Each morning at 7:45 I walked to the Stadium Church where a large Land Rover picked me up.  Initially the conversations started in English but along the way as we picked up more workers the language switched to Wolaittina.  We bumped and jostled our way up the mountain to the Kele Heywet Church Headquarters where the school is located.  I had about 28 students waiting for me from all areas of Wolaitta.

One of the games I enjoyed playing with my students was 20 questions.  One day I came to class with a gift bag containing three items.  I  always give them a little hint before beginning the game, like ‘this is something to eat, or this is something to wear.’  My students all come from the countryside and are training to be missionary evangelists.  Some students are in their late forties with large families while others are single.  I have one lone brave female student.  On this particular day I had a tube of lipstick in the bag.  We proceeded with the questions and no one could guess what was in the bag.  I pulled out the tube of lipstick and they were astonished.  I put a little bit on and showed them how it worked.  From there, we proceeded to our planned lesson.  As we were reading the lesson I saw a hand go up.  “Yes?” I said.”

“Teacher, I have a question.”

“OK,” I responded.  “What is your question?”

“Teacher, is it permissible for a Christian woman to wear lipstick?”  All of the students mumbled in assent to the question.

“Hmm,” I thought.  “How am I going to answer this?”  I said, “Well, do you think I am a Christian?

They agreed that they thought I was a Christian.

“Well, I wear lipstick.  Actually, I think it is important for a wife to look her best for her husband and for the kingdom of God.  Everyday I put on a little make-up and lipstick so that I will look nice. It is OK with my culture to do this.”

They thought about this comment and then replied, “Well teacher, I think it is OK for a woman to wear lipstick if she lives in the city but she definitely cannot wear it in the countryside.”

My classes were full of interesting comments like this. I learned so much from my students.  Last week we finished our intensive English course and my students thanked me with a huge pink bouquet of artificial flowers.  The school faculty also gave me a purple house dress.  They are so sweet and I definitely enjoyed my time teaching at the seminary.  In June they have asked me to teach World History.  Now that’s more up my line and I look forward to the new challenge.

Posing with my students on the last day of English class

Sidney and her husband Mark do not work with the hospital.  They are free lance missionaries doing a variety of important things.  Mark is a contractor who originally came out to build an orphanage but the project was derailed shortly after they arrived.  He and Sidney plowed ahead doing what they felt God had called them to do; show the Jesus film to as many people as possible.  They are contagious Christians, full of fun, passion and the Holy Spirit.  Sidney has a tender heart for the people here.  In her playful, teasing way she finds her way into the hearts and homes of her neighbors.  But finding her way into the hearts of her neighbors wasn’t easy.  They rent a home that overlooks the city of Soddo.  Her fellow neighbors on this winding dirt path include a bar owner, a ring of metal thieves and the last remaining witch doctor in Soddo.  None of them were happy to have two Spirit filled missionaries at their back door. But that didn’t deter Sidney and Mark.  They loved on these people, kidded with them, hugged their children, took them medicine and food.  There was a cost, however; witch doctors, thieves and bar owners don’t take lightly to Christian meddling.  At one point, the bar owner, brandishing a long metal pole, screamed outside their gate, “I will kill you, I will kill you!”  Sidney suffered multiple medical problems, including parasites in her head, but this didn’t stop her.  Often at night I would wake up and think of Sidney and just pray for protection over her.  These men would stop at nothing to get Sidney and Mark to leave.

Sidney with three of the witch doctor's grandchildren. She is standing in front of the witch doctor's home.

A few months ago they began to show the Jesus film which is translated into Amharic.  Mark rigged up a white sheet with wooden dowels on each end and tacked it to a large tree just outside their gate.  With a generator, projector, speakers and laptop computer they were ready for business. On Friday nights their little dirt road became a movie theater for Jesus.  The crowds climbed the hill to see the film about Jesus.  Hundreds gathered around the makeshift movie theater and quietly watched the story of our Lord. The only time the crowd got rowdy was when Jesus was beaten and crucified.  At that point they wept and beat their chests.  Later when he rises from the dead the crowd bursts into cheering and applause.    One of our hospital chaplains and local pastor, Tesefye, helped out with the movie by praying with the people before and after the film.  Slowly, slowly the walls began to break down and their neighbors wanted to know more about this Jesus in the movie.  Sidney and Mark showed the movie in their neighbor’s bar where the patrons crowded around their tiny laptop to hear about Jesus.  Sidney and Mark never gave up on their neighbors.  Little by little, more questions were asked about this Jesus.  Four weeks ago the witch doctor called Sidney to his house and said, “I want this Jesus in my life.”  Mark and Tesefye and Sidney prayed with this man to receive Christ.  This decision of the witch doctor has been huge and of course, carries with it layers of complications from a lifetime of satanic worship and debauchery.  But each one will be dealt with as it comes.  First he wanted to show that he had changed.  They cleaned out his entire compound of sheep skulls, bits of paper and other witchcraft paraphernalia.  He gave his round metal earring that he had worn for over 50 years to signify his witchcraft, to Sidney.  He went to the barber and cut his massive dreadlocks, took a bath and bought new clothes.  He said, “This new birth is much better than my first one!”  They took him to Tesefye’s church and introduced him to the congregation.  No introduction was really necessary. Everyone knew the witchdoctor.  When they announced his conversion to Christ the church erupted in cheers, la, la, la, la whooping and applause.  When days later the bar owner complained about his problems to the witch doctor, the former witch doctor said, “You need to keep your eyes on Jesus!”  He did and is now a Christian too!

So much has been happening near Sidney’s house.  The Jesus film is one concrete way that they have found to share who this Jesus is.  The night I went they showed a newer film called, “Magdalene.”  It tells the story of Jesus through the eyes of Mary Magdalene.  It highlights Jesus’ miracles with women and his tenderness to their needs.  One particular poignant scene shows a sick woman in the crowd crawling toward Jesus to touch just the hem of his garment. She knows that if she can just touch the hem of his cloak she will be healed of her bleeding disorder.  As many times as I have read the stories of Jesus, this movie moved me to tears…and it was all in Amharic!

Showing the "Magdalene" story of Jesus on Friday night

If we can find enough money (around $500.00) we would like to purchase a TV, VCR and stand so that we can show this movie everyday in our OB/GYN clinic. We want our patients to know that this Jesus whom we serve loves women.  Women are important to Jesus…so much so that he said in Galatians 3:28, “There is neither Jew nor Greek, male nor female…you are one in Christ Jesus.  That is a powerful message that needs to be delivered to the all people of Ethiopia.

We were walking home one Sunday afternoon when the hospital guards stopped us just outside the gate.  “Doctor, what can we do with this boy?”  He was curled up on the dusty ground, wrapped in tan clothing much too large for his slight 13 year old frame.  Mark took one look at his legs and said, “Get him into outpatient.  We will take care of him.”  But that statement is easier made than implemented.  This boy was a street boy with no one to take care of him.  It was going to take a lot of footwork and man hours to figure out a plan for his future.  But first of all, he needed medicine.  We got him a hospital card and had him seen in outpatient.  They really didn’t want to admit him but we insisted.  How would his legs heal on the street?  Later our visiting surgical team from Atlanta looked at his legs and affirmed that he needed to be admitted for treatment.  He was placed on antibiotics and shown how to wash his body and legs.  On Monday when I went down to the hospital to check on him, Mileus, one of our translators, asked to talk to me.  He said there was another street boy in the hospital who was causing a problem with the patients.  Would I come and see him too?  So I first checked on Syntayoo and then went to the medical ward to see the other boy.  I was not prepared for what I saw.

This boy was tragic.  He was 10 years old and had been on the streets for one year.  He had been brought into the hospital suffering from a seizure.  Now his vacant eyes stared right through me.  A response to my questions would take up to 10 seconds and then he would answer in broken words.  The head nurse was worried about him because he was wandering the hallways at all hours of the night and soiling his bed.  She said he needed someone to stay with him or he needed to be discharged.

As a foreigner and being fairly new in the country, I really did not know what to do.  This problem was fast becoming too large for me to handle and it was obvious that the nurses definitely did not want to take care of it. In the states this problem would be turned over to a social worker.  Here it looked looked as if I was the social worker.  The nurse gave me two days grace to find a solution to the boy’s problem.   Walking back to my house, I turned it over to Jesus.  “Jesus, I know you love orphans and I know you love children.  What do I do?”  First I needed a short term solution.  I had to find someone to stay at the hospital with the boys.  Second, I had to look for the long term solution.  What would we do with the boys when they were ready to be discharged?  I felt like He told me to ask my housekeeper, Demeketch.  So I went home and presented the problem to her.  She said she had a friend who needed work.  She would ask her.  The next day I met Tawabitch.  I liked her at first sight but when Jackie Anderson’s housekeeper walked out of her house and hugged Tawabitch, and told me she was a good Christian woman, I knew she was sent from God.  It was the affirmation I needed.  We moved both boys into the same room so that Tawabitch could keep an eye on them. She slept at the hospital and ministered to them.  She acted like a mother to both boys.  Now I needed to look for the second solution.  What to do with the boys?

Becca Gray, Nurse Sophie and I went looking one afternoon for the Catholic sisters of Charity in Soddo.  We had heard there might be a place for children with severe disabilities  that had no family.  Our first stop was the Catholic Church headquarters.  The clerk didn’t know where the nuns lived but he suggested we ask the Bishop.  The Bishop?  We didn’t even know there was a Bishop in Soddo.  We walked over to his house and he greeted us warmly.  The Italian Bishop said he would locate the nuns for us.  He called their house and another worker showed us the way.  The nuns were sympathetic to our plight but they said the home for children was full.  They reiterated what we already knew.  The best solution was to locate the family.  Back on the compound, I talked to Jackie Anderson about the problem.  She said the hospital had hired a part time social worker and she would talk to him.

Slowly, the little boy with epilepsy improved and his mind cleared.  Initially, I thought he was autistic but as the medicine took effect and good food  filled his tiny body, his eyes cleared and he began to talk.  He had fled his home over one year earlier when his mother threatened to spank him.  He had hopped on a truck and come to Soddo.  Now he wanted to go home.  This  seemed to be the solution to this boy’s future. Our new social worker at the hospital took him home this past weekend.  His family was overjoyed to see their child again.  This story seems to have a happy ending.

Now for Syntayoo.  His story was more complicated.  His mother died  four years ago and his father abandoned the family.  He had been living with his uncle and small brother but the uncle drove him out.  He helped out on a farm with another family but when his legs got so bad that he could no longer work, they drove him out. When he ended up in Soddo, we were the third hospital that he tried to get into.  He had only been on the streets of  Soddo for one month.  We pursued his treatment and with nutrition, antibiotics and antibiotic cream, soap and lotion and minor surgery and  his legs markedly improved. When he was ready for release  I could see that we had three choices.  Number one, we could send him back to the streets.  Number two, we could send him back to his uncle.  And number three, we could find a family in Soddo that he could live with.   Again through much prayer we asked Jesus what to do.  Tawabitch knew a widow who she said might be interested in taking the boy in.  On Thursday, we learned that the widow would take him in but for a price.  Her only income was injera making and she had one 14 year old son.  We met her and she seems nice enough.  We are hoping for a happy ending but I know his story is not over.  Before we sent him to her home, Melius and  Syntayoo went to the shops to buy new clothes.  First he got his hair cut and then we bought 2 pair of pants, shorts, underwear, sandals, tennis shoes, socks, two shirts and sunglasses.  This came to about $60.00.  After that Melius took him to purchase a bed.  He moved in with the widow.

Syntayoo sporting his new clothes with Tawabitch, his care-taker

But as I said previously, taking care of street boys is easier said than implemented.  Today I met our local Peace Corps worker, Daniel,  at 8:00 A.M. to take Syntayoo and register him for school.  We walked several miles to the prearranged meeting place.  He and his caretaker did not come.  Later, after I had walked another two miles home I met the care-worker at the hospital.  The messages had been mixed up and they came to the hospital instead of the designated meeting place.  So, we will have to schedule another meeting.  In the meantime, Mark and I will fund his care and hope for the best.

The street boy problem in Soddo is significant.   Estimates indicate that there are anywhere from 1000-2000 boys on the streets at any given time.  This is a common problem in developing countries and Ethiopia is not exceptional in the problem.  But this is something I would like to see the local church take ownership of.  The needs here are daunting and one has the feeling of impotence in the face of so much need.  But we know that Jesus loves children and especially orphans.  He will give us the strength and ability to care for these children.

The room was bustling with excitement.  There were three midwives waiting to take care of the babies along with the normal surgical crew. Each baby had a towel and blanket along with its own bulb syringe waiting for them in the large bassinet.   I showed them the blankets and hats I had brought and we laughed about what colors we should use.  All of us had an opinion about the sexes.  Some thought two boys and a girl and others two girls and a boy.  No one ventured to think they would all be the same sex.  The only thing missing was the father.  He and the grandmothers were waiting outside surgery. Fathers are still not allowed in the operating room.

It took a while for the spinal to take but finally the surgeons were ready.  Mark had his first year resident, Dr. Ronald from Rwanda make the incision.  Many thoughts went through my mind.  No. 1…I’m glad I’m not queasy when I see blood. No. 2…in just seconds three new lives will enter this world…it was a humbling thought that I would witness their first breaths and 3…I was so proud of my husband who was allowing his student to do most of the case. It was only Mark’s second set of triplets to deliver. They reviewed the procedure once again, made sure all of the instruments were ready with the scrub tech, said a prayer, looked around one more time to make sure everyone was ready and the surgery began.  It seemed like a long time from the initial skin incision until the uterus was opened but in reality it didn’t take more than five minutes.  The first baby emerged quickly and took her first gasp for air and cried lustily.  The room erupted in excitement. It’s a girl!  Our head midwife, Bekalu immediately scooped her up in his arms and began to work on her.  Within in seconds baby two was delivered and again the room happily noted it was another girl!  The next midwife, Tigist took this baby in her arms and began to clean her and suction her out.  And then we waited.  I watched and videotaped as Dr. Ronald searched for baby three.  Mark put pressure on the abdomen and finally (it seemed like forever) baby three emerged in his own meconium stained sac.  It’s a boy everyone shouted.  He was so little but his arms flailed and his cry was hearty as our third midwife, Meskeram, scooped him up and placed him in the bassinet. Each baby was weighed in the OR and then we discussed which blankets and hats to wrap them up in. It was a magical moment for Soddo Christian Hospital.

The triplets. L-R No. 1 girl, No. 3 boy and No. 2 girl

Staff popped their heads in the OR wanting to see the babies and checking on the mom.  Finally the cleaned up babies were wheeled over to the mother who had, up to then, only heard their cries.  She already seemed weary as her tired smile took in her three new children.  The midwives wheeled the bassinet out of surgery and into the outdoor corridor where the father and his family stood waiting to see their babies.  I think he was a tad overwhelmed when he took in the magnitude of three little babies, however he smiled and the grandmothers standing next to him were ecstatic.  The babies were then quickly wheeled into our ICU ward.

Dad sees his babies for the first time

Two days later I went down to the hospital to see the babies, pray for them and give a gift to the mother.  I used the nice bag sewn by Kainey Church and packed it full of three outfits each for the babies donated by Muskegon area women.  They actually paid for us to bring two suitcases back with baby clothing. This family is very poor and it was a privilege to share your gifts from the USA with this very deserving family.  This time we did not have “naked twins” but fully clothed healthy triplets.

Since returning to Soddo Christian Hospital we have been quite surprised by the recent changes to the hospital compound.   There are two new houses under construction, a new playground, a covered lapa near the surgery for patients to wait, another covered lapa at the rear of the new guest house, a new ceiling on the surgery ward, new fences and gates and soon construction will begin on the resident apartment housing and the CAT scan/X-ray building.  Whew!  We are so blessed!

The new playground is fast becoming a reality with Becca’s Pollack’s dad, Al, putting all his efforts into the construction.

The new playground

Playing on the new rings of the swingset

The new lapa under construction near the outpatient and surgery departments

These patients waiting outside for various services will definitely enjoy the new lapa when it is completed.

The Gabriche's new house under construction. They are currrently in language school in Addis Abba. Their house is right next to ours.

In the meantime our 'friendly' neighbor is enjoying our completed rock patio!

This is a video I made about our lives in Soddo.

Faith was such a helper

Mark enjoyed raking leaves with Grammy and Grandpa

Being back in the states with our grandkids from Johannesburg, S. Africa has been so much fun.  Raking leaves in chilly November was magical!

My make-shift hospital room

The IVs with medication helped and the vomiting ceased in the late afternoon.  Mark talked to our kids on Skype and asked them to pray for me.  He also put on Sara’s prophetic piano music which was like a balm for my soul. I felt the Holy Spirit gentle my soul and I rested quietly on the sofa drifting in and out of sleep. Slowly the intense vertigo subsided in the evening to where Mark could carry/drag me to the bathroom like a recovering stroke victim. My balance was nonexistent. I remained another day in bed with no light and no movement but could take tiny sips of icy carbonated water called Ambo. Lucky for me it was a national holiday called Meskel so Mark did not have to go into the hospital. Dr. Paul Gray slipped in that morning and prayed for me.  Jackie came and prayed for me.  Our chief resident and his wife, our head midwife came and prayed for me.  I had Amharic prayers and English prayers. Both were equally beautiful to my ears. And then just as it came quickly, it left quickly.  I sat up in bed and thought, “My head feels clear.”  I put on my glasses and everything focused.  But my balance was still off and it took another four days before I could walk without holding on to someone or something.

So what did I have?  Between all the specialists on the compound and my own family doctor, Dr. Tom Watkins, back in Muskegon, they felt like it was an inner ear infection caused by a virus and labeled it labyrinthitis. I am still not 100%.  I tire very easily.  Last night I was in bed by 8:30.  And my balance is still off.  On Wednesday I played a game with my students which required moving from side to side. The dizziness came back quickly and I lost my balance. I love to exercise and I’ve had to give that up for a while until my balance returns. So my kickboxing DVDs will gather a little dust until my head feels normal.  In the meantime, I’m walking and doing some physical therapy exercises that are supposed to help the crystals in my ear realign. If this is something you or a loved one has gone through I would love to hear from you.  In the meantime, I am so grateful for my missionary friends here in Soddo and our Ethiopian hospital friends who came down to the house to check on me and pray for me.  I am so incredibly blessed!

Allison speaking:  My heart is breaking.  Today Mark delivered twin baby boys from the young mother who is paralyzed from the chest down.  We had hoped that she could make it another week or two but she went into labor this morning. Why is my heart breaking this time?  We see so much tragedy here one might think that we become immune to poverty, sickness and injustice. And sometimes it seems that we do.  But God has a way of breaking our hearts and remolding them, creating a vulnerability that can be painful yet healing. This patient, named Tamanyn, which means honest, came to the hospital approximately 5 weeks ago.  She had experienced severe back pain in her upper spine and then lost all feeling and movement from the chest down.  But getting to our hospital isn’t quite as easy as driving across town on a fast interstate highway.  She had to be carried from her tiny thatched house, into the village and down the rocky mountainside to the small town where they took a crowded taxi 250 Kms. to our hospital.

Now backspace one week.  Sara, the chaplain, and I went to visit Tamanyn last Thursday.  Because she is a country girl from a distant tribe, she only speaks her native language.  But even though she could not speak Amharic, her beautiful smile spoke volumes. Her husband translated as we told her that we wanted to spend some time praying for her healing and for the babies.  We made her comfortable (she needs help just turning over or moving in her bed) and then anointed her with oil and began to pray. I wish I could say there was a miraculous healing but there wasn’t.

Temanyn and her husband

On Tuesday Tamanyn went into spontaneous labor and delivered the twins by Cesarean section.  In the states when our babies are born we have baby showers and baby gifts.  It is not uncommon for our beloved children to have enough newborn clothes to never wear an outfit twice. Tamanyn and her husband are desperately poor.  They are being sustained by our maternal benevolent fund.  These perfect twin boys had absolutely nothing to wear. Not a diaper, not a shirt, not a blanket.   Nothing!

When Mark told me the babies had been delivered I went into town to purchase some clothing for them.  My Muslim student, Semira and I went to several shops looking for anything that would fit newborn twins.  The pickings were slim. We bought four outfits, some rubber pants, baby lotion and soap.  When I got home we packed a box with the new clothes, two baby blue blankets from Muskegon High School and two little baby blue hats knitted by one of our supporters.  We also tucked in some cookies, oranges and juice boxes and headed up to ICU.  Every bed was full so the ward was teaming with visitors. There are no walls or drapes in ICU.  All patients, male, female, babies and children are in one large room. Our patient was in the last bed.  She was lying flat on her back, still sleepy from her general anesthetic.  Her husband stood quietly by the bed. She smiled when she saw me.  I bent down and kissed her softly on the forehead.  “They are beautiful,” I told her.  I walked around the bed to the bassinet where the little boys lay completely naked under the faded surgical drapes.  They were sound asleep, facing each other, oblivious to the cruel world that awaited them.  I gently peeled back the drapes from their faces so I could have a look at these sweet babies.  “They look like you,” I said to the husband.  He smiled.  They asked me to pray.  I choked back the tears as the reality of their future slammed into me. She is a paralyzed country woman, uneducated, with twin boys to raise.  It’s one thing to use a wheelchair on the sidewalks at Soddo Christian Hospital.  It is quite another thing, however, to negotiate rocky mountain trails, uneven dirt floors and grass paths.

The twin boys wrapped in donated blankets and hand knitted caps.

Our hospital gardeners along with Kari checking out the 'new' wheelchair.

Today the gardeners and I took a donated wheel chair out of one of our hospital storage containers and brought it to Tamenyn and her husband.  It is sitting in the corner of her room, a stark reminder of her paralysis.  We continue to pray for complete healing.  Yesterday Mark started her on high doses of steroids.  He had to wait until the babies were born to begin this treatment.  He is also treating her for tuberculosis.    We will wait and see and hope…but in the meantime, please join us as we continue to pray that she will walk again.

Love,

Mark and Allison