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…

Matsaile and Matekane Ministry

Let see...approximately 300 people saw the Jesus film for the firsttime...about 92 repented and turned to Christ in faith after hearing the gospel clearly presented... Brad and Sefiri/Sechaba trained 60 village health workers and AIDS support groupmembers in basic HIV care and prevention using the AIDS cube...Sally and Angie, serving as pharmacy techs dispensed medications to over 200 patients...3 out of 6 of us had diarrhea...we slept extra nights in the villages because of weather that prevented the MAF pilots from landing...we are so thankful for beds with mattresses... and hot showers... a lot of older people can now read as Brad and Sefiri helped people get fitted for reading glasses thanks to the generous giving of people at Community Bible Church in San Diego (Brad and Angie's church).

God is so amazing. To be able to minister together with Brad and Angie Stoner as well as Pastor Sefiri and Sechaba was such a joy for Sally and I. We laughed together, we prayed together, we slept in tight quarters on the ground on camp mattresses, ate together, got sick together, and saw

God do amazing things in the lives of Basotho and in our lives.

We now have a group of people at Matsaile that were practically begging us to come back and teach

them the Bible. We know that we have a big challenge to get back there and begin that process. There is follow up also for the AIDS cube training to be sure that people are actually using them to teach others. Right now we are reviewing all that happened over the past two weeks, what didn't get accomplished, and to see what is next. We really wanted to go to Mokhotlong to minister with our missionary colleagues, the Floras, but the rains were so much that the road was not drivable... maybe in March... Thanks Brad and Angie for being willing to risk it all and come and minister with us. Thanks Sefiri and Sechaba for joyfully putting up with Americans as you ministered with us in sharing the Gospel. Thanks for praying for us. Thanks for giving so we can remain here in Lesotho serving God as we see the Kingdom expand... all for His glory!

Update on the Ministry Marathon

I'm sitting at home in Maseru with a really nice cup of coffee reflecting on the past 5 days of ministry with our team. We should be in Mokhotlong District (far East side of Lesotho) getting ready for ministry there but the heavy rains have prevented us from going there. The place that we were to meet up with the Flora family has roads that are too treacherous to go even with our 4WD when it has rained this much, and there is no airstrip there yet. So, we are resting a bit while we prepare for Monday-Tuesday in another village.

Our first ministry area was Ha Rapase where we went to hold a pitso (village gathering), mobile medical clinic and evangelism. This is another of those areas in the Maloti ('ma-loo-tee') mountains that is far from health care and where we have identified a place for an airstrip. Monday morning we left Maseru at 6:30 by two MAF planes to Qacha's Nek to meet up with guys from the district health team. Ntate Molisana is the focal person for health and is the key for promoting a health post and airstrip

in this area. We went by van 30 minutes to a place where we could cross the Senqu river by boat. There is no bridge there so

the government pays a man to row people across. We began walking to the village. The path was not bad at all, only crossing through a donga (river ravine) once. It was 85-90 degrees and full sun. We arrived at the village and they began calling people for the pitso. We waited a couple of hours as people came from some of the surrounding villages. Might seem like we keep doing the same thing over and over and you're right. This is the third area where we are doing this as the Ministry of Health has tasked LFDS with assisting the mountain district health management teams with opening new areas that they have identified as most critical. It's something I really like because we get to help begin the process of bringing what I call 'total health' to an area - addressing the social, medical, physical, and spiritual needs of a

community.

People were very receptive to the idea and had already carried a lot of large stones up to where the airstrip would be, as well as collecting sand for building. We emphasized the need for each village to contribute so the airstrip and health post would belong to all the communities and they agreed. The woman standing in the photo shared stories of sick people walking 3-4 hours

(or being carried on a stretcher) to the nearest clinic, and of people getting robbed or raped on the way back. They really want

an airstrip and health post. She is a village health worker and gladly allowed us to use her home for our mobile clinic. Sally did the medication dispensing while Brad and Sefiri shared the gospel using the EvangeCube. Angie was helping the children learn some new games along with a couple of young Dutch girls who have come to work with Youth for Christ. Meanwhile, Christiaan Haak

(MAF Pilot) was surveying the airstrip location. That night we were given the nicest rondoval (round 'hut') to sleep in. They are thatch roofed with a divided Dutch door that we ended up

opening in the middle of the night as we were too warm. The next morning it was time to pack up a couple of donkeys, hop on two horses (which we shared) and walk back to the river crossing.

This time the trail took us through some beautiful areas along a river. We were met there by the van to take us back to the airport in Qacha for our flight back to Maseru. A great plan but the clouds were so low that we had to stop in Semonkong to wait out a storm. After a couple of hours we were able to get airborne and back to Maseru. A good hot shower and a real bed made for a good night's rest, ready to head to Matsaile the next day...more in the next post.