Posts
Subject: Tambukeni mwane (Greetings)!
Date: 01-Apr-00 at 00:05
From: Luampa Hospital, 1106104
written 31 March 00
Thank you to those who have written. As stated before, mail may be sent to luampahospital@compuserve.com with "Sidney Wu" in the subject line. Also, if at all possible, please do not include attachments or a copy of my own letter to you in your mailings; this increases satellite phone transmission costs. Thanks!
Hello, Everyone!
Praise the Lord for this past week! God's really been helping me to get quite a bit more accustomed to life out here. I've been able to learn a bit (a tiny bit) more of the predominant native language Mbunda, a lot more about the prevalent tropical diseases & their treatment, & also quite a bit abt. the lives of medical missionaries. Thank you so much for your prayers.
Indeed it's only been ~1.5 weeks since I arrived here, & of course I'm being stretched in various ways. Some of you may know that I felt quite overwhelmed just days ago -- to the point of strongly wanting inside to go home, even -- so I really thank God for His help. I'm thankful also that I've been allowed more responsibility (I'm covering 6 beds in the female/pediatric ward), as I asked for it. Pls. pray for God's continued guidance, wisdom, compassion, humility, & strength as I'm in line for even more responsibility (eg: taking call, helping to cover more beds). I can get quite flustered when I feel I'm in over my head. Praise the Lord there's always help when I need it.
Anyway, the past week has been quite the experience, as you can imagine. I thought I might report some of the more interesting stories & thoughts running through my head.
I might as well tell you the sad-but-all-too-true one 1st. Just 2 days ago, we had just started rounds on the female/pediatric ward when we went into one of the smaller rooms to see a newly arrived patient, a 15-day-old child, as cute as a button. On exam we noted that he was grunting & mildly cyanotic (bluish @ the lips). He was in respiratory distress. We ordered the oxygen-concentrator be brought, & since he was getting cold, we had his mother get onto the bed to cuddle him as his incubator. Not 5 minutes later, as we put on the O2 & started broad spectrum antibiotics, his heart stopped beating, & he was dead. Needless to say, his mother was bawling hysterically, & my eyes began to water @ the scene. How many high-powered interventions (pulse-oximeter, cardiac monitoring, endotracheal intubation, mechanical ventilation, heating lamps, chest radiology, etc. etc.) would have been put to use had we been in a richer country!!! Yes the needs are so great. Please pray for several things: comfort & care for the baby's family, increase non-technology-dependent physical diagnosis skills among workers here (incl. myself), right economic prioritization of health care & education by local & international governments, & that God would move more of His people to
help relieve some of the gross regional disparity in health care. As yet I too am uncertain of where God wants me in the future.
The following stories aren't quite so heartbreaking...
Falaulo is a 4y/o boy who has the cutest big grin; we grin @ each other each time we see each other. I'm tickled to know at least one child who isn't scared of my non-African face getting close to him to look into his ears or listen to his lungs & heart. He's been with us a little >1wk, admitted for the beginnings of Kwashiorkor (protein malnutrition) & malaria. His weight & spirits have picked up quite a bit already, so he'll prob'ly go home in the next few days. It's too bad that
pediatricians have to say goodbye to thier patients when they're finally well enough to smile & play. Praise the Lord, though; he's well. The afternoon of the day that 1st infant died, I was given the chance to tour the area called "Civalio" behind the hospital. It's a small, compact village, of sorts, for patients too well to be admitted yet too sick to be too far from the hospital. (Transportation around here is mainly by foot; there are no paved roads within 30km of us.) As we toured Civalio, one toddler saw me, pointed, & and started saying loudly while smiling &
following us, "Muna yo musweu! Muna yo musweu!" People were laughing at his words, so I asked my guides, who were also laughing, what the kid said. They translated the Lozi words as, "White man! Look at the white man!" I laughed aloud it was so funny; I'd never been called a "white man" before! Anyways, it was later clarified to me that the words translated "white man" actually refers to any non-black person. It reminded me of how most any culture can be pretty self-centered, whether
it be merely naivete, malicious prejudice, or both, for eg: "colored" vs. "non-colored" in early to mid-20th century US, or /Zhongguo/ vs. /waiguo/, the Mandarin Chinese words for "China" and any other country (literally "Central country" & "outer country," respectively). I guess it's true I'm much paler-skinned than most here.
One last interesting thing that I'll share with you was quite a surprising blessing. Since not too long ago I was learning Spanish @ LLU, now as I'm trying to learn Mbunda & am having a hard time communicating, I find myself blurting out Spanish when I'm trying to get something across to a patient (you might have had this experience with languages). Of course I feel silly when I realize what I've done. Anyway, believe it or not, the Spanish I've learned has come to good use even here in Zambia! Some patients here are actually native to neighboring Angola, which was colonized by Portugal, so some patients speak some Portuguese, which has some similarity to Spanish. Some words (eg: "suficiente," "fiebre") are close enough to allow some communication! It amazes me to think how God prepares His people for what they go through. I even think abt. past experiences in Mexico & China, without which I prob'ly would not have been ready to see what I see here. God knows exactly what He's doing with us, doesn't He?
I pray this letter finds each of you well. Thank you so much for your much-needed prayers. I've almost finished going througha workbook called "Experiencing God: Knowing & Doing the Will of God," which lately has been helping me realize the necessity of involvement in the lives of fellow believers..... If you haven't already, please let me know how I may also pray for you.
"Yeeeeeeeehaaaaaawwww!!!" [a strickly AMERICAN expreshun fer y'all back home, seein' how sevr'l missionaries 'round these parts talk funny -- British, Kiwi (New Zealander), Canadian, & Australian English can vary quite a bit from "Standard American"!] God is good!
Your Brother in Zambia,
Sid/Steve
Tito: thanks again for the snowboarding trip; it was a lot of fun. I'm glad all of us made it down safely.
Aunt Sandy: I dunno about "having to" go through all of this. I also feel it's pretty hard sometimes. I even talked to some missionary couples, who also recognize that it's also a sacrifice made on the part of one's family, not just the missionaries themselves.....
Dr. Elder: Praise the Lord for the recovery! I pray also that you'll heed some of your kids' (& Derek's) admonitions to take things slowly. Thanks so much for your writing...
Anneta: Wowsers; it really seems like S's family is going through a lot. Please know that I'm keeping you & the situation close in my prayers.
David: will be praying for the English group & your surgery call. You're doing it @ the VA, right? I did it there, & call wasn't too bad, although it's still intern-dependent.
Johnny: you'd LOVE the photography opportunities here!!! They say that "There's no sky like the African sky," & it's true. Somehow it seems much BIGGER and THICKER with the cloud formations. Also, I've seen some wildlife that's pretty cool...
Friday, March 31, 2000
Saturday, March 25, 2000
Tambukeni Mwane 1
Subject: from Zambia
Date: 25-Mar-00 at 02:11
From: Luampa Hospital, 1106104
REMEMBER, ALL EMAIL TO SIDNEY WU SHOULD BE SENT TO luampahospital@compuserve.com
WITH 'FOR SIDNEY WU' IN THE SUBJECT LINE. THANKS!!!
Tambukeni Mwane (Greetings) from Zambia!
How are all of you doing? Thank you so much for all your prayers on my behalf. Life out here, as you may well imagine, is quite different from what I'm used to, but it also turns out that life is quite different from what I expected, too.
The hospital, despite its real staffing needs, gets along just fine without me. In fact, in some ways I feel like more of a hindrance than a help, mostly because of my gross unfamiliarity with the health problems of this area. I have seen so many different diseases resulting indirectly from poor economy that I have wished several times that I could fall asleep, wake up in my comfortable American bed, and forget that this place with its problems, even exists. Malaria, bilharzia/schistosomiasis, HIV, absesses everywhere imaginable, malnutrition, and tuberculosis are seen at alarmingly high rates. The hospital operates in such a high conservationalist mode, it would be inconceivable to the regular US hospital-worker: dirty gloves, sponges, and linens are washed and reused. I wish I'd thought to bring more medical supplies with me. I've even seen a renal cell carcinoma/nephrectomy, and a massive rectal prolapse. (Nonmedical types may look these things up if you dare.)
Anyways, I'm learning a lot, & I'm hoping that God'll allow me more and more responsibility as the short 2 months elapse.
Coming here to Luampa for only these last few days so far has caused me to think & pray more abt. how blessed a life I've had. I think about my parents and the type of life they lived just one generation ago in just barely-industrializing Taiwan, let along my grandparents in their own time. I've come to respect even more (as I sit in a place where there are safe, large living structures, clean running water, electricity for a few hours a day, and biweekly access to satellite phone/email), the early missionaries like David Livingstone to Africa, Hudson Taylor to China, and George L. MacKay to Taiwan. What they had to deal with for the sake of the cross!!! How can I sit here complaining about what I have to deal with, while they keenly understood both the great honor of being God's ambassadors and the great sacrifices of relationships and comfort needed for their specific callings? I thank God for His faithfulness in calling those men and their families, that I can see even some of my own ancestors in the Kingdom one day. I've also been thanking God for the world I'm living in, that should He call me to international missions as a career, the miracles of modern transportation and communication have made the world effectively a much "smaller" place.
Spiritually speaking (just as with the medical side of things as I described above), I am learning much more than I could ever help any other. Cultural and linguistic barriers are very real, although some do speak fair English. I'm trying to learn some Bunda -- the language probably most widely spoken (60+% of the people nearby) and the language I used at the start of this letter -- though I've already made the fool of myself when I called the language "Bandu." Additionally, Zambia is officially a "Christian nation," though like in the US and many other western nations, Christianity for many here is merely a cultural construct without the Biblical relationship God desires. There are certainly many opportunities for the Gospe; pray for wisdom and boldness to share it in love. Pray also for more laborers (perhaps yourselves!) as there are great spiritual needs here and worldwide, as you know.
Again, I want to thank you (Njakandelelako mwane!) for your prayers on my behalf. I trust you may glean from this letter how else you may pray for me (compassion, diligence, humility). Also, please pray for my health (asthma), which has started up again and has been very mild. Please, please, please let me know how I may pray for you also.
In His Great Hands, Sidney Stephen Wu
PS:
Dad & Mom: how are you doing? I hope Dad is home safely. Mom, did you give that envelope to Mrs. Wu @ church for me?
Men's group: Please pray also for the thinking associated with being home alone, and also for my housing arrangements when I return to the States.
EFC: I'm praying for the convalescent home visits.
Anneta: Thanks so much for taking care of the album, and for the email help.
Luke: there's a PT here!!!
Dr. Elder: Hope & pray you are doing well!
Johnny: thanks for writing. You may tell your parents I'm alive and well. Did you know I'm staying at Loma Linda U for the next 4 years for my residency training problem?
Cory & Tom: Where'd you match, Tom? Have you guys been able to talk lately?
GOD BLESS!!!!!
Date: 25-Mar-00 at 02:11
From: Luampa Hospital, 1106104
REMEMBER, ALL EMAIL TO SIDNEY WU SHOULD BE SENT TO luampahospital@compuserve.com
WITH 'FOR SIDNEY WU' IN THE SUBJECT LINE. THANKS!!!
Tambukeni Mwane (Greetings) from Zambia!
How are all of you doing? Thank you so much for all your prayers on my behalf. Life out here, as you may well imagine, is quite different from what I'm used to, but it also turns out that life is quite different from what I expected, too.
The hospital, despite its real staffing needs, gets along just fine without me. In fact, in some ways I feel like more of a hindrance than a help, mostly because of my gross unfamiliarity with the health problems of this area. I have seen so many different diseases resulting indirectly from poor economy that I have wished several times that I could fall asleep, wake up in my comfortable American bed, and forget that this place with its problems, even exists. Malaria, bilharzia/schistosomiasis, HIV, absesses everywhere imaginable, malnutrition, and tuberculosis are seen at alarmingly high rates. The hospital operates in such a high conservationalist mode, it would be inconceivable to the regular US hospital-worker: dirty gloves, sponges, and linens are washed and reused. I wish I'd thought to bring more medical supplies with me. I've even seen a renal cell carcinoma/nephrectomy, and a massive rectal prolapse. (Nonmedical types may look these things up if you dare.)
Anyways, I'm learning a lot, & I'm hoping that God'll allow me more and more responsibility as the short 2 months elapse.
Coming here to Luampa for only these last few days so far has caused me to think & pray more abt. how blessed a life I've had. I think about my parents and the type of life they lived just one generation ago in just barely-industrializing Taiwan, let along my grandparents in their own time. I've come to respect even more (as I sit in a place where there are safe, large living structures, clean running water, electricity for a few hours a day, and biweekly access to satellite phone/email), the early missionaries like David Livingstone to Africa, Hudson Taylor to China, and George L. MacKay to Taiwan. What they had to deal with for the sake of the cross!!! How can I sit here complaining about what I have to deal with, while they keenly understood both the great honor of being God's ambassadors and the great sacrifices of relationships and comfort needed for their specific callings? I thank God for His faithfulness in calling those men and their families, that I can see even some of my own ancestors in the Kingdom one day. I've also been thanking God for the world I'm living in, that should He call me to international missions as a career, the miracles of modern transportation and communication have made the world effectively a much "smaller" place.
Spiritually speaking (just as with the medical side of things as I described above), I am learning much more than I could ever help any other. Cultural and linguistic barriers are very real, although some do speak fair English. I'm trying to learn some Bunda -- the language probably most widely spoken (60+% of the people nearby) and the language I used at the start of this letter -- though I've already made the fool of myself when I called the language "Bandu." Additionally, Zambia is officially a "Christian nation," though like in the US and many other western nations, Christianity for many here is merely a cultural construct without the Biblical relationship God desires. There are certainly many opportunities for the Gospe; pray for wisdom and boldness to share it in love. Pray also for more laborers (perhaps yourselves!) as there are great spiritual needs here and worldwide, as you know.
Again, I want to thank you (Njakandelelako mwane!) for your prayers on my behalf. I trust you may glean from this letter how else you may pray for me (compassion, diligence, humility). Also, please pray for my health (asthma), which has started up again and has been very mild. Please, please, please let me know how I may pray for you also.
In His Great Hands, Sidney Stephen Wu
PS:
Dad & Mom: how are you doing? I hope Dad is home safely. Mom, did you give that envelope to Mrs. Wu @ church for me?
Men's group: Please pray also for the thinking associated with being home alone, and also for my housing arrangements when I return to the States.
EFC: I'm praying for the convalescent home visits.
Anneta: Thanks so much for taking care of the album, and for the email help.
Luke: there's a PT here!!!
Dr. Elder: Hope & pray you are doing well!
Johnny: thanks for writing. You may tell your parents I'm alive and well. Did you know I'm staying at Loma Linda U for the next 4 years for my residency training problem?
Cory & Tom: Where'd you match, Tom? Have you guys been able to talk lately?
GOD BLESS!!!!!
Monday, March 20, 2000
Zambia arrival
--- echzgo wrote:
> STARTING IMMEDIATELY, ALL MAIL FOR SIDNEY WU SHOULD
> BE SENT TO...
> luampahospital@compuserve.com
> with "for Sidney Wu" in the 'SUBJECT' line
>
> Greetings, everybody! I wanted to let you know that
> I've arrived safely in Zambia and am now at the
> church (Evangelical Church of Zambia) headquarters
> in Lusaka (the capital of Zambia). Praise the
> Lord for His faithfulness! Tomorrow morning, I'll
> be riding along with the ECZ personnel director &
> his wife to Luampa, which is about 7-8 hours away by
> car. I hear that the road there is quite
> bumpy, and I believe it since the road from the
> airport to here was already quite "pot-holey!"
> Again and again I find myself praying, "God, am I
> really here? Am I really in Africa? What am I
> doing here?", but I haven't even started working
> yet! God has been reminding me that He will enable
> me to do what He has called me to do. So many
> memories from past experiences in Malaysia, Taiwan,
> Mexico, and China have come to mind already,
> particularly with regard to the way God has
> "stretched"
> me in the past. All of those memories have been
> dear and sweet. Certainly this will be quite a
> different experience, as I've been hearing that
> Luampa Hospital is "still the classic bush mission
> hospital" of the past. Also, as the medical
> superintendent is on furlough in "Gillsville"
> (Oregon),
> there are only 2 doctors working there in the 70+
> bed hospital, and one of them is supposed to go
> off-service since her children are returning from
> boarding school for a bit, which leaves the acting
> superintendent (a German-Belgian short-termer now
> the acting medical superintendent) and myself as
> the "doctor-types" (one real doctor and myself the
> quack-type) along with the ancillary
> nursing/physiotherapy staff. As I may have told you
> before I left, I am a bit anxious about the
> whole thing. I'm sure God will be merciful to me &
> let me start getting the hang of things in....
> say..... 2 months or so! (My time here is up in 2
> months. =) I've asked repeatedly that God would
> give me His heart of compassion, and also strength
> and wisdom to do His work. He has never ever
> been less than perfectly faithful, so I have Him to
> thank for that.
>
> "How may I pray for you, Sid?" Well, I'm so glad
> you asked! First, please pray for increased faith
> in the power of God to work in me (yes, me!) and
> through me. Pray for opportunities to share the
> Gospel and the sensitivity & wisdom to do so in a
> culturally acceptable manner. Pray for humility
> to say "I don't know" when I don't know something,
> and to work well under & with the staff at
> Luampa. Pray for diligence, strength, & efficiency
> that I would meet the needs God wants me to care
> for. You could pray for safety and health, too;
> it'd be nice to make it back for graduation
> although I'm not exactly looking forward to
> residency! =)
>
> I trust that each of you are doing well in the Lord.
> I've been using some of my extra time (eg:
> during the long trip here) to pray for each of you
> by name, either that God would bring you into a
> relationship with Himself, or cause that
> relationship to deepen. I've also been praying for
> specific needs as you've shared them with me.
> Please feel free to let me know (update me) how I
> may
> continue to pray for you. Remember, though, that
> although I'll have email (only as sent to
> luampahospital@compuserve.com), I'll probably only
> access it once a week since it's only expensively
> accessible by satellite phone. Also, as I'll
> probably write all my outgoing email first, then
> connect to the server to quickly send and receive
> mail, please don't be offended if I don't answer
> specific questions until up to 2 weeks after you
> wrote the question. Sorry!!!
>
> Yes, I am actually IN AFRICA! It's not a dream.
> May God do with this trip as He wills.
>
> Sincerely Yours, Sid ("Stephen" to Mom)
> ps: please feel free to forward this to whomever
> you think would be interested. I don't have all
> my email addresses handy.
>
> Again, just in case you missed it the 1st time:
> STARTING IMMEDIATELY, ALL MAIL FOR SIDNEY WU SHOULD
> BE SENT TO...
> luampahospital@compuserve.com
> with "for Sidney Wu" in the 'SUBJECT' line
> STARTING IMMEDIATELY, ALL MAIL FOR SIDNEY WU SHOULD
> BE SENT TO...
> luampahospital@compuserve.com
> with "for Sidney Wu" in the 'SUBJECT' line
>
> Greetings, everybody! I wanted to let you know that
> I've arrived safely in Zambia and am now at the
> church (Evangelical Church of Zambia) headquarters
> in Lusaka (the capital of Zambia). Praise the
> Lord for His faithfulness! Tomorrow morning, I'll
> be riding along with the ECZ personnel director &
> his wife to Luampa, which is about 7-8 hours away by
> car. I hear that the road there is quite
> bumpy, and I believe it since the road from the
> airport to here was already quite "pot-holey!"
> Again and again I find myself praying, "God, am I
> really here? Am I really in Africa? What am I
> doing here?", but I haven't even started working
> yet! God has been reminding me that He will enable
> me to do what He has called me to do. So many
> memories from past experiences in Malaysia, Taiwan,
> Mexico, and China have come to mind already,
> particularly with regard to the way God has
> "stretched"
> me in the past. All of those memories have been
> dear and sweet. Certainly this will be quite a
> different experience, as I've been hearing that
> Luampa Hospital is "still the classic bush mission
> hospital" of the past. Also, as the medical
> superintendent is on furlough in "Gillsville"
> (Oregon),
> there are only 2 doctors working there in the 70+
> bed hospital, and one of them is supposed to go
> off-service since her children are returning from
> boarding school for a bit, which leaves the acting
> superintendent (a German-Belgian short-termer now
> the acting medical superintendent) and myself as
> the "doctor-types" (one real doctor and myself the
> quack-type) along with the ancillary
> nursing/physiotherapy staff. As I may have told you
> before I left, I am a bit anxious about the
> whole thing. I'm sure God will be merciful to me &
> let me start getting the hang of things in....
> say..... 2 months or so! (My time here is up in 2
> months. =) I've asked repeatedly that God would
> give me His heart of compassion, and also strength
> and wisdom to do His work. He has never ever
> been less than perfectly faithful, so I have Him to
> thank for that.
>
> "How may I pray for you, Sid?" Well, I'm so glad
> you asked! First, please pray for increased faith
> in the power of God to work in me (yes, me!) and
> through me. Pray for opportunities to share the
> Gospel and the sensitivity & wisdom to do so in a
> culturally acceptable manner. Pray for humility
> to say "I don't know" when I don't know something,
> and to work well under & with the staff at
> Luampa. Pray for diligence, strength, & efficiency
> that I would meet the needs God wants me to care
> for. You could pray for safety and health, too;
> it'd be nice to make it back for graduation
> although I'm not exactly looking forward to
> residency! =)
>
> I trust that each of you are doing well in the Lord.
> I've been using some of my extra time (eg:
> during the long trip here) to pray for each of you
> by name, either that God would bring you into a
> relationship with Himself, or cause that
> relationship to deepen. I've also been praying for
> specific needs as you've shared them with me.
> Please feel free to let me know (update me) how I
> may
> continue to pray for you. Remember, though, that
> although I'll have email (only as sent to
> luampahospital@compuserve.com), I'll probably only
> access it once a week since it's only expensively
> accessible by satellite phone. Also, as I'll
> probably write all my outgoing email first, then
> connect to the server to quickly send and receive
> mail, please don't be offended if I don't answer
> specific questions until up to 2 weeks after you
> wrote the question. Sorry!!!
>
> Yes, I am actually IN AFRICA! It's not a dream.
> May God do with this trip as He wills.
>
> Sincerely Yours, Sid ("Stephen" to Mom)
> ps: please feel free to forward this to whomever
> you think would be interested. I don't have all
> my email addresses handy.
>
> Again, just in case you missed it the 1st time:
> STARTING IMMEDIATELY, ALL MAIL FOR SIDNEY WU SHOULD
> BE SENT TO...
> luampahospital@compuserve.com
> with "for Sidney Wu" in the 'SUBJECT' line
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