God's Needle

In 1957 freshly qualified nurse and WEC missionary Lily Gaynor set sail for Guinea-Bissau, to live among the Papel tribe. Tuberculosis, malaria, and typhoid were rife. Children were grossly malnourished; witch doctors flourished. Lily set up a clinic under the mango trees, administering penicillin (‘God’s needle’). Medical care didn’t stop there: pigs, cows, rabbits and hens all passed through Lily’s hands. Many villagers suffered agonizing toothache: Lily learned emergency dentistry. The book is filled with one arresting medical story after another. In the afternoons she learned Papel. In the evenings she invented an alphabet, and finally translated the entire New Testament, now published with Wycliffe Bible Translators. She faced considerable opposition. Witchdoctors cursed; new converts were threatened with death; senior colleagues opposed her medical efforts. Yet today Guinea-Bissau has one of the biggest national churches in West Africa.