Relating to medical patients:
Doctor provides spiritual needs
 

Halemoi didn’t have to see the Mende woman to know she’d waited too long to seek treatment; he’d picked up the scent of her affliction amid the medley of aromas suspended in the hot, humid afternoon air. The woman, an albino, had walked 25 miles to seek treatment for her skin cancer at the hospital in Mattru Jong. 

Halemoi—which means medicine man—is what the Mende people of Sierra Leone fondly call Dr. Ron Baker, a 1968 graduate of Huntington University. When the woman’s turn came along the seemingly endless queue of people needing attention, Baker could treat her and comfort her, but no level of medical expertise would save her from death. 

The next day, Baker, then 40, set out on his usual early morning run. He hadn’t gone far when he encountered the albino woman beginning the long return trek to her village. Baker ran right past her, but then he sensed God wanted him to go back and talk with her. He asked the woman if she knew what would happen to her after she died, and he told her how she could live forever. Baker and the woman prayed together as they walked, and it was during their brief time together that she took the Lord into her heart. 

Baker is in essence a native son of Sierra Leone. He grew up in the western African nation while his parents served with the United Brethren mission there. "It was a great place to grow up," says Baker. "It’s a very poor country, but the people are friendly and very generous, even though they don’t have much. We didn’t have much either." 

Out of necessity—and desire—Baker became an avid hunter; monkeys and indigenous fowl are a good source of meat in the impoverished nation. Even more than hunting, however, Baker enjoyed skin diving and spearing the catch of the day. 

"It was very primitive when I was a child," Baker says. "The village we lived in was 25 miles from the nearest road. We had to use bush trails or the river to get anywhere." 

As a teenager, Baker enrolled at Huntington University. He founded the college soccer team, played on the tennis squad, and was involved in several other extracurricular activities. "My Huntington experience helped me to grow spiritually and to relate well to others," he says. 

Baker had always intended to return to Sierra Leone, but as an educator. During his junior year, he switched to the pre-med track. "I thought God was leading me in that direction," he says. After completing medical school at Indiana University and a residency, Baker and his bride, Jane (Griffin), returned to the medical mission in Sierra Leone. In a single year, the Mattru Jong hospital treated 35,000 outpatients and 3,500 inpatients, and performed more than 650 major surgeries. 

"It was a challenge, it was fun, and it was very gratifying," Baker says. "The people are so appreciative. I’ve never been more fulfilled as a doctor than when I was there.

" Baker is currently with Southwestern Medical Clinic, a Christian, multi-specialty practice based in Berrien County, Michigan. 

Baker’s heart still beats to an African rhythm, and he’s returned to Sierra Leone for brief visits during the last decade. He says there’s still much work to do. About 10 percent of Sierra Leoneans are Christians, while 60 percent are Muslims, and 30 percent subscribe to indigenous faiths, including Animism. 

"Just about everyone there believes in a god, but it’s a distorted view as they don’t believe in the God of the Bible," Baker says. "Anywhere you go in the world, you’ll find people with spiritual needs. Here in the states, we also try to help people with their spiritual problems. Sometimes we have to say, ‘We can’t cure you, but we’ll always care for you. They really appreciate that."

 While a medical degree can be a ticket to substantial material gain, Baker has chosen a different path both at home and abroad, favoring his mission over money. "It’s very gratifying to be helping people and doing what the Lord gifted me to do. I feel tremendously blessed to be a very small part of God's work," he says.