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ON CALL (Dave & Becki Thompson are medical missionaries serving with the Christian & Missionary Alliance at the Bongolo Hospital, Gabon. They are on furlough near Redding, California until July, 2005) January 12, 2005 Dear Friends, Our year of furlough is galloping away. It’s hard to believe that in another six months we will be back in Gabon and working hard at the Bongolo Hospital. HOSPITAL NEWS Dr. Charles “Eddie” Hyre continues to do an outstanding job at the hospital, taking my place as the chief surgeon and Program Director for the surgical training program. Our three residents have all advanced in knowledge, skill, and spiritual maturity under his leadership, and Dr. Hyre and his wife have made steady progress in learning French while working full-time. Please pray for the Hyres and their two children, as they seek God’s will for the future. Dr. Albert Makangila, the Congolese doctor who was five months late arriving to begin his first year of surgical training at Bongolo, unexpectedly announced last month that he had taken a job with MEDAIR, a Swiss-based relief agency. Dr. Jean Yaradouno, a young Christian doctor from the Alliance Church in Guinea, West Africa, who was next on the waiting list, has been invited to take his place, beginning in February or March. Pray that he will be able to obtain a long-term visa to Gabon without delay. Our current missionary team in Bongolo is down to just five: Dr. Deborah Walker, our pediatrician and the current Medical Director, Dr. & Mrs. Charles Hyre, Terry Hotalen, and Carolyn Thorson. Karen Fitch, the hospital’s Nursing Supervisor, returned to the U.S. in December for a six month furlough. Carolyn Thorson, who just completed a six month furlough here at home returned to Gabon at the same time. Carolyn will have to carry heavy responsibilities until we get back in June, the most urgent of which will be to catch up on six months of hospital bookkeeping. Pray that God will give her wisdom, stamina, and good health. Since August, Dr. Walker and Dr. Hyre have been the only two staff physicians for the hospital. Dr. Karen Stel, a Family Practice physician from Canada who left Bongolo six months ago after serving for a year, has volunteered to return at the end of January and take over caring for the adult medical patients, including many with AIDS. Pray that the hospital employees will continue to grow in spiritual wisdom and maturity and that the hospital’s income will be more than enough to pay their salaries and other expenses.
FAMILY NEWS, IN BRIEF The days in December when Rachael and Becki’s mother Mrs. Mitchell were here with us were too short. In spite of that, we squeezed every minute dry and had more fun, laughs, stories, and serious talks than was probably reasonable. Rachael flew out of San Francisco to Cambodia on December 30, a day after her grandmother flew back to Greensboro, N.C. The anticipation of our next family time together helped dry our tears as we hugged her goodbye. Since returning, Rachael has written that she has been very busy helping a visiting team from Albany do an “English camp” with Cambodian students wanting to learn English. She seems to be in great spirits. Pray that the team will have many opportunities to share Christ with the students. Joshua continues to work with Dale Construction Company to pay the bills. Jeremy did too, up until two weeks ago when he was laid off. He has applied for several jobs but is still unemployed. This week he started night school at Simpson University to complete his degree in elementary education. Please pray that he will find a job that will allow him to support his family and also attend night school. Our two new grandsons, Nathan (the elder, at 10 weeks), and Isaac (the younger, at 6 weeks) are waking up to the world and to their loving parents and grandparents. What fun to see their little eyes lock onto our faces and gape in astonishment at us! Nathan has just begun to laugh and giggle. It’s going to be tough to head off on our next speaking tour and miss the new milestones in their little lives.
SPEAKING ENGAGEMENTS In case you wanted to know, here’s where we’ll be speaking during the next six months. Although we’d like to accept more invitations to speak, we both feel that we need to leave some time for our family and to prepare for our return to Gabon in July.
- January 14-16: Dave, at Sandy Cove Retreat Center, Maryland, for a spiritual retreat for medical students; - January 22-28: both of us, at Ellensburg Alliance Church in Ellensburg, Washington, for their missions conference - January 29-February 6: both of us, at the Langley C&MA Church in Langley, Washington, for their missions conference; - Februay 7-9: Dave, at Simpson University, for missions emphasis week - February 10-13: Dave, at the San Francisco Chinese and Peninsula Chinese Alliance Churches, for their missions conferences; - February 7-13: Becki at the San Francisco Chinese and Peninsula Chinese Alliance Churches, for their missions conferences; - February 14-20: both of us, at Brentwood Neighborhood Church, Brentwood, California, for their missions conference; - February 21-27: both of us, at Long Beach Alliance Church, Long Beach, California, for their missions conference; - February 28-March 6: both of us, at The Neighborhood Church and Trinity Alliance Churches in Redding, California, for their missions conferences; - March 7-13: both of us, at Paradise Alliance Church in Paradise, California, for their missions conference; - April 2-3: both of us? at The Neighborhood Church (C&MA), Castro Valley, California - April 9-10: Dave, at Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church, Coral Ridge, Florida - April 15-18: Dave, at Fairhaven Alliance Church, Fairhaven, Ohio, for their missions conference; - April 24: both of us? at Butte Bible Church, Chico, California - May 5: Dave, at Mercy Hospital, for Surgical Grand Rounds - May 21-20: both of us, to the Annual C&MA Council and pre-Council, Cincinnati, OH - June 7-9: Dave, to the Christian Medical & Dental Associations Annual Conference, Denver, Colorado, as a speaker; - June 10-12: both of us, at The Grove Church (C&MA), Riverside, California - July: both of us, for our return to Gabon!
PRAYER REQUESTS & THANKS TO GOD - For God to provide $50,000 for a new Pharmacy/AIDS Outpatient Clinic at the Bongolo Hospital. Our current facilities are very cramped and inadequate for the rising tide of AIDS patients; - For $15,000 for airplane insurance (some funds have come in, but not nearly enough); this is the only remaining obstacle to beginning regular air service between Libreville and Bongolo; - For God to provide the funds needed to complete the wards for the newly built eye clinic and surgery suite; - Pray that God will call two Christian Gabonese or African doctors to serve long-term at Bongolo; - Praise our God for $24,600 received to support Dr. Jean Yaradono during his four years of surgical training at Bongolo! Dr. Yaradono is from the C&MA Church in Guinea, and will be starting his training in February or March of this year.
During 2004, God enabled us TOGETHER—that includes all of you who supported us and prayed for us--to overcome mountains of obstacles and accomplish seemingly impossible tasks. Just for starters, He used us to help more than 20,000 sick Gabonese and to lead more than 1800 of them to faith in Jesus Christ. With His help, we trained, discipled and graduated 12 new nurses, trained and discipled four African surgery residents, and graduated one who will become the first African surgeon at a new Christian hospital now being built by the SIM mission and Samaritan’s Purse in Lubango, Angola. Thank you for working as part of our team, and may God be greatly admired and his power acclaimed because of it! May He help us to do even more together in this new year, and with His leading as we proclaim Jesus to the nations, may we significantly speed the day of His return! Until Jesus Comes, Dave & Becki Thompson |