Pastor Training

The Pastors Are Back!

We have just finished our first week of the fourth term of the Pastors Training School here on the IDAT compound. The pastors came with excitement and we were blessed to be here to teach them. The school did not start on Monday as scheduled due to the fact that our vehicle that went to pick them was on the road for two days because of getting stuck in the mud. But on Wednesday we opened the school with almost all the pastors present. This term we will be studying the books of the 12 Minor Prophets in our Old Testament Survey Class and continuing with the Foundation Bible Course in the other class.

Thanks to the generous donations of God’s people in the States, we were able to provide ox ploughs so that the pastors could get their cultivation done in time to be here for the pastors training on May 10th. Without these ox ploughs they have had to plow the ground by hand hoes and it was time consuming for them and very hard labor. So they are really blessed to have them.

Please continue to pray for the pastors as they dedicate this time to studying the Word of God so that they are better equipped to minister to their people and go out and preach the Gospel.
—Joe and Nancy Losee

Medical Clinic

The Clinic Continues To Be Busy

Mondays are usually the busiest days. I was surprised to see not many people there in the morning. We thought it was going to be a quiet day, but it picked up in the afternoon and evening. Now I know God was being merciful by allowing the patients to be few in the morning so the clinic staff would be able to handle what was to come. The cattle raiding continues and four injured men were brought in. Two of them had gunshot wounds (in the leg) and two had wounds caused by a grenade, one man lost part of his hand and the other had wounds to his chest. Usually we are treating the victims of an attack, but this time we were treating men who had attacked a village and were injured when the village fought back. You want to say “you deserve to be hurt” but God calls us to love everyone and so we help anyone that needs it.

Now we received word there will be a retaliation and we are praying God stops their evil plans.

–Stacie

Medical Clinic, Ministry

A Busy Sunday

The clinic is closed on Saturdays and Sundays except for emergencies so our clinic staff is on call 24-7 to handle whatever comes up. Today the clinic staff was busy with a lot of emergencies. There was another cattle raid about an hour and a half away. We had one man brought in with a gun shot wound to the face. Fortunately it wasn’t too serious so Dennis was able to stitch him up. He also had to stitch up a lady with a head wound. Apparently she had been in a fight. Then we had a small boy who was burned on his leg and another boy who walked three days to come to the clinic to treat multiple dog bites.

Later another man with a gun shot wound came in. Dennis asked me to come to the clinic to pray for him. He warned me he was injured very badly. When I got there, Priscila asked me if I was strong and then removed the gauze covering his injury. After I saw it, I answered her and said “no I am not strong.” This man’s forearm was completely ripped open and bones were sticking out. This injury made me feel sick more than any others I have seen. He had been given pain medicine so he was asleep. I asked one of the relatives to come into the room with me. I noticed he was wearing a cross so I asked him if he was a believer and he said yes. Then we prayed together for Mathon, the injured man. Afterward, I stuck around to help (aka hold the lantern) while Dennis cleaned the wound and then stabilized it. We heard the fighting has continued and expect more victims to come for treatment.

— Also to follow up on a previous blog, Dangerous Delivery, I am sad to report both the mother and the child died following surgery in Wau. She was very young and it’s heart breaking to know she died due to labor complications that could have been prevented.

—Stacie

Medical Clinic

Dangerous Delivery

Yesterday we had a lot of rain. It was steady for about three hours in the afternoon and started again in the evening. It seemed strong to me, but Suzy assured me there will be storms that are a lot worse.

Last night I walked over to the clinic for something and Margaret called me in to look at something. A mother in labor had just arrived. Margaret wanted to show me what happens when a home delivery goes bad. This mom had been in labor since 5:00am the previous morning. She was fully dilated and the baby’s head was really low. Now I am no birthing expert, but I could tell things were not as it should be “down there.” It was extremely swollen. Most women choose to give birth at home with the assistance of a TBA (traditional birth attendant). TBAs get paid 100 Sudanese pounds if the baby is a boy and 150 if it is a girl. Because they get paid well, they don’t want women to deliver at a hospital. They are very hesitant to release the mother because then they won’t get paid. Most of the TBAs have no training. As a result, the infant mortality rate is very high. Last week, a perfectly healthy baby was brought to the clinic immediately after the home delivery. It was already dead because the TBA did not tie the cord and the baby bled to death. It was the same TBA who came with the mother last night. She should have known after a few hours of pushing there was a problem. Instead she waited more than 36 hours to bring the mother in. We had a whole bunch of people in there trying to help this poor woman. It was her first baby so she had no idea what was going on and that this was abnormal. Margaret, Priscila, Garrett (a visitor from the US), Pritty (our new pharmacist), Hargins and I were all trying to help. She was so tired we had to hold her legs up for her. After pushing for a while, the baby did not budge. She was given medicine to help the uterus contract, but after a while, the contractions completely stopped. Additionally, the baby’s heart rate was irregular. At that point, there was nothing we could do for her. She needed to go to a hospital right away. We told the family to make arrangements for her to go to Wau. Had she come in yesterday, she could have gone to Wau in our car that left in the morning. Due to the rain, she was not able to travel at night. Fortunately our car went back to Wau today so we were able to send her to the hospital.

Please pray for the mother and the baby. I will keep you updated on her status

—Stacie

News From The Field