When a young couple showed up at our house one Sunday night, I did not recognize them at first. They introduced themselves as Moses and Sarah, one of the couples who had gotten married here on our compound at the big wedding in April 2025 (see Adventist Frontiers August 2025).

Holding a bundle in her arms, Sarah pulled back the cloth a little, revealing a beautiful newborn baby. She had given birth on Thursday night at a little village clinic over in Togo. The delivery went without a hitch. But a few hours later, the baby started having respiratory problems. Indeed, when Sarah pulled the cloth back further, I could see the baby laboring to breathe, its little chest rising and falling rapidly.

The nurses at that small clinic then sent them to a bigger hospital in a nearby town. There, the baby received treatment, but without improvement. By Sunday afternoon, Moses was out of money. So he checked out of the hospital, loaded his family onto his motorcycle and drove them over the border to Boukombé.

There he went to the church elder’s house, but only the wife was home. Moses tried to call him, but without success. He called the church elder from Koutié, the church Sarah is originally from, but also to no avail. They finally wrapped up baby Abigail and drove 50 km (31 miles) through the dusk to our house in Natitingou.

Toussaint immediately took them to the Catholic hospital in our neighborhood to see if they would be admitted. They did the best they could, giving baby Abigail some oxygen, then the doctor sent them to the government hospital in town, since it has a neonatal ward. Toussaint dropped them off, gave them some money to start treatment and came back for the night. Baby Abigail was again put on oxygen, and Moses and Sarah were finally able to get some rest and food after a day-long odyssey.

Overnight, the church elder from Boukombé learned of the family’s plight from his wife and posted a request on the district WhatsApp group to raise funds to ensure that Abigail received ongoing treatment. Since Moses and Sarah had refused to perform the traditional animistic ceremonies required for a newborn baby, they could not expect any help from their families and even received threats that they would be held accountable if the baby did not survive.

Over the next couple of days, money from several churches came in to pay the hospital bills. By Wednesday night, baby Abigail was well and discharged from the hospital.

The next morning, the little family came by to thank us and say goodbye before heading home to their village. The following Sabbath, they dedicated Abigail to God in a ceremony at the Boukombé church.

Benin is one of the poorest countries in the world. Lack of money quickly becomes a question of life and death. But praise the Lord, our church stands in solidarity, just as the New Testament church did, thus being a testimony to the people around them.

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