Challenges

The hospital is currently not getting enough water; they have to buy truckloads of water on a daily basis.  They would like to build another underground tank where water can be stored during the months when it comes in abundance.  That will cost $200,000.  So far, less than 5% of that has been raised.  (See http://www.tansenhospital.org.np/ for more information.)

Yesterday, we cared for a woman who was losing her pregnancy.  She had already aborted two because they were girls.  She wasn’t intending to lose this one, but the baby turned out to be a girl anyway.  My heart aches…so many places in the world, girls are not adored and can be considered worth so little compared to a boy.  I am abundantly blessed to have been born in a place where I was wanted, to parents who valued me enough to keep me.

There are currently nineteen missionary kids in this hilly Nepal town/city; they all need an education, even while they contribute to the ministry of Jesus Christ in this place.  After three months, something new will have to come: A home school cooperative? A new teacher? Send the children somewhere else?  Change locations of service?  It’s a challenging choice.  Hardly any of us here have training in education.

In the outpatient department, I see a significant number of patients who are addicted to medications that should not be taken on a long-term basis.  (Like the elderly lady who has been given an anti-anxiety agent for many years, and now she cannot walk due to her imbalance and loss of coordination.  This is not an environment where people have alternatives to walking—no wheelchairs allowed in this hilly region).  I begin to more highly value the regulation of medications.

This last year, the hospital gave $147,000 in charity care to some of the world’s poorest people.  Now the fund for charity is nearly drained.  We look to the LORD to touch the hearts of the generous, to resupply the fund.

There is very little in the way of social service in this country for people with social or emotional problems.  God bless each of you who are engaged in that type of work!  I know it is a tough profession, and I see all the good it does.  Here, where there is so little, there is an alarmingly high level of suicide.

Heart disease is extremely common here, particularly from damaged heart valves.  The top cause of this is rheumatic fever, a disease caused by bacteria (group A streptococci).  My favorite text book says that this disease has been largely eliminated from industrialized countries through improved hygiene, less crowded living conditions (which decreases transmission of the bacteria), and the appropriate use of antibiotics.  Nepal seems to be a long way from conquering this debilitating disease.  This too is a challenge.

I want to end this entry with one uplifting thought.  I am so blessed to see the maturing effects on our sons of encountering so many challenges.  A muscle only strengthens when it is used to do work, to contract against some opposing force.  I see the spiritual, emotional and physical muscles strengthening in our boys, and I am blessed to see them face the challenges without shrinking back.  It is a joy to watch the process of their moving toward manhood.  Thank you, Father God, for these challenges.

Kimberly, one challenged, but joy-filled servant