"When it's HOT, you're HOT!

This past week has been wonderful in many ways. I was at the Church of Christ Medical Clinic in Yendi, Ghana and made several more great friends. The clinic sees between 60-100 patients daily in the dry season and around 150 per day in the rainy season. It is the dry season at this time. Yendi is in the northern part of Ghana. The temperatures this week were 100-110 during the day and very dry. One day the wind picked up and it was a horrible dust storm and, of course, I was walking from town to the clinic. I still had about 2 miles to go and was sandblasted along the way.

Dr. Peter, Asana, Victoria, Diane, Kojo, Liz and Huda are just a few of the wonderful people who work every day in this heat with minimal supplies attempting to make the lives of others better. I must say that I got a dose of reality on this trip. In the first couple of hours, I saw some of the worst wounds I have ever seen. And here's the deal....the dressing changes are done with NO PAIN MEDICATIONS! Americans would never stand for this! On a few of the wounds a little lidocaine was used but there is no morphine, lortab, percocet, etc. The wounds are scrubbed, debrided, flushed and re-packed while the patients cry, scream or quietly moan. The patients response depends on whether it is a child 1-2 years old or someone in
their 40's. After the morning wound care was finished, I went back to my room crying and praying for strength.

Dr. Peter and Asauna taught me about the medications (which are all called different names than what I am used to), about how to diagnose without labs, x-rays,etc., and what meds to use for what diagnosis and why. He then had me see the patients and do all the paperwork with him there for advice. Some of the illness I saw included TB, female issues, more malaria
than you can imagine, chickenpox, lots of muscle and arthritic pain, abscesses, skin infections, intestinal worms, ringworms, burns, wounds and more wounds. I have a lot to learn!

Yesterday we traveled to Kumasi, Ghana. This trip took approximately 8 hours. It was so tiring, but watching the terrain change from dry to green was encouraging. I did like Yendi though and I was asked why I not change my mind and come to Yendi instead. It sprinkled
yesterday here and is trying to rain now, but the temperature is still HOT and now we are adding HUMIDITY. Probably about 90 and no air-conditioning, but there are ceiling fans in every room! Looking forward to the clinic here in Kumasi tomorrow. More specific details later.

Change of subject....new book recommendation for everyone. "A Message from God" by Retha and Aldo McPherson. Thank you Tammy for giving it to me.

Thought for the day. Being HOT.....with everything I have experienced this week, the heat has been a constant as well as my reading the above mentioned book. Together they made me think of the following passage in Revelations 3:14-16.

And to the angel of the church in Laodicea write: These are the words of the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the ruler of God's creation. I know your deeds, that you are
neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other. So, because you are lukewarm--neither hot nor cold--I am about to spit you out of my mouth.

What am I HOT for? I pray to be HOT for the Lord, my Savior. I need to devote each and every day to God's work. I pray you will too.