Twenty-eight willing workers from Adventist Midwest Health (AMH) ventured to Ghana, West Africa, Jan. 15–31, 2006, on the region’s first combined medical care and ministry mission. Some of the team labored with a crew from Oklahoma to build a girl’s dormitory for a Seventh-day Adventist school.
Pam Williams of Adventist Midwest Management Services worked in the kitchen. “I was one of four people who cooked three meals a day for 70 people. We had to decide quantity, cooking methods, and be creative with the produce we got daily from the farmer’s market. We cooked three-to-four-dish meals, all vegetarian, all made from scratch on a two-burner propane stovetop. All the fresh produce had to be sanitized in a bleach wash. We baked cakes and were in the hub of activity from 4:30 a.m. to 9:30 at night. It was the hardest physical work I have ever done, but it was great to be part of the mission.”
“A few of the participants had individual experiences on mission trips, but we had to adapt as a group to everything we experienced—our tiredness, the heat, sanitary conditions, armed guards about us, street fights, and crowds of loving children,” said Tina Johnson, Adventist GlenOaks Hospital marketing manger, who served on the children’s ministry team.
The mission experience also provided an opportunity for each team member to grow more spiritually. Tim Cook, CEO of Adventist La Grange Memorial Hospital, stated, “It is overwhelming to see such need among impoverished people that you can’t address. You realize you have to turn it over to God.”
“When you go to a Third World country, you are immersed in a culture that is totally out of your comfort zone. Because you live how others experience life, you gain a more significant world view,” said Tim. He noted the trip was a tremendous blessing for his family. “My son, wife, and I bonded in a way that was not for ourselves but out of service. I saw my 12-year-old son grow by being exposed to another world and way of life.”
“This was my first mission trip and it was eye-opening,” said Heather Kochen, teen volunteer coordinator for Adventist St. Thomas Hospice. “On our second visit to a school, some kids saw us coming and they started cheering and waving to us from the windows. We realized how much they appreciated us.”
“Participating on a mission trip is an experience everyone should have. It provides a chance to see the world and experience how other people live. You come to realize how blessed we are and how much we have to share in time, talent and material things,” said Isaac Palmer, CEO of Adventist Bolingbrook Hospital, who laid concrete blocks for the dormitory’s first floor.
“We exist to serve. As we ventured beyond our community, we experienced a deeper sense of purpose and a greater commitment to live our mission wherever we are,” said Tim.
According to Jim Today, administrative director of facilities at Adventist Hinsdale Hospital, “We were able to go on this mission trip because of the prayer and financial support back home, but we also realized if it wasn’t for Adventist missionaries 100 years ago, we wouldn’t be doing what we were doing in Ghana now. The [Adventist] Church is alive and well in Ghana and the Adventist Academy is an oasis amid squalor.”
The children’s ministry team, led by Tim and his wife Vivian, visited three different schools twice during their stay in Ghana. Each day they offered three to seven sessions to primary grades with each group having 70 to 400 in attendance. In the evening, they ministered to children from the community.
“We taught hundreds of children lessons in healthcare, Bible stories, games, music, and character traits. We wanted them to know God, and our success was visible throughout the village as swarms of children would go home singing “Jesus’ Love is Bubbling Over” or “Jesus, You Are the Apple of My Eye,” said Tina, who played the first accordion the African children had ever seen.
“The younger children did not have a grasp of English, but through music, movement, games, crafts, and puppet skits—and the help of interpreters— we shared the Good News or Asempa,” said Tim. “It is a spiritual awakening to go before children [who] have so little and tell them God loves them right where they are."
“The children had a hunger for fellowship. They were sensitive to spiritual things,” noted Tim. “It touched me to realize God gave His life for these little children in Africa as He did for me, a CEO from America.”
Along with music and ministry, the team taught character traits of respect, responsibility, trustworthiness, caring, and courage. A nurse on the team provided lessons in hand-washing and explained how their bodies work. The children used stethoscopes and heard their own heartbeat.
Tim noted, “Most of us feel difficulty in expressing what we experienced. I can show you an orange, but if you never held one, smelled it, or tasted its sweetness, you really don’t know what an orange is. That is what the mission experience is like. We were told to expect the unexpected. We learned that unreliability is the norm and the people of Ghana don’t expect things to be reliable, so they roll with it. They have a different frame of reference. Because of the poverty there, the children could not grasp the concept that we had enough candy or crafts for everyone to share.”
Lynn Larson is a public relations specialist for Adventist Midwest Health.
