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Shanksteps #63

“She is 6 and was just in a motorcycle accident. She was crossing the path when a moto hit her.” I asked where she was hurt. They said in her head and I should come right away. So I went to the “urgence” (ER). She was looking around stoically with wide eyes. When I took the dressing off her forehead I saw bone fragments and brain matter. I was then surprised that she was conscious. Apparently part of the moto punctured a hole in her head. They said she had lost consciousness and then became
conscious after that.
We took her to the operating room. As you all know I am not a neurosurgeon. But I did learn a few things about it in residency. I cleaned everything and pulled fragments from the hole and cleaned out all the debris. I then put a few fragments back in a “normal” position and closed skin.
God has healed her! She is now 7 days after surgery. Her skin has healed well. She is not running fevers. The family feels she is reacting normally and speaking normally. I am very happy that she has done so well, happy again to see evidence of God working through us.
Another 6 year old patient came into the hospital by his parents a few days ago. He had been digging in a termite mound searching for rats to eat when he reached into a hole for a rat and got bitten by a snake. (That was 17 DAYS AGO) Here the traditional belief is that if you are not a sorcerer then things like snake bites and meningitis do not kill you. It only kills the sorcerers! So of course this child was not a sorcerer so he was “safe”. Well his thumb auto-amputated from infection and
the back of his hand necrosed then started healing with granulation tissue. But his arm started weeping pus around his elbow. So they went to a local dispensary and were seen a few days being given antibiotic injections. After two days the dispensary referred him here. After two days here I finally convinced the father to let me open the arm and remove all the necrotic (dead) tissue. Again praise God, he is doing well and granulating all the area that was opened.
Another was also bitten by a snake about three days before arriving here. He as bleeding from the bitten area on his hand profusely. He was not able to clot, because of the venom. After many vials of anti-venom and debredement of the dead finger, pressure dressings were placed and finally the bleeding stopped. His swelling is gradually going down.
This is now the season for snakes and scorpions. It is hot and they say the ground heats up and these come out at night in search of cooler air. As I well remember last year when a scorpion got me!
We are now out of electricity again 3 days. Two weeks ago was 4 days. We had a large wind come through this week and knocked over a number of telephone poles. The termites eat them then the wind finishes them off. So I am writing connected to a battery, and dripping with sweat. It is times like this that we realize how nice we really have it. Many people here live like this all the time (without electricity and water). So we are grateful for our blessings that we have on a fairly regular
basis. Please continue to keep us in your prayers.
In His Service, Shanks

62 Shanksteps

God doesn’t always answer our prayers in the way or time that we would like. Fortunately He knows so much more than we ever could. As Americans we like (and often expect) instant gratification. This is true whether it be when asking a question, going to the ATM, or dieting to lose weight. We also want instant answer to our prayers.
I want to tell you a story about a young man named Baldagui. He came to the hospital around the same time as Ngossa (you may remember the young woman healed of meningitis that was “caused by” sorcery.) While Ngossa was struggling for her life, Baldagui was in the next room, also with meningitis. When he initially developed symptoms of meningitis, his family took him to a local clinic where he stayed for 3 days with IV antibiotics. Unfortunately for him, that treatment was not sufficient and
he slipped into a deep coma. His family brought him home to die, but an uncle insisted that he be brought to our hospital. His whole family was so sure that he would die, that they all left, leaving an old grandma to take care of him. He remained in the coma for about a week. When he finally opened his eyes he couldn’t speak, was very confused, and very agitated. As the days went on, he was able to answer very simple questions, but still had no idea where he was. Soon we realized that he was
paralyzed from his neck down, as well as half of his face. Oh how we prayed for him. Every day at the hospital worship we prayed. Every morning I also prayed with the nurses for him. Every day we prayed with him at the bedside. He was improving, but VERY slowly. After almost 2 weeks of IV antibiotics, I repeated a lumbar puncture to see if his meningitis had cleared. We still found evidence of the infection in his spinal fluid. At this point, his family had completely given up. They couldn’t
afford any more medications (already their bill was enormous) and they didn’t believe that it would make a difference. The whole family came to the hospital to bring him home to die. I, however, wasn’t ready to give up on this young man, so I took over complete financial responsibility for him. We changed antibiotics and continued treatment for another week. Still, his improvements seemed miniscule, if at all. After completing this second course of medications, I pleaded with God to take over
his care. All along I had be praying that God would miraculously heal him (instantaneously, of course). It wasn’t until I had nothing else to offer him that I left his healing completely in God’s hands. That’s when I started to see improvements. First, his facial paralysis began to diminish. Then his speech started to return to “normal”. Soon, he regained use of his arms. At this point I was ecstatic that he didn’t seem to have any difficulty in thinking, speaking, and reading. I was sad
however that he seemed to be a complete paraplegic, with no use or sensation of his legs below the waist. It is VERY difficult to be paralyzed in Africa. There is no help or provisions. His family was still absent, not willing to help at all in his care. He was not even able to urinate or defecate without assistance. I was very worried about what would happen to this young man. We continued every day to pray with him, and encouraged him to pray for himself. At first he was very reluctant, thinking
that it wouldn’t do any good. But over time, he started praying as well. Three weeks ago, he regained control of his bowel and bladder. Last week I realized that he had some sensation in his legs, all the way to his toes. This week he surprised me with the ability to move his legs a little. God is healing him little by little, in HIS time.
Yesterday I realized why I’m here. We have some nursing students doing a rotation with us. When we stopped to discuss Baldagui’s case, I asked the patient, himself, to tell his story. He told how he had been taken to the health center but didn’t get better. He admitted that his family had taken him home to die. He told how his uncle had convinced the family to bring him into the hospital. He admitted to not having any memory of almost the entire first month here. What he said next brought
tears to my eyes. He said that he had been severely ill, but the doctor and nurse prayed for him every day. And God heard their (our) prayers and healed him. He is now reading the Bible every day and has given his life to the Lord. He has also promised to tell others about what he has experienced. He said that when you learn something amazing, you have to share the news with others. Praise the Lord for his healing, physically and spiritually. I don’t know if he will ever regain full use of
his legs. Please pray for his continued healing, both physically and spiritually. God’s timing is perfect!

#61 Shanksteps

“Are you Jesus?”

As you read this, think about what you would do!

A few years ago a group of salesmen went to a regional sales convention in
Chicago. They had assured their wives that they would be home in plenty of
time for Friday night’s dinner. In their rush, with tickets and briefcases,
one of these salesmen inadvertently kicked over a table which held a display
of apples. Apples flew everywhere. Without stopping or looking back, they
all managed to reach the plane in time for their nearly missed boarding.

ALL BUT ONE! He paused, took a deep breath, got in touch with his feelings,
and experienced a twinge of compassion for the girl whose apple stand had
been overturned.

He told his buddies to go on without him, waved good-bye, told one of them
to call his wife when they arrived at their home destination and explain his
taking a later flight. Then he returned to the terminal where the apples
were all over the terminal floor.

He was glad he did.

The 16 year old girl was totally blind! She was softly crying, tears running
down her cheeks in frustration, and at the same time helplessly groping for
her spilled produce as the crowd swirled about her, no one stopping and no
one to care for her plight.

The salesman knelt on the floor with her, gathered up the apples, put them
back on the table and helped organize her display. As he did this, he
noticed that many of them had become battered and bruised; these he set
aside in another basket.

When he had finished, he pulled out his wallet and said to the girl, “Here,
please take this $40 for the damage we did. Are you okay?” She nodded
through her tears. He continued on with, “I hope we didn’t spoil your day
too badly.”

As the salesman started to walk away, the bewildered blind girl called out
to him, “Mister….” He paused and turned to look back into those blind
eyes. She continued, “Are you Jesus?”

He stopped in mid-stride, and he wondered. Then slowly he made his way to
catch the later flight with that question burning and bouncing about in his
soul: “Are you Jesus?”
Do people mistake you for Jesus? That’s our destiny, is it not? To be so
much like Jesus that people cannot tell the difference as we live and
interact with a world that is blind to His love, life and grace.

If we claim to know Him, we should live, walk and act as He would. Knowing
Him is more than simply quoting Scripture and going to church. It’s actually
living the Word as life unfolds day to day.

You are the apple of His eye even though we, too, have been bruised by a
fall. He stopped what He was doing and picked you and me up on a hill called
Calvary and paid in full for our damaged fruit.

I hope that you are touched by this story as I was. Pray that we become
more like Jesus and represent Him accurately to the people here in Koza.
In His Service, Shanks

#60 Shanksteps
3-31-07

It is HOT! We are now reaching 112deg F in the daytime and down to 85 at
night. We sweat, feel light headed, and have general fatigue. Fortunately
the last bout of malaria or dysentery for our family was 3-4 weeks ago. So
other than the heat we are doing well. We are praying for an early rainy
season.
The hospital has an average of about 35 patients right now. Mostly malaria,
typhoid, dysentery, pneumonia, meningitis, burns, abscesses, neonatal
infection. Recent surgeries include Fournier’s gangrene debredement,
Cesarean section, tube for pneumothorax, patellar reconstruction after
trauma. We have started showing the “Jesus” or “Gods Story” to the patients
weekly. We have also started praying with and for each patient very day.
We know that God is healing them.
Donations recently have helped us:
1- Build an awning over our worship/meeting area of the hospital to protect
us from the sun and rain and provide a larger area for patient education
2- Purchase medications in larger quantities in Yaounde in hopes that we
will obtain more self-sufficiency when a larger benefit is made.
3- Obtain a more useable laboratory system in which more exams will be
available to us and the agents used in the lab would last up to 2 years
rather than ONE month after opening them. I understand that it will be here
in mid-April.
Thank you so much for your generosity and prayers for “our” hospital here in
the bush. It has greatly helped.

“He was stabbed in the chest” (translated from French). “A crazy man
came and speared him.” I ran into the hospital wondering if he had a
tension pneumothorax or was bleeding profusely or whether or not he would be
alive when I got there. When I arrived, he had labored breathing and a tip
of a spear lying beside him. They had pulled it out before arriving at the
hospital. It was a piece of metal about 10 inches long with barbs all the
way down and a flare at the base for a stick to enter for
the handle of the spear. He said it had entered about 4 inches. The wound
was in his right chest about the level of his diaphragm. Only slight breath
sounds were heard on that side. Blood pressure was normal and neck veins
not distended. I took him right to the operating room. After numbing up
the chest I placed a chest tube. We only have old chest tubes and I feared
of the sterility of the package, but all were the same. I swathed it with
betadine after removing the “sterile” packaging,
at least to appease my conscious before putting it in him. He needed it and
I had no better options. He immediately started breathing better. After
exploring the stab wound it was found to only enter his chest. He is
recovering well but does have a wound infection after removing the chest
tube.
As I mentioned above we are very grateful for all your prayers and
support. Please pray specifically for our meningitis patients as the
bacteria seem much more resistant to our antibiotics this year as compared
to last year. Please pray that we remain always faithful to our calling and
most of all, faithful to God. He has given so much for us; I have
essentially nothing to offer Him, other than myself. Have you completely
given your ambitions, your interests, your house, your family, your
finances,
your time, YOURSELF to Him? It is the most important thing we can do in
life for here and eternity. I pray for those of you who haven’t or who have
wandered after doing so. Shanks