"A man’s mind plans his way but the Lord directs his steps" (Prov 16:9)
Our mission statement reflects our vision, i.e., to build teaching hospitals across sub-Saharan Africa. We are relying on God to direct our steps. CEF feels that the Lord has indeed directed our steps to N’Djamena, Chad. It is there that we are now building our first Chad hospital. Construction has started on Phase One which includes the first building within the hospital complex . You can see, in the yellow highlighted section of the drawing to the right, the area that Phase One covers in the overall plan for the Guinebor II Hospital in Chad.
This phase includes the security wall, a water well & tower, sewer system, electrical, and the clinic building. With the generous support of our donors, the security wall is in place and the pre-fabricated clinic building is paid for and should arrive from the States in the very near future. However, before the clinic doors can open there is much to be done: a foundation for the building, installing electrical and sewer, digging a permanent well, assembling the building and equipping it with furniture, fixtures and medical equipment.
For a better understanding of the financial status of Phase One, see the breakdown
"A man’s mind plans his way but the Lord directs his steps" (Prov 16:9)
Our mission statement reflects our vision, i.e., to build teaching hospitals across sub-Saharan Africa. We are relying on God to direct our steps. CEF feels that the Lord has indeed directed our steps to N’Djamena, Chad. It is there that we are now building our first Chad hospital. Construction has started on Phase One which includes the first building within the hospital complex . You can see, in the yellow highlighted section of the drawing to the right, the area that Phase One covers in the overall plan for the Guinebor II Hospital in Chad.
This phase includes the security wall, a water well & tower, sewer system, electrical, and the clinic building. With the generous support of our donors, the security wall is in place and the pre-fabricated clinic building is paid for and should arrive from the States in the very near future. However, before the clinic doors can open there is much to be done: a foundation for the building, installing electrical and sewer, digging a permanent well, assembling the building and equipping it with furniture, fixtures and medical equipment.
For a better understanding of the financial status of Phase One, see the breakdown in the chart.
 Much has been done but a great deal remains to be accomplished. CEF only builds when it has the funds in hand. Currently, we are in need of your generosity to continue forward in completing Phase One. Would you like to help? Look at the chart above and select one of the programs in the phase that you’d like to support. Put the number of that program on your check. You will be blessed for it.
We Will Be Doing Battle With Nasty Diseases
Recently I was reading an article in SCAN, a publication of the Christian Medical and Dental Association about "noma" (aka cancrum oris). It’s an especially cruel infection found most often in sub-Saharan Africa. It is a disease of great interest to us as CEF is involved in the development of a medical center in Chad and one in Sudan. Noma is especially prevalent in poor, malnourished children but also in AIDS patients or others who are imuno-compromised. Malnutrition is one of the most common causes of weakened immune systems.
We are looking forward to the day CEF’s hospital construction has been completed and we move forward in helping these desperate people. Jesus loves them just as He loves us. Noma is only one of the diseases that seems to disappear when children are adequately nourished.
We have asked the Lord to provide the funds for our hospital and we know He will through His special people.
We look forward also to the day that we will have more personnel in Chad and Sudan actively telling our patients, their families and others we meet along the way about salvation through faith in Jesus Christ. For those who put their trust in Him, they will be safe even if they lose their physical life to noma or one of the many other aggressive diseases we will confront in Chad and Sudan. However, we do know that these little children are precious to Jesus right now and we know for certain that He wants us to care for them as he loves them through us. Write us at cef@mailmacfee.com or at P.O Box 2247, Woodland Park, CO 80866
We welcome prayers warriors, financial supporters and those willing to serve on the front line in Chad or Sudan.
Abraham Ariopten - Ten Years Of Suffering Are Now Over
By Dr. Bert Oubre
I first met 12 year old Abraham in January 2006 when I spent a few days at the Christian Mission Aid (CMA) health care center in Padak, South Sudan while I was performing surgical procedures. CMA is one of CEF’s partners in developing a referral hospital in Werkok, a village about ten miles from Padak. Partners in Compassionate Care (PCC) is the third partner in this project that will provide a hospital for these impoverished people. CEF’s part in this partnership is to recruit the national and ex-pat staff and will manage the day to day running of the hospital. The Voice of the Martyrs (VOM) is supplying medicines and supplies for this project.
This partnership proved very important recently in caring for Abraham. Abraham stepped on a large thorn at age two. The wound became infe cted and the infection traveled up his leg. There was no immediate medical care available as the country was in the middle of a civil war. Over ten years Abrahams' infection contined, gradually destroying his leg and threatening his life. His mother did the best she could to change the rag dressings of the draining wound. The infection entered deeper tissue and finally attacked the ligaments and bones of the foot and leg. Finally, the patient was seen at the clinic in Padak and was flown to an International Red Cross Hospital in Kenya. Efforts to heal the wound with antibiotics were unsuccessful. A doctor suggested an amputation but it was refused by Abraham's mother. They were sent back home to South Sudan. The misery continued. Gradually, some rudimentary schools were re-opened but Abraham was not allowed to attend because of the foul, draining wound that smelled bad and attracted flies. Thus, Abraham became more isolated and lonely. This was his status when we arrived at Padak. When I examined him, he seemed very dejected and without hope. His leg was thin and useless and even the knee joint was involved in the infection. It was clear to me that Abraham needed an amputation to save his life. I knew also from past similar cases I had managed in Africa, that without this infected limb, Abraham could return to an almost normal life. It would mean getting him an artificial leg later when the surgical wound was healed. It would mean goodbye to the messy dressings, the odor, the flies, the pain and being ostracized by his peers and teachers. I explained all this to Abraham and his mother. There was no immediate consent by him nor by his mother. However, the next day they returned and asked if I would proceed with the amputation.
We performed an above the knee amputation under pretty primitive conditions but with no complications. The stump healed fine and CMA took him to Kenya where he was fitted for a prosthesis. The last photo I saw of Abraham showed him and his mom with big smiles. He quickly learned how to walk with the prosthesis. They can now put the ten years of bondage to this wound behind them. The Lord is good! How blessed we are to be available to help desperate patients like Abraham.
Container, Container, Who Has The Container?
Shipping of building materials, household goods etc. to our hospital site in Chad is done by packing everything into a 40 foot steel container. It is then trucked to  Houston, put on a ship and six weeks later is off loaded in the seaport of Douala, Cameroon. From there things get very sketchy. The container is supposed to be loaded on a large truck and driven overland hundreds of miles into Chad to be off loaded at our hospital site. The container in the picture left the U.S. this past January. It contained the Elliott’s household goods (first CEF missionaries on the ground in Chad) and various other supplies. It arrived at the seaport in mid March was picked up and just seemed to disappear in the vast outreaches of Africa. Finally in early November the truck carrying the container reached the hospital site. Trucks break down. The rainy season makes roads impassible, the driver goes on vacation...who knows. There isn’t anyway to track the container. We wait. We pray. We hope, and somehow the containers arrive.
CEF has another container sitting in the U.S. full of building materials and hospital equipment. Unfortunately, we doen’t have the nearly $18,000 it will take to pay the shipping costs. Shipping a container isn’t a very glamorous project, but we’d hope that you might help us get this next container on one its way to the hospital site.
|
