Burunche’s Blog

The call came at 8 PM. A lady in her 30’s had drunk DDT in a suicide attempt and was admitted on the female ward. By the time I reached the hospital, the efficient hospital staff had already washed out the lady’s stomach. But why did a middle – aged lady do such a drastic thing? Normally, the women who attempt suicide by drinking DDT are teenagers who have had fights with their families, their boyfriends, etc. So what was going on?

This poor lady had given birth to twins about a year ago. Unfortunately, one of the twins was developmentally delayed – possibly due to a bout of cerebral malaria. At any rate, the lady’s husband was neglecting her and recently took a young cute second wife. Now this woman was so poor that she only had one cloth in which to wrap both twins and she scarcely had any clothing herself. Feeling that she was at the end of her resources, the woman had attempted suicide.

When our Mental Health Nurses and Sister Paschalina, who handles welfare problems, investigated further, the situation turned out to be far more complicated than we had first anticipated. All of us were concerned that if we sent the woman back into an abusive situation, she might either starve or be killed, and the babies might also suffer. But advising the woman to leave the husband would raise lots of problems. Traditionally, the Konkombas had a practice of exchanging girls for brides between families. In the old days, baby girls would be betrothed at birth to someone 15-20 years older, who would then work and pay the family bride price waiting for the girl to mature. The girls had no say in the matter whatsoever and many girls committed suicide rather than be trapped in a loveless marriage. Even now families still exchange girls for brides, and this woman was caught up in such a situation. When she was promised by her family to her husband, one of her brothers gained a wife. Were she to leave her husband, her brother might lose his wife, because the wife’s family would demand that he return the woman.

SIster Paschalina and the Mental Health Nurses counseled with the woman and her husband, and we examined the twin with developmental delay. For now the lady has gone back to her husband, and the husband has agreed to support her.

Recently, there were numerous demonstrations in support of International Women’s Day. Some women marched, while others demonstrated in other fashions. But here in Northern Ghana, women and girls still have very low status. Girls are forced to leave school and to work at home or to get married. Two days ago, I did a C/section on a 25 year old lady who was delivering her 8th baby!  Here women and girls fetch firewood and carry water for long distances, in addition to working very hard in the villages.

Had we not had a Mental Health Unit at the Assemblies of God Hospital, Saboba, this lady’s plight might have been far worse. As it is, the Mental Health Nurses will now be following up and monitoring the situation. Please pray for this lady and her family, and continue to pray for us here at the Assemblies of God Hospital, Saboba, that we will be God’s hands and feet in making a difference in the lives of all of our patients.

Thanks for loving, caring, praying, and giving! Remember, there’s always “Victory in Jesus!”

BOB AND JEAN YOUNG – SERVING AT ASSEMBLIES OF GOD HOSPITAL, SABOBA, PO BOX 29, SABOBA, N/R, GHANA, WEST AFRICA
Birthdays: Bob-Feb 11^th, Jean- Feb 12^th   Anniversary: April 14^th
Emails: 1) youngs@healthservicecorps.org, 2) servantgh@yahoo.com,  or bushdoctor.young@gmail.com
Web Sites: www.healthservicecorps.org ; www.facebook.com/jean.a.young
www.flickr.com/photos/member/servant24-7; www.sabobamedicalcentre.net
Mission: Evangel Bible Translators, PO Box 669, Rockwall, TX 75087 – 0669; http://evangelbible.org/donate/

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Christian Health Service Corps, PO Box 132, Fruitvale, TX 75127

You can donate on-line at https://secure.acceptiva.com/?cst=1def0f  or by snail mail. Make checks payable to Christian Health Service Corps and indicate that the donation is for Bob and Jean Young support.

Ghana #’s: Bob-233-244-996692;233-27-3481533;233-20-5746206
Jean-233-244-444387; 233-55-4426460; 233-20-4934208
JEAN’S WHATSAPP: +233 244 444387

On the afternoon of December 31, 2016, several families from the village of Bukob went out to winnow and bag their rice. By the time the afternoon was over, two women would be dead and another injured. This is their story.
This is Harmattan season, the dry season and the time when many people set fire to the bush in hopes of catching various animals as they flee from the fire. These days the animals involved are generally bush rats or smaller game. Since everything in the bush is supposed to be for everyone, nobody watches these fires to contain them and they can burn for vast distances before going out. Each year crops and even houses are lost to these fires, and those losses can be devastating. But sometimes the cost is higher; sometimes these fires cost lives as well.
When the Bukob people went to winnow their rice, they could see a bush fire in the distance, but it was moving slowly and they thought they had plenty of time. If the fire consumed their rice, families might go hungry. But at some point the wind picked up and may have even shifted directions. Before anyone realized it, the fire was nearly upon them and now it was a race for life. Most of the people ran away at right angles to the fire and successfully escaped. One heroic man even scooped up several children, carried them to safety and then returned to carry his aged mother to safety as well. By the time he reached his mother, she had fallen and the skin on the back of her neck and arms was beginning to blister. For a little while it seemed that everyone was safe, but then the Bukob people realized that two ladies were missing. Perhaps these ladies delayed an extra – long time, intent on saving the last of the rice. We will never know. All we know is that they chose to run through the fire instead of away from it, and that choice cost them their lives.

When the two women were found, the younger one, who was pregnant and nearly ready to deliver, was already dead, her skin charred. The older woman, although hideously burned, lived to make the ambulance ride to our hospital, only to die within a few minutes of reaching us.

If this was all there were to the story, it would be tragic enough, but this is not the end, nor even the very worst part. For these women were not Christians, and unless they had an experience with Jesus in their last few moments, they may have run not only to their deaths, but also to a Christ-less eternity.

The Saboba area is a difficult one in which to work. Our villages are remote, and many of them, including Bukob, lack electricity or good drinking water. There are few churches outside the larger towns in our district, and staffing those churches can be a problem. Most Bible School graduates these days want to go to big rich areas in the South where they can live comfortably and get good schools for their children. Unfortunately, many local churches demand that each congregation should support its pastor without outside assistance. For pastors in these areas the situation is simple: go to farm or starve, because small congregations in deprived rural areas cannot properly support a pastor. Unfortunately also, pastors in these denominations suffer disdain from their fellow pastors in more prosperous areas, who seem to feel that these men and women are not following the call of God but are merely too stupid to go somewhere else.

So the problems persist. And meanwhile the village people continue to risk their lives to feed their families and also continue to sacrifice to fetishes and other demons in the hopes of appeasing them. And the questions remain: who will go to the villages such as Bukob? Jesus died for these people just as much as He did for people in suburban churches in the U.S. Who will go? Who will serve? For if nobody goes, these people will go to hell, never having heard the Gospel.
CHRISTIANS, WHAT SHALL WE DO? WHAT EXCUSES CAN WE POSSIBLY GIVE TO JESUS?

In case you ever want a humbling experience, try running a bush hospital in a remote location. No matter how excellent your qualifications are, there will be people who are certain that if you were REALLY good, you wouldn’t be working in their area! These same people are also the ones who discourage their children who are doctors and nurses from returning to serve their own people. On the other hand, they demand good care and expect strangers from somewhere else will somehow materialize to serve them. Their name is legion!

Bush hospitals by their very nature are not lucrative; subsistence farmers don’t have large amounts of money. Weather conditions can be extremely harsh. Right now we are in the hot season. How hot is it? Well, it is 1:30 AM and my metal desk feels warm to the touch, as does the cement floor beneath my feet. In the heat of the day today it must have been more than 120 degrees Fahrenheit. In such circumstances it is wise to work when it is cool.

Last Sunday we visited a congregation belonging to a major denomination here in Ghana, and it was a revelation, although not a pleasant one. There was closed circuit television. There was a light show display playing all during the sermon. It was a slick production, with the singing group in business suits with shirts and blouses of one color and the ministerial group with business suits and shirts and blouses of another color. There was polite enthusiasm for the worship music, but the biggest shouts of praise came when the head pastor began prophesying over the congregation that they would receive cars and money – not just any money but foreign currency – Euros and dollars. The audience went crazy, screaming and jumping up and down. We too were ready to jump…..out the nearest open window! (We actually were standing next to an open window and we seriously considered stepping outside and escaping.) Why?

Despite a lovely little meditation about the Great Commission, it was obvious that the god that was being served wasn’t the one true living God before whom we should bow in awe, nor yet was it Jesus the Savior who died a shameful death on a cross so that we could die to sin and live to righteousness. The object of worship here was a vending machine god – put in a few praise songs and some prayer requests and claim enough things enough times and success and prosperity would be yours. Yet supposedly this is the same God for whom believers in southern Sudan are being martyred.

This is the Lenten season. We are supposed to be focusing on Jesus and His sufferings on the cross for our sakes. The lie that under – girded that Sunday service was that Jesus exists to give us things. In fact, Jesus has already purchased the greatest gift of all for us – eternal life. No amount of earthly success can earn us a single nanosecond in heaven. The Son of God humbled himself and became a limited man in a failing human body to endure unspeakable suffering for crimes He had never committed. And in so doing, Jesus defeated death and the grave and rose triumphantly on Easter. Jesus is worthy of worship but there is nothing else should matter as an object of our desire and our praise.

Sunday we weren’t in three piece suits. A series of unexpected commitments had left us stranded in Tamale without any fancy clothes. We were dressed nicely, but we wouldn’t have won any contests, unlike most of the rest of the congregation. And we wondered what would happen if an unbeliever stumbled in from the farm to join that service. Would he or she have been welcomed or shunned? Let’s remember that Jesus only had one set of clothes and He walked everywhere, except for one donkey ride on Palm Sunday.

We are haunted by the words of an old hymn:

1. Must Jesus bear the cross alone,
   And all the world go free?
   No, there’s a cross for everyone,
   And there’s a cross for me.
2. The consecrated cross I’ll bear
   Till death shall set me free;
   And then go home my crown to wear,
   For there’s a crown for me.

Sunday it was very difficult to visualize anyone in that congregation who was actually prepared to bear a cross. A message on suffering for Jesus’ sake wouldn’t have gotten shouts of joy and screams of enthusiasm.  And as we continue on our journey toward Easter, let each one of us examine our heart – are we serving Jesus, or are we expecting Jesus to serve us?

Thanks for loving, caring, praying,and giving. Remember, there’s always “Victory in Jesus!”
Dr. Jean for the Youngs

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"For the Son of Man came not to be served, but to serve, and to give His Life a Ransom for many." Matthew 20:28

In the Gonja language, “Burunche” means “white lady.” For 16 of the last 20 years my husband and I have worked in Ghana, West Africa. For most of that time we have worked in mission hospitals in remote rural areas. My name is Dr. Jean Young. I am a surgeon and my husband Bob is a welder/maintenance mechanic/EMT/jack of all trades. Here in Ghana they call someone like Bob “one man thousand” to indicate the scope of his talents.God has called us to the difficult hard-to -reach places.

When I was growing up in rural Illinois, I always wanted to be a small town family doctor. My heroes were the men and women who faithfully served the little towns near my home, often working long hours for relatively little compensation. I wanted to be part of a community and to make a difference in the lives of my patients and my families. Little did I know that to do all that I would wind up in northern Ghana.

The northern part of Ghana is mostly savannah grasslands-kind of like west Texas or Oklahoma-scrubby trees, low-lying shrubs, grass, and LOTS of rocks. My patients are subsistence farmers, many of whom work with short-handled hoes and other primitive tools that they have made themselves. Now you can buy modern tools and even modern farm equipment in Ghana. There’s a John Deere dealership in Tamale. But for most of our folks out here the only time they employ tractors is when they want to plow their land, and some of the land must be worked totally by hand because of all the rocks.

So this blog is about us-about Bob and me, about the work we do, the people we know, the people we take care of in the town of Saboba and in the Saboba district on the banks of the River Oti.
If you want to know more about us, you can go to http://www.ourchurch.com/member/s/Serving_Ghana. If you want to know more about the hospital where we work, go to http://www.sabobamedicalcentre.net. If you want to see our photos of Ghana, go to http://www.flickr.com/photos/servant24-7.