An Anthology of Life Under the Sun

The Boy that Changed the World

2012-01-04T14:14:00.001-08:00

This is a children's book from Thomas Nelson publishing that I was asked to review. I did not have to post a favourable review.

This is a really lovely book that I read with my nephew. The art work is really nicely done and the pictures are big and bright with lots of detail within them that you can spend lots of time looking at.

The message of the book is also quite nice. It is slightly moralistic saying that if we try hard and do small things well then this will eventually change the world. But any message that encourages young people to look beyond themselves and seek to make the world a better place can only be a good thing.

Next Generation's How Should a Christian Live?

2011-12-31T07:07:00.000-08:00

This is another offering from Thomas Nelson and I must say has been the best thing that I have reviewed from them recently. The publishing company is broad and there are varied things that can be purchased from them but any book whose objective is to present the Bible and the message of the gospel to young people and teenagers in relevant and exciting ways has to be a good thing. This resource with the bible readings on mp3 that can be listened to and then games that go along with it to enforce the message ensure that it is a good way of communicating old truths in new ways. The design of the book, even down to the font and colours used are really aimed at the audience and really suit the youth culture and things that young people are exposed to.

The reading of the bible is front and centre throughout the book and the truth of the gospel is clear to see and is explained in a way that can be easily understood.

To a Brits ears it does come across slightly cheesy every now and again but that is a very small price to pay.

There are only 12 sessions within it so it is quite short but for the price of around £12 on amazon I would really recommend this to parents or youth workers who want to encourage their children to get to grips more and more with the great truths found within the Bible.

Made to suffer

2010-08-17T01:13:00.000-07:00

This article has been linked to all over the web recently, but on reading it I really wanted to highlight this part for myself. Ajith's final point is that we must have a strong theology of suffering in the West, something that currently is sadly lacking.

Several people have sympathized with me, saying it must be hard and frustrating to serve in a country wracked by war and hostile to evangelism. Indeed, we have suffered. A few months ago, one of our staff workers was brutally assaulted and killed. But I think the biggest pain I have experienced is the pain I have received from Youth for Christ, the organization for which I have worked for 34 years. I can also say that next to Jesus and my family, Youth for Christ has been the greatest source of joy in my life. Whether you live in the East or the West, you will suffer pain if you are committed to people. This is suffering that can be avoided. We can avoid pain by stopping the relationship or moving on to something more "fulfilling." But what do we lose?

Some years ago I was preparing a message on commitment while traveling in the West. Within the space of a few days, three people told me how they or someone close to them had left a group or a person because of problems. One had left an unhappy marriage; another, a church; another, an organization. Each person described his leaving as a merciful release from suffering. But I could not help asking myself whether, in each of these cases, the Christian thing to do would have been to stay and suffer.

The whole article is here.

We may be born to die, but we were created to live.

2010-06-16T01:43:00.000-07:00

This is a recent blog post written by the wife of Michael Spencer, an American blogger/writer/preacher who died earlier this year. In it she explores how the death of her husband was not good, it was not peaceful and ultimately it was not supposed to happen. Her belief in the good news of Jesus' death and resurrection obviously give context and comfort to her grief, but they do not take it away, life was not supposed to be like this, death was not the original plan. When Jesus faces the death of his friend in John 11 he knows that in a few moments he will raise his friend back to life and yet, he still weeps. He is still affected by grief because he sees first hand what sin has done to the world he made and loves.

I'd encourage you to read the whole article here.

Viktor Frankl: Why to believe in others | Video on TED.com

2010-05-19T01:58:00.000-07:00

Have a watch of the psychologist Viktor Frankl then consider what the Bible has been saying for a few thousand years......

Viktor Frankl: Why to believe in others | Video on TED.com

When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is man that you are mindful of him, and the son of man that you care for him? Yet you have made him a little lower than the heavenly beings and crowned him with glory and honor. You have given him dominion over the works of your hands; you have put all things under his feet, all sheep and oxen, and also the beasts of the field, the birds of the heavens, and the fish of the sea, whatever passes along the paths of the seas. (Psalm 8:3-8 ESV)

Only when we see man as made in the likeness of a personal, creator God do we stand any chance of discovering a true identity and purpose in the world. This really is the first step in a discovery of meaning.

Twitter and BBC Radio Sheffield

2010-05-17T06:18:00.001-07:00

So, the BBC called the church office this morning and asked if someone could be interviewed regarding the use of twitter and free speech in our society, naturally they chose me (actually, everyone else was busy!).

It all came off the back of the announcement that Paul Chambers, the gentleman who in February over twitter threatened to blow up Doncaster airport due to delays was charged £1000 for terrorist threats. The tweet was of course meant in jest but the authorities did not see the funny side and have prosecuted him accordingly. This threw up a whole host of discussion around the area of free speech, about thought crime and actual actions and about the use of irony and sarcasm in social media.

Over the phone an hour or so before the 'interview' they told me there would be a Professor of language there from Sheffield University and a discussion would take place around these various themes. So, I desperately read up on free thought and opinion in a pluralistic society, how the Christian faith can engage in these issues and what it has to say about the power of words. Which is very interesting and there are many things that could be said. The interview itself was rather different and instead they just asked me why we used twitter in the first place and what the benefits were for our church. It was brief but quite fun!

Anyway you can listen to it here on iplayer, skip forward to about 2 hours 11 mins for my bit!

Incredible deal from Challies.com

2010-04-19T23:38:00.001-07:00

The prolific blogger Tim Challies has set up a 'friends of the blog' site where for about 20 quid you basically get shed loads of free stuff! 4 books, 4 albums and other vouchers, it's well worth the investment!

Click the link and it will take you there, I also get $5 of book vouchers if you do!

Become a Friend of a Friend

Sri Lankan perspective on Health Care reform.

2010-04-11T02:48:00.000-07:00

This is a really interesting article written by a Sri Lankan pastor on the state of healthcare in his country and his perception of the Reform in the States. Wherever you stand on the issue it is well worth a read. Click here.

Good Friday

2010-04-02T07:37:00.000-07:00

Alas! and did my Savior bleed,

and did my Sovereign die!

Would he devote that sacred head

for sinners such as I?

Was it for crimes that I have done,

he groaned upon the tree?

Amazing pity! Grace unknown!

And love beyond degree!

Well might the sun in darkness hide,

 and shut its glories in,

 when God, the mighty maker, died

for his own creature's sin.

Thus might I hide my blushing face

while his dear cross appears;

dissolve my heart in thankfulness,

and melt mine eyes to tears.

But drops of tears can ne'er repay

 the debt of love I owe.

Here, Lord, I give myself away;

'tis all that I can do

Son of Hamas

2010-03-30T09:33:00.000-07:00

I have just added this book to my amazon wish list. There is an interview with the author here in GQ magazine.

Testimony from Haiti

2010-03-30T07:57:00.000-07:00

I read this over at Mars Hill church blog the other day. Read the full script here.

We kill each other, we hate each other, not because of where we come from, but because of who we are.

A Century Turns by William J. Bennet

2010-03-28T13:54:00.000-07:00

The latest offering from Thomas Nelson is the book A Century Turns, Ne Hopes, New Fears by William J. Bennett. The book's aim is to chart the events of American political history from 1988 through to 2008. It starts with the election of George Bush Snr and finishes with Barak Obama. As the blurb states;

As America collectively exhaled at the end of the Cold War, we loosened our grip on the fear of nuclear confrontation for the first time since WW2. Some scholars even characterized the collapse of the Soviet Union as the end of history itself. Peace was palpable. But America's domestic and global vitals changed almost instantly, and turbulence, not tranquility, marked the turn of the Century.

Firstly, I have to say I really enjoyed the book. In fact there were sections of it that were so gripping and dramatic that I could hardly put it down! Picking up the book has coincided very well with my recent discovery of the genius that is the West Wing. I do find the American presidential system very interesting. I am intrigued by the way religion and particularly Christianity play a major role in the political scene. I enjoy the sense of patriotism and loyalty people have to the flag and office of president. The book does chart the peaks and troughs of the 20 year period looking at all the presidents and what they did, or did not achieve.

Having said the book did slightly irritate me throughout. I am/was pretty ignorant when it comes to American and world politics of the past 20 years. Obviously, I had heard of the major characters that came up throughout the book but I did not really know the ins and outs of the story lines which meant that I had to take what the book said as true. But Bennett the author worked for all the Republican presidential candidates. He was involved in election campaigns and policy for the party. He was a personal friend of the Bush family. And this comes through as you read the book. Sometimes it makes you wonder if the republicans ever did anything wrong as they are defended vociferously throughout the book and the democrats are regularly attacked. This did take the shine off the book and made me want to read a similar history from the other side.

I hope they have a few better ideas than this.....

2010-03-28T04:15:00.000-07:00

......... because if you want to turn the country around you need to be a bit more realistic!

A few problems....

2010-03-27T11:52:00.000-07:00

The sick would be urged to stay at home and email doctors rather than visit surgeries, while procedures such as hip replacements could be scrapped.

The Daily Telegraph reports Labours plan to cut £20 billion from healthcare budget. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/healthnews/7529454/Hospital-wards-to-shut-in-secret-NHS-cuts.html

God is still God and God is still Good.

2010-03-24T10:13:00.001-07:00

The Story of Zac Smith from NewSpring Media on Vimeo.

Mother Teresa Quote

2010-03-23T11:32:00.000-07:00

I am currently reading 'A Century Turns' by William Bennet. It is a book on American politics from 1988 to 2008. Having recently become a massive fan of the West Wing this is a great book for me as it charts the rise and fall of the last 20 years of US presidents along with the major world events that have occurred. Anyway, today the author recounted the story of when Mother Theresa visited Washington D.C in 1994 and addressed the national prayer breakfast. To the American government (who at the time was Clinton's Democrats) she had this to say;

We are fighting abortion by adoption - by care of the mother and adoption for her baby. We have saved thousands of lives. We have sent word to the clinics, to the hospitals and police stations: "Please don't destroy the child; we will take the child."

Please don't kill the child. I want the child. Please give me the child. I am willing to accept any child who would be aborted and to give that child to a married couple who will love the child and be loved by the child. From our children's home in Calcutta alone, we have saved over 3000 children from abortion. These children have bought such love and joy to their adopting parents and have grown up so full of love and joy.

As America deal with this issue again with many of the implications from the new healthcare bill and as the UK with the lines on this issue set in stone in our society, I feel that we need to hear a message like this again and be ready and willing to answer the call.

The Robin Hood Tax

2010-03-22T14:56:00.000-07:00

I need to read a little more about this but the promo certainly looks intriguing! I've 'become a fan' of it on facebook where it explains all about it in a bit more detail, so maybe I'll come back and flesh it out once I understand more about it!

Why does a Good God allow Evil and Suffering?

2010-02-23T09:15:00.001-08:00

Continuing the series of lunchtime talks, this is the transcript that I gave at Hull CU last week on Evil and Suffering in the world;

I want to start today by saying that I am no expert when it comes to the actual reality of this topic. I am 24 years old, I am a medic so I have seen some human suffering at close quarters. I have spent time in African hospitals where I have seen young children die, mothers die in childbirth, fathers leaving behind dependent families as they succumb to HIV/AIDS. But I have never personally really suffered. I have never experienced prolonged physical pain or emotional turmoil. In fact, some of you here may know this topic in the nitty-gritty of life far better than I do – so I want to say that if at any point I am glib or over-general about your suffering I am sorry, that is not my intention.

Although I am here to answer the question about a good God allowing evil and suffering, I do not at any point want to deny it’s significance in people’s lives. In fact at many points throughout the story line of the bible, people really suffer and show that suffering really hurts. There is no denying that. In whatever form it comes suffering is not good. We all know that.

And so we move to the question itself. And I want to answer it in two parts – firstly, I want to address what happens if we get rid of God in regard to suffering. What happens if we remove him from the picture – does the problem of evil and suffering go with him? Then I want to look at the God that the bible presents and hopefully show that he is the answer to all of life’s biggest questions of which this is arguably the biggest.

So firstly, what about getting rid of God. You see as we look at the recent devastation over in Haiti, as we hear of more dead civilians in Afghanistan, further bombings in Iraq and train crashes on the continent it is easy to be come overwhelmed with the scale of misery that people on this planet endure – and as a believer in a good, loving God; that is of course a problem to me. As I watch footage from reporters on the streets of port au prince, I do find myself asking why this has happened, why such needless evil, why the loss of so many lives – suffering is a problem for the Christian. Of course it is. But I think it is an equally large problem, if not a bigger problem for the non-believer. Why? Why do I say that?

I say that because modern objections to God are based on a sense of justice, on a sense of fair play – people, we believe ought not to suffer, be excluded, die of hunger or oppression – we look at the photo reel of one famine after another and say ‘this should not happen’. But the problem with this is that our current existence relies on this very mechanism. Evolution by natural selection fundamentally depends on death, destruction and violence of the strong against the weak. You could almost say that suffering is the very reason that we are here. So then, on what basis does the non-believer in God judge the natural world to be horribly wrong, unfair and unjust? Surely this is just the way things happen, this is the way the natural world works – it is not evil or bad.

For you see I think when you remove God from the picture you also forfeit objective moral standards. If it is humanity who determines what is right and what is wrong, then morality itself becomes something relative, something that can be decided upon and so my personal judgement on what I consider to be evil is no less important or true than the next person. So a proportion of Nazi Germany during the second world war, believed it was not wrong to exterminate the Jewish race – and if morality is merely an opinion, then who am I to disagree? For their opinion is just as valid as my own. One person who understood this was the French existential philosopher Jean Paul Satre in his signature essay on existentialism says “If god does not exist there is no longer any possibility of an a priori good existing. It is nowhere written that one must be honest, that one must not lie, since we are now on the plane where there are only human beings. Dostoyevsky once wrote, if god does not exist, everything is right, Dostoyevsky is right, if god does not exist we have neither behind us nor before us a lumionous realm of values nor any means of justification of any behaviour whatsoever.

Do you hear what he is saying – Get rid of God and you scrap the ability to pass judgements on the world and its actions. Might becomes right, suffering and evil become merely events that happen. So, suffering is a problem for the Christian but I think it is a bigger problem for the non-believer. When I am unable to say certain actions are really wrong. I believe that goes against what all of us know to be true, we do look at some news reports and we have an inherent plea to an objective morality that comes from outside of us, from outside society, from what I would call God.

Ok, well, lets move onto what the Christian faith can actually say about suffering, how it tries to make sense of it, how it helps when in the throws of suffering and the promises that one day it will no longer be this way. And I want to start by painting a picture, a picture of what some people believe God to be like if suffering exists and is not dealt with. Sometimes referred to as the inconsistent triad.

1. First is that if God is all powerful and all knowing, he knows about suffering and yet does nothing to stop it, well then he cannot be all loving. He cannot be good. In fact, God must be immoral.

2. The second is that if God is all powerful and all loving when then he cannot know about suffering, he must be unaware of what is happening, so God must be ignorant when it comes to suffering.

3. The third is that if God knows about suffering, and if he is all loving well then he cannot be all powerful, for surely he would do something about it, basically God is impotent.

So, god is either immoral – in that he inflicts the world with pain and does nothing about it, he is ignorant, in that he is blissfully unaware of what is happening, or he is impotent, powerless to do anything about it. Whichever, one you pick it is clear that the Christian God, the God described in the Bible as all loving, all powerful and all knowing does not exist, cannot exist.

But actually on a closer examination of the bible, I found these three contentions to be false. Actually, the bible presents good explanations for these apparent contradictions.

Firstly, the fact that God is immoral in allowing suffering to continue and to do nothing about it. Well, back at the beginning of the Bible it recounts the story of humanity and how wrong, how evil first came into the world. It explains very clearly that it was not God that brought it into the world but humans themselves. God made us all as autonomous human beings with the ability to act and think and he wants us to take responsibility for those actions. He wants us to face the consequences of the decisions that we make in life. If god were to come swooping down every time some wrong was to be committed, every time some suffering was to be endured, then I would say that the majority of human life and experience would be fenced off. In the past week I could recount to you endless times when I have acted and thought wrong things about my wife, about my friends, about other car drivers, about any amount of people – if I really want God to come and sort suffering out completely right now – well then I have to be prepared for him to come and sort me out right now. God is not the author of evil, humanity is. And so he does not inflict us with this pain – we are all too responsible for that ourselves.

Which leads onto problem number 2. God must not be aware of suffering for if he was then he surely would do something about it. And here I think we get to the uniqueness of the Christian position. For the great claim of the Bible, is not that God is detached, cut off and distant from the universe but that he is intimately involved in the universe that he has made, so involved in fact that in space, time history, he actually stepped into this universe. God became a man and walked on the earth. In Jesus, we see God the Son come face to face with suffering on many occasion and it moves him to anger and tears – the best example of this is the gospel of John chapter 11. Here Jesus comes to visit the tomb of his friend Lazarus who died 4 days earlier. And there he meets Lazarus’s sisters. Let me just read some of that to you now;

When Mary reached the place where Jesus was and saw him, she fell at his feet and said, "Lord, if you had been here, my brother Lazarus would not have died."

33When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who had come along with her also weeping, he was deeply moved in spirit and troubled. 34"Where have you laid him?" he asked.   "Come and see, Lord," they replied.

35Jesus wept.

36Then the Jews said, "See how he loved him!"

Now, there are a few things to say off the back of this. Firstly, do you see Jesus response to the scene of grief that he finds – he is deeply moved in spirit, in actual fact the word that is used here in the original text suggests anger, a strong feeling of dislike at the scene in front of him. You see, Jesus sees the result of death and he is angry – he is angry because it is not meant to be like this, life was not supposed to be lived this way. And then as he approaches the tomb itself, Jesus weeps, and again the sense here is not just of a solitary tear trickling down a cheek as much as a body shaking, grief filled cry. Jesus faces the death of a loved one and it hurts him. This is not the picture of a distant God who stands removed from the world that he has made. By no means, Jesus knows the suffering of the world at a very intimate level.

And this leads us on perfectly to the final contention, which is that God must be impotent in the face of the world’s problems. For if god knew about suffering, and he loves us then he would surely do something about it. And the biblical answer to this contention is the biggest claim that Christianity makes. For at the end of all the accounts that we have of Jesus life, the authors recount that Jesus willfully was crucified on a roman cross. Not only did he encounter emotional suffering in his life, but died arguably the most painful death of all. Hanging on a roman beam after being beaten and mocked. The bible writers however, do not go into detail here about the physical pain but rather focus on the theological implications of the event. Because in some way, as Jesus hangs on the cross he is righting all the wrongs that have ever happened. He becomes a substitute for sinful humanity, he pays the debt that all of our rebellion against God has created. I said back at the beginning that evil was brought into the world by humanity, and we know all too well even in our own lives that evil is propagated still by the actions of humanity – and for god to sort it out, well he can either get rid of us all or he take it on himself. And that is what he chooses to do. As we look at the death of Jesus – we have an answer to all 3 contentions – here is a god who loves you so much he is willing to die for you, here is a god who knows intensely what it is like to suffer, and here is a god who is powerful enough to do something to sort it out.

For Jesus horrific death creates a way for this sinner, for this suffering-producer to be put right in the eyes of God and to take part in the great promise that the Bible has for those who believe in him.

This bible says that this world is not the end, that one day God will make all things new, it will be a place of no more suffering – and it is attainable through trusting in the death of Jesus on my behalf.

How can a good God allow evil and suffering? Well, as I’ve said, I think getting rid of God makes the problem worse, and in Jesus – we see a God who is loving, knowing and powerful. A god I can trust, a god who will help me endure my suffering and a god who provides genuine hope that one day it will all come to an end.

UCCF: a history

2010-02-22T06:26:00.000-08:00

With University Events weeks running up and down the country, I came across this video that UCCF put together about their history. It's pretty inspiring stuff and for students stuck into evangelism in their Universities this week, it's a great reminder that they are part of something much bigger that has been pressing on for almost 100 years. The impact that UCCF CU's have had on this country and the world is immeasurable and it's exciting to see our students at Endcliffe stuck in and introducing their campus to Jesus in 2010.

University Christian Union Events Weeks

2010-02-22T05:57:00.000-08:00

It is the time of year when all the University CU's in the country run a week of events to invite students to in an attempt to share the message of Christian faith with them. They have been very significant weeks in my past as I have learnt firsthand about organising and running big events, inviting friends and watching God work in the hearts of people. Well, last week I got to speak at en event for the first time. It was Hull Uni's turn and so I went up on Thursday to talk about suffering. I thought I would post the three talks from the week, starting with my good friend and Sheffield staffworker, Tim Dennis who spoke on the title God: Passion Killer or Life Giver. I will post my talk tomorrow and then the final one on Wednesday.

I wonder what your answer to the title question of this talk would be? I expect that for some here it would be that God is definitely a passion killer and certainly does want to stop people having fun.

There are probably others here who wouldn’t be so strong in their opinions but would look at the lives of their Christian mates and think ‘well they seem happy, but their life seems pretty boring to me – they just don’t know what they’re missing out on.’

Maybe you think that Christians live pretty dull lives - no sex till marriage, no getting drunk, putting others first all the time, and then church too - sounds horrific! Maybe you have heard Christians on the tv or radio ranting about why people shouldn’t do this or that and you just think that belief in God is so restrictive!

It’s certainly not the way you want to live – you enjoy your freedom too much. You can tolerate others holding such restrictive beliefs but you can’t tolerate it when people start telling you that you should live like them too.

I guess one thing that we all feel strongly about is freedom; it’s an important part of who we are, hence prison and its restriction of freedom is how we punish people.

Our problem with Christianity can be that:

Belief in God restricts our freedom

People do not want to believe in a God that restricts their freedom to do what they want. To believe in a God you are supposed to serve and obey is not freedom – it’s constraining and limiting.

Instead, people think that:

True freedom is to be able to create your own meaning and purpose.

True freedom is to be morally independent – to be able to decide what you do, and not be subject to someone else telling you what’s right and wrong.

I want to spend a bit of time today explaining firstly why I don’t think that belief in God is restraining in a negative way, but actually gives wonderful joy and fulfilment, and secondly why I don’t think true freedom is defined in the way we have just described.

So firstly then:

1. Why I don’t think belief in God is restraining but gives joy and fulfilment

We naturally see restriction of freedom and constraint as a bad thing – it has very negative connotations in our mind, but today I want to suggest that perhaps:

True freedom often involves restrictions and constraint

Sometimes discipline and constraint are necessary to achieve greater freedom.

Let me explain what I mean with an example. Imagine what this country would be like without our law and legal system?

Anyone could take your life, which would certainly end your freedom and there would be no consequence. Anyone could dump rubbish where they wanted, the poor who are a burden on society could just be left to die, men could rape women at will, you could steal from shops whenever you felt like it and so on.

In theory everyone would be free to do as they wished, but in reality people would be paralysed by fear, trapped in poverty, unable to trust anyone and so on.

The law enables us to enjoy this country and it enables us to enjoy freedom – freedom to go most places and know we’ll be safe, freedom to run businesses, freedom to study and so on.

True freedom often involves restrictions and constraint.

This is true for us individually too. If I want to lose weight I have to restrain myself from sweet things (which is always the challenging bit for me!). If I want to be a professional ballerina, musician or sportsman, I have to limit what else I do.

These people’s lifestyles might look so restricted, but when you see them dance, or play their instrument or sport they seem to have such freedom to do things that we just can’t do.

True freedom often involves restrictions and constraint.

However, discipline and constraint only give us freedom when they fit in with who we are and how we are made.

For example, a fish is in theory free to go where it pleases – there’s no one stopping it! And yet, a fish out of water is paralysed isn’t it! You would hardly say it’s free, because it’s not made to be out of water. But in the water it is free.

A training program for a slim petite girl to enable her to be a sumo wrestler would be oppressive and enslaving with no hope of any joy at the end, but ballet lessons would be perfect and would potentially bring much joy and freedom to express herself.

True freedom is not the absence of restrictions but finding the right restrictions that liberate you

Discipline and constraints can allow you to flourish and prosper. Little Tom Daley the diver, training twice a day and going to school, with very little time to himself, and yet he is prospering – winning medals and loving it!

It’s the same with our work. A job that isn’t suited to who we are can make us feel really trapped, but a job which really suits our personality and abilities can be great. It’s still work, but we feel far less trapped.

This idea of freedom applies in most areas of life, so why should it not apply to spiritual things too?

What if there were a God with an overarching purpose for this world and universe. Would it not just be possible that the God who made us would know what constraints and restrictions would liberate us to enjoy real freedom, and experience a greater joy and fulfilment than trying to do things our own way?

Sometime it’s worth having restrictions to gain something greater.

One area where I think we see this very clearly is love between 2 people.

For love to work there must be willingness for both parties to lose some of their freedom to gain much more. When you’re single you can do what you want, but when you have a boy or girlfriend or husband or wife you have to start thinking of them.

There are lots of things I don’t do now so I can see my wife and spend time with her, and I’m happy to do that because I love my wife. When you first going out with someone you’d quite often do anything for them, even if it costs you time and money, because you want to show the other person that you care about them.

Sometime it’s worth having restrictions to gain something greater.

And that is how Christians feel about obeying God.

Well, hang on a minute I hear you say, this both parties being more restricted to gain something greater doesn’t really work with God does it? God just dictates how we should live – not much give and take there!

But the message of Christianity is that God does give. He gives us his son Jesus Christ, who gave up all his rights to rule with God and made himself human, so that he might come and die on a cross to serve us, taking the punishment that we deserve so that we might enjoy relationship with God again. God does give.

So God loves us and Christians respond by loving God, and wanting to obey him.

Christians live differently because they love God.

And so out of love for God, and his sacrifice, Christians chose to live under God’s rule, following our makers instructions for how to experience joy and fulfilment in this life. That is why Christians willingly desire to obey God.

We don’t always get it right. Sometimes we are tempted to and do go beyond the constraints that God has put in place for us, but motivated by our love for God that’s not what we want to do.

Christians really enjoy God’s creation.

Christians believe that God has given us loads of amazing gifts – things like sex, food, friendship, bodies that can do all sorts of things, and he thinks that all those things are brilliant! He wants us to get the maximum amount of joy and fulfilment that we can out of all those things, and because he created us, but he also knows best how we can do that.

Take sex for example. God thinks sex is brilliant – he is all for it, and encourages people to have lots of sex in the bible. But he says that the context for sex is marriage, not because he wants to stop people showing passion, in fact he thinks passionate sex is good, but because God knows the damage, hurt, pain, and guilt that sex outside of a stable life long committed relationship can have on us.

We see that all the time in our mates, it’s just that we never talk about it. It is a wonderful thing to get married and experience sex for the first time with your wife.

I have never met any Christian who experienced this joy that wishes they’d slept with other people before. I have met lots of people, Christian and not Christian who spend a lot of time and emotional energy working through the baggage of previous relationships.

That’s just one example. God’s not trying to be a killjoy. He just knows what will fulfil and give us the most joy.

So is God a passion killer – a restrictive God who gives us lots of rules and wants to stop us having fun, or he is life giver – does the way he tell us to live give us joy and fulfilment?

Well, I think you can probably guess where I stand on that!

So onto my 2^nd question then, and far more briefly:

2. What is true freedom?

Earlier we said that:

True freedom is to be able to create your own meaning and purpose in life.

True freedom is to be morally independent - to be able to decide what you do, and not be subject to someone else telling you what’s right and wrong.

So I want us to all to imagine that for a moment we live in a world without a God (not too difficult you might be thinking!)

So, there is no God and we are just animals.

You and I have come about as a result of random chemical reactions and genetic mutations over a number of years.

Therefore you and I are unintended accidents and by products of a random and purposeless universe. If there isn’t a God that has to be what we are.

Therefore our brains are unintended accidents too!

Therefore our thought processes, beliefs and choices are just the inevitable results of a long chain of non-rational causes – what I mean is that we are bound to think and behave the way we do because of our internal biochemistry.

You don’t actually make a rational choice about anything – it’s all just the way the chemicals in your body work.

I wonder, does life without God really sound like freedom to you?

To me it sounds just like the world depicted in the Matrix or the Trueman Show; a world that looks real and looks full of meaning, but actually is a façade; it’s not real, I’m just another animal on the conveyor belt of life, in a world which has come from nowhere and is heading no where.

You see we think it’s the religious types who are trapped; trapped in a world where they can’t do what they want and have to obey God, but I want to suggest that it’s the other way round.

As a Christian I don’t think I’m trapped, unable to do the things I want – I think I’m free!

Jesus said this: ‘If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.’

We argue that there is no God, but Jesus came to this planet 2000 years ago and claimed to be God. He claimed to have come to make God known, so that all people would know that they’re not just an accident and by product of a random occurrence, but that they have been created by God and made in his image.

And he made us to be free. Free to enjoy his creation and to make rational decisions about what we do or don’t do, even though for many that would mean turning their back on the God who made them.

Jesus claimed that the way that you got to know God, and you got to be in relationship with God, the God who does have an over arching purpose for this universe was through him. If you listened to what Jesus said, and trusted his teaching then you would know the truth, and the truth would set you free.

Free not to live under a tyrant God, but free to live under a loving and caring God who outlines the way to live that is best for his creation.

So is God a passion killer? Does God just want to stop us having fun? No way! He is the life giver, who longs to give us life to the full, joy, fulfilment and freedom. And the way to get that freedom – listen to Jesus, and the truth will set you free.

Did I Get Married too Young?

2010-02-19T23:41:00.000-08:00

I generally dislike pinching links from other peoples blogs but I went and read this full article and thought it was very interesting - obviously I have to agree with the man but I think he may be talking some sense..... objectively of course!

When my very smart and relatively young girlfriend (she was then 20) first told her father she was thinking of marrying me, he refused to even hear of it. "How much college debt does he have?" he demanded. "What's the rush? Why not wait until your career and finances are established? How do you know he's the one?"
Did I get married too young? I may not have the freedom to globetrot at my own leisure or to carouse at a bar late into the night. But when I step into our 500-square-foot one-bedroom apartment, warmly lighted and smelling of fresh flowers and baked bread, I do have the freedom to kiss my beautiful wife and best friend—the woman I pledged to always love and cherish, and to raise a family with. I have no regrets.

Read the rest here in the Washington Post.

Book Review: Love and Respect

2010-02-19T23:25:00.000-08:00

Love and Respect: The Love she most desires, the respect he desperately needs.

This was my third book from Thomas Nelson and I have to say the best one yet. The basic premise of the book is that in marriage the woman needs to know that she is loved and the man needs to know that he is respected. Problems start to arise when either marriage partner doubt this is the case. The author recognises the vast numbers of books on marriage out there but says this one is crucially different as it specifically tries to understand and apply Ephesians 5v33; ‘However, each one of you also must love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband’.

The book charts how this goes wrong, how men and women react to situations and what they hear from each other and Eggerichs offers a plethora of examples to show that it always comes back to love and respect. He then spends a good length of time practically going through what this will mean for men and then for women and finally the end results if you can order your marriage around love and respect.

I always feel slightly torn on books about marriage. There are so many of them, do they all say the same things in a different way? Do they employ popular psychology that I am cynical about – I’m not sure? I think you either are the type of couple who would read this and find it helpful or just not bother at all. I found it helpful in parts if not slightly long winded. I appreciated that the majority of what he said had a biblical basis and I think if I did practice some of the principles laid out in the book my marriage would be better – so I guess that’s the ultimate review!

2010-02-02T03:26:00.000-08:00

Started a placement in Sheffield Children's Hospital last week which is really great. Looking after sick children is an amazing job as children get better quickly. Generally. Because of course sometimes they don't get better, I have never had this kind of experience yet as a med student but 6yearmed writes about one of her patients she looked after recently. Click here to read the whole thing.

And as I looked down at her, sitting cross-legged on her saturated sheets, looking up at me with blood caked across her chubby cheeks, I thought about what love does to us. How it allows us to look at THAT and still see HER, our beautiful, hilarious baby. To see through the crusted mess, and sort of forget about it, when she blows you a kiss. Love allows us to wish so hard for something to come true, that we can be OK praying for another child to die, so that ours will live.

The hand that made us is divine

2010-02-02T03:10:00.000-08:00

Started reading Planet Narnia whilst on holiday. It opens with this brilliant poem by Joseph Addison who reflects on Psalm 19;

The spacious firmament on high,

With all the blue ethereal sky,

And spangled heavens a shining frame,

Their great original proclaim.

The unwearied sun from day to day

Does his Creator's power display;

And published to every land

The work of an almighty hand.

Soon as the evening shades prevail,

The moon takes up the wondrous tale,

And mighty to the listening earth

Repeats the story of her birth.

Whilst all the stars around her burn

And all their planets in their turn,

Confirm the tidings as they roll

And spread the truth from pole to pole.

What though in solemn silence all

Move around the dark terrestial ball?

What though no real voice nor sound

Amid the radiant orbs be found?

In reasons ear they all rejoice,

And utter forth a glorious voice;

Forever singing as they shine,

"The hand that made us is divine".

Joseph Addison, 1712, (Psalm 19)

away.

2010-01-15T08:48:00.000-08:00

Finals=Over (hopefully).

Results - next week.

Off for 1 week then back.

Further incredibly insightful comments and insights to follow, just wait and see.

Please don't label me....

2009-11-23T00:47:00.000-08:00

I was sent an interesting article today from a friend from the Daily Telegraph regarding the British Humanist Association's latest advertising ploy. This time they are going after the kids with the following adverts on billboards and busses.

Ed West makes several points about the weakness of this attempt - you can read the whole article here.

One of the points he raises;

he Richard Dawkins-led anti-religious movement in many way rese

mbles the totalitarian regimes of the 20th century, on both Left and Right, which hated religion as rival sources of loyalties, and sought to drive it out. It’s a basic premise of liberalism, and of anti-authoritarian regimes generally, that people do not attempt to interfere with other people’s children, and the way their parents try to raise them. Whether people wanted to b

ring up their kids as Christians or Muslims, vegetarians, Marxists or Latin speakers, conservatives or liberals was up to them, so long as they did not abuse them, and society had a pretty agreed notion of what abuse was. So when Dawkins suggested that raising children as religious was a form of child abuse in itself he showed his true Stalinist colo

urs.

Interesting. He then goes onto suggest that one of the problems of athiest belief is that it stops people having chldren as this other telegraph article highligts. Tha

t in fact it is the Christian worldview that underpins most of British and European society, that allows freedom of expression, basic human rights, liberty

and opportunity etc etc. In fact the athiest philosopher Jurgen Habermas says;

“Christianity, and nothing else, is the ultimate foundation of liberty, conscience, human rights, and democrac

y, the benchmarks of Western civilisation. To this day, we have no other options. We continue to nourish ourselves from this source. Everything else is postmodern chatter.”

Again interesting. I need to do some mo

re thinking on all of this and try and respond sensibly. Again though, I feel like I want to thank Mr Dawkins

and the humanist association for at least engaging in religious belief and bringing it to people's attention. There is nothing worse than apathy and relativis

m on such an important issue.

Finaly, Jesus and Mo for a bit of fun!

Students doing what they do best.

2009-11-12T03:23:00.000-08:00

Recieved an email yesterday from a colleague at med school with a link to this letter that was sent into the Guardian. For current students and parents hoping to send thier children to University this is important stuff. I am leaving Uni with a huge amount of debt that has been totally unavoidable - the further increae in tuition fees will only make this worse on future students. Obviously this is a complicated issue but I do agree with the majority of points made below and especially regarding the exclusion of applicants from lower income back grounds if the current increase in tuition fees continue.

As student leaders we are appalled by Labour and Conservative attempts to duck difficult questions on student fees and finance at the next general election (Report, 10 November). We are in no doubt that a review panel dominated by business and university leaders is designed to stitch up students with yet another inflation-busting hike in tuition fees. Students will not stand for this. Opinion polls conducted for the National Union of Students and lecturers' union UCU consistently show that the overwhelming majority of the public are opposed to higher fees. Only 12% believe this review should even consider raising our fees; when students entering university this autumn are set to graduate with debts in excess of £23,500, it's not hard to see why.
Labour and Conservative leaders seem to believe they can maintain their cosy consensus of silence until the election and beyond. Today we are descending on parliament to demand that MPs come clean on their stance. Any parliamentary candidate that does not sign the NUS pledge to vote against an increase in fees and support our calls for a fairer funding system will be named and shamed. In 2005, the student vote made a significant difference in towns and cities across the UK. Our message is clear: candidates must vote with us, or students won't vote for them.
You rightly point out the problems all students will face if tuition fees are increased, but we should also remember the devastating impact this will have specifically on lower-income students attempting to enter professions like medicine. Medical degrees are more expensive than other courses owing to their length – five to six years instead of three – and high contact time in hospital which restricts the time available for part-time employment. Medical students are already leaving university with estimated graduation debts of between £37,000 amd £67,000 for those studying in London. There is no doubt this contributes to the fact just one-in-10 medical students come from low-income groups. Lifting the cost of degree to new heights will further cripple the government's already failing efforts to widen access – and end the aspirations of talented students across the country.

Compassion

2009-11-08T04:13:00.000-08:00

Video from the Compassion blog.

Informative video on infant mortality, a subject that I have been thinking more and more about recently. Compassion is a Christian charity that seeks to bring children out of poverty through a variety of means.

Link

2009-11-08T04:00:00.000-08:00

Go and have a read.

Breakthroughs

2009-11-08T03:50:00.000-08:00

I was in a paediatric clinic last week where a child came in with a strawberry naevus that was growing close to the eye and starting to affect the child's vision. The doctor explained that a new treatment had been found under a year ago by mistake by a bunch of French doctors. They can give a beta blocker and this for some unknown reason shrinks the growth and enables the vision to develop unhindered. Before this they used steroids with hit and miss effectiveness. Incredible that little discoveries like this are made that make a significant difference to patient care.

If there really was a God here...

2009-10-28T12:59:00.001-07:00

I gave a few thoughts on Suffering last Sunday at church (ChristChurch Endcliffe). Thought I would share them on here. Someone also pointed me in the direction of the latest Editor's song which contains the lyric; 'if there really was a God here, he'd have raised a hand by now'. Not entirely sure what the whole song is talking about but this line represents a common view that either God is disproved by the existence of tremendous suffering or he does exist but is impotent to stop it.

Qu: People cannot believe in God because of suffering in the world. What therefore would God have to do with suffering in order for you to believe in him?

Ans: Take it away.

Ok, so lets get rid of natural disasters, that’s easy. I suppose war is next – so he’d have to get rid of tyrants and dictators. Let’s think closer to home – murderers, they would have to go, rapists, probably thieves, they cause suffering, probably people that cheat on their partners, maybe even liars – wait a minute. If I want God to get rid of suffering, he will have to get rid of me because I cause unendless amounts of suffering to people around me throughout my life.

Maybe, God getting rid of suffering wasn’t as easy as I thought! Before I critisize God for all the terrible things in the world and rule him out – I may need to look at my own heart first.

Another question is does getting rid of God in the face of suffering help? Ultimately, the Christian hope is that the presence of God in suffering is of great comfort and sustenance, it transforms suffering from an objective meaningless action to one that has a reason, however difficult it may be to understand – God does all things for the good of those who love him.

And ultimately, over and above all these answers is the great gospel message. A message of a God who is not distant or malicious, but a personal loving God, who cares for the world that he has made, cares so much in fact that he was prepared to enter human history and suffer more than any human being has suffered before or will in the future in order that we, can be brought into relationship with him forever, in a place where suffering will end, where he – this great God has promised to wipe every tear from our eye.

Does suffering mean we have to get rid of God – by no means, in fact, it has been said, God whispers to us in the good times, but shouts in the bad – suffering is God’s megaphone to rouse a deaf world.

The Nick Griffin fall out

2009-10-23T03:14:00.000-07:00

The whole of the country is talking about one thing this morning - question time If you missed it, you can watch it here). The blogosphere is buzzing with it, twitter is going crazy and facebook is full of it. It seems that in one sense the BNP has achieved one of its aims; by gaining a larger platform to air its views, the only problem is that almost universally people are united in their total contempt for what was undeniably a racist MEP trying desperately to come across as a bit more moderate - and failing marvellously! There are many things that could be said about yesterdays discussion from holocaust denial, to a bizarre few minutes spent discussing the KKK, to the discussion on Islam within our society. Rather than spend yet more words talking about it, I'd like to link you to here. Very interesting and thought through response by some bible translators no less!

The best of medicine and Britain.

2009-10-20T00:54:00.000-07:00

The New Scientist is currently running 20 of the best photographs from the world of medicine. Interestingly the funding body for the project are the same that sponsored me to do some work on malnutrition on my elective. Go and check out all 20 here.

Then I saw on the bbc news website the Landscape of the Year competition.

You need to click here to see the photos properly

the one of Hebden Bridge is particularly good!

Inspired

2009-10-15T10:31:00.000-07:00

This is going to be a bit of a personal post I felt like writing. (and I have a bunch of other stuff I should do but don't really want to!)

Since elective which was over 2 months ago now I have really been getting into medicine so much more. For people that know me I was never over the moon about my degree but just got on with it. I think this is slightly strange for medics, as most people have wanted to do this for their whole lives and talk about little else.

On elective, I spent time with great doctors and got to do some hands on stuff that was really incredible. I fully realised the link maybe for the first time between what I learn in lectures and placements and being a good doctor. Since coming back from Zambia, I have had the two best placements of med school - I spent 4 weeks in a and e and then 4 weeks on anaesthetics. Again, these were very hands on and I got to do some pretty cool stuff with big needles and breathing tubes!! I also started to really enjoy physiology (make sure I talk to you about the action potential of a heart cell and what potassium does to it next time I see you - its incredible!). I wish we had these placements 3 years ago.

Today, I just sorted out an optional module for January. I will be spending 4 weeks with the paediatric infectious disease team at Sheffield Children's Hospital and doing some work in pandemic flu which I am very excited about.

This is all coming just at the right time really as I am currently putting together my application form for junior doctor training in England. Never before have I sweated so much over 5 questions. In August 2010 god willing I will be on a foundation programme and hopefully enjoying it as much as Ruth is.

Another thing I have realised since coming back from Africa are the amazing resources we have here in England. I know the NHS is not ideal and it has taken some pretty big hits lately from home and our friends in the US but having a national health service, where health care is available to all, and world class health care at that - is exceptional. I really feel like I should be more thankful for the blessings that being part of our society provides.

Matthew Paris visits St Therese!

2009-10-15T04:39:00.000-07:00

Matthew Paris is an athiest, and in today's Times I find myself wholeheartedly agreeing with him. This is everything that is wrong with "Religion".

In the cathedral I saw a sign. God help us

The message I received from Saint Therese... and who it was about

Read the whole story here.

Rejecting the single story

2009-10-07T09:26:00.000-07:00

Chimamanda Ngozi Adiche, author of Half a Yellow Sun which is absolutely superb, speaks at TED - I'm with her upto her very, very last sentence!

2009-10-01T04:16:00.000-07:00

6year med:

Why is it that when we tell someone that they are stupid and unworthy, they believe it and carry it with them, but we cannot love someone into feeling lovely?

Why Indeed. Read whole blog post here.

A Child is Born

2009-10-01T01:06:00.000-07:00

These breathtaking images of unborn children by photographer Lennart Nilsson, first published in the 1960s, transformed the way we see life before birth. They are taken from a newly published reprint of the book, A Child is Born.

Check out the whole gallery h

ere.

True Religion

2009-09-30T12:06:00.000-07:00

Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: s to visit t orphans and widows in their affliction, and u to keep oneself v unstained from the world.

Orphan Sunday from Christian Alliance for Orphans on Vimeo.

Final installment from Dr Friend...

2009-09-25T11:06:00.000-07:00

Jerry was a bit of a character. He had taken alcohol and then operated a maize grinding mill. Whilst the story was not entirely clear, it seemed he had, for one reason or another, put his hand down the spout and badly crushed two fingers. The recipient of the maize will need to keep an eye out for some bits and pieces which shouldn’t be there. It was after 5pm and the day theatre team had gone home. Rather than call them back, I asked two student nurses on the ward if they could come along and translate and help out.

They were keen and soon Jerry, smelling strongly of alcohol, was on the table and his fingers nicely numbed with local anaesthetic. It may have been the slight clatter of the instruments as I put them on the trolley, but Jerry gave a roar and leapt off the table. One of the nurses tried to restrain him and was rewarded with a large bloody hand print on her white dress. Crashing out the theatre door, Jerry turned left instead of right and found himself trapped in a dead end corridor. He could be heard beating around a pile of storage boxes and plastic sheets drying on overhead lines. Checking the coast was clear, I turned right and hurriedly opened the three sets of doors to the outside, whilst calling to his brother who was sitting outside. We had no idea what this crazy man might do; it was a little frightening as he was powerfully built. We took cover as Jerry sped through the main door. His brother tackled him, hauling him onto a nearby bench and whilst pinning him down, suggested that we carry on fixing his hand.

I indicated that, “Tomorrow would be better”, we were still all shaking. Fetching dressings, I bandaged up the fingers and sent him back to the ward. After further disturbance, he was dishonourably discharged, but with an invitation to return in the morning if he still wanted treatment. He came back alright, brother in tow, who informed us, “He is sorry! It was because of the alcohol.” I took the opportunity to suggest that for the rest of his life, he shouldn’t touch even one drop of alcohol. A quick general anaesthetic put paid to further “leaping off the table activities” and I was surprised to find him still on the ward for the round the next morning. Some days later, he came back for a wound review, wearing a respectable suit and fortunately, the injury was doing fine.

An anaesthetic drug called Ketamine is the mainstay of anaesthesia in most of the developing world. Doubtless it has saved millions of lives and alleviated the suffering of many more. It is safe and easy to use and does not require a fancy anaesthetic machine. But one problem is that some folk have very bad dreams afterwards. If they are drinkers, the effects can be startling.

Joseph was fine whilst we fixed a leg wound, but abruptly woke up on the trolley in the theatre corridor and began thrashing around, threatening to crash off the side onto the concrete floor. Attempts at restraint degenerated into a wrestling match. Fortunately there was a student nurse present called Samson who lived up to his name. Student nurse Mary-Lou is a powerful lass and theatre nurse Siston also wiry and tough. We divvied up the thrashing limbs between us and got him sedated. I was in the mix too, kneeling on his head, I am sorry to say. Had he got loose, we would have been in a bit of cactus. Joseph remembered none of this in the morning. We took him aside, with the chaplain and had another little chat about alcohol.

Next was a teacher who thought he had been bewitched, but likely it was the demon alcohol wreaking havoc in his life. After his operation, he was fine until reaching the ward. Leaping off the bed, he threw it completely upside down, must have given the cockroaches quite a fright. Climbing up and standing on the next bed, he proceeded to leap off into outer space, fortunately into the waiting arms of a powerful male nurse who bravely stepped in to help. It was a funny week for these things.

The Human Interest Piece

2009-09-25T00:40:00.000-07:00

Came across a few stories this week on the web and the news that I wanted to put up so I thought I would put them all together as they kind of have a theme!

Firstly, Dr Francis Collins the top doctor in America and former lead on the Human Genome Project writes a great article here on new Cancer treatments. It is understandable for anyone to read and explains exactly how cancer occurs and what scientists are doing to treat it.

Secondly, Charlie Brooker, a comment writer for the Guardian recounts a story of his recent trip to the hospital:

Charlie Brooker: The doctors were about to stick a

needle in my spine. Then it hit me. What if I sneezed?

Medicine is brilliant!!

"Anyway, in the event, I didn't have to worry about sneezing, or quadriplegia, or my Medusa Touch doomsday scenario, because the injection itself turned out to be fun. Yes, fun. Not because I'm into needles, but because they sedated me – and whatever drug they used was brilliant. So brilliant I don't want to know what it was, because I'd gladly kick a hospital to death for half a teaspoon of it. In an instant, I understood in my bones why people become heroin addicts. I went light-headed, then more light-headed, and then I can't remember what happened. I was dimly aware of being moved back down a corridor. Before I knew it I was back in a cubicle, wondering whether they'd even been near my neck at all."

Lastly, I came across this article in Time magazine:

Are Med-Student Tweets Breaching Patient Privacy?
With the advent of social networking sites like twitter, facebook, flickr etc and the popularity of blogging. Patient confidentiality is being compromised as details are discussed online that breach the laws of confidentiality and duties of a doctor. Along with certain private behaviour that is now on show for the whole world to see! The argument goes that certain professions like being a doctor should be held more highly accountable even in the world of internet friendship. Interesting and a reminder to me as I put things on here.

Glove Love

2009-09-24T09:27:00.000-07:00

From the website www.dothegreenthing.com which is a cool website trying to promote environmentally friendly solutions. This one is a pretty silly idea however!

More from Mukinge

2009-09-22T09:27:00.000-07:00

A few more Mukinge stories from Dr Friend:

"Isaiah presented at surgical clinic with a moderate hydrocoel. This is a benign collection of scrotal fluid and is quite common, but embarrassing when it gets large. And they can get very large indeed. Isaiah’s was fixed up easily surgically but post operatively, it was apparent he was deaf as a post. His ears were completely blocked up with concrete-like wax. Softening drops and 30 minutes of syringing with warm water shifted nothing. A short anaesthetic allowed the remainder to be prised out and communication improved. Mr Fumpa removed a cataract and inserted a nice intraocular lens. Isaiah’s 10 000km overhaul was done. He was within days of going home, when sadly he was struck down with a severe chest infection and was dead within a day. We were hoping for a fairy tale ending, but it wasn’t to be.

Gertrude had had several babies and no doubt felt she was an old hand at it. Labouring in a distant village, her baby came out breech and got thoroughly stuck by the head, the rest of the body having coming out. This is one of the feared complications of a breech delivery and one only has minutes to rescue a baby and it is difficult at this stage. The husband rode his bicycle some 30km over a very bad road through the night, to arrange transport. He was led to believe that it was forthcoming and cycled home. The transport didn’t show up, so his wife was loaded onto the bicycle and transported to the hospital, arriving the next day in the afternoon. What a journey.

Off to theatre and after unmentionable surgical details, the baby was extracted, followed by very heavy bleeding. Examination indicated a ruptured uterus and we proceeded to a (subtotal) hysterectomy. Anatomy inside was almost undecipherable. On completion though, to my horror, she began leaking urine out the abdominal drain, instead of out the catheter and she wouldn’t wake up from the anaesthetic. My thanks to NZ medical student Debra who stayed by her side for hours afterwards, warming her up, monitoring vital signs and praying for her.

By now, an 11 month old child had arrived with a long neglected groin hernia and another tricky operation was in store. Rotten, strangulated intestine was removed from the baby’s scrotum and joined up. I have done a fair number of adults with such a problem, but not such a tiny thing as this. Adding to the mix, was a new visiting anaesthetist and a malfunctioning anaesthetic machine. Those in the know will understand what this meant. It was hair raising and no fun at all. God was smiling on us and the kid made a good recovery.

Gertrude also survived. To our relief, the urine leak stopped over the next week. But her bladder and vaginal wall sloughed, leaving a huge VVF (vesico-vaginal fistula) rendering her completely incontinent of urine. She couldn’t walk for several weeks and even now still has a foot drop due to the baby’s head pushing on the nerves as they pass through the pelvis. In a few weeks, we will send her to Monze Hospital, a long journey to the other side of Lusaka, where there is a very good surgeon who can hopefully fix the VVF. We will pass the hat around for a bus fare for her and a relative.
There is a small postscript to this unhappy day. The following day was a public holiday, with no theatre cleaner on duty. The poor little dead baby was still in the theatre bucket, (with lid). The relatives wanted nothing to do with it. Most times they will take them home or bury them locally. With no other option, I carried the bucket to the hospital waste area and with a short prayer, committed the baby to the “deep pit” and, well, that was it.

Interesting quote on abortion

2009-09-21T23:24:00.000-07:00

"The pro-choice slogan offers no explanation, because the legitimacy of "choice" depends on what is being chosen. Abraham Lincoln exposed this argument a century and a half ago. He argued that if Negroes are hogs, then there can be no question that people have the choice to buy and sell them. On the other hand, Lincoln said, if Negroes are human beings, then how can slave owners invoke "choice"—thus denying choice to other humans? In sum, choice cannot be defended without regard to the content of what's being chosen."

http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2009/september/17.78.html?start=2

Glorious.

2009-09-21T00:39:00.000-07:00

Not bad for a free transfer!!

When Helping Hurts - How to alleviate poverty without hurting the poor..... and yourself

2009-09-16T23:37:00.000-07:00

I have just started reading this book: 'When Helping Hurts, how to alleviate poverty without hurting the poor ... and yourself. It looks really interesting and I am looking forward to getting into it. You can check out the website for it here. Here is a quick excerpt from the opening chapter;

"North Americans and Western Europeans are simply not doing enough. We are the richest people ever to walk the face of the earth. Period. Yet, most of us live as though there is nothing terribly wrong in the world. We attend our kids soccer games, pursue our careers and take beach vocations whilst 40% of the worlds inhabitants struggle to eat every day. And in our own backyards, the homeless, those residing in ghettos, and a wave of immigrants live in a world outside the economic and social mainstream of our society. We do not need to necessarily feel guilty about our wealth. But we do need to get up every morning with a deep sense that something is terribly wrong with the world and yearn and strive to do something. There is simply not enough yearning and striving going on".

Lewis frame of mind.

2009-09-16T11:17:00.000-07:00

Came across this today, loved it:

"Jesus died for men precisely because men are not worth dying for; to make them worth it."

The Problem of Pain

2009-09-16T10:53:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, I spent the morning with the Acute Pain Nurses. Their job is to go round the hospital and visit those patients who have either had or are awaiting surgery and may be in pain. They then sort out their pain control, either giving them more meds or reducing them. Many of the worst patients have a PCA - patient controlled analgesia - device that they can press every 5 minutes to give them another shot of morphine or fentanyl or whatever pain killer agrees with them best.

As we went round the wards it made me think pain really is a huge problem to us. We do not like it. Especially westerners - we are not used to it that much and so when it comes along it is hard for us to handle it. The hospital that I am in at the moment is a large one but it employs two people full time to exclusively go round and deal with peoples pain issues. At the moment there is a patient whose pelvis has been crushed by a horse, another whose pelvis and femurs destroyed in a car accident, many with cancers, major abdo surgery etc etc, the list could go on.

Many people would use the existence of pain to point to the absence of a good God in control of the world in which we live. As you may expect I disagree with this idea and have already blogged about the disease leprosy and the blessing that pain is in this specific case. If you have never read it, I would encourage you to go and read C.S. Lewis's 'The Problem of Pain'. It is a masterpiece:

"God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our conscience, but shouts in our pains: it is His megaphone to rouse a deaf world."

Hans Rosling: Let my dataset change your mindset

2009-09-16T10:07:00.000-07:00

This is just the most incredible talk on world health and statistics. It's only 20 minutes long but it is just amazing. I have linked to TED and Hans Rosling before. This time he is talking at the US State Department this summer, using his fascinating data-bubble software to burst myths about the developing world. He looks at new analysis on China and the post-bailout world, mixed with classic data shows. As a doctor and researcher, Hans Rosling identified a new paralytic disease induced by hunger in rural Africa. Now he looks at the bigger picture of social and economic development with his incredible website gapminder - which you should definitely go and visit. (Link on the sidebar lower down). You can see his full bio here, and he blogs here.

He does other similar talks on TED, including this one:

Ciwem environmental photographer of the year 2009

2009-09-10T10:24:00.000-07:00

The Chartered Institution of Water and Environmental Management (Ciwem)  international environmental photographer of the

year competition recognises photographers who use their talent to raise awareness of environmental and social issues - from places and people to vulnerable ecosystems and communities that are struggling with a changing climate. There are five categories and an overall winner. All winning and highly commended entries will go on display in London from 7 October then tour around the UK.

Check out all the photographs at The Guardian here.

2009-09-09T00:19:00.000-07:00

This is an article from yesterday's Guardian about a series of adverts that are being shown on television and in cinemas across Germany to highlight the dangers of unprotected sex in regards to Aids.

They clearly show a couple having sex, the man then turns out to be Hitler, other adverts show other dictators from history, including Stalin and Sadam Hussein.

Das Comitee, a Hamburgadvertisingagency, said the advert's shock value was aimed at highlighting the dangers of unprotected sex at a time when public awareness about the risks was diminishing. "We knew the face we gave to the illness could not be a pretty one," said Dirk Silz, the creative director.

In a sense I understand the thinking employed here. Aids is a terrible illness that does kill people. It seems that the continued spread of it throughout the world including the west is worrying and shows people are not acting responsibly when it comes to sexual activity so surely governments and health organisations should be trying to change the tide of public ignorance and apathy.

However, is it ok to employ such advertising tactics as those used here? In the article reservations are made:

Organisations representing people with Aids across Europe have condemned it, saying it only adds to the stigma they already suffer by appearing to put them on a par with mass murderers.

I tend to agree with what is said here but also have reservations of my own. How far have we come as a society where by the only thing that will make us stand up and take notice are adverts of such a graphic and extreme nature? What does it say about our attitude to our fellow man that only comparisons to Hitler will draw our attention to what we are potentially doing to each other?

I spoke to a medical colleague today about the adverts and hethought that if it did reduce the spread of HIV then it would be a good thing and part of me agrees with him, but I wonder at what cost to our society? For at some point we will become sensitised to even such shocking images as those shown above and we wll require greater and more controversial images to move us to action. Rather than constantly looking forward to the next tactic to slow down disease could it be time to look back to a command uttered at the very dawn of time and try that living by that instead:

t Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.

See the full story here.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/sep/07/germany-aids-advertisement-hitler-stalin

Fearless by Max Lucado

2009-09-07T23:37:00.000-07:00

This is my second book review for Thomas Nelson Publishers, and I have to say it is slightly better than the first! Fearless is Max Lucado’s latest offering in a long line of published works. The blurb on the back of the book states:

Fear, it seems, has taken up a hundred-year lease on the building next door and set up shop. Oversized and rude, fear herds us into a prison of unlocked doors. Wouldn't it be great to walk out?

I was slightly unsure as I read the book exactly who it was aimed at, I could be sure though that I was not the intended target audience. I do not spend my days worrying about tomorrow, or fearful about what the future holds, for this reason I wonder that I may have missed some of the benefits of this book.

On the positive side, Lucado is a great communicator and fills his book with amusing stories and witty anecdotes. He has many insightful comments to make on modern day life both personal, family, social and work wise. He relates often of his past experiences and all this make the book quite easy to read.

Some of his teaching from the gospels is very helpful and he has a knack of bringing the events of 2000 years ago into the present day. However, far too often his teaching on the life and words of Jesus turns into allegory in order to fit his point and he misses the real truth of the passage. This is frustrating as the author obviously has gifts in communication and application. I just think on this one he may have missed the boat slightly.

If you are a worrier, or someone who is very fearful or insecure then maybe you will find this book much more helpful than me. He certainly says nothing expressly wrong in my opinion and so I am sure some people could learn from Lucado and what he has to say. The book is easy to read and it will probably make you smile, so if this was an intro to reading it could be a good place to start – but if you are none of these things and a serious reader, then I would give it a miss.

He answers a few questions about the book on video here.

Go and read this...

2009-09-07T10:32:00.000-07:00

I link to Dr Daren quite a bit, maybe it's because I miss being at Mukinge. But then he also has stories like this, that we all need to read. This really is not the way this world should be, and before I get too comfortable with the 'good things' that it has to offer I need to hear that there are children like this being born everyday with nothing. Click the link to read it.

I have also quoted Wilberforce before, here he is again:

“If to be feelingly alive to the sufferings of my fellow-creatures is to be a fanatic, I am one of the most incurable fanatics ever permitted to be at large.”

Make me a fanatic.

Any Advice

2009-09-06T07:09:00.001-07:00

Just wondering if people have any ideas re: green tomatoes! We have quite a lot on our three tomato plants now and some of them are quite big but they are all green and with summer drawing to a close I'm not sure they're going to go red.

Any ideas please leave a comment!

Saying Goodbye part 2

2009-09-06T04:01:00.001-07:00

I have already blogged on having to say goodbye to people when I left Zambia and how it is difficult for us because we were not made for it. We were created to be in relationship with others and so it hurts when those relationships are broken.

Well today is another day of goodbyes. This evening Ruth and I are leaving our church in Sheffield after 6 years of being part of the church family and making some of the best friends we have. We have not been kicked out and we are not leaving because we don't like it any more, but we are moving with about 50 others to start a new church in a different part of the city. So tonight, we are being officially sent by Christchurch Fulwood and then next Sunday 4pm, we officially begin as Christchurch Endcliffe.

We are really excited about the prospect and fantastic opportunities this will create for us. We are going to be setting up a new student work, getting involved in a new neighbourhood and trying to bring the truth of Jesus to a new part of Sheffield.

But at the same time, it is sad to be leaving a great church that we feel part of and belong to, it is sad to be leaving behind great friends and church leaders.

The plan for Fulwood is to start a new church every 2/3 years so we all better start getting used to saying goodbye!

If you want to check us out, please have a look at www.endcliffechurch.co.uk

Materialism

2009-09-02T02:30:00.000-07:00

This is a charity advert provoked to make westerners consider how much their luxuries could buy in Africa! Click here to see it.

Charity Unleashed

2009-09-01T14:39:00.000-07:00

If you live in and around Sheffield here is a great little charity book of vouchers that we were told about. Raising money for Weston Park Cancer Hospital you buy a voucher book for £50 but then get upto £1000 of completely free hotel, restaurant and days out vouchers. This is unlike other voucher books in that once you have the book you do not have to pay anything else - it is incredible!

Go over to the website and check it out - the highlight for me is going to be the free double room in the Lose Hill Hotel in the peaks, what a pleasure. And at the end of the day you are also donating £50 to a great cause.

Click the Link.

Companion to the Poor - To Have or Not to Have

2009-09-01T10:23:00.000-07:00

This is probably the last installment from the book that I finished reading last week. In this chapter Viv Grigg speaks to the West middle class and asks for a concerted effort to help the poor. To look at our lifestyles and address areas of excess and see how we could be part of the solution:

"We must understand that living a life of luxury is collaborating with injustice. Piety and luxury cannot co-exist. Living luxuriously in the midst of poverty is a denial of justice. One of the New Testament writers says; ‘if anyone has the world’s goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God’s love abide in him’.

To try and keep this command surely means that nobody should have excessively more than others. The poor should be uplifted, the rich brought low, and equality should result. (Though clearly we don’t keep giving till we too become destitute, for then we only add ourselves to the problem.)"

In fact the author actually puts forward the benefits of being a rich man, what he requests however, are for responsible; generous rich men – he cites the example of Job, the greatest of all patriarchs of the East. He had great capital but used it to benefit his workers;

“I delivered the poor who cried, and the fatherless who had none to help him. I caused the widow’s heart to sing for joy. I put on righteousness and it clothed me; my justice was like a robe and a turban. I was eyes to the blind and feet to the lame. I was a father to the poor and I searched out the cause of him who I did not know. I broke the fangs of the unrighteous, and mad him drop his prey from his teeth". Job 29v12-17

Rich people are to live simply and use their capital to benefit the poor. For often it is the sins of oppression , exploitation and injustice committed in the name of ‘fair profit’ that have made them poor. He continues with further clarification;

‘Justice is not to live in equal destitution with the destitute. Justice for Jesus was to live humbly, simply, without excess, and share whatever he had with those around – to share with the destitute. Justice was not to have more than that required by our daily needs – ‘Give us this day our daily bread’ – and yet at the same time, it was to enjoy all the good things that God has made.’

Paul, one of the New Testament writers describes a balanced personal justice:

“There is great gain in godliness with contentment; for we brought nothing into the world, and we cannot take anything out of the world.; but if we have food and clothing, with these we shall be content".

Ultimately, Grigg is not asking us to give all our money away and become destitute. He is not asking that we should all join the poor in their poverty. He is merely asking those blessed with affluence be responsible and generous. There is no rule book to dictate how much you should give away, or how luxurious your life can be. Instead, it is an attitude, a change in heart and mind that he pushes for. To conclude the chapter he says;

"My message to the middle class could be summed up by the following five slogans:

Earn Much

Consume Little

Hoard Nothing

Give Generously

Celebrate Life."

"Choosing Thomas"

2009-08-31T01:58:00.000-07:00

A families decision to let their son live, if only for a short time. Facing death can be hardest for a family expecting new life. Follow two parents journey after they learn that their unborn son has a genetic disorder.

Click the link; http://www.dallasnews.com/s/dws/photography/2009/thomas/

"There is a way to be good again"

2009-08-30T13:11:00.000-07:00

Watched the film adaptation of the book Kite Runner last night. I read the book about a year ago and I have to say although the film is good it doesn’t come close to the book. I don’t often cry with books, but Khaleed Hosseini really pushed me with this one.

I think the heart of the book is revealed in the first scene of the movie when Amir, the main character is told over the phone that ‘there is a way to be good again’. The story then charts this journey from childhood innocence, through Amir’s fall and then to his redemption and a new life. In fact over at www.kiterunnermovie.com the site has been split into childhood, hope and then how to be good.

It’s interesting to compare the overview of this story with the overview of the Bible story – which in many ways charts a similar journey from childhood innocence, through the fall to redemption and the hope of new life. As far as I know Hosseini does not write from a Christian worldview, but then C.S. Lewis, the great writer said ‘every good story reflects the one great story’.

If you’ve not read the book, you really should, it will not disappoint. Prepare yourself for the heart wrenching lines; “For you a thousand times over".

Published!

2009-08-26T09:58:00.000-07:00

Today excerpts from the blog are being published in theGarstang Courier! This is a big deal for me and something I didn't expect when I started! So, preempting a sudden new rush of readers I thought I would put

together a few of my favourite

posts from the last few months for people to look at, so they didn't have to trawl through the whole thing! Just click the link and it will take you to the blog post;

Intro to hospital and here.

Malnutrition project and here.

Burns and Surgery

World Health

Leprosy Village

Zambian Top 10, Saying Good byeand Giving money.

Published!

2009-08-26T01:07:00.001-07:00

together a few of my favourite posts from the last few months for people to look at, so they didn't have to trawl through the whole thing! Just click the link and it will take you to the blog post;

Intro to hospital and here.

Malnutrition project and here.

Burns and Surgery

World Health

Leprosy Village

Zambian Top 10, Saying Good byeand Giving money.

Companion to the Poor - Life in the Slums

2009-08-25T01:10:00.000-07:00

I posted some things from the book 'Companion to the Poor' last week which I have now finished reading and found incredible. Today, I thought I would put up some of the stories that the author Viv Grigg tells and what he expects from the middle class West.

"Tonight Seraphim will drink himself to sleep. It is hard to be without work. If he could get work, he could get married and wouldn't need to drink. But what is the solution to alcoholism? Some years before I had travelled through a valley in Bukidnon. The homes were among the poorest I had seen-thatched huts, only a few meters square. I asked around to discover why. A local rice wine was ninety percent proof. Everybody drank it. Thirteen year old pregnant girls drank it. Children were born to drunken mothers and so grew up with the taste and desire for wine. People died before they were thirty. So it went on for generation after generation."

"There is a Tagalog phrase, "anak-pawis", which means "child of sweat" or "child of poverty". 92% of children in the slums and 87% of the total population in the Philippines suffer from intestinal parasites. 69% of Filipino children under six years of age are in various stages of protein calorie malnutrition, meaning they are 10-24% below their standard weight."

"We stopped at a military outpost. A soldier checked the passengers then got on board to protect the vehicle from rebels. Villagers stared at us from small nipa huts huddled along the road. Finally, we arrived at the pineapple plantation stretching for mile after mile on land confiscated or bought from hundreds of peasant farmers. For the first time, I saw the effects of Western consumerism in the Two-Thirds World. Accumulated profits are taken to America. Meanwhile 7000 workers, many of them former owners of the land on which they now work, live on a pitiful wage in one square mile of squatter homes. The companies that employ them deliberately keep their income below subsistence level in order to circumvent union troubles. We westerners eat the canned pineapple produced, with little thought for the social and economic process behind it."

In a few days I will post some stuff about our potential response to these kind of stories and facts. People get this feeling that the problem is so great there is no point trying, needless to say I think this is fatalistic and wrong. When I was in Zambia, the surgeon said when we were visiting the leprosy village that whilst we cannot change their lives around and give them new legs, we can always do something to make their lives more liveable.

Listen to this again and again and again!

2009-08-23T11:27:00.000-07:00

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/cricket/8217170.stm

Click the link

This is Cool!!

2009-08-20T08:53:00.000-07:00

by Guardian Chalkboards

You can create your own chalkboards now over at the guardian. This one just shows that at the end of the day number of goals is the only statistic that counts!

Companion to the Poor - the facts.

2009-08-19T10:31:00.000-07:00

I came across this book in Oxfam last week and it was cheap as chips so I decided to buy it. Anyway, I have started reading it and it is just an amazing book. Viv Grigg the author went to work with the people of Manilla and was ultimately called to live alongside them in the slums. The book is part biography and part teaching on spiritual, physical and socio-economic development of those in poverty.

My plan is to write a few blog posts from various chapters that I have read so far and were of great interest and challenge to me.

Firstly, the facts;

Speaking of Manilla itself, the average age is relatively high at 66, the population is over 11 million and over half of these are under 15 years old. The country is essentially ruled by 400 rich families and has a gross national product of only $4 600 compared to America's $36 300 - this makes the poor very poor and the rich very rich.

This growth in population is seen with the endless spread of slums and squatter areas of many of the two-thirds world (so named as this is the number of people now living in '3rd world' conditions) mega cities.

Since the 2nd world war there has been gross over-urbanization with too slow industrialization providing too few jobs resulting in swelling ranks of un/under-employed. In one slum in Manilla the average home contains 12.3 people living in a density of 57 500 people per sq km.

These statistics of course lead to incredible levels of poverty. Other statistics that I came across the other day were;

"Half the world lives on less than $2 a day. 30 000 people die of starvation every day. There are around 13million orphans worldwide. In the past hour 1,625 children were forced to live on the streets, 1,667 children died from malnutrition or disease, 115 children became prostitutes, 257 children were orphaned because of HIV."

The problem with facts like this presented to us in this way is what do you do with them? How are we meant to respond? Well, William Willberforce came face to face with such things and this is what he had to say;

Having seen all this you can choose to look the other way, but you can never say again 'I did not know'.

Came across an interesting website full of this kind of thing a little while ago; www.globalissues.org.

'Visit' meaning 'to look after, care for'. (James 1v27)

2009-08-19T00:38:00.000-07:00

2009-08-18T05:36:00.000-07:00

If you are into this kind of thing here is a pretty cool website about the following;

The monumental sculpture « invitation/decalogue » was made by Romanian artist Liviu Mocan for the 500th anniversary of John Calvin’s birth in Geneva. Ten columns 4.5m high are set in a circle; the inside face of each column resembles a human finger, while the outer edge narrows to a vertical blade.

Have a look here.

2 years!

2009-08-18T05:09:00.000-07:00

Ruth and I got married 2 years ago today - crazy!! Apparently, this anniversary is cotton - Ruth can't wait until we get to the good stuff where she gets better presents! I was reminded over the weekend how amazing marriage is and the greater love that it points to. Our very good friends were married on Saturday and were given some great advice in the service from the book of Ephesians;

Be Who You Are - if the husband concentrates on being the best husband he can be rather than trying to change his wife and then, if the wife tries to be the best wife she can be without trying to change the husband then things will go far better.

Another anniversary today is prolific blogger Tim Challies - he's on 11 years and shares some great lessons that he has learnt over that time here.

We love the NHS

2009-08-14T00:10:00.000-07:00

It is very interesting seeing the response to the criticism that the NHS has recently received in the American political arena. Gordon and Sarah brown have both been 'twittering' about how much they love it here - and now David Cameron has joined in;

"One of the wonderful things about living in this country is that the moment you're injured or fall ill - no matter who you are, where you are from, or how much money you've got - you know that the NHS will look after you."

Nothing brings out people's real opinions quite like criticism by Americans! But even though in England the NHS is very often criticized I think the country as a whole does realise how amazing our health care system is. I am currently in lectures learning about Emergency Medicine and anaesthetics. The systems, technology and expertise that exists in order to save lives in our hospitals is staggering so if you were to have an accident tomorrow in your car - you would be scooped off the road and given the best medical care potentially in the world without hesitation, no questions asked - the well being of the patient in an acute setting is the uttermost goal of any interventional treatment. Now, of course this isn't 'free' - for those that pay tax, thank you very much but we are incredibly blessed to live in a country that has good healthcare available to everyone regardless of social status or financial standing.

I too love the NHS!!

(I'm not sure if we will all be so positive when swine flu goes crazy in the winter and the plan to employ medical students as locum foundation doctors is implemented! Watch this space for that one!)

A grief conserved

2009-08-14T00:03:00.000-07:00

Came across this interesting article in WORLD magazine recently;

Perinatal hospice offers an alternative to the trauma of aborting a disabled child

Perinatal hospice honors life. The woman carrying the disabled child receives extensive counseling and birth preparation involving the combined efforts of MFM specialists, OB/GYN doctors, neonatologists, anesthesia services, chaplains, pastors, social workers, labor and delivery nurses, and neonatal nurses. She carries the pregnancy to its natural conclusion. She and her husband are allowed to grieve and prepare for the short time God may grant them with their child while their baby lives inside or outside the womb.

Read the whole article here;

http://www.worldmag.com/articles/15726

The Singing!

2009-08-13T23:37:00.000-07:00

I hope you enjoy it as much as I did!!

2009-08-10T10:12:00.000-07:00

I have recently become a book reviewer for Thomas Nelson books. It’s great because they send you a free book and then you have to post a review on your blog. So, the first one that I received was Rick and Bubba’s Guide to the Almost Nearly Perfectly Marriage written by Rick Burgess and Bill ‘Bubba’ Bussey. They share many experiences from their combined 33 years of marriage with the intention of making the reader laugh, cry, think and ultimately encourage marriages everywhere.

To be honest I thought the book was a mix of one slightly bizarre story after another that didn’t make me laugh that much or think about how to make my marriage better! I found that the authors made large generalisations about men and women that often did not correspond to my wife and I and to most people that I know. I guess their basic principle is correct that no marriage can be perfect, but we can make them all better. My advice however would be, if you wanted a book that made you laugh buy a comedy book, and if you wanted a book about marriage get a good book on marriage – but don’t buy a book that tries to do both!

Poverty

2009-08-10T00:19:00.000-07:00

Having returned home this weekend I have been conscious of not becoming that irritating 'Africa' guy who tells stories of poverty and suffering all the time and makes everyone feel bad for spending money at Burger King! Anyway, we got to church Sunday morning and my Pastor did it for me!! He was speaking on the parable of the Rich Man and Lazarus. You should be able to get it here - top of the list.

And since then I have come across a load of great looking resources to help us think about the poor and especially within a Christian context. Here are a few;

Tim Keller: The Gospel and the Poor video with notes to accompany it.

Keller again, this time a paper in theological journal Themelios.

Then there is Carson here with links to more stuff.

On top of all this, if anyone wants to buy me a book - this one is now top of my list!!

"Is there a doctor on this plane??"

2009-08-10T00:11:00.000-07:00

On the flight home from Nairobi to Heathrow, we were somewhere over the Sahara desert and got the call that every 'Doctor' dreads/loves..... 'Is there a doctor on the plane?' Anyway, along with a fellow medical student I was it!! It turned out there was a lady who was having some personality changes and getting increasingly restless and anxious - she was climbing over chairs and passengers and walking up and down continuously, and getting rather upset with her husband. It turned out she fell and hit her head quite badly two days ago and had only had problems since boarding the flight. This is quite a serious history and in hospital they would send you for an urgent CT head scan. However, at 30 000 ft the doctor's box was brought forward. What I wanted was diazepam to help calm her down, which of course they didn't have. Instead, the best they had was Piriton! Which of course is an anti-histamine but its side effect is drowsiness - so we dosed her up with that and watched to see what happened..... it didn't really work - she was still climbing the walls for the next 4 hours!

Oh well, we tried - turns out they could have done with a proper doctor!!

2009-08-05T14:42:00.000-07:00

Came across an interesting collection of articles on the Times and Guardian website yeasterday. Firstly about Obama and how his image as been used by his supporters and detractors to portray a particular message - the Superman was during his campaign trail whilst the Heath Ledger Joker image is a recent addition since his health reform plans. This is causing slight controversy due to the minstrel look and being called a socialist in American politics is like someone criticizing your mother!

It made me think about the opinions we hold of others and whether we deem them to be good/bad, whether we support them or not and what image they project to us.

Then I read Richard Morrison's article on the double lives that well known people lead, particularly in the literature world but also pointing to people like Joseph Fritzl who for 24 years led a 'respectable' life above ground while committing unspeakable crimes below. He says;

Is it possible that no public figure ever led a blameless life? Does a Mr Hyde lurk inside every Dr Jekyll? Can nothing significant be done in life without engaging in covert behaviour that future biographers will take a sadistic delight in laying bare? Or is it simply that, from Charles Dickens to John F. Kennedy, famous lives with secret dark sides are the ones that make the best books and films?

Yes, Yes, Yes and Yes. He asks his rhetorical questions with an air of skepticism, but he is closer to the truth of the condition of us all than I think he realises!

Wordle

2009-08-05T13:57:00.000-07:00

This is a wordle - it takes the words on your blog and then presents them in graphic form. The bigger the word the more it has been used - I am still trying to get the measure of this, so expect more in the future! Click on the picture to make it bigger!

More on Mukinge patients

2009-08-05T09:25:00.000-07:00

For those who were interested by my post about Jimmy, Dr Darren has another difficult story that happened over the weekend; have a look here.

Yesterday, our on call doc admitted a 33 year old, mother of 6, who had a bowel obstruction. By evening, I heard that she had gone to the OR for surgery. Turns out, not only did she have an obstruction, but a perforation as well (the bowel had ruptured inside the abdomen).

Read the whole story at www.teamtompkins.blogspot.com.

2009-08-04T01:50:00.000-07:00

Just before I left Mukinge - this arrived! A 40ft container literally stuffed to the limit with medical supplies. It had been put together by a former short termer in Canada and had been driven up from South Africa. There were 100s of boxes of supplies, lots of wheel chairs, new beds, crutches, side tables and mattresses. It took 3 hours to unpack the thing but there was a lot of help and it was actually quite good fun! It was great to see all this shiny new stuff that the hospital can use - to be sure lives will be improved because of it.

Mukinge is in a resource poor setting and I have blogged

before about the lack of labs and treatment they have compared to being back home.

Practicing good medicine is expensive but they use their resources well and if you consult the tourist handbook for Zambia it has this to say about Mukinge;

It has about 200 beds, and cares for about 150–160 in-patients per day – including around four births per day – in seven separate in-patient wards. This includes one for malnutrition and another for isolation. It has two operating theatres, a laboratory, a variety of x-ray equipment, a kitchen, a laundry, a workshop, a training school for nurses, and a pharmacy with basic drug supplies. So, in short, it's the best hospital for a very long way.

Obama's new top doctor

2009-08-04T00:55:00.000-07:00

You may have heard that Dr Francis Collins has been made the head of America's National Institute of Health - this is the countries premier medical research organization;

"As director of the institutes, Dr. Collins will have more responsibility for biomedical and health-related research than any person on earth, controlling an annual budget of more than $30 billion. He will also be one of the foremost representatives of science in the United States."

Dr Collins was previously the head of the Human Genome Project taking over from James

Watson. He is also a committed Christian and has articulated his beliefs on science and Christianity in his excellent book The Language of God.

He has also launched the BioLogos Foundation. This seeks to explore the relationship of science and religion and show that they are not mutually exclusive entities.

His nomination has caused quite a stir both in America and the UK with the new athiests namely Sam Harris seemingly very upset by his appointment;

Francis Collins is an accomplished scientist and a man who is sincere in his beliefs. And that is precisely what makes me so uncomfortable about his nomination. Must we really entrust the future of biomedical research in the United States to a man who sincerely believes that a scientific understanding of human nature is impossible?

Andrew Brown has responded over at The Guardian;

But militant atheism, of the sort that would deny people jobs for their religions beliefs, doesn't actually believe in real science at all, any more than it believes in reason. Rather, it uses "science" and "reason" as tribal labels, and "religion" as a term for witchcraft. Any serious defence of the real, hard-won and easily lost enlightenment must start by rejecting that style of atheism entirely. What use is it to be right about God and wrong about everything else?

Saying Goodbye and my Brother from another Mother!

2009-08-03T22:45:00.000-07:00

I am now in Lusaka after leaving Mukinge where I had to say goodbye to people that I had got to know quite well and had become good friends with. I generally hate goodbye's as they are awkward - what do you say, you probably won't stay in contact but you feel like you should say you will, do you shake hands, or hug, or what?!

Anyway, this time it felt really tough to say goodbye to a few of the people there - Z man, Nator and Emelyn above have become my 'buddies' over the last 2 months and I will miss them.

This is Siston, my brother from another Mother! We became good mates over the last 2

months and cooked nshima together when Ruth had left!

It made me start thinking about relationships and why saying goodbye can be hard. I think it is because that is the way we were made. We are relational beings, no man is an island and all that! Humans function in society, sometimes that society is entirely dysfunctional but we are designed to live together, to try and co-habit, to share lives and work out our differences.

I believe this is because we are made in the image or after the likeness of God - who has always been in a loving relationship. The God of the Bible is a trinity of people, one God but three persons - so when we reflect that it means we too are meant to love and be loved.

The other thing is, we were not made originally for these relationships to be broken. This is particularly why death is so hard, why grief is so real - because it is foreign to us, we were not designed to deal with it. The fact that we sacked God off has not just ruined our relationship with him, it has also ruined it with each other and with the world that we live in. I think my worldview really explains why relationships matter, why people are important, why saying goodbye hurts like no other worldview can. We are not just an impersonal, autonomous bag of cells, we are made in the likeness of our Creator which means saying goodbye to our buddies sucks!!

Then God said, “Let us make humans in our image, after our likeness"

BookSeer

2009-08-03T14:34:00.000-07:00

Came across this really interesting website for the book worms - you type the book that you have just read into the top and then it gives you a long list of other books that you may enjoy to look at. Useful, or just a good time/money waster! Anyway, I liked it and now my amazon wish list has grown a lot!! The Book Seer.

Jimmy

2009-08-01T02:11:00.000-07:00

Jimmy cannot hear when people try and speak to him. He has been unable to hear for two weeks since he came in with spiking temperatures, headache and a neck like an iron rod. All the tests suggested meningitis. Since then, this 15 year- old boy has laid in bed with high doses of good antibiotics running through him. His neck is relaxed but his temperatures have not. And he still cannot hear. Jimmy will have to go home soon, we cannot let him stay in hospital forever and besides he will use up all our medicine. We think his meningitis has formed an abscess that is pressing somewhere on his brain – but there is no way to tell and nothing we can do.

Please join me in praying for Jimmy.

2009-07-31T21:58:00.000-07:00

I have over the course of the last few weeks posted about several projects that are happening at and around Mukinge. I guess this post was inevitable – but here goes anyway. All of these projects cost money – it is expensive to run a hospital, to fund new projects, to look after people well. There are so many needs in this area that it is difficult to know which ones to highlight. Here are some of the ones that I have seen, have been involved in and believe to be worthwhile and deserving of financial support. If you feel like you would like to help in any of the projects below please let me know and I can arrange a way for you to be put in contact with the necessary administrator. You can email me at jmsmeiring@gmail.com.

Desks for Schools

This school is close to Mukinge and as you can see is appallingly equipped. The desks are being made by a local carpenter and driven to the school by the hospital. So far, I think they have half the required number. This appears to be such a basic need and if it helps children feel more motivated to learn then that can only be a positive thing.

Malnutrition project

I have already spoken of the benefits of this project at length. The most pressing need now is finance to buy more seed and more diesel. The country is so spread out and long distances need to be covered. The frequent trips are essential in the early years of the project in order to encourage the participants and follow up on babies, crops and health clinic attendance.

Leprosy Village

I have also blogged about this previously. It is a 20 minute walk from the hospital and the surgeon here goes over every Tuesday afternoon and delivers some essentials. He said last week that whilst we are not going to change these people’s lives we can do something to make them better. It is easy in the face of such disability to give up and call it a lost cause but I have seen the joy that a visit, a handshake and a big pot of Vaseline for dry skin can do! Other things that are provided are clothes, new legs, medicine, blankets, some food and household repairs. This is a very worthwhile project to support.

Chaplaincy fund

There are three chaplains that work at the hospital and they are kept very busy visiting all the in-patients, helping to deal with the deaths that happen, helping with community projects and also supporting and working for local churches. They run sessions for every group of staff - from the guys in the workshop to the nursing students. The are vital to the work of Mukinge and need financial support so they can continue to do the important work that they do.

Infidel by Ayaan Hirsi Ali

2009-07-30T12:05:00.000-07:00

I have just finished reading the fascinating autobiography of Ayaan Hirsi Ali who was born and brought up a Muslim. Her family was from Somalia but she moved all over the muslim world with her mother and siblings. The book tells the story of her struggles with her faith and the way it made her, a woman, behave.

She tells vividly of how she turned her back on her family, her country and ultimately Allah as she became an apostate. She gained dutch citizenship and became a politician until she had to leave the country after a close friend was murdered by extremists and security forces believed her to be next.

She ends the book as a confident athiest and champion of women's rights - trying to raise awareness of the abuses suffered by women within Islam.

Having never looked at Islam in depth before I found it very interesting to read the insights of someone born within the religion, who then chose to leave it. The book does much more than just criticize Islam though - it is an apologetic for a liberal, democratic, secular state. A place where freedom is sought above all else - where free expression of thought and action are unhindered. Christopher Hitchens, a man who I admire as a thinker and communicator yet disagree with strongly, writes the foreword for the book and while he does spend the majority of time speaking of Islam, he has the annoying habit of lumping all world religions together;

"Ayaan used to believe in the existence of djinns and devils, in the workings of an international Jewish conspiracy, in the literal truth of a single book, and in the necessity of covering limbs and faces. It is inspiring to read of her gradual liberation from these delusions, and of her eventual rejection of belief in the supernatural altogether."

It made me think as I read that surely it is possible to believe in a democratic, free, liberal society without throwing out the possibility of the supernatural. Faith is not the problem here as seems to be the suggestion - but rather what that faith is in. My worldview encourages me to participate in a society of respect and democracy purely because of it supernatural foundation.

More on malnutrition

2009-07-29T00:51:00.000-07:00

I have spent some more time with the malnutrition team this past week driving round some of the area visiting local health centres to weigh babies and give educational talks on feeding your children a balanced diet, the signs and symptoms of malnutrition etc. It has been great to get out of Mukinge and see the area. According to a Zambian census, 72% of the population live below the poverty line and apart from the hospital and some education establishments most people are subsistent farmers.

We have done some data collection into some of the mothers enrolled on the malnutrition project. I thought it may be of interest to some of you;

Total no. children

Single mothers

Orphans

HIV +ve Mother

HIV Child

TB exposed

Hx PEM

Family Hx PEM

273

(38%)

(11%)

(27%)

(18%)

(5%)

(6%)

(34%)

(36%)

These stats show some of the reasons for malnutrition within the children in this part of the world. It also shows that just giving a mother food will not fix the problem. When there is no husband around, when the mother has a long term disease, when PEM (Protein energy malnutrition) runs in the family the only solution is long term education, health care and nutritional support.

That is really the strength of this project because on the team are doctors, nurses, a nutritionist, rural health centres and agricultural officers. Hopefully, this will answer the complex problems that getting food into mouths seems to be in this area of the world.

I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the face of all the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit. t You shall have them for food.

My current Zambian top 10!

2009-07-26T12:34:00.000-07:00

Today, I was thinking about things that I really love about Mukinge - ok, so the list isn't that deep but these things make me laugh and I wish I could bring them back to England when I'm done. In no particular order;

1. The male nurses white shoes.

2. The colour of the dust.

3. The very frequent handshakes leading to...

4. Having your hand held by a man.

5. The singing in church.

6. The sun.

7. 2 hour lunch break.

8. The names - Innocent, Praise, Elijah etc.

9. The Zambian accent when speaking English.

10. Can I put singing twice?

Patient's Problems

2009-07-26T12:10:00.000-07:00

I have been on male ward now for a few weeks and I have really enjoyed(if you can enjoy people getting sick!) the variety of problems and the spread of diagnosis that are currently on the ward. This is what I have at the moment in the beds in front of me as I round, click on some of the links to find out more and see photos if you so wish;

1. Aspiration Pneumonitis after the man breathed in a mouthful of diesel!

2. Diabetic Ketoacidosis with potential gall bladder disease.

3. Valvular Heart Disease leading to end stage cardiac failure.

4. Extra pulmonary TB with massive pleural effusion.

5. Another end stage cardiac failure with uncontrolled hypertension.

6. Bacterial Meningitis x2

7. Tricuspid regurgitation with HUGE pulsatile liver.

8. Query TB with haematuria.

9. ?TB/?Pneumonia

10. Kaposi's sarcoma

11. Leprosy patient(see earlier post) with both legs amputated who has come in with cardiac failure and huge pleural effusions.

2009-07-25T13:05:00.000-07:00

A disease I am starting to get familiar with having never seen it in the UK is Sickle cell disease. I think there are about 6 kids on paeds 1 at the moment who have come due to complications of their disease.

The disease is due to a gene mutation that is far more common in equatorial Africa than anywhere else. It causes red blood cells to become rigid and elongated – they then block the small blood vessels in the body and cause tissue death. They suffer from vascular occlusive crises often in the skeleton, joints, lungs or spleen.

They come in very irritable with a very distinct cry, they are very difficult to examine and have spiking temperatures. They often have infection and need effective pain relief and rehydration.

When you get 4 sicklers in a row you really know about it and ward round becomes increasingly difficult amid all the screams. It’s a difficult disease to look after and monitor and can be fatal if children become septic.

'Uncle James' taking assembly

2009-07-23T13:06:00.001-07:00

This is a photo of an assembly which I referred to in an earlier post. It was fun, all the kids speak English, which made my job a lot easier! Talking about language - we had a patient today who was running a very high blood sugar and was pretty sick. Anyway he was from the Congo and didn't speak any of the languages that are common around Mukinge. There are many local languages around Zambia and lots of the nurses 1st language is not the same. Anyway, we managed to find another patient who had a common language with the Congolese man, so my history was translated from English to Kaonde, then the patient translated that to the new patient. He then answered the question and the translation came back the other way! Chinese whispers anyone!?

Starting to understand the curse of Genesis 11!

Therefore its name was called Babel, because there the Lord confused the language of all the earth

2009-07-21T11:53:00.000-07:00

I just finished reading Philip Caputo’s Pulitzer prize winning novel ‘Acts of Faith’. It is set in Sudan during its civil war in the 1990s, and revolves around a group of mostly Westerners who go to the Sudan to provide aid. Douglas Braithwaite is an American pilot who has come to fly relief supplies into dangerous areas. It's a move that is both entrepreneurial and moralistic. He partners with Fitzhugh Martin, a biracial Kenyan, and Wesley Dare, a bush pilot from Texas. Quinette Hardin is an evangelical Christian and she has come to work with a group that buys back slaves from Arab raiders. Lady Diana Briggs comes from a family who has roots in colonial Africa and she desperately wants to save the land she loves. While they all apparently want to save the black Christians of southern Sudan from the forces of the Islamic government in Khartoum, their own personal ambitions and zealotry lead them down paths where any deed can be rationalized in their fight seen as good versus evil.

The book constantly brings into question whether an action is right or wrong. All the characters have to make decisions which conflict against their morals for what they perceive to be the bigger picture.

The other major theme is seemingly which God answers which prayers – throughout the book there are various deities that are placated and appeased. None of these deities appear to answer the prayers of their people and the tragic ending of the story underlines Caputo’s opening paragraph;

‘In Africa there is no difference between God and the Devil.’

Seemingly, in this part of Sudan – what appears to be good has a habit of turning evil and the difference between the two is often indistinguishable. Caputo, makes his point clearly that a good God does not exist in the lives of the Sudanese in his story, that humanity also, whether African or Western even when it believes is acting with good intentions to save lives is fulfilling its own selfish, often evil desires.

I know another African story where almost the opposite is true. This time set in Egypt – throughout the story humanity commits endless acts of selfish evil against one man, but in the end this time he can say;

‘You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives.’

In this story, not only is God totally separate from any devil – like behaviour, he can even use human evil to bring about his good purposes and provide more than just aid relief, for thousands.

Come On! 1-0.

2009-07-21T11:42:00.000-07:00

Snakes, Nshima and schools!

2009-07-20T21:52:00.001-07:00

We went for a day out today around the area and came across some interesting things. firstly, this was a 5 ft black snake of unknown origin - fortunately it had taken a fairly big whack to the head before we arrived!

This is maize drying in the sun, before they can grind it up to make nshima - kind of a gluey paste type thing, which you eat with your hands, at some point one of the Zambians is teaching me how to eat it!

This is a community school about 10km away from Mukinge. It has 2 'classrooms', the other one doesn't even have benches and has a bigger hole in the wall than this one. People at the hospital are raising money to buy some desks for the school.

Today I went to Mukinge Academy to do an assembly. The Academy is run by my next door neighbour who is from barrow in England! It is a private school for the children of workers at the hospital and secondary school - it is much better equipped than this, although no interactive white boards and laptops just yet! I looked at the rich man and Lazarus from Luke 16 with them.

2009-07-17T09:26:00.000-07:00

I was called to see a patient today who had been brought in after taking an overdose of his anti-psychotic medication. He had written a note beforehand explaining that he wanted to die and that it was nobodies fault. He then put a verse from the Bible at the end, Romans 6v7;

For one who has died has been set free from sin

Anyway, he was unconscious but alive when I last saw him, we'll see if he makes it through the night.

'The blind receive their sight and the lame walk, lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear'

2009-07-16T03:54:00.000-07:00

On Tuesday we visited a leprosy village that is about a 20 minute walk from the hospital. It was built by the government a few years ago to house people who suffer from leprosy and other disabilities. There are 20 houses there altogether, they share a tap in the middle of the village and have some fields where those who are able can grow maize.

The houses are single rooms and they have a little cooking area outside.

The surgeon and the physio who work at the hospital go most weeks and take a few supplies - this week we took over some oil, sugar and salt. They also have some maize to take over and they have taken clothes and other things in the past. Some of the people have been fitted with new, shiny prosthetic limbs but they often do not wear them as they like to keep them for 'Sunday best'!

It was an amazing place to visit - the people that we visited were all sat outside their homes, either on their own or with their spouse. A large crowd of children followed us from house to house. All of the people were very pleased to see us and clapped enthusiastically (that is how people greet each other here!) Some of those that could walk even danced!

We chatted to each of the people for a brief time and Dr Friend gave out a few medicines to those that needed. This particular village was built by the government to house leprosy sufferers and some of them were from far away in different parts of Zambia. Away from their family and communities.

For those that are interested, now that treatment is available active leprosy is quite rare and as long as people receive the medication then deformities like the ones seen in the village should not occur. It is actually caused by a chronic inflammatory response to a bacteria (mycobacterium leprae) which attacks the skin and the nervous system. They develop plaques or macules on their skin and then areas of motor and sensory loss with patches of anaesthesia. This is then responsible for the patients burning themselves or cutting themselves and not realising it causing lots of damage.

Of course leprosy has been treated by Christians all over the world for many years, helped I guess by the contact that Jesus himself had with lepers in Israel. In fact, one of the prophets who lived over 800 years before Jesus came predicted that when the Saviour arrives lepers will be cleansed; and what do you know - along with a heap of other amazing things, just by the touch from a man - this disease left people's bodies.

Go and tell John what you hear and see: the blind receive their sight and the lame walk, lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear, and the dead are raised up, and the poor have good news preached to them. And blessed is the one who is not offended by me.

When he came down from the mountain, great crowds followed him. And behold, a leper came to him and knelt before him, saying, “Lord, if you will, you can make me clean.” And Jesus stretched out his hand and touched him, saying, “I will; be clean.” And immediately his leprosy was cleansed. And Jesus said to him, “See that you say nothing to anyone, but go, show yourself to the priest and ioffer the gift that Moses commanded, jfor a proof to them.”

She's gone!

2009-07-15T23:48:00.000-07:00

Ruth flew out yesterday and left me here! She has graduation next week and then she has to go be and be a real doctor! I was pretty sad yesterday! It was cool being in the hospital and working with her (mainly because she is much better at medicine than me!) and due to her cooking abilities we ate like Kings! For the next 3 weeks !'m on avocados and bananas from the trees outside!

2009-07-12T23:02:00.000-07:00

I managed to get hold of the transcript from Obama’s speech in Ghana on the future of Africa and how he intends to help! Some interesting areas that he addresses – it is classic inspiring Barak, with plenty of universalism, optimism and Americanism thrown in for good measure. Despite disagreeing with him on several things – I still want to believe him!

"Development depends on good governance. That is the ingredient which has been missing in far too many places, for far too long. That's the change that can unlock Africa's potential. And that is a responsibility that can only be met by Africans.

But the true sign of success is not whether we are a source of perpetual aid that helps people scrape by - it's whether we are partners in building the capacity for transformational change.
Africa doesn't need strongmen, it needs strong institutions.

With better governance, I have no doubt that Africa holds the promise of a broader base of prosperity. Witness the extraordinary success of Africans in my country, America. They're doing very well. So they've got the talent, they've got the entrepreneurial spirit. The question is, how do we make sure that they're succeeding here in their home countries? The continent is rich in natural resources. And from cell phone entrepreneurs to small farmers, Africans have shown the capacity and commitment to create their own opportunities. But old habits must also be broken. Dependence on commodities - or a single export - has a tendency to concentrate wealth in the hands of the few, and leaves people too vulnerable to downturns.
As Africans reach for this promise, America will be more responsible in extending our hand. By cutting costs that go to Western consultants and administration, we want to put more resources in the hands of those who need it, while training people to do more for themselves. (Applause.) That's why our $3.5 billion food security initiative is focused on new methods and technologies for farmers - not simply sending American producers or goods to Africa. Aid is not an end in itself. The purpose of foreign assistance must be creating the conditions where it's no longer needed. I want to see Ghanaians not only self-sufficient in food, I want to see you exporting food to other countries and earning money. You can do that.

In recent years, enormous progress has been made in parts of Africa. Far more people are living productively with HIV/AIDS, and getting the drugs they need. I just saw a wonderful clinic and hospital that is focused particularly on maternal health. But too many still die from diseases that shouldn't kill them. When children are being killed because of a mosquito bite, and mothers are dying in childbirth, then we know that more progress must be made.

Yet because of incentives - often provided by donor nations - many African doctors and nurses go overseas, or work for programs that focus on a single disease. And this creates gaps in primary care and basic prevention. Meanwhile, individual Africans also have to make responsible choices that prevent the spread of disease, while promoting public health in their communities and countries.

America will support these efforts through a comprehensive, global health strategy, because in the 21st century, we are called to act by our conscience but also by our common interest, because when a child dies of a preventable disease in Accra, that diminishes us everywhere. And when disease goes unchecked in any corner of the world, we know that it can spread across oceans and continents.

And that's why my administration has committed $63 billion to meet these challenges - $63 billion. (Applause.) Building on the strong efforts of President Bush, we will carry forward the fight against HIV/AIDS. We will pursue the goal of ending deaths from malaria and tuberculosis, and we will work to eradicate polio. (Applause.) We will fight - we will fight neglected tropical disease. And we won't confront illnesses in isolation - we will invest in public health systems that promote wellness and focus on the health of mothers and children. (Applause.

Now, as we partner on behalf of a healthier future, we must also stop the destruction that comes not from illness, but from human beings - and so the final area that I will address is conflict.

Let me be clear: Africa is not the crude caricature of a continent at perpetual war. But if we are honest, for far too many Africans, conflict is a part of life, as constant as the sun. There are wars over land and wars over resources. And it is still far too easy for those without conscience to manipulate whole communities into fighting among faiths and tribes.

These conflicts are a millstone around Africa's neck. Now, we all have many identities - of tribe and ethnicity; of religion and nationality. But defining oneself in opposition to someone who belongs to a different tribe, or who worships a different prophet, has no place in the 21st century. (Applause.) Africa's diversity should be a source of strength, not a cause for division. We are all God's children. We all share common aspirations - to live in peace and security; to access education and opportunity; to love our families and our communities and our faith. That is our common humanity.

That is why we must stand up to inhumanity in our midst. It is never justified - never justifiable to target innocents in the name of ideology. (Applause.) It is the death sentence of a society to force children to kill in wars. It is the ultimate mark of criminality and cowardice to condemn women to relentless and systemic rape. We must bear witness to the value of every child in Darfur and the dignity of every woman in the Congo. No faith or culture should condone the outrages against them. And all of us must strive for the peace and security necessary for progress. When there's a genocide in Darfur or terrorists in Somalia, these are not simply African problems - they are global security challenges, and they demand a global response. (Applause.)"

His first point on the responsibility of African people to fix African problems is one that I am already thinking about since being at the hospital here. Mukinge was set up by American missionaries. Today, it still has a western influence, with the majority of doctors, some of the nurses and some of the management team coming from overseas to help but the hospital is becoming increasingly Zambian.

I would assume that this would be a good thing. The two Zambian doctors that are working here and that I have worked with are very good doctors. They are especially good in their home country – because all of medicine has a context – so failure to thrive here in a 3 month old baby will never be cystic fibrosis like at home, it is much more likely to be HIV or TB. Pain in the lower right of the abdomen is very rarely appendicitis, which is as common as muck at home! So, with this in mind it seems obvious to me that in Zambia it would make a lot of sense to have Zambian doctors who understand the context in which they practice.

What he says regarding single export economy is certainly true - Zambia depends heavily on its copper, and when the price of copper drops, Zambia is in trouble. He talks a lot about 'transformational change' - the need for good governance and the right help from the west, Africans understanding their responsibility - once all these things happen, then this 'transformational change can take place. I do agree with him so far in that all those things will help, but real, true, lasting transformation for an individual and a society can only be found in one place and achieved by one man, sadly not Barak Obama.

For the medics only....any ideas??

2009-07-12T09:54:00.000-07:00

We have a few tricky patients on the ward at the moment! It is sometimes difficult here to diagnose conditions that are a little out of the ordinary without the imaging and lab tests that we rely on back home.

One that has got everyone foxed is a 52 yr old lady who presented with itching, alopecia, parasthesiae in both arms and acute tenderness over the majority of her skeleton! On examination she was afebrile, very wasted (10Kg wt loss), a very swollen face, pallor, patches of hyper/hypo pigmentation and a dry exfoliative dermatitis with arthralgia, heart sounds normal, chest clear, abdo soft non-tender, no masses. It turns out she has had the bilateral facial swelling for over a year and the itching for 7 months. She has no significant past medical history, HIV negative, 10 children 3 of which have died. Labs that have been done – ESR 110mm/h, pancytopenic, Creatinie 49.3, AST 27, ALT 25.

I know that doesn’t mean much to most of you but thought it would be interesting for the medics! Let us know if you have any ideas!

And then, there is this X-Ray.

Which belongs to a 15 year old boy, who presented with chest pain after falling on a stone - he has no cardiac signs or symptoms at all. His apex beat is in normal place, potentially reduced breath sounds in left base. Impression so far is 1)he has 2 hearts! 2) Dextrocardia with pleural infiltrate. 3) a huge pericardial effusion. 4) Something else pretty funky!

Mission Statement for Canadian Christian Medical Fellowship

2009-07-09T09:58:00.000-07:00

"It becomes every man who purposes to give himself to the care of others, seriously to consider the four following things:-First, that he must one day give an account to the Supreme Judge of all the lives entrusted to his care. Secondly, that all his skill, and knowledge, and energy as they have been given him by God, so they should be exercised for His glory, and the good of mankind, and not for mere gain or ambition. Thirdly, and not more beautifully than truly, let him reflect that he has undertaken the care of no mean creature, for, in order that he may estimate the value, the greatness of the human race, the only begotten Son of God became himself a man, and thus ennobled it with His divine dignity, and far more than this, died to redeem it. And fourthly, that the doctor being himself a mortal man, should be diligent and tender in relieving his suffering patients, inasmuch as he himself must one day be a like sufferer."

Thomas Sydenham (1642-1689)

An Anthology of Life Under the Sun

The Boy that Changed the World

Next Generation's How Should a Christian Live?

Made to suffer

We may be born to die, but we were created to live.

Viktor Frankl: Why to believe in others | Video on TED.com

Twitter and BBC Radio Sheffield

Incredible deal from Challies.com

Sri Lankan perspective on Health Care reform.

Good Friday

Son of Hamas

Testimony from Haiti

A Century Turns by William J. Bennet

I hope they have a few better ideas than this.....

A few problems....

God is still God and God is still Good.

Mother Teresa Quote

The Robin Hood Tax

Why does a Good God allow Evil and Suffering?

UCCF: a history

University Christian Union Events Weeks

Did I Get Married too Young?

Book Review: Love and Respect

The hand that made us is divine

away.

Please don't label me....

Students doing what they do best.

Compassion

Link

Breakthroughs

If there really was a God here...

The Nick Griffin fall out

The best of medicine and Britain.

Inspired

Matthew Paris visits St Therese!

In the cathedral I saw a sign. God help us

The message I received from Saint Therese... and who it was about

Rejecting the single story

A Child is Born

True Religion

Final installment from Dr Friend...

The Human Interest Piece

Charlie Brooker: The doctors were about to stick a

needle in my spine. Then it hit me. What if I sneezed?

Glove Love

More from Mukinge

Interesting quote on abortion

Glorious.

More Mukinge stories

When Helping Hurts - How to alleviate poverty without hurting the poor..... and yourself

Lewis frame of mind.

The Problem of Pain

Hans Rosling: Let my dataset change your mindset

Ciwem environmental photographer of the year 2009

Fearless by Max Lucado

Go and read this...

Any Advice

Saying Goodbye part 2

Materialism

Charity Unleashed

Companion to the Poor - To Have or Not to Have

"Choosing Thomas"

"There is a way to be good again"

Published!

Published!

Companion to the Poor - Life in the Slums

Listen to this again and again and again!

This is Cool!!

Companion to the Poor - the facts.

'Visit' meaning 'to look after, care for'. (James 1v27)

2 years!

We love the NHS

A grief conserved

The Singing!

Poverty

"Is there a doctor on this plane??"

Wordle

More on Mukinge patients

Obama's new top doctor

Saying Goodbye and my Brother from another Mother!