Because

As I think through the potential “why” answers in my previous post,  I have been trying to journal my personal answer. Here are my top 5 reasons based on my 6 months away so far.

1) Calling / obedience - 14 years  ago I came to Togo as a medical student. A series of events that followed convinced me that one of my God-given purposes in life is to continue to help out here. While we couldn’t have known what that would look like from year to year - we have tried to make progress toward joining in what God is doing here.  Elements along the way - career change, supportive co-workers / family / friends and all the ways God encourages us through his mercy on us and the people here - keep us linked to this work.

2) I love and admire West African people. I think they must be some of the toughest people on Earth. They are very stoic in the face of suffering yet warm and gregarious in daily life. 

3) We have friends here. You get to work with amazing teammates in places like this. Many have a unique view of the world, understanding what seems like an alternate universe in terms of cultural dos and don’ts, developing world financial realities and life in the absence of basic infrastructure. Some have an unstoppable faith and commitment. Some are in the second half of life and bring a wealth of knowledge and experience to the problems at hand here. It is a close knit community in many ways - something I haven’t always experienced in life elsewhere.

4) I want to hold the big disparities in our world in my mind. Something along the lines of “to whom much is given, much is required.” A few examples of what I mean…  When we asked our guard for help killing a rat in the chicken coop - he did it fearlessly (I wasn’t about to get near the giant thing) and then cleaned it and cooked it over a makeshift campfire that same night. We spend more in a week in groceries alone than some laborers here make in months. I drive past half-clothed kids at the local dump and ladies carrying water on their heads to their homes and then shop for fully finished homes online for our return to Stateside life. Yesterday, a patient came in with this non-union femur X-ray from a nearby sizable city - the impression at the bottom means “good healing”. 

5) I want to love without fear and raise kids who do too.

Recently I had a terrifying nightmare of a terrorist attack here. I woke up with so much adrenaline release that it took awhile for my pounding heart to slow down. 

The following morning I read a BBC News story about an attack in the country to the north of us, this time on the French embassy there.

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-43257453 

Later that day I was taking time on rounds to explain post-op care to a patient. I had repaired his bilateral groin hernias the day prior, the fourth such attempt for him. He had first undergone surgery at an “Arab Hospital” (later he clarified a Qatari one) in Cote d’Ivoire followed by two hernia repairs in Burkina. 

He was very happy that he had essentially no post-op pain in comparison to the pain that he described of prior operations. This was probably because I had severed a few nerves in cutting through all the scar tissue from his prior operations.  He seemed to really understand my explanation of how the hernia mesh I had placed works (my typical “reinforcing wire in concrete” analogy). I suggested he follow up in a month, at which time he pointed out that he lived north of Ouagadougou and it would be difficult to return. 

I had this fleeting thought - “What if he is one of the ‘bad guys’?”…. I asked, “If he is from so far away, why did he come here?” He said he had heard that “the work here is good,” as my translator put it. Now we were tracking together through smiles, both happy that our paths had crossed. I made him a deal - if he had no post-op problems - he didn’t need to return for follow up. I explained the 10 kg lifting restrictions. He asked about his relationships with his wives. I felt that we had a mutual understanding of his recovery plan. If I didn’t hear from him again, I’d assume he was doing well. 

Then, I asked if I could pray for him before he left. “No problem” was the reply throughout the translator…. I felt the nudge to go further. I explained that I had read just that morning about the problems in Ouagadougou and I told him I would pray for him and the Burkina people. My translator, who also happened to have trained some as a nurse in Burkina, and the patient seemed to appreciated where I was coming from. I asked God some of my typical requests for patients who I am about to discharge… thanking him for them, asking for their healing, asking that they would know Jesus better though their time here. But for this guy - I added prayer for his people, for peace and safety. 

It was a special time filled with the joy of love edging out fear.