
Our setting is not a typical clinic/healthcare setting. Our team is a pioneering church planting team in an unreached area and our ministry activities are focused in that vein. We do see healthcare as a vital component to caring for the needs of the whole person, and opening doors for the gospel. We are strong contenders for the vision of sharing “the two hands of the gospel”—seeking spiritual transformation and physical restoration for people. Some of our ministry activities do include community health education, as we believe that this is the foundational level for seeing a change in this community. We do not always have formal “classes” going because of our limited number on the team. Recently we had a family join our team who are Muslim Background Believers and have had training in development and community health. We are hoping that this area of community health education will be able to grow and expand now.
While we do not operate a clinic, we are very involved in our community and have many people come for health issues. Some are basic like wound care, abscesses, skin infections, and others are more involved such as HTN, DM, anemia, bone fractures, etc. Our town does have a hospital, albeit not a very good one, but we are able to help people know if they should seek care there or if they can do simple measures at home (most people won’t go because of financial issues). In all of this, we try to help educate regarding the concern at hand, Most importantly, we pray with everyone. People call our house the “house of healing prayer.” We love this opportunity to explain that it is Jesus who is the Healer. We have seen some amazing miraculous answers to prayer, and have sometimes been “part of the answer” by assisting people to get to an appropriate doctor/clinic in order to be treated. This affords an opportunity to share with them and their family why we are helping in the name of Jesus.

Without our MedSend grants, Mike and I would not be on the field. Together we sought the Lord as we considered our professional development, and what professions God was calling us to in our journey into missions. We were both very intentional in this process, and yet we came away with debt that was holding us back from moving forward. Our grants made it possible not only to receive the profession skills we needed and felt the Lord was calling us, but also to be able to leave for the field before becoming entrenched in our professions in the US while paying off our loans. This allowed us to come to the field sooner, and to live and serve in a place that is in dire physical and spiritual need. We have been so grateful for the generous donors who have made it possible for us to be on the field for the last 12 years. It has enabled our longevity and establishment in the community, which in West Africa is key to opening doors to relationships and sharing the gospel.