by Friends of Mandritsara Trust
“Today, eight African doctors are being trained as future missionary surgeons in Mandritsara. However, within months, two of our three senior surgeons who are training them will be leaving. We are asking you to pray earnestly that God would provide the surgeons needed - whether missionary or Malagasy - to continue training the next generation of Christian surgeons for Madagascar and Africa.”
Ted Watts, Missionary Team Leader, HVMM
In the Good News Hospital project in Mandritsara, we believe in prayer. We believe in the importance of prayer. We believe in the power of prayer. Whatever the need, we believe in prayer. We believe in prayer because we have a loving and almighty Father in heaven who has given us many promises in the Bible about prayer. We believe because Jesus taught His disciples to pray. Our experience has taught us time and again that God answers the prayers of His people. We have put a current example of this at the end of this posting. Prayer is of the essence of what it means to be a follower of Jesus.
Today we are asking for you to pray for something very specific. Something which Jesus Himself asked the disciples to pray about.
In Matthew 9:38 Jesus said: “Pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out workers into his harvest.”
The workers that we need urgently are Senior surgeons. Training surgeons
How we thank God for our surgical team in Mandritsara, led by Ted Watts. Over the last few years, a number of surgical colleagues have joined him, long or short-term, men and women as passionate for the gospel as they are skilled with a scalpel and with a heart for training that has borne such wonderful fruit in the PAACS (Pan-African Academy of Christian Surgeons) programme. Seven Malagasy and one Congolese doctor, all keen Christians, are being trained as missionary surgeons that we trust will bring much needed surgical care, and gospel witness, to needy parts of Madagascar and Africa. But for this we need experienced qualified surgeons to provide the training.
Trainee surgeons and trainers
The “faculty” consists of a minimum of 3 surgeon-trainers and we are thankful that with Ted, Marco and Daniel, we have had 3. We praise God for the hours they have put in, training and discipling these young men and women, teaching them to suture and resect, showing them by example what it looks like to give your life in the service of those with nothing just as Jesus served us, and encouraging them in their preaching and sharing of Jesus Christ crucified in their work in the hospital and their daily lives.
Patient arriving by ox-cart
Lives are touched every day by the work of the surgical department. 1200 operations are performed every year, major and minor, and each one has a story to tell. Patients like these: (typical cases, but we have made up the names):
Little Bruno who sustained a major cooking fire burn needing skin grafts and plastic surgery.
Jean-Marc, whose kidneys were blocked by schistosomiasis and needed total replumbing of his urinary tract to stop him simply dying of kidney failure in his 30s.
Ernestine, who had not realised that recent heavy rains had displaced a crocodile from its usual habitat to the stretch of river where she washes her clothes. She was fortunate to get away with only a bite to her leg – but crocodile bites are notoriously prone to infection (the teeth of crocodiles are not very clean!) and the bite led to gangrene of her leg needing an amputation.
Solofo, a teenage boy who takes his father’s cattle to find pasture each day. Unfortunately, on the way home one evening, one of the bulls became aggressive and Solofo’s abdomen was penetrated by a large and pointed cow-horn – and his intestines spilled out.
Joanna, a middle-aged lady who had a fall and dislocated her elbow. She visited a “Bone-setter” who gave her various treatments, but was unable to put the joint back in place. After several months of being unable to bend her elbow, with her arm completely straight, she finally came to the hospital.
We thank God that people like this are able to get to the Good News Hospital where there are surgeons with the surgical skills needed to save their lives. Above everything we pray that as they hear the gospel every day of their many days and often weeks on the ward, and as they observe the compassion and love of the Christian staff who care for them, that they too would come to faith in Jesus and be truly saved, safe in His hands for all eternity.
We have so much to thank God for, but today we also need to ask for your prayers, and ask that He would provide again as He always has. Marco is returning later this year to a small mission hospital in Sambava, on the north-east coast (where there is only one other surgeon currently). Daniel has come to the end of his service in Mandritsara (which has been several years longer than originally planned) and is returning to Europe with his family. So, very soon we will again be in need of 2-3 senior qualified surgeons to join Ted in supervising and training the PAACS residents, as well as covering his home assignment. We pray this might be those called to serve long term, but even someone able to come for a couple of years would be immensely valuable. We hope that, in a few years, as the first PAACS graduates qualify as surgeons and grow in the experience they need, some of these surgeons will one day join the faculty and become teachers themselves.
Surgeon in training
So, please pray, please spread the word, and if you’re reading this as a surgeon yourself, or if it puts you in mind of godly friends in surgery (of any specialty!) with a heart for the gospel and an openness to following Jesus to the ends of the earth (and learn French and Malagasy!) please let them know about this need and opportunity and please be in touch with us. You can do this on: https://www.mandritsara.org.uk/contact-team-leader
Answered Prayer for Bako!
Last month we posted a story about Bako, who teaches the Malagasy and Tsimihety languages to the missionaries working in Mandritsara. Bako has only one seeing eye. And that eye has had major problems for several years for which she has needed surgery in Kenya. We mentioned last month: “Please pray for Bako’s eyesight... Pray for ongoing treatment in Antananarivo and that she may be able to continue her work and ministry.”
Today we received this news from Bako: “I am back in Mandritsara after my last IVT injection (into the jelly inside the eye). I thank the Lord, and I also thank everyone who prayed for me and my health. The three injections went well, without the complications we feared. I am also resuming my normal life now, and I have noticed an improvement in my vision compared to before the treatment. When I arrived back in
Mandritsara, when I went to work at the hospital, when I was at work, I noticed a difference; my vision is clearer than before. I thank God for His love, His grace, His mercy, and His providence. Thank you again for the prayers including by people who I don't know, but who prayed for me!”
That is why we post these stories on the website – to encourage you to pray, because we believe that God hears and answers the prayers of His people.