Ghana Health Team 2017 Update - With Tender Hearts

By Dr. Jennifer Wilson

Everyone in the clinic eagerly anticipates 3:00 pm every day when Caitlin, our international development student (who is responsible for our medical records and statistics) visits every team member. She carries a “Keep Calm and Carry On” tin which contains a little sheet of paper with inspirational quotes and a small treat. Today I will open and close with two of yesterday’s quotes that arrived to us with a piece of ‘Double Bubble” chewing gum.

The world is full of good people. If you can’t find one, be one. – Mother Teresa

Dr. David is a new Ghanaian physician who was sponsored through school by NEA. He divides his time learning new surgical skills with our hernia team and working with the medical doctors in the village. When I work with David, I am reminded of how special our Ghanaian physicians are. They are very well trained, very thorough, and they remain so compassionate and patient regardless of the many challenges that come while (or should I say whilst) trying to provide care in a low-resource setting. We had a surgical emergency in the village today where I was reminded yet again of the calibre of Ghana’s health professionals. Dr. Elke was our surgeon in the village who dealt with this emergency. We consulted with Dr. David, whose first question to the patient was “Do you have health insurance?” When the answer was no, we asked each other whether our surgical team at Carpenter could handle this case. Dr. David’s response, “Please, it is his only hope. If we don’t try and save him he will simply die. By the time we got home from the clinic, this young man had been operated on by Dan and Magdi (with David Mensah observing, I hear) and the surgery was a success. The world is full of good people.

Nurse Rita just completed her nursing training in Ghana and is another one of NEA’s scholarship students. Rita has been a joy to work with and is bubbling with enthusiasm. As part of this team she has a chance to work with 13 nurses with a wealth of experience and she is soaking up every minute. We had a little boy in the clinic with a very unstable knee due to a football injury. His MCL and ACL was ruptured, so walking was difficult. I sent him over to our nursing station to see if they could rig up some kind of support for his knee. That sweet boy returned with the biggest smile on his face with nurse Rita, Nicole and Judy, wearing a perfectly fitted knee brace that gave him enough stability that he now walk freely. Team funds will be needed to assist him with the surgery he will need. The world is full of good people.

The young patient with his mother and nursing team of Nicole, Judy and Rita.

Our dentist Kyle is here for the 7th time. He had a very special patient from the Fulani tribe in 2009 and she returns for her annual check up every year. Kyle has been taking a picture of her and her large family every year. This year, he gave her printed copies of these family pictures. Can you imagine? Later than afternoon this woman presented Kyle with a chicken. You must understand the Fulani tribe of migrant cattle workers are the poorest people in Ghana. Yet she has given her dentist this expensive gift. The world is full of good people.

Dr. Kyle with the gift of a chicken.

After dinner, team reports were enjoyed by all. Our surgical team say there are not enough adjectives to add to awesome to describe their last couple of days. Thus far, 150 hernias have been repaired and Rob believes they will meet the target of 300 by the end of the fortnight. (By the way, fortnight is my new favourite word). Perry and Eric (now referred to as Team Stellar) diagnosed a child with congenital heart disease, and this morning he will be seen by Dr. Anne our paediatrician and Dr. Charlie our heart surgeon. Oh, and newlywed nurse Mel received her first marriage proposal — I think that is 4 in total for our surgical nurses.

Nurse Sue gave a wonderful report on behalf of our surgical nursing team, Garrett on behalf of our dental team, Elise on behalf of the pharmacy team (who enjoyed 30 minutes of power today), and Jane on behalf of the eye team. We are not driven by numbers around here, but just to give you a sense of the scope of the work of our medical, dental, and eye teams, over 2,000 patients have already been cared for. Wow.

After dinner we gathered in the Mensah living room where David gave us his own quote worth noting: “We have come into agreement with tender hearts that everyone deserves things like clean water, food, education and health care. He introduced Mumuni, who is manager of the Leyaata Ane Project designed to rescue moms and babies from dying in childbirth. Between 2016 and 2017, 3814 pregnant women have been visited and assisted to deliver in a health facility and all of those babies are visited 3 times in the first week of life to look for danger signs such as fever, poor weight gain and jaundice that would require an emergency referral. Support and capacity building in neonatal resuscitation was provided by Dr. Carlye and me in 2015, but our Ghanaian master trainers have scaled up the ongoing training and support: neonatal resuscitation and early newborn care has been extended to 79 health workers and 105 traditional birth attendants. As a result, 1145 babies who would have died at birth were successfully resuscitated between 2016 and today. Our team was speechless. As a result of this program, which receives funding support from Global Affairs Canada, the neonatal death rate has dropped from 40-50/1000 to 5/1000.

Dr. Mensah concluded our evening but sharing a little bit about the vision for the “Leyaata Hospital“: a 50-bed model hospital, staffed and run by Ghanaian health workers under the leadership of NEA. A hospital that is desperately needed right now. Back at home we are working very hard to complete the capital campaign and we are well over the half-way mark. This campaign will provide the funds to build and run the hospital for 3 years after which it will be sustainable — just like every other NEA program. Dr. Rob, who was part of our one-year hospital feasibility study, is hoping to put some of the engineering drawings up in our dining room for the team to enjoy. Please see the GRID/NEA website if you want more information about this hospital — our collective dream come true!

The last quote on our little piece of paper yesterday was

Speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves, for the rights of all who are destitute. Speak up and judge fairly; defend the rights of the poor and needy. (Proverbs 31:8-9)

This week our team with tender hearts have spoken up and we have defended the rights of the poor. Every day the Leyaata team with tender hearts is speaking up for the babies that cannot speak for themselves. And the day is coming soon when the Leyaata Hospital, full of tender-hearted Ghanaian health professionals like Dr. David, nurse Rita and pharmacist Emmanuel, under the leadership of NEA, will be defending the rights of the poor and needy for generations to come. I pray really hard that as we add more good people and more tender hearts to the NEA fan club, these hospital doors could be open sooner than we think.

Ghana Health Team 2017 Update - The Road to Yaara

By Dr. Jennifer Wilson

The morning commute to Yaara is always interesting. After about 20 minutes on the main road we turn on to a dirt road that I fondly refer to as “Washboard Avenue.” After another turn, the road becomes more of a path lined by tall grass. Every once in a while we would pass a small village or a school. All the while the road seems to get narrower and narrower and the pot holes deeper and deeper. After crossing the amazing Makbraneth Bridge, we got momentarily stuck in a big mud puddle. Thankfully, our expert driver Simon got us out of it before we had to decide who would do the pushing.

Just under two hours later we arrived in beautiful village of Yaara, the place where David Mensah was sent as a young boy after his father died of a hernia. David explained it was a village that mistreated him so severely that he had to escape yet, many years later, it was one of the first villages that NEA brought its development work to. David speaks about this in detail in his book Kwabena.

After such a long and bumpy bus ride, many team members reluctantly headed to the latrines. Suddenly there were whoops of joy as we discovered brand new, never before used latrines built by NEA and the Makbraneth Foundation. These latrines had doors. These latrines had locks on the doors. These latrines had … wait for it … toilets, which quickly became known as thrones! Oh my, there was such a commotion as people started cheering from behind those doors and I believe it was nurse Joan who broke out into the Hallelujah chorus. The latrines were the topic of the day in the lunch room!

The school was quickly transformed into a a clinic due to the coordinated efforts by every member of the team and our Ghanaian volunteers. It is a logistical work of art (thanks Kim, Steve and Dave) as every canopy, hockey bag, table, chair and even garbage bag gets to the proper destination. While we were setting up, the beating of the drums began and soon the women started to sing and dance. The team made their way over to join the dancing, but Dr. Sue and some of our nurses had to miss the ceremony as they were attending to a critically ill teenager who needed stabilizing. David’s brother, Chief Joseph, and his elders were seated and had a great laugh watching us all trying to dance to a beat that we cannot quite find with sweat pouring down our faces in the already well over 30 degree heat. I have to say Dr. Anne and Dr. Charlie won the prize for most enthusiastic dancers!

When the drums stopped, greetings were exchanged and Ashley Gayton (one of our surgical team members who joined us today) presented the chief with a gift and Margaret from the eye team presented a gift to his wife. Dr. Rob and Elena brought a soccer ball for each village and Amelia presented that as wide-eyed little boys and girls looked on. The Assembly Man then spoke eloquently on behalf of the Chief and Elders and explained that our annual visit over ten years has become a strong motivating force to them. Our efforts and our presence year by year has motivated their community to do more and more to help themselves and improve their situation. For example, they have been advocating for many years for a health centre in their community and he announced that approval has been given. Soon a nurse and a midwife will be posted in the newly built Yaara health centre to provide year round care! We have all been praying and waiting for that day! He also commented that their health has improved not only because of the medicine and surgery, but because their community’s consistent interaction and socialization with us has added to their health enormously. The ceremony concluded with the presentation of a ram, more yams and large piles of fresh pineapple, papaya, watermelon and bananas that neighbouring villages contributed to the group gift. The chief then called my daughter forward and his wife Hagar handed her the gift of a live chicken. As Dr. Andy said at dinner, the look on Amelia’s face as she held that chicken was priceless! The chicken fell out of the pickup on the way home but survived his attempt at escape. Poor guy.

All sectors of our clinic ran so well today and one patient at a time was treated with compassionate, highly quality care. Team spirits were very high despite the blistering heat. Our pharmacy and dentistry station were surprised and thrilled to be working in a brand new three-room school with electricity and fans. Sherry’s happy dance unfortunately only lasted for about one hour when they lost that precious power and out came the reliable old generators once again! It was an “hour of power” our pharmacy team will never forget.

Some of you will remember stories of Joshua, David’s nephew who, seven years ago, almost died from severe pneumonia while we were in Yaara. This tall growing young man paid us his annual visit and it seems like yesterday to many of us that we almost lost him as a sweet little baby.

Our newcomers took a brief walking tour through the village and salty bus snacks (highlight of the day) were handed out thanks to our Hunstville friends of John, Jenn, Cheryl and family. With God’s help, we arrived safely back on the compound before dark.

Back at home base the laser clinic was busy restoring sight and putting another big dent in the epidemic of glaucoma here in Ghana. Our optometry team is already talking about the next step — which would be cataract surgeries. No pressure Dr Toylin!?I’d love to report on how our surgical team’s day went but they still were still in the operating theatres when we all left for bed at 8:00, completing the 40th case of the day. What a long day they had, but they will be happy to enjoy another amazing meal of Fufu from Lucy’s yams and guinea fowl tomato soup. Apparently Lucy’s guinea fowl gave the NEA staff a very hard time when they tried to catch them.

Today was a day where our team values of service, teamwork, sensitivity, professionalism and resilience continued to come to life in so many ways by so many individuals in Yaara and on the Carpenter compound. Our sixth unofficial team value is “to have fun along the way,” and we are all thoroughly enjoying every moment of our time with our dear friends at NEA and the people of Ghana.

Ghana Health Team 2017 Update - Highly Beyond Imagination

by Dr. Jennifer Wilson

There are moments during every mission when I realize afresh that the beautiful people of Ghana are no different that you and I. I realize that sounds like an odd statement. However, when you are dealing with a culture that is so different from ours and when poverty is staring you in the face, I am embarrassed to say that it happens.

There were two moments when this reminder hit me so hard today that I had to pause and regroup myself. The first came when I received a visitor. Evans was a little boy we saw last year who was born with a stump for a right leg. With funds left over from last year's mission we were able to arrange for him to be fitted for a prosthetic leg. He and his mom made the journey to Nyamboi to thank us for giving him his life and the mom started to brag about his football skills. An incredible story on many levels, but it was her bragging about her little boy that reminded me that she is no different from any mom who loves to tell of her kids' accomplishments.

The second reminder came to me when I had three very sick kids with malaria who were so scared of my white face. My clinic nurses back at home, Jill and Kelly, snuck some big Paw Patrol stickers in my bag before I left. The moment those three kids saw those smiling animal faces, they were the happiest kids in the world and would let me do anything.

Paw Patrol goes to Ghana

A proud mamma. A child with a sticker. These parents and these kids are no different than yours or mine, except that they were born in Northern Ghana.

Wednesday was rich. It was wonderful. It was challenging. It required every ounce of teamwork we could muster to manage to care for the large numbers of people and the challenges that arose throughout the day both in the village and in the OR. It is humbling work and flexibility and adaptability and teamwork skills must be applied moment to moment.

When we arrived this morning the crowd was under incredible control due to the arrival of our hard-working Ghanaian volunteers, who were on sight as early at 4:00 am. The clinic began immediately and three of our surgical team colleagues -- Dr David, Ted and nurse Mel -- enjoyed their first African village experience. Their help was really needed. I was greeted immediately by Letichia, the village nurse. This dear woman is the only nurse midwife in the community. She is on call 24/7 with no back up. She was absolutely dancing with joy with the health care being delivered in her community. She has been through two of the “Helping Babies Breathe” neonatal resuscitation training programs that we ran with the Leyaata team and is now a master trainer. As she shared stories with me about babies successfully resuscitated, she once again was jumping for joy.

Taking off on Ashley’s “Team Awesome” title, Abraham and our logistics team decided to play a game with all of us today. As they visited each station and asked how they were doing, the first word they said was to become their team name. Giggling away, he announced our new names: Weights and Temps: Team Great; Triage: Team Beautiful, Diagnostics: Team Wonder; Nursing Treatment: Team Busy, Physicians: Team Perfect, Pharmacy: Team Happy Feet (Sherry was doing another happy dance at the time); Dental: Tooth Thieves. Abraham is saving the registration, logistics and eye team for tomorrow!

Team Great! (Weights and Temperature station: Amelia, Rita, Kaitlin, Pastor Emmanuel.)

Dr. Bill had a very sick 5 month-old with malaria and sepsis and worked with the nurses all day to stabilize the child. I have no idea how Joan found a vein in the tiny, dehydrated foot, but life-giving fluids and medicine were running through it. Bill confessed he would not have slept a wink worrying about this baby surviving the night if she went home (that's how much we care for these patients). Although she improved a great deal, we felt she would be best to continue treatment in the local hospital due to her young age. Arrangements were made. Bill shared with me that their plan was to walk to the next village, and get a motorbike to take mom and baby to hospital. Bill noted the injustice that in our shop, an ORNGE ambulance with the Sick Kids team would be landing right now. Instead they will travel 2 hours on a motorbike on a dangerous road as it is getting dark. Nelson Mandela said, “How we walk with the broken speaks louder than how we sit with the great. Overcoming poverty is not a task of charity. It is an act of justice." Bill lived out that quote today.

Our team Pediatrian, Anne, shared about her special patient and special teamwork moment involving a child drifting in and out of unconsciousness from severe malaria and hypoglycaemia. Anne said it was just the most incredible sight to enter our nursing treatment area and have the diagnostic team (led by Tracey), and the nurses on duty in the station (Joan, Kathleen, Nicole, Leslie and Val) descended on the child and in minutes the IV glucose, antimalarials were running. An hour later Anne came back to find the child sitting up drinking and she was ready to go home by the end of the clinic.

Our clinic ended with the Chief of Nyamboi presenting our team with a large pile of yams and a beautiful ram. His parting words were that our delivery of health services to his village was highly beyond their imagination. The ram rode home in the back of the eye team truck (with all of their very valuable equipment). Apparently that didn’t go over too well with our optometrists!

Our ram in the optometry truck.

Our surgical team had a fantastic day full of challenges that were overcome with team work, and our Ghanaian anaesthetist shared how he was left in charge of a case when Perry was called out for an emergency. Eric felt his courage slip as Perry left but quickly realized that “when you are trained by master trainers, you will be ready to overcome." The team had the privilege of operating on one of David Mensah's family members. No pressure!

Dinner was waiting when we returned. I know some family members back home were worried about what their loved ones might be eating in Africa so I thought I’d give you our dinner menu from last night: pumpkin and ginger soup, fresh bread, rice garnished with corn and peas, rice sauce, roast beef with BBQ sauce, salad with fresh vegetables and eggs, yam fritters (made with Lucy’s yams) and fresh watermelon, grapes and pineapple. Needless to say we may not lose any weight in Ghana!

Our special dinner guest tonight was Dr. Mensah himself, and he updated us on some world news and weather reports from home. He gave touching words to us all on behalf of his people, reminding us that many of them have never sat in front of a nurse or a doctor in their lives. He prepped us for Yaara, his village — a village where health is returning due to the consistent efforts of the medical team. Unfortunately a crew of our people missed his speech (Dr. Carlye, Lisa, Bill, Val and Joan) as a medical emergency arrived during dinner time.

We thought our day was finally over but as we walked back to our residence a hysterical mother brought her daughter to the gate who they thought had been bitten by a snake. Thankfully it was “JUST a scorpion bite” and we were able to send her home with some pain medication.

As this day closes, I must say that it is the chief’s final words to us that are ringing in my ears. What occurred today in the village of Nyamboi and in the operating theatres and the eye laser room in Carpenter was highly beyond anything any of us could have asked for or imagined. These words come from one of my favourite Bible verses. For those of you praying for the team, your prayers are being heard.

On to Yaara we go!

Ghana Health Team 2017 Update - And the Whistle Blew

by Dr. Jennifer Wilson

The medical team set out at 0630 for the remote village of Nyamboi. The chiefs and elders were waiting to greet us and we quickly moved to the greeting ceremony where the chief’s closing remarks were, “I pray this consistent relationship will endure forever." My Amelia presented a gift to the chief; Elise, our star pharmacy student, presented a football to the village; and our birthday girl presented a gift for the chief’s wife. Renee celebrated her birthday with us and Nyamboi village invited about a thousand people to her party!

Our logistics team had their work cut out for them today as the crowd was very large and loud and pressing in constantly. They have a very tough job.

Our triage team of Sandra, Greg and Les did a great job screening the crowd, deciding who could be treated for minor ailments and sent home, and who needed to be seen by the doctors.Before our nursing station was even set up, the whistle blew. The whistle sounds when there is a major emergency. Every day we have one physician assigned to deal with emergencies and they respond together with Greg, our advanced care paramedic, and one of our nurses. Two unresponsive kids with severe malaria were carried in as Dr. Charlie got to work. Soon thereafter a man having severe angina and heart failure arrived. It was no coincidence that Dr. Charlie is a cardiac specialist. Set up or not, the team was ready. That is one thing I love about this group of people — they are always ready, always prepared for anything.

Dr. Charlie was on call for emergencies today

All team members worked extremely hard in extremely hot and loud conditions today and provided such compassionate and excellent care to a large number of patients. We thank God that all the critical patients turned around in time to go home.

The eye team tells us they had awesome day as all systems were running effectively and the volunteer eye team -- now called “Badama” (Barb, Dan, and Margaret) -- have really caught on to their new roles. Back the compound, Dr. Angela and Marion restored sight to 2 patients with glaucoma and dealt with some eye emergencies.

Our surgical team started their day with an unexpectedly challenging case that required all hands on deck. Dan was so impressed with the teamwork that is necessary when working in our low-resource conditions here. Twenty-three lives were changed in that OR today.

At dinner, each team leader designates someone to report to the group on how their day went. We share about the patients we meet, the challenges we face, and of course there is always a lot of laughter as we hear about things like ... wedding proposals (Sue has had 3!), dental drama (Francois), aches and pains that surgeons didn’t know they had (Dan), and happy dances over simple things like power (Sherry) or frozen Fandago at lunch (all of us).

I am so thankful to God that our team’s health has been wonderful. The only exception is that latrine phobia has kicked in. It is real and is it quite common to hear team members wishing each other luck as they pass one another on the latrine path. Dr. Carlye, our team doc, kindly ran a constipation clinic after dinner and it was appreciated by many. Our gazebo is now buzzing with excitement as Esther the local seamstress is selling her cloth for the outfit she will make for many of us.

Well, 0545 is coming very quickly and it is time to rest. As they say in Ghana, may God grant us tomorrow.

Much love to everyone back home — we appreciate your support and comments that feel like a little lifeline to home.

Nurse Kathleen visiting the sick

Ghana Health Team 2017 Update - Healing Hands

by Dr. Jennifer Wilson

Every morning, the entire staff of NEA gather together under their big gazebo to pray for one another and pray for the day ahead before they begin their work. We were all invited to join them this morning. After a time of singing, an elderly woman named Lucy from Carpenter village walked slowly to the centre of our gathering and thanked our team for the kindness that had been extended to her people over the past 10 years. She told us she was a poor woman but she needed to return the kindness so she worked and planned all year in able provide us with a gift from her farm. Her gift was a bowl of 10 very large yams and 9 guinea fowl — a gift we might expect from a village — not one woman. The significance of the value of this gift was not lost on any of us.

David Mensah shared a passionate message from the book of John in the Bible. He told us the story of Jesus healing a man who had been ill for over 30 years at the pool of Bethesda. None of the disciples wanted to go to that place of suffering except for John. He explained that to his people, we have become a pool of Bethesda — a house of mercy, hands of healing. He then gave examples of patients he has met with in recents months. A man whose daughters would have been orphans if not for the emergency surgery performed by Magdi’s hands of healing; a woman who can now thread her needle to make income from sewing thanks to the “tall man” (that’s Martin McDowell, our lead optometrist); a man who can now “crack bones with his teeth” due to Kyle’s hands of healing; a child saved by the IV placed by nurse Joan’s healing hands years ago. The examples kept coming as David walked around the gazebo … Charlie’s healing hands, the pharmacists' healing hands, the nurses' healing hands. You could have heard a pin drop in that gazebo.

After omelettes, porridge, fruit, beans and Tim Horton’s coffee, all of the newcomers went on a 30 minute tour of the NEA compound with David.

The 30-minute tour group

Two hours later, that group came back stunned and amazed and so excited about at what they had just witnessed. NEA’s integrated development projects --  from fish to rabbits to peanuts to ostriches -- left them speechless. Caitlin, who is studying international development in university, said that everything she has been learning just came to life. Whilst (love hanging with UK friends) the tour was going on, Kim worked with our local hosts to train the translators and volunteers who will be collecting our registration and important stats for the Leyaata program.

After lunch the surgeries began and by dinner, 20 surgeries were successfully and safely treated. I popped my head into the Brenda theatre mid afternoon to hear Ashley’s voice announce “Welcome to Theatre Awesome!” Awesome it was with the glowing faces and healing hands of Emilia, David, Dan and Ashley cheerfully going about their work. Our young Canadian nurse Emilia was definitely keeping those three British chaps in line! All of them were wearing brand new scrub hats donated to the team by Esther, a local seamstress.

Hands of healing in Theatre Awesome

While surgeries were being performed an amazing sea of white shirts provided care to the NEA staff and their families as the medical, dental and eye teams kicked into action along with their translators and volunteers. I couldn’t believe how smoothly it went for a first clinic — especially with half of our team being there for the first time. Despite a few hiccups, such as losing power to our automated pharmacy, problems were identified and fixed with great speed.

Our dental team's modified uniforms

After another awesome dinner, awesome stories of the day were exchanged by our awesome team leaders while Eric, our Ghanaian anaesthetist, told me he could write a book on all he learned in one day from Dr. Perry. We love our Ghanaian colleagues and are thrilled that a new Ghanaian physician graduate, Dr. David, and a new nursing graduate, Rita, will also with working with us for these 2 weeks.

We all headed off to bed leaving Dr. Toylin, our ophthalmologist in deep conversation with Abraham and Soale, our local leaders, about a life-threatening case involving a young woman with a very large tumor behind her eye. We need great wisdom to discern the next steps to help her in her great suffering.

The surgical team headed back to their residence for a team debrief and the medical team unwound under our gazebo with a good dose of journalling, puzzling, colouring, very competitive banagramming and playing some euchre. My daughter Amelia was amused by how health professionals choose to unwind.

Off to a village tomorrow — our day begins at 0545!

Ghana Health Team 2017 Update - A Sterling Start

By Dr. Jennifer Wilson

After a few short hours of sleep, our journey to Carpenter continued Sundaymorning on domestic flights to Kumasi, followed by a rather toasty coach ride to Carpenter. Kim kept trying to communicate how hot the bus was, hoping for a bit more A/C, only to have the driver advise her “Ma'am ... it is because of the weather." Point taken.

Apparently overbooked flights are a problem in Ghana, too, and so with hugs and high fives while shoving Cedis in their pockets, we left behind Dave our assistant logistics lead (sorry Heather) and Greg, our advanced care paramedic (who by the way had been travelling from Fort McMurray since Thursday) to figure out a plan B. Resilience is one of our team values, don’t you know!

So 66 minus 2 of us rolled into the compound of NEA around 2 pm to be greeted by our dear friends, brothers and sisters and of course the children at NEA. The circle we formed as we held hands and sang a Ghanaian song of thanksgiving to God was just such a massive circle. I was perhaps a tad emotional remembering it was exactly 10 years ago that my feet hit Carpenter soil and this beautiful partnership began. After an exchange of greetings, hugs and introductions in the 35 plus degree heat, we enjoyed mushroom soup from Frank’s mushroom farm and fresh bread from Kate’s bakery, and then we got to work.

The next 3 hours was a sight to behold as 200 hockey bags and cartons were unpacked. By 7 pm the training room was transformed into a massive pharmacy, medical, dental and nursing station as well as a logistics home base. Our eye team was so far ahead of schedule they bragged they were prepping for Wednesday’s clinic. And our surgical team ... oh my. By 7 pm our first 15 hernia patients had been screened and prepped for Monday’s surgeries and those 60 boxes of equipment suddenly became 2 operating theatres and a recovery ward.

The best part about 7 pm was that Dave and Greg rolled in to a standing ovation after a nice air conditioned VIP coach ride to Kumasi where NEA staff liased with them. We were particularly happy to see them as we had all decided to go on a hunger strike (after lunch, of course) pending their arrival. A wonderful spaghetti dinner was had by all as eyelids began falling at a rapid rate.

Our first patients couldn’t wait until we were open for business, as two of the children booked for hernias were sick with malaria. Dr. Anne, our team Pediatrician, Dr. Lisa, and nurse Kathleen, who are all first time team members, jumped to action and the kids were cared for and treated by torch light under the surgical tree and the watchful mentorship eye of our veteran Dr. Sue. The kids will have their surgeries on Friday.

As Dr. Rob said to me, “It has been a sterling start to our fortnight." What a choice of words. My favourite words today came from my dear friend Magdi ... “I’m just so happy."

What a day it has been as we begin our service to this incredible organization at NEA and as we lend a hand to our local Ghanaian health care colleagues who continue to leave their posts and journey towards our team headquarters.

My husband always teases me that I’m supposed to be writing blogs ... not books, but it is as if a week’s worth of stories happens in one day here.

Load of love back home to our friends and families. Your blog comments are coming through and being read to the entire group at meal times and they make us laugh and cry because we miss you all!

Our team's first patients

The Sources of Anglican Theology

By Rev. Don Beyers, Assistant Curate

The Evangelist St. Matthew with his Symbol, the Angel

We continued our lenten study series of our Anglican-Christian faith last week with a look at the “sources” of our theology. We also explored what it means to be baptized. Although the two topics may seem unrelated, I suggest otherwise. 

Baptism, we learned, is one of the two great sacraments of the Church, the other being Eucharist. It is the sacrament by which we are purified of sin and born into new life, the life of grace. 

While many life-long Anglicans understand Baptism as such, there is another dimension of Baptism that is often overlooked. By virtue of Baptism, we are called to a new vocation, to be Christ to all God’s people.

Immediately following our immersion into the baptismal waters, we are anointed with Chrism Oil. That anointing evokes our new vocation to be Christ to others. Jesus, as we know, was the anointed Son of God, thus he is called Christ, from the Greek word meaning “anointed.” By our birth into new life and into the Body of Christ, the Church, we participate in Jesus’ ministry and are anointed as well. 

The challenge for Christians, therefore, is to understand how we are to live our new vocation. To learn our new vocation, we need to turn to the “sources” of our faith for deeper understanding. Those sources are Scripture, tradition, and reason.

Scripture, of course, is the ultimate and definitive source of all things necessary for our salvation. Although Anglicans generally do not read the scriptures literally, we understand the writers of the Word of God were inspired by God to write those things which are essential for eternal life. Scripture forms the foundation, the ground of all our belief. We turn first to the Word of God for our discernment and it is the Word of God by which we measure all things.

While the Christian Church recognized much of the Bible as we have it today by the third century, questions remained about the meaning of those scriptural texts. For example, the early Christians struggled to better understand how Jesus was both God and man. As successors to the Apostles, the early bishops recognized their duty to faithfully pass on the teachings they received. Therefore the bishops met in large councils known as ecumenical councils to define the core beliefs of the Christian Church. The result of those councils were the creeds which we continue to pray each Sunday.

The teachings of the councils and the creeds form what we call tradition. When we talk about tradition, we are not talking about customs we pass down from generation to generation, but rather the teachings of the apostolic tradition. To be clear, tradition does not introduce anything new, but articulates more fully and clearly the scriptures.

Although there is a general agreement about what belongs to tradition, there remains a wide-range of opinion on various teachings. Remember, we Anglicans do not have a definitive, magisterial teaching like that of other churches. Rather, we have a spectrum of belief and expression of our teachings.

To help us navigate and discern the sometimes muddled waters of our teaching, our Church also turns to reason as a source of theology. Reason discerns the meaning of the scriptures and tradition within the context of our times. Its purpose is to help us understand more fully and deeply what God is saying to us through the scriptures. 

New insights, such as those from biblical studies, often help us to better understand the meaning of a particular passage. We recognize the scriptures were written within a particular historical and cultural context. Therefore we do not rigidly hold to all teachings of the Bible. For example, we do not continue many of the laws found in the Book of Leviticus simply because we acknowledge those laws to be rooted within a particular time. Other biblical teachings, such as those regarding the role of women in the life of the Church, have been understood anew. 

Admittedly, all of this can be rather tricky to navigate. However, we have to remember Jesus is the source and author of our faith and salvation. We must turn to him in prayer at all times, even when we are in the fiercest of theological debates. Our discernment of what God is calling us to do within our particular time and place must be done in prayer. 

This is why it is so important for us to pray the Word of God daily. A wonderful guide for praying God’s Word is the Book of Common Prayer. When we pray the Daily Office, we allow the scriptures to fill our hearts and minds and guide us each day. (Many of us gather during the week for morning prayer to pray the Daily Office as found in the Book of Common Prayer.)

We can also pray God’s Word by simply reflecting for a period of timeeach day on a short passage from the Bible. A good example of this is the practice of lectio divina, or sacred reading. That practice encourage us to pray a text several times and note what words and images touch our hearts.  

Whatever your chosen practice of reading the Bible may be, it is essential that we pray and study the scriptures daily, study our tradition’s rich heritage, and discern God’s call for us today. When we do, we will learn to live our baptismal vocation.

The Emergence of the English Church

By Rev. Don Beyers, Assistant Curate

Westminster Abbey, London

As many of you know, we began this week our Lenten study series, Anglican 101. We had a great turnout at both our Tuesday and Wednesday sessions. While many attended, some were not able to join us for various reasons. All are welcome to our next session, offered again next week on Tuesday at 10:00 a.m. and Wednesday at 7:00 p.m. Each week I will post an overview of our discussion to help you share more fully in our time together.

Henry VIII: Founder of the Anglican Church?

We launched our series with an overview of our denomination’s history. I began our discussion this week with a question: when did the Anglican Church begin? As I suspected, each group identified Henry VIII’s break with the Church of Rome as the beginning of the church. The response didn’t surprise me.

Popularly speaking, most of us locate our church’s beginnings with Henry’s defiance of Rome. Henry, we learn in our history lessons, wanted to annul his marriage with Catherine of Aragon but the pope refused, leaving Henry with no choice but to establish himself as head of the Church in England. Unfortunately, this is a rather simplistic overview of our church’s beginnings.

The Early History of Christianity in the British Isles

The seeds that gave birth to an independent English church were planted long before Henry. One could almost argue they were sown at the very dawn of Christianity to the British Isles. Evidence suggests that Christianity first developed in the region in the late fourth century. Unlike other missions, the Christian communities that dotted the isles were centred around monasteries and not cathedrals. Furthermore, Christianity was shaped and formed by Celtic influences.

St. Augustine of Canterbury

Thus the Christianity of the British Isles took on a distinctive form and shape than the Christianity of continental Europe. Easter, for example, was celebrated on a different date than what was customary in Rome.

St. Augustine of Canterbury

By the end of the sixth century, Irish missionaries were traveling across the isles and continental Europe on missionary expeditions. Yet Christianity had yet to take root in other regions of the isles, namely the English south. As such, Pope Gregory the Great commissioned a Benedictine monk by the name of Augustine to travel to the isles to convert the remaining pagans and bring the churches into conformity with Roman practice and custom.

The Early Seeds of English Reformation

The Venerable Bede

According to Venerable Bede, one of the earliest historians of the English peoples and of the English church, Augustine’s efforts to align Christians with Roman practice were not always well received. It would be many decades before Christians would celebrate Easter according to Roman practice. Often the implementation of the date of Easter was imposed on peoples by force by kings and military might. The earliest seeds of the English Reformation were planted in this period, with the very resistance to Roman influence over the life of the English church.

As the English kings grew in power and might and slowly took control of larger parts of the British Isles, they questioned the power of the Church. The Church was a mighty force throughout Europe and in England. Monasteries attained great wealth and bishops often inherited greater wealth than many nobles. Kings were threatened by the influence of the bishops, particularly the Archbishop of Canterbury.

St. Thomas Becket

The well-know story of St. Thomas Becket illustrates the conflict between the Church and the kings of England. Originally a close ally of King Henry II, Thomas served as the king’s chancellor until his election and consecration as the Archbishop of Canterbury. Despite Henry’s hopes that Thomas would subject the Church to the king’s might, Thomas instead defended the rights and privileges of the Church. Given the Church’s tremendous temporal and religious power, Thomas’ actions proved too much for the king. In the end, Henry II ordered the death of Thomas. Thomas was murdered in Canterbury Cathedral.

Although scholars contend many of the details of Thomas’ martyrdom, his death reminds us that well before Henry VIII, English kings were determined to exercise supreme control of the Church within their realm. And the English kings were not alone in their quest for authority over the Church. Other kings exercised varying degrees of authority over the Church, often appointing bishops to major dioceses.

John Wycliffe

The conditions for the English Reformation were just about set by the end of the 15th century. In addition to the distinctive character and diversity of Christianity throughout the British Isles and the monarchy’s desire for control of the Church, early reform movements revealed a growing desire to renew people’s faith life.

John Wycliffe was one of the earliest of English reformers. He firmly believed the Bible to be the source of all Christian teaching. He challenged the importance of popes and monasteries in the life of the Church. Although Wycliffe died of a stroke, a later Church council declared him a heretic and had his remains removed from consecrated ground and burned.

Church in Turmoil

Despite attempts to quell any reform movement, many felt it was time for the Church to return to the Gospel. Tragically, few bishops listened. Scandals plagued the Church, with priests, bishops, and even popes abusing their authority and committing great abuses. Many clergy lacked fundamental education and often were incapable of ministering to their people.

Martin’s Luther’s Reformation

Matters turned for the worse in the early sixteenth century. Certain friars took advantage of the practice of indulgences.

At that time Christians believed in purgatory, a place where one would go after death if a person wasn’t completely purified of sin. Although assured of the promise of heaven, many Christians believed those in purgatory suffered tremendous punishments for great lengths of time. Many hoped to minimize their time in purgatory, if not altogether avoid going there.

To help Christians avoid purgatory or any punishment for their sins, popes would grant an indulgence, or remission of punishment, if a person performed certain penitential acts and went to confession. Some clergy took advantage of people’s fear of purgatory and hell. Instead, they proposed a person could buy an indulgence. People soon turned to buying indulgences for their hope of salvation.

Martin Luther

A young German monk by the name of Martin Luther learned of the selling of indulgences and renounced the practice. Luther argued we could do nothing to achieve our salvation. Instead, Christ has won for us our salvation by his death and resurrection. A Christian simply needs to have faith in Christ and trust in his promises.

Despite Church leaders’ attempts to stop Luther, Luther’s message quickly spread throughout Europe. To his great fortune, Gutenberg’s invention of the printing press made it possible for pamphlets and books to be quickly printed and disseminated. Luther’s reform quickly launched and he won many to his cause.

Henry, the Defender of the Faith

King Henry VIII

Luther’s reforms, however, were met with strong opposition back in England. There a young and ambitious king by the name of Henry VIII was assuming great power. While evidence suggests he was a man of great faith and learning, Henry likely feared the political instability caused by the German Reformation.

Henry wrote a defence of the sacraments and the ministry of the popes. Pope Leo X, the Bishop of Rome at the time, rewarded Henry for his work and granted him the title, Defender of the Faith, a title that Queen Elizabeth II continues to hold to our own day.

The Break from Rome

Within a short time, however, Henry VIII found himself embroiled in controversy. His marriage to Catherine of Aragon was in turmoil. Henry believed his wife was incapable of bearing him a male heir. This not only endangered his lineage but also the relative peace of the kingdom. Were he to die without a male heir, his successor could be contested.

Henry sought to annul his marriage to Catherine of Aragon. He appealed to Pope Clement VII but was not granted an annulment. In part because the pope had granted permission for Henry to marry Catherine in the first place and the pope further feared political turmoil with European kingdoms aligned with Catherine.

Unbeknownst to the pope, Henry appointed Ann Boleyn’s confidant, Thomas Cranmer, as the Archbishop of Canterbury. The pope confirmed the appointment only to later learn that Cranmer defended the annulment of Henry’s marriage to Catherine. Soon Henry declared himself the head of the Church of England; in turn, the pope excommunicated Henry, the once renowned Defender of the Faith.

The English Reformation

Despite Henry’s new role as the head of the Church of England, there were few drastic changes in the life of most Christians. Certain parts of public worship were translated into English and certain “Catholic” practices abolished. Some reformers were critical of Henry and Cranmer for not doing more. Henry remained thoroughly Catholic to the end. He did, however, abolish monasteries and assumed the monasteries’ property as his own.

Following Henry’s death, the English reformers, under the leadership of Thomas Cranmer, quickly went to work in reforming the English Church. Yet many reformers remained less than satisfied with Cranmer’s reforms. Still others believed Cranmer had gone too far.

Although Cranmer embraced many reforms, such as the reading of scripture and abolishment of clerical celibacy, he continued certain Catholic practices. For example, his first edition of the Book of Common Prayer in 1549 still named the celebration of Eucharist as the service of Holy Communion, commonly called the Mass. Later editions abolished the term Mass and simply refer to the liturgy as the Lord’s Supper. In many places, clergy continued to wear vestments, despite the desire of reformers for more simple attire, often consisting of a black cassock, white surplice and preaching scarf. 

Catholic or Reformed?

A question the English reformers faced by the middle of the 1500s was whether the English church was Catholic or Reformed. A word of clarification is helpful here. The English church still understood itself to be catholic, in the sense that it remained a part of the Church of Christ. And as we continue to profess today in the Creed each Sunday, we believe that the Church is “one, holy, catholic, and apostolic.”

The Church is one for we are united in one Lord, one Body, the Body of Christ. The Church is holy because Christ is holy. And the Church is catholic, because its mission is broad, universal, and far-reaching. Finally, the Church is apostolic, as it continues to proclaim Christ’s teaching as handed down to us by the Apostles.  

However, the word catholic carried another meaning for the Reformers. It was a term used to describe external appearances, teachings, and practices as one would find in the Church of Rome. Incense, vestments, and statues were all perceived to be catholic customs. Reformers opposed such practices as they considered them to be non-biblical.

Furthermore, any teaching considered Roman was considered suspect, if not wrong, such as belief in the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist. Many Reformers insisted the Eucharist to be a memorial, whereas those on the more “catholic” side maintained an understanding of the Eucharist as the real presence of Christ.

For centuries the Church of England would be torn between those on either side of the catholic and reformed debate. At times, the conflict between the two positions would be violent and deadly.

Interesting enough, the Church of England, unlike its fellow Catholic and Lutheran churches, did not establish a formal catechism or definitive church teaching. Instead, the foundations of the church’s teachings were the Bible, the apostolic creeds, and the Book of Common Prayer, which included the 39 Articles affirming the same.

In a way, the church’s lack of a clearly defined authoritative teaching has been both a blessing and a curse. A blessing in that the church allows for a wide range of theological opinion. A curse in that a lack of clear teaching has led to some division in the Anglican Communion today. The challenge for the Anglican Communion today is to hold a prayerful unity and respect for dialogue among those of differing opinion.

Fortunately, another position has been proposed over time, otherwise known as the via mediaor middle way. That position argues the Anglican Church to be both catholic and reformed. Although, as we shall discover next week, there are critics of even this position.

The issues that gave rise to the Church of England continue to challenge the Church today. Can the Church welcome diversity of theological opinion, discipline, and practice and still remain united as one? Who, or what, serves as the ultimate authority in interpreting the Bible and guidance of the Church? The Archbishop of Canterbury? The primates of the national churches? Bishops of local dioceses? These are the questions facing the Anglican Communion today. Interesting enough, they are also the very issues facing many other Christian churches, such as the Roman, Lutheran, and United churches.

Easily Deceived

Sermon for the First Sunday of Lent 2017
Rev. Don Beyers, Assistant Curate

Well, my friends, the season of spring is upon us. But not the spring you imagine. Certainly the weather outside makes that clear. No, I speak of another spring: the springtime of faith, the season of Lent. A season for spiritual renewal, a time for pruning the weeds that strap our soul, a time to clean the cobwebs that cloud our vision of the Good, the True, and the Beautiful.

Our season of Lent has its origins in the early Church when persons preparing for Baptism at Easter would be instructed in the faith and made ready for the great Easter feast. Through study, prayer, and penitential acts, the candidates would renounce their former ways so as to embrace the way of Christ. Over time, the preparation for Easter included all members and involved acts of penance.

Among those penitential acts was the practice of confession, a custom we continue to offer in our own time. Unlike our modern practice, Christians in the early Church made their confession publicly before the whole assembly of the church. They rightly understood that sin not only damaged our relationship with God, but with each other, the entire Body of Christ. It seems, however, that the public confession of sins loss its popularity — I wonder why — and took on a new form, that of individual confession with a priest.

Today, I am going to briefly return to that ancient practice. Fortunately for you, I am not going to call any of you forward to make your confession of sins before the congregation, but rather make a confession of a sin of which I am guilty: I depend too much on myself and don’t always trust God. While some of you might have hoped for a more provocative confession, you will be sorely disappointed. But hear me out for a moment.

Although my sin may seem mundane to you, it is one that I am profoundly aware of its dangers. If left unchecked, the deception that I can rely on myself can lead me to commit a greater sin, the sin of pride — the very sin that has brought humanity to its knees and left countless generations wounded. It is the sin of which the authors of the Book of Genesis were profoundly aware of its deadly venom. Thus their tale of the archetypal humans’ fall from grace, Adam and Eve. While not meant to be an account of a historical act, the temptation in the Garden of Eden painfully reminds us of our weakness, the fundamental brokenness that we experience and from which we can only be redeemed by God’s grace.

My often lack of trust in God manifests itself in subtle ways. At times, it is expressed in my anxiety about the future and my erroneous belief that somehow I can control what is to come, only to discover God’s plans are often greater than mine. Other times, I find myself filled with worry about even the smallest of things and I forget to entrust to God those matters for which I need his care. I can be easily deceived into thinking that I have all I need to accomplish all things. I often find that as soon as I fall into that trap, God makes a point of reminding me that there is nothing I can do, but simply entrust matters to his care.

I wonder, how often do we deceive ourselves into thinking we are more than what we are, much as Adam and Eve do in the story of Genesis. There we read that Adam and Eve ate of the fruit of the tree of knowledge believing that they would be like God and truly wise.

How often do we judge others as we believe God would judge them and condemn them for their acts? How often do we deceive ourselves into believing we know all things when words of gossip pass from our lips and shatter others’ lives? How often do we try to control others, stubbornly believing we will get our way if only we try? When we judge others, condemn others with our words, and control others, we fall trap to the very sin of Adam and Eve and trust in ourselves and not in God.

These are the very weeds that we must prune from our souls and minds this Lent, this springtime of faith. Rather than partake of the fruit of the tree, we are called to embrace Christ and follow his way.

Unlike Adam and Eve, Jesus does not partake of the fruit of the tree, but bears the weight of the wood of the tree of life, the cross of our salvation. Rather than exalt himself, Jesus humbles himself and gives his life for the life of the world.

We read of Christ’s humility and total trust in his Father in our Gospel today. I have long wondered why Jesus was tempted. The more I consider it, the more I realise Jesus had to experience what you and I experience each day so that he could reverse the sin of Adam and Eve, transform it, and redeem and save what was lost once so long ago.

Rather than depend on himself — as we are so often prone to do — Jesus gives himself entirely to his Father. Certainly Jesus could have changed rocks into bread, commanded his angels to save him from death, and declared himself king of all nations. Yet he does none of those things. Instead, he trusts his Father. As St. Paul says in our second reading from Romans, Jesus’ obedience to his Father’s will makes us righteous.

We must be likewise obedient to our heavenly Father. Our pruning hook is obedience, it is the tool by which we shall tear up the weeds of sin that weigh our soul down and prohibit us from flourishing in this springtime of faith. That is our task this Lent!

For many of us, the word obedience conjures up negative feelings and thoughts. We think of obedience as limiting our freedom. Yet obedience is nothing like that. Rather, as the Latin root of the word reveals, it means to listen and hearken. When we are obedient to God, we listen to God, and follow God’s will for us.

When we hearken to God’s call for us to be holy people, a priestly people, a people who live as he calls us to live, we discover a freedom beyond our imagination. We become what we are meant to be.

I am frequently reminded of this in my own life. When I abide by God’s command and live as he calls me to live, I experience a profound happiness. And God’s command is simple: love him with our whole heart, mind, and soul, and love our neighbours as ourselves.

It is when I deceive myself into thinking that I have all the answers, know all things, and act as such that I am most miserable. When we sin, a great weight is placed upon us. A burden far greater than what we can handle on our own. But when we renounce the way of darkness and turn to Christ and seek his grace, we experience true joy and freedom. God wants us to flourish.

God wants us to live in joy and happiness, love and peace. To get there, we need but be obedient to him, listen to him, to know our way.

How do we listen? By now, many of you might notice I place a tremendous emphasis on the importance of prayer in our life. I am a firm believer that it is by prayer, both personal and public, that we come to know God and the way we are to go in life. How do we expect to hear God if we do not set aside time each day to listen? Prayer is just that: placing ourselves before God, entrusting to God all our fears and anxieties, and inviting God to transform them by his grace.

To be clear, God may not answer our prayers as quickly as we may wish or even in the ways we want. That is not the point of prayer. Rather, we pray so as to invite God into our lives, into our suffering, our fears, our joys, hopes, and sorrows. With time, we will learn from God the way we are to go. Trust me, I wouldn’t be here were it not for long and dark nights of prayer over many years.

We listen as well when we read the scriptures and hear God’s Word spoken. Christ makes this clear in our Gospel today. Notice how he responds to each temptation with a quote from the scriptures. When we study the scriptures, we allow the Word to become our very breath, the life of our spirit.

Finally, we listen to God when we attend to God’s broken-hearted. When we give of ourselves to others, when we love our brothers and sisters, friends and strangers, we attend to God. We find the culmination of this on Maundy Thursday, at the very beginning of our Easter celebrations, when we kneel down before each other and wash each other’s feet and heed Christ’s command “to love one another as I have loved you.”

Therefore, my friends, our springtime of faith, our season of Lent, is a time for us obey God, to listen to his ways and place our trust and hope in him. Thus we make our lenten journey, our spring cleaning, through prayer, study of scriptures, and service of each other. How will you make your lenten journey?

Transcending Barriers

Image Credit: Rodney Smith

Rev. Don Beyers, Assistant Curate

When we think of Baptism, we immediately think of water. Yet there is another, equally important symbol in the baptismal rite: chrism oil. After a person is immersed in the waters, oil is poured over their head or marked on their forehead. 

The anointing is a deeply symbolic gesture. Born into new life through the waters of Baptism, we are marked as Christ’s own. Not only are we marked as sons and daughters of the God who loves us, we become like him who saved us: Jesus. That one small gesture radically reminds us of our new vocation to be Christ to the world.

A little background might help us understand this more fully. In biblical times, kings were anointed as a sign of their new mission to be leaders of God’s people and to ensure God’s kingdom, Israel. Over time, the kingly vocation took on new meaning as Israel’s existence was threatened by foreign conquest. The people began to long for a king who would liberate Israel and make of it a great nation as promised by God. This king would be in the line of David and would be the anointed one of God, otherwise known as the Messiah, a word meaning anointed one.

When Jesus began his ministry, people began to look to him as the Messiah, the liberator of God’s people. As such, his early disciples and Christian communities began to call him the Messiah, for in him they encountered God’s saving and liberating grace. Jesus was the anointed one of God. In Greek, the title messiah is translated as Christos, or anointed one. Thus we call Jesus, the Christ.

Although the gospels and other books of the New Testament attest to Jesus’ complete and total redemption of humanity by his death and resurrection, the early Christian community listened and adhered to Jesus’ command to proclaim, through word and deed, his saving grace to the whole world. The Church, the Body of Christ, became the living presence of Jesus in the world and continues to proclaim through works of justice and peace his saving grace.

Baptism, therefore, became the sacrament by which we are born into new life and into the Body of Christ, the Church. Each and every member of that body has a vocation to be Christ to the world. Symbolizing and manifesting that vocation, we anoint the newly baptized and command them to proclaim the Good News of God in Christ.

But how do we do that?

To understand our vocation to be Christ to the world, we turn to the gospels and see how Jesus lived and acted among God’s people. Today’s reading from the Gospel of John offers a profound insight into what our life and ministry ought to be if we are to be Jesus. We, like Jesus, are called to transcend all boundaries and seek relationships with all God’s people.

The story of Jesus’ visit with the Samaritan woman at the well is perhaps one of the most remarkable stories of all the gospels. It stands in striking contrast to the story of Nicodemus we heard proclaimed last week, the story which Fr. Jason spoke about. And if we pay close attention to this story, it ought to challenge us as it did the Jews who heard it proclaimed so long ago.

Unfortunately, however, we romanticize the story of the Samaritan woman at the well. In truth, however, the story is rather scandalous. It is a story of Jesus fundamentally violating the religious laws of his time. First of all, he sits with a woman. A single man never did that. Moreover, he sits with a Samaritan woman, a person from a much-despised ethnic group. Samaritans were once members of the Jewish people and were accused of not maintaining complete fidelity to God’s law because they intermarried with the people who once occupied the promised land. Finally, Jesus sits and talks with a woman who seems to have a questionable past. 

Despite all that, Jesus remains with the woman and talks with her. He forms a relationship with her. He asks her questions about her life and story. Although the woman is hesitant and uneasy about Jesus’ behaviour and questions, she remains with him, astounded by his knowledge of her, and his courage to defy the cherished laws of his day.

Remarkably, the conversation Jesus has with the Samaritan woman is the longest recorded conversation in the entire Gospel of John. No other figure has such a long dialogue with Jesus. It is also the first time Jesus reveals himself as the Messiah, the Christ. Jesus’ attentiveness and care for the woman inspires her to go and tell others in her community about Jesus. The Samaritan woman becomes the first evangelist.

Imagine the shock experienced by Jesus’ disciples who come along and find Jesus speaking with the Samaritan woman. Jesus talks with a woman! A woman known for her questionable life! And he choses to reveal himself to her and inspires her to proclaim the good news! The early hearers of this gospel story would have been deeply troubled. So, too, should we. Particularly as this account closely follows the story of Nicodemus, a highly-regarded teacher of the faith who was unable to understand Jesus’ teachings and know him. Jesus didn’t reveal himself to him, but rather to a woman.

If we are to be Christ to others, we must live and act as Jesus did so long ago.  We have to listen carefully to this gospel story and ponder it deep in our hearts. Jesus’ words and actions challenge us to go well beyond our comfort zones, well beyond the borders and divisions we make, to proclaim the good news of our salvation. We must sit with all God’s people and form relationship with them. 

To be sure, this is a difficult thing to do. I don’t know about you, but I sometimes find it difficult to relate to certain people. It’s much more comfortable for me to form relationships with those with whom I agree or identify. But God calls me not to comfort, but to go where I am most challenged and love all God’s people. I am called to proclaim the good news of God’s salvation to everyone, not just the righteous few. And so are you. Remember, you were baptized and called to the same vocation I was: to be Christ to all God’s people.

This is particularly true today, at a time when so many walls and divisions are being made between different peoples. Around our world whole groups of people are being forced out of their homes because of their religious, racial and ethnic identity, and social class. We are creating divisions within our own communities, between the right and left, black and white, rich and poor. Even within our churches there is division, either because of long-held hurts or deeply-held opinions. 

In Christ, however, there is no division. We are neither Anglican or Catholic, Canadian or American, conservative or liberal in Christ. Jesus came not for some and not for others, but for all. In Christ, we are all sons and daughters of the God who loved us. 

As Christians, as persons anointed to be Christ in the world, we are called to rise above our differences and come together in prayer as one. Although we may not always agree with one another on all matters, we should never let our differences cause divisions. Rather, like Jesus, we should seek to form relationship, to listen and talk with all God’s people.

This is why we gather around this table and unite ourselves as one in Christ. The sign of peace we shall soon share with each other is not just another ordinary pleasantry, but an expression of our desire to be as one. Only then can we stand and offer our great sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving to God. Only then can we partake of the one bread, one cup, and be nourished and fed by Christ himself.

My friends, will you join with me and be Christ to all God’s people? Will you show gracious hospitality and welcome all to the table? We may be amazed if we do. We might just inspire another person to go out, like that Samaritan woman so long ago, and tell others about the love of God encountered in our midst.