ON CALL

(Dave & Becki Thompson are medical missionaries serving with The Alliance at the Bongolo Hospital in Gabon, central Africa)

April 16, 2006

Dear Friends,

THE MANDJI-DIBWANGUI CHURCH PLANT

Happy Easter! The temperature here is only 90 F, but the air is so heavy the insects can almost walk on it! Nevertheless, we had a wonderful Easter service at the villages of Mandji-Dibwangui this morning, 30 kilometers from Bongolo.

The rickety, borrowed hangar we meet in was decorated with palm and banana branches, paper chains, and a lone light bulb wired from the neighboring house. We later learned that the group of believers had celebrated with singing, testimonies and prayer on Easter Eve until midnight.

Fortunately, we brought chairs for ourselves. More than 100 people squeezed into the small hangar, sitting on boards placed on mud bricks or an odd assortment of chairs and benches brought from their homes. Dr. Wayne Spronk from the hospital and his family joined us, along with visitors Al Cockrell and Richard.

At least 30 of the adults attending have now made public confessions of faith in Christ. Two weeks ago when Dave challenged those who wanted to follow Jesus to say so publicly, ten stood up and stated, in their own words, that they would follow Jesus whole-heartedly until death. We could not keep tears from filling our eyes. Their joy was evident today, as they sang and sometimes danced. A group of eight women sang a delightful song that made the children clap their hands and all of us laugh demonstrating how surprised we will be when we awake one day in new, resurrected bodies!

A MAN OF SORROWS

Our hearts have been heavy all week with the news that "BJ," a converted Muslim, a man of great faith, and a dear friend needed to return to his country because his wife was dying. He and his wife found Christ five years ago in northern Gabon after watching the Jesus film and attending a newly-established Alliance church in a major city. A Christian friend from his home country had witnessed to him for seven, long years. Following his conversion, his friends and neighbors burned his house down with all his belongings and threatened him with death if he returned home and did not recant. On another occasion, he turned down five wealthy merchants who offered him the keys to a brand-new Toyota van if he would recant.

BJ applied for training at our nursing school and moved to Bongolo with his wife and son. During his training he returned home to visit his family. The night he arrived home, on the orders of the village elders his widowed mother poisoned him. When he did not die or even become ill, she tearfully confessed to her son and gave her heart to Christ.

While he was in nursing school his older brother, a soldier, died in combat. When he returned home to help with the funeral he was accused of causing his brother's death, struck in face, and miraculously delivered from being killed or imprisoned.

After returning to Bongolo, he and his wife felt God calling them to serve as missionaries to a predominantly Muslim country in West Africa. Several months later his wife fell ill with a chronic disease that she apparently contracted years earlier, before becoming a Christian. The couple returned to her family's home after she nearly died and spent a month in the hospital. At her insistence and because he needed to provide for his family, he returned to Bongolo to complete his training in anesthesia and surgery.

Since BJ crossed the border earlier this week to his own country to see his dying wife we have not heard from him. His wife has suffered so terribly from her disease that we have joined with him asking God to either take her home quickly or heal her. She, her sister and her mother all came to faith in Christ because of BJ, and are the only Christians in an extended family of over 50 Muslims. They are bitterly opposed to B and have already told him that when his wife dies, they will take charge of the couple's two sons.

Would you pray with us for BJ? The week before he left Bongolo for home he had a dream that left him shaking. A beautiful being of light appeared to him, took him by the hand, and said to him, "you are to carry out the task I have called you to do." With gifts some of you have sent for our work, Becki and I gave him what he will need in order to travel home, bury his wife if she dies, and return to Bongolo to complete his training. Thank you for making it possible for us to help this man of sorrows and future missionary.

FOLLOW-UP TO "WHAT IF LIES...WON?"

Last week the hospital was obliged to take $800 out of income paid by patients for their medications and care and give it to seven men the hospital bought gravel from over the past year for several construction projects. The County Commissioner believed their accusations that un-named employees from the hospital demanded and received kickbacks from them. Their secondary goal had been to get rid of Henri, the hospital's chief of maintenance and only skilled technician. Although they named him as the culprit in the kickbacks, in a five-hour public meeting chaired by the Commissioner they admitted that he had never asked them for money and they had never paid him anything. Instead they had paid the kickbacks to "other hospital employees on his orders!" The "other hospital employees" included one of their close friends who has openly threatened his boss, Henri, after getting caught selling hospital fuel.

In an early morning meeting on April 10 at the chief's house in Bongolo, the Administrative Director and Dave told the men that the hospital was paying them the money the County Commissioner ruled should be paid, but under protest. They would count on God to someday set the record straight. They also told the men that the hospital would no longer be purchasing gravel from them.

This is how Satan tries to stop God's work and discourage us. Would you pray for these men? We had to meet early in the morning because by evening most of them are either high on marijuana or alcohol. God loves them and wants them to come to repentance, and so do we. Pray also that God will deal with the employee who has caused these problems. For reasons too complicated to explain, we cannot yet fire him.

VISITING DOCTORS FROM THE DRC

Within the next four weeks we anticipate a 10-day visit to our hospital from two Christian Congolese doctors who are interested in possibly serving at Bongolo Hospital. They are friends of Dr. Yali Bin Ramazani, our first year surgery resident from Kinshasa. One is interested in training in eye surgery and the other is working in an HIV/AIDS clinic in Kinshasa. We are using gifts for our work to pay their travel expenses. Would you pray that God will help them obtain visas to Gabon and will show us if it is his plan for them to join our staff? God will have to work some miracles to provide for their support.

Until Jesus Comes

Dave and Becki Thompson