Prayer News

Prayer news at 12 December 2005

Dear Friends

FRANCOIS - A CLOSE SHAVE

On the last Sunday morning of November, Jane had left for Sunday school and David, suffering from a fever, had gone back to bed. Joerg, one of our new short-term Swiss doctors, was on call. Around 9.30 he phoned David saying that Francois had been brought in stabbed. Francois is a man of about 30, who works for the town electricity company. A couple of months ago he was a constant visitor to the hospital as his wife had a Caesarean Section for an abnormally placed placenta. She stayed in for about a month after birth until her (premature) baby gained sufficient weight to go home.

Apparently Francois had had a slight car accident on the Saturday and knocked a High School student off his bike. Sunday morning the student returned carrying a knife and seeking revenge. He told an unsuspecting Francois that he wanted a chat with him, then pulled out a knife and proceeded to stab him 7 times in the chest and abdomen. Francois arrived at the hospital in a critical state - severely breathless and fighting for his life. Both his lungs had been punctured, and had collapsed. David rushed off in the Land Rover to collect the x-ray technician, laboratory technician and theatre team (our driver was away taking an evangelism team out to a village). Providentially, Joerg has spent the past few years working in respiratory medicine in Switzerland and is thus very experienced at putting in chest drains! Once the team was assembled and we were able to insert a tube to suck the air out of his chest, Francois' condition improved rapidly. The next thing was the abdominal wounds. Penetrating abdominal wounds need to be explored - there might be a hole in the intestine for example. However, with bilateral collapsed lungs, it would have been very hazardous to give him a general anaesthetic. In fact, though the wounds were obviously deep, there were no tell-tale signs of intestinal perforation, or severe bleeding. Should we operate or not? In addition, David, with a fever, was having difficulty in standing up, and kept having to sit down! The thought of an hour or two standing at the operating table did not seem realistic. So we decided to treat him "expectantly". David explained what was happening to the large crowd of friends who had gathered, and said that we were putting it all in God's hands and would be monitoring the situation.

By Monday morning Francois was breathing quietly, and giving thanks to God. By Friday the chest drain was out and he was able to go home! Please pray for him and his family - and the many people who were touched by the event, not least the young man who stabbed him. What a blessing from God, not only to be able to help physically and medically, but to be able to share the good news of Jesus with many people through such a time of crisis.

Thankfully there were no other patients needing operations on Sunday, and by Monday David was back on his feet again!

ADRIEN IN ADDIS

One reason that we are so busy at present is that Dr Adrien is away in Ethiopia! He has been wanting to go to a hospital that specialises in surgery for women with urinary fistulas following difficult childbirth. We see a lot of such patients here and, following a visit from an American surgeon who taught him the technique, Adrien has been operating on them for the past few years. However there are complicated cases that he does not attempt, and others which are not successful, so he has been looking for further experience. Earlier this year we wrote to the Fistula Hospital in Addis Ababa, which said they had a waiting list of about 4 years for trainee surgeons! However in mid-November they wrote saying they had a cancellation for December and would Adrien like to come! It was a bit of a rush, and we were not sure about getting a visa etc - but in the end all worked well and he arrived there on November 30th. He has met a number of folk there that he already knows - and a group of Malagasy Christians! Please pray for the rest of his time - we are hoping to see him back here on December 30th.

RUBBISH AND THE GOOD NEWS

This year Mandritsara has become more covered in litter and rubbish than ever before. There is no rubbish collection service and folk just tip their household rubbish in the street gutters (if the streets even have gutters!). In fact it is sometimes a hazard when walking or biking down the street that someone will heave a bucket of dirty water out of the door or window into one's path (or worse!). But this year it has been the plastic bags that market sellers have started giving out to their customers. The town is drowning in plastic bags. So we had a clean up Mandritsara project for the school half term holiday around November 1st. Small boys are very adept at making footballs out of tightly wrapped bundles of plastic bags. So we offered to buy plastic bag footballs from children of 13 and under for the equivalent of 5p. On 1st November there was a huge crowd of children at the hospital gate -- all carrying plastic bag footballs - some with one or two, others with sackfuls! In addition to the payment we had written a special tract for children that we distributed to them all "The Best Friend" (in Malagasy), together with an invitation to Sunday school. We think the town was a bit cleaner afterwards too!

MOVING HOME

In November we made a short unexpected visit to England. David's sister, Margaret, died after a long battle with cancer. She had been quite amazing throughout her illness - uncomplaining, patient, and always thinking of others. Derek, her husband, was magnificent in the way he looked after her, and though she had a couple of spells in a hospice to stabilise the pain and other symptoms, she was able to spend her last earthly days at their home in Loughborough. We were glad to be able to be with our family for the funeral and thanksgiving service, and David was grateful to the Lord for help in bringing a short message in the service. He was greatly helped by some words spoken by Margaret's grandchildren, Sophie and Emily, to their mother Sarah a few days previously. Sophie had said, "Well, Mummy, for Christians heaven is your real home." And Emily added, "So really Granny has just moved home."

OTHER NEWS

David and Jane

Gifts for the project should be sent to:

Mr Derek Alcock
Friends of Mandritsara Trust
244 Obelisk Rise
Northampton
NN2 8TW

email: derek@mandritsara.org.uk

Please make out cheques to "Friends of Mandritsara Trust" (F.O.M.T.) Gift Aid forms are available.

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