Elena is 40yo and arrived eight months pregnant with severe difficulty breathing for over a week.  She said she had a painful, growing mass in her neck for several weeks.  She had swollen lymph nodes in her neck and ultrasound revealed a healthy pregnancy, her eighth, and a large amount of fluid in both sides of her chest.  From one side, we drained over a liter of thin, dark fluid and, from the other side, several hundred ml of milky pus.  She breathed more easily and her neck mass opened during the night, draining pus.  She went into labor the next day and delivered a healthy 2kg baby boy.  Elena’s (tiny) baby began hungrily nursing right away and had no difficulty breathing.  Elena had two chest tubes and couldn’t lie on her back but breathed easily for the first time in weeks through the night and, with much help from her mother, nursed the baby well and kept the baby warm.  The baby thrived and Elena improved dramatically over the following several days.

Elena needed multiple lavages of her chest to drain the thick pus from her chest, while the other side of her chest continued to drain thinner fluid through another chest tube.  Her neck mass drained well.  She has been with us a week and continues to breathe well on her belly, eating a little and improving.  Her baby boy continues to nurse and looks to survive.

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Ana is 65yo and came to us after fighting tooth pain and swelling for several weeks at home and, of course, a visit to the shaman.  She finally came to the hospital when she could no longer swallow her own saliva.  We drained a large amount of thick pus from her neck twice over several days and she was able to swallow and quickly progressed to eating and drinking.

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Alberto is 14yo and arrived after suffering from fever and abdominal pain for two weeks.  He had been to the shaman and the health post and was then admitted to the local city hospital, about three hours from us.  When he wasn’t improving, Alberto’s family brought him to Cavango with a hugely distended abdomen that one couldn’t be touched without Alberto groaning from the discomfort.  Adelaide made a quick and accurate diagnosis of peritonitis caused by intestinal perforation from typhoid and we stabilized Alberto and flew him with our ever-ready servant MAF colleagues to our ever-ready servant surgical colleagues in Lubango and he was operated the same day.

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All three of these patients received excellent medical care immediately upon arrival to Cavango and our care was unable to save their lives.  They all succumbed to their illness in the days following their excellent care while their severely weakened bodies fought to recover.  The lack of access to good, basic, evidence-based medical care prevented them from receiving care in a timely manner and surviving their illnesses, all of which are easily overcome early in their course. What they have access to is a shaman and his “all-natural” remedies and demonic spiritism and/or the “free” unstocked government health post with well-intended, untrained care-givers.  As illustrated in the lives of these three, the delay in basic care costs precious lives every day in Angola.

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I recently read an article in “Christianity Today” discussing the lessened enthusiasm in today’s church for missionary medical works in impoverished and/or undeveloped areas in the world.  The article is true.  More “Christian” church leaders need to visit places like Cavango in countries like Angola, one of many countries which portray themselves as having access to evidence-based medical care.  They also need to re-read accounts of Jesus’ life and where he spent so much of His time and effort.

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It is also widely believed that many nations like Angola are “Christian”, because churches can be found here.  What is here are largely government-friendly, world-friendly, well-respected and competitive institutions of religion which work well to curb the behavior of the populace but there is virtually no understanding of a surrendered, passionate, personal relationship with the living Jesus (“Christian”).

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Our work is one of great sadness.  We see so many preventable and young deaths.  We fight against a current of godless spiritism, ignorance and hopelessness here and against overwhelming apathy in the global “church” for places like Cavango.  Many church workers and pastors, who are unenthusiastic about medical missionary work, take out “evacuation insurance” for their two week trip to visit their “church-planting” missionaries…

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Our work is also one of joy.  The vast majority arriving in Cavango “beat the odds” and have their earthly lives extended by the excellent care by our Cavango staff and because so many of you have sacrificially supported this work.  We have other reasons for gladness, as well…

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We had our first of several scheduled conferences for our staff of 70+ on self-awareness, personal development and leadership (photos).  It was led by Brás (Angolan attorney and new husband of our Angolan physician intern, Vianne), Messele (our Angolan pastor/missionary/servant colleague) and Adelaide (our Angolan physician intern and missionary).  They led the event wonderfully and the whole staff was engaged and interacted enthusiastically throughout the eight-hour event this past Saturday.

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Some of the topics presented and discussed were, “What is leadership?”, “Discovering the leader in me”, “Developing leadership skills”, “Leadership by example”, “Authority vs authoritarianism”, “Obstacles to healthy leadership”, “Characteristics of healthy leadership”, “‘Christian’ leadership”, “How healthy leadership can impact the region of Cavango”.

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The beauty of the conference is that, after some help with organizing, preparation and direction, I had little to do with the actual event.  It was so good to see our team enthusiastically both give and receive around these topics, as the ongoing fruit of this ministry will come from them and their healthy connection to the Vine.

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