On the Move Up-Country

Days are flying and we are in our final week of adventure in Angola. And adventure it certainly is! We flew up last Friday on the local Angolan airline – TAAG – which is notoriously inconsistent in scheduling – we only waited for a couple of hours before relishing late-night conversation with long-term missionary friends, an IT/mechanical specialist and a nurse and then fell into bed under mosquito nets.

Alas, it seems along the way, we caught a norovirus and for the next 24 hours lay low to recuperate from severe gastro.

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On Sunday, Uli was asked to preach at two churches, and I brought “greetings.” People are delighted to find out I was born in their country. See the photos of these faith-filled ones who asked our friends to join them and help with appropriate Bible teaching. Check out the the church motorcycle taxi!The sad note at the end of the service was a young boy came to the center of the group needing prayer because he had been struck by lightning the day before.

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During our several days with Norm and Audrey, we became aware of the inner workings of the CEML hospital that Norm maintains with a meager budget and incessant issues with parts and maintenance.

Every day there are severe seasonal thunderstorms, lights flicker, go out, and generators spastically attempt to recuperate power. As I type, we are in the middle of a giant storm rolling across the countryside and Wi-Fi has disappeared for the day. One day, the surgery unit power went down, we had a restaurant dinner in forced candlelight, and yet life goes on. We realize the powerful gift of going with the flow, piling more friends into the car when they need a ride, and generally rolling with the punches of life. The lives of the local subsistence farmers hearten us with their fortitude and endless creativity to make their lives better.

The highlight for us was to visit the hospital village – where long-term outpatients can stay or the families of in-patients can live short term to feed and care for their sick relatives. My primary school friend Steve Foster has been working here for 50 years as a surgeon, training Angolan medical personnel and day by day finding his way with all the impossible and improbable issues of life here. This young man told us his whole story of being hit by a Landrover while operating his motorcycle taxi with his mother, who was killed.

Audrey, as a nurse, has built up a remarkably effective and joyous fistula clinic for women who suffer from this dreadful post-partum condition. Women in dire need come from all over the country and they are provided for in essential surgery and lots of loving care for some of the most outcast members of an African village.

This young woman in blue is Ina – a nurse in the fistula program. You can see joy bursting through her into those around her.

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I have so much more to say, but will close today with my prayer that I would know this joy in my work and life, as I saw in Ina and Audrey as they pour their lives into some of the most needy on the planet.

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