Change takes time...

Change takes time. (by my buddy Brad Livengood USA) Yet, each milestone is one step closer to reaching the goal and is cause for celebration and reflection. In the year 2000, Coen and Suria Scholz visited Lake Tanganyika for the first time. Soon afterwards, the Lord gave them a vision to reach the lost peoples in the villages along the remote shores of Lake Tanganyika.

In 2005, the first team, composed of only six people, went to Mpulungu to start a permanent ministry base. In 2007, the first Zambian missionaries were sent from Mpulungu to the villages of Tongwa and Nzovwe. In Tongwa, the Lord changed the hearts of many villagers and a church was planted.

Five years later, OM Lake Tanganyika celebrated when several members of the new Tongwa church answered the call to leave their homes and move to a new village to spread the gospel of Jesus Christ.

These individuals are the first missionaries of the Tongwa church plant along the shores of Lake Tanganyika. The Tongwa church has become the sending church, instead of the receiving church. Business initiatives like fishing and gardening are the means that provide the financial support these missionaries need to minister in the village of Kapembwa.

This is nothing short of ground-breaking. For generations the African church has relied on external funding for support, but now these indigenous churches are creating ways to accomplish their vision through their own efforts.

Aaron and Mary Mwila, along with Duncan and Prisca Chishimba, face a difficult task with many obstacles. Kapembwa is known as a stronghold for witchcraft, creating much spiritual opposition. However, the Lord is already working in Kapembwa, and with His help the Mwila and Chishimba families will succeed.

Please pray for these new workers, as this is a pivotal season for OM Lake Tanganyika and the emerging mission movement in Africa. Please pray for the safety of the families as they travel into remote villages. Pray for good health and success in business endeavours, which they need to survive. Pray for positive attitudes and perseverance. Finally, please pray against the spiritual forces that want to stop the spread of the gospel. Especially, pray that the hearts of the villagers will be open to the Truth and receive Jesus as Lord and Saviour of their lives.

Felix's house

He suffered with polio and is now unable to walk, he travels 6km each day to his office and is bringing transformation to the disabled population of Mpulungu. He has 700 members and I'm sure this is just the iceberg of the total population Mpulungu has 105,000.

Felix president of the disabled association in Mpulungu

Baby Moses

Baby Moses is 5 weeks old and born in Nsovwe village with no birth attendant, on a dirty floor in a hut, no clean water or towels to assist or sooth her delivery! After the excitement of the birth, Gertrude his mother spotted the cleft palate, he has struggled to feed and do she came on a 3 hour boat ride to Mpulungu. The clinic advised she go to Lusaka 1040km away, to UTH which is the only hospital in Zambia able to do the procedure. OM have been working in Nsovwe village for a few years now, knowing we are Christians she came to ask us for assistance. The bus ride return is $60usd and although a Zambian she has never been to the capital before! We helped her get to Lusaka and last week when I was registering the clinic I went to visit her. She was in good spirits and touched that I was visiting. The operation will happen when Moses hits 5kg so in 10 weeks or do after the opp they will return. Moses is being fed via bottled milk as Gertrude is not expressing milk, pray that she starts and that Moses begins to be able to drink her milk.

I hope to see them again in a few weeks on my next trip to Lusaka.

Justina

This is little Justina 3 weeks ago her teacher sent her to me in our partially almost complete clinic with a high fever, she tested positive for p.falciparum malaria. After three days of treatment she was much stronger. With out our clinic at the school she would have been off school sick for over a week and only received paracetamol if she was lucky!

I handed in our clinic licence last week and the Health Professions Council will soon be coming to inspect!

Thankyou for your love and support!

Measles campaigne 2012

Ok so life has been busy. I'm now a fully qualified Zambian Registered Nurse and last week I spent 3 days working along side a team of 2 zambian's a nurse and environmental student carrying out over 2500 vaccinations in children aged 6months to 15 years. In total the clinic vaccinated 25000 children against measles, de wormed and boosted with vitamin A. This is part of the World Health Millennium Development goals to reduce childhood illnesses and deaths.

The government health authority did a great job in the towns and villages surrounding Mpulungu however totally neglected the lake side communities in which we work. Next time there is a national campaigne we will take a full team each day into the villages to reach those the government does not care about.

The children were amazing, 5 year olds would bring there younger siblings alone with out parents. Most would calmly come and give their name and age and receive their vaccine. They were then given a card saying they had been vaccinated and also their finger coloured in. If these children return home with out this it is highly likely their parents will beat them.
In my tropical medicine training we were taught never to miss out on an opportunity to vaccinate a child. Well the zambian nurses were vaccinating children as we were driving off from the back of the truck(transport). Priceless.


Sent from my Blackberry® SmartPhone on MTN Zambia

GN2MC Good News 2 Medical Clinic

Ok so the work begins, exams over and now we can begin having meetings writing letters, meeting with government officials, medical officials and all sorts.

It's good to keep reminding myself this is not my ministry or OM's ministry, but Gods. As the current only registered nurse here a lot of the work to register the clinic is falling on me! This is quite exciting/scary (especially as the nurses on Ansty will know! Documentation for me must be brief and accurate and that's about it! Nothing more than about 5 lines and I used to always get in trouble for not writing enough). Last week I met with the district officer and gave him a letter outlining the ministry. 

OM had previously pursued registering the boat as a clinic; this we feel is not viable and so are registering a small clinic on the OM base at Lake T. Our plot is next to the water but also the large government clinic. We plan to run an eye clinic every Thursday from the clinic and to use it the rest of the time as the office for the mobile clinics along the lake shores. This means we won't be competing with the government clinic or inundated as word of mouth gets out that a new clinic is in town.

Today I met with the nursing council and health professions council to register the clinic. I'm meeting with the health professions council again tomorrow with the inspectors to chat through what the clinic needs in terms of facilities to pass the assessment. Then next week I will try and source some medical supplies to use on some of the upcoming medical outreaches.

A few prayer requests

·         The equipping of the clinic/ structural work to be ready by august.

·         Good meetings with government officials and speedy processing.

·         For me to remain spiritually and physically strong.

·         Teamwork and unity.

Life at Lusaka University Teaching Hospital

Ok so the course at Lusaka University Teaching Hospital is going well. 3 nurses, a German, who runs a HIV/AIDS hospice in Kabwe, Alofa, a PNG nurse, who I will be working with at OM Lake Tanganyika and I are spending 2 weeks preparing for the foreign nurses exam. We are undertaking a series of classes in tropical medicine, pediatrics, general medicine and surgery, which accounts for 75% of the exam, the other 25%  is a 100 questions of multiple choice. The style the Zambian Nursing Council wants the essays is very different to the exams I sat in the UK. I shall be sitting the exam on May 31st. Please pray for me that day, that God will give me wisdom and knowledge to answer the very tough questions on it.

Below are a few pictures from UTH Zambia's best public hospital. 

A medication draw!

The other week I took Gift for a urology appointment. The doctor advised removal of his size 18 rubber catheter, however it would not come out so he called for his consultant who came, had a tug and then inflated the balloon inside the bladder with 30mls of water. He then got a needle and popped the balloon inside the bladder with a needle, (but had not sterilized the skin before doing it or used an aseptic technique. The method to remove the catheter worked very well, but the un-sterile technique then caused Gift to get a bladder infection over the next few days, fortunately he did not go into retention, but was in lot of discomfort for the next few days. Other than this he is doing well, its about 12 months since the road traffic accident where he was paralyses, and is making slow progress. But over the last 2 months since Ive been working with him his upper body strength is improving and he is able to turn him self in bed now. Please pray that his recovery continues and he can continue to inspire the people he comes into contact with.

Gift sharing his testimony at a recent disability day.

A pulmonary TB patient with weight-loss. 

A 4 hour wait in the emergency room is a thing to dream of, last week 4 women died of emergency obstetric problems due to not being seen in time.

The emergency room pressure for beds is great! Watch out Poole A&E

tears of the saints

Tears of the Saints is an amazing video please watch it, be challenged and act  upon it!

it is made by asialink

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MTVpyUOR_fI

Entering Zambian Culture

An important part of being accepted is buying to to the local culture. Im glad to say that my learning acquisition is going well and im adopting well into the culture. Lots of travel and time spent in africa is making this easier and an excitement to learn from those around me is assisting me. I have been given a local name, Lumenu- meaning Peace.

Last week I was granted a 6 month temporary nursing licence and have booked in for my exam on the 31st of May (my 28th birthday).

Prise the Lord for this! 

The guys im staying with  taught me how to slaughter a goat last week, and today I had to kill and then pluck a chicken. very cruel in western society but here in Zambia it is a part of every day life and the Zambians on my course are now saying I have passed discipleship because of this! 

Please Pray for all of us as we go our separate ways that we will walk in Gods will and bless those around us!

Mwashibukeni mukwai

Mwashibukeni mukwai (Good morning in Bemba)

So Im now in Kabwe Central province of Zambia 2 hours north of Lusaka the capital at the Operation Mobilisation training base in Zambia.

I knew I would be undertaking a 2 month course here, but I was not sure in what! Well myself along with 6 westerners and 30 Zambians are undertaking a 8 week discipleship course. The lecturers are mainly local Zambians who have great zeal and passion for the word of God and also a desire to make us grow spiritually and also grow others spiritually and disciple others. This has been challenging, as I know I'm in Zambia for a minimum of 2 years but how do I find someone to fill my boots when I leave? As I am filling a very specific role on the medical boat on Lake Tanganyika. I need to train a male nurse to continue the work after I have gone. If I don't the work will not continue and be sustainable. A young man in my dorm is called Cholwe he is from the south of Zambia from the Tonga tribe and next week is having interviews for nursing school in the south. Please pray that he gets on the course and if it is the Lords will to replace me at Lake Tanganyika when I leave.

It sounds very strange looking for someone to replace me when I've only just arrived. But for Africa and Zambia to stand on its own two feet I must be replaced by a minimum of one local nurse.

On Sunday night Zambia won the African Cup of Nations the whole of southern Africa celebrated and I have had reports of friends in Malawi being woken up in the night thinking there was a riot when in fact Malawi was just celebrating with Zambia.  

 

Communication I now have a working phone with whatsapp and skype plus email so I should be easier to be in contact with.

Please continue to pray for me the 36 undertaking the discipleship course and the restoration work on the boat!

 

My mobile number is +26965620897

Email david.ross@om.org

 

Blessings 

Zambia Africa Cup of Nations winners, and OM's discipleship training course for the nations

life boat update and Go conference news.

Life Boat

New Year's Day, 2012

Overnight between December 31 and January 1, Mpulungu experienced a large storm. The waves caused the Life Boat to bump against another metal boat and a strut of the rack at the back of Life Boat pushed through the fiber-glass hull under the waterline, making a fist-sized hole. During the night, water came into the boat, completely

submerging the engines and most of the cabins. Three other boats parked near the Lifeboat were lost or completely submerged. Thankfully, employ-ees of the fishing company where the Life Boat is parked tied ropes to the boat and kept it above water until they called us in the morning.

Good News II team members and friends worked using water pumps, buck-ets, and a winch to plug the hole and bail out the water and diesel which filled the boat. By late in the evening of Sunday, January 1, the Life Boat was again above water.

We are still in the process of assessing the damage. It is likely that the cabi-nets and floorboards will have to come out. This week has been spent getting the water out of the diesel tanks. Next week it will be possible to test the engines.

Please pray for the Vision, the reason this boat exists—that the Gospel will be shared around the Lake. Stand with us as we press on toward the goal, regardless of challenges, trusting in God's sovereignty and protection.

On happier news, tomorrow I head off to Germany to the OM GO conference this will be 11 days of training before heading off to Zambia. PLease pray for a fresh filling of the Holy spirit, a renewed focus, spiritual protection and his will to be done.  

1 cor 15v58

Therefore, my dear brothers, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain.