Tom and Suja Brane and their children joined the CMF team in Burkina Faso in February 2013, and serve in Community Health Evangelism, Bible storying and medical ministry. This is Suja’s story of helping a dear friend and fellow worker open his mouth for the first time in 20 years.

MEET SAMBO . . .

For some time, I have wanted to introduce all of you to probably our favorite Burkinabé person we know. His name is Sambo Ouedraego. He is Tom’s right hand man here as he spends hours each week with Tom working on various projects ranging from raising rabbits/ducks/chickens to making kettle corn to gardening projects. Tom had the privilege to lead him to a relationship with Christ last year and working on these projects together allows Tom to have the ability to disciple and challenge him to grow and mature in his faith. He is a man of great integrity and character and grasps what it means to consider others better than himself. If you meet him though, you will wonder how in the world he ever managed to survive to the age of 26. He is 5 foot 8 inches and weighs only 97 lbs.

Around the age of 2, Sambo had some form of an infection in his mouth that his parents did not have the means to adequately treat. From what we can piece together, the infection went into his jaw bone causing an osteomylelitis (an infection inside the bone itself that is incredibly difficult to treat). This caused his temporal-mandibular joint (TMJ/ jaw joint) to fuse shut in such a way that he has not been able to open his mouth since a very young age. He has a tiny 2 mm gap in the front between his top and bottom teeth through which he literally forces food into his mouth. As you can imagine, one’s selection of food in Burkina and the quantity of food that one can squeeze through a 2 mm opening is very small and of very limited nutritional value (made even more difficult when he has no electricity at home to power a blender to puree his food). As a result, he has lived a significant portion of his life hungry.

A little over a year and a half ago, Sambo approached us and asked if we could do anything to help him be able to open his mouth. I looked at him with great love and compassion and explained to him that yes, there are these amazingly gifted and well trained surgeons called oral & maxillofacial surgeons who could surgically repair his jaw allowing him to eat and talk without difficulty. Only problem was that they were half a world away. How can we get Sambo to the US? Oh, the logistics and the cost! Well, can we get a surgeon to come to West Africa? Keep dreaming Suja. That will never happen!

After explaining to Sambo the enormity of the obstacles between him and getting the surgery that he needed, I reminded him that he serves a God who moves mountains, who does the impossible. So I encouraged Sambo to begin praying for God to remove the mountains between him and this needed surgery.

Through some research, I learned that 3 different oral and maxillofacial surgeons would visit different parts of Africa via the Mercy Ship to perform surgeries (mind you, Africa is an enormous continent). However, there was this one particular surgeon, Dr. Tim Bartholemeow, who from time to time would visit a mission hospital in Koutiala, Mali (folks, that is just 4 hours away from where we live!). Crazy. But I also heard, that it was a bit challenging to get a patient scheduled with this surgeon. So I told Sambo to being praying that God would somehow allow me to have the opportunity to share his case with Dr. Bartholemeow and not just that but that he would have an upcoming scheduled trip to Mali and accept Sambo as a surgical case. So we began praying.

Spring of 2014, I was attending a medical missions conference in Greece when this young 24 year old looking man I had never seen before approached me and said, “I heard that you were looking for me.” I looked at him and thought, “Kid, I do not know who you think you are but I am not looking for you.” Good thing I only thought this and did not say anything. He introduced himself and said, “I am Tim.” I stood there just amazed, speechless. Here I was in Greece at a medical missions conference with over 500 people, and there in front of me stood an answer to countless prayers.

Next Tuesday, May 12, our family will drive Sambo to the Christian Missionary Alliance Hospital in Koutiala, Mali where Dr. Tim Bartholemeow will unfuse/break Sambo’s right TMJ. (His surgery is scheduled for May 13) We will then slowly begin down the road of rehabilitation to millimeter by millimeter force open Sambo’s mouth and reteach his mouth how to chew, speak, and do all the other little things our mouths do that you and I take for granted.

Though I know and believe that God can do anything, I sit here typing this absolutely speechless at all that God is doing. If you knew all the details, all the logsitics, all the work and effort, all the PRAYER that has gone into making this possible over the past year and a half, it will boggle your mind that it is actually happening. I am truly humbled to be a very small part of this journey where God is yet again showing his son, Sambo, the depth of his love and compassionate care for him in that indeed He is willing to move mountains on Sambo’s behalf.

Despite the challenges and frustrations of living and working in Africa, it is moments like this when we are reminded of the depth of the privilege it is to be invited by God to participate in what He is doing here. Thank you for being a part of this journey with us and for your prayers for Sambo.