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Staff Reports
Reports of recent Trips and Work by Godspeed Missionary Care
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Staff Missionary Reports
Reports and Experiences of the Godspeed Staff
"House call"
Thanks again to the many of you who have written; I only hope I
will be able to thank you in person and tell you what such
contact means when one is far from home and family. I leave
tomorrow for London and then from there Thursday for Kiev, where
another member of the Godspeed staff will join me as we work with
a missionary team. I will probably not be able to have e-mail
access there to the extent I have here, but would still ask that
you write, as God will deliver that mail to me when He knows I
most need it.
As my time grows short here in Mozambique, I continue to be
amazed at how satan uses conflict in relationships to try to
disrupt the work of missionaries, and how God allows it as He is
teaching each person how to love Him and each other better.
Communication breakdowns, misunderstood motives, missed messages
all are problematic in any relationship, but these seem to be
intensified and amplified on the foreign mission field. You need
to know that your prayers for protection and open clear
communication for those you know on the mission field are vital,
powerful, and of indescribable value. Thank you for your prayers
for me, and for them.
My roles today:
- optician, emergency repair variety. The lens fell out of my
glasses last night. The catch-22 with broken glasses is that one
needs glasses to see to fix glasses. Yet, armed with needle,
thread, superglue, and with the guidance of the Holy Spirit
(what, you think I know how to do this sort of thing?), emergency
repair was effected sufficient to get me to Kiev, where a backup
pair is being sent in.
- psychiatrist, missionary care variety. Every so often I do get
to do something I am trained to do, although leading a group of
multinational, multigenerational, marrieds and singles, veteran
and novice missionaries through a basic course on conflict
resolution and communication skills demands more of me that I
have (there's that Holy Spirit thing again).
- observer, fishmonger variety. I travel outside the city with a
Mozambican missionary as he seeks the makings of the evening meal
for his family. We go past the end of the paved road a mile or
more on the sandy beach (Indian Ocean to your right) to where
there are hundreds of people out in the shallows bringing in nets
of fish and crab and shellfish. On the beach, groups of people
all selling the same fish; it is impossible for me to tell why
one pile of sand covered fish would be better than another. My
companion heads for one saleswoman who is sorting fish into
various sizes in piles, and places his order. A young boy has
been running around the area holding a large stick like a flag
pole, with four or five banners waving. He runs over, and I see
the banners are small plastic bags which he is selling for people
to carry their fish in. Estimates of unemployment in this country
run as high as 70% for some groups, so creativity in fundraising
is mandatory.
- malaria expert, I don't think so variety. About 9:30 this
evening we get a call that one of the national workers who does
odd jobs for the mission station is very sick and needs to go to
the hospital. My host and I drive through Maputo, to the
outskirts, back to the same Chamincula barrio I described in my
last message about going to church. It looks different, somewhat
foreboding at night; there is electricity in some of the shacks,
but dark prevails. Our patient is in bed, in a room he shares
with his brother (two beds, two chairs, nothing else). It is at
least 90 degrees F in the room, where this man with fever
resides. Family and friends are seated in and around the doorway
(no door, just the way), just being there. He describes another
bout of malaria, which he has frequently. He is thin, apathetic,
weak, probably anemic by my limited exam. I have a stethoscope,
an otoscope, a flashlight, and woefully limited experience with
acute malaria. I go through the motions of an exam, while my host
(who speaks Portuguese) determines that the patient had in fact
already been to the hospital, two days ago. He was given a
prescription for quinine, but the family has not been able to
afford the medication until today, and then only enough for this
evening's dose and for the next 24 hours. My host supplies them
with the ability to get the rest of the medicine, we pray, and
depart. We will check on how he is doing tomorrow before I leave;
his brother will call us from the (only) public phone at school.
This is a difficult place to live, and I do not understand how
these good people maintain their sense of happiness and
amiability. I complain much more intensely, much more often,
about infinitely much less circumstantial stress in my own life.
Humbled once again.
Temperature differential, here I come. I hope to be able to write
about what God is doing in Ukraine, and again thank you for all
your prayers and encouragement.
Godspeed,
Barney
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