The needs are vast....

Miriam saying bye to our sweet friends, Dr. Nono and her nephew, Manasse (who goes to preschool with Miriam), when we left for Greece.  We left with heavy hearts as there has been much instability in our region, we wondered if we'll be returning after this stint away.  We hope so!

Greetings,

We just enjoyed a wonderful conference that is organized by CMDA to help medical missionaries like us keep our licenses up to date by providing continuing medical education credits.  The conference was held at a beautiful beachside resort in Greece. Beyond the continuing medical education, it was a wonderful opportunity for (re)connecting with many who serve across the world in medical ministries. 

Throughout my time I was particularly struck by the dearth of those being sent, and out of those, the small number who are called and able to remain and serve long-term abroad.  Everywhere I turned it seemed that another hospital or medical site was hoping that we would join them, or someone would come and carry on the work that will slow or cease as others retire and leave the field.  Here are some interesting quotes, statistics or needs that I heard during our time:

-Only 5% of people who go to the Lexington, Kentucky (GMHC) missions conference 

continue to become long-term medical missionaries

-French speaking African countries are 100 years behind in their medical infrastructure than English speaking African countries

-There was a nice session on mental health care in resources limited areas and they encouraged us to get counseling for our patients, including cognitive behavioral therapy.  What a nice thought (we all were thinking)! If only there were even one counselor, psychiatrist or psychologist within miles.  Currently we have many barriers to good mental illness care, including access to good medecines. 

-I attended a breakout session at the conference that had some interesting maps showing the massive needs in Africa and Asia:

Obviously Africa is ballooned out in high infant mortality, with a skinny western world.

HIV predominantly in Africa and Asia, leading to more illness and higher mortality.... increased health care needs.

Malaria is one of the top causes of death in the Congo and Africa.  We always are treating multiple cases of malaria in our hospital, and our hospital balloons during malaria season, in which we treat hundreds of cases and lose many.

Harrowing, remembering the above 3 slides showing burden of disease and infant mortality, now seeing the small number of physicians actually working in Africa....

-Multiple hospitals let us know their need for missionary health care providers:

--A mission hospital in Gabon whose workers are overrun and burnt out.  As a Christian you cannot do medical school in Gabon because you will be failed unless you partake in witchcraft.  Thus, ex-pats carry the load of medical care for thousands.

--A mission hospital in Cameroon that has an amazing history of providing some of the best medical care in West Africa including chemotherapy, open heart surgery, etc.  A couple who are medical missionary heros are nearing retirement and no one has stepped up to continue their work, including running one of the only Christian internal medicine residencies in Africa.

--A large old mission hospital in the heart of the Congo.  A wonderful empty nester couple has moved there as medical director and head of the nursing school.  The hospital is over 400 beds and there is much work to be done! 

--Two other French speaking hospitals spoke of their vast needs (1 in Congo-Brazaville, one in Togo), and their inability to retain medical missionaries over the long-haul. 

We were grateful to learn from and be encouraged by so many missionaries who have been faithful over so many years.  We were overwhelmed by all the continuing education we received and all the work there is to do!  Here are a few things I’d like to see implemented in Nyankunde over the next year:

-Train a nurse in each unit to do formal discharge education

-Train a diabetes nurse specialist

-Train midwifes in Helping Babies Breath, a course that teaches an algorithm of resuscitation of newborns and has been shown to drastically decrease infant mortality where it is implemented. 

-Implement home visits after discharge for complicated patients as a part of nursing student and training doctor education.

On a super encouraging note, Patrick got together all the people at the conference who are either working in Congo, or are Congolese and desire to return to work in the Congo. There are significant barriers to the return of Congolese doctors trained out of the country, including conflict, inability of many hospitals to pay a specialist, educational opportunities for children in rural settings, etc. At the meeting, in addition to multiple missionaries, there were 3 Congolese surgical residents and 2 Congolese surgical faculty from surgical residencies in Gabon, Cameroon and Niger. All hope to return to Congo and asked for our help and prayers.

 

After leaving the conference, we spent 2 days in Athens. It is an amazing city!  The Acropolis looms large over the city, and we had a blast exploring it.  It was our first time ‘walking on Biblical ground’.  While seated on Mars Hill, Patrick read to us out of Acts when Paul met there with the religious philosophers.  Luke was asking for more and more stories about the history of this ancient Greek city.  It was wonderful.

We now find ourselves in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.  Pray for us as we study Swahili intensively for 4 weeks.  We have 6 hours of classroom time a day!  We are in an industrial, gritty neighborhood close to the shipping yards of this huge port city.  Thus far Luke and Miriam have loved having either beans and rice, or meat and rice at every meal J.  Miriam ran up to me and said emphatically, “Thank you Mommy!” after tasting her beans and rice yesterday evening!  Pray that we’d be able to cover a lot of ground in our studies!

Please keep praying for the Congo.  There continue to be thousands of IDPs (internally displaced persons) in our region, as well as some theft from local militia in our area.  We grieve for our friends who live under these realities on a daily basis. 

Praying that we would all see the light of the new kingdom breaking through more and more each day….

Anna, Patrick, Luke and Miriam