Stories from the Field

The following is a story about a family who has joined our community this year but they were a family that benefited from the ministry of BFA and are now continuing to benefit and be a part of the community and ministry here. I have the privilege of being a teacher to their daughter, Phebe, who is in our middle school.

The Van Dingenen Family

What did you want to be when you grew up? An astronaut? A nurse? A fireman? And in your little mind there were no obstacles to that of course!

When Jacob was little he dreamed of being a doctor – a cardiologist in fact. However, he lived in a small village in Burkina Faso, and his village didn’t even have a school.

Jacob’s father was an evangelist and Jacob knew that God could make a way, even when there seemed to be no way. His parents sent him to a village far away to go to school. He worked hard and excelled. But Burkina Faso is a poor country and there are not enough teachers. Just before he was due to finish high school he was told that he had not been taught enough science in order to go on to higher education. The only way he could pursue his dream of a career in medicine was to move to the capital city and fit three years of study into just one. He did exactly that. He then graduated with his Doctorate in Medicine in 2007, and after further studies graduated as a cardiologist in 2015.

Jacob established mobile clinics in local elementary schools within a year of becoming a doctor, and dreamed of opening a hospital. In 2009 he and a Belgian colleague and friend, Dr Peter Van Dingenen, began working together to bring the dream of the hospital to fruition. The first unit of the Paam Laafi Hospital opened in January 2014. The team at the hospital consists of hired staff and volunteers, and has a range of specialists available to provide medical care to the community, including the poorest, in Jesus’ name.

Peter and Ineke Van Dingenen have been working as missionaries with Tearfund Belgium in Burkina Faso, and like Jacob’s family, they had to send their second daughter far away for her education – she boarded at Black Forest Academy from 2013-2015, which enabled her parents to continue their work in Burkina Faso. In 2016 they have come to Germany for their two youngest daughters to attend Black Forest Academy. Ineke is working in the school front office, while Peter undertakes further medical training, with the aim of returning to Burkina Faso after the girls have graduated. They are itching to return and continue the work in Burkina Faso, and are thankful for Jacob and his wife Natacha, and for Jacob’s absolute determination to become a cardiologist when he grew up.