Many blessings to you this Christmas season!

December 27, 2020

Wishing our friends, families, and colleagues a very Merry Christmas! We hope you are staying healthy this holiday season. Thanks for the many of you who have sent your holiday greetings, photos, and prayer intentions. That is something that we love about this time of the year, people re-connecting and sharing their lives more intentionally. There are several things that stand out this year from the Gospel accounts of the birth of Jesus, the many promises that He fulfills from the Old Testament. Jesus came into a dark world, a world marred by injustice and Roman dominance. People longed for injustice to end and for a good leader, a leader they could follow. They must have wanted to find someone with authority to rule, not oppress, but truly look out for all people. There is a part in all of us too that longs for a true hero like this. We are told that a child would fulfill this prophesy, which means that Jesus would grow into this kind of leader. How fascinating it would have been to have known Jesus as a child, to see how he made friends, and to hear his make believe play. “For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.” Isaiah 9:6 The characteristics of Jesus are those of a strong leader: a good counselor, strong, persevering Father, and peace-loving. He was all of those things and much more! May we all grow in our understanding of Jesus with every passing year.

Hospital Work We continue to go through a challenging season of hospital leadership, financial crisis due decreased hospital visits, a community struggling to turn away from ugly realities of tribalism, armed groups, and on-going insecurity and displacement here in eastern DRC. Some serious problems. Urgh….it has been really hard. We don’t have to look very far to see that there is not peace on earth. Still the last two months have been fairly calm and there is always reason for hope that better days are ahead. We have not had hundreds of displaced people on the hospital compound, or sleeping under trees by the river. We have found ourselves asking, “should we really put a new roof on that house? Is it worth it? What is going to happen in the next few months?” But in the end, we choose HOPE and INVESTMENT. We believe that God Is still God and can turn things for good. The hospital is still a refuge and place of healing for those going through hard times. These last months we have seen miracles-people who recovered despite great odds. Many very sick children come to mind who have recovered these last months. We provide a place for children to recover from malnutrition, a warm meal, and a safe and dry place to lay their heads. The children have a special outdoor playground and staff that care about them. We thank God that we have another Congolese doctor to help us out in this challenging season! Our staffing had decreased to essentially one Congolese doctor (!), 3 missionary doctors/1 nurse practitioner, and a training doctor. Our courageous Congolese doctor, Dr. Faustin, has been spending most nights in the hospital to be there for obstructed labor and emergencies. We hope and pray that staffing will improve and that will be able to continue to provide good medical care. We’re hanging in there! Rural Life

It has been a year of trying to grow new crops: soybeans, beans, and peanuts. I have learned how to start rose plants, vanilla, and other bushes from cuttings. There is no greenhouse to buy plants and it can be difficult to find seeds. However with a little tender care, and motivation, one can propagate aromatic forest flowers! It is satisfying to live in a place that you can grow your own food. But I have a ‘romantic’ view of agriculture because I do not solely depend on what we grow. Many people here in Congo grow the majority of what they eat. A bad harvest season (ie too much rain) is absolutely devastating, paralyzing even. Then imagine being displaced from your home and fields, or being unable to reach your fields due to security concerns. These are the challenging situations people find themselves faced with. Living in the forest makes it much harder to grow traditional “crops” and so bananas and roots are real staples. I can understand why people eat a fair amount of cassava and cassava leaves, as it is hearty and keeps producing over a longer period of time. If only cassava was richer in nutrients! I like to cook with what is locally available and in season. It is good to support the women who work so hard to grow their own food! Vaccines Save Lives We are hoping to be able to receive the Covid vaccine somehow out here in central Africa. We realize that we will not be the first to receive it, as funding will be slow in coming for much of Africa. But what a blessing to be able to travel out of Africa to visit our families! We hope that the Covid vaccine will be well received by the public and some level of herd immunity achieved quickly. mRNA vaccines (including coronavirus) are not exactly new. We received the Ebola mRNA vaccine when it was still experimental in 2018, and has since been FDA approved. We were a little nervous to receive the Ebola vaccine because little was known about it, but mostly just thankful. The Ebola vaccine is what allowed us to return to DRC and safely resume work. It prevented community and hospital transmission of this very deadly disease. This was not just theoretical, WE HAD EBOLA CASES HERE DOWN THE STREET FROM OUR HOUSE! The mortality rate of Ebola varies between 60-90%! If the vaccine had not been available our community would have been devastated and our lives at risk. We hope that you will have the opportunity to receive the Covid vaccine and protect the most vulnerable in our communities. Wishing you a very Happy & Healthy New Year! We enjoy hearing from you! With love, Lindsey for the Coopers

Thanksgiving Reflections

Happy Thanksgiving from our house to yours! This year we talked about Thanksgiving is an attitude of the heart to what we have been given from God…good times and even difficult times. It is very interested that after a long first winter in America, with undoubtedly a lot of losses, the early Americans chose to give thanks to God. They could have lamented on their hardships rather than thank God for what He had done. The position of their hearts was thankfulness and we are reminded to do the same. This year we are all reminded to be thankful for our health and times together with those we love, as we can not take these things for granted. We are thankful for travel in new ways…to have recently had the opportunity to leave Congo for the first time in a year for some rest.

We traveled to Uganda for two weeks with our friends the Dimon family for some rest and relaxation. We visited Murchison Falls National Park, one of our favorite places, to go on safari and see the impressive waterfalls. It is fun to see Emmanuel growing in his understanding of the natural world. He knows firsthand elephants cover themselves in mud or why reptiles, like crocodiles, take a sunbath. It was a joy to watch the kids discover things together! We also visited a wetland on the shores of Lake Victoria and saw the shoebill stork in its’ natural environment. A shoebill is an almost a prehistoric looking water-loving bird that is impressive in its size and great patience in catching fish! There is something about nature that renews the body and spirit and we needed it!

We are living through a difficult security season here in Nyankunde and a local armed group that has formed. There are many people who are praying for and are actively looking for peaceful solutions to problems. Our hospital is suffering greatly from the insecurity with less hospitalizations and patients fearing to travel the roads, or simply refusing to come because they are not from the dominant tribe in this area. It is a critical time for negotiations and elders to be a voice for non-violence. It is not a time to say that problems do not exist or to simply cover them up. We believe that God has called us here for such a time as this, and we want to be courageous and bold for Christ, and communicate that this hospital belongs to God and not a particular tribal group. There are very sensitive issues. We are feeling hopeful, but would ask your prayers. We are happy to dialogue more with those who are interested in a different forum. We remain mostly untouched by the Covid pandemic which is ravaging the world. Whether it is the tropical climate, rural setting, or people living mostly outdoors we are not seeing large numbers of cases. That said we wear masks in clinical areas and take proper precautions. The peak of influenza seems to be different in the tropics. We are thankful for lower Covid numbers! We have all been tested multiple times, any time we need to travel or have a flu-like illness. One of the difficult things about living overseas is missing family, especially when it is difficult (if not impossible) to travel to see them. We have been hoping to get to Switzerland to visit family for the last year and we are just waiting for vaccines to be available to do so. It is hard to plan very far ahead and we live the day ahead of us.

These last few weeks many parts of Scripture have come alive for me. Somehow going through difficulty makes us yearn for the beauty that awaits us in heaven, and truth to win peoples’ hearts on earth! What is really important in life becomes crystal clear. The part of the Lord’s Prayer that has captured my attention is: “Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.” As things seem incredibly “messed up” around us these days, I long for the things of heaven to come to earth. Interestingly this was the first request Jesus makes in the Lord’s Prayer: “Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” As Christians in this world, we need to seek out things of heaven: love, peace and reconciliation in this life with God and man. These are the only things that will truly last. How lovely to experience things of heaven in this life!

The work of Nyankunde Hospital continues. Pray for us as we strive to bring truth into ethnic tensions and yearn for things of heaven. Let us pray for one another while today is called “today.” Let us know how we can pray for you. Blessings for us, Lindsey Our little boy Emmanuel then (age 2) and NOW (age 6)!

Annual Newsletter from the Coopers: Reflections in Difficult times

All things coffee: harvesting, processing, and finally roasting

October 3, 2020

Arabica beans pattern of ripening
(proximal to distal)

Living the Rural Life

 

This has been an interesting season in life, being isolated in a small village in Africa.  We are learning more about processing grain, the diversity of seeds, and how incredibly time-consuming farming can be!  Any little machine that has been developed in farming serves to make the process more efficient.  We bought a small de-pulping machine for processing coffee and it is saving us days of work!  Picking coffee still is very time-consuming, but the processing less so.  We pick the beans and then float them to eliminate those with lower density.  We then de-pulp them, float them again, and then take the “sinkers,” the good beans. Then you ferment the “sinkers” in water for 24-48hours to remove the mucilage and then put them out in the sun.  It is a beautiful process and makes harvesting coffee fun!  And this is just to obtain the high quality beans.  Then you need to dry and age the coffee and roast it.  Warren has designed his own coffee roaster with local materials…rebar, parts of old hospital beds, bike gears, old chains, and a recycled motor. After some modifications of the paddle to turn more evenly, we had a successful coffee roast tonight!  I will never complain when buying good coffee again.

A handmade coffee roaster

A coffee de-pulper

 

Threshing soybeans

Then there is growing soybeans…also a fascinating process and one with fewer simple machines to help here in Africa.  You wait for the plants to dry out in the fields, but not too long with the rains. Then you dry them in the sun for a week or so.  Next you thresh the grains out of the plants by stacking the plants, and beating them to free the beans.  Then you winnow the grains by hand with a sort of flat basket to remove the chaff, soil, rocks ( I have finally mastered the basics of winnowing grain by hand)!  Lastly you remove the bad grains.  This is quite labor intensive.  If you plant more than one species of soybeans the grains can ripen at different paces and you might have to do this process twice for the same field.  

We recently harvested a field of soybeans covering a surface area of 375m2 and obtained 22kg of grain, or 60grams/m2 or 1kg/16m2.  Just for perspective, in Congo 1kg of soybeans costs $1.  In practical teams this means you need to farm an area 4m X 4m for 3months to obtain $1.  This seems like a lot of work to me, considering that it is all done by hand. We are going to try some other species of soybeans to see if we can improve the grain yield.  There are so many variables from the species of grain planted, the weather (especially the rain), and the expertise in the harvest. 

All of this makes me appreciate the food I eat much more.  It also makes me more willing to pay for food grown by local farmers.  I want to support local farmers and adapt my eating habits to do so!  Peanuts are a whole other level of complexity and processing, for another day. 

 

 

Starting Kindergarten

Emmanuel is officially starting kindergarten this year.  He is learning to read and write.  We are so thankful for his Ugandan teacher Angel and a rich learning environment where he can learn things using his hands.  

 

The A,B,Cs, sound recognition, and reading are coming as well but generosity, compassion, and a desire to help others are also qualities that must be taught and experienced.  Curiosity is another quality we are trying to teach, as it relates to nature, plants and animals.  He understands a lot about how animals are born and has helped in the birthing of a baby goat.  He is also learning how to recognize and care for sick animals.  We live in a great place for him to grow in many ways.  It is very true that the world is a child’s playground.

 

Family

 

We, like so many of you, are thinking about and missing our extended families, grandmas and grandpas. We are really  hoping that things open up again soon so that we can see Warren’s parents in Switzerland.  We miss my parents in the US and our extended family and friends.  We love all of you!!!  In some ways it feels like life has been put on pause; in other ways it feels like our roots have deepened.  We are thankful that in Christ we are united in heart with those that we love, even when we are apart.

-Pray as the hospital goes through difficult security & financial times.  There are less consultations and hospitalizations and staff salaries are down significantly.  Pray that our staff would have their needs met, feel encouraged, and that they would have the courage to keep working.  

-Pray that we would proclaim and live out the Gospel as we should.  

-Pray that we would be able to take some needed vacation time very soon.

Blessings,

Lindsey for the Coopers

Starting hibiscus plants from shoots

A hospital meal

Learning from our agronomist friend Esdras

Very special missionary kids

Attempted Suicide

We were enjoying Emmanuel’s birthday party when they called me to the hospital. It was a man who had attempted to commit suicide.  I groaned inwardly, probably outwardly as well.  Lindsey was beside herself.  It just was not what I was hoping to deal with...but I went. It was an interesting and terrible case.  It affected me deeply and continues to do, even weeks after, as I struggle to write about it.  It is tempting to simply not write about the hard cases, the sad things.  These are the realities which we deal with every day.  I share it not to shock or horrify, but to perhaps show something of Gods grace in a broken world. 

Anyway, without going into all the details, this man obtained a weapon, tried to shoot himself in the brain, but ended up shooting his face off.  When he came in the wound looked so bad that he did not seem human.  I have pictures, but they would get me banned from Facebook.  The blast had destroyed the jaw, the maxilla, the nose and the left eye.  He was breathing from a hole where he face had been.  

Later on I heard the rest of the story.  It is worth telling. Since he was a soldier, the local commander was involved.  When he saw the injury, he figured that he was dead and made arrangements for burial.  They had obtained a coffin, dug a grave and they were waiting around, when the improbable happened.  His phone rang.  Well, it turns out he was only “mostly dead,” as the saying goes.  Everyone watched in amazement as he reached out his hand and took the phone out of his pocket.  At that point they decided to come to the hospital.  I’m still not sure who was calling him.  I like to think that it was God.  

Anyway, he was completely neurologically intact.  We had a pretty serious discussion about whether on not he wanted to live.  He communicated with hand-motions and even wrote something.  It didn’t seem fair to anyone to proceed with any major operation before discussing that.  The chaplain asked him whether was willing to live and even gave him an opportunity to make a profession of faith before proceeding further.  I am a bit skeptical about such discussions but he actually seemed genuine.  

We went ahead with the operation.  I did a tracheostomy (for breathing) and a gastrostomy (for feeding).  I wired back what was left of his jaw, removed what was left of his eye and repaired a small tear in the lining of the frontal lobe of his brain.  I sewed what was left of his face back together.  

Amazingly he is doing well.  We are a couple of weeks out.  He seems to be in pretty good spirits.  He gives me an enthusiastic “thumbs up” sign.  The tracheostomy is out and he is breathing fine.  He can handle his saliva.  He has learned to feed himself through the g-tube.  

He needs more surgery.  I need to figure out some way to get tissue into the top of his mouth. He will never speak properly or eat properly, but he’s alive.  Lots of questions remain.  If he was depressed before, how is he going to be like he is now? Will he try to do it again?  Did the contusion to the frontal lobe give him a sort of “lobotomy” effect?  I wish the best for him, but I wonder what his life will be like.  Despite it all, it feels like a miracle.  It feels like God really did call him, that he said, “Stop!  I’m not done with you yet.  Disfigured, broken, near dead you may be...but I still have some measure of grace for you.”  It’s not a funny sort of case, but it makes me laugh, or at least smile a bit.  It makes me happy to have my own part to play in the story.  

Warren

A Birthday Boy, Refugees, & An Unusual Case of Tuberculosis

August 31, 2020

 

Emmanuel’s 6^thBirthday

 

Emmanuel’s long awaited birthday finally arrived!  We had a reptile themed party, complete with attendance of his chameleon!  The missionary kids played musical chairs for the first time…but it was a little stressful for Emmanuel.  We played pin the tail on the chameleon and ate cake over the campfire in our new fire pit. It was a special day and I think he felt treasured.  He told us the other day that he thinks being 6 is more work.  Maybe he has taken his dad’s counsel to heart that he needs to think about the consequences of his actions before acting.  He is already asking when his next birthday will be!

 

We have a new appreciation for birthdays here in Congo.  It really is something to be celebrated when there is so much disease around, especially malaria.  We are so thankful to God for our son Emmanuel and for health!

 

Pericardial Tuberculosis

We have formed more of an intentional relationship with Adi Hospital.  Adi is located about an hour (by plane) north of here on the border of Sudan and Uganda.  We were called on to go and place a pericardial drain in a child with probable tuberculosis. This is a rare, life threatening complication of tuberculosis.  The procedure went well and the child had immediate improvement in his cardiac function. We are hopeful that he will survive. It was worth the long arduous road between Aru and Adi to be able to help this little boy.  Emmanuel was touched to know that he was almost this boy’s age.

 

While we were there for 48hours, Warren operated on another complicated case.  I consulted several kids and gave a medical conference on pediatric tuberculosis (TB).  I always learn the most when I prepare such a large topic.  We discussed an often neglected topic which is maternal TB and consequent neonatal TB.  As it turns out that in childbearing years, women have the highest prevalence  of TB activation than any other time in their lives.  Pregnancy in and of itself is a risk factor for TB re-activation and it often goes undetected.  We see at least two cases of year of suspected maternal-child transmission of TB.  It is a very relevant topic!  Then we discussed how to manage pericardial TB, the prognosis, etc.  

 

It sounds like they want us to come back quarterly to do some teaching on practical bedside ultrasound skills, and medical/surgical support.  This was so encouraging!  

 

Sickness

 

Emmanuel and I were both sick with a flu-like illness a couple of weeks ago.  His fever last for two weeks and mine one week.  We were both quite tired with upper respiratory symptoms.  Because we are in Covid times and we have had Covid cases in our hospital, we treated this illness like Covid even our tests were supposedly negative.  I am feeling much better and the cough had gone away.  Still it is pause to think and really protect oneself and family, other staff. I hope that we can improve our protocols to better protect people hospital staff and other patients.

 

We are thankful to be back to health again.

 

Refugees

 

Our community has absorbed an additional 600 households due to the insecurity around us.  There is no UNHCR camp, there are no food handouts, etc. People are settled in traditional homes by the village chief and the neighbors are expected to help to provide for their needs, until they can get back on their feet.  Many people can not access their old fields due to insecurity and they are forced to abandon their crops and start over.  This leads to food insecurity and undernutrition.  We sent a hospital vehicle to evacuate a desperately sick man from a neighboring health center.  We have admitted babies whose mothers’ are not making enough milk.  These are hard times.  We are seeing a very exaggerated number of malnourished children, and often their mothers are not well.  We are living through difficult times.  When security is threatened, so is food.  If everyone does their part we will be able to provide for people in desperate need.  

 

Tribalism is an ugly thing. Hate is ugly and makes people do horrendous things.  This geographic area feels quite tenuous at present.  We find that we really need our evening walks and to get out from time to time.  I have a new understanding of Jesus' words about worry.  

"Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself.  Each day has enough trouble of its own."  Matthew 6:34

"Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and petitions, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.  And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus." Philippians 4:6,7

Thank you for your interest in our lives and continuing story in Congo.  We trust that God is working through us to represent Him even in tough times.  Continue to pray for reconciliation and lasting peace in our area.  Pray that God will convict peoples' hearts.  Pray for the difficult financial situation our hospital is facing with less patients and consultations, that our staff would have their needs met and have the strength to carry on.

Blessings,

Lindsey (for the Coopers)  

 

Our home soy harvest

Emmanuel loves to help in the field

Gold mining in the forest

Opening of "Le Petit Jardin" & Growing Refugee Needs

August 9, 2020

 

Refugee Situation & Tremendous Needs

Our hospital is a BRIDGE over troubled waters, food insecurity, and illness.  It is a blessing to watch a child that has refused all food accept food again.  It is a blessing to see a child walk for the first time at age 3.  It is a blessing to see a child smile and extend a hug when he sees you instead of breakdown in tears.  As Emmanuel says so astutely, “Kids in the hospital need love Mom.”  He gets it and wants to give his clothes and toys away.  He wants to extend a hand in friendship. He finds true joy in giving.  There is so much that I have learned about love from our son.

If the health of our children is a litmus test of societal health, then our immediate geographic area is in trouble.  We are beginning to see that children are collateral damage of armed conflict.  Collateral damage!  Every day we are admitting 3-6 children to the hospital with severe protein-calorie malnutrition!  If we continue in this way our hospital admission rates will be 4-5times that of last year, and we could approach 600-700 hospitalizations..  We simply will not have enough beds.  I looked at all of the charts today to see who I could possibly discharge to home. Almost all of the 30 current children have come in the last 2 weeks.

 

How can this message be heard?  Shout it from the rooftops:  "We are HURTING our own children!  Lay down your arms!"  

 

 

Pandemic & Play Garden Opens

The pandemic has officially arrived in our hospital.  This virus exposes all the weak points in a health system, including ours.  There are many things that we need to improve to be able to provide care safely without endangering other hospitalized patients (and our families). This is why infection control and isolation is so important.  Hospitals, like ours, can truly be daily “super spreader” events in places like Congo.  

 

Do we open the children’s play garden or do we wait?  

As I walked around the hospital I saw at least two dozen people in one of our pediatric wards…sitting together on beds and the floor…kids crawling everywhere, I said to myself, “Yes, we need outdoor space in such a time as this. Outdoor spaces will decrease transmission risk in a place where social distancing is unheard of.  Staff wears masks, but patients (by and large) do not wear masks.  So in the end we opened the pediatric play garden with a word of blessing from our chaplains and guidance of administration.  It was a fun event as you can see!  Don't worry...we will limit the number of people/children who can use it at a time.

 

Our province has more internally displaced people (IDPs) than anywhere else in the world.  There are thousands of people in refugee camps and living in less than ideal conditions.  Social distancing is very difficult in this part of the world and it simply is not cultural.  Now the capital of our province, Bunia, is seeing lots of Covid cases.  There are difficult times to come.  Pray for us.

 

A Soybean Harvest

Our hospital nutrition program has its’ first soybean harvest!  Now the work begins to dry and

separate the beans for use, storage, and sale. The crop did very well with seed pods growing waist high and very little maintenance!  We continue to have a lot of rain which is good for soybeans.  It seems that soybeans will be an excellent choice for future planting.  It is a learning process and a time to try new things.  It is great for me to learn traditional farming practices and how valuable land is to the people here.  

 

A Project

This past week we completed work on the renovated foundation behind our house.  It was

cracked and overgrown, completely unusable space. Now it is a fenced in play area with room for a basketball hoop….and complete with a hoist for various lifting needs.  It is something we have wanted to do for years and have been saving to do.  

Thanks for your interest in our lives and ministry here in Eastern DRC.  We thank you for your prayers for peace in our region.  We would love to hear from you!

Blessings,

Lindsey for the Coopers