Is it worth it?

Fighting over 50 cfa (about 9 cents) resulted in large wounds in the abdomen in one man and I don't know what happened to the other man. One man owed 50 cfa and the other owed him 1000 cfa. Knives were involved, then treatment at another hospital before coming here 3 days later with large amounts of purulence coming from his abdomen wounds that were minimally closed. Not sure what was done inside the abdomen at the other hospital if anything so we opened it and did not find a perforation but lots of purulence. We washed it out and put in drains and he still is having some drainage but nothing that looks like bowel contents.


Reminds me of the story Jesus told of a man that owed a huge amount and pleaded for more time even though it was totally impossible for him to ever pay it (sort of like the US national debt) but he was finally forgiven the debt. Then he went out and would not forgive someone who owed him a small amount and had the man put in prison. That 50 francs will become quite large by the time he pays for his medicines etc although part of the treatment was gratis. So was it worth it to fight over such a small amount?


What if Jesus had said that it was not worth it to come down to this little speck in the universe to try to save these rebellious, very few of whom will just accept the great gift of His taking our place to die for our sins and save us if we will allow His grace to cover our sins and show it by our changed lives? As we consider this season to remember Jesus birth, are we giving to those less fortunate than we are? There have been times when I have wondered if it is worth it to come to Chad which is very far behind and a corrupt country. Some people spend their whole lives in difficult mission situations whereas we plan to spend only 5 years or so this time plus the 3 years we spent in Nigeria 45 years ago. So maybe sometimes I have the wrong attitude. Hopefully, we make a difference at least in a few peoples lives and a few will learn about God's love. But Jesus came to this corrupt world which is getting worse.


This past week we had a huge mass that was making her short of breath and not able to eat hardly anything. It turned out to be a 4 kg kidney that was mostly a hemorrhagic cyst. She is doing ok now. We also had a 9 year old boy with a large cancer in his pelvis and was unable to walk. We took out most of the mass that was even around his iliac artery. His strength to his legs has not returned yet. His prognosis is not good. He also had no testicle on that side. We only had two prostatectomies this week. We had a menopausal lady with a "prolapsed uterus" or a large cervical polyp that was actually an inverted (turned inside out) uterus so we did a vaginal hysterectomy on her. The man with a necrosed scrotum and testicles that we took off has finally healed and gone home. The surgery numbers are beginning to increase as people are getting their field work done.


Dolores is still doing some Christmas sewing. Our rat problem seems to be decreasing or maybe gone in our house but there have been some in all of the new buildings.


I think some volunteers will be coming next month to help in the building projects. We are looking forward to being able to use these new buildings that have been here 3 years but not finished. Of course we are looking forward to Danae, Olen, Lyol, Zane, Addison, and Juniper arriving back here next month. The compound seems empty without them.


Remember this season is to help someone that can not help you in return.
Our emails are drbland@sbcglobal.net and dfbland01@gmail.com

Rollin and Dolores Bland
Hopital Adventists de Bere
Boite Postal 52
Kelo, Tandjile, Chad, Afrique
Blog www.weareamissionarybland.blogspot.com

Dec. 13, 2015

I was notified Fri. that I was to preach for Sab. (yesterday) for Bere church. I also was singing a duet with Sarah Snyder (a new volunteer graduate nurse that will be here the next 9 months). We sang "O Shepherd Divine" then I talked about the parable of the lost sheep in Luke 15 and Matt 18. After the duet I had mentioned that it would be nice for the "choir" to learn harmony and sing different parts. I did not mention that presently they basically yell as loud as they can in competition with the terrible loud drums with no expression. There were several "amen" when it was mentioned. Olen and I had discussed this a little just before our "evacuation" in Sept.

One of the choir members came over Sat. eve wondering if she could have some lessons on singing so that was encouraging. I am not a music teacher so I don't know how that will go. In the talk I had mentioned that there are several members that have strayed and that we are all to be shepherds to care for them. The pastor was by here today and said he had heard several comments about how practical the talk was so that was encouraging. My translator was Favian, a new graduate finance person here for awhile to help with accounting problems and computer teaching whose mother tongue is French but education in English. Her father is the Health Ministries leader for the West African Division.

The brakes on the pickup have been making a noise for some time. Today I took the front disc brakes apart and put in new pads. One of the rotors or disc is really worn down and needs replaced. Apparrently the brakes were not releasing as they should. The mud and dirt and dust is really hard on vehicles here. I think the deep dirty water that I had driven through was what caused the alternator to go out on our 4-runner. We got the diodes replaced and it works ok now. We still have not been able to get the switch to move out of "lock" or the steering to move on Olen's '91 4-runner.

Our hospital census is staying 50-60 most of the time. We had more surgeries this past week with several hernias and hydroceles, 3 prostatectomies, a 6-kg spleenectomy (so big and heavy it was obstructing his gut and making him short of breath), a bowel obstruction form adhesions, a c-section for eclampsia (seizures, edema, pregnant) and she had twins, bladder stone in a 2-yr old boy, a hymenectomy for imperforate hymen, enucleation of an eyeball in a 18-month old child for huge infection from foreign body that destroyed the eye, etc. We have had several heart failure patients some with bad valvular disease and maybe some with cardiomyopathy from ? I think I have given more furosemide diuretic in the past 2 weeks than in the previous 2 yrs. More common is not enough fluid and not drinking enough fluids.

Dolores is busy sewing some shirts etc. No grandkids here to take care of right now. They are surely missed.
Our emails are drbland@sbcglobal.net and dfbland01@gmail.com.
Rollin and Dolores Bland
Hopital Adventiste de Bere
Boite Postal 52
Kelo, Tandjile, Chad, Afrique
Blog www.weareamissionarybland.blogspot.com

After Thanksgiving

Yes we are safe here. The terrorist attack in Chad was a long way from us as it was north of NDJ on Lake Chad area. It may be more dangerous in the USA with the mass shootings and the Ebola. We have had no Ebola in Chad and we have lots of military check points to check for terrorists or whatever you reason is for going anywhere. We see drunks that have wrecks on their "motos" or pedestrians that get hit as they walk on the road after dark. It seems there are always pedestrians, ox carts, stalled vehicles, cows, goats, etc none of which have lights after dark It is dangerous to drive after dark. 

Even though Thanksgiving is not an observed holiday in Chad, we had a nice day with plenty to eat and no scheduled surgery but had a c-section about meal time.. We had invited some local people and some from another mission so we had about 27 together. Three days ago we had a c-section for a ruptured uterus with lots of blood loss. She almost died but is doing ok now. Last night we had motorcycle and car and pedestrian accidents. Six were brought in. One had a fracture knee femur which we put in traction. Some had lacerations and head injuries. One was brought in this morning with part of his foot cut off by a car. It had a lot of debris which we spent a lot of time trying to debride and trying to save part of his foot. The bones were even part cut off but we managed to salvage the heel so hopefully he will have a heel to walk on BUT a huge danger for infection and may have to amputate more later. A knife stab wound which barely missed his liver and did not perforate any intestine (we opened the abdomen to look) was last week and did well. 

We have lots of patients on the Medicine service now with lots of different problems besides the usual malaria, typhoid, parasites, and HIV. We have had some with bad hearts  ie mitral valve disease, several with hepatitis and ascites, and various tumors.  We are having to put some on the veranda as not enough space inside. 

We are hopeful that some volunteers will come soon and help finish some of the buildings that had the shells put up 3 years ago esp for maternity and private wards which would give us more bed space.  Hopefully we can get the new OR done also.

Our emails are:  drbland@sbcglobal.net  and dfbland01@gmail.com.
Rollin and Dolores Bland
Hopital Adventiste de Bere
Boite Postal 52
Kelo, Tandjile,  Chad,  Afrique