April 5, 2004

Embangweni #18

Dear Friends and Family,

Time is flying by for us here, and this last six weeks has seen lots of travel and some very special visitors. In mid-February, Beth attended the Christian Medical and Dental Association Conference in Nairobi, Kenya. This is an opportunity for American and other medical personnel to update their knowledge and skills for two weeks. From Embangweni, we sent two doctors (Dr. Kamwana and Dr. Sommers) and Beth. It was a fantastic two weeks with missionaries from every country in Africa and beyond. They were all working in settings that had many similarities to our own here. When recommendations and guidelines suggest a specific lab test for diagnosis, most of us could not do that in our facilities. The medication difficulties were quite similar. All were grappling with the AIDS treatment issue. It was wonderful to talk and discuss case studies of problems that were identical to some that we have seen. I learned a great deal and am grateful to PC(USA) for sending us. The friendships with other missionaries and with nationals from the many other African countries were so special.

March brought visits from two special couples for us. We (and the whole station) were glad to see George and Betty Poehlman arrive for a short visit. They are our friends from Leesburg (formerly) who were partially responsible for our coming here. George is a physician who worked here for a year and a half and Betty is the one who wrote such wonderful letters home to us.

Then, we hosted our former pastor Dr. John Lown and his wife Toya O’Hora who are now at Lafayette Presbyterian Church in Tallahassee. With them we spent some time driving around the northern region to see some of the church’s historical sites—mostly from around 100 years ago when the Church of Scotland missionaries who followed David Livingstone founded the various mission stations. John helped the Reverend Mhango conduct a retreat for the pastors of the presbytery and their wives for two days. Toya worked in the library at Robert Laws Secondary School, which needed her skills in organizing all of the donated books that had not been shelved.

Thanks to John and Toya, we have become farmers! As they traveled around the Kalikumbe area visiting prayer houses, they were given many gifts—200 eggs, many bananas, manioc, pumpkins, wooden spoons, pots, four chickens and a sheep. They gave most of the eggs to the Nutritional Rehab Unit at the hospital and then helped our gardener build a chicken house and a sheep shed in our backyard. Now every morning we put Bartemaeus the sheep out to graze and bring him in for the night. We had to tell Rev. Gondwe from Kalikumbe that John could not take the sheep on the plane back to America so we are keeping it for him.

The rainy season is ending and the maize crop is doing fairly well. At least for those who could afford the necessary fertilizer. It is a time of plenty. People have greens, groundnuts, tomatoes, bananas, pineapples and beans to eat and also “green” maize off the cob. They will be harvesting the maize crop in a month or two and making maize flour to last for the rest of the year. The problem is that even in good times, that crop does not always last the whole year.

We are enjoying our work and our many friends here at Embangweni. We look forward to the visits of friends and to making new friends from those who travel representing their churches to see and help in the mission work here.

Blessings to all and keep the emails coming!

Beth and Bill

The 2004 Mission Yearbook for Prayer & Study, p. 58