On Call    April 20,2005

(Dave & Becki Thompson, currently on furlough in the U.S. until July, are medical missionaries serving at the Bongolo Hospital with the C&MA in Gabon, central Africa)

 Dear Friends,

 Hello from Redding, California!  For some of you, this is your first prayer letter from us, and we are happy to welcome you to our team.  Let us bring you up to date on what God has been doing in and through our ministries.

 BECAUSE YOU PRAYED!

            Only days after our appeal for prayer for Drs. Walker and Stel and Dr. Kakalo’s family to get their visas to stay in Gabon, all their visas were granted, although Dr. Stel and Walker will have to renew theirs in two months.  Dr. Kakalo’s wife and children also received their visas the same day and were able to return to Bongolo.  American visitors to Gabon are having no difficulty in getting 5 year, multiple entry visas, but for those of us who are living in the country, it can get complicated!  I’ll write about what happened to Dr. Yaradouno on the next page.

            There were plenty of volunteers in Syracuse to load the first container headed to Gabon on March 29.  God provided $10,000 to ship this first container all the way to the Bongolo Hospital, including port fees and trucking. By now it is well on its way. 

            There were enough left over supplies to fill another, smaller container, so we decided to order a second, 20 foot container to ship on April 30. God has provided $2500 of the $7,500 needed to ship this second container all the way to the hospital.

            We are grateful that two volunteers from France have offered to translate the packing lists for the two containers.  One is working on the list for the first container right now. 

            Dr. Keir and Joanna Thelander have successfully completed their written application to be missionary candidates with the C&MA.  They will probably have their final interview in May, during the C&MA’s annual Council in Cincinnati.  Dr. Thelander is a surgeon, and after raising their own support and spending six months studying French in France, the couple hopes to join our team in Bongolo next July.

BONGOLO NEWS

            Missionary doctor needed for 8 months: Three missionary doctors are currently serving at the Bongolo Hospital:  Dr. Deb Walker, a pediatrician, Dr. Eddie Hyre, a general surgeon who is replacing me (Dave) for the year; and Dr. Karen Stel, a Canadian Family Practice doctor.  In September, Dr. Stel will return to Canada, leaving us short staffed for adult patients with medical problems and for the increasing number of AIDS patients.  If you know of an internist or family practice doctor who speaks French and is willing to come between October 1 of this year and July 1, 2006, would you ask him or her to contact us?  I know it sounds impossible, but then it was Jesus who said, “With God, nothing is impossible!”

            Hospital phone system down again: We just learned that the hospital has been without a phone system for over five months.  The phone computer has been damaged by lightning or static electricity more than 10 times during the four years since it was installed.  We and experts that we have consulted have some fresh ideas about how to solve the problem, but to get the phones working again we need to replace about $750 worth of  circuit boards.  If you would like to take this on as a project, please contact us as soon as possible through Larry Toney.

NEW SURGERY RESIDENTS AND THE PAACS

            We were delighted to learn that on April 9 and at the last minute God intervened through a Christian immigration official to provide Dr. Jean (pronounced “Jon”) Yaradouno with a permanent visa to Gabon.  This is a remarkable answer to prayer, since in the past, refusal has meant deportation back to the home country at great expense and starting all over again.

            For those of you who haven’t been following this story, Dr. Yaradouno is a young Christian doctor from the C&MA church in Guinea who arrived in Libreville a month ago to begin training in surgery at our hospital.  He is replacing Dr. Baltazar, an Angolan surgeon who graduated from Bongolo last November and returned to Angola.  Dr. Eddie Hyre reports that Dr. Yaradouno is now very happy and working well at the hospital.

            We have also accepted Dr. Yali Bin Ramazani from the Democratic Republic of Congo to begin his training at Bongolo Hospital this August.  He will be taking the place of Dr. Hubert Kakalo, who will graduate in July and return to eastern Congo to serve with his church and the UFM mission.  Dr. Ramazani has expressed a willingness to serve at the Bongolo Hospital after graduating and is now applying for a visa so he can come to Gabon.  If you are interested in helping to support Dr. Ramazani during his training, please contact us through Larry Toney. 

OUR SCHEDULE FOR MAY, JUNE, JULY

- April 24, Sunday:  (Becki & I) Butte Bible Church, Chico, California

- April 25-27: (Dave) Rocky Mountain District Pastors’ Retreat, near Billings, Montana

- May 2-3: (Dave) ATLS Course, Loma Linda University, California

- May 5: (Dave) Mercy Hospital Grand Rounds

- May 5-6: (Becki) C&MA Benefits Board Meeting, Colorado Springs, Colorado

- May 7-19: Packing our crates for Gabon and TIME OFF!

- May 20-29: (Dave & Becki)  C&MA Pre-Council and Council, Cincinnati, Ohio

- June 7-9: (Dave) speaking at the Christian Medical & Dental Associations Annual Conference, Denver,  Colorado

- June 10-12: (Dave & Becki) The Grove C&MA Church, Riverside, California

- June 12: (Dave & Becki) Grace Chapel, San Diego, California

- June 15-20: (Dave, Joshua and Jeremy) Anchorage, Alaska (and points north)

- June 21-July 9: Packing up our house

- July 10: Departure for Gabon!

PRAYER REQUESTS

1)  Pray that the French translators will be able to complete their work on the container lists before the end of April so that we can send them on to Gabon.  Begin praying now that God will prepare the hearts of the Customs officials in Gabon to exonerate both containers from heavy and expensive duty charges.

2)  Pray that God will provide the additional $5000 needed to ship the second, smaller container to Gabon, pay the port charges, and truck it 350 miles inland to the hospital.  (If you would like to help with this project, please contact David & Anna Shipe at shipedl@yahoo.com.)

3)  Pray that a large shipment of donated equipment coming from Redding, California by JAARS trucking (a part of Wycliff) will make it to Syracuse before April 30.  A JAARS truck picked up the load on April 15, but the dispatcher told me yesterday that it will not arrive before the first week in May.  The owners of the warehouse that David & Anna Shipe are using for the loading, have asked the Shipes to have everything cleared out by April 30.  This is an urgent request for intercession!  We need a miracle!

4)  We continue to ask prayer for God to call two Gabonese doctors to join our staff at Bongolo.

5)  Pray that God will provide $7900 needed to support Dr. Ramazani and his family during his first year of  training, beginning in August.  God has already provided for Dr. Yaradouno’s support.  Contact us through Larry Toney if you want to help.

6)  Pray that God will help the team in Bongolo to get the telephone system up and running within the few weeks.  Communications between our nurses, doctors, lab and X-ray techs are difficult and limited.

7)  Pray that God will give Becki and I the strength and the anointing of the Holy Spirit for the rest of our speaking engagements, and that I (Dave) will pass my ATLS course on May 3.

May God’s Kingdom come soon!  And together may we be his faithful and obedient servants.

Until Jesus Comes,

Dave & Becki Thompson