Inspire, Spring 2011

facul ty voi ce I’ll never forget that day in Togo. With the help of a translator and visual aids, a group of Cedarville nursing students presented the Gospel to a 12-year-old girl who was on bed rest due to major leg fractures. The translator’s voice was loud enough for others in the women’s ward to hear. When the students asked the girl if she wanted to accept Christ, she said, “No.” But at that moment, her grandmother spoke up, “Well, I do accept Jesus.” As we walked back to the nursing station, a pregnant woman stopped us. “What about me?” she asked. “I want Jesus.” Coming to Care This May, I will co-lead my 18th team of Cedarville University nursing students to serve in Togo, West Africa. As I prepare to lead this year’s team, I inevitably reflect on many years of ministry in the same setting. One of the compelling motives for this ministry is evangelism. In 2010, 2,689 Togolese patients and family members at Hôpital Baptiste Biblique (HBB) professed salvation. But another important reason we go on these trips is to place students in an environment that softens them to the Holy Spirit’s call to missions. It all began 20 years ago, when Dr. Irene Alyn, previous chair of Cedarville’s nursing department, took the virgin voyage to Togo in 1991. As she investigated nursing opportunities in the village of Adeta, she established lasting relationships with administrators at HBB, an organization connected to the Association of Baptists for World Evangelism (ABWE). These relationships opened the door for future nursing ministry, and I led the first team of Cedarville nursing students to Togo in 1993. The longevity of this ministry has strengthened our relationships with Togolese missionaries and health care workers. And as a result of the growing Twenty Years in Togo by Lois K. Baker, Ph.D., RN Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Top row (left to right): The hospital’s first class of nursing graduates — these students took pediatric nursing classes from Dr. Lois Baker. Cedarville students on the 2004 MIS team care for a Togolese child. After a cesarean section, a Cedarville student introduces mom and baby. Bottom row: Virginie, a nursing graduate, and her infant sit with Lois at the hospital. A Cedarville student poses with the premature baby she cared for while in Togo. Lois has developed friendships with the nursing staff at the hospital in Togo. 42 spring 2011