jesus Christ, Grow Thou in Me

 O Jesus Christ, grow Thou in me, and all things else recede!

My heart be daily nearer Thee,  from sin be daily freed.

Each day let Thy supporting might my weakness still embrace;

My darkness vanish in Thy light, Thy life my death efface.

In Thy bright beams which on me fall, face every evil thought;

That I am nothing, Thou art all, I would be daily taught.

More of Thy glory let me see, Thou Holy Wise and True!

I would Thy living image be, in joy and sorrow too.

Fill me with gladness from above; hold me by strength Divine;

Lord let the glow of Thy great love Thru my whole being shine.

Make this poor self grow less and less, be Thou my life and aim;

Oh make me daily through Thy grace more meet to bear Thy name! 

J.C. Lavater-translated by H.B. Smith

Public Domain