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
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