Drip feeding the Christian faith

On the edge of the Sahara Desert, a hospital you support is whispering God’s love to Muslims while providing life-saving medical care

Land-locked in the heart of Africa sits the country of Chad. Towards the north of the western border is the capital, N’Djamena. Amidst sand and blistering heat, and amongst some of the poorest people on the planet, you’ll find Guinebor II (G2), a Christian hospital ministering to Chad’s Muslim-majority population. It is here that BMS World Mission is doing amazing work which is having a huge medical impact and is gently feeding the spiritual needs of those it’s helping.

The hospital is described as a “light in the spiritual darkness” of the local area by BMS pharmacist Claire Bedford, who has been serving there since 2013. Patients travel from all around the region to receive much-needed care, sometimes passing other hospitals to get to G2. During the first three months of 2017, an average of about 470 outpatients a month visited G2’s walk-in clinic alone. Each month, staff treat between 150 and 160 inpatients, deliver about 140 babies, and G2 surgeons conduct 150 operations.

As well as providing life-saving medical care, our workers also enjoy the privilege of sharing the life-changing knowledge of Christ. G2 staff will go around wards and regularly offer prayer to patients; an opportunity that is rarely refused.

Thanks for giving to our Chad Christmas appeal
 
Over £15,000 was raised. Your gifts to BMS mean local people are not only getting better medical help, but are hearing the story of Jesus in their own language. A portion of your giving was spent on new solar panels, which are being used to power a projector and Pastor Djibrine’s laptop, showing the Jesus film in a local village during the evenings. The solar panels are also helping to power the hospital!


Donations to the appeal have also bought memory cards for mobiles which have the Jesus film and 35 audio Bible stories in three local languages (Chadian Arabic, Gorane and Kanembu) on them. Pastor Djibrine has already started giving them out to people he feels would make good use of them. Thank you so much for making this possible.

BMS local worker and G2 chaplain Pastor Djibrine has experienced a growing boldness in his witness to patients, and is finding greater opportunities to share Christ on the ward. From discussions about why Bibles and not Qur’ans are placed by the ward’s beds, to getting to answer questions from Muslim patients about what it is that Christians know and love, Pastor Djibrine has many stories about the opportunities he has had to share Christ.
 
“We’re giving people the opportunity to engage with the Christian faith in a fairly simple way. Drip feeding it to them,” says BMS pharmacist Claire.

Despite being isolated in so many ways, the work and witness of G2 serves as an incredible encouragement. As for Elijah in 1 Kings 19, God is tangibly moving in the gentle whisper, not the fire or the earthquake. While the pace of change may seem slow, God is at work, and it’s exciting to witness. Thank you for supporting us and playing a part in transformed lives in Chad.

Are you a medic? Could you use your skills to serve in Chad?
 
Working as a medic in the UK, it’s unlikely you would have the opportunities to share Jesus with your patients in the way that staff at a hospital in the Muslim-majority Chad are getting to. Please consider praying through this, and seeing if God may be putting this as a calling on your life; do you think you could serve in Chad, alongside Claire and Pastor Djibrine? We’re looking for doctors and surgeons to serve at G2, click here for more info.


This story was originally published on the BMS World Mission website and is used with permission.