Details on Cal's Ministry in Tandala
(Click on map to zoom.)
Dear Family and Friends,
This is the third letter to update you on my trip to Africa. It is being written on the afternoon of July 25 but will probably not be sent for at least a week due to lack of internet access.
Last Sunday, we went to the morning worship service at the Congolese Free Church in Gemena. Gemena is the city where our denominational headquarters is. The biggest church that meets there is “The Temple.” Services often are attended by over 1,000 people on regular Sundays, but this was not a regular Sunday. We were also opening the national pastors' conference, so there were delegations from towns all over the Equateur Province, some having traveled as far as 200 miles by river or by truck … or even by walking.
We also had guests from the church in Rwanda and the director of Community Health Evangelism (or CHE, part of LifeWind ministries). The way it works in the Congo is that all Protestant churches have to be part of larger group called ECC. While I am told that for a time, this group was being dominated by liberal denominations, that is now changing. The leader of the ECC for Equateur Province is actually from the Congolese Free Church (CECU) and was the one who preached this Sunday. He spoke to both pastors and lay people about the importance of doing the ministry which God has given you. He emphasized knowing what that ministry is and is not, doing it with integrity, and doing it for God's glory. The service lasted about 4 hours. There was much prayer, singing, and "words" given from various speakers. Afterward, some of us walked back to the mission, which takes about 20 minutes.
That evening we were supposed to “Skype” back to our home church (Elim) in Washington, but were unable due to generator problems.
The next day, a group of us, including me, left for Tandala. This is where our denominational hospital is located. The drive took a bit under 2 hours on a dirt road (we are told this is the best road in the region) and at times we got to as fast as 75 kilometers per hour (about 45 m.p.h.).
As seems routine now, we were greeted with much pomp and ceremony. One of the most touching parts was that the children from the local chuch sang us a song, giving us greetings to take back to our churches in America. I hope to get them to sing this again when I can record it, as we left all our stuff in the truck when we arrived.
I have to share one other part of this trip. We rode in a LandRover that had air conditioning and listened to Congolese Christmas Carols. It was a bit surreal to drive through rural Africa in such a setting. Between Gemena and Congo, there were no "western" style buildings. People here still live in the circular mud huts with thatch roofs, like they have for hundreds of years.
Tandala is a very nice place. First, the old mission quarters where we stay are more spacious than in Gemena and actually sort of have indoor plumbing. You have to use a bucket to shower with and to flush the toilet, but this is far better than the situation in Gemena. Second, it is a much smaller town so it does not feel so crowded. I am finally getting comfortable walking around town without a translator with me, as everyone seems friendly.
I finally got to meet the three young doctors who have sacrificed high salaries to live and practice medicine here. I immediately felt at ease with them and as if I was meeting long-lost friends. I will give you their first names, as this is how they refer to themselves here. Dr. Narcisse is from this area, although not from Tandala itself. He was the first graduate from medical school in Kinshasa to come back here. He has a wife, Yvette, and one child. Dr. Narcisse serves as the area director for the “health zone” surrounding Tandala. He keeps track of clinic visits at the hospital and the outlying health centers.
Dr. Mifila is also a Kinshasa graduate. He has a wife, Christine, and one child. He is the medical director for the hospital.
Dr. Zach is the newest physician ... as I understand it, he was a year behind the other two. All three speak some English, but Dr. Zach is the most excited about using English, so I tend to be with him most. I have found all three to be dedicated men of faith and they seem to love what they do here.
They have asked that I do six things while I am here: 1) They want me to make rounds with them of the hospitalized patients; 2) to do clinic visits on the pediatric cases with them later in the day; 3) to teach the doctors and nurses on staff; 4) to visit a few of the health centers in more rural zones; 5) to discuss spiritual issues; and 6) to spend time with them in the evenings -- two of them live just across the road from the old mission station where we are staying -- just discussing whatever issues come to mind from the day's work.
I feel completely comfortable going off to the hospital with them in the morning without anyone from our group to translate, etc. ... I am very comfortable here with these guys and feel like I am “in my element.”
I will not say much now about the health issues here as I hope to write a more formal report later. Needless to say, for a regional referral hospital, which this is, most of you would be shocked at the conditions they work under and the severity of illnesses that they deal with. For example, the sun sets at about 6 p.m. The hospital is open 24 hours a day. After dark, there are no lights. I gave them a flashlight that charges by cranking a handle so that the ICU nurse could have something with which to see patients at night, in case IV was needed or some other care needed that requires light.
Also, hospitals here are very different. It is the patient's family that provides food, laundry, water, etc. for the patient. Unless you are on an ICU bed, there is not even a nurse on your section at night. If you need lab work done, the patient must go to the lab in person to get it done.
There is much more that is beyond imagination that we take for granted in even the worst U.S. hospitals. On the disease side, let's just say I am getting very familiar with malaria, anemia, severe malnutrition, and heart failure.
Again, I will try to write a more detailed report later. I do believe that I have helped them, but it is mostly at a very basic level as there is little technology here.
The doctors and nurses have chapel on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Friday mornings and I have been asked to preach on Friday. My message will probably be on how to let your light shine before all men while caring for patients. Many of the ladies here have an African-style fabric that has the saying "Moklisto azali mwinda" which means "Christian is light." That was affirming to me that this message will be appropriate for my audience.
Let me just close by saying that I really do love it here. There are certainly inconveniences with the humidity, plumbing, domestic animals roaming free (I am just now hearing goats calling back and forth to each other ... they better be careful because almost every day we are served goat!), the dirtiness with no ability to ever wash oneself clean, language issues, etc. But, one cannot help but love the people and feel compassion for their situation.
I look forward to rejoining others from our group, especiallly Linda McCoy and Martin Schlomer from Elim, later this week. It will have been good that we had such different experiences in different settings. This should give us a good ability to compare notes for a broader perspective.
Also, I want to emphasize what a unique opportunity for evangelism we have through the Tandala Hospital system. There are many of what they call "nominals" smf frankly pagan people, too. The opportunity to use your status as a medical person is high here. They are not distracted by TV or the music industry, so the real celebrities out here are the doctors (especially American doctors) and preachers.
Somehow I believe that we must partner with them to bring light into the darkness.
In Christ,
Cal
Dear Family and Friends,
This is the third letter to update you on my trip to Africa. It is being written on the afternoon of July 25 but will probably not be sent for at least a week due to lack of internet access.
Last Sunday, we went to the morning worship service at the Congolese Free Church in Gemena. Gemena is the city where our denominational headquarters is. The biggest church that meets there is “The Temple.” Services often are attended by over 1,000 people on regular Sundays, but this was not a regular Sunday. We were also opening the national pastors' conference, so there were delegations from towns all over the Equateur Province, some having traveled as far as 200 miles by river or by truck … or even by walking.
We also had guests from the church in Rwanda and the director of Community Health Evangelism (or CHE, part of LifeWind ministries). The way it works in the Congo is that all Protestant churches have to be part of larger group called ECC. While I am told that for a time, this group was being dominated by liberal denominations, that is now changing. The leader of the ECC for Equateur Province is actually from the Congolese Free Church (CECU) and was the one who preached this Sunday. He spoke to both pastors and lay people about the importance of doing the ministry which God has given you. He emphasized knowing what that ministry is and is not, doing it with integrity, and doing it for God's glory. The service lasted about 4 hours. There was much prayer, singing, and "words" given from various speakers. Afterward, some of us walked back to the mission, which takes about 20 minutes.
That evening we were supposed to “Skype” back to our home church (Elim) in Washington, but were unable due to generator problems.
The next day, a group of us, including me, left for Tandala. This is where our denominational hospital is located. The drive took a bit under 2 hours on a dirt road (we are told this is the best road in the region) and at times we got to as fast as 75 kilometers per hour (about 45 m.p.h.).
As seems routine now, we were greeted with much pomp and ceremony. One of the most touching parts was that the children from the local chuch sang us a song, giving us greetings to take back to our churches in America. I hope to get them to sing this again when I can record it, as we left all our stuff in the truck when we arrived.
I have to share one other part of this trip. We rode in a LandRover that had air conditioning and listened to Congolese Christmas Carols. It was a bit surreal to drive through rural Africa in such a setting. Between Gemena and Congo, there were no "western" style buildings. People here still live in the circular mud huts with thatch roofs, like they have for hundreds of years.
Tandala is a very nice place. First, the old mission quarters where we stay are more spacious than in Gemena and actually sort of have indoor plumbing. You have to use a bucket to shower with and to flush the toilet, but this is far better than the situation in Gemena. Second, it is a much smaller town so it does not feel so crowded. I am finally getting comfortable walking around town without a translator with me, as everyone seems friendly.
I finally got to meet the three young doctors who have sacrificed high salaries to live and practice medicine here. I immediately felt at ease with them and as if I was meeting long-lost friends. I will give you their first names, as this is how they refer to themselves here. Dr. Narcisse is from this area, although not from Tandala itself. He was the first graduate from medical school in Kinshasa to come back here. He has a wife, Yvette, and one child. Dr. Narcisse serves as the area director for the “health zone” surrounding Tandala. He keeps track of clinic visits at the hospital and the outlying health centers.
Dr. Mifila is also a Kinshasa graduate. He has a wife, Christine, and one child. He is the medical director for the hospital.
Dr. Zach is the newest physician ... as I understand it, he was a year behind the other two. All three speak some English, but Dr. Zach is the most excited about using English, so I tend to be with him most. I have found all three to be dedicated men of faith and they seem to love what they do here.
They have asked that I do six things while I am here: 1) They want me to make rounds with them of the hospitalized patients; 2) to do clinic visits on the pediatric cases with them later in the day; 3) to teach the doctors and nurses on staff; 4) to visit a few of the health centers in more rural zones; 5) to discuss spiritual issues; and 6) to spend time with them in the evenings -- two of them live just across the road from the old mission station where we are staying -- just discussing whatever issues come to mind from the day's work.
I feel completely comfortable going off to the hospital with them in the morning without anyone from our group to translate, etc. ... I am very comfortable here with these guys and feel like I am “in my element.”
I will not say much now about the health issues here as I hope to write a more formal report later. Needless to say, for a regional referral hospital, which this is, most of you would be shocked at the conditions they work under and the severity of illnesses that they deal with. For example, the sun sets at about 6 p.m. The hospital is open 24 hours a day. After dark, there are no lights. I gave them a flashlight that charges by cranking a handle so that the ICU nurse could have something with which to see patients at night, in case IV was needed or some other care needed that requires light.
Also, hospitals here are very different. It is the patient's family that provides food, laundry, water, etc. for the patient. Unless you are on an ICU bed, there is not even a nurse on your section at night. If you need lab work done, the patient must go to the lab in person to get it done.
There is much more that is beyond imagination that we take for granted in even the worst U.S. hospitals. On the disease side, let's just say I am getting very familiar with malaria, anemia, severe malnutrition, and heart failure.
Again, I will try to write a more detailed report later. I do believe that I have helped them, but it is mostly at a very basic level as there is little technology here.
The doctors and nurses have chapel on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Friday mornings and I have been asked to preach on Friday. My message will probably be on how to let your light shine before all men while caring for patients. Many of the ladies here have an African-style fabric that has the saying "Moklisto azali mwinda" which means "Christian is light." That was affirming to me that this message will be appropriate for my audience.
Let me just close by saying that I really do love it here. There are certainly inconveniences with the humidity, plumbing, domestic animals roaming free (I am just now hearing goats calling back and forth to each other ... they better be careful because almost every day we are served goat!), the dirtiness with no ability to ever wash oneself clean, language issues, etc. But, one cannot help but love the people and feel compassion for their situation.
I look forward to rejoining others from our group, especiallly Linda McCoy and Martin Schlomer from Elim, later this week. It will have been good that we had such different experiences in different settings. This should give us a good ability to compare notes for a broader perspective.
Also, I want to emphasize what a unique opportunity for evangelism we have through the Tandala Hospital system. There are many of what they call "nominals" smf frankly pagan people, too. The opportunity to use your status as a medical person is high here. They are not distracted by TV or the music industry, so the real celebrities out here are the doctors (especially American doctors) and preachers.
Somehow I believe that we must partner with them to bring light into the darkness.
In Christ,
Cal
posted by Larry Short at 11:52 AM
3 Comments:
Cal,
Thanks for the very detailed e-mail. Your descripion reminds me of Indonesia alhough not as bad. In Indonesia, both luxury and povery are side to side.
I am glad that you have an opportunity to use your expertise or "element" to serve there. It must be an amazing feeling. I haad the same experience when I had a change to design a dormitory for a seminary in Borneo for our missionary friend. They did not build it per the design completely but that is not the point. The point is that God let us have this amazing satisfaction to be able to use our talent for His glory.
Ko
Dear Daddy,
I love you,
your trip sounds great,
I miss you,
Caitlin
"But thanks be to God, who always leads us in triumphal procession in Christ and through us spreads eveywhere the fragrance of the knowledge of Him. For we are to God the aroma of Christ among those who are being saved and those who are perishing." 2 Corinthians 2:14,15
How was the caterpillars-did you really eat them? Why the bathroom? Was Linda sitting on the toilet during the skype time w/Larry? So many people are asking me about you. We'll be praying you home!
Love yah, Stacie
Post a Comment
<< Home