SENEGAL REPORT #3

"Lucky Number 13"

         
   

The woman had the red token with the number 13. That was a good number to have. There were over 50 people in the village who would see the medical staff Saturday and she would be near the front. Her treatment would be several hours earlier than those with 43 or 53. She was "lucky".

Only we Presbyterians don't believe in luck, do we? Hmmm....

Saturday started early for the medical team that this woman had number 13 to see. They gathered at the headquarters of Mission Inner Senegal (MIS) in Theis, the mission organization run by Faith Promise missionaries Jose and France-Lise Oliveira since its start ten years ago.

 
 

The fifteen members of the medical team from missons-oriented Providence Church outside Philadelphia had four who were part of last year's team and eleven new people. The leader of the team is Dr. Mike Carnuccio, who has been on medical teams with MIS for the past three years.

Jose gave the group an overview of the organization's holistic approach to mission work. Their view is that by reaching out to all needs of the unbeliever, be it physical or spiritual, they would be better able to lead the person to Christ. MIS is involved in a wide range of projects from drilling wells and improving clean water access to literacy training to church planting to a support ministry to women involving micro loans and vocational training to a children's ministry to operation of a hospital.

After the meeting the team headed out to the selected village using a type of small bus popular in Senegal called a "rapide", pronounced "ra'-pide." With MIS support staff the bus held 25 people plus several suitcases of medicines brought from the states and other supplies necessary to exam and treat the people in three villages.

When the team arrived at the village it was easy to see that this was a huge event to the people. The chief and the elders of the village joined the many people in the center of the village and formally welcomed the team with speeches. Dr. Mike responded with thanks to God for the village and asked blessing upon the team's work.

     
     
 

One of the elders really touched my heart when he said (through an interpreter): "If my whole village worked all of their lives they could not save enough money to go to where you come from." That brought a lump to my throat! Forgive me, Lord, for the many times that I don't appreciate the great blessing of living in America.

To Dr. Mike one of the worst things that could have happened that day was for the team to have to leave before all the people who wanted to be examined and treated had an opportunity to. So right after the ceremony the work began. A building with four rooms became three examination rooms and a pharmacy. In another building a room was devoted to wound care and a lab.

 
       
 
There was good news to tell the villagers but sometimes there was bad. I was there when the village chief's mother was told that the blurry vision she had was from severe cataracts and only an operation would help. But Beth Anne Henne reached out with compassion by promising to not forget her and see if it could be arranged for her to have the operation.
 
While the exams were going on, some members of the team were involved in working with the many, many children of the village. Each time I go back to Africa I am reminded of what someone said during my first visit: "Africa is a nation of children." The bleak side of that is that so many die before they become adults. The positive side is that children are often more open to the Gospel than adults. Children are a great mission field in Africa.
     
   
     
 
     

Let me close this report with a few observations from here:

There are a lot of goats and sheep here! More than I remember in my previous visits. There aren't many dogs. Few cats. Some herds of brama bulls. And quite a few donkeys and a smallish breed of horse. But the rest can't touch the goats and sheep for sheer numbers!

   
The making and drinking of tea is a social event that is important to the Senegalese. The tea is made in an old fashioned tea pot and is served in a shot glass that is shared by all drinkers. The pourer raises the tea pot high as he pours to get a layer of foam on top. The hot tea is sweeter than even our Southern tea (I couldn't believe that at first but it is). Guests, like the medical team, are served first. This boy went around to all of us offering the Senegalese tea.
     
There is no breakfast, lunch, and dinner here. There is one major meal and it takes quite a bit of time for the women and children to prepare because it is cooked on an open fire. It is often millet, a type of grain, or rice with different meats and/or vegetables laid on top. It is served in a large communal bowl without eating utensils (Westerners though often are given a spoon) with the right hand used to scoop up the food and squeezed into a ball to eat. You are expected to keep to your pie-shaped section in front of you but the host can push extra meat or grain into your section. This is what it looks like:
   

I started this report by talking about how "lucky" a woman was to have number 13 as she waited to be called by the medical team. I said that we Presbyterians don't believe in "luck". If we don't believe in luck what do we believe in?

My time here in Africa has shown me example after example of a great God who is in total control. I think you can see that control more clearly in the mission field where souls cannot be won by human effort but only by God's grace.

Missionaries often see situations that cannot be solved with human strength or wisdom. God is the only one wise enough and powerful enough to cause 25 people in a village at one time to come to Christ; the only one to have two Muslim religious leaders to tell the head of a village that the Christians should have their own church; the only one who can make Africa a nation on fire for Christ!

It is a priviledge to be here serving God by serving His missionaries. Let me encourage you to think about going on a mission trip. There is nothing like it! It can change your lives like it did ours.

Bye for now....