Maria on the other corner
“A little further to the left Tabitha!” Dr. Soh shouts. It is 2013, we are on the empty site that he has just bought for the construction of the hospital. We (Maria, Tabitha, Simon and Jan and Dr. Soh) are each on a corner of the empty plot so that we can see the size. Then we follow Dr. Soh through the yellow grass while he’s explaining: “this will be the entrance, with on the left a first aid room, on the left the corridor to the women’s wing, on the right the men’s ward, here the lab, there a private room and here my office.” Everything is already in his head, and we start to see the hospital in our minds.
2015 visit
We visited Dr. Soh at least once a year and followed the progress of the construction. We were primarily there for relational support; standing side by side in his pioneering work in the lonely North. But we helped where we could; Tabitha occasionally helped with campaigns and regularly took local colleagues with her. Dr. Soh was a source of inspiration for many in reaching out to his own people with the gospel. We also helped through offerings in the church in Dakar, with financial support to buy the hospital equipment, and by facilitating the construction of solar energy. When the latter was successful in the spring of 2019, the medical work was transferred from a rented location to the new building. It was a busy period with many patients because of the rainy season, when Dr. Soh suddenly died.
At the burial grounds
In Northern Senegal, the areas called the Dioloff and the Fouta, there are very few Christians. Dr. Soh had gone from Libya, where he studied, back to his birthplace to show the love of Jesus through good medical care. He handed out so many bibles and tracts that he suspected that there was something hidden in every house in Dahra. He had found life in Jesus Christ himself, and his great passion was that his people would discover that same life.
Prayer after the funeral in the hospital
2016 visit
2016 visit
Dr. Soh on one corner
Dr. Soh 2013
The hospital Plan pinned to the wall of the old clinic in 2013
