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An Update From Our Missionary, Cindy McFarland

 

The Hospital of Hope is a 65 bed hospital located in northern Togo with a full outpatient clinic, pharmacy, laboratory, and radiology and surgery services. It is a hospital that offers quality medical care along with a message of hope to patients from many tribes and surrounding countries in West Africa. I have been serving in Togo for 17 years, the last 7 years with the hospital.

Since we opened in March of 2015 we have seen more than 25,000 people from Togo, Benin, Ghana, Burkina Faso, and other countries. Over 1,200 surgeries have been performed, 740 babies delivered, and 74 premature babies cared for. All of this enables us to reach their real need of spiritual salvation.

Through our hospital ministry we have seen many come to embrace Christ as Savior. Through these new believers Bible studies are started in their homes/villages. We are praising God that now more than 12 groups are meeting to study God’s word and to worship with other believers. 26 leaders are now being disciplined through a structured discipleship class once a month.

One of those stories is Mr. Moussa, a devoted Muslim. He came several months ago with badly broken leg. It required surgery as the break was extensive. Due to the complicated break he stayed at our hospital for several months. Through his time one of our chaplains visited him frequently and saw that he was hungry to hear truth. As they studied God’s work over the course of time, he saw that Jesus was the only way to salvation. He was so hungry to hear God’s word that he started to come to our chaplain devotions in the mornings. He shared his faith with many of the patients at the hospital. Please pray for him to be a light and to stand firm in his faith as he just returned to his village.

On February 26 we had a memorial service for Todd DeKryger/2 year celebration for the Hospital of Hope. God took Todd home last year after becoming ill from Lassa fever, an illness that comes during the dry season in West Africa. Todd’s passing was a difficult time to remember and we continue to miss him greatly. A few days before the service, two Lassa fever cases were brought to our hospital. We are thankful that we were still able to have the service in spite of the new cases. We praise God for the gospel being proclaimed clearly through Jennifer Dekryger’s testimony and a pastor from France to all of our employees and our 400 friends from our Mango community. Please pray that God will continue to work in the hearts of the Mango community through the gospel of our Lord Jesus.

Please pray for wisdom and safety as they continue to provide compassionate care with Lassa fever being present. They have limited our clinic to urgent cases and to follow up cases. They are taking precautions to limit the risk to the staff and our team.

Please pray for a Muslim witchdoctor’s baby daughter, Salima, who needs heart surgery. The mom, Soueba, and baby Salima are currently down in the capital, Lome, finalizing passports and visas. They are slated to go to the States in April for heart surgery at a hospital in Indianapolis, paid for by a charitable organization. Anna, a missionary colleague, will be going with Soueba and Salima as this is all very overwhelming and intimidating to Soueba. She has asked Anna to come along and Ancien, their neighbor who is my chaplain co-worker, feels this will create more of an open door in sharing the Gospel with this marabout and his family. The marabout knows and has given permission for me to be posting about this on FB. He wants everyone possible praying for his daughter and asks for our prayers in Jesus' Name for them. He has come to the point where he is openly saying that Jesus is God. Please pray that God would do the impossible and save this marabout for the glory of His Name among so many people in this town who would see his salvation and be amazed at our God. Please pray that God would move the visa process along very quickly. There have been some problems with Soueba's passport that need prayer. Pray that Soueba and Salima would be in good health in the meantime and until they leave in a few weeks.

 Cindy M 1

Above you see a picture of bags lined up on benches. Those represent people who have traveled many miles and come and wait to be seen sometimes for several days. We often have two or three hundred people waiting to be seen, who camp out at our entrance! Please pray for more doctors and nurses for the months of May, June, July, and through the rest of the year! If you know someone please encourage them to contact us. Check out a renewed website: hospitalofhopemango.org!!!

Cindy M 2I will close with telling you about Jane, 13 years old, who came to the hospital about 7 months ago with a leg wound that wouldn’t heal. It was discovered that she has cancer and her leg was amputated. Unfortunately, her cancer has spread all throughout her organs and she doesn’t have long to live. In addition to this dire situation, Jane’s dad is an alcoholic and a charlatan. He abandoned Jane, her several other siblings, and pregnant mom, leaving Jane to die. Jane had been discharged from the hospital recently after much care, but came back again having seizures. While Jane was with us for months, she was listening daily to mp3 recordings of Scripture in the Gospels. She and her mom had multiple conversations about the Gospel with chaplains. They seemed to come to a personal understanding of what it means to know Jesus as Savior, but you don’t always know what truths are really crystalizing under the surface in people’s hearts. “Jesus is my life.” Jane shared with us when she came back. “He’s everything to me and He’s all I have." Jane’s mom looked up at us so calmly, seemingly enlightened by a passage we shared with her, and said, “I think I understand what this is saying. The suffering of Jesus resulted in eternal singing out of the glory of God. The death of Jane is something that God will use and it will result in singing the glory of God. I can be content. Though it is so hard to see her suffering, I can accept this."

All of this is for His glory! I so appreciate your faithful giving and prayers for the hospital. Please pray for the hospital; for grace for staff to persevere and become more and more like Jesus, for more doctors and nurses to help, for Salima to be able to come for surgery and the salvation of her family, and that many souls from West Africa will one day worship our Lord and Savior!

With much love and thanks for the NCBC body!
Cindy