DALLAS, Texas (ABP) — Many people renew family ties during the holidays, but for Mary Kay Posey, this year's 19-hour trip home will be particularly special. When she returns to Nigeria this month, she'll get the chance to carry on the legacy of her medical-missionary parents — and deliver a large gift in the process.
Posey plans to return to Eku, Nigeria, with two 18-wheeler-sized containers filled with operating-room equipment, anesthesia machines and other medical supplies. The shipment was facilitated by the Baptist General Convention of Texas, Healthcare Outreach Network, Texas Baptist Men, and Walking in Love Ministries, a nonprofit organization that Posey and her husband, Fred, formed last year.
“It's the dream of a missionary kid to go back to Eku and share the love of Jesus,” Posey said.
That love is likely to have a dramatic impact on Baptist hospitals in Nigeria. Posey's Christmas gift will go to three Nigerian Baptist hospitals — in Eku, Ogbomoso and Saki. The Eku hospital serves one-third of Nigeria, and the nearest Baptist hospital is eight hours away.
More than 60 years ago, Posey's parents helped start the Eku Baptist Hospital, which sat one mile away from a leper colony and tuberculosis camp. Growing up so close to the camps, Posey saw pain and devastation caused from hunger, inadequate medical care and disease. And she wanted to help.
“I remember reaching in with my small hands to pull two twins from their mother during a Caesarean section,” Posey said. “When I was old enough, I taught little girls about Jesus in Sunbeams class.”
Posey and her husband have taken supplies to Nigeria four times in the last two years. Their two- to four-week trips included bringing volunteer doctors, medical personnel and teachers. But even with the additional help, some of the hospitals in Nigeria have to fight to remain open.
“It's been heart-wrenching,” Posey said. “With the loss of support from the [Southern Baptist Convention's] International Mission Board, the hospitals have struggled to stay alive.”
A shift in the IMB's strategy in 2000 dramatically reduced funding for the Eku Baptist Hospital, leaving it without the money to hire doctors, nurses and other staff or to fund operations. The shift has meant other Baptist organizations have had to step up in their support of Nigeria's hospitals.
Keith Bruce, director of the institutional ministries office for the Baptist General Convention of Texas, said at least nine hospitals across the United States are ready to give medical supplies and equipment to hospitals like those in Nigeria.
“We're trying to bridge the gap left behind,” Bruce said. “These are the first large containers of medical supplies and equipment we have sent to a developing nation. We were aware of the need of the Baptist hospital in Ogbomoso, and we're glad to be able to provide medical assistance to those desperately in need.”
Shirley Shofner, who coordinates medical missions for the state organization, helped bring the medical resources together. Donations came from hospitals across Texas and other charities in places as far away as Kansas City, Mo., and Louisville, Ky.
“It's awesome what the Lord has done,” Shofner said. “Children's Medical Center [in Dallas] was remodeling its operating rooms and provided us operating room suites including tables and lights.”
But with only two physicians on staff, the Eku hospital still needs doctors. Posey said the hospital staff members — who receive little more than beans and rice for regular nourishment — is loyal and compassionate. But, she added, they are overworked and underpaid.
Organizations like Walking in Love, meanwhile, often have to wire $1,000 checks to feed the hospital staff for the next month.
“We've found the names of four doctors who are willing to come [work at the hospital],” Posey said. “But we need $30,000 for first-year salaries for each one. More than 200 people are currently on staff, but the hospital only has funding for one month's salary, $25,000, excluding the doctors.”
This year, at least, the gifts in the trailer-sized containers will arrive in time for the celebration of Jesus' birth. And despite other pressing needs, Posey said she plans to focus for the moment on the joy in the faces of staff and patients at the Eku hospital when the gifts finally arrive.
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