Dear Friends
"Make the most of every opportunity" Colossians 4:5
In the early hours of Wednesday morning, Dr Adrien was up in theatre operating on a lady who had been bleeding heavily from a placenta praevia. This is an abnormally low placenta which can bleed profusely in late pregnancy and labour, and indeed from which the patient will die if not operated on in time. At 5am in the morning, when it was still dark, he drove into town to take the theatre team home. As he passed the Good News School, of which his wife Gisele is the Headmistress, he was surprised to see a line of people sitting on benches on the side of the road. He stopped to have a closer look and discovered the judge, the state prosecutor, the senior doctor from the government hospital and a teacher from the state High School. Each had brought a bench and they were waiting patiently in a queue. Were they waiting for someone important to pass? No, they were queuing to make sure that their children could get into the Good News School for the next school year! Wednesday was registration day for the children who will start school in September. Registration was only scheduled to begin at 2pm, but they did not want to be disappointed - there were only 20 new places available. In fact they were all successful, but a number of other folk who came later were disappointed. Such is the reputation of the school that the leading citizens of the town will queue all day to get their children in! We reserve 10 of the new places for the children of our hospital workers, but the other 20 are allocated on a first come, first served, basis.
The wonderful thing is that not only will the children be well taught, but they will also learn the truths about God from the Bible, and be surrounded by Christian love and example. Some of these children will no doubt be leaders in the town in 30 or 40 years time. What an opportunity!
Each year, the school has grown and in September we expect around 180 pupils in total. Our present rented building is already too small. We had thought of developing a part built structure on some land we own in town - but it was becoming clear that it was not realistic to get this work finished by September. Then last week we heard of a house available in a quiet street near the town centre. It has 8 rooms, including two very large ones. Another two could be knocked into one, making 3 classrooms. That would leave a room for office/library and two rooms for someone to live in to guard the property. The owner lives in another town and wants to sell so that he can finish building a house where he lives. The property is available straight away and costs ?10,000. It is really hard to find property to rent in suitable locations in town, and something to buy is - well, a wonderful opportunity! We have already contacted the owner to say we would like to buy it - we are going ahead trusting the Lord will supply the necessary funding and would appreciate your prayers for this.
Gis謥 plans to put the two youngest classes there, and add a kindergarten for 3 year-olds if we can find a suitable teacher. Two of the current teachers at the school have come to the end of their contracts and are planning to do something else, so please pray too that we will be able to find the necessary teachers.
Since the start of our hospital we have benefited from a good electricity supply from the national water and electricity company. Some eight years ago, Samaritan's Purse gave us an 18kva stand-by generator. It has been very useful on those occasions that the electricity has been cut for a few hours, but most of the time it has just been "standing by".
However, the company is at present in considerable financial difficulties nation-wide. They are unable to purchase sufficient diesel to run the generators in most towns for more than a few hours a day. The situation is much better in Tana and other places that have hydroelectric power. But here in Mandritsara we have only had 2 to 4 hours electricity a day for the past 3 or 4 weeks. So our stand-by generator has been running for 12 hours a day. It is a good machine, but is not powerful enough to run everything in the hospital at once. It is not powerful enough to run the X-ray unit. At night we have been cutting the electricity at 11 or 12 o'clock and the night nurses have used candles. This is manageable in the cool season - but when the weather warms up it will be much harder keeping drugs, vaccines and us cool!
The state president has said that since the company has been privatised, there is nothing the government can do, and that the situation will not change before September (but might get worse). So, after some prayer, we have decided to purchase a bigger generator. We have ordered a 60kva Perkins diesel generator. Our friends at Unimatco, Brenda and John Chudley, who have done so much to help us over the past 20 years or so, supplying Land Rovers, shipping our containers, and much more, are busy ordering it and hope to have it packed and shipped (air freight) in early July. The total cost, including airfreight and getting it up to Mandritsara, will be around ?10,000. So again we are asking for your prayers. The Lord has wonderfully supplied all our needs at Mandritsara from the very beginning, and we are confident that He will again provide.
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.