Sunday, the 11th of January

Good Afternoon from Gabon!

It is a beautiful warm evening as I write. In the 80's, but not too humid since it rained really hard last night.

I was awakened ~5am by a phone call from Huub. A lady had arrived with the umbilical cord coming out, without the baby. The blood to the baby was being cut off so we needed to do something quick.
Hoop is training to work in Guinea and will be there in a couple of months. So this is his last chance to do operations with someone like me to assist/teach. He did very well. Even after all the trauma, miraculously, the baby survived. When he arrived he wasn't breathing...but a few minutes later he was doing fine.
That is why I am here.

A little while later I headed back home through the morning mist while reflecting on the fragility of life. The woman had lost both of her first two babies in birth. And today, on my own mother's birthday, the third baby survived. I don't know what God has planned for this young life, but I know His hand is already at work.


Friday another lady's life was spared. It was quite frankly a miracle. She had swallowed a fish bone a day earlier and it was stuck midway down her esophagus. We put her to sleep and then I tried to find it with a "scope". I could barely see anything, yet there was a shadow off to the side. I could not see the tiny grasper I was attempting to put into the "shadow", but after a couple of attempts something moved and it ended up in her throat where I finally grabbed it.
It was serrated like a saw-tooth knife. If it had stayed she would likely of died from an abscess. She could not eat or drink because of the pain. Later I reflected on the odds of that bone being retrieved - barely able to see anything, let alone a bone, the grasper was too small to grab it, and yet it was enough...with God's help. It reminded me of the story of the fish and loaves - Jesus just asks us to give what we have, and he takes care of the rest. I feel like a loaf of bread or piece of fish sometimes, but I'm grateful that God uses me in spite of my inadequacy.


It is because of people like Huub and Margrite who are here with Rebecca (1 1/2 y/o) that I come Africa. They have a call to assist and help the people of Guinea to hear the good news that God loves them - not with a "love" which distorts reality, but a true relationship with our Creator God which changes all the rules the world claims as "reality".

I see things in this world which are not explained by our science. I see the love of God expressed in ways which few ever have the opportunity to see.
Without the power of God present in our lives none of this would be possible. It is a privilege to see God at work so clearly.


This week I will be doing operations which I would rarely, if ever, do in the USA. It is because of God's grace that I am here, but it is the prayers of those praying for me that sustain me in the challenges. Thank you for praying.


"This is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another."
1 John 4:10-11