ANT'S

ANTS!!! … WE’VE BEEN INVADED!!!!

Yes this is what we woke up to this morning. The kitchen counters were covered, the sinks were filled and I mean filled with ants! They were not only marching hundred by hundred but gathering thousand by thousand in our bowls and plates in the sink! Also the bathroom was being taken over by these marching creatures, and they were headed toward our bedrooms!!! Action must take place or we would be marched right out of our own house!! So Linda with some Korean bug killer we found in the house and me with my 29% deet bug spray started to fight back against the invading army. Slowly the invading army started to retreat or more like die in their tracts!!! Yes! Victory, the multitudes are dead, now we just pray that they don’t call in the reserves because we have now run out of ammo L But for now we are safe and have regained control of our house.


So you could say that we are kind of on administrative leave right now until further notice. The current Ethiopian OB hates us as well as the hospital in general and has stated that either we work or he works. So until we get the mess figured out we are off the ward and doing other projects. We actually heard today that the OB Dr. is quitting. So maybe we will get our job back sooner! But until then we will just serve God in ways other than in medical work.

Our first Job this morning after brutally fighting off the ants was to mark 108 sheets with the letters GAH (Gimbie Adventist Hospital). After completion of that job we met with Paul and he asked us to go around with the chaplain and pray with the pt’s on the different wards. The pt’s really like this and it encourages them tremendously. It took us about 2hrs to get through the almost the whole ward, the translator had an appt so we will be finishing the last part of the ward tomorrow. It was really neat to see how receptive the pt’s and families were. Some of them even cried as we prayed. Hearing about their medical cases was very interesting and gave us more of an idea of the kinds of sickness and injuries they acquire. Some of them are very interesting to say the least.

I have actually been writing this letter on and off today as we have down time between jobs. So as of now I have some new news on our “administrative leave” situation. While we were going around and praying with pt’s Paul came up to us to inform us that the Ethiopian OB who had been causing lots of problems just left and quit his job. We had heard of this possibility but because this Dr. usually makes a lot of threats we weren’t sure if he was really leaving or not. But he actually did. This is good and bad for the hospital. Good because he was the source of a lot of problems here and so hopefully those can now be resolved and good because he hated Linda and I and forbid us work, so now we can work again. But it is bad because we now have no OBGYN here at the hospital so we have to rely only on the General surgeon who is here and has little experience with OB cases. So please continue to pray for the OB situation as it is far from being completely fixed. Linda was informed that she is now the most experienced person in OB so she will now be doing a lot and in charge of much more. It seems funny how we have gone from being forbidden to work and now we are the most experienced and needed all the time. It is interesting how God works things out. So maybe we will get to do some more births now after a week of not working. I was beginning to get discouraged about not getting to work but Linda kept reminding me that God was in control and everything would work out and by Gods grace it did. Sometimes God has to remind us that He is the one who is in control and who is leading.

Just being here in Africa has been amazing. Seeing God work, learning how to adapt in non luxurious conditions, learning to work with the native nurses/midwifes/doctors and just being out of the busy American life style have all been great growing experiences. I am so glad God opened the doors for this trip it has defiantly been a blessing!


Blessing to all,

Amber