Monday, December 2, 2013
Dear Friends,
Greetings from Togo! Thank you so much for reading the last prayer letter! Thank you for responding to some “dis-“ comments; thank you for caring and for praying. What an encouragement you have been to me through the assurance of your prayers, your love, your friendship!
Would you please continue joining me in prayer? Here are a few specific requests:
1) Please pray for some meetings this afternoon (Tuesday) and then again this Friday (the 6th). These are meetings between some of our nursing students and the administrative teams of the two ABWE hospitals here in Togo – this hospital in the south and the one being built in the north. As you know, we have 20 nursing students in our current program. The hospital in Mango (in the north) needs all 20 of them when the hospital opens. However, four of these students are asking that they be allowed to stay here in the south. Please pray for the two hospital directors and one of our health-care providers as they meet with these four students. Please pray for God’s clear direction as to how to manage this situation.
- At first glance, this might seem like an easy decision — just require all 20 students to go to Mango.
- However, these four students have said from the beginning (during their initial interviews) that they did not want to go to Mango. And we took them into the program anyway. Hmm . . .!!
- We admitted them to the school believing that we would have at least several of our “older” nurses going to Mango (several of the older nurses had indicated a strong interest/desire to go). So we took the four students who did not want to go to Mango. Now it seems that we have perhaps only one “old” nurse heading to Mango – instead of several!
- Consequently, Mango needs nurses; and HBB (hospital in the south) does not need more nurses (for the moment) and does not have the budget for extra nurses.
- To complicate the situation, two of these four students were hospital employees before starting the nursing program — so they would need to resign from our hospital and be hired in the Mango hospital. I am not sure that legally we can tell them to do that when they do not want to!
- To further complicate the situation, one of the students is engaged to one of our nurses. And from what I hear, that nurse does not believe that God is leading him to Mango – and he sure does not believe that God is leading his wife to Mango and leaving him here!!
- All 20 students (including these four) signed a contract at the beginning of the nursing program saying that they would serve in either hospital depending on the needs and the decision of the two hospital directors. However, from years of experience with college students in the US, I know that things change!! Family situations change, engagements happen, etc. And contract wording is read differently by different people . . .!
- Bottom line: would you please pray that God’s direction would be clear; that everyone involved (missionaries and students) will follow God’s direction regardless of what that might mean (for missionaries that might mean trusting God to provide other nurses and other finances; for students that might mean trusting God with their families and responsibilities); and that communication and attitudes would be right before God and with each other.
For your specific prayer, the meetings this afternoon will be from 10 AM to noon EST; meetings on Friday will probably be from 7 AM to noon EST (meeting with the students individually and then with the whole class).
2) Another issue that is being discussed (or re-discussed!) is that of the “certificate” the nursing students will receive at the end of their nursing program. At this point, the Togo government only recognizes its own nursing programs. In other words, we have governmental permission to have a nursing program – but our students (and all students in any private program) cannot take the national licensing exam. So all of the nurses that we have educated, including these students, cannot receive a “diploma” but must receive a “certificate”. I have been to the Minister of Health’s office a number of times, with a delegation of other missionaries and Togolese, pleading for official recognition of our program. That has always been denied (in spite of a terrible dearth of nurses in Togo!!).
- The students are asking that something be done again.
- However, trying to knock again on government doors during a nursing program can be a little risky (all non-governmental nursing schools, including ours, were shut down in 2003 – thankfully, that was three days after the graduation of our nursing class! And thankfully, after multiple appointments with authorities, we were able to re-open for the next program). So I am very willing to continue pursuing government recognition after this nursing class graduates - but not until then.
- The students have watched as people in the community, and nurses at other hospitals, laugh at our current nurses – saying that their education is not even “valuable". Obviously, those people will know the value of our nurses' education if/when they come here as patients!! Our hospital is well–known throughout Togo and in neighboring countries – and there is absolutely no question about the “value” of what we are doing here!
- The students knew in at the time they were accepted in the program that they would be studying for three years and would receive a certificate. We have always been very upfront about that. But sitting in an interview hearing about a certificate (and seeing it) is very different than being five months away from graduation and thinking about what one receives at the end of three years of hard work!
- Anyway – at times it seems like there is a lack of confidence in the nursing school director (me!), lack of understanding about decisions that are made, questioning, etc. Most recently the students have expressed a desire to receive their certificates in a private ceremony - rather than a public graduation ceremony. I am saddened by that idea – not because I am hanging onto the major celebration idea, but because that speaks to me of some heart attitudes and perceptions.
- The last prayer letter was written after a three–hour meeting with the students; that was followed last week by a 2 1/2–hour meeting (with a somewhat better tone).
- Annette (hospital administrator) and I are hoping to meet with our hospital lawyer next Tuesday (the 10th) to see if we can at least add some official elements to the certificate the students will receive (“official elements” that make it more accepted in a Togolese environment) - would you please pray for for a good outcome of the discussion with the lawyer?!!
- Bottom line: would you please pray that God will continue to give grace and patience with every question, love for every student (that is not hard – I love these students!), wisdom for the next steps with the government (probably next summer after this class graduates), and please ask God to give us permission from our lawyer to change the certificate.
Can I add a couple of other requests?
- Pray for the Mango hospital: for special wisdom for Cindy, the hospital administrator, as she negotiates with employees for other departments (lab, OR, etc); pray that God would encourage the missionaries that He has led to serve Him in the north! Satan is fighting hard – pray that our God would have a great victory!
- Pray for our hospital in the south. We thank God for the finances that He has provided – yet we look at the budget for future years knowing that only He can continue to provide what is needed! Pray for employees who will be committed to doing right and to serving God – no matter the pressures or ideas of others!
- Pray for Germain, our nursing school translator/administrative assistant. He has been thrown into some roles of responsibility in his church and desires your prayers for wisdom. He is also like an advisor – or a pastor – to our students and needs prayer as he tries to encourage and challenge their spiritual growth.
- Pray for a 6-year-old girl named Grace, the daughter of the lab tech who died (mentioned in the past prayer update). Grace will be going to the US (Indianapolis) this Saturday (Dec 7th) for heart surgery. She will be going without her mother because her mom does not have a passport or visa (Grace’s dad was working on that so he could accompany her). Grace will be with a representative of the organization that is funding this surgery and the trip – someone she does not know, who does not know her language (more than likely!). Praise the Lord for the fact that one of our favorite surgeons and his wife have opened their home to Grace for the time she is in the US.
- Pray that our Community Health Evangelism (CHE) vehicle will arrive here safely and soon (it is in Lome, paperwork is in process). Pray for our CHE members – my sense is that we are a key time in the CHE ministry. We need God’s direction for the villages in which to be involved, for wisdom in working with pastors, for passion to see people come to Christ!!
I thank God for the incredible privilege of serving Him here. And I thank Him that He gives strength and wisdom and whatever is needed for each day and for each conversation and for each relationship. And I thank Him for you – friends who care and pray and invest in my life and ministry and in the lives of these nursing students, and CHE villages, and hospital patients!
Thanks for letting me “muse” - and for letting me share a few comments that hopefully have given you a better idea of what goes into life and ministry in Togo!
Thankful to be serving our Lord together!
Sharon
rahillys@abwe.cc or rahillys@yahoo.com
Blog site: http://rahillysharon.blogspot.com/
Cell Phone in Togo: 011-228-9006-3220 (if calling from the US)
Address: ABWE, Missionary Finance, P.O. Box 8585, Harrisburg, PA 17105-8585
