MissionDocs.org

Shanksteps

Marie, age 14, was in a coma when her parents brought
her into the Koza ER. They said that she had only
been sick for 2 days. She had complained of headache
and nausea and they had given her some type of
traditional medicine. By the time she arrived at the
ER she had already had 4 or 5 seizures. As this is
the season for meningitis, a spinal tap was done,
which revealed pus in the spinal fluid. She was
started on high dose antibiotics. I saw her the
following morning, still in a coma. She had been
convulsing on and off all night, but the nurse hadn’t
called any of the doctor’s to see her. Her father had
smeared some type of traditional anti-seizure root all
over her face, lips, eyes, ears and who knows where
else. I gave her a full exam and was very troubled to
find that the pupil in her right eye had no response
to light, and that her right eye didn’t seem to move
at all. The pupil in her left eye was sluggish. I
was very worried that at best she would lose sight in
the right eye; at worst she would die or be severely
brain damaged. When I looked at her parents my heart
sank. They had just lost a child last month at the
hospital after a long hospital stay. They had no more
money and were very discouraged. When faced with the
possibility of a large hospital bill again, the father
decided to take her home to die. I was very upset, as
this family had done everything possible for their
little son in December, and I could feel their
anguish. I immediately got on my knees with the nurse
next to me and prayed for this family; for the child;
for healing; for miracles; for understanding and
wisdom; for patience. The family decided to let her
stay one more day.
The next morning before rounds, my nurse and I prayed
for all of the patients, and especially for the
families to understand what we are trying to do, and
that they would all see the love of Christ in us.
When we got to Marie, her father didn’t even argue
about continuing medications or staying in the
hospital. He was obviously discouraged, but willing
to continue care and prayer. Again I prayed for
miraculous healing. The following day (after first
praying with my nurse – we have decided that it is
crucial before starting rounds) when we got to Marie,
she had started moving her arms and legs, but had not
yet woken up. On day 4 she was awake, but immediately
I realized that she had serious problems with her
right eye (by now she had some reaction of the pupil,
but very irregular). She would look around but her
right eye would not move at all. I did a fundoscopic
exam (to look at the retina) and saw that 2 of her 4
arteries had no blood in them, and a 3rd had very
little. I was sure that she had lost sight in this
eye. In addition, she still had no movement of her
right eye. She also had not yet started talking.
During the next several days the nurse and I prayed
with her every morning for a miraculous healing.
After one week in the hospital, she was finally
responding to people around her. I checked her vision
and she was completely blind in the right eye. Every
day I checked her vision and did a neurologic exam.
Several days later I noticed that her eye had started
to move. She was able to see shadows and grab at very
large objects. After two weeks in the hospital she
was off IV antibiotics and outside walking around,
although with limited vision in her right eye. Her
parents realized that a miracle had taken place in
their daughter, not only for her life, but also in her
vision. By discharge she was able to grab items the
size of a flashlight (only using her right eye). When
I looked at her retina, I was able to see all four
retinal arteries and veins – and they all looked
normal!
That is not the end of the miracle though. Unlike
other “bush” hospitals, we will admit patients without
prepaying their bill, but we do require them to remain
with us until their bill is paid. I spoke with our
chaplain about the difficulty this family was facing
after the last hospital bill and a fund was set up
with the hospital employees to financially help this
family. They were able to leave the hospital debt
free after we set up this fund. We are hoping that
once the hospital is running well that we can start a
real fund for patients with great financial need. (We
would gladly accept donations for this fund as well…)
But the story doesn’t end there. Several weeks ago I
saw Marie on a follow-up visit. She is back in
school, not having any learning difficulty. I did a
full neurologic exam on her and she has NO deficits.
Her eyesight is 20/20 in both eyes and her retinal
exam is completely normal!!! The ONLY way I can
explain what I have seen is by God’s miraculous
healing. Fortunately the family also agrees with this
conclusion.
Since the time that this took place we have
experienced a meningitis epidemic. The nurses here
say that they haven’t seen anything like this for 20
years or more. We have had 15 admissions of children
with meningococcal meningitis over the past 2 weeks.
They are all from the same village and same school.
Unfortunately for every child that is brought into the
hospital, I am sure there are several others that die
at home. We have had 2 deaths from meningitis
(unfortunately from the same family) but I believe now
after having all the information that the deaths were
probably caused more by the abundance of traditional
medications given to the children before bringing them
into the hospital. Both were already in a coma by the
time they reached us.
Another hazard has also been brought to my attention
recently. A 7-year-old girl was brought in with
meningitis last week with extreme irritability. She
(like Marie) had no response in one pupil and no
movement of the eye. I discovered from her family
that when she first complained of a headache that they
went to the local market (the guy on the bike) to
purchase something for headache. There is now in our
market a pill made in Nigeria that is sold for
“extreme headache”. This pill consists of Tylenol
500mg (adult dose) and cocaine (unknown amount). She
was given several “doses” of this in addition to
regular adult strength Tylenol prior to admission. To
make matters worse, she drinks wine on a daily basis.
I was very, very worried about here. I left her
bedside at 3am and when I got home I realized that I
had forgotten to pray with her. So, I prayed all
night for her. I woke up every 30 minutes or so and
prayed and prayed. When I came in the next morning
and looked in the emergency room where I had left her,
the bed was empty. My heart sank. I asked the nurse
who had been on what happened, obviously thinking the
worst. He explained that early in the morning she sat
up, started talking and asking for food. She had
already eaten breakfast and been moved to the
pediatric ward. She too has full vision!!! God is in
the miracle business here. Please pray for miracles-
healing both physical and spiritual. Pray that this
epidemic will stop without more loss of life. Please
pray for the health of our nurses and ourselves as we
are in contact with many very sick people. Prayer is
an incredible privilege that God has given us to talk
to Him directly.
In His Incredible Service,
Aud, Greg, and Sarah

Dear Family and Friends,
What a last few weeks this has been. I am reminded
of a verse in Psalms 34:19 which says “Many are the
afflictions of the righteous, But the Lord delivers
him out of them all.” Well I’m not very righteous but
it seemed to fit.
Our Cameroon Visas were 6 month visas and ran out
Jan. 20th. So about a month ago they started working
on our resident permits in Yaounde (the capital).
Well come about Jan 10th it was still not going real
well. They were having some difficulties. Then they
decided we could do it up here in the north. So we
went to the chief of immigrations office. Well he
said we needed a work contract signed by the minister
of employment (which usually takes about a month). We
were told this the 18th, two days before the deadline.
And just as we were going in that day we heard him
tell another missionary he had to be out of the
country tomorrow. I think this is true, technically,
but they are searching for a bribe and it is easy to
get an extension then to stay in the country while
other paperwork is being done. So we were worried.
We called down to Yaounde to church headquarters and
they immediately got on it. It was a total answer to
prayer when that night we had a faxed copy of the work
contract signed by him (one day).
So we arrived in the immigration office the next day
and unfortunately gave the paper to the secretary.
She was not at all thrilled because she thought a
bribe was coming. So she outright asked for one.
English translation “So, what will you give me to
drink?” I acted as if I didn’t hear her and continued
on. Then she told us to wait. The chief was just
replaced that day and we didn’t know what he looked
like. So he ended up leaving to a meeting right past
us and we didn’t know it. So then she came out and
said he was at a meeting and we would have to come
back later. We asked her when. She said she didn’t
know. Then I asked her when would I get the visa
done. She said, “I guess that depends on me!”
Nothing subtle there! So we waited a few hours. Then
they told us to come back in three days. So we went
back in three days, traveling without any papers, and
they said “Oh he was just called to Yaounde and is not
here.” Finally I convinced one of them to give me
their number to call them. Finally, two days ago I
called and he said to call yesterday. Well I had a
feeling that he was back so we went in. Sure enough
he was, we could see his car. So we meet with the
secretary and he signed some papers for us to go to
get our pictures taken and pay an equivalent of about
$300. When we got back he was gone. The people in
our office told her in another language to sign them
and help us but she refused because we had not paid
her off and she was mad at us. So she told us we had
to come back today. So we stayed the night near
there.
Today we went back and as we arrived they had just
started a 30 min meeting. Well about 4 hours later
they were done. Fortunately the chief was there
again. She had us wait some more. Then as the Chief
came out she hurriedly called us into her office. She
had already had the papers signed before but was just
making us wait. We eventually got the papers we
needed. And as leaving we finally meet the chief. I
believe she was trying to keep us from meeting him as
that would take away any chance of a bribe for her.
Well he found out I was a physician and asked if I
would consult him. I said I would and plan on being
back there next week to meet him. I hope this starts
a good working relationship.
So unfortunately corruption is very obvious in many
parts here. Please pray for our continued patience
and to know what to do in these situations. We thank
God our paperwork is done for now.
In His Service, Shanks

SHANKSTEPS CHRISTMAS 2005

Somehow this Christmas felt a bit different than
Christmas’ past. Perhaps it was the 80 degrees
instead of 20; or the dust swirling in our barren back
yard rather than snow; maybe the scarcity of Christmas
lights; or absence of Salvation Army bell ringers.
Not to say that any of this is bad, just different.
We spent a nice quiet Christmas together as a family.
We had a Charlie Brown Christmas tree covered in
homemade ornaments (made from Hershey’s kiss
wrappers). We hung stockings, made from old scrubs,
off a shelf of medical books (so it’s not quite a
mantle over the fireplace…) One of the nicest things
about Christmas Day was that we didn’t have to work,
so we got to spend the whole day as a family –
uninterrupted.
It was almost exactly one year ago that we found out
we were coming to Cameroun, Africa. As you may
remember, we had hoped to be in the field by January
2005, but this was not to be. We left Audrey’s
parents in CT after Christmas and still didn’t know
where we were going. We had been praying long and hard
and were very frustrated. The day after we reached
Greg’s parent’s house in WV for New Years we found out
that we were chosen to come to Cameroun. After
figuring out where Cameroun was, we realized that this
is where God had called us. We met with the GC
(General Conference) representative Jan 16; received
the official call to Cameroun the next week; sold our
house the following week –in the snow (after it had
been on the market for 8 months); packed up our
belongings and send them to a warehouse in MD; closed
on our house March 3; and moved to Montreal Canada the
following week. When God moves, HE moves quickly and
you’d better be ready!!!
We spent 3 months in Montreal attempting to learn
French. We had hoped to bypass this step, but our GC
rep forced us into it. Boy am I glad now that he did.
Thank you so much Pastor Sabot for your insistence!!!
I cannot imagine coming here without a French
language base. After 9 weeks of language school
Audrey found out that her mom had lung cancer. She
left the school to be with her mom for surgery and
recovery. We thank everyone for his or her prayers
during this very difficult time. It was a very tough
decision to make to continue our plans to leave for
Africa knowing all that she would go through. Thank
our Lord, and her physicians, she is finishing up
chemotherapy Feb 1 and has handled it well. We are
all relieved that with God’s grace, this chapter will
be finished.
From Montreal we “moved” to Andrews University in
Michigan for 3 weeks of Mission Institute. While
there we made some wonderful friends and learned a lot
about other cultures, our own culture and most
importantly ourselves and families. We will forever
cherish those intense three weeks. After Mission
Institute we spent three glorious weeks in WV
water-skiing and hanging out with Greg’s family. Then
we spent another wonderful three weeks in CT and at
the beach with Aud’s family.
July 17th we left the US for parts unknown. Our
flight was 4 hours late and we missed our connecting
flight to Yaounde, Cameroun. “Unfortunately” we had
to spend a day in Paris:} When we finally got to
Cameroun it was the wrong city and we missed the
flight from Douala to Yaounde again. After finally
making it to Yaounde (and confusing everyone as to
where we were) we spent three weeks trying to complete
paperwork for work permit’s etc. Finally on August
10, 2005, after 20 hours on a train, 10 hours in a
bush taxi, and 2 hours by car we arrived in Koza,
Cameroun – HOME. It’s hard to believe that we have
lived in Koza for 5 months now, and out of the US for
almost six. This past six months has been wild. By
now, the bizarre is almost commonplace. We have been
busy, bored, hungry, sick, healthy, lonely, exhausted,
comforted, frustrated, content, angry, and
exhilarated. Mostly though we have been able to
experience the hand of God himself guiding us through
each day. Sometimes HE is obvious, sometimes we have
to look harder, and listen better, but HE is here with
us every day. Many days, Our Lord is the only thing
that keeps us going, the only strength we have. Many
of our stories can be read and pictures seen on the
website: www.missiondocs.org (Thank you Warren for
keeping this up for us!!! You are a Godsend!)
Throughout the past 5 months we have had several
visitors. Some were shocked at what they saw while
others just dove right in. I think that one has to be
“called” by the Master to come and survive
(physically, emotionally and spiritually) in a place
like Koza. In November, Greg’s parents came to visit,
bringing good cheer, lots of medical supplies, tons of
food, an Ultrasound (with money donated by Sunbelt
Health Systems and many other wonderful people), and
of course chocolate!!! Greg’s mom made a fabulous
Thanksgiving dinner, complete with mock turkey,
stuffing, sweet potatoes, green beans, and pumpkin
pie. I will never again take Thanksgiving dinner for
granted:}
Sarah is finally adjusting to the life here.
Although she still has a hard time with the language,
and misses her friends and family terribly, she is
starting to make friends and has been playing games
with some of our neighbors. Last week we had 35 kids
in our front yard, playing ball. Hectic but fun.
Right now (Jan 11) we are still waiting for our
container to come. It reached the port of Douala 2
months ago but has had trouble clearing customs. In
the container, besides our personal items and our
truck, are many much needed donated medical items from
all around the US. We were extremely blessed by the
medical equipment we received from Boone Memorial
Hospital WV, Summersville Memorial Hospital WV, Robert
Packer Hospital PA, and Parkview Adventist Hospital
ME. We hope you all will be richly blessed as well in
this New Year.
Last month Greg had to travel (again by motorcycle,
bush taxi, and train) to Yaounde for the end of year
Union meetings. Aside from the very busy week I had
without him, the most exciting news that came out of
the meetings was the fact that we are being “forced”
to come home for 6 weeks every year. Six weeks of
vacation with 2 weeks of educational leave allows us
two months in the States. We are requesting leave
around the end of June 2006, to return here at the end
of August. Unfortunately we won’t be able to see
everyone, but we are going to try each year to visit a
different part of the US to visit friends and family.
This year I think we will try to visit our old
stomping grounds of Upstate New York and PA (as well
as our parents in CT and WV or course). When the GC
has cleared our plans and we know dates, we will let
everyone know so we can see as many people as
possible. Although it is too short to visit everyone
and too long to be away from the hospital, we are
actually very blessed to be able to take 2 months a
year for vacation.
Never Forget:
Car Dieu a tant aimé le monde qi’il a donné son Fils
unique, afin que quiconque croit en lui ne périsse
point, mais qu’il ait la vie éternelle. Jean 3:16
(French)

Gar haha Zhiklè a woy herkeda a ndav na, a mva ta kra
nenga’a, kra nenga’a stadgenè, aman ko wawa man a nco
nenga’a a ndav na, a zi azbai, a n’ngotso nshèffè a
mèdèp. John 3:16 (Mofa: local tribal language)

Allah yidi duniyaaru masin, Ngam maajum o hokki Biddo
maako bajjo. Koomoy nuddini Biddo oo, halkataa ammaa
o heban ngeendam nduumiidam. Yuhanna 3:16 (Fufulde:
widespread language of Sahel region)

For God so loved the world, that He gave His only
begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not
perish, but have eternal life. John 3:16

This Bible verse has changed lives throughout the
world. Let it be life changing for you as well. May
you all be richly blessed throughout 2006.

The Shanks

ShankSteps #24
The Runaway Christmas Present

Our first Christmas in Cameroon…Wow… Sure is hot
for Christmas!
Dad and I went out to cut down a Christmas tree a
few days ago. It was not only a small tree, but also
the wrong kind! But with decorations made from candy
rappers it looked just fine! (Our stash of American
candy was diminished incredibly that day. We couldn’t
fit the candy rappers in our plastic Zip-lock bag!)
To make it seem even more like Christmas, we cut
out paper snowflakes and taped them around the living
room.
Next we got our presents for each other and rapped
them. In toilet paper.
Then Mom sewed stockings for us out of blue
hospital pants.
Well, everything’s ready! Except my parents have
some tricks up their sleeves. You see, on Christmas
day my parents brought me to a mans house to pick up
my Christmas present. Only the man wasn’t there. He
was of at a party.
Great. I have no idea what’s going on. I hear my
dad speaking in French. But when I listen I pick up a
few words before Mom covers my ears. I hear the him
say, “She needs to chose… he said we could get it
here… Before 9:00”
Then their ten million kids go scurrying and
climbing their wall shouting, “There it is, there it
is!”
Unable to find “it”, we headed home to open
presents.
What a nice Christmas! I got an African harp, an
African dress, candy (yum), a wrap (a piece of cloth
you wear as a skirt), and a box my grandmother sent us
filed with paints and stuff that smells good you put
on your hands-very handy when your sitting by an extra
stinky person in church. Just rest your head on your
hands and try to smell your hand lotion instead of the
person. I also got some fake, purple, sparkly
eyelashes about an inch and a half long. I think I’ll
put them on one of these days too!;)
We still hadn’t found the runaway Christmas
present.
That night Mom got sick with what I had. Vomiting,
diarrhea, pain, and fatigue. So Mom got it from me, I
got it from the pediatric word, and the pediatric word
got it from one little kid, who probably got it from
this kid, who got it from that kid and so on…
The day after Christmas a nurse came and got me and
Dad to come to his house. When we got there his cute
little puppy greeted us and then went off to chew up
somebody’s shoe.
We sat down on the chairs outside and talked. His
son came out with two kittens the size of a kid’s
hand. My eyes got big and I squeaked as Dad explained
that I could pick one out.
One was gray with darker gray stripes and was a
boy. The other was white with gray and orange spots
and was a girl. What luck! I’ve always wanted a girl
cat! And I’ve always wanted a cat with spots! Now
I’ve got a spotted girl cat!
Of course I had to leave her with their mom. They
were only 3 days old!
I was the happiest girl!
Dad explained that they had tried to get a cat at
the other person’s house but could not fined it
because it moved.
The hardest thing was naming her. Patches was to
classic and Spot sounded like a dog. But wait! A
Christmas present! Either Holly or Noel! I picked
Holly.
So now the house won’t be so lonely like before.
And I won’t be alone all day! We’re all happy for a
pet! And that will make living here easier!
And so ends the story. Toodles! Sarah Shank

Shanksteps #25 Food edition

Imagine for a moment that it’s Halloween. . . without
costumes. . . an endless supply of kids. . . all
singing “trick or treat” at the top of their lungs. .
. at 4:45 in the morning. . . demanding candy and in
many cases money. . . and lasting all day long! This
is New Year’s Day in Cameroon. But instead of “trick
or treat” it was “Bon Annee” (or “Happy New Year”).
We were warned of this holiday a little bit, but not
nearly enough. For New Year’s Eve, we had all of the
hospital workers to our house for a party, singing,
prayer, vision for the hospital, and lots and lots of
food. People cleared out by about 1:00am, and by
4:45, there were children at the gate singing for
their candy. Fortunately the children are happy with
candy (although not planning ahead, we didn’t have
much). The adults however, bring flowers in exchange
for money. “Sounds endearing” you many say. I’m just
not usually in the habit of handing out money to
anyone who asks. Apparently though, this is
Cameroon’s “charity day”, an acceptable day to beg.
On this day the Mayor’s office gives out tons of
candy, money etc. as a way of giving to the community.
It’s still a bit daunting when you are one of only
two white families for 60 miles and therefore you wear
a huge dollar sign on your head. I hope next year I
will be better prepared for this crazy day.
Have you ever been put in jail for stealing lemons?
I was so excited to find that we have a lemon tree in
our yard. Lemons mean lemonade in the hot season.
However, this tree has turned out to be more trouble
than it’s worth. About a week ago some of the
neighborhood kids discovered this tree. Someone told
our guard that a girl had been stealing lemons from
the tree and when we went to look, the lemons had been
cleared up to about 5 or 6 feet from the ground. We
have a fence all the way around our house, and a
guard. She must have known that it wasn’t okay to
come and take lemons. Since that time we have had
lemon tree surveillance, and several days ago Pierre,
our guard, caught the girl inside our gate. We found
that she is the same girl that had stolen the lemons
last week. So, Greg and Pierre went with her to talk
to her family. Her father wasn’t home, but Greg made
an appointment to talk to the Blama (like a chief) of
her neighborhood. The Blama said that this girl and
her mother have both stolen from many people and are a
problem in their area. So, the Blama said that he
would put her in jail for a week, hopefully to teach
her (and others with the same idea) a lesson. She
disappeared before they could put her in jail.
Yesterday, we caught two more kids with the same
intentions. Will kids never learn??? Interestingly,
they were from the same neighborhood. So, Greg again
talked to the same Blama, who personally took the two
down to the police station. Don’t know yet how this
will turn out.
Well now a week later we finally just picked all the
rest of the lemons ourselves and are giving them to
our friends. So this has currently stopped the
thieving by getting rid of the stimulus. So we had
Pierre check into the other two boys that were
apprehended. Well they also didn’t end up with
anything happening to them. Surprise? No not really.
I really don’t think this is considered an offense
here. Just frustrating to the forigners who want to
let them ripen and use them.
{(Greg) So a few letters ago I told you about a kid
who had been in a knife fight and nearly lost… his
life. Well I’m glad to say that he has healed well
and is ready to go home soon. He is of the nomadic
tribe and they live way out. He herds the cattle most
of the time. He was the one with the diaphragm
laceration, huge liver laceration, stabs in the
shoulders down to the bone. I thank God that he has
his life today. It’s really amazing that he even made
it here in the first place.}
Etiquette tip for the day:
This FYI (For Your Information) is for all of you
non-vegetarians out there. I want you each to know
this in case you are ever presented with the
situation. The next time you sit down to eat chicken
with your friends or families, BEWARE: Only the men
are to eat the stomachs, and only the women are to eat
the chicken’s feet. UNLESS you happen to be a woman
who is about to leave your husband…then it’s okay for
you ladies to eat the stomach also. You never know
when this kind of information may come in handy.
(Greg) This information comes from the new years
party at our house for the hospital workers. The
hospital and us, put on a New Years party behind our
house. So many of the hospital workers wives prepared
the food, leading to the above revelation about food
ediquite. We had a good time. I gave my “directors”
goals for the new year and encouraged all the workers
to work together and strive for better service for our
patients and our God. We had a great fiest at the end
and brought in the new year together. My “normal” new
years is to bring it in at Summersville WV playing
walleyball with the church members. So this was quite
different but was nice anyway. No ball dropping, but
we did have some fireworks someone came up with. We
had a good time and all the workers were happy,
especially for the large quantity of food.
Well we just want to thank you all for your prayers
and support over this past year 2005. It has brought
about many changes in our family and your support
means all the world to us. Also your calls are very
appreciated. We have found out that www.viapin.com
has a calling card that can call us for about
15cents/min from the US if any of you are interested.
It costs us $1/min from here to the US. Thus on our
salary it’s not permissible. Thank you all for your
love and support. We so much appreciate it. Our love
to you, The Shanks

Shanks
BP 53
Koza, Extreme Nord
Cameroon, AFRICA