Triplets!

Yes, Triplets were born just after noon today. It was the first time we've had three LIVE triplets born since I arrived in Africa in 1977. There have been a couple of cases where one or two babies did not live but all three of these BOYS are doing fine.

Weights: Baby A- 1kg520, Baby B- 2kg050 and Baby C- 2kg170. To change these weights into Pounds, multiply times 2.2.

The local Television station came and filmed the babies, Father, Pediatrician and the head Midwife. The father and Head Midwife are hoping that the family can get some government subsidy for their family. They have four other children.

I came home at 2pm, exhausted from running around. Legs aching. I canceled the Midwifery class for 3pm since my two Midwife students got a great experience already today.

Praise the Lord that mother and boys are fine. Please pray for Mom as she recovers from surgery and the triplets that they will grow big and strong. Thanks.

Bible Study on Jesus and the Kingdom of God, Jesus Walk Bible Study Series

Bible Study on Jesus and the Kingdom of God, Jesus Walk Bible Study Series

Nursing Students Arrive!

September 6th the Bongolo Hospital School of Nursing accepted 13 new students into the Class of 2010-2013. A 14th student was unable to come to school because of the death of his Father just the week prior to the start of school. Meet the new Class:

The first day of school students got registered, payed their student fee, learned about the school's policies, signed their contracts and got a tour of the hospital.That afternoon they started a two week intensive Orientation Course which included Techniques, Pharmacology and Primary Health. Tomorrow they will finish this accelerated course. On Monday they will start their regular fall quarter.

Gabon Field Forum

Every summer we attend a Field Forum. It is like going to family camp. For the past ten years Field Forum has been held in Lambarene, Gabon. This year the FF was held at a Hotel just south of Libreville. My brother Pastor Larry Thorson was asked to be the Speaker and arrived in the country on August 11th, along with Dave Zimmermann who came to work with our Youth during the conference. See my previous blog entry about Larry and Dave's trip to Bongolo Hospital.

August 16th, my Birthday, Larry, Dave and Karen Fitch drove back to Libreville to attend Field Forum. We stopped at the Equator for a photo shoot!

 
Field Forum lasted from late afternoon on Monday through Saturday breakfast. We were lodged at an old, but nice one story Hotel complete with air conditioned, private and semi private rooms, swimming pool, work out room, sand volleyball court and a quality dining room. Wow, did we have a buffet feast on our first night of the conference! Meetings were held each morning and late afternoon in a large, freshly painted, air conditioned conference room. Many of these things are taken for granted in the States. I merely want you to get to picture that we were doing Fine at FF! This hotel even had wireless, at least Part of the time! There was a problem with hot water though. Some of the rooms almost never had hot water. Can't ask for everything, right? Well, we'll see if we chose another hotel or not for next year's conference!

Pastor Larry preached on "Joy" and we were blessed. Several times we broke up into small groups after the messages and had discussions on various topics. At these times the three young people met in a group with Dave Zimmermann.  We also had team building exercises directed by Pastor Scott Wakely, from our team's Pastoral staff at Allegeney Center in Pittsburgh, Pa.

Field Forum ended on Saturday morning and Larry, Dave, Deborah Walker and I went  to downtown Libreville to show Larry and and Dave the city. They were able to go to the "African Village" which is an open air souvenir market. We went to lunch at a nice cafe that was new to me.

Deborah and I returned to Bongolo on Sunday August 22nd. That was the same day that Larry and Dave flew to the States. Before flying out, Larry was able to preach at two services at a large church in Libreville. It was good that Larry and Dave got to see a small village church the first Sunday in the country and a large city church the second Sunday. It was so much fun having them here!

Now for the others in my family to visit!!! :-)

My brother Larry's Arrival and trip to Bongolo!

My brother Larry, who is Pastor of River Valley Alliance Church in Watertown, Wisconsin, came to visit! WooHoo! He is the first member of my family to visit me in the 33 + years I have lived in Gabon. He came with a friend from his church, Dave Zimmermann. Dave is a High School Music teacher. They arrived August 11th, on Larry's Birthday. I took them out to eat at Tivoli's Italian Restaurant that was very close to the airport. At the right find Dave and Larry in front of the Tivoli's Pizza ovens.

August 12th we drove down to the Lebamba where I live and work at the Bongolo Hospital. We stayed for four days, three nights. I took them on a tour of the hospital and also of the town.  We stopped at the Albert Schweitzer Hospital on the way down country and Dave got to sit at the Dr. Schweitzer piano. NO, he did not touch the keys.

On our tour around the Bongolo station we saw the Bongolo waterfalls, where Larry and I stand in the next photo.

 

In town they got to try some BBQ chicken wings from the vendor in front of the local Barak Obama Restaurant.  We also ate at the Ditchi Restaurant to celebrate the Eric Hofman and my Birthdays. Eric grew up in OMAHA!

On Sunday August 15th we went to the Nzoundou Chapel where Dave shared some thoughts and then Larry preached. Four young people accepted Christ that day. Larry Prayed for them after they had done so. Larry and Dave also met one of the Village Chiefs, Inono.

The River Valley Alliance Church ladies had made some dresses out of pillowcases and Larry and Dave brought some with them. I got the fun of handing out some of these dresses at Nzoundou.

More about Larry and Dave Zimmermann's time in Gabon in another blog entry!

LOST, SAVED, SAFE!

Thursday afternoon I went to the other end of the city to visit colleagues for the evening. We had a committee meeting for the conference we're having later on this month. I spent the night.

Now about Friday morning. I ate breakfast, finished using the internet and then started my drive across town. My objective was to go to a new "American Store" in town and then to the main grocery store. I knew that there was a large hole in the road going into that part of town so I took the "express...NOT..." way to another cross road to get back to the road I wanted. As I was going into town all the traffic got diverted away from that road. I did not know what was ahead. Cars were bumper to bumper. It took at least a half hour to go several blocks. I wanted to get back down to the main road that goes along the waterfront but kept going parallel to it. Then I finally got a view of what looked like a marching band where I wanted to go, a parade! I decided to turn to the right and worm my way, eventually going north again, but the roads do NOT go north and south. They seem to go in circles.

I got royally LOST in winding roads, in a mixture of residential and business areas. It was noon so the sun was straight up and I didn't know if I was going North or South. I just knew if I made the choice to go on a road that led DOWN a hill, it would likely lead me back to where the parade was! Eventually I got to exactly where I did NOT want to be, near the busiest open market in town! I was lost though because I would get to an intersection and have NO idea which way to turn. I have never been so lost in the city before. Normally I AVOID this section of town but I had no choice today.



Finally, after sitting for awhile at one long line before an intersection I asked two men who were walking by to tell me which direction I should turn to get to Mbolo, the store I was aiming for. They said, "Left". When I got to the corner I found a policeman directing traffic. I asked him and he said "RIGHT". I went Right! I did get to a familiar intersection and I was able to make my way to Mbolo, arriving about 15 minutes later. I had been SAVED by the Policeman who directed me in the correct direction. He was an answer to my prayers!



I made it home to the guest house safely. With all that traffic, cars going in and out with very little semblance of lanes, there was much potential of having an accident but the Lord helped me through it all and kept me and my car SAFE. Thank you Lord!