My Journey

Today the entire Chimala Mission family is mourning the loss of a precious little girl.  Karlin was the 6 month old daughter of Dr. Peter and Victoria.  Victoria works at the Herring Christian School here at Chimala and Dr. Peter is one of our wonderful doctors at the hospital.  As you can imagine, Dr. Peter is especially devestated because as a doctor he helps so many and yet could not help his own daughter.  All of the other doctors and myself who also cared for her and sat by her side for hours are feeling the loss very deeply.  Baby Karlin became ill on Christmas Eve and did not really respond to any of the treatments which we tried.  Yesterday morning, she really took a turn for the worse and we all felt the burden of loosing the battle.  I stayed with her for most of the afternoon with our Medical Director, Dr. Mahenge.  Dr. Mahenge was actually with her when she finally passed away.  He did everything he could.  Please pray...

The clinics this month went very well.  I was a little concerned because Rene Wagner who is my partner was on furlough in the states.  For the well child clinic at Mapongala I was blessed with the help of a young visitor to the mission.  Steven Akins from the states spent 2 months here and was of great help this month especially at this clinic.  We saw 83 children.  The day was fun and productive.  Today, we held our 2nd mobile clinic at Mfumbi.  Again, my partner Rene was still in the states, but I was blessed with the help of Thresa Clavier from Oklahoma who arrived just last weekend.  Thresa was of great help.  We did not see as many patients today as we did the first day we held this clinic.  However, I believe each month will bring us different challenges. Our numbers were only 46, but we were able to handle a couple of challenges which some of the people were dealing with.  One lady had attended our clinic last m...

A friend from Edmond, Oklahoma, Thresa Clavier arrive this past weekend to visit Chimala Mission for a couple of weeks.  We decided to treat ourselves to a safari at Ruaha National Park for Christmas.  So on Christmas Eve we started our journey.  The drive was very nice with the weather not too hot; not too cold; just right!  Of course, everything is new for Thresa and I enjoy seeing the things which she delights in. We arrived at our hotel around 3pm and were greeted with the traditional warm cloth to refresh with and a cool glass of juice.  Our juice was "Baobab" juice which is from one of the trees growing in the area.  Very nice.  We sat on the balcony and enjoyed the view. Christmas morning, we had breakfast around 7am and headed to see the wildlife around 8am.  We had a wonderful time.  Below are just a few of the pictures I had the opportunity to take.  I am so blessed to be serving the Lord in this beautiful country. ...

Yesterday, we held our first true mobile medical clinic at a village called Mfumbi.  I have been planning to begin mobile clinics since I moved here in January.  As you may recall, we did start a mobile clinic at Mapongala in June, but this clinic is for well baby/prenatal care.  Our new mobile clinic is for all patients with whatever complaints they may have.  I picked Mfumbi to be the first clinic because last year when I visited here, I held a small mobile clinic at that village.  Many of the Mfumbi Church of Christ members were on hand to help us.  Our team included Dr. Mwakiposa, Menard, Hamisi, Stephen and myself.  We were very busy from 8am to 4pm.  We saw 92 patients, dispensed 312 medications and performed 26 lab tests.  Three HIV positive patients were identified and referred for appropriate consulting and treatment.  One 8 year old girl was identified to have heart disease and referred to the hospital.  We also identifi...