April 28, 2004
Embangweni #19
Dear Friends and Family,
April is almost gone and the weather has changed considerably
here. It is the beginning of our cooler months and today I am
wearing a heavy sweater all day and need more than that at night.
It is heavy blanket weather and we will probably soon need our
fireplace in the evening.
We were blessed again this year by participating in the Easter
activities “Embangweni style.” Easter is such a very
special time here, even more than Christmas. There were a total
of at least 11 church services, beginning on Thursday evening
and ending Sunday afternoon. The services Friday and Saturday
were subdued by comparison to Sunday’s joyous singing and
praising. All night Saturday there was a prayer vigil ending in
caroling to each house on the station. The carolers arrived at
our house at 4:00 a.m. on Sunday singing and dancing—He
is risen!
Our work continues as before although Bill is now spending less
time with his acting Chief Accountant job and increasing his information
systems work, which is what he was to be doing here. The school
computer labs are being used in off hours for classes for staff
and others on the station for lessons in Word, Excel, Access,
and Power Point. It is amazing how quickly some of the staff are
learning and putting their skills to work on the job. They want
so much to learn about computers, and computers are rapidly becoming
a necessity in some of the work such as in the pharmacy, accounts
department, and HIV program. Bill’s challenge is to set
up a system for maintenance and repair and to teach others here
how to maintain the equipment.
Building progress seems to be going smoothly on the two buildings
now under construction—a quadruplex apartment for nurses
and a senior staff house next to ours. However, the ancient three-ton
truck which has long been in use to carry building materials to
these and all the other prayer houses and school buildings going
up in the surrounding villages had an unfortunate encounter with
a poorly located tree a couple of weeks ago and is now out of
commission. We have heard that there is a program called Transport
Aid through which we may be able to get a replacement truck (and
maybe another ambulance, as well!) for little more than the cost
of transporting them here from Japan. We have heard stories of
vehicles being obtained for as little as $2,000. We are investigating
this now but will then have to find the $2,000 if we find that
we qualify for the program.
Beth is working on the beginnings of a family health home visiting
program which we hope will begin in September when the CSP (Child
Survival) program phases out and its ambulance will be available
for use by the outreach programs. This will allow nurses to follow
up on high-risk mothers and children in their villages at times
other than mobile clinics which are so extremely busy with so
many mothers and children being screened and treated. The hope
is that children from the NRU (Nutritional Rehabilitation Unit),
children’s ward, and clinics can be referred and seen on
a one-to-one visit and that children of HIV positive mothers can
be checked and tested at 18 months of age. Mothers who have problems
such as anemia, nutritional problems, twins, HIV, hypertension,
etc. can be seen at home. It gives an opportunity for teaching
and counseling in the home setting that we have not had before.
We are very much looking forward to a trip to Congo (Democratic
Republic of Congo) beginning this weekend. Bill’s father
was one of the physicians who started the IMCK nursing school
there in 1954 and there are celebrations lasting a week at Tshikaji
where Beth also lived and worked in the summer of 1967. We will
drive through Zambia to the border of Congo near Lubumbashi and
then will leave our car with Richard Robinson and fly to Kananga.
Our plan is to then drive via ambulance to the small station called
Bibanga where Bill lived for much of his childhood. We are taking
the Reverend and Mrs. Mhango with us as representatives of the
Synod of Livingstonia to their sister church in Congo. We hope
also to take a letter from the church in Zambia with us.
Election day here in Malawi is May 18. This will be only the
third president in the country’s history. Please pray for
a safe and peaceful election. There is always concern in Africa
when the change of leadership occurs. Malawi has been a peaceful
nation, but they are still a developing nation and we hope that
all will go well.
Blessings to all of you,
Beth and Bill
The 2004 Mission Yearbook for Prayer & Study, p.
58 |
