Sunday, October 31, 2010

Blanketed with LOVE!

While back in the US in July, a small country church (Cassels Alliance Church of Manchester, PA) asked if we could make a special delivery of blankets to the children of the Hope House, here in Libreville. They were blankets provided by the efforts of children that participated in the "Vacation Bible School" of their church. So, after receiving the blankets via shipping container recently, we were able to make the delivery. The kids loved them!



The Hope House (Maison d'Esperance) is a home for at-risk children.


Please Pray for Pastor Israel and Mama Nathalie, who are the directors.



The kids are living in a great, temporary location, for the time being. However, rent is prohibitively too much without outside contributions. Current assistance runs out in December. Pray for more funds to come in to help keep them from moving into a less-expensive, smaller home, right in the middle of the school year.



Currently, 28 children call Hope House their home. There are 19 boys and 9 girls ranging in age from 19 months to 15 years old.

Sunday, October 17, 2010

Nairobi- City Tour

We went from giraffes, warthogs, and baboons in the morning to sky scrapers, slums, and shopping malls in the afternoon and evening. Our flight back to Cameroon departed in the middle of the night, so when we returned to Nairobi, we made the most of our time.



After checking out the skyline, we headed to "Kibera"- the 2nd largest slum area in all of Africa (2nd to SOWETO, in South Africa). Here's a map to highlight just where we were. As you can see, the slum is so large that they have names for different segments of it.





"And the king answering, shall say to them, Verily I say to you, Inasmuch as ye did it to one of these my brethren -- the least -- to me ye did it."

Ok... I promise... LAST SAFARI POST!!!

Can you have too many giraffe pics? I think not...







For just one over-nighter, we really saw a lot. What an awesome Creator God we have. Yep, we live in a broken world, but there's so much "common grace" all around us that we can enjoy together. Hope you've enjoyed these pictures.

Safari part IV

So, the second day, we awoke to this...



An awesome display of our beautiful God's creativity! The sunrise over Mount Kenya was really breath-taking. Mt. Kenya doesn't look too big, but it's actually over 17,000 feet- africa's 2nd largest mountain. It looked pretty cool this morning.



After a delicious breakfast, we headed out for our 2nd and last "drive". Gotta love the warthogs! So cute!






Just when we thought we were only going to see Zebras, Warthogs, and Impalas all day long, we came over a rise and saw...


PAPA GIRAFFE!!!



Voila! Giraffe! So cool. It grazed right in front of us for 15 minutes or so, accompanied by his son.

Safari part III

After 5 minutes of driving and not seeing anything, we were getting a little disappointed. But then, in the distance, through the trees and bushes...



AWESOME!


Incredible!



Beautiful!



The park also features a chimp orphanage. Chimps are not naturally found in Kenya, we were told.



As per usual, the animals were having as good of a time watching the humans. These two were high in the top branches of a tree.

(part IV to follow)

Safari part deux

So, we arrived to drop off our bags and... the place is really cool. Guests stay in glorified "tents" that are set up under a thatched grass room and frame.



Yep, that's right... a toilet in a "tent"!!! Now, this is what I call "camping"! Even a nice, hot, steamy shower to help you out of bed on the chilly mornings. This place is the first place I've ever stayed that has a "turn down" service where they place hot water bottles between the sheets to pre-heat the bed!



As much as we wanted to stay and marvel in the wonders or our tent, nature was calling! I mean, literally, birds of every kind were fluttering about, calling us into the "bush" where we were sure to discover additional wonders.



First, our driver, John, opened up the canopy so that we could ride in style!




The anticipation was too much... we were off, wind blowing in our hair! What animals were we to find!?!

(yet again, another teazer... please continue on to the next post)

Kenya Safari part I

So, after a 3 day seminar on aviation safety, we figured... "Hey- we're in Kenya... let's take in some sights for a day or two!" So, that's what we did. Just a 3 hour drive, North out of Nairobi, you can find the "Ol Pejeta Conservancy" where a very nice facility, "Sweet Waters Tented Camp" is waiting for your reservation.




Here's the main entrance about a 10 minute drive off of the national route.

...and right off the bat.... we were seeing some cool animals!









All this on the way to drop off our bags and go out on our first "drive"!

(that's a "teazer"... pics from our 1st drive to follow)

Wednesday, October 13, 2010

Nairobi tidbits

If you're ever in Nairobi, there's a nice, multi-level shopping area called "YaYa Center". Alace and I recommend it!

At a grocery store at the YaYa Center, Alace happened upon "Hob Nobs"! Apparently they were all-the-rage back in jolly 'ol England when she lived there as a child. Who would of thought... years later... in East Africa!?!




There are also several great choices for dining. We suggest the "Java House" for a wide variety of coffee, great dishes (a side of salsa comes with it all), and breakfast served all day on Saturday & Sunday.


Oh yeah... there was some "business" to attend to, as well.
Monday through today (Wed.), I attended a training seminar- "Safety Officer & Accident Investigation" course. Here's our group (above), who all passed the course with "flying" colors. It was great meeting these men from various non-profit groups using the tool of aviation to bless others in Africa.

Tortured by Fire

Dr. T is a missionary surgeon and author who has served at our hospital for the past 32 years. His wife, an RN, directs the hospital’s nursing school. The following is an adaptation of a recent special edition of their which details the trial by fire of three local Christians and an urgent call to prayer:

Dear Friends,

Today, I wept with my old friend, M, a retired pastor. We wept together as he told me the story about how people from his village, B, poured kerosene on his feet-and the feet of two men from his church-then lit them on fire.

I found M in the operating room this morning, so I put on a cap and mask, sat next to him, and wrote down the details of his ordeal as he described them to me. We talked while one of my surgery residents operated on his feet, cutting off the burned, dead skin, leaving a raw surface.

It will be a month, and will take numerous skin grafts, before my old friend will walk again.

Phantom of The Alliance

The trouble began one night in mid-September (2010) when 20 men and boys, ages 14-30, decided to undergo a spirit worship initiation by drinking a hallucinogenic drug made from the root of an indigenous plant. The next morning, several of the young men claimed that while under the influence of the drug, they had seen a phantom roaming through the village, causing people and children to become ill and die.

One of the group claimed that the phantom came from the local Alliance church.

Someone else said that he had seen a skull in “a deep hole” near a door of the church. This created a storm of alarm, and there was clamoring for the young men to dig it up. So the frenzied group crossed the road to the church and began digging around the front entrance, cutting down a palm tree and digging among its roots.

A Human Skull

When they found nothing, the group began to dig near the church’s side door. After tunneling down about a foot and finding a human skull, they stormed the 30 yards to M’s house, broke down the gate made of roofing tins, and dragged him outside. By this time it was late in the afternoon.

The men demanded that M explain how the skull had gotten where they found it. When he replied that he had no idea, they shouted, “That proves that you did it! Now tell us whose skull it is so we can stop the phantom!”

Bound for Burning

M continued to insist that he was completely innocent. When an elder, J, and an older gentlemen who is a Catholic, M, tried to defend the pastor, the gang tied the hands and feet of all three of men with electrical wire and dragged them across the road. They sat them down in a cleared area, in front of several mud-brick houses where some of the ringleaders lived.

People from both ends of the village gathered to see what would happen. Some young women spoke up, saying that they had dreamed the night before that Pastor M was the person who had called the phantom to the village by burying the skull at the entrance to the church.

At about 8 p.m., one of the young men brought a plastic jerry can filled with kerosene and began sloshing it on the three men. M and the two others shouted with alarm, and some of the people urged the group not to pour the kerosene on their clothes. When they continued to do this, one young man grabbed the kerosene can and ran to the edge of the clearing, saying that he would not allow them to burn the three to death. The gang members threatened to beat the man before retrieving the can; in the end they sloshed kerosene only on the men’s feet, before lighting their feet on fire.

“Lord, Save Us!”

M began to weep as he told the story, and I wept with him. “I cried out as loud as I could, ‘Lord Jesus, save us! Please save us!’” he said. “We were crying and screaming in pain; they told us they would keep doing it until we confessed, but we hadn’t done it!”

For the next hour, the gang of young men and boys poured kerosene on their prisoners’ feet three times and burned them. When they ran out of kerosene they held burning torches to their feet. The three men screamed until they were exhausted.

Eventually, the crowd grew tired of its interrogation, untied the three, went to their homes, and closed their doors. Fearing they might be next, not one person from the Alliance church helped the men get back to their houses.

Meanwhile, M’s wife was crying and praying in their home because she didn’t know where he was. It took her husband an hour to crawl 50 yards across the road and up to his house.

About a week after they were burned, M and J managed to hire a pickup truck to deliver them to the hospital late one night. N had no money to pay the driver, so he was left behind; the other two were hospitalized and received immediate care. Both underwent surgery on their feet the next morning.

Alone

When M told me in the operating room that N was still in their town because he had no money to pay for his medical care, two of our chaplains and I immediately drove the nearly 20 miles through the mountains to the town of B. I found him lying in his tiny wooden house. His wife had died some time ago, so he was alone, lying in bed with flies covering his feet, waiting to die.

N has now had surgery on both of his burned feet and is hospitalized with his two brothers in the faith. It seemed only right that the hospital treat all three of these courageous men for free-it is an honor for us to serve them.

The police were informed of the crime, but said they will wait until the men are healed and discharged from the hospital before carrying out an investigation.

Meanwhile, the Christians in the Miotsogo villages of B and G are fearful of further attacks. The pastors in the town of G, about six miles up the road from B, report that many Christians are afraid and have left the church. Most of the men in both villages are now involved in demon worship.

Since their hospitalization, all three men have undergone multiple operations and skin grafting to their feet.

Until Jesus Comes,

Dr. T

“Please Pray,” Dr. T: “For M, J, and N-they face weeks, and possibly months, of hospitalization and multiple operations to recover the bottoms of their feet with skin.

“Pray also for God’s mercy for the people of the town of B and G. At one time, more than half of the villagers were Christians, but in the decades since their grandparents turned away from the tree root drug and spirit worship to embrace Jesus, two generations have grown up and chosen to return to the old ways.”

Thursday, October 7, 2010

Monday, October 4, 2010

You wouldn't believe it...

byline: Things you see on the road in Africa

On the drive between Libreville and Cameroon, we came upon this small pickup whose load was being secured by two men lying on the top! When we passed and took a closer look, the guy on the left was sleeping! Just one of the many incredible sights one might see while zooming around the roads of central Africa.

New and Notes

Here are some tidbits from our lives on the African equator...


"Not so odd-Fellows"
The two young, American-looking women above (Sophie & Annie) are "fellows" doing a 3 to 4 month term at the Schweitzer Hospital in Lamberene (4 hr. drive from LBV). They stayed at our guest house and, while doing some errands in Libreville, had time to visit the medical clinic run by the national Alliance church (as pictured). We have been seeking to build a strong network with other hospitals in Gabon and this visit went a long way in doing that.



"TWINS!!!"
This is what one patient at the clinic exclaimed as she saw Alace working along her colleague, Mama Perine, at the medical clinic. This has become a running joke at the clinic, as you may suspect! Alace, a very gifted writer (as many know), has written about her time at the clinic and how, as she has seeked to bless others, she has received the blessing. CLICK HERE to read more.



Sam, the Man!
Another cake to celebrate another orbit around the Sun for Sam! One more year, and we'll have 3 teenagers. Crazy... CLICK HERE to see some of the photos from Sam's party.




Wii Partner!?!
This is what Alace found when she walked into our living room the other day- Sam teaching our Gabonese teammate, Celine, how to play video games! Celine had noticed that Sam was "driving" quite erratically and hitting many mail boxes. After she said something, Sam challenged her to do better and she took him up on it! So, with Joe and Meg away at boarding school, Sam is finding new competition for the Wii games!





Jungle Life!
Alace snapped this photo while traveling to a village outside of Libreville. One of the villages where they were passing out mosquito nets had tied up this baboon as a pet. To see all of the photos of this effort done in partnership with UNICEF, CLICK HERE.