Betsy's Newsletter about our Mission Trip to Trinidad

About the Father’s Business…
...in Trinidad

Prayer-Newsletter of
Betsy Christiansen
Medical Missionary
to Latin America

Volume 5 Issue 1
May 2007

Your prayers and financial gifts allowed me to serve
in Trinidad in April, on the southernmost island in the
Caribbean where the Spirit drew >500 to our clinics. My
colleagues shared God-given gifts with patients, and He
blessed me as Team Leader with sacrificial, servant-hearted
and cheerfully-flexible teammates.

Meet God’s mosaic: MDs John Buckingham, Sharon
Kuhn, Jeff Lee;, Mourad Nessim; NP Karen McClure; RNs
Linda Arial, Courtney Cole, Clayton Jackson, Karen
LeBlanc; versatile administrator Cheryl Erb, dietitian Dina
Sunderland; ‘Eye-Guys’ John Fender,Bryan McReynolds;and Laura Singleton,
evangelist.

We came alongside resident missionaries Pastor Steve McGee, his wife Adanna and children Hannah, Joshua, Geneva; Trinidad pastors Thom,
Hosein, and Gosyne; and, Dr. Beharry.

Our first reminder to depend on God alone came
when Customs officials held 90% of our meds. Preapproval
documents had not been delivered despite Steve
and Dr. Beharry following Ministry of Health protocol.
Why? Let’s just call it “the fallen state of man.”
But this did not stop the Lord’s ministry! In
addition to providing 390 eye exams and Rx or reading
glasses, praying with the hurting, and sharing the gospel in
predominantly Muslim and Hindu communities, God did
a loaves and fishes miracle: 4 bottles of Ibuprofen lasted 4
days for 400 patients, most of whom presented with
musculoskeletal pain! We also had respiratory and cardiac
meds, and Dr. Lee shared, “Whenever I went to the
pharmacy table, I found just what I needed!”

By God’s providence, patients also were generally not too sick.
Trinidad is a land of spiritual darkness. Our team
encountered it daily in little or big ways, including severe
knife-like pain in Dr.Beharry’s ankle early on clinic day 3.
It abated when a Bible study brother came to pray for him.
and he was soon able to get up for more ministry with us.

Dr. Kuhn shared at the close of one clinic day, “I sense a
real tug-of-war going on for souls, as patients tell me, ‘one
week I go to church; the next week to [Hindu] temple.’”

I wondered why 25 year old Leera sat non-verbal
and at a distance from her mom, her toddler daughter and
4 year old son. Leera’s face reflected deep sadness. I introduced
myself, thanked her for coming and, silently praying,
sat awhile with her. When Leera blurted, “I’m pregnant and
don’t want to be,” the grandmother had already consulted
with Dr. Buckingham about the 16 month old’s 5-day fever.
So I asked Leera if our female doctor could give her a
check-up. I got crackers for her nausea and set up a private
exam area. Leera’s face was slightly brighter after her time
with Dr. Kuhn, and she agreed to come back for labs the
next day. That evening the team prayed for Leera and her
10-week pre-born baby. She didn’t return to clinic.

In Charlieville the McGee’s best friends and Muslim
neighbors Zaid and Sherry Ann demonstrated generous
hospitality in opening their home as a clinic site. Steve
gained credibility as a loving Christian who brought free
and compassionate care to their community. Lord willing,
we also reflected Christ’s redemptive love and demonstrated
His free grace.

In this mixed Hindu and Muslim community a
Christian drove his 92 year old blind, lame Uncle Charlie to
see us. I took vital signs while seated on the running board,
then Dr. Buckingham knelt to examine and pray with him,
and treat his arthritis. His nephew told us, “Charlie is
disturbed by demons and night terrors despite my telling
him about Jesus.” Adanna and Clayton again
shared the hope of Christ,but Charlie kept saying, “I
can’t believe in a God who could be killed!” He couldn’t
grasp that God sent His Son to die and rise again so to
break the power of sin and darkness. Charlie went away still bound,
but with a nephew determined to continue sharing the gospel with him.

go. connect. engage.

PRAISES...
• • God’s grace in equipping us for ministry with the McGees and Trinidadian believers

If anyone speaks, he should do it as one speaking the very words of God.
If anyone serves he should do it with the strength God provides,
so that in all things God may be praised through Jesus Christ.
To Him be the glory and the power forever …Amen. 1 Peter 4:11

PRAYER REQUESTS…
• God’s favor and provision for the McGees, reformed pastors and Grace Bible College
• Salvation for Charlie, Leera and her 3 children, and all those who heard the gospel for the first time gospel with scores of children in Carlson
Fields. Many were effectually ’street kids.’ Steve Jadoo, his wife Nanda
and their children gave their home and yard totally over to
us so we might serve their neighbors. Steve was also our excellent
van driver all week, and, with further hospitality,
Nanda prepared us a delicious Trinidadian lunch that day!
We get to serve (and enjoy!) the family of faith, too.
Patient Ann Marie and I (page 1) called ourselves “Salt and
Pepper” after getting to know each other. And I made 2 more
friends with just a bag of reading glasses, hugs and prayers.
Nicholine and Alice visited us in D’Abadie.Nicholine’s daughter
Christiann had an equally beautiful smile and faith after 17 cleft
lip/palate surgeries in 17 years! (Please pray for
Christiann’s last surgery scheduled this July.)
Thank you and bless you for joining this ministry of Word and deed with our church planters!

How may I pray for you?

Effective Health Teaching Course in Cherokee, NC

From Cherokee to Hobbema

We are planning to take a small health teaching team to Hobbema in the fall with counselors and other health professionals who are eager to listen and show love and encouragement to the Cree.

Before we return to Hobbema we will be having an “Effective Health Teaching Course” in Cherokee, NC July 23 to 28 for people who would like to incorporate health teaching on medical mission trips. This will be good preparation for health teaching teams to Hobbema and to other places in the world.
Pray that we will be well prepared for this course, and that we express clearly important concepts of teaching.

The Cree People in Hobbema, Canada

The Cree People

In March, Elizabeth Sexton, RN and Karen McClure, a nurse practitioner with MTW, visited Hobbema, a cluster of four Cree Indian reservations where snow stays on the ground from October to March, where 80% of the people are unemployed and where Marcus Toole, the only MTW missionary in Canada, seeks to bring the hope of the gospel. Marcus invited us to Hobbema for a needs assessment where 60% of the adults have diabetes and they had the highest suicide rate in North America for 10 years. The assessment would enable us to follow up with health teaching teams.

In Hobbema we learned that “medicine” has more to do with witchcraft and curses than to do with modern medicine. There are about 300 medicine people and about 300 Christians in a population of 15,000. There are over one million Cree and Hobbema is a center of the traditional native spirituality. Marcus’ prayer and goal is that a church planting movement would begin in Hobbema and spread from there to other Cree reservations and native communities.
The Cree Christians love to pray and their prayers are filled with such honesty to God in a way I have rarely seen anywhere. At Jesus Church, where Marcus is the pastor, prayer time is sincere, honest, not rushed and with great faith in God. Tina asked for prayer for her nephew who was stabbed by a gang member. Eva asked for protection from the medicine people that are upset because she wrote her testimony in a book called Out of Darkness into His Marvelous Light.
Pray for Marcus Toole as he disciples the new believers and for more people to join him in his work.

Peter and Trina: From Despair into Joy
One of the families we visited was Peter and Trina and their 3 young sons. They asked that we pray for them and their home that Jesus would fill them and their home instead of the conflicts, the demons, the addictions and the abuse. Sunday morning they walked into church hand in hand with their faces glowing as they rejoiced how God had changed their lives.

Pray for Trina and Peter for spiritual growth and strength against addictions and that Peter can use his musical abilities for God’s glory.

Please pray for our Medical Team to Kenya

Hello Faithful Prayer Warriors,

On May 23, I will be departing for Nairobi, Kenya in East Africa for two weeks. I was asked by Mission to the World to lead a medical team of 10, along with Hugh Davis to serve the people there in the slum area of Kibera. Our team is comprised of students, nurses, a counselor, non-medical people, a physician and myself, a nurse practitioner. We were invited by Imboumi Makuku, Pastor of the African Evangelical Presbyterian Church, to serve the people by providing health care through medical clinics and home visits. We will share our testimonies and pray with the people as we spread the love of Jesus Christ.

Nairobi is the capital of the east African country of Kenya, with a population of 3 million. Kibera, located in Nairobi, is one of the largest slums in the world, with an estimated 1 million people living on about 4 square miles. The average Kibera resident lives on about one dollar a day. The housing there is owned by slumlords who extract rent from the residents.

One out of three people in Kibera is HIV positive and there are about 50,000 AIDS orphans in the slum. Most of the families are headed by women and young men have no role models. Many of the men are alcoholics who have abandoned their families. Life expectancy is 48-49 years.

We are excited about the challenges this trip offers to learn and grow. We go knowing that we do nothing ourselves – only He does anything. We can only be instruments for His use, resting in the knowledge that He will guide and protect us.

Please pray for us, as we anticipate physical, medical and spiritual challenges. Specifically, pray that God will be with, and care for, our families in our absence; that we’ll be safe and secure in our travels; that we’ll be protected from disease and ill health; and that the Love of Jesus Christ will be evident in us to the people we serve and care for.

I could not do this work without your prayers and support! Thank-you so much!

Yours in Christ,

Karen McClure

Are you delighting in God today?

The great sin of the world is not that the human race has failed to work for God so as to increase His glory, but that we have failed to delight in God so as to reflect His glory.

John Piper