Trusting by Faith
[an excerpt from Caryl’s Closet]
So, once again, I decided to trust and obey the one who brought my husband and I together for a purpose. [1]We led our first mission trip to Ghana in 1996, under the auspices of the International Health & Development Network (IHDN) and the blessing of our church, Hope Church.
I fell in love with the people of Ghana. Their vibrant, joyful, engaging spirits reminded me of the people from my own village in Guyana, South America. Life back then was unbelievably rough. Imagine arriving in a poor village in the dead of night, after travelling for over eighteen hours from America to Ghana, West Africa. A distance that should take three hours, took over six hours along rugged, dusty, potholed roadway to get from Accra, the capital city of Ghana, to Agbozume, located in the Volta Region of Ghana.
The next few weeks in the village of Agbozume, was life changing. Friends and family in the village came out to welcome our mission team with singing, drumming and dancing. Every day feasted on delicious Ghanaian cuisine and as the evenings ensued, one by one, exhausted, we staggered to our guest rooms.
One morning, we were invited to a durbar held in the center of the village. Local Chiefs, Queen Mothers, important dignitaries and community organizers, celebrated the end of a year of good harvest and development in the village. There was no shortage of merrymaking; dancing and clowning and joy-making late into the night.
June teaching children in the village of Agbozume.
The village of Agbozume, in 1996, had no doctors, only one midwife nurse and a number of witch-doctors or Juju men and Traditional Healers. There were no telephones. No electricity, no running water in the average villager’s home and people filled potholes in the streets with garbage. It was a perfect textbook example for a budding Public Health student like me to learn on the job. I took the opportunity to gather as much information about the health and socioeconomic status of the people of Agbozume and neighboring village of Klikor. These data were crucial to our non-profit organization efforts over the years, as a foundation to measure improvements in infrastructures and economic development in the community.
Someone said, “There is a doctor and his mission team visiting from America!” Those utterances were enough to change the entire atmosphere in the village. For the next four days, my husband, members of our mission team and a handful of local villagers, held clinic in a local village courthouse. We used bed sheets and cloth on windows of the building, to create privacy for patients. Our open suitcases were used as a pharmacy. Patients sat quietly under a mango tree on long, wooden benches, and for four days, we tended to patients to the best of our capabilities. On the fourth evening, my husband became ill.
“I love these people. You must love them more than things. I love people more than anything.”
As a Public Health professional, one has to address the Social Determinants of Health. Among these are, but not limited to, adequate housing, transportation, access to care, (both physical and mental), quality education from kindergarten to college. Meeting the needs of any community, is nonstop. Support is needed to navigate the challenges. However, recruiting trusted people and resources are few and expensive in rural Ghana. A major part of our challenges over the years is that there was nothing for us to build on. For example, when we started construction of the International Health & Development Network (IHDN) Mission Hospital in Weta, Ghana, we had to bring water and electricity from three miles away. Although we serve a catchment area of over 60,000 people, there was absolutely no support from the government of Ghana and efforts to raise support from the community was impossible. The average person in that community made less than $2 a day. So, where did the resources come from? We had to take our lamentations to the God of the universe. We encouraged family and friends to support the work of IHDN. Subsequently, after much pleadings, we periodically get needed reimbursements from the Ghana National Health Insurance Scheme. Along with support from family, friends, our church and others in Springfield, along with others in Chicago and Decatur, Illinois, the IHDN Mission activities continue.
Pre-order Caryl’s Closet.
In 2012, I spearheaded the first Annual IHDN “Bringing the World Together” Fundraiser Banquet. Over the past nine years, I helped raise over $640,000 in revenue to help fund the IHDN Mission work in progress. This “Bringing the World Together” title, was birthed from the variety of witnesses from many cultures, brought together on our wedding day. Over the years, our annual fundraiser has become the talk of the town. We live in the cornfields of White suburbia. This fundraiser banquet features Ghanaian, African culture, Asian and European and other cultures, with the aim to once each year, showcase the world, its fashion and vibrant colors. This fun and relaxing environment inspires people to give. We ought to remember that, we, Americans, represent, seventy-five percent of the world’s richest people. I had to learn that in order to build a strong team of volunteers, I must see someone else’s strength as a compliment to my weaknesses and not a threat to my position or authority.
Then, I often ended with one of my favorite stories that best illustrates what life is about.
“Once upon a time, there were two male patients in a hospital room. Both men laid in their beds all day long. Every day, the gentleman closest to the window would describe to the other, how beautiful each day was. He spoke about the different people, their families, the kind of clothes they wore and the activities they were engaged in. He would report on the picturesque atmosphere down below and how he hoped and dreamed of getting out of bed one day to join them.
The other man would look forward to hearing all of the wonderful stories and he too would dream of the time he would get better and experience some of the fun that awaited him outside.
One bright sunny morning, the gentleman next to the window died. After his body was taken away, his friend requested that he be put in the bed next to the window. He settled in nicely and attempted to look outside, below his window. To his chagrin, all he saw was a tall, black wall! He wept, uncontrollably! He realized that his friend had a great imagination and wanted to cheer him up by describing beautiful scenes from his vivid imagination, of what life could be.”
When we allow God to take resident in our imagination, we are engaging in providing hope for the people in our sphere of influence. We are His vessels. When we use or five senses to create beauty for others to enjoy, we are distilling parts of who God is. When we speak words of encouragement to others , we could literally change the trajectory of their lives.