Medical Care,

Bible Teachings

-- And A Boy

Named Martin --

Kept Them Busy

By NELSON MORAIS

Staff Writer

Dr. Mike Hartsell and the Rev. Jeannie Higgins spoke Friday of a "life-changing" Christian missions trip in March to bring medical and other assistance to residents of a small village in southern Sudan, in East Africa.

Dr. Hartsell, a private-practice family medicine physician in Greeneville since 1982, is a lay leader at Asbury United Methodist Church. His wife, Jean, is missions coordinator at the church.

Rev. Higgins is minister of discipleship at Asbury.

Dr. Hartsell said that prior to the East African missions trip March 10-22, he had only briefly been out of the U.S.: to Canada and to Juarez, Mexico, both in North America.

"To visit another continent -- it's absolutely a life-changing event," Dr. Hartsell said.

Team Of Clinicians

Dr. Hartsell said he was part of a six-member team of medical clinicians who treated more than 1,100 patients in four-and-one-half days in Sudan. He said one-third of those seen were children.

"I wish we could have seen a lot more patients than we did," Dr. Hartsell said Friday in a telephone interview.

Because the poor village lacks even basic infrastructure -- such as a telephone system, transportation, streets, street signs, trash retrieval or running water -- word-of-mouth information spread the news that doctors had arrived.

He said it was heartbreaking for him to learn after the trip ended that for several days after the team left Yei (pronounced "Yea") in Sudan, people kept showing up at the Yei United Methodist Church compound where the team had worked, thinking the physicians were still there and could treat them.

Dr. Hartsell said the major diseases he and the other clinicians treated were parasites (especially worms), malaria, malnutrition and "minor childhood infections," including coughs, colds and bronchitis.

"All of our mission activities were focused on (supporting) the Yei United Methodist Church and the community surrounding it," Dr. Hartsell said.

He said he and Rev. Higgins could only reach Yei by way of an airplane, which landed on a dirt runway outside the community.

Higgins Taught The Bible

In a separate interview, Rev. Higgins also emphasized that Yei has no infrastructure, including no water, except for one well built with money raised by Asbury Church here.

She said the well was locked when not in use in order to allow it time to fill again with water.

She said she spent her time during the trip teaching the Bible to pastors, teachers, headmasters of schools, and others, including widows who stay at the Yei UMC compound -- about 60-70 people in all.

Martin's Story

She said one boy in particular, named Martin, caught her attention because she noticed he wore the same clothes for several days. She said she asked others, "What's this little boy's story?"

Higgins said she found that Martin's father was fighting in Darfur, leaving the boy to live with his mother, who then had a nervous breakdown.

Martin was therefore left with his grandmother, "who probably was not able to (even) feed herself," Higgins said.

That left Martin "just kind of wandering around," like thousands of other homeless children who have lost their parents in Sudan's civil war, Higgins said.

Finally, she said, Martin's father gave permission for the boy to go to the Humble School orphanage in Mukono, Uganda, a neighboring country to the south, where he could be educated, "nurtured and loved."

Two others on the March mission team supplied the funds to send Martin to Humble School.

[Note: A benefit concert for the orphanage is scheduled for tonight at the Niswonger Performing Arts Center. Please see related article, this page.]

Higgins said Friday that Martin has "probably been there a month, going to school and being looked after."

She said "it only costs $100 a year to go to the primary school [at the Yei United Methodist Church compound] in Yei -- Martin's hometown -- but he would not have received the nurture and love he can get at Humble. This is a much better thing for Martin."

Higgins noted that Martin's situation was "very typical of the needs of children in Sudan."