Yesterday I had the honor to go with a medical team on a clinic visit a little less than 2 hours away. Pastor Simon, the head of the chaplaincy department, and I represented the chaplains on the trip. The road was fairly smooth until about 30 minutes away from the clinic, then it got alittle bumpy. We bounced our way up the mountain on the dirt roads to the clinic. I told Pastor Simon that people in the U.S. pay money to ride rides like this at amusement parks, but in Cameroon, it's free! When we arrived at the clinic, the manager gave a tour of the small medical campus. After the tour, we had bread and tea for our breakfast then headed over to the crowd of patients for singing, devotions, and prayer. Pastor Simon gave a wonderful devotion from Isaiah, and then we went over to a private ward to meet with a man that had fallen out of a tree. After our session with him, we went to the chaplain's office to counsel people one on one. The people that we met with were mostly people with high blood pressure, anxiety, and anger issues. One woman was harboring anger towards her brother, because he poisoned her grandchild and killed him. Another woman had anxiety issues towards her son who is still living at home with her (she has 8 kids and is a widow) and everytime she asks him to do something, he says he doesn't have time. The worst cases that we dealt with were HIV cases. The first HIV case was a woman, who has been infected for two years, and hasn't even started her first treatment yet because she can't afford it. She could barely hold her head up when she talked to us. She has three "pickens" (children) by three different men. Her husband, the one that she has the first child with, passed away a few years ago. The third child is by a married man from Douala. It was a very sad situation. She told us that she was a Christian and went to church, so we had prayer with her and tried to encourage her to work with the clinic to start treatment as soon as possible. Pastor Simon talked to the manager about possibly getting her to Mbingo, but she still has a debt with the clinic. Her name is Cecila, please pray for her. Pastor Simon will be doing some follow up with her. The next HIV case was Judith, a shy young woman that seemed embarassed every time she opened her mouth to talk. She wasn't infected with HIV, but her husband is positive. They have six kids together and she has decided to sleep in a seperate bed. The problem is that he doesn't like their sleeping arrangements, and wants to have more kids. So we counseled her on bringing her burdens to the Lord, and casting her care on Him along with some other personal issues. I talked to her about her communication with God. I told her that when we pray to God and communicate with Him, we must also read His word to see what He has to say to us. The problem is that she doesn't know how to read. My heart just broke. Compassion just fills your whole being when you see these situations and you just want to take the person out of the situation and give them a better life. Since she said that she and her husband were believers, we encouraged her to pray with her husband and ask God to give them direction for the marriage and family. The last woman that we met with was Christina, who was probably between 50 - 60 years old. When you ask someone older here what their age is, sometimes they just don't know because there is probably no record of their birth. So you see alot of 50+ or 60+ on their medical records. Anyway, Christina was struggling with hypertension (high blood pressure) because of her issues with being a widow, having many "pickens", and using tobacco. After counseling her, we discovered that she did not know the God of the bible that we spoke about. Pastor Simon, through a tribal interpreter, talked to her about who "Papa" (their name for God) was and how she needed forgiveness of her sins. He asked if she wanted to pray to Papa, and receive Him into her life. I couldn't understand all of the Pidgin and the other tribal language, but I noticed that the interpreter was talking then Christina would talk. Before she left our office, she gave her heart to Papa and asked Him to forgive her sins. Pastor Simon made sure that she knew of a church that is close to her home to go to and encouraged her to attend. Christina's conversion made the bumpy trip up the mountain worth it! God is still in the saving business. Praise the Lord!
Football
The clinic
Clinic Staff
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