January News 2008 This Christmas, I found great solace in the fact that Jesus was born in a stable. Life in Liberia is like that lonely stable in Bethlehem. And I know that it is to places like Liberia that God has chosen to send the Messiah. I see evidence of that - especially in Sunday morning worship. It is alive with dance, song, drum and celebration of life. Much of the rest of the week, people are dealing with the results of 14 years of civil war on life, health, family and property. My trip to India was wonderful and over too soon. Now I am back at work at Phebe and dealing with the generator problem again. Both generators that supply half day power to the staff housing have given up the ghost and the rental generator which we hoped would fill in has been drafted to power the hospital because that generator went out as well! I try to remember that there was no power in that stable long ago, but it does make life difficult as you know if your power has ever been out for any length of time. We will be getting new generators but not until February and that's a long time to try to limp along with iffy power. Especially when the hospital is affected. We have a visiting radiologist coming soon and the X-ray machine is still not installed. I gave the doctor the option of coming another time but she was willing to come and see if she could help. It has been a struggle but I hope that struggle is almost over. The Vice President of Liberia came to speak at the commencement ceremony for the Nursing School. The ceremony went on for over three hours! The VP stayed in Gbarnga which was good as I doubt he carries around his own generator. I had a good Christmas - despite having to make the dinner with no working refrigerator and two borrowed gas burners. (My stove developed a flame out the back - not too safe.) I made a nice pasta sauce and friends helped make the fruit salad, brought bread, pumpkin pie, and Christmas cookies. It was a good time. Christmas afternoon we went to a service that was mostly in Kpelle but the lessons and sermon were in English - I don't think anyone had a Kpelle Bible with them. Now I am off to Monrovia - a container has arrived and I need to be there for the unloading. It's dry here now, so the pot holes aren't muddy anymore - just dusty. Please continue to keep me in your prayers and please pray for the people of Liberia as they recover and struggle to move forward. And remember (as I try to remember) that Christ will find a home in our Bethlehem stables. Let's make room. I thank God for you! February 2008 I spent New Year's with friends in Zorzor, home of our sister hospital in Liberia - Curran Lutheran Hospital. I preached at the Watchnight service on New Year's Eve and the time I spent there was very relaxing - in contrast with the trip there. The road is better now than it was during the rainy season, but there are some "ruts" that in the western USA would have names that ended in Canyon! Check here for a photo of one of the "ruts" in the road! We are having the usual generator problems - if one is running, the other breaks down. Naturally power for the hospital is the priority, so those of us in the compound have been powerless a lot. We have two new generators in a contain that arrived in port in Monrovia, but it is taking a lot of time and paperwork and many trips to Monrovia to get the generators to Phebe. So far? They are still in Monrovia. (update) We really needed power at the hospital so that we could use the skills of the surgical mission team that came to Phebe from Mt. Sinai Hospital in New York City! We had a group of 16 - two general surgeons, two OB/GYN doctors, an ophthalmologist/plastic surgeon, an ENT/plastic surgeon, anesthesia personal, and medical students. We put them to work even before they got to the hospital - we came across a vehicle that had gone off the road and the doctors checked out the people in the car, diagnosed one man with a broken bone, and sent him off to JFK Hospital in Monrovia. Welcome to Liberia! We also had a radiologist in the house to help get our X-ray machine set up - at long last - and she also was able to do ultrasound. It was crucial for the team from Mt. Sinai to be able to see inside some of our patients. We do have to shut down a lot of things in the hospital every time we use the X-ray machine as it needs a lot of power. Most of the people on this team had been on missions before and were not distressed by loss of power in their dorm, disappearance of running water on occasion, and other occurrences that are normal at Phebe. I did have to chase down some blankets - it's cool at night right now. One power-free evening, they invited me to come to their dorm for dinner and they made spaghetti in charcoal pots and used flashlights to see what they were doing. We also had two visitors one from Global Health Ministries in Minneapolis and the other a doctor who has visited 13 times over the past 25 years. There were a couple of items the Mt. Sinai team needed for patients and they were able to bring them. Amongst other things, they tackled the job of helping to clear out a warehouse for us. We also had a visit from personnel from Global Mission and World Hunger during January. It's a good month to be in Liberia. After the Mt. Sinai team left, we got a team from Minnesota and they are still here. They are doing children's surgery - head and neck, cleft lip and palate. They even know where my hometown of Milaca is, and that is not common knowledge anywhere outside south-central Minnesota! They too are real workers. I took three of the doctors to the leprosy colony to see if there were nay facial surgery that could be done there, but there wasn't. They ended up doing a van-side clinic instead. They had asked me what I'd like them to bring me when they came and I gave them a list of three things to choose from. They brought all three - sun-dried tomatoes, maple syrup, and a yogurt maker! (They even included 3 - 12 packs of TAB!) I'm beginning preparation for my home leave - July and August of this year. Yikes! That is just around the corner. Please consider inviting me to spend time with you. Soon, I'll have more details on my exact dates of availability and how the cost-sharing of a wandering missionary are covered. I look forward to meeting some of you for the first time and others to renew a long-term relationship. The visiting medical teams of people willing to give of their time and talents has been a real blessing this month. The frequent lack of electricity and water has been a definite bane. Your support and prayers have been a big blessing - even better than maple syrup! Keep the prayers coming - for me and for the people of Liberian. Thanks for your support! God bless you, Rev. John S. Lunn (2/11 - new generators in place and ready to power Phebe!) March 2008 Greetings from Phebe Hospital in Liberia! Last time I wrote, I mentioned a medical mission team from Minnesota. Their specialty was head and neck surgery and their skills were tested by the case of the child who was impaled by a stick through his neck - and not a small stick either! He was lucky that Jim, the ENT/plastic surgeon was there - if you can call a kid lucky who has a stick through his neck! They also treated two cousins who had swallowed lye and ended up with severe esophageal burns. We managed to keep power going to the hospital while we awaited the new generators I wrote about last month, but the houses in the compound - including mine - were without electricity for many weeks. At least most of the time, we had running water. The Minnesotans were very good sports about it and cheerfully went about their work. They were very impressed and moved by Sunday worship and the music and dancing. I continue to find that the highlight and renewal point of my week. I was somewhat amazed to discover that one of the nurses in the group was a graduate of Lutheran Deaconess Hospital School of Nursing - my nursing alma mater! The generators spent a very long time waiting to get out of the container they were shipped in – it seemed longer than the time that they spent crossing the ocean! It was a case of "if it can go wrong, it will!" It was one problem after another, but finally the two new generators arrived at Phebe on February 6th - see photos -and were installed by Phebe staff and a visiting team of engineers. Power at last! I have learned way too much about generators from the engineers and we are hoping that their suggestions may help prolong the life of these new generators. I have been back and forth to Monrovia multiple times as usual and now that the dry season is here, there are different challenges on the road. People cut down trees along the road and cut them so they fall across the road. This makes them easier to cut up and haul away, but it does tend to block traffic! We have waited as long as 45 minutes - can you imagine all the horn honking and road rage that would engender in the US? We had winter here - it lasts just a few weeks but it does get down into the 50s at night and that is a bit chilly without any source of heat or any cozy quilts! We have some quilts, but they got mildewed during the rainy season. The team from Minnesota was not bothered by the cool nights - they just doubled their sheets and wore an extra shirt to bed. It was a nice change from the heat of the day. Phebe's Nurse Midwife program was formally reopened on February 17th and the ceremony was attended by the French Ambassador, the Minister of Health who used to be the medical director at Phebe, and President Johnson-Sirleaf's sister who used to be on the Phebe board. I wonder if she'd like to be on the board again? Last week, I had to track down a medication for an employee who had been diagnosed with possible Lassa Fever. The week before I was trying to make sure the IV Fluid Production Project went smoothly. As you may have noticed, my job as administrator of Phebe Hospital seems to be one of doing whatever needs to be done - from working with the Danes on an agricultural project to finding funding for a water project to hosting mission teams to facilitating generators of all sorts. Each project is important to the hospital and so it is often frustrating when I can't get things done in a timely manner. But delays and difficulties are part of life in Liberia That is why Sunday worship is so important. It is the highlight of the week and the inspiration to go on and tackle another week. I am always pleased to be asked to preach at the church I attend - St. Luke's. The music is so wonderful and the dancing so moving. It's not the kind of worship service I grew up with, but it is absolutely wonderful and it keeps me on the path the Holy Spirit has chosen for me. Keep me in your prayers and pray for the people of Liberia as they struggle back from the ravages of war. PS - I sent some photos of friends from the Bangladeshi medical team in Liberia. April 2008 Greetings from Phebe Hospital in Liberia! We are approaching the rainy season here and are having some very loud storms in the evenings. If the hours of running water are interrupted, it could be from a lightening strike, a planned shutdown to prevent this sort of problem, or even theft as we have had some copper wire cut and stolen. A more reliable and less vulnerable system is one thing that I'm working on now. We hope to chose a contractor by the end of the month. You may recall I had some dental problems a few months ago. Well, it happened again and this time I had to have a root canal and the military dentist at the Bangladeshi compound was nice enough to do it for me. If he had not been willing or able, I would have had to fly to Ghana to have the work done. I have now had root canals done in New York, South Carolina, Hawaii, Minnesota, India, and Liberia - sort of a Root Canal World Tour! We are hoping to make dental care available at Phebe Hospital in the future and I have been working with Global Health Ministries to get equipment. There is a dental therapist in Monrovia who is starting a two year program to train roving dental care and she assured me that if we had equipment, "they will come." I hope "they" would include dentists and not just patients! On one of my trips to Monrovia, I attended services at St. Peter's which is a kind of Lutheran cathedral. We arrived at the beginning of what turned out to be a three hour service in a supposedly air conditioned space. Over the three hours, it got stuffier and hotter - I guess that the A/C units weren't equal to the crowd, it was packed. It was a mostly choir service which was very nice. The music director missed it - he was stuck with a fat tire. Better a flat tire than a flat choir! (I couldn't resist that!) Once in awhile I get to be a pastor rather than an administrator. I preach some Sundays and one day during Lent I was called to come and pray with a mother and her 9 year old son who was suffering with a type of lymphoma which - in the best possible world -could have been successfully treated, but Liberia is not that world and the treatment had been interrupted and delayed and now the lymph nodes in his neck were so large that they were making it hard for him to breathe. So I prayed with them. Over a year ago, my sisters sent me a bread machine as a Christmas gift. The electricity has been too problematic for me to use as it takes about 4 hours. With the new generators working dependably, I got the machine out and made a very nice loaf of bread and decided I would do that regularly. A few days later I loaded up the bread machine again, but I got a late start and then I set if for a delay but forgot to hit the start button! So instead of a nicely baked loaf of bread, I had an overflowing blob of dough. I tried to rescue it but my efforts were useless! I preached on Easter Sunday - the service lasted 2 hours and 45 minutes and not much of that was my sermon. We had 17 Baptisms and 2 very quick Confirmations and 3 different choirs. The Sunday School children rocked! My sermon title was "Not a Martyr but a Savior!" We have a new Post Office in the county seat Gbarnga. There are about 500,00 people in the county and maybe 50,000 in Gbarnga. I went to mail a letter and they were still storing the postal scale in its box. The postal service is just beginning and will take some time to become established, but I was able to mail a letter to a doctor in the UK for about $2 US - better than $60 or more going by DHL! I don't sew, but I bought a sewing machine and have engaged a man to come and sew for me. He will be able to use the machine to sew for others as well and maybe earn some extra money. I have some projects in mind for him - can't say what they are yet! In the end, he'll have a sewing machine and I have some nicely stitched items. I spent some time planning my home assignment when I visit all of you who have been sponsoring my ministry. I will have a busy summer visiting the Upper Susquehanna Synod in Pennsylvania, and churches in New York, Florida, Texas, Hawaii, California, and my home state of Minnesota as well as taking a continuing education class in Chicago. When I come to your church, I will fill you in on what the Holy Spirit has in mind for me next! Please keep the people of Phebe and Liberia .in your prayers and please mention me by name. I need your prayers and support to do what needs to be done. Rev. John Lunn May 2008 Greetings from your missionary at Phebe Hospital in Liberia! The census taker came to my house and conducted a 35 minute interview. I didn't know how to answer the question of what tribe I belonged to. Maybe I ought to have said Aaron - the priestly tribe of Israel? After he left, I remembered doing a genealogy search years ago and tracing my family back to the tribe of Judah. I will have to track down the census taker and amend my form! A psychiatrist from Massachusetts General came to Phebe. He's in Liberia to look into the country's mental health needs, and we talked about the need to train RNs and LPNs in mental health needs and to eventually have a Psychiatric Nurse Practitioner program with back-up by psychiatrists and psychologists. We even talked about a radio call-in show where people could learn some basics about mental health. I finally got the three required bids for the water project and have hopes that some progress will be made before I leave for my home assignment. When I got the bids, I had to scan them so they could be emailed. One was 17 pages and one was two pages! Why the difference? Lots of repetition. I had a visit from a Danish engineer who turned out to be a big help on the water project. His parents were missionaries in Liberia and he lived on the Phebe campus so knew it as a 13 year old explorer. He had some good, clear suggestions, especially on the placement of the two new wells that will supply the water. I had a little "water project" of my own - I put some clothes into the washing machine and went off to do some work, When I came back, there was sudsy water all over the floors in the bathroom, kitchen, pantry, and laundry room! A small towel hanging on the laundry sink had fallen in and blocked the drain. Before we could get that flood dried up, it started raining like crazy and my porch got soaked too! One of my links to the rest of the world is gone now - my satellite radio. The satellite is being upgraded and so will be out of commission for a year or so. I miss it. My backup was my MP3 player on which I could play podcasts of favorites from the Internet, but my MP3 player died! I was able to order one to be hand delivered by a volunteer nurse who was on her way to Liberia. I have a mouse in my house. I made the mistake of taking a cookie into my bedroom at bedtime and so the mouse followed me. That was his mistake because now I am on the alert! I got new latches for the kitchen cupboard doors - I am hoping he will not know how to operate the new latches and will become frustrated and go home to the swamp! Then, I am sure, another mouse will come up and try his or her luck as there is a never ending supply of mice in the swamp. The solution will be to block all the holes that let them in from the outside. Easier said than done! I spent a weekend at Curran, the other Lutheran hospital, in Zorzor, and on Sunday morning I preached at St. John's. There are no fans in the Altar area where the pastors sit and it was so hot! The text was the post-resurrection walk on the road to Emmaus when - as in the other times Jesus appeared, no one recognized him just by seeing him. I quoted the passage from 2 Corinthians - "We walk by faith, not by sight." This has certainly been the case for me during my time here in Liberia. It has taken a lot of faith since progress is not easily seen. I know your prayers have bolstered my faith - please keep them coming. Please mention me by name and also pray for the people of Liberia. Thank you. Rev
John Lunn
June 2008 Greetings to all my supporting congregations! This past month started with an anonymous virus and ended with one that has a familiar name - shingles! The first virus had me under the weather for a few days, and the last, I had diagnosed by two medical people who were over for dinner - a nurse and an OB doctor - and they diagnosed me and made sure I got started on an anti-viral medication right away. The Mercy Ship, which donated the anti-viral medicine to Phebe, was also here to offer a consult from an ophthalmologist on the possible eye involvement. I will need to visit them a few times before I leave for monitoring. One the plus side, it was mango (locally referred to as plum) season in Liberia and that always makes me happy! And we are making progress on the water project. We chose a contractor and are trying to make the necessary arrangements to get the pumps we need shipped over. Nothing is easy here. On the lighter side - a friend interviewed for a management position on the Mercy Ship. All positions on the ship are volunteer positions. Each volunteer, whether short or long term is responsible for room and board and some other costs. I told him my one concern would be sharing a berth with 5 to 7 other people long term. I jokingly suggested that in the interview he tell them that he had a wife and two kids. Then he would borrow a wife and two kids for a few weeks to establish the story. Then he starts making excuses. “I think they’re in the cabin - took a little trip to town - home to visit mother” and so forth. That way, he’d get his own room. Well, in the interview he told them my suggestion! It was quite an icebreaker and they told him that he’d have his own room and bathroom! My job as hospital administrator doesn’t just require me to wear a lot of hats. It requires me to wear any hat that is lying around with no one else to put it on! I have to make sure everyone who needs Internet access has it, I troubleshoot and fix the computers, I track down parts for whatever machine is not working that day, I try to fix what is broken and not break anything else in the process, I host, I cater, I run errands and pick people up at the airport - generally I just do whatever needs to be done. My background as a nurse helps sometimes and my background as a pastor always helps. Being my father’s son helps me with fixing things - he was the pastor/fixer and I sometimes feel he is cheering me on as I solve a problem or repair something that’s broken. If you thought I would not be mentioning the generator this month, you were wrong! The new big one has problems that required the South Dakota manufacturer to send a technician to Phebe to work on it. Possibly the longest house call they have ever had to make. Our current volunteer doctor is a Dane called Niels. He has been an OB/GYN for more than 40 years, yet Liberia managed to provide new experiences. We had a baby born with a cleft lip and palate and thanks to the Mercy Ship, the baby will be able to have the necessary surgery and the parents will get help learning to feed the baby until that surgery can happen. In Denmark he would turn the baby over to the Neonatology Specialist. We are working on establishing a dental clinic here at Phebe and I have been looking into getting equipment so that if we get volunteer dentists, they will have something to work with. Global Health Ministries has a Dental Committee and they will be helpful. I will be leaving Liberia soon - the 18th of June. My itinerary takes me to Pennsylvania and on to Chicago, to New York and Florida, home to Minnesota and then to Texas and Hawaii and California before coming back to Minnesota for my nephew's wedding. After that I will be off to India to begin a new ministry there. I will also be spending a couple of months a year in Liberia, working with Phebe and Curran Hospitals. During these weeks I will be in your churches and I look forward to meeting all of you and telling you more about my work in Liberia. Please remember me in your prayers as I travel - those prayers are what keep me going. Rev. John S. Lunn Greetings from your sponsored missionary who is somewhere in the United States - soon to be at a church near you! July News After spending the first half of June trying - with varying degrees of success - to finish up projects and tie up loose ends - I left Liberia on June 18th and flew from Monrovia to Brussels and then to New York City where I picked up a rental car and drove to Pennsylvania for the Upper Susquehanna Synod Assembly. What was I thinking - driving after such a long flight across the ocean? I don't know, but it went well. I was given time to speak to the Assembly about my work in Liberia and also conducted a workshop. There are a lot of folks in the Upper Susquehanna Synod who have been to Liberia or know a lot about it as they have been a long time sister synod to the Liberian Lutheran Church. After the Assembly, I preached at St. Luke's in Williamsport PA on Sunday morning and then drove back to New York, spent the night a the home of a seminary friend, got my favorite egg and cheese sandwich, and caught a plane for Chicago on Monday. In Chicago, I met with my new boss as well as the man who will be the Regional Representative for Development. He'll be living in Chennai which is not too far from where I will be based in Vellore so we will probably work together a lot. On Wednesday, I began a course that will accredit me to be a "trainer of trainers" in palliative care nursing. This will be part of what I will be doing in India. The first week and a half of July I will be back in New York preaching at supporting churches United Lutheran and Advent Lutheran, and then on to Trinity Lutheran in St. Petersburg, Florida. From there I go to my home church in Milaca Minnesota to preach at Zion Lutheran where I first climbed into the pulpit at age two to stand behind my father. My sister has booked me into Zion's WELCA and Senior Moments gatherings as well, so I will keep busy. After Milaca, it's back to Chicago for several more meetings, the Summer Missionary Conference and then back to Milaca again for a few days before preaching at Zion Lutheran in Buffalo Lake MN the first Sunday in August. That will be my July. Please continue to keep me in your prayers as I travel from one city to the next, preaching at a different Lutheran church nearly every Sunday. It's a whole different kind of busyness than I have known over the past two years in Liberia, but it does come with electricity and running water 24/7! Amen to that! August, 2008 Greetings to my sponsoring churches! I have been in the US for a month and a half now - long enough to get used to having the lights work any time of day or night and having my computer work whenever I want to use it! I mentioned training to train sessions in Chicago last time - the End-of-Life Nursing Education Consortium course was good and they have provided me with the materials I'll need to use this course in India. I hope to get some of their instructors to come to India for the initial course presentation. They said they’d be on 24 hour call for Hawaii - guess I need to make India sound more like Hawaii! After the classes in Chicago were over it was back to New York for me and preaching at Mt Vernon Lutheran Church which is on the campus of a Lutheran retirement center. After worship, the WELCA hosted an indoor picnic and I spoke and answered some good questions. The next Sunday I did short presentations at Advent Lutheran and during the week between those Sundays, I got together with old friends from my seminary and working days and visited favorite eating places in New York City. After NYC came St. Petersburg, FL, and lunch with their seniors’ group - Pairs and Spares - preaching on Sunday and a presentation after a community meal. They booked me into a lovely small hotel that was run like a bed and breakfast. It had antique touches and WiFi in the lobby for my computer - a nice mix of old and new. Then it was home to Milaca MN where I stayed at my sister’s house. She really worked me the week I was there! I spoke at Zion’s Senior Moments group, the WELCA meeting, the Thursday evening service and the Sunday morning service. I had to leave to drive to Chicago right after worship - morning meetings to attend. In Chicago I met with my bosses and other people involved and interested in Liberia’s needs as well as India’s. I also had a chance to get together with a couple of old friends in the area. After a couple of days in Chicago it was off to Kenosha, WI, for the Summer Missionary Conference. There were 100+ mission personnel, returning, and new missionaries, and families and local staff staying in the college dorm rooms there. There was a lot of practical information, great discussions, new ideas, good music, and wonderful worship services. I will finish off July with a couple more synod meetings in Wisconsin and Illinois and then a drive back to Milaca for some medical appointments and dental work. August begins with a trip to Buffalo Lake, MN, to preach the first Sunday. Even though I am “home” now, please continue to keep my name in your prayers. It is a different kind of work here, but I need the strength your prayers bring. May God continue to bless you as he has blessed me. September 2008 The month of August began with a Sunday morning road trip to Buffalo Lake, Minnesota, which is a little over 100 miles from my home base in Milaca. My sister decided to go along to keep me company and navigate. I was to preach and also do my Power Point presentation on Liberia. We left at 7 a.m. giving ourselves plenty of time to get there for a 9:30 a.m. service. About ten miles into the trip I realized I didn't have my computer with me. My sister said we haven't gone very far yet - let's go back and get it. We did. We had a pleasant drive and found Buffalo Lake without any trouble and drove up to Zion - only it was Zion Methodist! People who were going into their 9:30 a.m. service pointed us down the street - appropriately named Church Street - to Zion Lutheran. It was 9:35 and we were a little late we thought - until we saw the sign that said worship was at 9 a.m.! We were met at the door by relived people who had been worried that we might have had car trouble or gotten lost. Sermon time was past, but there was time for my Power Point presentation. Except that there were no cables that worked with the computer we had gone back to get! I did a presentation under my own power and then we were treated to a very tasty brunch followed by a good question and answer time. Later that week I flew to Houston, Texas, and drove to Victoria to visit First English Lutheran where I spoke at the Saturday evening service, two Sunday morning services, and went to Sunday School. Texas was hot but everything has A/C and they had mangoes for $0.99 a pound! Leaving proved to be a problem. The plane was delayed with mechanical problems and so I got to Chicago too late to catch my flight to Hawaii. The airline booked me on a flight the next day and treated me to a hotel and a meal. I'd rather have gotten to Hawaii a day sooner, but I took the opportunity to have dinner and talk with my boss. When I finally got to Hawaii, I found my bags had gotten there before me and had already left for the beach! We were reunited and went off to my quarters for my stay in Honolulu - a garage that had been converted into a guest apartment provided by a friend of a friend. I had some time to shop for fresh fruit and vegetables in a farmers' market, walk on the beach, and celebrate my birthday with good friends from India who live in Honolulu now. I did a Saturday evening presentation at St. John's Lutheran and then spent Sunday with Calvary by the Sea Lutheran where I used to be a member. The day began with a 7:30 a.m. service and went through lunch. Calvary had invited a palliative care doctor and we had some good questions and interaction. After Hawaii, I was off to California. First I went to another Calvary Lutheran in Solana where the minister of music gave the worship service a West African theme and even wrote some of the music himself. Some of the people even danced! After that I did a presentation in the hall which had been decorated with Liberian flags and maps and food items from Liberia. Two Sunday School classes raised enough money to support 16 students at the Phebe Community School, and one of those "kids" is a 50 year old 10th grader! I was hosted by a wonderful couple in a beautiful home and provided a car by someone who grew up in my hometown and had my Dad as their pastor! I will meet with the Bishop of the Pacifica Synod and then spend the last Sunday in August in Laguna Niguel at Mission Lutheran. From there it's back home to Milaca for a few days. More dental work, more packing, and finally the family wedding we have all been looking forward to. On September 8th, I am off to India. I want to thank everyone at my supporting churches for all of your warm hospitality, your good wishes, your enthusiasm, your curiosity about Liberia, and mostly for your prayers. It was a wonderful home leave and I'm now prepared to go out again. Keep your prayers coming because they keep me going! October 2008 Greetings to my sponsoring churches! I ended August with a visit tomy Bishop in the Pacifica Synod and then a final weekend at Mission Lutheran in Laguna Niguel where I stayed with a member of the congregation. On Sunday morning I gave what I told the congregation could be called a "preachentation" - a combination sermon and Power Point presentation. After worship I was treated to lunch at the marina. Then it was back home to Minnesota for final shopping, cramming my life into three suitcases while trying to keep them all under 50 pounds, and the wedding of my nephew Scott and his lovely bride Julie. Need I say that the wedding was the best part? We had beautiful weather and my sister's yard was a lovely setting for the ceremony. The wedding dinner was in an uncle's barn about a mile down the country road and horse drawn carriages were available for transportation. Two days after the wedding I left for India. Mostly on-time flights got me from Minnesota to Chicago to Frankfort Germany to Chennai India where I settled into the "Lunn Room" at the hospice and study center in Sneha Deepam which is in a rural area about 5 miles from the Christian Medical Center (CMC) in Vellore. When I was in India before I went to Liberia, I worked with CMC and the Catholic church to build this building which has inpatient care hospice care on the ground floor and a study center with guest rooms on the second floor. The building is on the grounds of a retreat center - called Sneha Deepam. The Lunn Room is good sized and has a small porch and a large bathroom. This will be my home base for my travels around India. That part of my job will be helping Lutheran hospitals, run by our partner churches, evaluate and strengthen the services that they provide. I get chai - a milky, spicy tea - delivered to my room at 6 a.m. and I take my meals with the priests and nuns in the retreat center. I got a warm welcome from the Sneha Deepam staff and the food is good but they seemed to have the idea that I only "western foods" and that I need silverware! Now that they understand that I love Indian food, the silverware has disappeared and there are no longer special foods in front of my plate. I spent my first days unpacking and shopping for what I need to make my room into my home. You can't carry a lot of furniture in suitcases! There have been power cuts most days as they wait for a new power station to come online. I did get a battery pack for my stand fan because it is quite hot here now and when the power goes off at night, a fan makes sleep possible. It is in the 80's at night and mid-90's during the day. I have also been renewing old acquaintances and getting in touch with old friends from my time here before Liberia. I have my former driver back which is wonderful because it is a huge challenge for a foreigner to drive in Indian traffic! In fact, it can be a bit overwhelming just looking out the passenger's window in the middle of Indian traffic! There are so many trucks and bicycles and rickshaws and pedestrians and animals and so many other vehicles! And Suren, my driver, is also an amazing handy man who is valuable to have around. At the end of September I will leave on the first of many, many trips. I'll be going with my Chicago-based boss Joe to be introduced to one of our partners and visit two hospitals in the north. Then I'm off to Delhi to work with a hospital on their palliative care program. Please keep us in your prayers as we travel and find out what needs to be done. We can't do it without your support and prayer is the most important part of that support. It was such a joy to meet so many of you during my home leave. You were gracious hosts and I felt a part of many different families - but ultimately, a member of the family of Christ. THANKS!! November 2008 I ended September by welcoming my boss - Rev. Joseph Chu, Director for Mission Interpretation and Support, Asia Pacific - back to India. We traveled together to Chennai, Vellore and Kolkata - also known as Calcutta - together. The streets of Kolkata - some at least - were flooded and it was a mucky mess! It took a good hour to get from the airport to the train station - this despite my impression that the driving there is more aggressive than anyplace I've seen in India! These guys are crazed, skilled, and "driven!" It's better than a roller coaster for thrills! We traveled to a mission hospital in Jharkhand via train and vehicle. I learned I was to preach the next morning. As my friend JP says, "A pastor in India must be prepared to do three things at all times - eat, pray, and preach." This portion of my trip was mostly about meeting the people I will be working with while I am here and seeing their hospitals and facilities, so I spent a lot of time in meetings and on tours. I learned a lot and have a better idea about what I will need to do. After visiting Mohulpahari Christian Hospital near Dumka in Jharkland, I traveled by overnight train to Assam. That was my first week of travel. The train dropped me in Guwahti and was driven to Parkijuli Christian Hospital which is just three kilometers from the boarder with Bhutan and a somewhat sensitive area. The road was badly potholed, but the potholes couldn't hold a candle to those in Liberia! I stayed in a guest house but the medical Superintendent took me to his home for all my meals. He runs the 40 bed hospital and does about 15 surgeries a week. The hospital also does village work with malaria and TB treatment and prevention. My next stop was Delhi where I will be until the beginning of November. I am staying at St. Stephen's Hospital and I have an air conditioned room with my own kitchen and washing machine and a TV that gets the BBC (I even watched the debates!) and HBO. I have hot water for my bath and I can get Domino's pizza delivered! (That's a novelty for me.) Delhi has changed a lot since the last time I was there - changed from a ragtag city to a much cleaner and more orderly place. And St. Stephen's is doing its part with their community clinic about 8 miles from the hospital. They are in charge of a census to count to poor of Delhi. The idea is to identify them and give them ID cards so that they can more easily access the various government programs available for them. This effort also provides jobs for a lot of young men and women. They hope to register 3 million people. They also have a school for the children of the slums and a tutoring program which involves 900 children. And they have a senior daycare center which provides meals and something for seniors to do during the day. They are working on a home care program and I hope to be able to help them with the palliative care aspect of that. I have a great deal of planning and teaching to do while I am here. I am doing presentations and classes for nurses, pastors, ICU doctors, medical staff, and a community group. The classes cover pain management, communication, and basic palliative care. By the time I finish, I will (with help) have taught 140 nurses and 50 doctors When I feel like getting out a little, I can take the Metro for 6-20 rupees each way - that's about 15 - 50 cents (a good deal for me, but a bit expensive for a typical worker). The Metro is clean, air conditioned and very much on time. Like most public conveyances - always crowded. I have visited Old Delhi and gone to McDonald's a couple of times. (There aren't any around Vellore.) They have great McVeggie Burgers! Please pray for me and for the mission I have been given. You have no idea how much I count on those prayers! December 2008 Greetings to my sponsoring congregations! I ended October in Delhi finishing the classes on palliative care for doctors and nurses and chaplains. I have been keeping in touch with people at Phebe Hospital in Liberia and was discouraged to learn that there has been no progress on replacing the large generator. I think the malfunctioning generators at Phebe will follow me all the days of my life! I will be going to Liberia in February - maybe there will be some progress by then? While in Delhi, I had the chance to spend a day with CanSupport which is a home care program for cancer patients. I went on two home visits with them and then had an informal session on spirituality with about 25 staff and key volunteers. They asked some tough questions based on some sad and difficult patient/family situations but it was invigorating. One Sunday in Delhi I was invited to speak at the cathedral. They have back to back services in English, Tamil, and then Hindi, so they requested a 10 minute sermon. The Gospel lesson was the Parable of the Talents and people appreciated that I did stick to the 10 minute suggestion as most guest preachers don't and the schedule is thrown off. On the way back to St. Stephen's hospital where I was staying, the driver took me around the capital building and showed me a few of the sights. I haven't been very motivated to be a tourist but when I come back in January to do more training, I'll probably need to do touristy things with the other nursing instructors from the US. I had a good meeting with the head of EHA (Emmanuel Hospital Association) who was very supportive of my recruiting a doctor for Liberia. He even had a married couple who he thought might be ripe for the experience. The EHA also has a 3 month program that trains dental technicians to take care of basic dental needs including extractions and uncomplicated fillings. This would be wonderful for Phebe! I was back at the Study Center at Sneha Deepam the beginning of November and glad to be home. A week later I took a train ride - two hours to Chennai and another seven hours to Guntur for an ordination service for more than120 new pastors. I was met at the station there and whisked off to a nice hotel. I preached at the opening service and the afternoon service. The church was packed with huge crowds - I heard one new pastor had 250 guests! Back at the Study Center, I met with people about getting assistance for Phebe and I was encouraged by the results. There are excellent medical people here and it would be great to get a few to go to Phebe and help out. I had time to touch base with old friends like Hamilton and Grace who were chaplains who joined the palliative care team about four years ago. My former housekeeper/cook now works for them and she still makes the best chai I've ever had! Her food is excellent too. Speaking of food, here in Vellore I go to Baskin Robbins for my pizza fix and they actually remembered me and my "usual" after two and a half years! I have been working with nurses at Christian Medical Center on the ELNEC (End of Life Nursing Education Consortium) - there is an introduction to palliative care section and a section on managing pain and another on managing other symptoms. We think this will be a very strong presentation for teaching the nurses and thanks to the International Association of Hospice and Palliative Care - we'll be offering in Vellore and Delhi in January with four faculty visiting from the US. Thanksgiving Day I leave for Mohulpahari in Jharkland - the first hospital I visited in September. Please remember me in your prayers and remember the patients who are receiving palliative care as well. Your prayers are the best support you give me! |
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