Back Home in DRC

February 21, 2015

Blessings from our home to yours!  We made it back to Nyankunde at long last.  We were able to spend a week with Warren’s folks in Basel, Switzerland, on our return to the US.  A wonderful time was had by all!  Emmanuel loved finally meeting his grandparents.  Our little boy has been so loved by everyone he meets!  We experienced the European life of riding train and trams.  It was a challenge carrying all our luggage and Emmanuel in a backpack but somehow we did it.   We are really blessed with a baby that travels well and loves meeting new people.  It was great to visit Basel Christian Fellowship where we have several friends and supporters. We are blessed by their prayers and interest in our lives.

Love those Swiss fairytales

We spent a day in Istanbul, Turkey, on the way back to Congo.  We toured some of the historical sites such as the Blue Mosque, Basilica Cistern, and the Hippodrome.  This is a very interesting historical place because of its’ location between the Black Sea and the Mediterranean-at the junction between Europe and Asia.  Istanbul was the capital of two major empires-both the Ottoman and Roman empires.  We enjoyed wandering around the city a bit and eating shwarmas.  Emmanuel charmed all the airplane stewards on Turkish Airlines and even got a free teddy bear.  Sometimes it felt like we were invisible while traveling...it was as if we didn't exist at airport counters when people just wanted pinch the cheeks of our little boy or take his picture.  I guess he is pretty cute.

Always looking up

We are adjusting to life again here.  I have been teasing Warren that the last two months have been like a paternity leave. He comes back to long lines of patients for consultation each day and a full surgical load.  Emmanuel loves the warmth, bathing outside, and taking a nap in his diaper.  He also loves playing with his new puppy Cocoa, a 9-week old boerboel.  Cocoa has a very sweet demeanor and is getting plenty of exposure to children.  I have been working with a Congolese nanny who will be caring for Emmanuel in the mornings when I go back to work next week.  Living the rural life is more involved and requires making your own baby food, cooking from scratch, gardening, and getting some goods into the country.  I am looking forward to returning to the hospital part-time.  It has been a wonderful 6-month maternity leave.  I have been so fortunate to have spent this time with our son.  I am thankful that I can work part-time and still spend a lot of the day with him.

Rainy season is approaching which everyone looks forward to with anticipation.    This means it is time to plant for the next season.  In our recent newsletter we reflected on the hidden action of God, being like planting a seed in the ground.  These analogies make so much more sense now because we try to grow our own food. 

Jesus said, “The Kingdom of God is like a farmer who scatters seed on the ground.  Night and day, while he’s asleep or awake, the seed sprouts and grows, but he does not understand how it happens.  The earth produces crops on his own.  First a leaf blade pushes through, then the heads of wheat are formed, and finally the grain ripens.  And as soon as the grain is ready, the farmer comes and harvests it with a sickle, for the harvest time has come.”  Mark 4: 26-29. 

The plants that become our food start out as tiny seeds and grow into seedlings. Growth requires

many factors such as good soil, water, protection and sunlight.  It also requires time. Gardening is difficult for the impatient person. We have planted corn, beans, cabbage, onions, tomatoes, greens, melons, carrots, peanuts, etc.  We love to see those little shoots push up out of the ground, but it takes SOOOO LONG before you actually have something you can eat. For trees, it's even worse!  We have planted coffee, oranges, lemons, papaya, bananas and even pomegranate trees.  We look forward to the day when we will enjoy these fruits, but it won't be any time soon.  It takes patience.  You need to forget about things a bit and trust the process. Thomas Merton put it this way. "How does an apple ripen?  It just sits in the sun.  A small green apple can't ripen in one night...We must wait for God, we must be awake, we must trust in his hidden action within us."

This is our prayer for all of you, that you would be like an apple in the sun, waiting on God and His purposes for your life.  May you recognize His blessings all around you and recognize that He has done great things.

Prayer Requests:

-For Lindsey as she resumes hospital work in the pediatric wards and for Emmanuel to enjoy his new nanny.

-For us to treasure each day God gives us and find joy in our medical work.

-For the outpatient malnutrition program and a source of supplemental food for the children.

-For spiritual vision at Nyankunde Hospital and for our patients to hear the Gospel clearly with open hearts.

Blessings and love,

Lindsey (for all of us)

Airline entertainment

Meeting Puppy Cocoa

 

Flying with MAF to Nyankunde

A trip to the US

January 28, 2015

WOW, has it really been 2months since our last post?  We have been in the United States for a whirlwind tour to see friends and family and introduce our son Emmanuel.  It has been a wonderful time.  Emmanuel is an amazing little traveler!  He slept much of the time on our international flights (36 hours from our home at Nyankunde to our home in NC) on Warren's lap!  He was jet lagged for about a week, needing more sleep but that is about it.  It took us longer to adjust to the time zone than our son.  We spent a week in Boone acclimating to life in the US...then without any further ado we were off on a major road trip, covering 15 states in one month!

Leaving Nyankunde in December

Visiting family in Tennessee

First stop: eastern Tennessee to visit paternal great aunts and uncles and cousins.  We initiated our borrowed Pack-and-Play.  There was no napping for this little boy with so many fun people to play with!  Emmanuel loved meeting his great

aunts and staring up at the lights of Aunt Diane's Christmas tree.

Second stop:  the arctic tundra of Wisconsin to spend the holidays with Lindsey's family!  Some

Great aunts and cousins (Lindsey's family)

Greatgrandmother Nelson

highlights of our time include Emmanuel meeting his great grandmother, his grandparents, and his aunt Laura.  Our diesel Jetta failed to start on multiple occasions due to the extreme cold.

We enjoyed the humid heat of Olbrich Gardens and watching the train display with aunt Laura.  We were able to get together with lots of extended family and our son charmed everyone.  Grandma Nelson and her friends hosted a fun shower for Emmanuel.

With Aunt Laura 

Grandpa and Grandma Nelson have been waiting patiently to meet our son and they savored every moment.  Both of us shivered in our woolen socks and wondered how we ever survived the midwest.










Third stop:  Fruitvale, Texas, for a Christian Health Service Corps  (CHSC) orientation.  We will continue our work in DRC supported by two organizations, with Lindsey on salary with CHSC.  We enjoyed getting to know other

Orientation adult learning with CHSC

people going out with the same organization and learning more about CHSC.  In our free time we went out for walks.  One afternoon a young couple in a BIG truck offered to give us a ride, as the weather must have seemed cold to those Texans.

Fourth, Fifth, Sixth stops:  Providence, RI, to visit Warren's sister, brother and family.  After a couple of nights on the road and

Rochester friends:  Sandy and Heather

visiting with friends in Chicago and Rochester, NY,  we arrived in Rhode Island.  We spent most of our evenings in the warm indoors, visiting, and eating wonderful food.  It had been three years since we had all been together.  Warren and I gave a noon conference at Brown University on our work overseas.

The Cooper Family in Providence

Aunt Alice

Aunts Alice and Kathy

We made a stop at the prestigious Yale University to visit Emmanuel's oldest cousin Jamie.

Seventh stop:  Hartford, CT, and Mecanicsburg, PA, to visit our friends the Dombrofskis and Reichenbachs.  It is so nice to catch up with old friends.

Eighth stop:  Back home again in Boone, NC!  What a trip!  After sleeping in 10 different homes we collapsed in our beds.  Here we are

Emmanuel's pediatrician

getting ready for two more years on the field.  We are busy packing medical supplies, personal things, sending out correspondence, medical appointments, and of course spending time with friends and colleagues in the area.   We have been out for a bit of hiking and recreation as well.

Gifts from Karen

Sometime during this whirlwind we managed to join a church here in Boone, Alliance Bible Fellowship.  We have been so blessed by how warmly we have been received.  It is inspiring to see a group of elders that see themselves as spiritual leaders of the church.




We are so thankful for this time we have had in the United States, for family and friends.  It has been a delight to share Emmanuel with everyone.  The Lord knew that we needed a baby with an easy-going demeanor who travels well.  For all of you who opened your homes and made time for us, thank you so much.

And finally our ninth stop:  Switzerland where we will spend time with Grandma and Grandpa Cooper, then back to Congo.

Love,

The Coopers (Lindsey, Warren, & Emmanuel)

Grandpa and Grandma Nelson

Miracle Baby Update & Preparations for Return to US

November 30, 2014

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving to all our friends and family!  We are thankful for and value our relationship with you.  We had a wonderful meal of chicken and all the fixings, fresh vegetables from the fields, and pumpkin pie with our small missionary community of Nyankunde.  We recounted the history of Thanksgiving, took turns sharing what we are thankful for, and sang songs of thanks to God.  We remembered the many people who suffer from the lack of good nutrition on this great continent.

An Update on Miracle Baby

Thanks to those of you who have shown interest and prayed for the baby girl Warren wrote about

in our last blog.  This story has received a lot of attention.  In brief, a pregnant woman came to the hospital by motorcycle with her husband and lost her vital signs on arrival to maternity.  She was whisked off to the ICU/operating theatre to find additional help.  In transit her heart stopped.  Staff could see her abdomen moving and that the baby was alive.  Warren did a post-mortum c-section pulling out a struggling baby who began breathing on her own after 5 minutes.

Well it seems that much of the village and hospital also heard about this miracle baby.  Everyone knows everything in a village and this is no exception!  Other details about her family have surfaced since she was born, pointing to God’s hand of protection.  One of the pharmacy students intercepted the motorcycle with the distressed mother on the blocked road and directed them towards the hospital.  He recognized that this was an emergency and gave timely directions.  If this student had not given directions perhaps they would not have arrived to the hospital in time to save the baby’s life. 

The baby girl is growing and doing well medically, thanks be to God!  She is four weeks old this week.  Ironically she was about Emmanuel's birthweight and is gaining weight steadily.  The baby has been on formula and has been cared for by an aunt.  The father has returned home and does not seem receptive to adoption by a willing Congolese family.  At present there is not a clear plan in place for the care of this baby.  In this culture babies really need a mother to nurse them as it is vital to survival and health.  She needs a special name to reflect how God has cared for and protected her life.  Most of all she needs a loving family to take her home.  

I had an earthly home as a child, a father and mother, yet part of me longs to know where I come from.  Why is this?  We are all adopted children in God’s family and we all long for our forever home.  Where do I come from?  Who do I belong to?  Who will love me unconditionally?  I will always be a foreigner, a vagabond, to this world.  Only God can love me without condition.  I am His adopted child.   I am like this little girl in many ways. 

It is hard for me to fathom that someone could love with a stronger love than I have for my own son, but this is true of God’s love.  It is perfect and without condition.  It does not depend on what I do or fail to do.  I want to love my son with this kind of love, yet I know that it is only by His grace that I can approach this.  It is my job as a parent to point Emmanuel to the love of his heavenly Father which is perfect.

It is our prayer for this little girl that she will experience God’s tender love for her and that He will provide a family to care for her and point her to God’s love.

“We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time.  Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies.”  Romans 8: 22-23

Home with Emmanuel

I am enjoying my time at home with Emmanuel so much!   He is already three+ months old and outgrowing all his clothes.  He smiles and laughs and coos.  A few weeks ago he grasped his rattle for the first

time.  Some days I just marvel that he is ours.  We like to visit Dad and his Congolese “aunties and uncles” in the hospital.  Everyone thinks he looks like his dad, but I think he has many of my facial features.  I have yet to  decide when to resume part-time work at the hospital.  Right now it seems right to be at home.  Each day is meant to be treasured.  This is a truth I knew before having a baby, but as I watch my child outgrowing his shoes I realize that he will grow up before I know it.  It makes me want to capture his footprint everyday to cherish.

This is the essence of, "This is the day the Lord has made.  Let us rejoice and be glad in it" (Psalm 118:24).  May this truth of Scripture find a home in your heart as well.

The missionary ladies here at Nyankunde gave Emmanuel a little party early this month.  He received some new clothes, books, and toys.  He was on his best behavior and slept through much of it.  They talked about the Biblical significance of his name, “God with us” and gave me wise counsel to make the most of each moment.  Thank you ladies of Nyankunde for celebrating us!

"Look Mom, I'm Tiger"

The "parrot photobomb"

We recently went on our first hike up the mountain since before Emmanuel was born.  It felt great to exert myself again.  I am regaining my endurance since the c-section.  I have braved running.  Here are photos from our recent hike.

New Arrivees
We have welcomed a young Dutch couple, Joanna and Willem Folmer, to work with us at Nyankunde Hospital.  Joanna just completed her training in ob/gyn and Willem in tropical medicine/surgery.  This is their first longer-term assignment as a couple and there is a lot to learn.  Pray for them as they adjust culturally and to the medical milieu here.  The obstetrics department needs support and certain improvements.  We wish to be known as a hospital where one can get excellent obstetrical care.

We are thankful for our friends the Bartholemews who have been serving with us this past month.  Dr. Tim, an oromaxillofacial surgeon did a couple of cleft lips/palates and repaired a few jaw fractures.  He also did some teaching with the Congolese doctors.  Huyen worked with the obstetrics team and helped Joanna get started working here.  I had several fun days with their daughter Alex at home making make-believe cakes outside made out of flowers and leaves.

Home for the Holidays

We are headed to the United States and Switzerland for the holidays to see friends and family for about 7 weeks!  It has already been two years that we have been at Nyankunde.  We look forward to introducing our son to our family.  There is much to celebrate and catch up on.  We will reconnect with our stateside Samaritan’s Purse family. 

There are a few upcoming changes to our ministry support here in Congo.  On our return to Nyankunde in February 2015, I (Lindsey) will be serving with Christian Health Service Corps (CHSC) and Warren will continue to work for Samaritan’s Purse.   We will continue to do fundraising through Christian Health Service Corps for our ministry to the hospital (ongoing support of the malnutrition program), daily living, and professional (licensing, continuing medical education) expenses.  If you have supported us financially or through prayer these last two years, we are so grateful.   Some of you have encouraged our spirits by visiting us at Nyankunde and some by serving by our side.  Thank you!  We hope you will continue to partner with us through CHSC.  If you are interested in supporting us for the first-time this would be a huge encouragement.  Details about our involvement with CHSC can be found at the following link:  http://www.healthservicecorps.org/moto/dr-warren-and-dr-lindsey-cooper-


Blessings and love,

Lindsey, Warren, and Emmanuel

Post-mortem C/S

It was a first for me.  I was walking into OR#2 to do a skin graft when they wheeled the lady down the hall.  There was some commotion, more than usual.   

"What's going on?" I asked.

"This woman is dead.  She has no heartbeat but she's pregnant and the baby is still alive.  We felt it moving."

I pulled up her shirt and asked for a scalpel.  There were no scalpel handles around, so they gave me a bare #22 blade.  There were no gloves in the vicinity.  Sterile technique seemed less important at that particular moment.   Speed was the key.  I took the blade in my bare hands and cut.  In one cut I was through the skin, subcutaneous tissue and fascia.  One more cut though the uterus and I scooped out the baby.  The whole procedure probably took about 15 seconds.  It was a little girl, alive but floppy.  I spent the next five minutes resuscitating the baby, while my assistant sewed up her dead mother.  After a couple minutes of ventilating with a bag, the baby actually started breathing on her own.  After about ten minutes she was howling.

I don't know when the mother died.  She had been transferred from Irumu, a small town about 15 km down a bumpy road.  She probably died around the time they arrived at the hospital.  She was still warm.  I don't think the baby could have survived if it had been much longer.  

Apparently this woman arrived with only her husband.  I don't know whether or not there is anyone in the family who might nurse this baby.  I don't know whether this little girl will survive.  I don't know if there is anyone who will love or care for her.  Recent experience has taught me that this is a pretty demanding task.  

So, there you have it.  Tragedy and miracle, weeping and rejoicing all rolled into one.  So it goes here in Congo.  What I do know is that the urge to live is powerfully strong.  This little creature wanted to live.  

Lindsey asked me later if having my own child gave me a different appreciation for babies in general.  I wasn't sure what to say.  It's not as if I were previously against babies or anything like that.  I feel like I've always done my best to fight for their right to live.  Maybe what I didn't understand what the intensity with which you can love a little helpless being who does nothing useful for you.  It eats, sleeps, cries, poops, keeps you up at night.  It frustrates you.  It drives you mad!  Still, you would do anything you could for it.  You would die for it.  Maybe that's as close to pure love as we can approach.  Maybe it helps us understand God's irrational love for us.  Having my own child has brought it all a bit closer to home.  Seeing this little baby start breathing touched me.  

So, that's my little story for the day.  Pray for this little baby girl.  She is premature.  She doesn't have a name.  She doesn't have a mother.  It'll be a miracle if she survives...but who knows?  Maybe it's all part of Gods plan.

Warren Cooper