The "other" part of the hospital

I don't know if you knew this but I'm a doctor. Its what I do, not really who I am but there it is. I'm not....well I'm not a lot of things. Recently this was brought home to me last Tuesday when in the midst of a busy medical day we lost power to the hospital.

Dr. Fuka was taking out an uterus when, oops the lights went out.

I was helping some premature infants get oxygen and making rounds in the hospital at that same time.

I assumed that it was a breaker of fuse or something and strolled back to the "other" part of the hospital to nod knowingly while Molimo our mechanic extraordinaire explained electrical things to me in french and put it all together. But that is not what happened. I went back and he and Jean Pierre (carpenter/pastor) were looking at this.

This little device is called and inverter/charger and it converts our solar electricity to usable current for us at the hospital. It was fried. Even I could tell that it smelled bad. This is the mechanics version of the "janitor" lesion we talk about in medicine. Without this device even though we have lot's of batteries like you see below we can't use that energy.

The other problem was that even though we have a diesel generator that fuels the hospital a large part of our circuitry goes through this box. Therefore even though the generator was working the circuitry that went through this box did not go to the hospital.

For now the team of Molimo and Jean Pierre have worked out a system to get the electricity from this "other" part of the hospital to the patient care part of the hospital using the generator but this is not a long term solution

1. it is too expensive to run the generator 24/7

2. it is too much wear and tear on the generator.

3. there are still parts of the hospital that are not working

Currently our plan for the "other" hospital is:

1. We run the generator from 11pm through the night for the nurses and keep it going until 3pm which is the end of our day shift.

2. From 3 pm to about 7pm we run two small generators to fuel oxygen concentrators to keep some kids alive.

3. From 7pm to 11pm we have "city" power that runs our services.

What happened to the cases that we were working on when the lights went out? Well we got a light for Dr. Fuka and he finished the case without further mishap. The children I was working with were not so fortunate. They both died that evening after a long day of struggling to find ways to give them oxygen.

So as you pray or think about our patients here remember that the care they receive in part depends on our "other" hospital. Pray that we can get this repaired or replaced ($2k to $4k), thank God that the city electricity is working and we have the other generators to give a break to the big one we have, and continue to uphold our team in prayer.

updates and corrections

I wanted to write and thank everyone for praying for us in our time of transition. We are all learning a lot and trying to adapt as quickly as we possibly can. I wanted to write and give you some brief updates and to clear up some things that I told many of you as we were speaking in churches.

First an update. The conflict has settled down in the Democratic Republic of Congo and as of now no new refugees are coming our way. This situation can change rapidly so continue to pray for peace in that area. The refugees really do not have a lot but are very grateful to be here. They also do not want to leave since they have no place to go. Our surgeon who is doing a lot of good work with the casualties told one man “You can go home if you want.” The man (who speaks a little English) replies “You go to my home first, and if it is good I come. I not go back first”.
Another update is that we have all but 5 or 6 of our boxes that we shipped on the container. A little is coming on each plane flight that comes into Impfondo (tues, thurs, sat). The kids have had a lot of fun opening the boxes and discovering toys (which should’ve been in every box apparently) and other things. Anna and I are also happy to get some of the stuff we’ve been waiting for.
Correcting some impressions. Number one: we don’t have to iron our clothes. I had told many of you because of the mango fly we would have to do that. One reason we do not is that the mangoes are not in season but the big reason is that we can also just let the clothes dry for over an hour then the larvae do not live. Of course getting our clothes dry here has been a challenge because of the humidity. We usually end up hanging our clothes up inside overnight to dry.
Number 2: our clothes are not being washed in the river. The lady that comes and does them uses an outdoor spigot that we have to do that.
Number 3: The town’s electricity doesn’t even work ½ the time. You can see which part of the town as electricity and who doesn’t sometimes a night. The other thing about that is that since we are on the hospital compound we are hooked into the generator (both solar and diesel) system. Therefore we have power for all the time except it usually runs out on Saturday or Sunday if no big surgeries were done over the weekend.
Number 4: Since we are hooked into the system on the hospital we are working on a 220v, 50htz system which doesn’t work with all of our electric equipment. We can use transformers to get it down to 110-120 volts but things with motors (like sewing machines, and kitchen aid mixers) are more limited use only.
Number 5: mail. It seems that the mail is running on average about 6wks to get here. We’ve gotten some very early birthday cards for the boys already. However, it is hard not to open a letter you’ve gotten so we didn’t make the kids wait. Again, packages are still very iffy as to whether or not they will make it.

I think that takes care of that. I am sure there are some other things that I did not think of that so I will come back to this at a later time.
This week pray on
Monday for the children and Anna as they start another school week which is getting more strenuous.
Tuesday for the patients at the hospital. Pray that we can aide in their physical and spiritual healing.
Wednesday Pray for the hospital staff (both expatriates and nationals) as we are always searching for more nurses and looking for ways to make sure we can pay everyone here.
Thursday pray for the hospital equipment. We need our diesel generator to work ( we are currently using a tractor to run a smaller generator). Pray specifically for Art and Jean-Pierre as they are involved in hospital maintenance .
Friday pray for Anna that she would have the energy to do the things to keep our house running, that she would have opportunity to speak Lingala and French to others as well.
Saturday pray for me to not get discouraged when children die (4 have died since I’ve been here) and that I would succeed in communication with others
Sunday pray for our family to be a family and that Anna and I would maintain a healthy relationship and that we would be good parents to our children.
Everyday praise God that He is faithful and will sustain us as we abide in Him.

Picts of the new digs....outside

I think we have all adjusted pretty well to life here in Impfondo. Caleb does seem to be having the most trouble with the food, the schedule and general adaption but even he is doing pretty well. The Pioneer Christian Hospital was kind enough to give me a week to be with the kids and Anna as we settle in as well.
Our house is indeed the blue house, and it seems like everyone here we talk to here and even get emails from the states mention "oh yeah, I stayed in the blue house". We hope to have a long stay here.
Our week was filled with firsts for us....First meal in the blue house, first fou-fou dish (just for Stephen), first church service, the first bike rides in Impfondo, first time to the market for Anna, first time for having our clothes washed by hand (not in the river though, our washer just used the spigot from outside our door), first tour of the hospital, first visit into a congolese home ( to do a dressing change on a man with Hansons Dz--aka leprosy), and we are all doing well. Thanks again for your prayers and your interest.

This next week holds more adjustment for us as well as I will begin more action at the hospital and Anna hopes to gradually reintroduce schooling to the children since its been a while.

Here is a list of things to pray for on each of the days of this next week.
Sunday- pray for the first church service for the kids, and for monday's adjustments
Monday-pray for me as I interact more with patients and for Anna and she continues to navigate new cooking styles, shopping and child care
Tuesday- pray for Ian as he gets continues to be the big brother and we seek to get more protein in his diet
Wed-pray for Isabelle as she continues to adjust to the heat and deals with her brothers
Thursday-pray for Caleb and is continued adjustments, better sleeping, and better eating habits
Friday-pray for the situation in the DRC and the refugees here in our Congo.
Saturday-pray for good relaxing for all of us and preps for the next week.

Now the picts....
the house and a tree house. more picts to follow and remember to check out our family blog as well to see other picts.

take care.

Stephen

We interupt this scheduled broadcast.....

We will get to more pictures on our house and our impressions here and correct some info generalities about our situation here. However, I thought I would share a news article with you about some skirmishing in the Democratic Republic of Congo that is not to far from us.
You can read a story on it at all africa.com For about 2-3 weeks at the hospital here we have been receiving machete and gunshot victims of the violence and although it is technically close it isn't really...but it is. Here is a pict from google earth. the green arrow is the fighting area and if you look down at the bottom of the screen on the left side of the river you can see Impfondo.

Take a moment to pray for these victims and the perps for that matter as well.. The youngest here is a girl who needed her leg amputated after infection secondary to a wound.

More to come as we have news.

Praying itenerary

note all times are EST.
also all times are estimates!! They are not strict guidelines.
Please fill free to distribute this to all the pray-ers in your various church homes

Before 11am nov 6-pray for packing choices and that all our needed items would fit in our allowed space

11am Nov 6th to 330pm---pray for car travel and caravan space and safety

330pm- 550pm--pray for check in process (pleasant baggage handlers, maybe even allowance on luggage), saying final goodbyes, and boarding plane.

600pm to 200am--safe plane ride, kids settling down quickly to go to sleep, and ease of adjustment, food choices for Ian

0200am- 300pm is a layover in Paris. Pray that we can keep the kids awake mostly and pray for wisdom as we decide whether or not to take a quick jaunt into Paris.

0400pm to 0100 am flight to the Republic of Congo Brazzaville from Paris. Please pray for the check-in process, safe flight, settled kids, and meal choices on board


0100-0300 am getting through customs, speaking french to customs officials and meeting the contact person this will be early (0700-0800am local time) for them on a Sunday so that things would all go smoothly. I am going to post this so hopefully most of you will get it to take it to Wed prayer meeting if you go.

thanks

Stephen

The end of the beginning or the beginning of the end?

A couple of days ago I was reading 1John 4:18. There is no fear in love, for perfect love drives out fear. The one who fears has not been made perfect in love. The one who fears has not been made perfect in love. One phrase in the french bible we have says....love perfectly banishes fear.

I am thinking that I've not been made perfect in love because boy am i nervous right now. We are very soon taking our kids to the ROC, and beginning a very new chapter in our lives. We are excited relieved and sad to be leaving. There is also a lot of uncertainty left for when we get there. We go knowing God has provided for us in the past, has provided for others in the past, and is providing for us now.

Please know that we are very grateful for your prayers and your support, and that we are going because you are supporting us in prayer, finances, communication, logistics, and moral support.

I now want to be so bold to ask you to pray for us as we travel from 11am EST (leaving Hazard KY) Nov 6th through 2am EST (8am in Brazzaville) Nov 8th.
Tomorrow there will be an hourly schedule and I would like each of you to consider picking an hour to in that 39hr period we will be traveling to pray for us.
Thanks

Stephen

FAQ's

We are now T minus 24 days and counting for our departure date of Nov 6 2009. We have a lot of things to do between now and then but I would like to do some posts on some FAQ's that people toss our way. I will try and divide them into categories of
General
Children Related
Fiances
Travel Related

We will start off with GENERAL

What is the climate like in the Republic of Congo?



I will start off this answer with two charts. One is for the average rain fall and temp in Brazaville Congo and









the other is for Helena MT
















The temp are in C for the ROC but the record low is around 53def F. The high is around 98 def F but w a lot of moisture.

I will also post this from Wikipedia article on the climate as well..
Since the country is located on the Equator, the climate is consistent year-round, with the average day temperature being a humid 24 °C (75.2 °F) and nights generally between 16 °C (60.8 °F) and 21 °C (69.8 °F). The average yearly rainfall ranges from 1,100 millimetres (43.3 in) in south in the Niari valley to over 2,000 millimetres (78.7 in) in central parts of the county. The dry season is from June to August while in the majority of the country the wet season has two rainfall maxima: one in March–May and another in September–November.^[24]

What are some animals there in the Republic of Congo?

There are a lot. There are some small populations of elephants and lions, some larger populations of chimpanzees and lowland gorillas, and these two strange beast. One is an okapi, long heard of but fairly recently confirmed and the goliath tiger fish which swims in the rivers. There is also the occasional hippo as well.






How can we send things to you?

Our address in the ROC will be

The Wegner Family
Mission GO Congo
B.P. 10
Impfondo (par Brazzaville)
Republic of Congo

We have heard but not confirmed that small packages (dvd sized envelopes) will take about 3mos to get to our address if they get there at all. Please take a chance. Larger packages often do not make it however.


What will Stephen be doing at the hospital?

The first several months i will be given a gradual amount of more and more responsibility with inpatient pediatric services with also freshening up on French, learning Lingala, and freshening up on OB techniques, and maybe some surgical procedures as well. In the end i hope to concentrate on pediatrics and teaching triage techniques to nursing staff. We will cover Anna's responsibilities in the "Children related" FAQ's


Coming soon are FAQ's for finances, travel, and children

Please continue to pray for our visas to come through, goodbyes that need to be said, and last minute items that always need to be done.

thanks for praying

Updates, info, and other stuff

Its been a while hasn't it?
Here are some things we've done so far.
We've spoken at our church in Cut Bank, First Alliance in Billings MT, Fellowship Alliance in Columbia Falls MT, Central Bible Church in Kalispell MT.
I've worked 7 of my 9 schedule shifts in Browning.
We've been to a dessert auction in our honor.
Anna and the kids have started home school
We've purchased our tickets to The ROC.
We leave on Nov 6th from Covington KY (the Cincinnati area airport) and arrive on Nov 8 in Brazzaville.
We know where we are going to live in Impfondo now.



Here on the map of the Pioneer Christian Hospital it is at 2 o'clock and listed as the Van Achterberg or the "blue house".
Also if you go to IMPFONDO and see the compound on the north (top of pict) east (right of road) and can zoom out to see where it is in relation to the rest of the ROC.
One word of disclaimer, the pict from google earth is just me picking out the compound from the map. I did not confirm this with missionaries there.

Some Praises
We bought our tickets
We are getting more financial support
We are slowly getting more communication support at each of the churches we are visiting.
Safety on all of our travels. We are driving a lot but God has been very good to us.

Some Prayer requests
Pray for our visa applications that are going out on Monday. The usual turn around is about 2 wks but can be longer. Obviously we want the visa's prior to leaving so pray to that there would be a quick turn around
Pray for us as we speak at churches that we would represent God, our calling and our selves accurately and positively.
Pray for continued traveling safety.
On the way back to the East we are going to try and meet Kathleen. Pray for that rendezvous.

Coming Soon
FAQs about our job in the Congo, living conditions in the ROC and other miscellaneous stuff
Future travel arrangements and our "to do" list before we go to the ROC

Thanks again for praying, Continue to do so...

So when are you going?

I get that question a lot. I get it from family members, from churches we are speaking at, from random strangers I to whom I explain why I am "minimally employed".
The honest answer is we still don't know. We do know we are getting closer though and we are going through a checklist what we need to do before we go.

We need more supporters--we are almost at a level to go for the first 3yrs and are about 3/5 for a full time support. We still need more communication support (See last post), we love the moral support we are getting, and we are needing some types of logistic support as well.
We need immunizations.
We need plane tickets
We need visas
We need to do wills, powers of attorney and other stuff like that
We need to finalize plans for our vehicle
We need to stay the course
WE NEED PRAYER

Given those "needs" here are our plans for the next two months
MONTANA PLANS
Yes we are going to MT this September. We are trying hard to get there. We had originally planned to leave for MT on the 24th of Aug but we did some dental check ups this week and we need to take care of those things before we go to MT. Nonetheless we still are going to keep our speaking engagements (unless something else occurs) for Septemeber
Travel Plans
Leave for MT sometime the last week of August.

Speaking Engagements
9.13-Billings MT
9.20 Columbia Falls MT
9.27 Hamilton (waiting confirmation) MT
10.4 Richey MT

Misc Plans
Reconnect with friends and supporters in our home church of Cut Bank Community Bible Church
Sometime in there I might work some shifts at the IHS site I worked at in Browning as well.
Obtain needed vaccines for Republic of Congo
Apply for Visa for the Republic of Congo

Return East in OCT have more dental work done, do one last round of visiting family and if we have our visas, our plane tickets and all else is a go then we will leave the end of OCT.

Please pray for our children as we continue to bounce around from house to house, help us to stabilize their routine,
Pray for Anna and the kids as they start homeschooling this Sept.
Pray for us as we speak at churches
Praise God for the health our family so far and traveling safety.
Praise God I was able to do some work to gain finances to mitigate unexpected dental costs.

thanks so much for your prayers, your communications and other support.

Communication

Thanks for all of you who continue to come along side of us with prayer, moral, logistical, and financial partnering to help us further the this radical goofiness that is the good news of Jesus. We have had a busy month in July. I am going to talk about two areas of semiurgent needs from us. See the bold type and follow that up with a wrap up of prayer requests and where God's been working.

I need some help in two areas .
One is with the communication support aspect of our partnership though. I am looking for volunteers to help get these words to people who do not use computers but who attend a church that you attend. This maybe printing them off for a bulletin board post once a month or just giving them to people you know in your church who exceed in the area of prayer.

An illustration of this need is a lady in E KY named Peggy Manchini who has been serving God for a lot of years and who now spends a lot of her time praying. My parents will fill her in on our needs as they hear of them and she prays for us. She is a huge part of our team but if not for my parents she would not know how to pray effectively for us.

The second is for speaking engagements.
If you are in the eastern United States and would like us to speak at your church in August we need to know within 5-6 days so we can plan the next months of whereabouts for us. Also
So I hope you see the need.

If you are in Montana or points between MT and KY and would like us to visit your church we are traveling out to MT either the middle or end of August and will stay there through a good protion of September. Please let us know if we can come along with your church and partner with you to spread the word about us, IFAP, God's goodness etc.

IF you want to help out with these just send me an email at swegn001@gmail.com and let me know. This would also encourage Anna and I greatly as well.

Now for updates.

TRAVEL: We have been to Hazard KY, Lewisport KY, Chattanooga TN, Lewisport KY and now we are back in Hazard KY. We plan to be in WV this weekend then back to Chattanooga TN and Lewisport KY. After that we are planning to get to MT in September but see above for details. Thank God for travelin mercys so far and pray for contninued.

SPEAKING: We had a good week at Camp NAthanael, and we also enjoyed our visit at Hunter Memorial and Augst 9th we will be speaking at a C&MA church in Louisville KY. Please pray for that and for more engagements as well.

FAMILY: Praise God our family is doing well. Ian was ill for a couple days this week but we've enjoyed relaxing times and good visits with family

FINANCES: I was able to work some the month of July and will work some more the month of August. I am also trying to secure work in Browning while we are there. I am doing this to offset our living expenses here so as to not to dip into what people have given as gifts for our ministry. We also have recieved some more promised financial support and are about 1,ooo/mo away from being able to go for 3 years, and we are about 2,500/mo away from a more longterm support level. Please continue to pray that God will raise up people to partner with us in this area and prayerfully consider doing so.

Thanks again for praying with us.

Stephen