Three Year Anniversary

Today is the three year anniversary of the opening of the CAPM Koutiala hospital. We had a little party this morning after Bible Devotions with some pastries and coffee cake. It was a cool time of see who had be here at the start of the hospital and all the people Now involved with it. These are some of the faces you would see working as nurses, resident doctors, grounds and maintenance, administration and the sort. The hospital has had 795 surgeries, and 4,383 births to date. Not to shabby for having only one surgeon (Thanks Dan Nesselroade) and only one other certified doctor (Thanks Saskia). That would be correct in your thinking; They do NOT get much sleep. Last month was a record month with 185 deliveries and 49 surgeries. Dan is in the States right now for a well deserved 3 month of R and R.
Here a picture of one of the new buildings going up. It is coming right along. Thanks for all your support and prayers for this hospital and for the gospel going forth. Keep us lifted up in prayer. It is a battle that Satan wants to win but God's message of forgiveness and love will be proclaimed to everyone that enters our doors. The reason this hospital even exists is because of God's Sovereignty and power over evil. Thank you Lord.

Family in Bamako

It has been a good trip to Bamako this weekend. We brought two missionaries to Bamako to catch their flights to home. One missionary is from Cleveland Ohio and the other from France. We have enjoyed their company and also getting to know them better. It has been nice to be in the big city and get to eat out in restaurants and actually go to a grocery store to buy food and not just the open market. We spent Sunday afternoon with the McCabes here in Bamako. They served us lunch and then we spent the rest of the time in their pool. The McCabe's desert turtles had babies and they gave our boys each a turtle to raise. The age of the parent turtles is 16 and 32 years old. They obivously grow to be very old. It will be fun having these turtles for the boys. They love animals and are playing with them as I write this. We plan on heading back to Koutiala on Tuesday. Pray for a safe trip. It is always kind of hairy driving here. Thinking of that, I have had fun getting around Bamako. There are no street signs in the city of 2 million people. You learn your way around only by land marks. My gps has come in handy as well as Google earth. I get the directions from someone and then go look it up on google earth to kind of see what is around and the direction the road heads. It has been a real challange not getting lost. So far so good. Praise God. I hope you have a great day.

I Love the Swiss Military

Thank you Swiss Military! They came to our mission and dropped off a brand new gas powered jack hammer. I didn't even know that anyone built a gas powered jack hammer. This thing is so cool and it came with everything you could think of except an operator. I think the thing weighs about as much as I do. It has a 185cc two stroke motor which is almost the same size as my motorcycle. It came with a stainless steel gas can, tool kit, oil, backpack to carry it, 8 bits of all sorts, and a lot of stuff that is to numerous to list. The jack hammer will be very useful here. We are on a bed rock of iron ore that is right under the surface of the ground. It took a month to dig the loading ramp at the hospital because of solid rock. I just hope I don't have to run it to often!
I thought I would include some new pictures of the building going up at the hospital. All the interior walls are up with the bond beams poured. The exterior bond beams are being poured this next week. We have already added on to the first building and it isn't even finished. Things are growing so rapidly that it is hard to keep up. The hospital had two records broken last month with 185 deliveries and 49 operations in one month. The hospital building now only has one operating room and one delivery room with two delivery beds. Dan Nesselroade and Ed Bonvillain are now home on a three month home assignment after breaking the old records. Pray that they can catch up on their much needed rest. They are on call 24/7 and need a long break. Also pray for the Doctors that are replacing Dan while he is gone.
Well, its time to try to cool down before we go to bed. It is 94 deg. in the office right now and it is time to jump in the shower to cool off. A bientot.