What would it be like to walk or be carried 10 hours to the nearest health station to get treatment?

This is normal for the 50,000 Me’en and 266,000 Bench people living to the south and north of Tikempt Ishet. They are mostly animistic people who live in fear of evil spirits, which they believe can inhabit rivers, rocks, trees and people.

The Tikempt Ishet Health Programme was launched in October 1991. The overall goal of the project is to share the love of Jesus, while improving the health of people in the area.

The aim is to reduce morbidity and mortality rates through sustainable curative health service at the clinic, and community-based preventive health work.

Prevalent diseases and health problems in the area include diarrhoea, acute respiratory infections, tuberculosis, leprosy, skin infections, and malnutrition.

Women receive antenatal examinations and help with labour and delivery. There is treatment for common diseases, and minor surgery is also available.

The clinic consists of a cement floor, tin roof and brick walls. There is an examination room, a treatment room, a medicine room, a small laboratory and two labour and delivery rooms.

The needs--physical and spiritual

Most people who come for help are treated as out-patients, though occasionally a patient may be given a bed in the clinic. Facilities for premature infants are very limited, and anyone who needs intensive care must be transported to the hospital.

But, despite its limitations, the clinic is vital to the Me’en and Bench peoples who live in the area, and has spared them a great deal of suffering.

If the clinic is to be even more effective, it needs to be better equipped with all of the necessary health facilities and well-trained health workers. Over the next 2 years, it is hoped that the clinic can be improved and expanded, so that it can eventually be accepted as an official government health post.

The spiritual need is also huge. Those involved in evangelism have seen mass conversions to Christ. And the translation of the Me’en Bible is in progress.

Yet there is a great need among the people for teaching and discipling. Due to this lack, some new believers have started going back to their old ways.

Here is what Caroline Adolphe, an SIM nurse working in TI, wrote: 'Tameru, a boy in his teens from Tikempt Ishet, was in great pain when his family carried him to the clinic. He had a high fever; his right hip was swollen and he was unable to walk. Lisa and I started him on treatment and told him to return a week later.

'But we saw no sign of Tameru the following week or in the weeks to come. We all assumed he had died. A month and half later, Tadesse, one of our health assistants, found Tameru while going hut to hut, giving polio vaccines.

'His family, thinking there was no hope of recovery for him, kept him at home. Tadesse managed to convince them to bring him back to the clinic. After examining him, we started him on a bone tuberculosis treatment.

'It was a big commitment for the family; they had to carry him to the clinic daily for 2 months and weekly for 6 months. They also had to feed him nutritious food and exercise his legs.

'Progress was slow, but soon Tadesse started to sit, stand, and walk with crutches. It was a miracle for all who saw it. No one believed he would ever walk again.

'Tameru plans to return to school next month. Pray for his salvation.'

The health post is a good place to teach the Bible, because many non-believers come for health-care. Some follow-up and training does take place; our two missionaries are involved in discipling church leaders so that they can then disciple others.

But there is much more that could be done if the people and resources were available.