Welcome to June,
This month’s newsletter was written by both Gary and Beth Evans, who recently visited a variety of countries in Africa along with the new CAMM Field Director, Kate Wood. As you will read, the visit was important for supporting our current clinic operations as well as exploring new possibilities for Medical Mission work. Your support has allowed CAMM to continue to spread God’s word while also caring for the health and wellness of the people of Africa.
Thank you for your continued prayers on behalf of CAMM.
God’s Blessing,
Stephanie Otto
cwc.camm@gmail.com
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CAMM.US
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Recently, Kate Wood, along with Beth and Gary Evans visited Zambia, Malawi and Kenya. While we were in Zambia we attended the Confessional Evangelical Lutheran Conference in Lusaka. The conference was attended by church leaders from all over the world, it was a great opportunity to network and tell them about the work of the medical mission. We were also able to give a presentation to the conference on the work of the medical mission that focused mainly on our short-term medical camps in Kenya. There was a lot of interest from other African churches in arranging similar medical camps in their own countries, especially from the Ugandan, Nigerian, Tanzanian and Ethiopian Churches. The Ugandan church has even gone so far as to discuss a potential CAMM exploratory trip with their mission representative. We’re hoping to visit Uganda later this year.
We also visited the Mwembezhi clinic in Zambia. The clinic is doing well and continues to set the standard in health care within the Shimbuyunji district. Many of the staff were not at the clinic as they were out visiting the various villages within our catchment area as part of a polio vaccination campaign. We were able to inspect the construction of the clinic’s new ablution block, or wash house. Up until now the clinic has not been able to provide a proper washing facility for our patients, especially recent mothers. The ablution block will have running water complete with showers, flushing toilets and hand basins. It should be finished in a few weeks.
We visited Kenya to continue the process of organizing our next medical camp. We travelled west from Nairobi to Nyamira County where (like this year) our next medical camp will be held in the Town of Chabera. We went to Laura Church, the site of the camp. The visit was in part sad because Mr. Alexander Joseph had recently died. Mr. Alexander, as we call him, had given part of his land to the church and was an active volunteer at our last camp. We went to his house along with leaders from the Kenyan Church to greet his family and say prayers of thanks for Mr. Alexander. Next we visited two patients, Gift and Jessica, who had visited our medical camp back in February this year. Both are severely disabled children who are unable to walk and need to be carried by their mothers everywhere they go. Thanks to the generosity of a Bible study group at St Marcus Lutheran Church in Milwaukee, we were able to supply both children with wheelchairs which we pray will give them a level of mobility they so richly deserve.
Beth spent a few more days in Malawi, assisting Violet Chikwatu with reports and seeing how Lusungu Mwambeye’s challenges with high fuel costs affect work that depends on transportation to remote rural villages. Next to Hong Kong, Malawi has the second highest fuel costs in the world. Beth visited Msambo clinic and enjoyed greeting the five disabled children and their mothers who are assisted by the Lutheran Mobile Clinic to receive physical therapy services. One little boy named Smith is now able to walk on his own after a year of therapy. His smile said it all!
Jean Kanyemba, our nutritionist, told of a newborn baby who was brought to clinic for formula by his grandmother when his mother could no longer breastfeed. At two months old, he developed cellulitis on his back, which turned into a raw open wound. He was given antibiotics and was seen regularly for wound care over a period of months. Now at 10 months old, the wound has healed completely and he is growing well.
Our medical staff and volunteers work hard to treat patients and give preventative maternal-child services with excellent care, as well as with the love of Jesus. Our maintenance worker at Msambo – Mr. Landiran Manyozo – is a church elder who gives the morning devotion at clinic. We learned that Pastor Msiska, who has his own congregation at St. Peter’s in Lilongwe, comes one Sunday a month, rotating to one of our three churches where clinics are held, to preach, do baptisms and communion. We thank God for how Pastor Msiska has provided spiritual support to our clinics over the years and continues to support church elders in their ministry.
In Christ,
Gary and Beth Evans