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November 2001
Dear Friends,
When we last wrote you a prayer letter, March
2001, we were still at Mombin Crochu Hospital, Haiti, and we were
facing an uncertain future. Since that time, our Cuban health
worker friends and the Haitian hospital employees have carried
on the work at Mombin Crochu Hospital. The hospital administration
has undergone a complete change. Important persons in the community
of Mombin Crochu are now willing to work together as an advisory
board, and a replacement doctor and his wife from U.S. are preparing
to begin work there early in 2002. This is all very encouraging
news, and answers prayers of many faithful people, Haitian and
American. We continue to uphold our Haitian friends in the Mombin
Crochu area in prayer, and hope that your prayers and support
for them will continue as well.
Meanwhile, we returned to the hospital complex
in western India where we first were assigned as missionaries in
1968. We served here through 1974, then were reappointed from 1986
to 1989. We have been welcomed very warmly, and so many of our "kids"—medical
students and recently graduated doctors then—have matured,
married, and given us "grandchildren." We feel like we
have returned to a glorious family reunion. The verse from Matthew
19:29 comes to mind: "Everyone who has left houses or brothers
or sisters or father or mother or children or fields for my sake
will receive a hundred times as much and will inherit eternal life."
Jesus was not saying that new families would replace our own families,
but certainly our "families" are expanded greatly in God’s
kingdom.
We have been asked to come here as "consultants
to the director." We assist the director and the administration
to "rediscover itself." The health-care situation is
completely different from a century ago when this hospital and
its satellite hospitals first brought Western, scientific medicine
and the gospel message to this part of India. Now the community
is populated with over 100 "nursing homes"—small
private hospitals, often with coronary care units and intensive
care facilities, operating rooms, etc., staffed by physicians,
surgeons, nurses, etc. trained at this hospital, more often than
not.
How is the "Mission Hospital" to compete
with all these private medical facilities? What unique skills
can we Christian health professionals provide that aren’t
readily available in the communities? Of course, we have a unique
commitment to the proclamation of the gospel of Jesus Christ in
this nation which is 80 percent Hindu, and about 12 percent Muslim
and less than 3 percent Christian. Mission hospitals all over
India are closing their doors.
Health care insurance is rarely available in
India, and costs of health care—while much lower than in
U.S.—are proportionately high considering the average family
incomes. So, many poor cannot afford private health care, and
government health care is unable to meet all the needs of the
poor as well. But it seems "impossible" to offer only
charity health care without vast support from abroad. So who will
pay the bills? Now, surviving mission hospitals struggle to find
their niches in this new environment and to find answers to these
questions.
We are still able to provide many services free
or at low cost, and many in these rural areas benefit thereby.
Our educational commitment continues and expands. Mission hospitals
have been responsible for much of the health professional training
in India.
Many of our friends wonder about whether we’re
"safe" here, especially with the war continuing in nearby
Afghanistan. We have felt no insecurity except when we travel
on the roads, which are terribly congested. This community has
a large Muslim population (about 50% of the total), yet relations
between Hindus and Muslims here have always been amicable. There
may be Muslim extremists here, but we really feel safer here than
many of you in the U.S.! Our assignment will continue here about
another 18 months, and then we plan to retire. In the meantime,
we welcome visitors. Should you feel called to come and work with
us, no matter what your skill set we can find work to keep you
busy.
A month ago we were invited to the opening of
the playroom on the children’s ward. A retired head nurse,
Mrs. Raswanti Chavan, had collected toys, and gifts, and gave
substantial money to buy furniture for the playroom. Then she
donated these many items to equip the playroom. A young girl recently
diagnosed with acute leukemia, who was hospitalized to begin her
chemotherapy, cut the ribbon at the door of the playroom. This
new ward is part of the new Mother’s and Children’s
Block, which opened in early September, a generous gift from Americans
to the people of India, through USAID. The timing couldn’t
have been better!
India is now in the midst of holidays. First,
the Hindus celebrated their largest festival of the year, Diwali,
a 10-day festival of lights, fireworks, and a special time to
worship Mahalaxmi, the goddess of wealth and prosperity. Now the
Muslims are observing Ramadan with its dawn-to-dusk fasting, and
Christians are moving into Advent celebrations. May the Christ
child, whose birth we celebrate, bring His light into your lives
with new and loving intensity, as we prayerfully prepare for His
coming!
Your mission co-workers in India,
Paul & Judy Jewett
The 2001 Mission Yearbook for Prayer &
Study, p. 245
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