Outfitting the Rondoval for the Journeyguys

Just got back from the mountains - Matsaile Village. We did a MAF cargo flight to carry up the new door and other furnishings for the Justin and Korby's rondoval (round house). This is phase one of outfitting the place. Everything has to be weighed and then secured in the Cessna 206T. Oliphant and Maila did a great job getting all the stuff loaded in and tied down. The flight is about 40 minutes - roughly 70 miles. There are no roads to the village. The airstrip is 0.4 miles from the village so we carried things by hand and wheel barrows. Took 4 of us two trips but we got the door/frame, futon, mattress, table/chairs, bedding, some kitchen items, and the portable generator and tools I needed to put in the new door. By the time we got everything to the village it was close to getting dark so the work had to wait till morning.

We are so grateful for the way several people in the village have embraced the idea of having the guys living there to share the gospel and teach the bible. This week I had three guys that were so helpful in getting the door put in - Ntate Tsupane, Ntate Thabang, and Ntate Moloi.

Woke up the next morning to a cloudy, drizzle and cold day. Started by tooking out the old door that didn't fit and

couldn't latch shut. (Note the traditional Basotho blankets. They are really warm - part wool/acrylic). Next was the task of fitting the new door frame into the opening. Fortunately I was able to drill and anchor the frame to the stone blocks. Then it was the task of fitting, and adjusting and re-adjusting till it was in. I am so grateful to my dad for his patience over the years of teaching me a lot of different things like basic carpentry and electrical and plumbing. Some may argue that a little knowledge is dangerous, but hey, with the combined skill of the four of us we got the door in. (Ntate Tsupane knows stone work and some carpentry). After that, it was time to

use mud/manure mixture to seal around the door frame to fill in any gaps. Sounds weird but really works good. Through out the day we talked about a variety of things including the word of God and what place it has in their lives.

We finished the work by around noon but the weather was too bad between Matsaile and Maseru for the pickup flight. It worked out well as it gave me time to reassemble the futon, the table and chair, to put down 2/3 of the floor covering, and clean up. I was blessed that evening by one of the widows who had cooked something like an egg omelet and cornmeal for me for my supper. It was pretty exciting to be able to sleep in this rondoval that will be the home of Justin and Korby. I enjoyed the extra time to read my bible and pray for the people of Matsaile, for Justin and Korby, and for the expansion of God's kingdom there.

I woke up the next morning to look out the window to see 10 feet of visibility as the entire village was blanketed in a fog. Turns out Maseru was totally enveloped in a fog as well so all aviation activities were on stand by. By mid morning the fog lifted and the flights could begin. Ntate Tsupane, Ntate Thabang and I headed to the airstrip carrying the generator and tools. I got back to a sunny Maseru by mid afternoon, thanking God for a successful journey.

We have more trips to go as we still have the solar panel, batteries, radio antenna, radio and other supplies to install. That will happen the end of May after we get back from the USA.

Oh yeah, we are so excited to be heading to Michigan next week. We are so proud of our daughter Megan as she will be graduating from Hope College on May 9th (her birthday too).

More about that later...

Mountain Men for Matsaile

We are so excited to finally have Korby (on right) and Justin here in Maseru. These two young guys are recent college grads that are doing the IMBs Journeyman program. They will be working with our team over the next two years - but living in the remote mountain village of Matsaile. This past week Sally and I have been getting them oriented to some things in Lesotho like driving a stick shift on the other side of the road, beginnings of language lessons, lots of Q/A about the things we've learned over the past year, meeting Tom, Cindi and Eli (our team mates), meeting some of the MAF team, etc. We've been working with our mission to get things ready for their living in the mountains in a rondoval (round house). We've got their HF radio/antennae and this week picked up the solar system that will provide the basic power needs for the radio and two lights. And we got them a new door - which the guys and I spent almost two days putting on the hinges (it's a split stable door), lock set, frame, and varnishing it so it will be ready to install in the rondoval as the current door doesn't lock and doesn't close right. It would be pretty cold with the old door. Their rondoval is the one on the left with the lighter cut stone. It is 18 feet in diameter which is pretty big. We also hauled over to the MAF hanger two truck loads of their supplies for their place. It will be transported up along with the door early next week.

We also took the guys over to Ladybrand, RSA for a horse riding lesson. Even though we have all rode before, Sally and I knew that we'd benefit and they also

agreed that we could all learn something new. We

over some basics of riding and horse behavior. Boy I wish I had done that when we first got here...

Well, I took the guys to the airport this morning as they head off to Zambia for 30 days of training with our mission. It will be all about living in remote situations, learning language, and living in community.

Pray with us as we continue to prepare things for Justin and Korby in Matsaile. I had planned on taking a plane load of things today to Matsaile but the weather was not cooperative. We will have about three to four plane loads of things - especially the door. I have to get that installed so the place can lock. Hoping to do that next Tue/Wed. We are so excited to have these two guys on our team. They love the Lord, they are committed to investing two years of their lives in the lives of the people of Matsaile and the surrounding 6 other villages. Their task will be to live among the people as an incarnational witness of Jesus, to share the good news, to teach the bible, and to start new churches. A big task...

Flying Again with reduced budget

I am so happy to say that starting Monday we will be back to flying an almost normal schedule! I had an intense meeting with the Ministry of Health yesterday and a follow up this morning and it was determined that they would find money to allow us to resume much of the schedule we had last year.

We will make some cuts this first quarter as well as do some analysis of the numbers and types of patients referred from the mountains to the national referral hospital (It is one of our biggest cost items).

Our LFDS team is so happy today, and I can now sleep better knowing that we are going to provide through MAF the kind of service that the people in the mountains so desperately need. I give glory to God for he is the one who knows all, who moves the hearts of kings, and is sovereign over all.

Happy Birthday Sally!

I love you Sally! I thank God for my wife and ministry partner and love of my life. I am so blessed to be married to Sally, to have known her for almost 29 years, to have been married for almost 27 years, to have served in missions with her for 15 years, to be loved by her. She loves God, loves her children, loves to serve others, and loves even me. Happy birthday Sally.

Major Cutbacks in LFDS Services

Sorry for the tardiness in posting what has been happening in our lives. I have been consumed with trying to convince the gov't that a 60% cut in our flying budget for the next fiscal year (begins April 1) will result in massive changes and suffering. From what I understand (it is possible I don't have the whole story), the whole gov't is under tight budget scrutiny by IMF and World Bank, and various gov't entities have taken big budget cuts for this new fiscal year. Even though I submitted last August a request for increased funding for our flying component, I just found out two weeks ago that our budget was cut 60% from what we were able to spend this year.

So, I have spent the past two weeks going over finances, programs, invoices, etc. to see what we can do with the money they have budgeted. A large portion of our flying budget (80%) goes to transporting sick patients to/from the mountains. That cost is more than what we are given for next year so something has to change. The Lesotho Flying Doctor Services program is expensive as it involves flying, but it is the Lesotho Government's program. It costs money to fly sick people, clinic staff and immediate family, Doctor Team, Public Health Team, Environmental Health Team, Cargo (drugs, coal, wood, gas, food, coffins). It is heart wrenching to have to make these cuts but that is my responsibility as Manager, LFDS.

So, beginning April 1st, we will only fly what we call Code-1 patients. Those that have life threatening emergencies out of the mountain clinics. For example a pregnant mother whose labor is problematic as she can't give birth the normal way; or the man we flew out Wednesday that was semi-comatose; or the infant with pneumonia who needs hospitalization, etc.

Hopefully all will survive and we will be able to fly them back to their mountain clinics to get to their homes.

As far as the Doctor Team, we will continue to fly to the two health posts as they are places that have no clinic except what we provide when we go there twice a month. We will also go once a month to the two mountain clinics where there is no doctor stationed. The Public Health Care team (two nurses who do vaccinations and pre-natal care) will continue to go to the two health posts once a month. We will stop our services of eye care and dental care in the 7 mountain clinics that have a doctor stationed there. We will continue to fly our LFDS staff that work in the mountain clinics in and out on a monthly basis as per their agreement. And we will try our best to get the cargo where it needs to go as well.

These are drastic measures that have to be taken in order to provide some basic services throughout the coming fiscal year. I will be meeting again today with the gov't to 'beg' for the money to be able to do at least what we did this past fiscal year, but I am not very confident they will find the money.

Please join me in prayer in interceding for the Mountain Basotho as they will suffer from these cut backs, and for our LFDS staff as they also see the suffering. I'll keep you posted if things change.

Back from Kenya and in 'school' again

Got back from an awesome CMDA conference in Kenya. There were about 310 medical personnel from all over Africa including the teaching staff from the USA. It was a daily 'diet' of a breakfast of spiritual food, followed by a buffet of Continuing Medical Education, followed by some later afternoon exercise, topped off with some fellowship dessert. The morning spiritual food was brought by Dr. Robertson McQuilken, author of many books including 'Life in the Spirit.' I say a buffet of CME as there were 3 concurrent sessions for docs (1 for dentists) in Med/Peds, Surgery, Community Health. The late afternoon exercise was great as we had been sitting for the whole day and the running trails at Brackenhurst are just fantastic - lush semi-tropical yet highlands vegetation that in many places made a canopy for running under. Evenings concluded with singing and then 'reports' from the field sharing what God has been doing all over Africa in the area of Medical Ministry. It was intellectually challenging as well as spiritually stimulating - something both Sally and I needed. A special "THANK YOU" to Baptist Medical Dental Fellowship for paying for our way!

So yeah, we're back in language school again. Day two and my brain is hurting. We spent most of today going through an evangelistic tract I put together that is mostly Scripture passages. Our teacher, Me' Mamela (her name means 'listen'), was helping us get the pronunciation and emphases correctly. We spent over an hour and completed 3 sentences and 4 scripture verses only! Ouch...at one point I was sure that she was wanting us to make a noise like you are clearing your throat immediately followed by a sound only made by somehow blowing air by the sides of your tongue and making a 'l' sound. One of us practically spit on the teacher trying to make the sound, but she was quite patient with us. Me' Mamela has a PhD in theology and so we are 'picking her brain' as it were to understand some of the Basotho cultural innuendoes within religion.

I had made up a list of theological terms (English) and then went looking for them in the Sesotho Bible to see what word they used. Not as easy as I thought. For example, there isn't just one word for 'sin', but about 5 that I have figured out so far. Which one to use is dependent on the context. Wow, we have a long way to go. I want so much to be fluent in Sesotho in medical as well as Biblical language. Well, I need to do my homework...

In Kenya for two weeks

Hey, sorry. I forgot to share that we are in Kenya now. Yep, back in East Africa, but only for two weeks for the Christian Medical and Dental Association (CMDA) Conference. This gives us opportunity to be together with about 250 medical missionaries from around Africa and Middle East. It’s an action packed conference that allows me to get much of the required Continuing Medical Education credits that are essential for maintaining my US medical license. And of course, it allows Sally and I time for fellowship, to share ideas and challenges we are facing, to encourage one another, and to have a break from the daily medical tasks.

Sally and I are particularly grateful to Baptist Medical Dental Fellowship (BMDF) who graciously funds our entire time here. We would not be able to come here without their help. And they really encourage spouses to attend, having a non-medical program for them for spiritual growth and renewal.

If you’ve never heard of CMDA or BMDF check them out at

www.cmda.org and www.bmdf.org

The CMDA Commission does an amazing job of getting a superb group of experts to come and teach us – asking them to do it voluntarily! The CMDA team has dedicated huge amounts of time, personal expenses, love, and prayers for this conference. The result is to provide us with a quality program. We’ve been so blessed. This is our 6^th CMDA conference since we came to Africa.

Tonight as we met together as a big group to sing a bit and then get through some of the announcements, they asked how many were first timers to the conference. About 1/3 were new! Sally and I noticed how many young people are here. It is really encouraging to know that God is still in the business of calling out people with medical skills to use them for His glory and for advancing the kingdom of God through medical missions with a variety of mission organizations.

Please remember us this week and next as we spend time here getting medically and spiritually renewed. Pray for me as I do a small presentation as part of a Medicine and Spirituality Symposium (Weds 10^th). on “Avoiding the sin of doing medicine apart from ministry” Pray for the faculty too. Their desire is to do all of this with excellence for the glory of Jesus Christ.

And if you feel led, visit the CMDA and BMDF web sites and consider supporting their ministries.

Daily by His grace…