From: Charles & Bev Truxton 
Subject: Shermeen's Week

(pls reply to: cbtruxton@hisen.org)

"Praise the LORD...who forgives all your sins and heals all your diseases,
who redeems your life from the pit and crowns you with love and
COMPASSION..." Psalm 103: 3-4

Yaya sanyi?  Lokacinsa.  (How is the cold?  It is the season)

Hello from windy, cool, & dusty Plateau State, Jos!!!

The 'harmattan' has started and we are enjoying the cool (for the most part)
weather here along with this fine red dust that sweeps across your face and
graces your living room floor!  Time is flying just as fast past us and we
are finding that our few remaining weeks (5) are getting booked up and soon
it will be time to leave (AGRH!!! that will be very sad).

This week was B-U-S-Y, (CPR training w/ nursing staff, going on-call past
midnight, shopping at the BIG Yellow Market, chapel at HillCrest...)
although this coming week will be even worse, but we are throughly enjoying
it!! Somehow we (Helena, Dr. Kogo, and me on guitar) found ourselves singing
a 'special number' at his church (His church services gets taped regularly
and I guess that Sun was one of them) and will be appearing on Nigerian TV
sometime soon (??!!).  Don't ask me how that happened...just one of THOSE
things.  Dr. Kogo shared thru the song "Protector of Our Soul" testifying to
God's protection from illness/disease resulting from accidents during
procedures...if people ever complain at home about long church services, try
4 hr ones!

This week, I've been struck even more deeply by God's compassion.  I find
myself almost addicted to the patients, staff and 'medicine' of the
hospital.  OKay, I know that might sound very strange, but it's true.  I
can't imagine now not having 7:30am morning mtg (admissions), rounds,
lectures etc...in my system.  Medicine is truely intriguing and
fascinating...you start to 'speak' the language and 'feel' it.  The patients
have ceased to become 'cases', but real people, real stories and friends
that I have a relationship with and I love seeing them everyday.

I spent my week at the AIDS Counselling Centre and really enjoyed this
ministry.  I am starting to feel God's heart breaking as we visit, talk and
pray with them.  Because of the stigma of AIDS, many ppl choose to 'die with
dignity' in ignorance (refuse testing) than to be alienated from their
families/society.  This doesn't help in our battle with awareness and
prevention.  How many times must our hearts break for every life, every
family devastated with this silent killer??

I wanted to share with you this unique story of Chimapa, a 10 year old girl
with a three day history of abdominal pain (ha, sorry, I'll spare you the
'doc-speak')...okay the story is that she had been suffering from a bowel
obstruction.  We took a look at her X-ray and immediately I saw what looked
to me like an entire goat in her abd region!! (this is a side point-there
was a black patch which looked to me like a goat. I hope my picture will
turn out).  Actually, what showed was sand-lots of it.  'Pica' is the
clinical term for this condition.  We did some 'detective work' to solve
this 'mystery' but that's not why I"m sharing this story.  There were many
possibilities that could account for Chimapa having sand in her intestines
(child abuse, neglect, hunger, mental retardation, psych disorder, anemia,
spiritual etc...) but what tugged at me was her plight.  Begged to be taken
away by her mother in the village to her aunt who lives in Jos, Chimapa has
been raised by her aunt and her 5 cousins (6th on the way) since then.  When
we did rounds we discovered she had been left alone at night and without
food.  I met Chimapa on Thurs morning.  Shortly after, I was oriented into
the ministry of the VVF patients.  

Viscovaginal Fistula (VVF) results thru traumatic injury to their bladders &
or rectum during birth, usally because they were married off in their early
teens and aren't fully developed. They 'leak' continously and smell and are
thus alientated from their families and villages for as long as help
comes...sometimes decades.  Evangel offers practically free surgery and
rehab for these beautiful women who come to know Christ thru the work of
these nurses and surgeons.  I hope I will never recover from the impact of
THURS.  I hope I won't ever lose the ability to shed tears of empathy, love,
and victory in witnessing human suffering and triumph.

Praise God for the dedicated staff here who care.  THank you Lord for the
opportunity to spend time and share with Chimapa and Ibrahim (muslim child
here for the past 3 months with burns) and for the priveledge to pray the
salvation prayer with Chimapa, may that be the beginning of Your healing
touch upon her life.  Lord, never let my heart be hardened but may there be
a balance of integrity, compassion and love in light of huge needs.  Give
perseverance and strength to the tired hands, minds, bodies and souls of the
docs and nurses and staff here.

Would you please pray for:
-Chimapa   -Ibrahim and his mother    
-chapel times at HillCrest as we continnue to lead music there and start
teaching in various subjects as well  
-for God to continue to lead and bless  the many relationships we've formed here 

Thank you!!
love,
Shermeen

    Source: geocities.com/shermeenchan