Dear Friends
"I told them about the gracious hand of my God upon me" Nehemiah 2:18
I answered them; "The God of heaven will give us success." Nehemiah 2:20
"They realised that this work had been done with the help of our God"
Nehemiah 6:16
The history of Nehemiah is a great challenge to us - his prayers, his faith, his tireless hard work, his single-mindedness, his encouragement of God's people, his courageous stand against God's enemies and his desire to give God all the glory (see the above verses). We were impressed recently to observe his self-denial when appointed governor (5:14-16). Unlike his predecessors who had squeezed every selfish drop they could out of their post, Nehemiah refused even that which was his right, in order not to be a burden to the people. If ever you feel discouraged in your work, read a chapter or two of Nehemiah!
Thank you for your prayers since our last letter - the Lord has answered!
Last time we asked you to pray for our application to the Dutch Evangelical Broadcasting Association for financial help with construction of the maternity unit. Yesterday we received this message from them:
"Dear David,
I have very positive news! The Committee decided to approve of your application.
Fundraising will take place via a television/radio program on national TV in The Netherlands. As soon as we have detailed information about filming your project (it will probably be somewhere in autumn) we will contact you in order to make the necessary arrangements. The film crew normally consists of two persons.
God's blessing on your ministry."
This is good news indeed! The email arrived as David was emerging from
theatre after doing a Caesarean hysterectomy for a lady who had been
disastrously managed in her village, and came to us with a ruptured uterus
and dead baby. This is the third Caesarean hysterectomy this month. How we
need the maternity unit in order to start to establish good maternity
practice and care in this area.
Please pray for:
This took place as planned on May 29th. The wedding of the son of Madagascar 's president on the same day prevented the most senior political figures from coming. However we felt it was a good witness, many local people came and the gospel was made known. The delegation which came from the Ministry of Health invited us to have a stand (one of 200) at the National Health Exhibition, held over several days in Tana a couple of weeks ago. Dr Adrien, Olivier, Theophile, Sarindra and our Tana office staff all helped run the stand, and Adrien was interviewed on national television. Many gospel tracts were distributed.
The children's holiday Bible club begins there tomorrow and will be held each Saturday until the end of August. Everyone agrees that Antsirombato is a village of spiritual darkness. Jane and her team have spent the past few weeks preparing the teaching material, visual aids, publicity etc. This afternoon Jane visited our neighbouring houses to invite the children to go with her. They were all very excited. Please pray that "the people walking in darkness" might "see a great light".
David and Hanitra had a very encouraging day in Mananara last month. The government medical inspector had arranged a list of over 230 eye patients (all sorts!) for us to see! We were unable to see them all, but at least they all received a gospel tract. 15 or so of those with cataracts have since come to Mandritsara for surgery.
We currently have a visit from John Lee, an Australian eye surgeon, and on Monday he and Hanitra will make another day trip to Mananara with MAF. In August we are planning that Hanitra will spend 3 or 4 days there.
We have just written a gospel tract "Sir, I want to see" , especially for the eye patients. You will be able to read it soon on the web site. Please pray for spiritual fruit in Mananara.
With Dr Adrien on leave, and Mat and Katy having left, there are only 3 doctors doing outpatients this month (Jeannine, Patrick and David) and David is also doing all the surgery. In the first 16 days of July we have done 48 surgical operations. It has also been the busiest ever two weeks in the ward - with 110 admissions, and I think we must be near the record number of blood transfusions - keeping the lab very busy.
We have added another tract to our series. This one is called "Is it serious, Doctor?" and is aimed at someone who has a serious or life-threatening condition. It should also be on the web site shortly. (All the tracts are translated into Malagasy)
David and Jane Mann
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.