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MISSION WORKERS
>
Reflections on Mission
Service
> Egypt Trip Report
> Missionary Trio in Ethiopia
> Sue Makin Writes from Mulanje Mission Hospital
> New Hope in Kenya
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Spring 2008 | Volume 15 |
Issue 1
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Reflections on
Mission Service
Rev. Dr. Will Browne, Executive
Director
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I am glad to share with you in an
organization that is dedicated to health ministry as an integral
part of the wholeness of the gospel we receive in Jesus Christ.
Health and medicine are by their nature "embodied" ministries.
From the beginning of our Presbyterian mission effort we have
had medical professionals and gifted amateurs as mission
workers. For these people, the health of an individual and the
conditions affecting health in the larger community were seen as
important to peoples' ability to receive and live the fullness
of God's call and intention in their lives.
It feels very natural that
this Mission Connection issue, focusing on mission personnel,
should be my first opportunity to write to you as the new
Executive Director of the Medical Benevolence Foundation. It
feels natural because I come from a missionary family. My great
uncle Howard Campbell spent a month riding an elephant on his
way to 42 years of mission service in Chiang Mai, Thailand. My
maternal grandparents, James and Mabel Campbell, served in what
is now Pakistan until partition (my mother being born in Sialkot
Memorial Hospital). My paternal grandparents, George and Irene
Browne, served in China until they were placed under arrest by
the Japanese army and repatriated on the
S.S. Gripsholm. My Uncle Chalmers and Aunt Polly served in
China, Brazil, and Mozambique. My Uncle Ernie and Aunt Alfie
Campbell served in India,
Vietnam, Thailand, and
Pakistan. My parents, Frenchie and
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 Joan
Browne, served in Pakistan and India.
Missionaries are as capable of human failing and sin as anyone
else, but my experience growing up was of deep joy, deep love of
God in Christ, and deep regard and affection for the people and
church with whom they served. I saw a sense of awe and gratitude
for the privilege God gave them to serve and a sense of excited
engagement in the face of intriguing challenge.
As I began my professional life I grieved that clergy were not
in demand as missionaries and rejoiced when God's grace
permitted me to serve in the national offices of our church's
world mission ministry. Now I am finding deep gladness in this
form of mission service with everyone in MBF.
We ask you to learn, think
about, pray for, and support our medical mission personnel, who
are in some sense our ambassadors. They incarnate in fragile
human form the enduring love, grace, and healing power of our
Lord and God. I thank God for these folk and I thank God for all
of you. May we together be energized and prove faithful to the
rare opportunity we receive to be part of God's healing touch in
the world God loves.
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Egypt Trip Report
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In January 2008 a group of MBF personnel, trustees, PC(USA)
staff, and church members visited Egypt. They
learned a great deal about operations there and got to know our
partners in the area.
The group included MBF Development Officer Lynn Workman
and MBF Outreach Coordinator Dr. Chip Lambert; as well as MBF
Trustees Dr. Jim Kitchen and Jimmy Hite. PC(USA) personnel
included Victor Makari and Bob Ellis. Four members of Wayne
Presbyterian Church also attended.
A baby in care at Tanta Hospital
On the first day the team traveled to
the American Tanta
Hospital. MBF has a long history of supporting
Tanta
Hospital,
which provides a wide range of health services, including
opthalmolic surgery. After a brief reception they toured the
hospital and former nursing school. We were greeted by Tanta
Hospital American Board members Charlene and Harold Gilbert, as
well as Hossam and Maged of Nout Tours & Travel. In addition to
staff, the team was introduced to Danny & Vickie Massey, a
married couple from Bristol,
Tennessee.
Danny is volunteering as RN and Vickie is a special education
teacher.
The next day they visited
Fairhaven School for
Mentally Challenged Children. The school is a community
service program of Saray Presbyterian Church. It opened its
doors in 1989 to 10 children and 4 teachers. Today it is a
stronghold with 200 students and 80 teachers, workers and
drivers. The children learn skills such as carpet weaving,
candle making, carpentry, sewing, cooking, and planting.
Fairhaven School for the Mentally
Challenged
In 2004 a new floor
was added to the school building and serves as a group home for
23 residents. Many there were familiar with MBF, and reported a
need for volunteer teachers, teacher aids, and people
knowledgeable about computers.
The team moved on to visit the
Hope and Healing Clinic
next, followed by the first evangelical church in Alexandria,
Attarine Evangelical Church, built in
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1902. They viewed a presentation on its
history and future plans.
The following
day, the team drove a short distance to the site of
Health and Hope Oasis for Children
with Cancer, the first nutritional center for children
with cancer who come from low-income families. The site featured
a working farm outside of
Cairo
(away from pollution) complete with buffalo, and fields rich
with fruits and vegetables. They viewed the home-like facilities
that would soon be filled with 8 families. Children from
underprivileged families will be taken care of in between
treatments to boost their nutrition while providing respite for
their mothers and other siblings. The mothers will be educated
about proper nutrition and hygiene, and will participate in
income-generating projects during their stay. This is made
possible by the dedicated work of mission worker Magda Iskander.
If Magda was a program and not an individual, she would
be referred to as “broad based”. Under the Coptic Evangelical
Organization of Social Services, Magda developed “Care
With Love”. The program trains young unemployed Egyptians to
be home healthcare providers for the elderly, chronically ill,
convalescing, and disabled.
Missionary Magda Iskander
The Synod of the Nile invited the team to the dedication of the new 6th
floor of the Evangelical
Medical Center, where they met the staff and board. The next
morning they flew to Aswan and then traveled to the Temple of Luxor
to attend the evening worship service.
One of the participants in Care With Love includes the
Center for Geriatric Services which was founded by the Presbyterian
Women’s Union of the Synod of the Nile.
It is a 6 story building located in a residential area of Cairo. Medical, social, spiritual and
recreational programs are available for residents and the
elderly in the community at large. The team was hosted by the
Executive Officers of Presbyterian Women.
After the Geriatric
Center, the team spent the evening
getting to know the PC(USA) personnel assigned in Egypt. Our hosts included Nancy
Collins, Dusty & Sherri Ellington, Brice Rogers, and Darren &
Elizabeth Kennedy.
By maintaining close communications and familiarity
with the people and projects in the field, MBF is able to assess
needs and communicate them back to donors. This helps you
support those in need in the most effective and informed way. If
you would like to help support any of the important mission
workers, projects, or institutions mentioned here, please
contact us!
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Missionary Trio in Ethiopia
What (and Who) You May Not Know
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 "13 months of sunshine"
"A land of remote and wild places"
"Some of the highest and most stunning places on the African
continent"
Ethiopia sounds almost exotic, yet this beautiful country is
poverty stricken, has high infant mortality rates, and the AIDS
death rate has reduced the average life expectancy to 48 years.
Ethiopia has a population of 76 million, nearly 60% of
whom are Christian. Acts 8 records the encounter of Philip and
the Ethiopian eunuch and his subsequent baptism. Presbyterian
mission doesn’t go back that far, but originated in the early
1900’s with a mission established in Dembi Dollo to fight a flu
epidemic. Today’s Presbyterian partner church, the Ethiopian
Evangelical Church Mekane Yesus (EECMY) includes five
Presbyterian synods. Three PC(USA) mission worker teams are
serving in Ethiopia in health related ministries – Michael &
Rachel Weller, John & Gwen Haspels and Dorothy Hanson.
Michael & Rachel Weller
were appointed to Ethiopia in 1994. Michael is PC(USA)’s
regional liaison for the Horn of Africa, working with partner
churches in Sudan and Ethiopia. Rachel, a RN, serves as health
coordinator in the East and West Gambella Bethel Synods. Four
years ago Rachel was asked by the EECMY leadership to assist
with the re-organization of three clinics – Gilo and Pokwo in
East Gambella and Adura Clinic in West Gambella. The clinics had
come under attack and were nearly destroyed. Staff fled,
equipment was broken and medicine shelves were emptied. Yet the
people looked to these clinics as signs of hope.
The challenges of resuming health services at all three
clinics are at times overwhelming. The demands are many and
resources few. There are so few with management skills and
qualifications to hire at any level. So skilled staff is the
first priority and most urgent need. Initially, five young
people were chosen by church leaders to be trained.
Another
nursing assistant received training to be upgraded to nurse. The
goal is for a continuous system for recruiting high school
graduates to send for training, bringing them back to work in
hospitals and clinics, sending them back for continuing
education when appropriate.
Staff salaries and transportation of medicine and
supplies are needed. It costs approximately $20,000 to run each
of the clinics for one year. The leadership at the two synods is
also eager to train staff to implement
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good business practices
to provide transparency and effective use of limited resources.
Rachel writes, "The people have welcomed me warmly as
one of their own... They feel a close kinship to Presbyterians,
as this is the denomination which first brought them the Good
News of God’s love and salvation through Jesus Christ."
John & Gwen Haspels
are both missionary children raised in Africa. They have served
as mission workers since 1974 first in Ethiopia, then Sudan, and
returning to Ethiopia. The Haspels work at the invitation of the
EECMY among 3 clans of the Suri people, carrying out a holistic
approach to mission that includes health care, education,
development of water systems and roads, and evangelism.
Dorothy Hanson takes time to listen to
the experiences and concerns of one of the Anuak women of East
Gambella Bethel Synod as she works on her beaded craft.
Dorothy Hanson
also claims the heritage of parents who were missionaries in
Ethiopia. Dorothy returned to Ethiopia as HIV/AIDS consultant
for East Africa in 2004. She works in the coordinating office of
the Ethiopian Evangelical Church Mekane Yesus where policy and
education are provided in the fight to prevent HIV/AIDS. Dorothy
pours her all into working with those who are living with
HIV-positive status and encouraging them to do so with grace,
joy and purpose. "I am privileged …to become friends with them,
and to partner in meaningful activities as we fight the AIDS
pandemic together."
Designate your gifts to
Mission Support or contact us to learn about
becoming a sponsor of one of these mission workers!
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Other Ethiopian Programs & Partners
In addition to supporting mission workers,
MBF has supported these health ministry programs and partners in
Ethiopia.
Gotcheb Clinic in South West Bethel Synod
Operational support for primary health services,
training for community health assistants and traditional birth
attendants.
Pokwo and Gilo Clinics in East Gambella Bethel Synod
Community health programs, nurses training and purchase of
medicine and supplies.
Adura Clinic in West Gambella
Bethel
Synod
Nurses training and delivery of
medical supplies.
Dembi Dollo in Western Wollega Bethel Synod
HIV/AIDS prevention care and
support programs and training.
Ethiopian
Evangelical Church
Mekane Yesus
HIV/AIDS prevention, care and support programs, including
training workshops for women.
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Sue Makin Writes From Mulanje Hospital
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Off With
a Bang!
Greetings from Mulanje Mission Hospital. My first day
on call after an absence of five months while on mission
interpretation assignment in the United States was a thriller. I
happened to be on call on Tuesday, Jan.15, 2008, which is John
Chilembwe Day in Malawi. John Chilembwe is a national hero and
martyr who led a rebellion against the colonialist regime in
Nyasaland in 1917. On national holidays, the hospital is still
open, of course, but with a reduced staff. So, Sam Matandala, an
intern Clinical Officer, and I were in charge of all of the 190
beds of the hospital.
Sam and I saw a young pregnant woman with twins and a
fever at about 8 AM.
We decided to give her a dose of quinine intravenously
over three or four hours to fight the malaria attack she was
experiencing, and then to go to the operating room to do a
cesarean secion for the twins because the first twin was breech.
So Sam then went to see 60 children on the Pediatric Ward, and I
went to the Female Ward to see 25 sick women. Male Ward would
have to wait. At 11 AM we were called to go to the Labor Ward to
see the woman with twins as a foot was coming out. So, since her
labor had progressed quickly and normally, we decided to have a
vaginal delivery rather than a cesarean.
One of our midwifery students, Sam, and I delivered the
first baby, a girl weighing 1.5 kg, and the second baby, a boy
weighting 1.5 kg. Then I examined the mother and found there was
a third baby, who was delivered also, a boy, weighing 2.1 kg.
Triplets! Although the babies were small they were all crying
and looked vigorous. The attached photo shows some of the crew
in the Labor Ward with Sam our only male presence at the time,
except for the two baby boys. It is hard to see the babies but
all three of them are in the photo.
We finished rounds and had a brief respite in the
afternoon. In the evening there were more normal deliveries.
Then about 11 PM a woman with a previous cesarean section for
her first pregnancy was delivered by vacuum extraction, an
instrument like a plumber's helper that goes on the baby's head
to help the delivery.
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Her
second child was strong and healthy, but she started bleeding
heavily after the delivery. We went through all the standard
procedures to stop the bleeding and by 11:30 PM all bleeding had
stopped.
However, at 2 AM Sam called me to the hospital for more
bleeding from this same woman. As soon as I saw the amount of
blood loss, her low blood pressure, and how pale she was, I knew
the situation was desperate. In a developed country, blood from
a well-equipped blood bank would be immediately available.
Unfortunately, we had no blood at all in the blood bank, and
only this woman's elderly mother available as a possible donor.
We called our Medical Assistant/ Anesthetist from home
to come to administer anesthesia for an emergency operation to
save the woman's life. This young man, Tingo Chipanda, expertly
took in the clinical situation, put an endotracheal tube down
the trachea, obtained adequate anesthesia, and supported the
woman throughout the subtotal hysterectomy which was required to
stop the bleeding. I am very proud of Tingo Chipanda, who up to
now has had two months of training in anesthesia at Queen
Elizabeth Hospital in Blantyre, but who will start a two year
training program, supported by the hospital, in one week to
become a Clinical Officer Anesthetist.
It was almost time for the morning sun to come up on
Jan. 16 by the time I got home to rest for a while before
Wednesday morning started at Mulanje Mission. I am back on the
roller coaster of African obstetrics, thankful to God for the
strength and opportunity to serve in Malawi.
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New Hope in Kenya.
Supporters of Kenyan president Mwai Kibaki and top opposition
leader Raila Odinga have been bitterly at odds for about two
months. More than a thousand Kenyans have been killed, with
hundreds of thousands driven from their homes. However, new hope
reigns again with a peace agreement between the two sides - a
relief to millions of Kenyans. A Kenyan email contact writes:
"We are well and finally the two
men have agreed to share the power. We hope that the problem
will finally end. I'm happy to hear that you are with us.
Friends are there for each other and we knew that there were
people praying for Kenya.
Central Kenya is well. In fact we have stood and tried
to assist where we could to help the displaced from Rift
Valley."
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Missionary Sponsorship & Info
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MBF raises salary support
for PC(USA) mission workers sharing God’s love through
international health ministries. To order a list & summary,
please contact us. You can offer a gift or become an ongoing
sponsor! Also, don’t forget to ask about missionaries waiting
in the wings.
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Next Issue:
Training Indigenous Healthcare Workers
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Mission Connection is published by the
Medical Benevolence Foundation,
a validated support mission of the
Presbyterian Church (USA)
3100 S. Gessner, Ste 210, Houston, TX 77063 |
info@MBFoundation.org | 800-547-7627
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