On Call in Gabon

(Dave & Becki Thompson are Alliance medical missionaries working at the Bongolo Hospital in Gabon, Central Africa)

 October 15, 2005

 Dear Friends,

On September 29, Moungengue Maurice was driving too fast.  He lost control of his pick-up truck on a graveled curve and the truck rolled five or six times down a hill and into the brush.  He was thrown from the cab and ended up with the body of the car on his face.

            Dave was traveling in Cameroon (see our last letter) when Maurice was brought to the hospital.  Visiting orthopedic surgeon Dr. Wayne Fricke and our residents were there to help him.  Dr. Fricke later stated that Maurice had the worst facial fractures he had ever seen in a living patient.  Not knowing how to put a smashed and torn face back together, they put in a tracheostomy so he could breathe, cleaned out bone fragments, dirt and leaves, controlled bleeding, and dressed his wounds. 

Maurice’s severely deformed face and draining wounds stayed that way until last week, when Dr. Tom Robey, a Christian ENT surgeon visiting from Milwaukee patiently reconstructed the bones of Maurice’s face during a six hour operation.  Maurice went home yesterday, his face still misshapen but no longer grotesque.  He left with the knowledge that God spared his life and sent his son Jesus to die for his sins.  Pray with us that as we continue to treat him as an outpatient, this suffering man will give his heart to Christ. 

 Visiting Surgeons

            The six-person laparoscopy team from Redding led by Dr. Tom and Betty Perry, our two medical colleagues from Mali, Drs. Amstutz and Nesselroade, Dr. Tom Robey, and the two ophthalmologists from Redding, Drs. Trent and Lin, have now all returned home.  But the work and teaching they did and the words they spoke continue to shine and reverberate in many hearts.  During just the first two weeks of October, over 100 patients prayed to receive Christ at our hospital. 

Pastor Pascal, our happy but weary chaplain has asked that we pray that God would give him strength and provide help from the lay people in the Bongolo Church.  Most of his time is taken up counseling and praying with the five or ten people who respond to the invitation to follow Christ given during the short service that’s held in our outpatient waiting area each morning, leaving him little or no time to visit the 100 or so hospitalized patients.

            During the two weeks that ophthalmologists Trent and Lin were in Bongolo, they operated on 54 patients.  Pastor Pascal projected evangelistic films three nights a week on the porch of the Eye Clinic to the more than 100 patients waiting for surgery.  Nineteen of them prayed to receive Christ.

            Henri Samoutou, our African cataract surgeon, operated on 15 more of these patients this week and will continue to help as many as he can during the two weeks that remain before he returns to England at the end of the month to rejoin his wife, Dr. Joyce Wong Samoutou.  This couple is planning to join our medical team as missionaries in June, 2006.        

New Church Plant at Mandji-Dibwangui

            One year ago, there was a civil uprising in Mandji-Dibwangui, two linked villages 30 kilometers east of Lebamba.  The villagers wanted the government to rebuild a private, broken hydroelectric plant.  To force the issue, they blocked all traffic on the main road from going through the center of their villages.  After negotiations failed, the government ordered the police in Lebamba to forcibly reopen the road.  The villagers responded by stoning the police, and several fired on them.  A short gun battle ensued that left one villager dead and a policeman severely injured.  The policeman was brought to our hospital where Dr. Eddie Hyre and our residents operated on him.  Afterwards, they hid him in an unused operating room to protect him from certain vengeance. 

Several nights after the battle took place, some men from Mandji and Dibwangui broke into the Lebamba police compound and kidnapped the police chief and one of his men.  They beat both men unconscious, then killed the police chief and left his body lying in the town square.  The government sent in the army, arrested all the men who were involved in the violence, and sent them to prison. 

These two villages were the ones the District Superintendent of our region requested us to visit to plant a new church. 

To our surprise, the village welcomed us with open arms.  We came unannounced one Sunday in late August and met in a home with eight Christians who had found Christ at the hospital.  Two Sundays later, Dave began teaching the “chronological gospel,” an 18 month series of stories that tell the gospel story from Creation to the return of Christ. 

We are now meeting with an average of 40 adults and 20 children in an open hangar.  Last Sunday there was great excitement as village chiefs, one of whom is now attending, offered the group a large piece of land on the road to eventually build a permanent chapel.  When they asked us when we were going to start construction, we told them that when they themselves have collected $400, we will invite a Gabonese builder to come and work with them to build their church.  This came as something of a shock, but they have taken an offering every Sunday and so far have collected $50. The missionaries on our field have pledged $2500 towards this project. 

Please pray that as the wonderful story of God’s love unfolds Sunday by Sunday, many from these two villages will come and will invite Christ into their hearts.  Pray for Becki as she makes plans to begin teaching the same lessons to the children in a nearby house.  She is waiting to see which of the Christian women in the group could work with her and be taught to teach Sunday School.

Our last two church plants, at Mourembou and Moussambou are still going, although the group in Moussambou does not have good leadership.  Pastor Serge Batouboko, our hospital Administrator will continue preaching and teaching at this church on Sundays until the group has capable lay leaders.  Pray that the new pastor of the nearby Ndende church, which is responsible for these churches, will make it a priority to visit them regularly.  The church at Mourembou seems to be doing well.

News from Banso, Cameroon

            Many of you have been praying for the situation at the Banso Baptist Hospital in Cameroon.  Dave is involved there because of the PAACS surgical training program.  We cannot go into details, but we are deeply grateful to God that Dr. Eugene and Laurel Cleek have been affirmed by their mission and have returned to Cameroon to continue directing the PAACS program at the hospital.  They should have arrived back there this week.

            Next week Dave will be making a two-week trip to Cameroon to visit the Banso Hospital and two other hospitals that are already involved with PAACS or who want to be.  After that, he will be heading to Louisville, KY for the annual PAACS board meeting.  Some of the travel in Cameroon may be difficult, so please pray for him during his trip.  Here’s the plan:

October 24:           Libreville to Douala, Cameroon, by commercial air

October 25:           Travel by car to Mbingo Baptist Hospital for a PAACS site visit 

October 26-27:     Site visit to open a new PAACS training program at Mbingo Baptist Hospital, under Dr. Sparks’ direction

October 28:            Fly on SIL mission airplane (?) to Banso Baptist Hospital

October 29-30:      Site visit at BBH, with Dr. & Mrs. Cleek and their five residents

October 31:            Travel by car to Bamenda to meet with the Director of Medical Services for the Cameroonese Baptist Convention, to discuss working agreements at both hospitals

November 1-2:     Travel from Bamenda to Ngouandere, northern Cameroon (SIL plane? bus to Yaounde and overnight train to Ngouandere?)

November 3-4:     Site visit to the Ngouandere Protestant Hospital.  This Lutheran-run hospital is asking to become a PAACS training program.

November 5-6:     Travel by overnight train and bus to Douala

November 7-8:     Douala, Cameroon to Louisville, KY, via Paris

November 10:       PAACS Board meeting in Louisville, KY

November 11:       Fly to Sacramento, Ca.

November 12-15:  Short family visit in Redding, Ca.

November 16:       Sacramento to Atlanta

November 17-19:  Atlanta to Libreville, via Paris

November 19:       Return to Bongolo

News from the Thelanders and Spronks

            Two weeks ago Dr. Keir and Joanna Thelander reported to us the very good news that their support level has reached 87%!  Not only that, but they have received half of the money needed to buy a good, 4wd vehicle in Gabon.  The Alliance has cleared them to leave for France in January to begin French language study.  Last week Dr. Thelander jumped another hurdle and passed his oral examination with the American Board of Surgery. We congratulate him and give praise to the Father who enabled him!  If you wish to help them with their vehicle or the rest of their support, you can contact them at jklthelander@sbcglobal.net.

            Dr. Wayne and Suzanne Spronk have received all of their needed support and will be arriving in Libreville, Lord willing, on November 3.  You can contact them at svanarragon@westelcom.com.

Please pray for both these families as they make the huge transition to leave home, head overseas, and serve in Bongolo.

Update on our Surgery Residents

Dr. Yali will be preaching every Sunday that he is not on call for surgery at the struggling Alliance church in Mackongonio, a large village 10 kilometers beyond Mandji-Dibwangui.  Our other residents take turns going with us to Mandji-Dibwangui each Sunday to participate in that church-planting project.

Hydrocephalus stampede?

            When Dr. Hubert Kakalo returned from two months at the Cure Crippled Childrens’ Hospital in Uganda learning to put shunts into the heads of children with hydrocephalus, we wondered whether we would have any cases for him to do back in Bongolo.  Word soon got out that we could help these children.  Over the last six months that he was with us before he graduated last July, Dr. Kakalo put in seven shunts.  Fortunately, the missionary neurosurgeon that trained him in Uganda gave him a small supply of inexpensive but effective shunts made in India, a few of which he left with us.  Since Dr. Kakalo moved back to the D.R.C., Dave has put shunts in five other children. 

            Surgeons in Libreville are putting in shunts too, but are charging $3,000 for the procedure and the expensive shunts they purchase in France.  Only a few, wealthy families are able to afford the surgery, so up until now, 99% of the children in the country with hydrocephalus have gone on to a slow, horrible death. 

An example of this arrived at our hospital yesterday from Port Gentil.  The child, a three year-old boy, arrived in an ambulance from Mouila, after flying in a chartered small plane.  I agreed to take him after talking on the phone with one of our pastors who was not able to give me any information about the boy’s condition.  I was shocked to discover that his head was 18 inches in diameter.  Unfortunately, he also has a large, infected pressure sore that is open to the bone. 

We are treating this child’s pressure sore aggressively, but it could make putting in a shunt impossible.  The chance of developing an infection in his shunt from this nearby wound is virtually 100%, as it stands now.  Would you pray that God would show us how to help this suffering child and his family?  Would you also pray that we will be able to respond to this growing demand to help children with this disease? We are down to just three shunts and need to be able to order more shunts quickly from either India or from Uganda (perhaps online?).  The shunts are made by Chhabra, are described as “slit n spring hydrocephalus shunt system,”  and at less than $40 apiece (as opposed to $400) do quite well. They are made by G. Surgiwear Limited.  If you are interested, please feel free to go online and see if you can help us order them directly.  We can also use donated, American or European shunts.

Dave is hoping to get some training in Uganda in hydrocepalus surgery and management some time after the Thelanders arrive.

Praying for Us

Until Jesus Comes,

Dave & Becki Thompson