Niger Update

This just in from my friend John. He is back safe, and I thought excerpts from his email worth posting (with his permission). The surgeon stuff is a little technical, but I think interesting:

"Jana and I returned last night after 45 hours of travel, safe and sound.

Thank you for your prayers. God is GOOD, and there is much for which to give thanks.

First of all for safety in travel. The last bush taxi out of Niger was probably the most eventful one in terms of wondering if we really would return! Thankfully there are still donkeys which are alive, an old Mercedes is still rolling somewhere over there, and the tires on our little Peugeot taxi didn’t blow as we almost rolled over twice. Sliding sideways down the side of a road having almost taken out a donkey or two and the other car was a bit on the exciting side. Being able to smell burned rubber was proof that our senses were still intact. Thanks for praying for our safety!

Secondly for wisdom in surgery. There is at least one lady who still alive because of the grace of God’s timing. She ruptured her uterus in the process of giving birth, and came into the hospital literally bleeding to death. I was asked to see her to do a D&C for a retained placenta since I was already in the hospital operating, but as soon as I looked I saw her swelling with blood as she bled internally. A short bit later I had her open and the main vessels tied off, but she continued to bleed from small vessels which are impossible to control. Instead of just closing her up to die (as was done in a similar situation by a physician earlier in the year) I remembered a technique described to me by an older Obstetrician just two days before I left for Niger. I used the same technique (modified slightly) and closed her. That surgery was followed by another D&C for a completely retained placenta and the mother was also bleeding to death. When I completed that and was heading home (4:30 am) I checked and the first lady was still alive. Amazingly a few hours later she was doing so well she was asking to eat! And 48 hours later she was ready to start walking as I left to return to the US.

The reason I was in the hospital was because the doctor on-call that night (an ophthalmologist) had been performing a C-section to deliver a baby when 5 trauma patients showed up in the ER. He asked me to come help take care of them. While I was getting ready to sew up the first one, he called from the OR a few feet away and asked me for help since he couldn’t get the baby out and the mother was bleeding profusely. That woman had given birth to the first twin over 12 hours earlier and had come to the hospital when the second twin wouldn’t come. So I threw on an OR gown and a pair of gloves and opened her uterus further to get the baby out (which was dead) and close the uterus to stop the bleeding. Even though the baby was dead I told the assistant to suction out its nose and mouth before I handed him over to the nurse. While closing, the nurse poked her head back in the OR to say the boy was alive and doing well. I don’t know what damage may have occurred to his brain because of probable lack of oxygen, but am praying that for whatever purpose God may have for his life, that God will be glorified.

The on-call doc went home because he was tired, and I continued sewing up the Trauma patients…and… was just finishing the last one when the woman with the ruptured uterus came in.

God’s timing is impeccable. I was telling myself there must be a reason why I was up at 1:30 am sewing patients scalps closed and praying about my attitude regarding whole issue just before the events of that early morning unfolded. After a couple hours of sleep I was back up again to operate and cover call for another 36 hours.

Thank you for praying. God is the one who gives us strength. He is the one who provides wisdom in every situation, and He is the one who receives the praise for what HE orchestrates in order to thwart the effects of sin on this world. Most days were long (12-16 hours), some longer, and the work intense at times. Most days entailed more work than what the average surgeon performs in an entire week here in the U.S. The challenges of operating and working with people in three languages, of which I really only speak one, were tough if not entertaining. And there was joy in relating with believers who are facing similar challenges, yet finding God’s grace sufficient to meet every one of them.


If you have ever been part of a winning team, or part of a project that demanded intense, prolonged effort to achieve a goal, a championship, or accomplish something together… you know there is something shared by those who are a part of it which goes deeper than can be expressed in words. In the same way I feel I experienced the opportunity to “come off the bench” for a few minutes (days) and share in the challenge of an effort to see Christ proclaimed in a land which is desperate for Life.

I am always challenged when I work in Niger. Not just from the physical standpoint of endurance, heat, and the harsh conditions… but primarily in my attitude and relationship to people who face circumstances and realities that seem so distant from my every day life. When Jesus talks about people being helpless and harassed like sheep without a shepherd, I think of Niger.

Masses of people who live from day to day in hopeless existence imbued with a fatalistic outlook on life so ingrained it is hard to fathom. They hurt, they feel pain, they often don’t like their circumstances…yet they have no hope of changing without the hope that comes from knowing Christ.

For some, they have resigned themselves to “fate”. Others seek escape through various diversions. Still others seek meaning through trying to scrape together enough money, power, wives, or bear enough children to demonstrate that they are “worth something”. When all along the One person who gives meaning to life, gives healing, gives LIFE, is right there with open arms. But how can they know without someone telling them? And how can someone tell them without being there? And how does that person get there? And, in the case of Galmi, stay there long enough to communicate that message of hope and show them love?

Over and over again I was reminded that the gifts that God has given me to address people’s physical needs are only temporary. I seek to prolong their life so that they have the opportunity to come to know God, and for those who know Him to have more time to share His love to those around them. But the primary goal is to see God glorified, to honor Him with the “clay” of our lives, and to know the joy of relating with the One who created us for His glory. If God is not glorified through our lives than it is all for naught.

The time in Galmi was brief. There were a lot of operations performed, and yes, some people’s lives on this earth were prolonged. But my greatest hope is that there will be those who come to know Jesus through the witness of believers seeking to share God’s love through their lives. Please pray that those patients who came through the hospital would come to know the One True God. And please continue to pray for those who work at Galmi. Pray for the staff who do not yet know Jesus, that they would come to know Him. And for the believers that do – that their lives will reflect the love of God who loves each one of those patients, each person in Niger, and each one of us, more than we can imagine.

I could tell you a lot more stories, at least a dozen or more for each day I was there. Stories of triumph, laughter, joy, and praise… along with stories of frustration, sorrow, and at times disgust at the ugliness of sin. Life is full at Galmi – from both ends of the spectrum. I count it a privilege to have been able to serve there briefly as a bridge between surgeons coming and going. I am humbled and grateful for the opportunity to see God at work so clearly in people’s lives. I know it is in great part due to your prayers for Jana and me. I returned healthy (and in one piece) and returned to work today eager to see where God is leading next.

Thank you, again, for your prayers of support. I knew many times these past couple of weeks that the strength and wisdom I experienced did not come from my natural abilities, but were a gift from God. Operating on more than 60 patients in six days, as well as seeing over 50 patients in the outpatient department gave me a new perspective on “work”. Only 10-12 of those operations were scheduled. But the main thing is that each one of those patients had the opportunity to hear about Jesus – and for that it was well worth it. Thank you for upholding me in your prayers.

I could write for a few more pages, but I’ll stop here.

Enjoy this day!

In Him, gratefully,

John"


Wow. There is plenty there to chew on. One thing stands out to me:

The contrast and similarities between John's email and Dave's post of a few days ago. Specifically where Dave says this (not used with permission, hopes it's okay (since it is sorta public):

"I've been an atheist since I was a child, and take Nietzsche at his word that individual action in the face of the absurd is the only path away from Nihilism. What Thoreau, contemporaneous great soul, called "quiet desperation." And that in the end is what I fear, at the end of the day an engagement that will have seemed half-hearted. So, I run away from home and play tricks on myself."

In many ways, John's time in Niger is ultimately "action in the face of the absurd." If you take God out of the equation, there is no way his presence there made a hoot of difference in the long run other than avoiding "quiet desperation" in John's life. It is like throwing starfish back into the ocean at low tide. John sees it totally differently, however, and I loved the paragraph:

"Over and over again I was reminded that the gifts that God has given me to address people’s physical needs are only temporary. I seek to prolong their life so that they have the opportunity to come to know God, and for those who know Him to have more time to share His love to those around them. But the primary goal is to see God glorified, to honor Him with the “clay” of our lives, and to know the joy of relating with the One who created us for His glory. If God is not glorified through our lives than it is all for naught."

And in my opinion he is totally right. We have been given a short time to live. We can live for ourselves. We can live for the glory of God. The type of life you choose to live will largely depend on your view of God (or not). Both lives, lived properly, will require struggle and sacrifice to live them fully. Perhaps Nietsche and Christ are not so far apart...except for the whole existence of God thing.

Both Dave's and John's lives are fully consistent with their beliefs about what is the order of the universe and reality (one atheist, one theist). That is something I can truly respect, even if I disagree with a particular viewpoint about what the make-up of reality is. To live consistent with your beliefs is to live honestly. Anything else is hypocrisy.

May I do so well. I (and I think John as well, or Josh for that matter) fear the same thing Dave does: a wasted life, a "half-hearted" life. Our admittedly Christian view of what composes a wasted life is different from Dave's, but the goal is the same.

In my opinion, too many believers of today are not living consistent with what they supposedly believe, don't take the time to be educated about what they supposedly believe, and are afraid of the sacrifice that the Christian belief system will ask of them if decide to follow Christ. John is not one of those believers. It is easy to criticize from my lofty position, but where the rubber meets the road is: Do I live according to what I believe? God help me.

Sorry to drag you into this Dave, hope you don't mind, but I truly respect the life you are trying to lead.