We are finally back from the Zambia Medical Mission of 2007. It was great. We saw 15,000 people and had over 140 baptisms. Many new congreagations will be started from the contact made during the bible classes, preaching and counseling sessions. We treated some very ill patients this year and even took several of them to hospitals for more care. Of course we had to also provide the medicine they would need in those hospitals. Often the local hospitals here have very few medicines and supplies. As you know, we currently have a rural health center here at Namewianga. That is like an outpatient clinic in the states. Because our clinic is supported from the U.S. we usuallly have medicine and supplies for care. So we often get patients from outside our area. Many of the patients will come from long distances by foot in order to get this care and medicine.
If you remeber I mentioned I had to take a national nursing test for foreign trained nurses in June. Well, Praise God, I passed. So that was the last thing to finish before we could get our work permits. I appreciate all of your prayers. Now that the medical mission is completed, my task is to start organizing and prioritizing tasks to ready ourselves to become an inpatient hospital. Currently we are a mixture of government supported and mission supported facility. The government pays the salaries of the 4 nurses and one clinical officer and the pharmacy tech and the dentist. The mission pays for the support personel, the lab tech, teach the xray tech and of course, all of the medicine. The mission also pays the utilites. So there is a fine line to walk in trying to establish this clinic to become a hospital. A well run,well outfitted hospital is a desperate need here. We had a child of our lab tech die last week because of this lack of supplies at the hospital they had her in. People tell us they also come here because our staff treat them with dignity and kindness. We strive to be like Jesus. As I look at them each day, line up to be seen, I remeber the Word saying, Jesus had compassion on the crowds. They were like lost sheep without a shepherd. We start each clinic day with a short devotional for the staff and any patients already at the clinic. This helps keep us focused on whose we are and why we do this work. Please pray for the work here, the clinic, the hospital to be, the teachings of Jesus to all we meet. Don and I will return to the schedule of outreaches to the villages each weekend. This coming weekend we have a 3 day meeting of several congregations and we will be working with them. We will resume this thursday night our weekly bible study on spiritual formation. We had suspended it during the medical mission. Don continues to teach in the business office for the College and secondary schools. They have a new computer system for the financials. He has daily meetings to work through many areas of change for them. Harding Univerisity is doing a semeser abroad starting in Sept. Don will be assisting with the logistics and help problem solve. This will be their first time here and 24 students with teachers will arrive on Sept 3. This will be unlike any other semester abroad, since this is truly a 3rd world country. Many concerns that they would never see in Europe are here. So He will be busier. Please pray for all of these areas and our energy and focus.
In Him
Don and Laura