Ankaase Hospital: Making Life Whole

By Dr. Cameron Gongwer

In July 2004 the Ankaase Methodist Faith Healing Hospital celebrated the international honor from the World Health Organization of becoming a "Baby Friendly" hospital, one that promotes exclusive breastfeeding in infants up to six months old. At those festivities I had the privilege of reflecting back over the past seven years of service in Ghana and to share with all the guests some milestones of achievement. By God’s grace, what started as a clinic, yet dedicated as a hospital in 1991, has now truly become the Kwabre district hospital providing 24-hour service. The Ankaase hospital has grown from a staff of 13 and no full-time physician, to a staff of 57 with four full-time physicians; the clinic patients have increased yearly from 6,617 to 11,068; the admissions climbed from 350 to 1,145 and the beds expanded from 26 to 60. We now have a pharmacy, an X-ray department including ultrasound, an improved lab with blood transfusion capability, a new donated ambulance, and we provide electrocardiography and endoscopy services for heart and stomach ulcer patients, respectively. Coupled with improvements in our maternity, surgery and nursing departments, the hospital has truly improved its standard of care delivered to patients.

In addition, the hospital has reached out to make life whole in the broader community through nutrition education and service, literacy classes, community health evangelism, and care for persons living with HIV/AIDS.

While all of these achievements are worthy and good, the true mark of success in our purpose of ministry is the impact Christ is having on those lives touched through the various outreaches in Ankaase and beyond. Whether it be working with mass numbers of patients in the north of Ghana during a medical evangelism outreach or sharing one on one with someone from the community, we have witnessed God’s redeeming power to transform lives and bring healing, hope and wholeness.

Two and a half years ago when I was the only doctor working at the hospital, I got called by the nurse on duty in the middle of the night. A 70-year old woman, Sarah Boateng, from the Methodist Church and a member of the literacy class there had come to the hospital with respiratory distress. She had never had this before and was otherwise in good health. Yet, she looked seriously ill and her skin was cold and clammy. She had trouble breathing and her blood pressure was dropping. Unfortunately, as the case can be sometimes, the hospital did not have any available oxygen to administer, and the machine to give a breathing treatment by mask was broken. Thankfully we had an intravenous line to give fluid and medicine, so I gave her the only available drugs we had to help with this problem. Later, her elderly husband came in wearing his ntoma, or traditional cloth, and sandals and I explained the grave situation to him. We then prayed together that God, in His mercy, would heal Sarah. After monitoring her for two more hours, I really thought she might die. There was nothing more I could do. I spoke with the family and then I said to God, “Sarah is in your hands,” and I went back up the hill to my house.

The next morning, a few hours later, I walked into the nurse’s office. The nurse on duty from the night before looked up at me and was beaming. “Have you seen Sarah this morning? She’s fine now,” she said in the Twi language. I immediately went to Sarah’s bed and found her sitting up. I looked at her, listened to her lungs and studied her vital signs chart. Everything was normal! She looked like a totally different woman from just several hours earlier and she was eager to go home. God had healed her, and I know it was God because it wasn’t anything I did during that very confusing and chaotic time!

Prayers for healing and wholeness are not answered in the same way. There was another woman a few years ago who came to the hospital with a chronic illness who just continued to deteriorate despite all efforts. Her family members came and stayed with her for several days. On rounds one morning this woman looked more pale than usual and indeed she had a dangerously low hemoglobin level. She was given a necessary blood transfusion after matching donors among relatives and friends had been located. For awhile she would seem to improve but then get worse. As her condition deteriorated we called in more staff to help. We had the pharmacist trying to get an American made oxygen concentrator hooked up to the step-down transformer to give her more oxygen. Nurses and aides were administering intravenous medication. Even the administrator was there trying to help. It was the first time I had seen so many concerned staff really working hard together to try and save a life. Usually in Ghana there is a more fatalistic attitude towards life and death.

Amidst all the busyness in caring for this woman, we paused to call in the whole family to pray. The fifteen or more staff and family began lifting up audible prayers individually at the same time to God for healing, wisdom and mercy. After that the whole family remained on the ward to watch what was happening and they saw how so many of the staff were trying to help save this woman’s life. The woman died later that evening. But even so, the family was so grateful to the whole hospital staff for the Christ-like care that she received. Her transformation to wholeness and our answer to prayer came not in her physical life restored but in her eternal life with God in Heaven.

In addition to the many patients that come to Ankaase Hospital from far and near, Christ has touched the lives of the staff as well. Vera Duncan, our most senior ranking nurse, is a 45-year old, experienced nurse with five children. Jan Svoboda, a short-term missionary nurse, once lovingly referred to Vera as “Sergeant Vera.” You can imagine that Vera was a tough nurse that could bark out orders and keep patients in line. That was just her way. In October 2003, just before she was due for a promotion, we received a call while we were in the United States for my father-in-law’s funeral telling us that Vera had suffered a stroke while exercising. For many weeks she could not walk or talk and had to stay in the hospital. The doctors taking care of her did not think she would do well. In fact, from my experience stroke patients in Ghana generally do worse than those in the United States.

With much time and through the prayers of so many people, God has transformed Vera’s life. She has been completely healed from her terrible stroke and can now walk and talk and even smile, although a little more slowly. She returned back to work in June 2004, though with a lighter schedule. Prior to coming back to the hospital, she arranged to have a Thanksgiving service at her local church to thank God for his blessing upon her life. It was a great celebration! The wonderful thing about this entire difficult experience is that Vera’s faith in God and His love for her has allowed a deep compassion and gentleness to flow through her to the patients she serves. Vera is a different woman now and God is using her as a testimony of His love and mercy to others. Before I left Ghana for a homeland assignment in July 2004, Vera came to tell me with glowing eyes of gratitude, that her promotion, which had been delayed because of her illness, would in fact be coming. God redeems that which is thought lost!

Transformation occurs at many levels and is most dramatic when seen in community. In May 2004 my family and I traveled to the Upper West Region of Ghana, the most uninhabited area of Ghana and a place where traditional animistic religion and Islam predominate. We had been invited to join our missionary friends and some Ghanaian pastors living there for a medical evangelism outreach to the Lobi people, an under-reached people group, close to the Burkina Faso border. Every year for the previous four years a team from our friends’ church in the US came over and planted a new church in different villages among the Lobis. We had always been invited to join but responsibilities as the only doctor at Ankaase Hospital took priority. This year God opened the door for us to go and we accepted the mission: To plant a church in the village of Djambosee.

For five days the team of three doctors, one nurse and several pastors, evangelists and counselors set up an outdoor clinic. We had chairs, benches, screens and tarps set up near a shady tree out in the middle of a sun drenched field just beyond the edge of the small village. We saw 647 patients with all kinds of medical needs like malaria, back pain and arthritis from hard farming work done by hand, gastritis, abdominal parasites, dysentery, eye diseases, and skin diseases. We even saw some people with tuberculosis, leprosy, and onchocerciasis or river blindness.

Out of all the persons seen, 441 prayed to receive Jesus as their personal Savior, twenty had a miraculously healing where God touched them and alleviated their affliction during that encounter, and ten were delivered from spiritual oppression. Prior to that event, many of these people had never heard the name of Jesus Christ. Can you imagine that? In the afternoons the team had a time of ministering to the children of Djambosee by sharing Bible stories, songs and games and introducing them to the Lord. During the children's ministry another 230 adults and children received salvation. As one of our co-workers put it, “It was so exciting to see God move upon these people, how their hearts and lives were transformed, and how easily they received Jesus with a very simple faith.”

Initially the Chief of Djambosee was a little concerned about the team coming. Although he agreed to the medical clinic for his people’s benefit, he was not sure about the team or our motives. The first day he came to the clinic himself to check us out and to receive treatment for his medical problems. After hearing the gospel message, he gave his heart to Jesus and prayed a prayer of repentance. He was so happy that the next day he sent his four sons to the clinic where they were treated and also accepted Jesus as their personal Savior. Because he was so pleased with what was happening through the medical clinic, he presented the team with a thank you gift of a ram and a large tub of rice. The food was then cooked and given to the people of Djambosee as a celebration of God's goodness in their lives.

The following Sunday the church started with their new Lobi pastor, Pastor Charles, who had been preparing and training the year prior to lead this new congregation of believers. The church began with about 30 people and then grew to 60 the following week. Where there once was no church body, there is now a growing group of newly, transformed Lobi Christians meeting outside under a big tree. When we return to the Upper West Region of Ghana again in May 2005 to help start a new church in another area, we expect to see Jesus Christ move again and add to the number of Lobis entering the kingdom of God!


The Gongwers
Cam and his wife and daughter, Anne and Caylor, have lived in Ankaase, Ghana since 1998. Cam serves as the Medical Superintendent for the Ankaase Methodist Faith Healing Hospital. His wife, Anne, developed and leads a literacy program throughout the region.