Previous Prayer News
Previous Prayer News
Prayer News 6 March 2004
Dear Friends
THE HEAVENS OPENED
As we write, the rain from a tropical cyclone
(hurricane) pours down and we pity anyone who is sick and travelling to the
hospital this afternoon. The country is on the alert - Mandritsara has been
given a grade 3 warning - which is the worst grade, meaning that the cyclone
is approaching us directly, and the eye of the cyclone may pass here during
the night with severe wind and rain. So we are battening down the hatches.
But that is not the biggest climatic event we are preparing for. One day.
"The sun will grow dark, the moon will no longer shine, the stars will fall
from heaven, and the powers in space will be driven from their courses. Then
the Son of Man will appear, coming in the clouds with great power and glory.
He will send the angels out to the four corners of the earth to gather God's chosen people from one end
of the world to the other" Mark 13:24-27
What a day that will be! What a privilege, and what a responsibility is
ours, to make known the Good News of Jesus in this day of grace. Thank you
for your prayers for us as we seek to do that among the many needy people
around us.
We arrived back in Mandritsara just in time for the New Year - and have felt
ever since that we are still trying to catch up from 2003! Elita was the
first major tropical cyclone of the year - and made two circuits around
Madagascar during late January. The airstrip was waterlogged and no planes
were able to land for 2 weeks. Claire Broad, a medical student from Oxford,
spent a longer elective here than planned! Some roofs were blown off -
including the roofs of several of our village clinics - but the damage was
not as extensive as along the northwest coast. The rain was, however, a
welcome arrival for the people generally, giving hopes of a good rice crop.
PAUL & JOAN STEINKULLER
In December, Paul and Joan made an urgent trip to
the USA, as Joan needed medical treatment. She stayed there for chemotherapy, while Paul returned here in January to give some more training
in eye surgery to Dr Hanitra. He left finally in early February and made a
visit to Fianarantsoa, in southern Madagascar, where he had spent several
years training eye surgeons. The government awarded him a medal of honour
for his services to the country. We really miss them here, but the training
Paul gave to Hanitra means that she can cope with most eye problems that
arrive. She hopes to do 500 cataract operations in 2004.
As you pray for the work here, we would like to encourage you with part of
Paul's testimony concerning the year he spent with us:
"We have lived in Kenya and Malawi for several years, and in Madagascar
since July 1998. In addition I have also worked in mission and government
hospitals in South Africa, Iran, Jamaica, and Peru. Other than HVM I believe
I have worked in a total of 14 mission hospitals and 10 government hospitals
in various countries. Certainly HVM stands out as being, far and away, the
very best of the lot.
In saying that I have considered the following:
A. Among the Mission Hospitals - Spiritual Aspects:
1. The Christian commitment of the staff.
2. Making the spreading of the Gospel the number one focus and priority of all that the hospital does.
3. Ensuring that the entire staff, every single person, remains constantly mindful of the real reason for the existence of the hospital.
B. Among all the Hospitals - Secular Aspects:
1. Quality of the professional medical staff.
2. Competency of administrative and logistic support.
3. Adequacy of medical supplies.
4. Adequacy and consistency of the support infrastructure"
That is the past, and we praise the Lord for that. The present
disappointments, that we mention below (in News in Brief), remind us of our
dependence on the Lord. The future is yet to pray for!
DUTCH EVANGELICAL BROADCASTING ASSOCIATION
Last year we were contacted by the Dutch Evangelical Broadcasting Organisation (Metterdaad). They were
looking for Christian relief projects to sponsor through their TV/radio
broadcasts and wanted to know about HVM. We were very busy and asked them to
look at our website. After visiting that they said they were interested in
the construction of our maternity unit. They broadcast information about a
project and invite listeners to send in contributions. In their leaflet they
say "The most important requirement that Metterdaad makes is that the
project should not only involve financial support, but also the spreading of
the gospel, because the gospel is the most important gift we can give. We
can say a hearty "Amen" to that!
Here is part of the information we sent them on the "Necessity and Urgency
of the Project"
- An article in the British Medical Journal 18 January 2003 reviewed the
Caesarean section rates in 8 African countries, including Madagascar, during
the 1990's. The article states that "there is suggestive evidence that a
Caesarean section rate of 3.6% to 6.5% (median 5.4%) is needed to address
obstetric complications in west Africa and that a rate of 2% is a minimum".
The rate for rural Madagascar was 0.8% in 1992, falling to 0.3% in 1997.
This is the lowest rate of the countries surveyed. The report confirms our
observation that maternity services in rural Madagascar are seriously
inadequate.
- We do not currently have a midwife and we do not offer maternity care.
However we are the referral centre for surgical patients, and since the next
nearest centre is 200km away, we do have many patients brought to us with
surgical complications of childbirth. Very frequently we have patients
brought to us suffering the effects of poor or absent maternity care - cases
of ruptured uterus, vesico-vaginal fistulae, postpartum infection etc.
Patients are carried in from far away.
- Two days before writing these lines, a lady was carried in with obstructed
labour. She had been carried for 3 days, walking though 10 rivers on the
way. She had a twin pregnancy and had had premature labour. The mother's
haemoglobin was around 50%, one of the babies was dead in the uterus, but
the other was saved by Caesarean section.
- The day before writing these lines, another lady was brought in from a
village, half a day away. She had been seen by our community health doctor a
few weeks previously and encouraged to deliver at the government hospital in
Mandritsara because of the risk (9th pregnancy). Our doctor could not bring
her into our hospital as we currently have no midwife and no routine
maternity services. She did not listen to his advice but stayed in her
village until she went into labour. When it was clear that the labour was
not proceeding, she was brought into the hospital. At Caesarean section it
was noted that her uterus was extremely thin and bruised and on the point of
rupturing. Fortunately she was delivered of a healthy baby and her own life
was saved.
One of Metterdaad's strict requirements is an accountant's report for the
last 2 years. We are very grateful to Derek and Brenda Alcock from
Northampton, for agreeing to come and prepare this report. They have been
our supporters for many years and have previously served short term in a
Bible school in Pietermaritzburg, South Africa. They plan to come for 3
weeks at the end of this month. Please pray that this might all result in us
being able to build the maternity unit.
NEWS IN BRIEF:
- We were sad when Dr Rabe did not return from annual leave at the beginning
of January. His wife never really settled in Mandritsara. Please pray for
them that he might find an opening in Antananarivo. His absence has made us
extra busy.
- A new doctor has just started this month. Dr Patrick has recently
qualified here in Madagascar. He is originally from the south of the Island,
but his parents work near Mandritsara as teachers. He is a committed
Christian.
- Hopes of sending Dr Adrien to a hospital in Nigeria to get further
training in Vesico-vaginal fistula repair have not worked out so far. The
logistics of getting a visa for Nigeria are very difficult! We would also
ask you to pray for Adrien's financial support. A number of folk are
currently supporting him and this is paying about half the cost of putting
his two elder boys through the French Lycé¥ in Antananarivo. He needs
another ?2000 per year for the next 3 years.
- Church roof. The roofing is here and we are planning to hire a firm from
Mahajanga to erect it after the rainy season, probably in June. We need
another ?3000 to cover the cost of this.
- MSAADA, the Christian architect firm in Tana who did the plans for the
first two phases of the hospital, are doing plans for 3 new buildings for
us.
- 1. A centre for the Community Health Department (we are hoping Tear Fund
UK may fund this).
- 2. A guesthouse with housing also for the Blondeels. We
will need to raise this money ourselves.
- 3. A school building for the Good
News School. If we cannot find a funding organisation we will also have to
raise this money ourselves.
- Annie McColm, our lab technician from Australia, has postponed her
furlough for one year so that she can stay until Debbie comes to take over.
But we still (urgently) need another extra person in the lab now as the
workload has increased so much.
- John and Mair Pugh (nurse tutor for the nursing training school) are back
at their home in France. Please continue to pray about their support. Debbie
Simpson (Lab Technician from N Ireland) is studying French in France. They,
and Robert & Christine Blondeel from Belgium (to run guesthouse) all hope to
come to Madagascar later in the year.
- Our two Swiss nurses, Rebekka and Susanne, leave at the end of March.
Hilde Vlaminckx (Belgian nurse) is no longer thinking of midwifery training
in S Africa, but plans to come here this month to take over supervision of
the inpatients.
- Esther Kaempf (Switzerland) is studying Malagasy in Antsirabe and hopes to
come here in April to be our mission administrator.
- Dorith Liniger (Swiss nurse) is still patiently trying to get the
paperwork necessary for midwifery training in South Africa
(Mseleni/Manguzi). She is planning to make a visit to South Africa later
this month to try to move things along.
- There are other workers we still need - doctors, physiotherapist, dentist,
mechanic, carpenter, evangelist/Bible teacher.
- Our family are all well in England. Rebecca and Chris in Cambridge will
soon celebrate their first wedding anniversary. They are very involved in
Eden Baptist Church. Ruth and Neil are doing well in Wimbledon and at the
Balham church-plant. Neil is busy writing his book on the Christian's
struggles and hopes to begin to return to work part-time soon. Rachel is
enjoying her one-day a week off from nursing to attend the northern Cornhill
Bible training course in Sheffield. At Cornerstone Evangelical Church in
Nottingham she is involved with a Bible study group for Iranian women.
Reuben has notified his firm that he plans to leave in the summer. He is
considering Bible school options, but plans first to spend a year as an
apprentice at St Ebbe's church in Oxford
Our sincere thanks for your prayers and support. David and Jane Mann
PS. It rained a lot in the night and our day staff had to wade through the
flooded river to come to work. We had a very small congregation at the
service here. The centre of the cyclone passed at lunchtime today - lots of
wind, then an hour or so of calm (the eye), and now more wind (in the other
direction) and lots of rain. One poor lady was carried in mid-morning from a
village a couple of hours away with a retained placenta after a miscarriage.
She and her team of porters were completely drenched and shivering badly! We
have brought some duty nurses in to stay the night in the hospital, as the
river will be impassable this evening.
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.
Previous Prayer News