The Regional Hospital Complex in the city of Bourake severs the entire central region of the Ivory Coast in West Africa. Some patients come to the hospital with no money or family to care them. Working out of a nearby chapel and a small storeroom for donated medicine, the St. Camille Association steps in to care for these patients. Gregory is the head of this small team of volunteers.
Gregory: “Koffi is one of the people we have helped. In the village where he lived they told us he was only given food every other day. And to refresh his tongue, his mother put a bit of water in a glass, and moistened his tongue with a spoonful. Yeah, it was a way of letting him die by inches, as it were.”
Koffi had been bound hand and foot and left to die by his people, because he'd lost his mind. When Gregory found out about it, he went to Koffi's village to get him. Tabsoba roamed the streets with a necklace and rings that cut into his limbs. Ali left prison with a foot that was rotting. The epileptic Kouassi was abandoned in a cowardly way by his mother. Kadi came out of curiosity, and has fallen in love with the patients. The same goes for Jean-Baptist and Parfait. Ahou, Christine, and Dominique are among those whose lives were also saved and who have decided, in turn, join the St. Camille team of volunteers and devote all their time to the sick.
Christine: “I was on the second floor. If it hadn't been for the association, I wasn't going to live. I was really about to die.”
Dominique: “They X-rayed both my lungs, and there were spots. I was put into hospital here. I was here one month. The St. Camille Association took care of me. I suffered so much, so that, when I now go visit the sick, if they tell me, 'I'm going to die,' I say, 'No, because, compared to what I went through, what you have is insignificant, so you aren't going to die.'”
Nicole: ” In the hospital they discovered I had a septic embolus to the left lower lobe of the lung.”
Nicole's heart and lungs were infected. The volunteers at the association and prayer groups in the area began praying for her as the doctors performed emergency surgery. When they opened her up they discovered there was nothing there.
Gregory: “It was a surprise for all the cardiology professors, because the girl had been healed like that. And because so many parishes talked about the girl, she had been prayed for in all the prayer meetings. When she was healed, all those people wanted to meet her. That resulted in many people of good will coming to the aid of the Association.”
Since that time, the St. Camille staff more fervently entrusts their work to God every day. And He has blessed them with more benefactors.
Gregory: “One day I had gone to the priest. We had to pay a bill for medicine of more than 4,000 francs. The priest said to me, 'Oh, Gregory, if you take that much, there won't be a cent left.' I said, “Listen Father, what we're doing isn't for ourselves. [God] Himself will find us the funds. If there's no more, we'll have to stop. We won't be able to continue our work.' That evening, I went to the post office, and what did I find but a money order for 10,000 francs. So, I brought that to the priest, who was very surprised. He said, 'Where did you get that?' I said to him, '[God] always helps us.'
“For me, today, the poor are my life. That is to say: they are my very riches. When people say, 'Gregory is the richest,' that's the wealth they're talking about. Oh yes, I am the richest of all. For every member of the Association, especially the permanent members, our true wealth is the poor. The true wealth of the church is the poor that God has bequeathed us.”
The St. Camille Association serves about 1,000 of these poor people each year.
Gregory
“It was a surprise … the girl had been healed like that.”
Gregory
“It was a surprise for all the cardiology professors, because the girl had been healed like that. And because so many parishes talked about the girl, she had been prayed for in all the prayer meetings. When she was healed, all those people wanted to meet her.”
Gregory
“Yeah, it was a way of letting him die by inches, as it were.”
Gregory
“Koffi is one of the people we have helped. In the village where he lived they told us he was only given food every other day. And to refresh his tongue, his mother put a bit of water in a glass, and moistened his tongue with a spoonful. Yeah, it was a way of letting him die by inches, as it were.”
