(Maggie loves babies!)
Hello friends, We hope this finds you enjoying some measure of peace and solitude. In our little corner of the world, we have being experiencing some rather disturbing upheavals the likes of mass strikes involving teachers, doctors, nurses including the social workers and others in the mining sectors. The discontent is fueled by demands for better wages and working conditions.
At one point, the media stated that the fuel in the country’s major reserves was going to last for only eight to nine days and that the government had no funds to import more fuel. As you can imagine this caused a mad rush and panic to the gas stations to buy and stock up on fuel but thankfully, nine days later, we have not experienced any shortages.
The hardest hit have been the sick and the infirm since the physicians have laid down their tools and refused to attend to the sick and threatening violence to those who do help them. Many of the sick who were admitted into hospitals have been discharged and asked to go home since the staff was not available to attend to them. It has been reported that many people have died as a result. Thousands of school children are still at home 2 1/2 months since the school term began because the teachers are on strike.
Last week, a nine year old boy in a neighboring farm was bitten by a snake and taken to the local district hospital. The nurses refused to attend to him because, “they were on strike” and their union reps had instructed them not to work. His poor mother did not know what to do and returned home hoping her son would get better but fearing the worst. By the time the child was taken to a private doctor two days later, the leg had swollen a lot and there was the added complication of not knowing what kind of medication to prescribe since none knew what kind of snake had bitten the child. According to the doctor, the good news was that the snake which had bitten him was probably not very poisonous since he was still alive two days after the snake bite, the bad news was that certain kinds of snake venom is slow acting but at the same time very dangerous since the venom can eat away the tissue and tendons in the leg muscles and the foot may need to be amputated. Nonetheless, the doctor prescribed some medication and last Sunday, Kimberly and I stopped to visit with him and not only was he alive, but the swelling had completely disappeared and he looked to be alright!
The strike by the civil servants has really slowed down whatever little progress we had achieved regarding the transition of the children from Livingstone to the Village of Hope. The social workers who have been doing the paperwork have told us that everything is at a standstill until their grievances have been addressed by the government.
However, we are taking this new unexpected development in stride and using this time to continue with the building of the houses in preparation for receiving the children when the whole strike mess is sorted out. Two of the houses are almost complete and the construction of another building which will become a clinic is well in progress.
How Can You Pray?
**Pray that there will be a quick resolution to the various strikes that are going on throughout the country.
**Pray that we would see some progress in obtaining the children from Livingstone.
**Next month we will have several teams visit the Village of Hope. Please pray for their ministry to the children, surrounding villages and to us.
** Praise God for the two missionary families that will be joining us as staff. The Patty family has already arrived and is now getting settled. Pray for the Hamelryck family who will be arriving in mid- July. Pray that they can wrap up the remaining details concerning their move and for safety in traveling.
