| | Dear Friends,
Greetings again from Minnesota. We thank God for the safety and guidance He has so graciously granted. We have presented our ministry in four churches, taken care of our "furlough physicals," and made a lot of the preparations for our return. We are planning to pack and send a 20-foot shipping container (with our vehicle) at the beginning of November and then leave for Liberia on December 2nd. Please pray that we would be able get everything done before these two important dates.
Not long after our last letter Nathan (22) returned to Minnesota from his job in South Carolina. This was not only needed as a summer job, but also as a required internship for his degree in audio and video production. Nathan is presently finishing up his senior year of college. Melodie (23) arrived back home after finishing her counseling training and her summer job in Lafayette, Indiana. She plans to return to Liberia as a short-term missionary under Baptist Mid-Missions. She will be doing counseling, helping in one of our local churches (Calvary Baptist), and working with orphans. John-Mark (25) continues his ministry among the Muslim people in Liberia. Heidi (14) and Jared (12) are looking forward to our return to Liberia. The approaching winter in Minnesota does the same job as the hornets in Joshua's day - it makes us willing to go!
I know many of you have been praying for Joseph Leelear, one of our faithful pastors in Liberia, who has been suffering from kidney failure since January of 2004. We are thankful for the good care given to him by Dr. Sacra of ELWA hospital in Liberia. When this started he should have died, but the Lord had other plans for him. Through the ministry of Dr. Sacra and your gifts (which have helped pay for his medical care and medicines), we were able to help him have another four and one half years of life. However, on September 15th, he went to be with the Lord. We were really blessed by his testimony through all of his problems as shown by this note from Dr. Sacra:
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Healthcare in Liberia is a setting where often care is fragmented and it is hard to develop the same kind of long-term doctor-patient relationships that make family practice satisfying. But this week I lost one of my special patients—this gentleman was a pastor from up-country in Liberia and a friend who had been through an awful lot.
I first met him several years ago when he was hospitalized for about 2 months with severe congestive heart failure and poor kidney function. He required such high doses of medication that the treatment threw off the balance of chemicals in his blood (like sodium and potassium). And so keeping him “tuned up” was a constant challenge of trying this and adjusting that and testing this and modifying that. He had a missionary friend who helped pay for his treatment, so that was a blessing as well. Joseph was a “stick-with-it” kind of guy—if your treatment wasn’t working for him, he’d complain and try some more and give you the feedback until you got things right. This kind of willingness to stick with one medical provider and one hospital even when things were not always perfect or going his way was the key to success—and is not the rule in Liberia. This guy would have died on several occasions if we had not built a successful doctor-patient relationship, built on trust and our common commitment to God. Joseph was a young man—I believe only in his 40s—with a dear wife and young children. Several times during the last few years we were able to get him “tuned up” enough so that he could return to Nimba county, where his church was, to be with his family and his church and to do the work of pastoring that he was called to do. He would stay up there, taking his medication, sometimes for 4 or even 6 months, until something would get “out of whack” again and he’d start swelling up or getting short of breath. Then he’d return to Monrovia for a long course of treatment and retuning.
When I returned from the US a few weeks ago, I met Joseph in the hospital, looking worse than usual. He had a lot of shortness of breath, and looked very uncomfortable. Usually removing fluid from the chest (where it had gathered around his lung) helped him feel a lot better—but this time, the fluid in his chest had become infected. We had to insert chest tubes on both sides to drain the fluid. In addition, his electrolyte levels (sodium and potassium) were very hard to balance. After several weeks of inserting drains and treating with antibiotics and doing x-rays and other tests, pastor Joseph was continuing to get weaker. Monday morning I sensed that he was doing worse, and that he might not recover from this episode. We talked for a while and prayed together. Joseph told me he wasn’t afraid to die—he knew where he was going. He was just concerned for his wife and children.
Monday evening about 8:00 pm Joseph breathed his last. He fought a good fight, and finished the race. I was grateful to have had such a good relationship with this dear brother over several years. It is these kinds of connections that make medical work fulfilling for me. I will miss him, but I know he is enjoying being with his Lord.
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Joseph's care this year alone cost close to $2000. Additionally, we would like to give a gift to his wife and family as they must now go on without a husband, father and provider. If you would like to help with these expenses, please send your gift to the mission with the note, "pastor's death" and we will know what it is for.
As we get closer to our container-loading date, we would like those of you who are considering giving to this ministry to send whatever you are planning to send before it is too late. (I have included the list we sent out with our last letter below.) Additionally, we have set up a "wish list" at an online discount store. This is one easy way to give to our ministry and the ministries of our churches in Liberia. On the list you will find Bibles, school supplies, clinic supplies, etc. All you have to do is choose one or more of the items, pay for it, and the company will take care of shipping it to us. (As you make purchases we will do our best to keep the list up to date.) Please do this as soon as possible since these items need to be shipped by October 24th. The address for the website is http://dollardays.com/bmm-liberia/wishlist.html
Please continue praying for us and especially the following requests.
1. For God's guidance as we - and other missionaries enter this time of great uncertainty and higher prices due to the problems in the world's financial markets.
2. For Pastor Leelear's family in the loss of their husband/father.
3. Finances for us to pay off our vehicle and ship everything to Liberia.
4. God's leading as we seek to reach the unreached parts of Liberia with the gospel.
5. God's continued direction in our lives and the lives of our children.
We thank you for your faithful prayers and support. You make our ministry possible.
In Christ's marvelous service,
Mark, Nancy, Melodie, Heidi and Jared Sheppard
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| | Posted 10/8/2008 7:13 PM - 80 Views - 2 eProps - 1 Comment
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