The Clinic Project

The clinic project at Lusu Mission was a success! On the last day, just before we headed back to Livingstone, we brought the village headman, Nduna Ilwendo, to see the finished rooms. He grinned with delight and genuine gratitude. Two other Lozi men who were with us, Vincent and the clinic nurse, Ma-cleanse, said with big smiles, “Now we have a real hospital.”

Two brothers from the Durbanville Fellowship near Cape Town, South Africa came to help us with the project. Frans is a certified electrician. As some of you may remember, Frans was here a year and a half ago to help us install the solar water pump at the camp site.

Despite the lack of electrical supplies, a miscommunication with the Catholic officials at Lusu, and an unpleasant stomach virus that was passed (so generously) from team member to team member, God displayed His power in our weakness and, miraculously, the first phase of the project was complete by the time we had to go back to Livingstone.

Here is a quick list of all that was done:

1. Cleaned and swept out the rooms
2. Brushed and washed down the walls
3. Scraped paint off the windows with razor blades.
4. Painted the ceilings with a fresh coat of white paint.
5. Painted the walls with a soft green paint.
6. Rebuilt the solar electrical set-up - including adding two new 220Ah deep-cycle batteries and all new wiring and connections to all outlets and light sockets. (This was by far the biggest part of the project. We had to pull up several roofing sheets to get to the wiring!)
7. Washed the floors
8. Installed new door handles and locks
9. Installed new LED room lights and two special 30-watt, fully adjustable flood lights for the women’s delivery area.
10. Put new bed frames together (one in the men’s ward, one in the women’s ward. Two more are coming).
11. Delivered desks and chairs purchased from local carpenter, Kennedy.
12. Moved the vaccine fridge and electron microscope into the lab area. The new batteries will be able to handle these two items in addition to the lighting.
13. Made the beds up with sheets, blankets, pillows, and towels.
14. Hung mosquito nets.
15. Celebrated in a job well done! We praise God that so much was accomplished (only by His gracious provision).
    

So what remains to be done?

1. Curtains have been made for the windows. They still need to be delivered from the states and hung.
2. Vincent is building a ventilated wooden lock box for batteries so that they will not be abused.
3. The welder has finished two more bed frames (four total for the clinic) and four IV drip brackets. The new beds need to be assembled and the brackets installed on the wall above each bed.
4. The bed frames were built too narrow for the width of the mattresses. Mattresses were resized by a local tailor and are now ready for the bed frames.
5. In addition to what was accomplished at Lusu Clinic, we will also be setting up one complete bed station at a small rural health post just near Vincent’s home.

   

We want to say thank you to all of you who participated so generously in this project. We pray that you will see the reality of 2 Cor. 9:8-11 in your lives:

“ God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that having all sufficiency in all things at all times you may abound in every good work…

He who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will supply and multiply your seed for sowing and increase the harvest of your righteousness. You will be enriched in every way to be generous in every way, which through us will produce thanksgiving to God.”

Isn’t it amazing that God is faithful and zealous to enrich so many in the Body of Christ in order to be a blessing to others in the Body of Christ in order to produce thanksgiving to God both in the Body of Christ and in the World? That’s the way God’s system works! He designs and shapes us to be His pipelines of blessing to others for the purpose of more and more praise to God for his glorious grace to us in Christ Jesus. What a blessed privilege - for all of us!