Joel's Post: Fulani and update

The Fulani are a nomadic tribe throughout Western Africa. They are a people group primarily of a different faith with little access to the gospel. We have had some patients come to the hospital that are Fulani. One patient presented in labor with twins with a knee presentation of the first twin. We proceeded with a C'section. She had been in labor for a long time and had a relaxed uterus, or uterine atony. We gave her some medicines (oxytocin and cytotec) which initially improved her bleeding, however, throughout the day, she continued to have bleeding despite the medicines. We proceeded to do a hysterectomy as a last ditch effort to save her. She made it through the surgery, but was in need of more blood transfusions despite the family donating several units (there is no blood bank here, the family is responsible for donating blood to the patient at the time it is needed). One of the nurse/midwives graciously donated her blood to the patient so that the patient could live. This gave us a great opportunity to tell the Fulani patient and her husband about someone else who gave his blood and life so that we might live. I had gone to find Alex, a nurse who also pastors the local Fulani outreach church. Before I could find him, he had already began sharing with the Fulani patient in their own language about the love of Christ. The family said they would seriously consider what Alex had shared with them.

We have had many visiting doctors and other volunteers come through. These people are a great blessing to us and allow us to spend more time with our families. This week Dr. Dewey Dunn and Roy Renfro from Nashville have been here. Dewey had the chance to lead two people to Christ during clinic this week.

There may be 400-500 patients show up for clinic each day on Monday, Wednesday and Friday. The clinic shuts down for a thirty minute period to allow a presentation of the gospel. During these presentations there were I believe 19 decisions to follow Christ on Wednesday and 15 on Friday. We have also had a visiting medical resident say that she is near coming to a decision to follow Christ. Thanks for your prayers!