August 22, 2006

• We're Back

  August 20,2006        .... SEE PICTURES ADDED

  
  

              I am sorry that I have not written an update since our departure in April.  The time back in the States was filled with family and friends…..including a whole lot of new friends from all of the churches that we visited.  We would be amiss not to thank all those responsible for our positive and fruitful visits.  So to all of you from Virginia to North Carolina and Ohio to Georgia and Rhode Island to Maryland….we wish to again give you our thanks for taking us in and sharing in the vision of Sons of Thunder Medical Ministries.

  
  

              That being said……let me share with you our arrival back in Zambia.  We were picked up at the airport by Tim and Mary and driven right to our door.  As soon as we exited the vehicle, literally a swarm of Zambians ran in our direction.  For the next few minutes we were hugged and greeted with smiles and a very warm welcome.  It was very overwhelming to realize we were actually missed and even more amazing that we really had missed them too.  Even the school kids and the orphanage children seemed genuinely glad to see us.  The orphans started yelling “Sal,” “Sal,” and one little boy went running into the house and said “SAL CAME BACK!!!!”  It was very moving.  I went one way because the school kids were heading for me and Sal went the other because the orphan kids were yelling for him.  It was awesome to get such a warm reception.

  
  

              On to the clinic staff…..Do you remember the “Dream Team” from some time ago?  Well, let me introduce you to “God’s Dream Team,” the one that He put together for the Clinic.  This is the team that held the reins of the clinic the three months we were back in the States.  Working together, they were able to keep the Clinic open Mondays and Fridays and spent the rest of the week taking care of HIV patients, along with shopping for mealy meal, powdered milk, medications and other medical supplies as needed.  Despite many obstacles from a lot of different sources, they were able to triumphantly overcome them all.  In each situation that arose, they problem solved, asked no one for help, relied on each other and took care of the problem. They held “department meetings” every week and prayed together every morning.  They took ownership of the clinic and worked as if it were their own. We were and are very proud of them! The pilot was a tremendous success.  As a thank you for a job well done, we all went to dinner at Rite Pub in town.  At the end of dinner, Christopher (the driver) went out to his car and brought in his Bible to read a scripture to Sal.  With tears in his eyes, he said “I am very happy.”  He rededicated his life to Jesus at the HIV meeting/service we had right before we left….came to find out that he would sit in the car during clinic hours Mon and Fri reading his Bible waiting in case he was needed for transport. Not only has he rededicated his life and has been in the Word, but now he wants to go to Bible school here on the farm when it reopens in September!!!  We told him we would be happy to accommodate his work schedule so that he may do that.  Praise God!

  
  

  It has also been rewarding to see what the staff is spending their money on….Janet has saved enough money to have a house built on her own as a single woman.…a two room mud house with a thatch roof , ready in about thirty days.  She is now saving for a bed!  Anna gives her mother money every month to help with food and she has bought a mattress…she is also having a hut built for herself on her mother’s homestead.  God said “raise the standard” and “give hope” and I see signs of that happening.  Our Pastor once said “each one, reach one”…..one at a time and it will have a compounding effect over time.

  
  

                  Life in Africa continues to be filled with plagues…this time it is with “stink bugs.”  When we came back to the apartment after three months, there were literally tens of thousands of stink bugs…they are small, crunchy bugs that stink when you kill them.  Thankfully they do not bite but they are very annoying!  It was like living on Fear Factor.  The bugs came out of the ceiling and seams in the walls, they were in the shower and in the bed and in books and in the closets etc….really gross!  Five vacuum canisters emptied so far.  We still have them….but thankfully they are down to about a hundred vacuumed up twice a day.  While cleaning them up one day, I noticed something black come out from under the loveseat…..when I looked down, it was a scorpion!!! I know I told you that we had them before….but they were nothing like this one!!!  This one was as big as my cell phone!  You won’t believe this because I still ponder it, but I was not scared!  I just removed my shoe and killed it!  Just last Saturday, the workers on the farm killed two Puff Adder snakes they found right in the yard of the guest house. There were five other sightings that I heard about….a cobra in Rev Mwikeesa’s television, a mamba out of the trellis of the guest house veranda, two cobras in the bathroom next to the clinic and a cobra in the kitchen of the guest house….all were killed except the one in the kitchen.

  
  

   

  
  

              Clinic patients have involved a lot of bush runs….the last work team got to see more of the bush than we had seen all of the first nine months we were here.  There have been four deaths since we got back…one, an HIV patient of ours that died in the clinic with all of the family present.  His wife thanked us for more time with her husband and we were able to make sure in that time that he was saved and knew where he was going to spend eternal life. 

  
  

  One of the most dramatic patients that I can tell you about was “Nelson”….a 60 year old man who came to the clinic on an oxcart (Zambian ambulance) with extreme difficulty breathing.  His family had brought him from deep in the bush about 6- 7 hours walking.  We put him in bed with his head elevated and started nebulizer treatments…his O2 saturation which is supposed to be in the 90’s was in the 50’s. His ankles were swollen with fluid and his lung sounds were “wet.”  He was literally drowning in his own fluids.  We started an IV to give him Lasix and Aminophylline…and after three neb treatments, his O2 sat was still crappy and he was foaming at the mouth.  I suctioned him as he was losing consciousness.  To make matters worse, there was no vehicle on the farm to use for transport…so we called Tim from up on the hill and asked him to transport us in his lorry to Livingstone General Hospital.  He agreed and came down…Sal started bagging the man to assist with breathing and we got men from the work team to help load him into the back of the lorry on a mattress.  We took two team members with us along with his wife….one team member holding the IV, Sal bagging, me monitoring his O2 sat and level of consciousness and the other team member comforting his wife…everyone praying.  What a sight we were in the back of the uncovered lorry driving on the open road and through town to the hospital.  When we got to the hospital, Tim went to get a stretcher and came out with an army canvas stretcher like you see in the battlefield scenes of old war movies.  When we got inside and asked where we should put him, the only nurse around said “Put him in the emergency room.”  Sounded reasonable, but she then proceeded to unlock a 12x12 room.  From the look of things, it was obvious that this was a room that is seldom used if at all….one stretcher, drawers empty, some old equipment just thrown around on top of counters etc.  Remember Sal is still bagging Nelson…he is not conscious…O2 sat still not acceptable.  When the nurse put us in the room, she left and no one came….turned out the Clinical Officer was at lunch with no way to reach him and this nurse was the only one there covering the Outpatient Department.  We found an old working O2 tank and moved it closer…then we tried to find a mask.  Sal had to “rig up” something that would work to deliver oxygen.  We were able to get his O2 sat up into the 90’s with the oxygen and he would respond to my voice if I was in his ear.  We waited for the Clinical Officer to arrive and gave report and prayed, leaving him there not knowing if they would do anything or if he was just going to die.  We were pleasantly surprised when we discovered he had been admitted to the male ward and even more encouraged when we found they had put him on Lasix, Digoxin and Salbutamol….when we went to visit, his wife ran up to us and hugged us for a long time without letting go. Nelson was discharged about a week and a half later.  When we were taking him home, we stopped at the clinic to get medications for him…(the hospital had only given 5 pills of Digoxin and told him that was all he would need).  While he and his family were in the vehicle, I was stirred to give him a Bible and talk to him about Jesus.  That day we made sure he was saved and knew where he would spend eternal life.  The entire family, wife and grown children were witnessed to professing their relationship with Jesus also.  Nelson went home and Sal made a house call last Friday….he wasn’t looking real good.  It had taken Sal over an hour to get to his house by vehicle.  When Sal returned, he told me “He won’t make it out of there again.”  That was Friday….Nelson died today at home.  Saddened though I am for his wife and family and sometimes frustrated at medical care in Zambia, I can’t help but smile………..you see, I know where Nelson is today. J  

  
  

  

  
  

  Jha, Anna, Janet and Christopher..God's "Dream Team" for the Clinic

  
  

  

  
  

  A "REAL" African Scorpion

  
  

  

  
  

  Two "Puff Adders" killed in the front yard of the Guesthouse

  
  

   

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