Our 2nd week at l'Hopital de Meskine

This week we've had lots of great opportunities to see both the work of the hospital & of the long-term workers. Christianity is allowed to permeate hospital life much more than it would in the UK...every weekday at 6.45am there's a devotion & prayer time for the hospital staff (what a great way to start the day, fixing our eyes on Jesus & praying for the patients), every Monday evening the 'Jesus Film' is shown in Fulfulde (last week there were about 100 men, women & children both relatives of the patients & people from the village who heard & saw the Gospel...which was amazing!) & every Tuesday evening there's a 'prayer round' where we talk to all patients (& their relatives) & ask if they want prayer (very few decline). There are also 2 full-time evangelical chaplains. The hospital is always very busy during the week days (which makes it more difficult to take photos)...both with lots of patients & lots of relatives who literally camp out at the hospital until their relative is well again (they do most of the practical caring...preparing food, washing clothes...& also provide good emotional support). Sarah's spent most of the week with the medical director who mainly covers the mens ward...there are lots of young men with serious injuries as a result of road accidents many of whom would normally be in high dependency units in the UK but that's just not possible here. Vicki has spent most of her time with the doctor who covers the paediatric & maternity ward...unfortunately there's a measles epidemic (3 children from the same family died this week from measles) & other children are seriously ill with malaria, severe burns, malnutrition & tetanus. (A baby came to the clinic this week with hydrocephalus (water that's compressing their brain)...unfortunately nothing could be done at the hospital & the family are too poor to travel to one of the bigger cities in the south, so the parents just had to take their child home and wait for him to die). We'll be spending next week in the surgical block...please pray for wisdom & skill for the surgeon particularly as tomorrow there's a very difficult case (a young man with multiple severe leg fractures due to a road accident). That's all from us for now...have a good week :)