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ON CALL
(Dave & Becki Thompson are medical missionaries serving with The Alliance at the Bongolo Hospital in Gabon, central Africa) March 18, 2006 Dear Friends, CASES Four month-old Chancy is going home on Monday, after a week ago, we successfully placed a shunt in her swollen head for congenital hydrocephalus. Her head is still big, but getting smaller by the day, and she is no longer suffering. Chancy’s mother tried to get help at a children’s hospital in the capital city and was told to first pay $4,000. Instead, she bought a ticket for $80 on a 12-passenger taxi-bus to Lebamba and had the surgery done at our hospital for $225. During her stay she not only heard about Jesus but experienced his love. Last week she decided to follow the God who died for her sins. Four year-old Moise, dressed in his best clothes, went home yesterday in his mother’s arms, his lifeless body cold and stiff. Despite all our efforts, he died from sepsis just 24 hours after I (Dave) performed a six-hour operation for a serious congenital problem of the rectum and anus. It wasn’t supposed to turn out that way, and the memory of his happy smile just one day before left me shaken and doubting my judgement. If only I had done things differently, or had not tried at all. It was small comfort to say that he would have lived with his colostomy until he died of other complications. I could not think of a single useful word to say to his weeping parents. I should have gone to the bedside anyway, but chose instead to help a patient our nurse-anesthetist was having difficulty intubating in the operating room. Had it not been for Dr. Yali, our first-year Congolese resident, we would have failed the grieving couple completely. While they wept on the floor beside the bed, he quietly dressed the little boy in his nicest clothes and ordered one of our teary-eyed nurses to stay with the couple until a car was ready to take them home. Not all of our cases are triumphs, and not all of our days go well. Not by a long shot.
PROJECT NEWS We are thankful to God that the new hospital addition for making intravenous fluids, and an extension for a surgical library are nearly ready for painting, wiring, and plumbing. Thank you once again for funding these projects with your gifts. We don’t know yet if any gifts have been given for our Pharmacy/AIDS Treatment Clinic. Would you continue to pray for this project? We are hoping to open a new AIDS clinic to begin treating patients with anti-retroviral medications this Summer, with or without the new building. We will be the only center in the southern third of the country providing this service. Until then, we will have to watch many of our patients slowly waste away and die, including some of the children of our employees.
IMPORTANT VISITORS This month we had some wonderful visitors: Kara Pfenning, an MK whose parents served in Bongolo a number of years ago, is back as a fourth year medical student! Rachel Paragallo is another 4th year medical student, from Boston. Both girls are fluent in French and have been a blessing to our team. Last night, after they received the news of where they matched for residency training, our team celebrated at our house with a pizza and ice cream party. Dr. Dan Shook, a radiologist who comes every year for 3-4 weeks to teach radiology to our surgery residents, is on his way home today. Dr. Kydee Sheetz, an orthopedic and hand surgeon from northern Minnesota and a former MK to Kenya has spent two very busy weeks with us operating on numerous children with club feet and hand deformities. She has also helped us care for many adults with serious orthopedic injuries and brought at her own expense three extra suitcases of used but wonderful orthopedic tools and instruments. Our residents have enjoyed her zest for life and enthusiastic teaching style. We thank our Father for each of these visitors. All of them have helped our patients experience the love of Christ and have been an encouragement to us.
WHAT IF LIES....WON? What would you do if you were ordered by the County Commissioner to a public meeting held in the center of town where he presided and read aloud a written list of accusations against you, including the theft of items you did not steal, public statements you never made, and kickbacks from building suppliers that you never took and knew nothing about? What if in the middle of the meeting you learned that the Commissioner, a Christian brother that you counted as a friend, believed what your accusers told him about a conversation where you supposedly made fun of him, when in fact you made no such statements? What if your friend allowed your accusers to present their case against you for four hours, and then gave you and your supporters less than twenty minutes to reply? What if at the end of the meeting the Commissioner judged you guilty and required your employer to repay your accusers the $800 in kickbacks that you never took? What if it turned out that a subordinate who wanted your job collected the kickbacks from the building suppliers and told them you had told him to do it? What if one of the accusers accidentally admitted in the meeting that it was the subordinate who demanded and received the kickbacks and not you, but the testimony was ignored so that you could be blamed? What if the Commissioner privately expressed that this would be a good thing because it would prevent your accusers from carrying out a threat to “cause trouble?” And what if—after all this—while the Commissioner sat silent, your employer was threatened with closure if he fired the subordinate who caused all the trouble in the first place? This is exactly what happened to Henri Mbomba, our hospital Maintenance Chef and church elder, and to our hospital on Monday, March 13. In answer to the question, what Henri Mbomba our Maintenance Chief did in response to his accusers, was to sit quietly and take the abuse for five hours, counting on God to bring about justice. I (Dave), our Hospital Administrator, our hospital chaplain, three of our area pastors, and the Chief of Bongolo sat with him, appalled and stunned by the turn of events. We’d known for years that the subordinate in question had stolen tools and fuel from the hospital. Several months ago we warned him that if we caught him again, he would be fired (Gabonese labor laws are, well...complex!). At the same time, we’d received threats that there would be retribution against our Maintenance Chief if his subordinate was fired. Would you pray for us and with us as we cross this minefield? Would you pray for our brother, the Commissioner (not his real title), that he would understand the truth and serve justice and not evil for the sake of “peace?” Would you pray that Dave would get a chance to talk to him this week? Above all, would you pray that those of us who attended that meeting will not allow bitterness and anger to live in our hearts. Instead, we want the love of Christ to shine. We think we might be in the position Moses and the people of Israel were in when the army of Egypt was approaching from the rear, just before God divided the Red Sea in front of them and demonstrated to everyone who was really in charge. Would you pray for His glory as we wait for Him to lead us?
FAMILY NEWS For the past six months our daughter Rachael has been planning to visit us on her way home to California from Cambodia. In June, she will complete her first four-year term as an Alliance missionary. Today we received an e-mail from her stating that her ticket may cost more than $3,400. If she flies directly home going east from Cambodia, it will cost the Alliance $800. The rising cost of fuel and the fact that June is a peak month for travel has driven fares through the roof. Dave’s brother Tom and his family had to cancel their first visit to Africa in June because it would cost the three of them $9000! Please pray that God will help Rachael find a cheaper fare, or show her what to do. Pray also that God will help her find an affordable apartment in Redding, where she plans to live during her furlough year, and a good car. Continue to pray for our son Jeremy’s wife, Vera, who had to quit work last week so she can rest at home because of high blood pressure during her pregnancy. This is their second child, and she is not due until August. Becki and I will find out tonite if its a girl or a boy!
Until Jesus Comes,
Dave & Becki Thompson |