Ninelle

Before the Tenpenny family had to return to the United States, they were working on raising funds and arranging a trip for Ninelle.  She desperately needed a life saving surgery beyond the capabilities of our hospital.  Even though circumstances kept Dr. Elliot Tenpenny from traveling with Ninelle, Dr. Kiong Liao was able to step in and accompany her.  After some time, he was relieved by one of our nurses, Amanda Volkman, who plans to remain until Ninelle is able to return to Congo.

An update on Ninelle from Elliot and Amanda

Ninelle, the young woman that together we helped send across the continent of Africa to have open heart surgery has reached Kenya and has now had surgery. She is now in intensive care at Tenwek hospital. We praise God for the chance to take care of this young lady. Together we were able to truly show the love of Christ to her and her family. Never before, to my knowledge has anyone in the Republic of Congo had this surgery, let alone a single mother, from a family without great means, in one of the poorest regions of Congo. Thank you for your help in making this a possibility!

Below are some reports from the nurse with her now and some photos of the surgery. Please continue to pray for her healing.

So surgery went well over all. Was incredible to watch. Dr. White said she has the largest right atrium he has ever seen. Her heart was seriously huge! They completely replaced the mitral valve and placed a band in the tricuspid valve to help it pump more efficiently.




Praise God, Ninelle had a decent night. She was extubated today at 1pm. First thing she said to me is "ndzala" which means hungry : ) She has crazy generalized edema and looks like she has gained 100lbs. The nurses in the icu are fabulous. She has 3 that have been helping her and her cardiac surgeon Dr. Agneta has been here almost all night and day. Pretty impressed.

Tenpennys back in the US

Thank you for your prayers for the Tenpenny family.  They are back in the US now.  You can follow their updates on Reigning in Life.

Saying good-bye

We face many good-byes in this life of ours.  Some are more unexpected than others.

This week we said good-bye to the rest of the Tenpenny family- Elliot, Elias, and Hudson and Christina Warkentin.

Christina has agreed to leave Congo a little early so that Elliot will not have to travel alone with the two young boys.

They traveled to Brazzaville on Monday and this evening they will continue their trip to Nashville, TN.

Thursday, Sarah Tenpenny will be traveling on a medical flight from South Africa, arriving in Nashville on Friday.

Thank you for keeping their family in your prayers.

The Tenpenny family and Christina will be greatly missed here in Impfondo and at Hôpital Evangélique le Pionnier (Pioneer Christian Hospital)!

Praying for the Tenpenny family

Praying for Christina

The two youngest team members- friends and neighbors-
share a bowl of popcorn on their last evening together.

Sarah Tenpenny with Elias and Hudson in Impfondo.
They will be reunited before the week is over.

Update on the Tenpenny family

Hudson can't wait to see his mama again!

Update from Sarah Tenpenny:

Just wanted to check in from South Africa and let you all know I'm well. The doctors and nurses here have been great and I'm so thankful that Dr.Timothy M. Kitchen was able to accompany and help me sort through all the details. Today I was cleared to return to TN and am just waiting for them to arrange the next stage of medical transport (because no one wants a baby born on their Trans-Atlantic flight. :)) So thankful for all your love and prayers, as well as, access to modern medicine and the wonderful people at WMM. Please continue to pray for Elliott Tenpenny as he says goodbyes, finishes up packing, and starts his journey home on Monday with the boys and the awesome Christina Warkentin.

Update on Sarah Tenpenny

Ready to Fly

Thanks for all who have been praying for the Tenpennys.

Update from Elliot today:

Thank you all for your support and prayers. Sarah left yesterday on a medical evacuation flight from here in Impfondo and arrived safely in Johannesburg, South Africa last night. She did well on the flight. Examinations have started, there has been no emergency need for surgery or delivery found, the baby is healthy (and is a Boy). She has been found to have signs of inflammation and anemia on examination. The doctors will be coming up with a plan by Saturday. Our hope is that she is sent back to the US soon to be with family even if she needs to remain in a hospital.

The boys and I (Elliott) are doing well. They are adjusting to the shock of watching mommy leave in an ambulance as well as possible. We are now scheduled to return to the US next Thursday. 

Please continue to pray for us through this time. We appreciate the encouraging messages and support of us during this time. Thank you.

Around the Web

From Millie Delion via Facebook: Mountain biking on our rusty beater bikes, African thunder and lightening storm, Congo jungle trails and even a decent fall in a huge mud puddle... But we found the village- and even though the little patient we were going to visit to make sure was still ok was out in the woods with her family hunting caterpillars - she is healthy and doing well and we received a gift of Aka mushrooms.. What a great Saturday
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Old Scars from Reigning in Life:
One of our interesting patients recently came to us with very old injuries. In 1997 the Republic of Congo went through a civil war. Many of the wounds of that time have healed but some remain. Diane came to us with many unhealed scars from that war. During the war she was chased by rebels while riding on the top of a large truck. She fell off the top and the fall crushed a part of her spinal column paralyzing her from the waist down. For many years after the injury she struggled with her new disability in a country where no grace or accommodation is given to the disabled. Many are left to fend for themselves in whatever way possible. They are often disowned by families and wander the streets looking for handouts.

Read the rest here *warning surgical pictures*

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From New Sight Congo via Facebook: Maman Marthe is a precious pygmy lady with leprosy. Sarah is the most inspirational missionary who has dedicated her life to serving the poor. We call her Mother Teresa of Congo! Here we are celebrating Maman Marthe's new sight after her eye operation!

Our 3 new trainees are doing really well. It motivates them to learn more when they can see the tangible help that they are giving our patients.

His Grace by Elliot Tenpenny

First published May 13 by Elliot Tenpenny on Reigning in Life.

“If you don’t do something, she’s just going home to die,” her mother pleaded, and she was right.

Grace had been born with a large spinal malformation called a myelomeningocele, where an abnormal opening of the spinal cord allows the nerves and fluid to come out at the base of her spine. When we met her, 14 months later, the skin covering the swelling was paper thin and ready to burst open. If this happened in the remote, forest area she lives in, she would quickly die. After several weeks of praying, asking advice from multiple experts, reading everything possible, and exhausting the possibilities to transfer her, we made the difficult decision to operate.



We entered surgery with all our personnel. Everyone had grown to love Grace and we weren’t sure if this would be the last time we’d see her beautiful smile. The room was solemn as Dr. Joe prepared anestesia, Elliott read notes and prayed silently in the corner, Ben and Eamon collected supplies, and Danny and Sarah prepared her special bed for post op care. After everything was prepared, we prayed together.



“When peace like a river attendeth my soul, when storms like sea billows roll…” played in the back ground. The first incision was made. We drained the fluid and opened the sac revealing the inter workings of God’s hand. Tiny, white, spinal nerves spidered throughout the sac, created to control every fine movement and feeling of Grace’s legs. Working carefully around this precious circuit way, we tediously separated the thin layers of skin and closed the opening. After finishing a long and difficult operation, we praised God for guarding Grace’s life through surgery but worried she would never be able to move her legs again. She quickly proved us wrong as she woke up from anesthesia kicking.



God not only guarded the ability to move her legs, but over the next few weeks He also protected her from infection, kept her from developing hydrocephalus, and spontaneously healed an anal fistula. After another operation, good nutrition and many hours of worry and prayer, Grace will soon go home, healed. Every day we see Grace, we are reminded of God’s goodness. Most recently, Grace has started standing for the first time and trying to learn to walk. Through her, we have been touched by His grace and healing made real through the life of this precious little girl.

It is not by my knowledge and capabilities that Grace has been made well. Never before has this truth been made quite so real. “Such confidence we have through Christ toward God. Not that we are adequate in ourselves to consider anything as coming from ourselves, but our adequacy is from God, who also made us adequate as servants of a new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.” 2 Corinthians 3: 4-6

We may not feel or be qualified to do the things God asks us to do, but if He asks us to do it, He promises to give us the capabilities and use us for His glory.

What is God asking you to do today?




Elliot and Sarah Tenpenny are serving at the Pioneer Christian Hospital in Impfondo with World Medical Mission. Read more of their experiences at Reigning in Life.

Around the Web

 One of our current visitors gives a good picture of daily life, on her blog Nurse Millie Goes to Africa:

Just in the past hour, I knowingly ate several bugs that had made their way into my trail mix because I didn't want to waste the M & M's, I looked out the window while I was writing this and there was a family of goats wandering around my front lawn, I almost stepped on a chicken when I opened the front door, I took a cold shower from well water (because there is no such thing as hot tap water), I made tortillas from the only cooking appliance I have which is a small propane camping stove while rocking out to Nigerian reggeaton and listened to my roommate's account of how she just went to go meet people at the airport and ended up on the runway helping fix a part on the plane because the plane broke down and she was one of the only people at the airport that could speak english as well as the local native language.

In the past week I have taken care of more people with advanced malaria than I can count, seen a boy that I have been taking care of since I got here that was an inch from death due to malnutrition, meningitis and pneumonia sit in a wheelchair and smile and try to say "Mbote" to me (hello in Lingala), I have seen people die simply due to lack of diagnostic tools or treatment options, I have also seen patients survive and improve beyond what I even thought was possible, biked with my roommate and friend, Mama Sarah, through a jungle road to a village outside of the town where the pigmy people live to bring food (stuffed into my massive basket that I have on the front of my old rusty beach cruiser bike), do wound care, and listen to Mama Sarah tell them a bible story. I have been bit by the most interesting looking bugs while in the middle of giving meds or starting an IV, and I have chased gigantic African wasps out of the Emergency Room to the complete amusement of all the patients and their families. I have been so hot that I just sat down on the floor of the ward to find some coolness. I was invited to a coworkers house (they are typically 1 room huts made out of mud) in town and was taught by her and all the local neighborhood children how to prepare and cook some of the local food (who knew that it would take coming to Africa and having to pound out leaves in a wooden bowl while being cheered on in Lingala to get me to learn how to cook.)  Read the rest here

At Reigning in Life, the Tenpenneys continue to share about the stories of patients here at the hospital.  If you aren't following this blog, I highly recommend it!  Check out the story of Presence and Mr. G and His Chronic Wound.

One of my favorite writers, Rachel Pieh Jones posted about Dangerous Riches at A Life Overseas:
There is an inconvenient truth in my heart that I like comfort and ease. And yet, when I am comfortable and life is easy, I do not cast myself on God. I don’t beg and plead and demand that Jesus make his presence palpable. I don’t cry for miracles, I am less desperate in prayer. Read the rest here

A Visitor's Perspective

Nastasia (a Med/Peds resident from the states), Erik Scharrer,
Dr. Harvey, Sarah and Elliott Tenpenny

While our family is busy traveling, you may be wondering what is going on around the hospital.  A recent visitor posted some thoughts on her time there...
It's 4 o'clock in the morning and -14 degrees Fahrenheit outside.  Erik and I are wide awake.  Erik decides to make us some eggs for breakfast while I sit in the dimly lit dining room, wrapped up in a blanket at the kitchen table.  I slowly, intently, scroll through the pictures from our last two weeks in the Congo.  As the eggs sizzle in the pan, we recall memories from our trip.  It is 9:00 a.m. in Congo right now and we think about the hospital.  They have already had morning chapel, morning report, and the doctors are probably on rounds.  Even though we have been home three days, our body is still on Congo time...

Read the rest of “Hôpital Evangélique ‘Le Pionnier’”.

 You can see the latest hospital news on the Tenpenny's blog Reigning in Life.

We are looking forward to our return and being able to give updates on the hospital in person.

Impfondo found Around the Web

Some of our colleagues in Impfondo have blogs, too.   The Harveys have been in the Republic of Congo since 1995.  Their newsletters can be found at Congo Harveys.

The Samoutous are operating New Sight Congo, the first eye center in our area.  They are also our neighbors in Impfondo.

 Dr. Laura Foudy was in Impfondo for about 2 1/2 years.  She's heading to the "other Congo" for three months.  We hope she'll be back in Impfondo soon.

The Tenpenneys are our newest arrival in Impfondo!