Soddo Update From The Anderson's

Though we are still trying to get to Soddo, Duane and Jackie Anderson, the orthopedic surgeon in leadership of the PAACS residency and his wife, are already there. I wanted to include an update from their time and service at Soddo. Hope you enjoy!

Paul

NOVEMBER UPDATES FOR THE ANDERSONS IN ETHIOPIA

DR. CAL JONES RETURNS TO SODDO
Last November Dr. Cal Jones helped jump start our fledging residency program. This year he has returned for five weeks and sees improvement. "These are a great group of young surgeons," he comments. He especially enjoys letting them do surgeries under his careful supervision. Cal is from Baltimore, MD., a retired vascular surgeon, with a continued interest in the hospital. His church small group made a significant contribution to our new pharmacy building. He is delighting in taking progressive pictures of the building to share with his wife and friends. It is a pleasure to share Thanksgiving with him again this year. And what a surprise to have him remember our (Duane's and Jackie's) birthdays with special gifts.

OB/GYN DOCTOR AND WIFE CONSIDER SODDO CHRISTIAN HOSPITAL
Dr. Mark and Alison Karnes were our new duplex neighbors for the first two weeks of November. From Muskegon, Michigan, the Karnes had earlier missionary experience in Cameroon. After living in the States for the last 20 years, they are eager to return to Africa on a long term basis.
Dr. Mark set to work delivering babies; in fact, his wife and I watched twins born on my and Duane's birthday! It was a C-section and Mark fastidiously explained each step to the resident. A healthy boy and girl were quickly wrapped in blue sheets and fell asleep. The next day Alison accompanied me on my hospital rounds with our woman chaplain, Sarah, translating. We gave two baby blankets to the tired mother who is concerned about caring for twins.
Alison was a great partner for the two weeks. She gladly took my English students when I was busy cooking for all our visitors. She enjoyed the prayer times on the wards, pausing to hear from God concerning each patient. She visited schools and found opportunities to teach in the future.
On one of her last days, I gave her my old monkey puppet that has arms that wrap around your neck. When you move the mouth, it squeaks. We entered the children's ward and frightened many of them at first. The monkey dispensed gum so eventually we overcame the fears. Even grown men would scream and pull back as if the cloth toy was alive with an evil spirit. When she removed it from her arm, a great gasp went up.
Soon we had a crowd of student nurses and patients' relatives following us down the covered walkway to another ward. In orthopedics, one of our favorite girls pulled back in alarm. We coaxed her to touch the monkey and soon she followed us, confident that is was a lot of fun. Over an hour of joking and laughing brought joy to many bored patients. They are asking Sarah, "Where is the monkey? When is it coming again?"
Dr. Mark expressed enthusiasm at developing the OB/GYN department of the hospital.
We hope Mark and Alison will return as long term residents here.

AMERICAN MIDWIFE INSTRUCTS NURSES
Judy Stewart from Yakima, WA, arrived November 8th with the New Covenant and Real Life Ministries team. Judy's red hair characterized her energy and passion for teaching. At 7 AM Friday she began her twice a day teaching to the staff nurses. Amber, another nurse from California, helped her the first three days before following the team to Dilla, Ethiopia. Judy continued through Saturday, Sunday, Monday and Tuesday. She even squeezed in teachings in the middle of the day at the local nursing college. Thankfully, we were able to house her in the duplex on the living room floor so that she was available to help Dr. Mark Karnes with night deliveries. What a whirlwind of activity for a first timer in missions! We think her partnering with Sister Tigist, the nursing college instructor who also does quality assurance training here at the hospital, helped win her students.

REAL LIFE MINISTRIES TEAM IMPACTS HOSPITAL
We welcomed familiar white faces Thursday, November 8th. Jim Putnam and Brandon Guindon from Real Life Ministries, our local Post Falls, ID, church arrived a bit stiff and jet lagged. They plunged into teaching at the Friday chapel with Jim's personal testimony and the need for discipleship in the church. Intense meetings continued throughout Friday and Saturday. People were challenged, encouraged and interested. Several doctors expressed a desire to start small groups as well as be in a group so that they can experience what they were taught. The fruitful time seems to be the beginning of some great growth here. Pray we can follow up with materials and meeting times. Duane and I both desire to be effective disciple makers. We are hoping another couple from RLM's staff will join us to jump start this work. We feel inadequate but Jim encouraged us that God has placed us here for this time for a reason.
We enjoyed a group pizza night on Friday. I made 16 pizzas for the group. We used our outdoor eating area with the wood burning pizza oven. Candlelight broke the pitch blackness of the African night and the fellowship seemed anointed by God's Spirit.

DISCIPLESHIP TRAINING
To make disciples that make disciples is our goal. Duane is casting that vision again to his small groups. I (Jackie) was very encouraged by several of my relationships here. Tzion, the hospital account, shared with me this morning that she had been taking our Bible study materials and teaching them to several of her friends. This is what I had hoped would happen! We both laughed and hugged as we talked about multiplication of disciples. I am also encouraging a second group of women to take the proverbs lessons and teach at least one other person each week. We will see what happens!

DUANE'S INTERESTING PATIENTS
He was so sad. His mother says he is 13 but he looks more like 8 years old. Dirty, ragged, with no shoes, he is obviously very poor.
He is a burn patient with the right forearm and hand attached the upper arm since he was an infant and fell into a fire.
Adequate care would have saved this arm but he lives in a far bush area where Dr. Mary Vanderkooi and Dr. Ruth Droppers have a twice monthly health clinic. They told him about the free care for the poor at Soddo Christian Hospital so he and his mother came by bus.
His hand is contracted with fingers embedded into the arm. He was probably bandaged tightly in that position for too long.
Dr. Frehun and Dr. Duane Anderson separated his hand and forearm from the arm and then skin grafted the defect.
His elbow is now at 90 degrees and he is wiggling his fingers slightly. We gave him a clean T-shirt and toy. He will have a little use of his hand and elbow. He seems to be happy and less fearful now.

SAVING A HAND
A young 18 year old insulted his neighbor's wife and was attacked with a machete with the intent to cut his head off! He threw up his arm to protect his neck and the machete sliced through his wrist, almost completely amputating it. He cut all the tendons except three. He cut all the major blood vessels and nerves. And completely cut through the bones of the wrist. He arrived in the OR about three hours after the injury. Dr. Jones, visiting vascular surgeon spent four hours repairing the ulnar and radial arteries. I pinned the bones in the wrist. He left the operating room with slow capillary refill to the middle finger and a cool hand which indicates poor blood supply. I expected the hand to be cold and dusky the next morning but to an answer to our prayers and to our delight, the hand was warm and pink. Three days later Dr. Frehun and I repaired his many severed tendons and repaired the ulnar and median nerves. The surgery lasted another 3 -4 hours.
He was ready to go home two days later. His father did not want to pay the bill and gave many reasons why he couldn't! We hope he does his follow up care and follows our instruction after all this effort to save his hand.

BEREKET
Bereket means blessing. It is the name of the slight eleven year old girl sitting with two leg casts upon the hospital bed in the far right corner of the orthopedic women’’s ward at Soddo Christian Hospital. A bright grin breaks out as she sees Sarah, the chaplain, and I enter the room. Denashish( Good Day),” we call as we turn left and right to greet the women and their relatives gathered around the beds.
Bereket has club feet. She was born this way in a city two days travel from Addis. She could not walk far but school was near home so she has knowledge of Amharic as well as English. She seems bright.
“I had no friends,” she whispers shyly. “I walked to school with my younger brother. The children would imitate my funny walk, shout and stare.”” Her big brown eyes are serious and her face downcast in memory.
Her mother heard from a missionary that a specialist was in Soddo. With the help of the missionary, the two traveled to the hospital. Dr. Anderson could help her but it would take a long time and many casts on her feet. Slowly, the feet turned in the proper direction and meanwhile they both were hearing about Jesus.
“I didn’t hear about Jesus in my church,” Bereket sweetly smiles. “As we prayed and listened to the chaplains, I learned God is faithful. I can be saved by His righteousness. Before I believed that if we do good things, we could become righteous.”
Colored papers are on her wall showing the Bible stories we have taught her. A slightly tattered children’s Bible, an early gift from me, is tucked inside the bedside table.
Her mother returns from shopping with a plastic bag of bananas. Soon the ward is happy with many eating the produce. Bereket calls me to her and gracefully, with hand on opposite elbow, gifts me with a banana and piece of gum. I am delightfully surprised and her mother is pleased as well.
Bereket’’s mother is passionate about her new faith. She is attending the chapel services and sharing with other patients. She wants to be an evangelist!They are both blessings to me.

Attached to this newsletter

1. The fistula patient that has been in the hospital for a long time. I wrote about her last month; her name is Kaybitu. Dr. Mark Karnes, Dr. Cal Jones, and several residents/ staff are praying for her .

2. Dr. Mark and Alison Karnes, Duane and Jackie, and a German medical student, Sebastian Van Aarken.

3. The burn patient