(May 30, 2014 - by Harold Goerzen)  “When God closes a door, He opens a window.” This ancient Jewish proverb again proved true recently as a medical caravan planned for Sierra Leone had to be moved on short notice due to an outbreak of the deadly Ebola virus.

Staff members at Reach Beyond’s Sub-Saharan Africa Regional Office in Accra, Ghana, were finalizing plans to send a healthcare team to work with partner Believers Broadcasting Network in Freetown, Sierra Leone, in early April when news of the virus surfaced.

“The virus really didn’t affect our partners that much,” explained missionary engineer Adeline McCartney, who serves in community development in the region. “At that stage it was just starting to affect the neighboring countries of Guinea and Liberia. We made the move as a precaution until the risk of Ebola had disappeared.”

It turns out the team’s concerns were valid as five people in Sierra Leone have since died of the Ebola virus, the World Health Organization (WHO) reported earlier this week. Ebola, a hemorrhagic fever with a fatality rate of up to 90 percent, has killed more than 185 people in West Africa since March, according to Fox News.

So what happened to the caravan? McCartney suggested that it move to a community in northern Ghana where Reach Beyond helped install a community radio station with a local partner in 2010. Recently she had worked with the partner, holding community development seminars.

“I’d been up there before to do a training course on hygiene,” she related. “Besides the radio station, our partner has a conference center that funds a lot of different ministries.” The partner is also involved in a microfinance training program, helping fund local businesses such as raising goats and the production of shea butter (an ivory-colored fat from the nut of the African shea tree used in hand lotions). The medical outreach would support the partner’s church planters who work in Muslim areas.

Despite the short notice, the partner was “very keen” on hosting the mobile medical clinic and quickly set up events that would touch three villages in three days. Despite little lead time, church planters able to join the team on the second day, sharing the gospel with patients and reading Bible stories to the children.

“We saw about 100 patients (50 adults and 50 children) each day,” said missionary doctor Mark Nelson who served on the seven-member team with his wife, Laurie (also a physician), their two children, Philip and Alisa, Sheila Leech (vice president of global healthcare), Michelle Sonius and McCartney.

“The villages were very needy health-wise,” said Mark. “The kids struggled with malaria and parasites without much intervention available, so treatment for these maladies was much appreciated. The adults were glad to have a general checkup, having their blood pressure checked and medications for conditions such as hypertension and chronic pain.”

Working through translators, Laurie saw pediatric patients while Mark saw the adults. “Laurie set up clinic under a tree, and the kids didn’t mind being seen outside,” Mark explained. “The adults preferred a little privacy, so I saw them inside a building each day.” The rest of the team members worked together to take vital signs and handle the pharmacy and medication dispensing.

Most of the adults complained of “chest pain,” he continued. “That’s because everyone carries things (such as water and eggs) on their heads instead of on their backs or in their arms. The chronic discomfort is chest pain instead of back or waist pain.”

One memorable patient was a man who complained of having recurrent nightmares. “Each night he dreamed that he was being chased by some animal and it was really disconcerting to him,” Mark related. “I wasn’t sure what to do for him medically, so I felt that I should pray with him that God would help take away these dreams and that Jesus would perhaps even reveal Himself to this man through his dreams instead. The patient was very appreciative.”

McCartney added that the partner’s radio station is going well. “The aim of the whole mission is to reach Muslims—that’s their target audience,” she said. “They would like a bigger transmitter to increase the range of the broadcasts.” Much of the programming, such as health information with a hygiene/water segment that airs every Saturday evening, appeals to a general audience.

“It was really special to work together with the Sub-Saharan Africa team as one group, holding the medical caravans alongside a really neat Ghanaian ministry partner,” concluded Mark, adding that a mobile medical clinic is being planned with the partner in Sierra Leone later this year following the rainy season.

Sources: Reach Beyond, Fox News