Posts
[Sorry about the mass-mailing again; I really won't mind if you just dump the letter in case you didn't want to be on the mailing list. In the same light,feel free to pass it along to those for whom I don't have their email address.]
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2 December 2002
Dear Brothers & Sisters in Christ:
I'm writing (by hand 1st) to you on the "warp machine"we call an "airplane," the contraption that transports me from one world to another, in this case fromAmsterdam, Holland to Los Angeles, USA. I'd never set foot in Europe before this trip, so I took advantage of the layover in Amsterdam to see what I could in under 3 hours. Unfortunately since I got out to the city about 7AM, not much was open -- indeed the skies were still completely dark.
How strange it was to think that just a few hours earlier, I was standing on Nigerian soil and feeling hot & sticky, and now there I was walking about the wet streets of Amsterdam feeling underdressed in my khaki pants and sweatshirt. First my fingertips went numb, then my ears. I wish I had more time to see things, esp. during normal open hours, but I did have a good time & even walked over to see (the outside of) Anne Frank's (the Jewish girl famous for her diary)old house. What I saw of the city was quite picturesque.
I thought I might write you all again to update you on the rest of my time in Nigeria, but before I go anyfurther, let's continue in the spirit of the last letter as I invite you to take another........
POP QUIZ!!! (true or false)
Since Sid/Steve last wrote about 2 weeks ago, he...
a) treated over 20 victims from the riots over the Miss World Pageant fiasco.
b) took a shower directly from a showerhead/faucetf or the 1st time since coming to Nigeria.
c) repeatedly yelled "REPENT!!" when delivering a sermon at a village church last weekend.
d) ate a delicious turkey dinner on Thanksgiving Day.
e) saw another car crash occur right in front of his eyes.
f) single-handedly provided for the survival of 100'sand their families.
PRAISE THE LORD!
Praise the Lord, for He is good! I'm thankful to Him for the time in Nigeria, not because it was perpetual fun or because I felt I made any huge impact. I'm thankful for the past month b/c I was stretched,l earned a lot of medicine I'd never known, learned a lot about socio-economic dynamics of running a Christian hospital, & learned quite a bit about raising & nurturing a family on the mission field.
Indeed, there is still SO MUCH to learn about everything! To be quite honest, I wondered several times in the last 2 wks (esp after a particularly tiring & depressing call night) whether I'm ready to be a missionary/doctor, which is NOT to say I wonder about my specific calling to missions or to say that I'm puttin off going to the mission field. What I mean is that I've realized that my dependence on our loving Father, & also my surrender to the day-to-day process of His preparing me for my future, have GOT to be SCALED UPWARD. He will be faithful to carry me through His calling for me, & I thank Him for that.
...As I try to formulate my thoughts on paper, I struggle with what stories to share with you. I find myself getting worked up as I think & write about each particular experience, and I find myself starting to include a lot of detail that I feel that I don't have the time (we're to land @ LAX in less than 15 minutes) or energy to give. Perhaps in the next few weeks I'll be better able to organize my thoughts & pass them onto you then. Also, let me know if you'd like to hear such detail.
PRAYER REQUESTS
Until then, may I recruit your continued prayer support for the following concerns?
1) my re-entry. I'm returning to the busy life of a resident on a busy rotation (cardiac care unit). Other responsibilities of life (bills, etc.) are awaiting me, in addition to my desire to spend time with my family, particularly my grandfather who lives in a nearby nursing home. Please pray that I'd re-adjust quickly while remembering all that I've learned in the last month.
2) my long-term plans. This is a repeat-request from the last letter. I need God's wisdom & guidance regarding family issues, mission board selection,f ield selection, and mission team.
3) the hospital @ Ile-Ife. The hospital, as with many Christian mission hospitals around the world, is struggling financially, especially in an age of increasing health costs. Ile-Ife is even finding it difficult to pay its staff a competitive salary in a timely manner. Its role in the town of ~30,000 amidst other hospitals (including a larger, government teaching hospital) is still being worked out, as there has recently been a major shift in its administrative structure. Please pray for wisdom & compassion in their decision making.
4) the students at the SDA School of Nursing @Ile-Ife. I shared with them my own story of how Jesus has changed my life, and about why & how we should share Christ in the medical setting. Several seemedi nterested in the whole idea & process. Please pray that they would follow through in continued study and application of what we discussed.
5) the missionary families @ Ile-Ife. They all work quite hard & long hours (both with the hospital & @church), yet exude a joy about them that is quite beautiful. I know it's a REAL joy, for they have opened their homes to me, & I experienced & absorbed their joy as I spent time with them. There are the Moons, a retired couple from California who recently returned to Nigeria (they were there >30 years ago) to run the School of Nursing; their smiles are quite contagious. Dr. Giebel (a family practicioner who wears a lot of other "hats") & his wife are themselvesf rom long-term missionary families. They have 2 girls, Melissa & Tami, along with Rusty the donkey,P tolemy the chameleon, Chubby the civet (when he doesn't run away), & Slinky the genet. Dr. Saunders (a general surgeon) & his wife (a nutritionist) have 4 children -- Andrew & Seth are the ones still living at home with them. The Saunders just returned from furlough in Oregon. Denise Ellson (a short-termer --~9 months by Jan 2003) is a physiotherapist from Australia who's started a rehab program for those with motor disabilities.
6) your own involvement in missions. As long aswe're talking about it, may I invite you to prayerfully ask yourself the following questions?
-- What about you & your involvement in cross-cultural evangelism & helping the poor?
-- Since God calls all of His people to involvement in missions, how is He specifically calling you?
-- How is God using you now where you are?
-- What new, stretching experiences might God becalling you to? (Ile-Ife can use a physiotherapist, an internist, an obstetrician/gynecologist, & a pediatrician immediately, & I'd be happy to get you connected with them.)
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3 December 2002
IN A DAZE
Even after a warm reception by family @ the Los Angeles Int'l Airport, a nice Taiwanese meal (& shaved ice dessert, yum-yum), a badly needed haircut, a quick shave (even after a month, most of you apart from my sister & mother prob'ly wouldn't have noticed the mustache), a brief visit to my grandfather, along-&-sorely-needed death-state night's sleep, a pile of (mostly junk) mail, a short jog with Big Daddy (my sister & brother-in-law's dog), a time in prayer & Bible-reading, and a comfortable ride in my luxurious car back to my apartment, I feel like I'm still in a daze. Was I really in Africa just 2 short days ago? What a different world I find myself in!
Perhaps part of my daze is jetlag. Maybe it's partly indigestion. Maybe it's something to do with the Mefloquine I continue to take for prophylaxis against malaria. Or perhaps it's a kind of "homesickness," for when I'm here I feel the hankering to be there (where I'm more needed -- where people need physical help and the hope of Jesus), & when I'm there I feel the hankering to be here. For sure, it's a different world I'm in now; in fact, tomorrow I start largely treating what is primarily a disease of the rich: coronary artery disease. Still though, things will be the same here in that there are still physical needs & the same dire need to hear of the truth & love of our Lord Jesus.
Thankfully, our home is not on this earth @ all, butin heaven. I sure look forward to being there oneday. Thank you so much for your prayers. I hope we can seeeach other soon. Please let me know how I can pray for you, too.
Because of His Love,
Sid
QUIZ KEY
I didn't hear of anyone who got everything right on the last quiz; let's see how you did on this one:
a) FALSE. We were nowhere near the rioting over the Miss World Pageant. In fact, when I got some of your email asking about the riots, I thought to myself, "What riots?" Not until a few days later did I get the scoop from people who read the papers. Thanks foryour concern!
b) FALSE. Actually, I'd taken my 1st of about 5 showers from a showerhead/faucet earlier in Lagos (the city I flew into) when I arrived in Nigeria. All the other showers were with a bucket & my tennis ball can. I think I got down to using less than 4 tennis ballcans per shower!
c) FALSE. It'd be interesting to know which among you thought this was true. Actually, last weekend I DID preach, but I preached on how the church is the body of Christ, regarding the need for continuous fellowship with Christ our Head, & unity with our siblings the other parts of the body.
d) FALSE. I certainly had a delicious Thanksgiving meal, but there was no turkey there, as I ate with vegetarian brothers & sisters. It was very nice to spend time with some other Americans (& some Nigerians & an Australian) to celebrate the holiday over a meal & some games. I had turkey the night before when Henry (a Nigerian resident physician at the hospital) & I went to a local eatery.
e) FALSE. No, we didn't see the accident HAPPEN, just the cloud of dust & shattered vehicle as we were just behind the accident when it happened on our way back from the Thanksgiving meal some way away from Ife. So we again stopped to help out, & we broughtb ack with us 2 men with broken bones. Thankfully there were no life-threatening injuries.
f) This one is TRUE, lest you think I'm just a pack of lies! I single-handedly fed >100 INSECTS(hee-hee!) and their families during this trip (that's a conservative number; on my arms alone I currently have 28 bites). I got at least 20 mosquito bites --some even through my socks! -- in just one night whenwe traveled to a smaller community clinic. Bzzzzz--bzzzzzz---- OUCH!
God bless, all!
Monday, December 02, 2002
Thursday, November 14, 2002
Wu's News
[Please feel free to forward to or print out for whomever you think might want this letter. Thanks.]
November 14, 2002
Dearest Brothers & Sisters:
Warmest greetings from Nigeria! I thought it might be nice to send an email mid-monthprayer/newsletter. For some of you, this may be the1st time finding out that I was coming to Nigeria, & for those people, I'm sorry. I tried my best to get the initial prayer letters out to everyone beforeleaving the States.
POP QUIZ!!!
Before I continue, let me invite you take a silly one-question multiple-choice Pop Quiz. From the following choices, choose the correct answer(s):
--Since Sid Wu arrived in Nigeria, he has....
A: stood under a 70-plus foot tall waterfall
B: dreamt that he was at the San Bernardino International Airport when the space shuttle landedthere.
C: watched a minivan full of people flip twice & crash right in front of his eyes.
D: played the board game Risk with 3 guys from NorthDakota.
E: been called "white man" over 100 times.
F: sewed up a torn ear and a forehead, & popped apus-filled boil.
G: thrown a tennis ball into a boy's large abdominalwound.
H: run (in his sandals & no socks) 100 yards cross afield that was swarming with billions of African fireants.(Answers will be found at the end of this letter.)
"SO WHAT ARE YOU DOING IN NIGERIA, SID?"
Well, thanks for asking! (hee hee) Some of you mightbe interested in my day-to-day life, so let me tell you my typical schedule. (I'll leave the exhaustive detail to those who are gracious enough to hear me out when I return.) Weekday mornings begin ~7AM when I clean up & eat breakfast with one of the missionary families fromAmerica, then go to the doctors' conference @ 8AM (the hospital has a Family/General Practice residency currently with 3 residents in addition to 2 other Nigerian doctors working there while trying to secure a residency position elsewhere). I informally led one of the AM reports on bacterial meningitis since I had a 2-month-old patient die of it last week. @ 9AM after the AM report, we split up & do rounds onthe wards. Mon-Wed-Fri I've been assinged to the Internal Medicine service. Tue-Thu I'm with the pediatrics team. This mix has been good since I'mable to see just about every non-surgical patient @some point in their hospitalization. Plus, I'm abel to interact with more of the residents here & engage in a lot of mutual teaching & learning. Depending onthe number of paitents & how anal I am, we finish rounds anywhere between 11AM & 2PM. Lunch is ~1:30PM. Usually around lunch I'll do some reading. Afternoons are a mixed bag. In addition to following up on things from the morning, some afternoons are spent giving lectures to the School of Nursing on the compound, reading, or in clinic. Additionally, I'm taking overnight call each Monday night along with another resident. Dinners are around 7PM. All the meals are a good timeof chatting with the missionary families & their guests. Weekends I've been worshipping with the local body of believers in the Seventh Day Adventist church here on the compound.
"SO WHAT ARE YOU LEARNING THERE, SID?"
Wow, that's a good question! (hoo-hoo) I think the1st thing that jumps out at me in answer to that question is the medical part of my experience. Inf act, as I was traveling to Ife from Lagos, I began to remember the sights, sounds, smells, & feelings I experienced as a medical student in Zambia 2.5 yearsago. I was getting SCARED b/c I felt inadequate & powerless to meet all the serious medical needs I felt I was about to see. Praise the Lord! Indeed I am indadequate in taking care of these precious patients, and already I have seen deaths occur right before my eyes (including an 8y/o daughter of a widow this AM not 30 minutes after arriving in the casualty/emergency department of our hospital), but I'm thankful now for the rigors of residency already under my belt, which have given me a lot more know-how in patient care. And although it's scary to think that I'm often thought of as the senior since there are no internists or pediatricians here (& the attendings are weighed down with other patient care & administrative work), I get great benefit outof rounding with the Nigerian FP resident. I find myself learning a lot about diseases unique to this area, how medicine is practiced with severly limited resources, & how social factors in Ife interact with dissease. I find myself sharing my own knowledge & experience, particularly on large areas of medicine that are not practically available in Nigeria although they're responsible to know about them for their boarde xams. It's quite stimulating, & I've been reading a lot about things like malaria, typhoid fever, & even rabies which I've never seen outside this continent. I'm also getting good experience outside my own field, esp. with trauma, as traffic is horrendously unsafe in this university town of about 30,000. I'm also learning about the importance of unity amidst the diversity of brothers & sisters in Christ. I'm having a great time fellowshiping here with the SDA missionaries & staff. Last Saturday I was tempted to just read & pray in my room instead of attending the nearby church service; I thought, "Well, I don't quitefit in there, & b/c of the accent I don't understand everything they're saying." A few moments later I was reminded of a recent lesson our Sunday School class went over: "You'd better get used to them (other believers) b/c you'll be spending eternity with them." It turned out to be a blessed time, I was encouraged, & (I believe) God was pleased. These lessons have been particularly important to me b/c of issues of disharmony in my own local church back home. I've strangely also come across a book I found on a missionary's shelf here: Philip Yancey's "Church: Why Bother? My Personal Pilgrimage" that's quite down-to-earth & thoughtful. You might like it.
"SO HOW CAN i PRAY FOR YOU, SID?"
I'm so glad you asked!!! (ha-ha) You can pray as follows:
1) my attitude. This has already gotten better some, but I still find myself often concentrating on differences between resources available to me here & Stateside. Please pray that instead I'd focos on the positives --what I CAN do with what I DO have.
2) a unique opportunity for multiplication. I plan to use @ least 2 of the 1.5 hour sessions with the nursing school for training on incorporating evangelism with medicine. Thankfully I've gotten a lot of training in this regard, but please pray for desperately needed wisdom to recall the info, re-package it as appropriate to the available timeslots & this culture, & present it clearly to this group. The great majority of people here on thec ompound & indeed in this whole region of Nigeria are culturally Christian.
3) planning for the future. I see more & more how important it is to have a good team while overseas. Please pray for wisdom regarding mission field,mission board, & co-workers for my fast-approachingfuture career.
4) humility & compassion for the here & now. I'm just here in Nigeria for a short month, so please pray that I'd be an encouragement to the long-term missionaries & staff who carry on the work year byyear (& PRAY FOR THE THEM TOO!).
THANKS SO MUCH FOR YOUR PRAYERS, EVERYONE! Please let me know how I can pray for you, too.
Only B/C of God's Love,
Sid
PS: Oh yeah!
ANSWERS TO THE POP-QUIZ: If you picked.....
A: ...you're right! Last Sunday we took a trip to awaterfall ~1h away & it was beautiful!!! It felt great to have all that water (from a natural spring) slam onto my body! I don't remember ever doing that before.
B: ...you're right! Psychosis is one of the rare side effects of mefloquine, the medicine I'm taking as prophylaxis against malaria. I don't think I'm getting psychotic, but as with my last trip to Africa, I'm getting very vivid dreams, CRAZY ones! The spaceshuttle one is the only one I care to share! Ha!
C: ...you're right! On our way back from the waterfall, about 200 yards ahead of us I saw a minivan blow a tire, lose control, flip at least once, & end up 1/2 way off the road. So this Land Cruiser filled with doctors & med students pulls up right behind them, & we storm out, stabilize them, & bring several back to the hospital where a few went to surgery for severe hand injuries. Thankfully there were no life-threatening injuries, & it was a good chance to pray with patients.
D: ...you're right! We had 3 senior med students from North Dakota come for an overseas elective. Theywere a fun bunch, & their month finished up just yesterday.
E: ...you're right! Ile-Ife is the birthplace of the Yoruba tribe, & also the reported origin of all humanity. "Oyibo" is their word for "white man." Here I am, a white man, & I didn't even know it!
F: ...you're right! With car accidents & all kinds of infections so common, I've done a few minor surgeries.
G: ...you're right! It was purely an accident! Dolapo is a school-aged boy who had serious complications to typhoid fever requiring multiple surgeries to his abdomen, which has not been healing well. He's also quite malnourished, which makes thisboy's situation quite grim. I gave him one of the tennis balls you sent with me (THANKS!) in order to tkae his mind off his body problems, & once while we were playing toss, I threw it into (well, actually,ONto) his wound which was covered with bandages. Needless to say, the impact was painful, & despite my profuse apologies, he didn't want to talk to me forover a day, until I suggested we protect his belly with a wash basin before started playing catch again.
H: ...you're WRONG! Do you think I'm crazy???!!!
God bless, all!
November 14, 2002
Dearest Brothers & Sisters:
Warmest greetings from Nigeria! I thought it might be nice to send an email mid-monthprayer/newsletter. For some of you, this may be the1st time finding out that I was coming to Nigeria, & for those people, I'm sorry. I tried my best to get the initial prayer letters out to everyone beforeleaving the States.
POP QUIZ!!!
Before I continue, let me invite you take a silly one-question multiple-choice Pop Quiz. From the following choices, choose the correct answer(s):
--Since Sid Wu arrived in Nigeria, he has....
A: stood under a 70-plus foot tall waterfall
B: dreamt that he was at the San Bernardino International Airport when the space shuttle landedthere.
C: watched a minivan full of people flip twice & crash right in front of his eyes.
D: played the board game Risk with 3 guys from NorthDakota.
E: been called "white man" over 100 times.
F: sewed up a torn ear and a forehead, & popped apus-filled boil.
G: thrown a tennis ball into a boy's large abdominalwound.
H: run (in his sandals & no socks) 100 yards cross afield that was swarming with billions of African fireants.(Answers will be found at the end of this letter.)
"SO WHAT ARE YOU DOING IN NIGERIA, SID?"
Well, thanks for asking! (hee hee) Some of you mightbe interested in my day-to-day life, so let me tell you my typical schedule. (I'll leave the exhaustive detail to those who are gracious enough to hear me out when I return.) Weekday mornings begin ~7AM when I clean up & eat breakfast with one of the missionary families fromAmerica, then go to the doctors' conference @ 8AM (the hospital has a Family/General Practice residency currently with 3 residents in addition to 2 other Nigerian doctors working there while trying to secure a residency position elsewhere). I informally led one of the AM reports on bacterial meningitis since I had a 2-month-old patient die of it last week. @ 9AM after the AM report, we split up & do rounds onthe wards. Mon-Wed-Fri I've been assinged to the Internal Medicine service. Tue-Thu I'm with the pediatrics team. This mix has been good since I'mable to see just about every non-surgical patient @some point in their hospitalization. Plus, I'm abel to interact with more of the residents here & engage in a lot of mutual teaching & learning. Depending onthe number of paitents & how anal I am, we finish rounds anywhere between 11AM & 2PM. Lunch is ~1:30PM. Usually around lunch I'll do some reading. Afternoons are a mixed bag. In addition to following up on things from the morning, some afternoons are spent giving lectures to the School of Nursing on the compound, reading, or in clinic. Additionally, I'm taking overnight call each Monday night along with another resident. Dinners are around 7PM. All the meals are a good timeof chatting with the missionary families & their guests. Weekends I've been worshipping with the local body of believers in the Seventh Day Adventist church here on the compound.
"SO WHAT ARE YOU LEARNING THERE, SID?"
Wow, that's a good question! (hoo-hoo) I think the1st thing that jumps out at me in answer to that question is the medical part of my experience. Inf act, as I was traveling to Ife from Lagos, I began to remember the sights, sounds, smells, & feelings I experienced as a medical student in Zambia 2.5 yearsago. I was getting SCARED b/c I felt inadequate & powerless to meet all the serious medical needs I felt I was about to see. Praise the Lord! Indeed I am indadequate in taking care of these precious patients, and already I have seen deaths occur right before my eyes (including an 8y/o daughter of a widow this AM not 30 minutes after arriving in the casualty/emergency department of our hospital), but I'm thankful now for the rigors of residency already under my belt, which have given me a lot more know-how in patient care. And although it's scary to think that I'm often thought of as the senior since there are no internists or pediatricians here (& the attendings are weighed down with other patient care & administrative work), I get great benefit outof rounding with the Nigerian FP resident. I find myself learning a lot about diseases unique to this area, how medicine is practiced with severly limited resources, & how social factors in Ife interact with dissease. I find myself sharing my own knowledge & experience, particularly on large areas of medicine that are not practically available in Nigeria although they're responsible to know about them for their boarde xams. It's quite stimulating, & I've been reading a lot about things like malaria, typhoid fever, & even rabies which I've never seen outside this continent. I'm also getting good experience outside my own field, esp. with trauma, as traffic is horrendously unsafe in this university town of about 30,000. I'm also learning about the importance of unity amidst the diversity of brothers & sisters in Christ. I'm having a great time fellowshiping here with the SDA missionaries & staff. Last Saturday I was tempted to just read & pray in my room instead of attending the nearby church service; I thought, "Well, I don't quitefit in there, & b/c of the accent I don't understand everything they're saying." A few moments later I was reminded of a recent lesson our Sunday School class went over: "You'd better get used to them (other believers) b/c you'll be spending eternity with them." It turned out to be a blessed time, I was encouraged, & (I believe) God was pleased. These lessons have been particularly important to me b/c of issues of disharmony in my own local church back home. I've strangely also come across a book I found on a missionary's shelf here: Philip Yancey's "Church: Why Bother? My Personal Pilgrimage" that's quite down-to-earth & thoughtful. You might like it.
"SO HOW CAN i PRAY FOR YOU, SID?"
I'm so glad you asked!!! (ha-ha) You can pray as follows:
1) my attitude. This has already gotten better some, but I still find myself often concentrating on differences between resources available to me here & Stateside. Please pray that instead I'd focos on the positives --what I CAN do with what I DO have.
2) a unique opportunity for multiplication. I plan to use @ least 2 of the 1.5 hour sessions with the nursing school for training on incorporating evangelism with medicine. Thankfully I've gotten a lot of training in this regard, but please pray for desperately needed wisdom to recall the info, re-package it as appropriate to the available timeslots & this culture, & present it clearly to this group. The great majority of people here on thec ompound & indeed in this whole region of Nigeria are culturally Christian.
3) planning for the future. I see more & more how important it is to have a good team while overseas. Please pray for wisdom regarding mission field,mission board, & co-workers for my fast-approachingfuture career.
4) humility & compassion for the here & now. I'm just here in Nigeria for a short month, so please pray that I'd be an encouragement to the long-term missionaries & staff who carry on the work year byyear (& PRAY FOR THE THEM TOO!).
THANKS SO MUCH FOR YOUR PRAYERS, EVERYONE! Please let me know how I can pray for you, too.
Only B/C of God's Love,
Sid
PS: Oh yeah!
ANSWERS TO THE POP-QUIZ: If you picked.....
A: ...you're right! Last Sunday we took a trip to awaterfall ~1h away & it was beautiful!!! It felt great to have all that water (from a natural spring) slam onto my body! I don't remember ever doing that before.
B: ...you're right! Psychosis is one of the rare side effects of mefloquine, the medicine I'm taking as prophylaxis against malaria. I don't think I'm getting psychotic, but as with my last trip to Africa, I'm getting very vivid dreams, CRAZY ones! The spaceshuttle one is the only one I care to share! Ha!
C: ...you're right! On our way back from the waterfall, about 200 yards ahead of us I saw a minivan blow a tire, lose control, flip at least once, & end up 1/2 way off the road. So this Land Cruiser filled with doctors & med students pulls up right behind them, & we storm out, stabilize them, & bring several back to the hospital where a few went to surgery for severe hand injuries. Thankfully there were no life-threatening injuries, & it was a good chance to pray with patients.
D: ...you're right! We had 3 senior med students from North Dakota come for an overseas elective. Theywere a fun bunch, & their month finished up just yesterday.
E: ...you're right! Ile-Ife is the birthplace of the Yoruba tribe, & also the reported origin of all humanity. "Oyibo" is their word for "white man." Here I am, a white man, & I didn't even know it!
F: ...you're right! With car accidents & all kinds of infections so common, I've done a few minor surgeries.
G: ...you're right! It was purely an accident! Dolapo is a school-aged boy who had serious complications to typhoid fever requiring multiple surgeries to his abdomen, which has not been healing well. He's also quite malnourished, which makes thisboy's situation quite grim. I gave him one of the tennis balls you sent with me (THANKS!) in order to tkae his mind off his body problems, & once while we were playing toss, I threw it into (well, actually,ONto) his wound which was covered with bandages. Needless to say, the impact was painful, & despite my profuse apologies, he didn't want to talk to me forover a day, until I suggested we protect his belly with a wash basin before started playing catch again.
H: ...you're WRONG! Do you think I'm crazy???!!!
God bless, all!
Saturday, October 19, 2002
Nigerian Sheep (minus Nigerian map & silly Sid-the-Sheep picture)
Dear Fellow Sheep, (October 19, 2002)
Recently I was reminded of the greatness of God’s love for me when I read Luke 15:4-6, “What man of you, having a hundred sheep, if he loses one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness, and go after the one which is lost until he finds it? And when he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders, rejoicing. And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and neighbors, saying to them, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep which was lost!’” How glad I am that He found me! What amazing love!
Fellow sheep, our Good Shepherd has given me the opportunity to go in His Name to Nigeria as part of my residency program. For the month of November (I leave October 29 and return December 2), I’ll be working at the Ile-Ife Seventh-Day Adventist Hospital in Ife. My duties will include working with other doctors and hospital staff to help adults and children with their physical illnesses, but I also hope to bring spiritual healing through living and sharing the truth of Jesus Christ.
Would you please join me in prayer for this special month?
With Deepest Gratitude from Your Fellow Sheep,
Sidney Stephen Chiayee Wu
NIGERIA FACTS
Area: ~356,000 square miles (~2x the size of California)
Population: ~123 million
Languages: English (official), Hausa, Yoruba, Ibo, Fulani, and more
Literacy: 57% (male 67%, female 47%)
Religions: Muslim 50%, Christian 40%, Traditional 10%
Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per capita: $970 (vs. United States $33,900)
HELP!!! PRAY FOR…
- perpetual fellowship with God (some of my loneliest times have been overseas)
- humility & openness to learning (especially the culture, & new ways of ministry)
- boldness to share the Good News of Jesus Christ
- sensitivity to other believers and to non-believers (especially Muslims)
- wisdom to pick up & use medical knowledge
- camaraderie with the colleagues at Ile-Ife
- travel safety & health
- guidance to know where God wants me in the future, and with which mission board)
Please contact me (before or after the trip) so that I’ll know how to pray for you, too!
sidneywu@yahoo.com.
Recently I was reminded of the greatness of God’s love for me when I read Luke 15:4-6, “What man of you, having a hundred sheep, if he loses one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness, and go after the one which is lost until he finds it? And when he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders, rejoicing. And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and neighbors, saying to them, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep which was lost!’” How glad I am that He found me! What amazing love!
Fellow sheep, our Good Shepherd has given me the opportunity to go in His Name to Nigeria as part of my residency program. For the month of November (I leave October 29 and return December 2), I’ll be working at the Ile-Ife Seventh-Day Adventist Hospital in Ife. My duties will include working with other doctors and hospital staff to help adults and children with their physical illnesses, but I also hope to bring spiritual healing through living and sharing the truth of Jesus Christ.
Would you please join me in prayer for this special month?
With Deepest Gratitude from Your Fellow Sheep,
Sidney Stephen Chiayee Wu
NIGERIA FACTS
Area: ~356,000 square miles (~2x the size of California)
Population: ~123 million
Languages: English (official), Hausa, Yoruba, Ibo, Fulani, and more
Literacy: 57% (male 67%, female 47%)
Religions: Muslim 50%, Christian 40%, Traditional 10%
Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per capita: $970 (vs. United States $33,900)
HELP!!! PRAY FOR…
- perpetual fellowship with God (some of my loneliest times have been overseas)
- humility & openness to learning (especially the culture, & new ways of ministry)
- boldness to share the Good News of Jesus Christ
- sensitivity to other believers and to non-believers (especially Muslims)
- wisdom to pick up & use medical knowledge
- camaraderie with the colleagues at Ile-Ife
- travel safety & health
- guidance to know where God wants me in the future, and with which mission board)
Please contact me (before or after the trip) so that I’ll know how to pray for you, too!
sidneywu@yahoo.com.
Wednesday, June 14, 2000
post-Zambia
14 June 2000
Final (Post-) African trip prayer letter Trivia Question:
What surgical procedure has the pre-op diagnosis of “Philistine” & post-op diagnosis of “Israelite”?
Tambukeni mwane!
Wow! It’s already been about a month since I left Luampa Hospital in Zambia, & it feels like I’ve stepped from one whirlwind of events on the African continent into another whirlwind of events on the North American continent. Some of the whirlwind I’m experiencing now is partially of my own doing. Since my return to the States I’ve gone to visit my brother-in-law & sister in Georgia, returned home where my parents’ loving arms awaited me, sifted through 3 piles of mail (let me know if you need another credit card), went through all the requisite paperwork & ceremony for graduation (Praise the Lord!), signed my contract for residency (4 year sentence to begin Mon. 6/26 – or 26/6 as they write in Zambia & most of the world outside America), went to Sacramento to visit relatives & my grandmother’s grave (while I was in Zambia she went to spend the rest of eternity with Jesus), started looking into buying a home, & just finished all my prerequisite stuff for residency (among other things, an ACLS course & physical – praise the Lord that my skin test turned out TB negative!!)
Next Tuesday I’ll be going with our church to Mexico for a 5-day missions trip, which will have a children’s Vacation Bible School, church building renovation, & a few medical aspects to it. It’s weird to think that my missions experience began in Mexico 7 years ago in Tijuana with YWAM.
In any case, even though I’ve already seen & talked with some of you already, I wanted to use this window of opportunity to write a final prayer letter to let you know how I’m doing & how your support has greatly benefited me. I find it also helpful for me to put my thoughts onto paper as a way of organizing their “jumbliness” into some semblance of rationality. Several of you have stated that you enjoyed my letters, for which I am encouraged & praise the Lord. As I’ve stated in earlier letters, I would not mind it one bit if you quickly scan & delete this admitted mass-mailing. No trees have died to make this email possible.
Again, THANK YOU very much for your prayers! Some of the things I’ve gained & learned are as follows:
- how to treat some tropical disease with limited resources. I found that after a while, it might be technically easier to be a doctor there since there were limited tools at our disposal. I also learned a good community-involving model for rural preventive health care (prenatal, under 5 children).
- A better understanding of the health status of Zambia, along with its cultural, spiritual, & economic underpinnings, particularly with regard to HIV/AIDS
- Some of the Mbunda language (Kushangazala Njambi! = Praise the Lord!) & culture of the people surrounding Luampa. In fact, though it’s much less than before, I still catch myself curtsying & clapping my hands during conversation as I learned to do in Zambia. My sister thought it was hilarious.
- That God wants me to prepare to become a fulltime, longterm overseas medical missionary, as He has made clear to me through prayer, my study of the Bible, the encouragement of fellow believers, and circumstances.
- A little more of how to work with humility, with a better balance of inter-dependence with colleagues.
- How to boil/make different foods, including pastas, potatoes, fresh vegetables, puddings; but NOT including dried peas (even with 3 separate trials, they turn out crunchy)! Hey, not everything I learned was spiritual/ministry-related. A bachelor’s got to survive somehow, you know!
- More about Israel/Judah’s kings, Isaiah, & 1 Peter (a book in the Bible), as I was asked to speak/lead during some chapel services & Bible studies.
- How to share the story of how Jesus profoundly affected my life (my “testimony”) more smoothly
- Beginning to learn how my identity & self-worth are not wrapped up in my past, how other see me, or my performance, but in what Jesus has done for me & who He has made me. If you’re looking for some good reading, you might want to try Blackaby’s “Experiencing God,” Anderson’s “The Bondage Breaker,” or McGee’s “The Search for Significance.”
- How God’s creation looks when unspoiled (I’ll say it again: the sky, day or night, at Luampa was amazing!)
- More about how kids worldwide can enjoy the same group games, even with old tennis balls that would’ve gone to some landfill
- A deeper appreciation for the work of past pioneer missionaries who saw their work for what it was (& is): spiritual warfare; & who understood both the great honor & great costs involved in it.
- A deeper appreciation for the need of accountability, support, & teamwork in the Christian life
- A deep recognition of my own luxurious lifestyle.
Thank you, thank you, thank you for all your prayer & support. And praise the Lord, praise the Lord, praise the Lord for all that He’s taught me. Certainly there is still very much to learn in life, & some of the things I mentioned about only represent what I’m only BEGINNING to learn. Some of the things are concepts that are just beginning to dawn on me intellectually, & haven’t come significantly into consistent practice (e.g.: my sense of identity & self-worth).
Please pray that I would be consistent with & faithful to the Lord as I plod ahead toward longterm missionary service, & that I’d have the “spiritual eyes” to see how He’s leading me (To what country? What people-group? With which mission board? In what capacity? When?) I still have a desire to teach but admittedly loathe research (not that it exists but my own personal involvement in it), which Dr. Jewel the missionary doctor – professor strongly suggested I get involved with if I want to be a professor. Please also pray that as residency begins, I’d have the right attitude about it, & prioritize my life correctly, especially with family, friends, & church. Please also pray for the Luampa Mission Hospital in Zambia, that God would use it & its surrounding churches to serve the needs of the community & bring many into His kingdom. Right now they are in desperate need of nursing staff. (If you know of anyone who might be interested, I’d be glad to tell them about the mission.) Also, even though it seems to be at least 4 years down the road, you may also pray that God would provide a team of like-minded people with whom I’d serve together. Perhaps God might have you in mind!
I’m a little embarrassed (Njisambeseniko mwane – please forgive me!) that I’ve made so many requests from you, but believe me, I’ve always needed a lot of prayer. Please don’t hesitate to let me know how I may also prayer for you.
Again, praise the Lord for His wonderful work!
Talk to you soon,
Sid
PS: Answer to the trivia question: Circumcision! [I helped with several.]
Final (Post-) African trip prayer letter Trivia Question:
What surgical procedure has the pre-op diagnosis of “Philistine” & post-op diagnosis of “Israelite”?
Tambukeni mwane!
Wow! It’s already been about a month since I left Luampa Hospital in Zambia, & it feels like I’ve stepped from one whirlwind of events on the African continent into another whirlwind of events on the North American continent. Some of the whirlwind I’m experiencing now is partially of my own doing. Since my return to the States I’ve gone to visit my brother-in-law & sister in Georgia, returned home where my parents’ loving arms awaited me, sifted through 3 piles of mail (let me know if you need another credit card), went through all the requisite paperwork & ceremony for graduation (Praise the Lord!), signed my contract for residency (4 year sentence to begin Mon. 6/26 – or 26/6 as they write in Zambia & most of the world outside America), went to Sacramento to visit relatives & my grandmother’s grave (while I was in Zambia she went to spend the rest of eternity with Jesus), started looking into buying a home, & just finished all my prerequisite stuff for residency (among other things, an ACLS course & physical – praise the Lord that my skin test turned out TB negative!!)
Next Tuesday I’ll be going with our church to Mexico for a 5-day missions trip, which will have a children’s Vacation Bible School, church building renovation, & a few medical aspects to it. It’s weird to think that my missions experience began in Mexico 7 years ago in Tijuana with YWAM.
In any case, even though I’ve already seen & talked with some of you already, I wanted to use this window of opportunity to write a final prayer letter to let you know how I’m doing & how your support has greatly benefited me. I find it also helpful for me to put my thoughts onto paper as a way of organizing their “jumbliness” into some semblance of rationality. Several of you have stated that you enjoyed my letters, for which I am encouraged & praise the Lord. As I’ve stated in earlier letters, I would not mind it one bit if you quickly scan & delete this admitted mass-mailing. No trees have died to make this email possible.
Again, THANK YOU very much for your prayers! Some of the things I’ve gained & learned are as follows:
- how to treat some tropical disease with limited resources. I found that after a while, it might be technically easier to be a doctor there since there were limited tools at our disposal. I also learned a good community-involving model for rural preventive health care (prenatal, under 5 children).
- A better understanding of the health status of Zambia, along with its cultural, spiritual, & economic underpinnings, particularly with regard to HIV/AIDS
- Some of the Mbunda language (Kushangazala Njambi! = Praise the Lord!) & culture of the people surrounding Luampa. In fact, though it’s much less than before, I still catch myself curtsying & clapping my hands during conversation as I learned to do in Zambia. My sister thought it was hilarious.
- That God wants me to prepare to become a fulltime, longterm overseas medical missionary, as He has made clear to me through prayer, my study of the Bible, the encouragement of fellow believers, and circumstances.
- A little more of how to work with humility, with a better balance of inter-dependence with colleagues.
- How to boil/make different foods, including pastas, potatoes, fresh vegetables, puddings; but NOT including dried peas (even with 3 separate trials, they turn out crunchy)! Hey, not everything I learned was spiritual/ministry-related. A bachelor’s got to survive somehow, you know!
- More about Israel/Judah’s kings, Isaiah, & 1 Peter (a book in the Bible), as I was asked to speak/lead during some chapel services & Bible studies.
- How to share the story of how Jesus profoundly affected my life (my “testimony”) more smoothly
- Beginning to learn how my identity & self-worth are not wrapped up in my past, how other see me, or my performance, but in what Jesus has done for me & who He has made me. If you’re looking for some good reading, you might want to try Blackaby’s “Experiencing God,” Anderson’s “The Bondage Breaker,” or McGee’s “The Search for Significance.”
- How God’s creation looks when unspoiled (I’ll say it again: the sky, day or night, at Luampa was amazing!)
- More about how kids worldwide can enjoy the same group games, even with old tennis balls that would’ve gone to some landfill
- A deeper appreciation for the work of past pioneer missionaries who saw their work for what it was (& is): spiritual warfare; & who understood both the great honor & great costs involved in it.
- A deeper appreciation for the need of accountability, support, & teamwork in the Christian life
- A deep recognition of my own luxurious lifestyle.
Thank you, thank you, thank you for all your prayer & support. And praise the Lord, praise the Lord, praise the Lord for all that He’s taught me. Certainly there is still very much to learn in life, & some of the things I mentioned about only represent what I’m only BEGINNING to learn. Some of the things are concepts that are just beginning to dawn on me intellectually, & haven’t come significantly into consistent practice (e.g.: my sense of identity & self-worth).
Please pray that I would be consistent with & faithful to the Lord as I plod ahead toward longterm missionary service, & that I’d have the “spiritual eyes” to see how He’s leading me (To what country? What people-group? With which mission board? In what capacity? When?) I still have a desire to teach but admittedly loathe research (not that it exists but my own personal involvement in it), which Dr. Jewel the missionary doctor – professor strongly suggested I get involved with if I want to be a professor. Please also pray that as residency begins, I’d have the right attitude about it, & prioritize my life correctly, especially with family, friends, & church. Please also pray for the Luampa Mission Hospital in Zambia, that God would use it & its surrounding churches to serve the needs of the community & bring many into His kingdom. Right now they are in desperate need of nursing staff. (If you know of anyone who might be interested, I’d be glad to tell them about the mission.) Also, even though it seems to be at least 4 years down the road, you may also pray that God would provide a team of like-minded people with whom I’d serve together. Perhaps God might have you in mind!
I’m a little embarrassed (Njisambeseniko mwane – please forgive me!) that I’ve made so many requests from you, but believe me, I’ve always needed a lot of prayer. Please don’t hesitate to let me know how I may also prayer for you.
Again, praise the Lord for His wonderful work!
Talk to you soon,
Sid
PS: Answer to the trivia question: Circumcision! [I helped with several.]
Tuesday, May 02, 2000
Last Luampa Letter
Re: LAST LUAMPA LETTER
*******************************************************************
NOTE: PLEASE DO NOT SEND ANY FURTHER EMAIL FOR SIDNEY WU TO
luampahospital@compuserve.com. For urgent/emergent communication, you may email him @ echzgo@zamnet.zm or call the Lusaka ECZ office, only up to 10 pm Pacific (American) time Sat, May 13
*******************************************************************
written 2 May 00
Greetings, All!
How're you doing? Again, it's hard to believe that my time here in Zambia, & thus in medical school, will soon be over. By the time I get back to Calfornia (since I'm taking a side trip to see my sister & brother-in-law in Geeooooooorgia) in fact, graduation will soon be upon us, so pls. consider this my formal invitation to you to attend my graduation ceremony, if you are able. It'll be held @ the big lawn outside the Chan Shun Pavilion @ Loma Linda University @ 9AM (I think it's 9) on Sun May 28. You may call my parents for directions @ (***)864-****. I'd really be honored if you could attend, but pls. don't fee that you have to.
This, in fact, will be the last email I'll be transmitting from Luampa since I'm trying to visit a SIM (the mission I'm working with) missionary doctor who's also a medical school professor in Lusaka (Zambia's capital). I was actually quite pleased when I heard of such a missionary-doctor-professor, b/c for some time now I've been thinking abt. doing just that in the future: working as a missionary/professor @ an overseas medical school. I hear Dr. Jim Jewel is quite a nice man who became a Christian in his adult years, so I'm looking forward t meeting him & talking with him abt. how God gave him such an opportunity.
For abt. a year now, I've been thinking abt. being a missionary professor b/c I enjoy both medicine & teaching, so this seems to be a good combination. Also, God has blessed my LLU years with such mission-minded professors (sounds like "absent-minded professors," but they're certainly not) as Drs. Harvey Elder, Yang Chen, & Evert Bruckner, so I feel it be a bit of a God-given legacy to pass that on to other students.
Here @ Luampa the weather has been getting significantly colder (as it does these months in the southern hemisphere); I imagine Southern California conversely has been warming up a bit.
Things I see in the hospital are still quite alarming, although considerably less alarming than when I first got here. Children die with regularity for several reasons: they're often brought in too late for any treatment we offer to be effective, they are often given traditional "medicines" which many times do more harm than good (they're either real medicines that're given in doses dangerous for kids, or are a form of witchcraft), & nutrition is generally low while diesase is generally rampant. I've already told you abt. the terror of maaria (according to my old biology text, the mosquito IS classified under the Kingdom Animalia, by the way =), but in case I haven't shared it with you before, HIV/AIDS is also quite rampant, & as it lowers its victims' immunity, has led to the resurgence of many other diseases (like tuberculosis). Zambia is one of the hardest-hit countries with regard to HIV/AIDS, & to put it into perspective, according to a 1999 UN report, there are more orphans per capita in Zambia than anywhere else in the world. 1 in 3 children has lost at least one parent, & 1 in 6 are complete orphans! This puts considerable burden on surviving relatives (even many hospital employees are taking care of deceased relatives' children) & the church. Pls. pray for this whole situation. The Evangelical Church of Zambia (which operates Luampa Mission Hospital) is soon holdinga conference on the church's response to HIV/AIDS after I've gone to Lusaka, & there's been some organizational confusion, so pls. pray that God would unite the leaders & people to make the conference a successful one, that the church's response to HIV/AIDS would be bold, compassionate, & effective.
I hope I'm not making Africa out to be a bleak, hopeless place. Despite its problems, I've seen some of the biggest smiles across people's faces here. There's something abt. a place where there is little to no advertising media, that makes its inhabitants surprisingly content. Some of the long term missionaries have actually shared with me that they're grateful their children are growing up here rather than amidst the predominant culture of the "West." Plus, it's beautiful; the sky actually looks BIGGER than any I've ever seen.
Again, I'd like to thank you for your continued prayers. Just to update you on the requests I made in the last email,
- I'm completely over the mild viral illness & currently show no signs of malaria or TB
- recent conversations/interactions with co-workers have been smooth & encouraging, as well as enlightening
- it's hard for me to gauge how the Thu PM Bible study & last Sunday's testimony-giving went, but they didn't go badly. Pls. pray that God'd bring to people's minds only that which was from Him. I still have that Sunday PM chapel service to speak @, on I Peter 1:22 -2:3. You could pray for that, too.
- time with the "Boyz In the Hood" (neighborhood kids) has been fun, though I haven't really talked to them abt generosity as I'd like to yet. I think I'll talk to them abt. how God so freely gives us gifts & how we ought to share them, when I give them the tennis balls & football I brought. You could pray for this, esp that I'd have time to play with them @ least once more, as I'm on call this weekend.
Anyways, I'll soon be home, God willing, and will be able to talk face-to-face with most of you. I'm looking forward to that. I guess you could pray for my trip to see Dr. Jewel (that God'd make clearer to me what His desire is for my future) & for traveling mercies in general. Maybe, as you pray for the physical & spiritual needs in Zambia, God'll make clear to you, too, that He wants you to do mission work. What a neat prospect, should God lead me to team up with some of you on some future mission trip!
Safe in One of the Creases in God's Very Big Hands,
Sid Steve
PS's:
Ruth & Eric: Just a reminder: my flight (South African Air #211) will be arriving in Atlanta from Johannesburg @ 8:20am May 16 (Tue). If I'll need to bus into Savannah (which I still don't mind!), pls. email me so @ echzgo@zamnet.zm before the above-mentioned time. Thanks! See you soon!
Dr. Elder: ever read "The Search for Signficance" by Robert S. McGee? It seems to go right up your alley of spiritual experience, as you've shared of your life. Very helpful to me re: where I get my feeling of self-worth.
Moses: wow! Thailand? What're you doing there? I guess I'll soon find out. BTW, the propensity to tell stories comes from my parents!
Anneta: Praying for your class' Sea World trip; make sure you get adequate sleep! Pls. pass along a "Happy Anniversary" (belated) to your parents for me. Nice to hear abt. your bike & bikestand; let me know if you'd like help putting it together. Thanks again, BTW, for the going away gathering; I want to see those pictures.
EFC Men's group: Praying for you guys, for the things you emailed me abt. Spent extra time today in prayer for our Lord's Riverside bride. You could continue to pray for the things I asked for in the last email, and for being home alone. Please also pray for the remaining time with Chimbali, our housekeeper; we've had a similar experience with relationships, & I shared that with him. Pray that God'll show him (& me) to be to trust & obey Him completely. Pls. forward this email to Kevin & Tom, as their accounts don't seem to be working.
*******************************************************************
NOTE: PLEASE DO NOT SEND ANY FURTHER EMAIL FOR SIDNEY WU TO
luampahospital@compuserve.com. For urgent/emergent communication, you may email him @ echzgo@zamnet.zm or call the Lusaka ECZ office, only up to 10 pm Pacific (American) time Sat, May 13
*******************************************************************
written 2 May 00
Greetings, All!
How're you doing? Again, it's hard to believe that my time here in Zambia, & thus in medical school, will soon be over. By the time I get back to Calfornia (since I'm taking a side trip to see my sister & brother-in-law in Geeooooooorgia) in fact, graduation will soon be upon us, so pls. consider this my formal invitation to you to attend my graduation ceremony, if you are able. It'll be held @ the big lawn outside the Chan Shun Pavilion @ Loma Linda University @ 9AM (I think it's 9) on Sun May 28. You may call my parents for directions @ (***)864-****. I'd really be honored if you could attend, but pls. don't fee that you have to.
This, in fact, will be the last email I'll be transmitting from Luampa since I'm trying to visit a SIM (the mission I'm working with) missionary doctor who's also a medical school professor in Lusaka (Zambia's capital). I was actually quite pleased when I heard of such a missionary-doctor-professor, b/c for some time now I've been thinking abt. doing just that in the future: working as a missionary/professor @ an overseas medical school. I hear Dr. Jim Jewel is quite a nice man who became a Christian in his adult years, so I'm looking forward t meeting him & talking with him abt. how God gave him such an opportunity.
For abt. a year now, I've been thinking abt. being a missionary professor b/c I enjoy both medicine & teaching, so this seems to be a good combination. Also, God has blessed my LLU years with such mission-minded professors (sounds like "absent-minded professors," but they're certainly not) as Drs. Harvey Elder, Yang Chen, & Evert Bruckner, so I feel it be a bit of a God-given legacy to pass that on to other students.
Here @ Luampa the weather has been getting significantly colder (as it does these months in the southern hemisphere); I imagine Southern California conversely has been warming up a bit.
Things I see in the hospital are still quite alarming, although considerably less alarming than when I first got here. Children die with regularity for several reasons: they're often brought in too late for any treatment we offer to be effective, they are often given traditional "medicines" which many times do more harm than good (they're either real medicines that're given in doses dangerous for kids, or are a form of witchcraft), & nutrition is generally low while diesase is generally rampant. I've already told you abt. the terror of maaria (according to my old biology text, the mosquito IS classified under the Kingdom Animalia, by the way =), but in case I haven't shared it with you before, HIV/AIDS is also quite rampant, & as it lowers its victims' immunity, has led to the resurgence of many other diseases (like tuberculosis). Zambia is one of the hardest-hit countries with regard to HIV/AIDS, & to put it into perspective, according to a 1999 UN report, there are more orphans per capita in Zambia than anywhere else in the world. 1 in 3 children has lost at least one parent, & 1 in 6 are complete orphans! This puts considerable burden on surviving relatives (even many hospital employees are taking care of deceased relatives' children) & the church. Pls. pray for this whole situation. The Evangelical Church of Zambia (which operates Luampa Mission Hospital) is soon holdinga conference on the church's response to HIV/AIDS after I've gone to Lusaka, & there's been some organizational confusion, so pls. pray that God would unite the leaders & people to make the conference a successful one, that the church's response to HIV/AIDS would be bold, compassionate, & effective.
I hope I'm not making Africa out to be a bleak, hopeless place. Despite its problems, I've seen some of the biggest smiles across people's faces here. There's something abt. a place where there is little to no advertising media, that makes its inhabitants surprisingly content. Some of the long term missionaries have actually shared with me that they're grateful their children are growing up here rather than amidst the predominant culture of the "West." Plus, it's beautiful; the sky actually looks BIGGER than any I've ever seen.
Again, I'd like to thank you for your continued prayers. Just to update you on the requests I made in the last email,
- I'm completely over the mild viral illness & currently show no signs of malaria or TB
- recent conversations/interactions with co-workers have been smooth & encouraging, as well as enlightening
- it's hard for me to gauge how the Thu PM Bible study & last Sunday's testimony-giving went, but they didn't go badly. Pls. pray that God'd bring to people's minds only that which was from Him. I still have that Sunday PM chapel service to speak @, on I Peter 1:22 -2:3. You could pray for that, too.
- time with the "Boyz In the Hood" (neighborhood kids) has been fun, though I haven't really talked to them abt generosity as I'd like to yet. I think I'll talk to them abt. how God so freely gives us gifts & how we ought to share them, when I give them the tennis balls & football I brought. You could pray for this, esp that I'd have time to play with them @ least once more, as I'm on call this weekend.
Anyways, I'll soon be home, God willing, and will be able to talk face-to-face with most of you. I'm looking forward to that. I guess you could pray for my trip to see Dr. Jewel (that God'd make clearer to me what His desire is for my future) & for traveling mercies in general. Maybe, as you pray for the physical & spiritual needs in Zambia, God'll make clear to you, too, that He wants you to do mission work. What a neat prospect, should God lead me to team up with some of you on some future mission trip!
Safe in One of the Creases in God's Very Big Hands,
Sid Steve
PS's:
Ruth & Eric: Just a reminder: my flight (South African Air #211) will be arriving in Atlanta from Johannesburg @ 8:20am May 16 (Tue). If I'll need to bus into Savannah (which I still don't mind!), pls. email me so @ echzgo@zamnet.zm before the above-mentioned time. Thanks! See you soon!
Dr. Elder: ever read "The Search for Signficance" by Robert S. McGee? It seems to go right up your alley of spiritual experience, as you've shared of your life. Very helpful to me re: where I get my feeling of self-worth.
Moses: wow! Thailand? What're you doing there? I guess I'll soon find out. BTW, the propensity to tell stories comes from my parents!
Anneta: Praying for your class' Sea World trip; make sure you get adequate sleep! Pls. pass along a "Happy Anniversary" (belated) to your parents for me. Nice to hear abt. your bike & bikestand; let me know if you'd like help putting it together. Thanks again, BTW, for the going away gathering; I want to see those pictures.
EFC Men's group: Praying for you guys, for the things you emailed me abt. Spent extra time today in prayer for our Lord's Riverside bride. You could continue to pray for the things I asked for in the last email, and for being home alone. Please also pray for the remaining time with Chimbali, our housekeeper; we've had a similar experience with relationships, & I shared that with him. Pray that God'll show him (& me) to be to trust & obey Him completely. Pls. forward this email to Kevin & Tom, as their accounts don't seem to be working.
Monday, April 24, 2000
Vutsiki Mwane!
Vutsiki mwane (Mbunda for "Good Evening")! It's evening out here, & I'm writing to you all by candlelight (it's kinda neat watching the occasional moth go straight into the flame) as cricket-like creatures & bats make their noises outside in the relatively quiet night.
I just finished my 2nd week of call; it's nice to know I'll be allowed to sleep through the night. I'm not yet sure if I'll take nother week of call before I leave.
Loma Linda seniors: can you believe that we're graduating in a month??!!!! How're all of you're residency preparations (moving, etc.) coming along? Match Day surely was a emotion-packed day, wasn't it? I praise God that He's put each of you (& your spouses & kids, if applicable) in exactly where He wants you for the next few years. How surprised I was to open my match-envelope & find out that I'm staying @ Loma Linda U for the next 4 years! I really needed that time of prayer & meditation before opening the envelope. The Lord seems to be giving me additional opportunity to spend time with friends & family, which in some ways was actually quite a relief! Kushangazala Njambi ("Praise the Lord")!
It's only been 2 days since I wrote the last email to you guys, & I can't think of any more stories to share with you, so if you don't mind, I'd like to share some prayer requests for the remainder (3 wks) of my stay here:
- health, which right now means complete recovery from a minor viral illness (only symptom now is sore throat), & also protection from tuberculosis & malaria (I'm actually a little concerned with the TB since so many of our patients have it).
- humility & a heart of service toward both my patients & my coworkers
- focus! being ready to share the Gospel with each opportunity, as patients are open to it
- preparedness in taking part in different ministries: I'm leading our households' Men's Bible study group this Thu. evening on Isaiah 36-39, sharing my testimony (how Jesus became a personal part of my life) next Sunday evening, & speaking on I Peter 1:22-2:3 the following Sunday evening.
- rel'ps with the neighborhood boys ("boys in the 'hood," I guess you could say). I think I've shared before that I regularly play games/sports with these elementary & junior high aged boys. It's kinda fun, really, for a few reasons: there aren't any single guys my age out here (I miss you guys back home!), I need the exercise (badly), & it gives me a kick to watch kids play. This Thu. afternoon we're planning to go to the area behind the hospital (for patients & their families) again to play group games with the children (some are prob'ly my age!). Last time was great fun, & I even got to share a Bible story with the small crowd, translated by my "Boyz in the Hood." Pls. pray that in our time together I'd be able to talk with these boys abt. selfishness & service, which God seems to be reminding me abt. in my life, too.
Thank you so much for your prayers. Pls. let me know how I may pray for you.
Good night,
Sidney
Dad: It was nice to hear/read the details of your Taiwan trip; I'm glad it seemed to be a very good & meaningful one. Did you hear anything abt. the Hsu/Kho family (my host parents) in Tainan? Thank you for your prayers; I'm praying for you & Mom, too. I just read abt. Grandma & will be praying abt that situation. I've already talked to Mom abt paying my Citibank bill, but only paying the minimum for the Discover since I have a special rate on it. Wish I could join family in Sacramento. Believe it or not, the mosquito bites I'm getting here are not as bad as those I get in Taiwan. It's just that the mosquitoes here carry malaria! I'll see you & Mom soon, @ 11AM May 20 Santa Ana, as scheduled. I'll be sure to call you when I get to Eric & Ruth's place, though. Love you!
Dr. Elder: glad to read you got the album, & that your family was able to see it. Isn't it neat that God's letting me stay @ LLU for another season? I trust He has a lot in store for me here (well..... there). BTW, did you get the "African Biology Trivia Question" abt mosquitoes from the last email right?
Frank: Ding-dong, Ding-dong! How're the preparations coming? The bells are so fast approaching, I can even hear them from 10,000 miles away! Glad I'll be around to see it happen. How was Luther's, by the way?
Houston relatives: When will I hear the wedding bells from there? Say 'hi' to Kelly's friend for me. =)
Matt: how're the moving arrangements coming along? Did Dr. F replu to your letter? Excited abt. graduation? I just can't believe it's actually happening....
Kelly Yung: thanks for passing along that recollection from Taiwan! Wow-- I'm so glad God is not easily discouraged (as you said), & was (& is) persistent also with me. Don't forget to send a photo of yourself to Dr. Elder!
EFC: Just a few reminders: Pls. let me know details as you know them abt. Mexico Missions. Not sure yet, but I may be able to go. Dr. Doughten: are you going? Any medical aspect to it? Also, this upcoming Sunday is the last of the month. If you're able, pls. visit the convalescent home from 3:45-5:00pm. Maybe you can sing some Easter-theme songs, maybe "Because He Lives," or "Blessed Assurrance"? I'm praying for you guys re: finding a pastor for the English-speaking fellowship. May God cause us to grow through this experience.
Anneta: Again, thanks for the cont'd prayers!!! Throught it was funny abt. the disappointing McDonald's breakfast (think I've had the same experience). Wish I could go river-rafting with you & Johnny (have fun & pls. be careful!); @ that time I'll be visiting Victoria Falls (one of the Seven Natural Wonders of the World - I think the Grand Canyon is one of them, too), & maybe doing a day-safari. Wish you & the other guys could see it, too. Please say hi to your Grandpa for me. Hope the Easter celebrations continue to go well. Been praying for you. Glad to hear that it was helpful talking to Dr. Elder. Guess what?.... not much longer & you'll no longer be a 1st-year teacher!! Yahoo!!! Praise the Lord!!!
I just finished my 2nd week of call; it's nice to know I'll be allowed to sleep through the night. I'm not yet sure if I'll take nother week of call before I leave.
Loma Linda seniors: can you believe that we're graduating in a month??!!!! How're all of you're residency preparations (moving, etc.) coming along? Match Day surely was a emotion-packed day, wasn't it? I praise God that He's put each of you (& your spouses & kids, if applicable) in exactly where He wants you for the next few years. How surprised I was to open my match-envelope & find out that I'm staying @ Loma Linda U for the next 4 years! I really needed that time of prayer & meditation before opening the envelope. The Lord seems to be giving me additional opportunity to spend time with friends & family, which in some ways was actually quite a relief! Kushangazala Njambi ("Praise the Lord")!
It's only been 2 days since I wrote the last email to you guys, & I can't think of any more stories to share with you, so if you don't mind, I'd like to share some prayer requests for the remainder (3 wks) of my stay here:
- health, which right now means complete recovery from a minor viral illness (only symptom now is sore throat), & also protection from tuberculosis & malaria (I'm actually a little concerned with the TB since so many of our patients have it).
- humility & a heart of service toward both my patients & my coworkers
- focus! being ready to share the Gospel with each opportunity, as patients are open to it
- preparedness in taking part in different ministries: I'm leading our households' Men's Bible study group this Thu. evening on Isaiah 36-39, sharing my testimony (how Jesus became a personal part of my life) next Sunday evening, & speaking on I Peter 1:22-2:3 the following Sunday evening.
- rel'ps with the neighborhood boys ("boys in the 'hood," I guess you could say). I think I've shared before that I regularly play games/sports with these elementary & junior high aged boys. It's kinda fun, really, for a few reasons: there aren't any single guys my age out here (I miss you guys back home!), I need the exercise (badly), & it gives me a kick to watch kids play. This Thu. afternoon we're planning to go to the area behind the hospital (for patients & their families) again to play group games with the children (some are prob'ly my age!). Last time was great fun, & I even got to share a Bible story with the small crowd, translated by my "Boyz in the Hood." Pls. pray that in our time together I'd be able to talk with these boys abt. selfishness & service, which God seems to be reminding me abt. in my life, too.
Thank you so much for your prayers. Pls. let me know how I may pray for you.
Good night,
Sidney
Dad: It was nice to hear/read the details of your Taiwan trip; I'm glad it seemed to be a very good & meaningful one. Did you hear anything abt. the Hsu/Kho family (my host parents) in Tainan? Thank you for your prayers; I'm praying for you & Mom, too. I just read abt. Grandma & will be praying abt that situation. I've already talked to Mom abt paying my Citibank bill, but only paying the minimum for the Discover since I have a special rate on it. Wish I could join family in Sacramento. Believe it or not, the mosquito bites I'm getting here are not as bad as those I get in Taiwan. It's just that the mosquitoes here carry malaria! I'll see you & Mom soon, @ 11AM May 20 Santa Ana, as scheduled. I'll be sure to call you when I get to Eric & Ruth's place, though. Love you!
Dr. Elder: glad to read you got the album, & that your family was able to see it. Isn't it neat that God's letting me stay @ LLU for another season? I trust He has a lot in store for me here (well..... there). BTW, did you get the "African Biology Trivia Question" abt mosquitoes from the last email right?
Frank: Ding-dong, Ding-dong! How're the preparations coming? The bells are so fast approaching, I can even hear them from 10,000 miles away! Glad I'll be around to see it happen. How was Luther's, by the way?
Houston relatives: When will I hear the wedding bells from there? Say 'hi' to Kelly's friend for me. =)
Matt: how're the moving arrangements coming along? Did Dr. F replu to your letter? Excited abt. graduation? I just can't believe it's actually happening....
Kelly Yung: thanks for passing along that recollection from Taiwan! Wow-- I'm so glad God is not easily discouraged (as you said), & was (& is) persistent also with me. Don't forget to send a photo of yourself to Dr. Elder!
EFC: Just a few reminders: Pls. let me know details as you know them abt. Mexico Missions. Not sure yet, but I may be able to go. Dr. Doughten: are you going? Any medical aspect to it? Also, this upcoming Sunday is the last of the month. If you're able, pls. visit the convalescent home from 3:45-5:00pm. Maybe you can sing some Easter-theme songs, maybe "Because He Lives," or "Blessed Assurrance"? I'm praying for you guys re: finding a pastor for the English-speaking fellowship. May God cause us to grow through this experience.
Anneta: Again, thanks for the cont'd prayers!!! Throught it was funny abt. the disappointing McDonald's breakfast (think I've had the same experience). Wish I could go river-rafting with you & Johnny (have fun & pls. be careful!); @ that time I'll be visiting Victoria Falls (one of the Seven Natural Wonders of the World - I think the Grand Canyon is one of them, too), & maybe doing a day-safari. Wish you & the other guys could see it, too. Please say hi to your Grandpa for me. Hope the Easter celebrations continue to go well. Been praying for you. Glad to hear that it was helpful talking to Dr. Elder. Guess what?.... not much longer & you'll no longer be a 1st-year teacher!! Yahoo!!! Praise the Lord!!!
Saturday, April 22, 2000
Bio trivia
written 22 Apr 00
Greetings, Everyone!
Before I go into anything else: a piece of African biological "trivia" (it's actually not that trivial):
************************************************************************************************
What animal kills more children in Africa than any other?
a. the lion
b. the hippopotamus
c. the crocodile
d. the elephant
e. other: _________________
************************************************************************************************
Anyways, although I don't have much time to write this time, I wanted to say THANK YOU for all your prayers & for the emails that you've sent. Your own stories have warmed my heart immensely, particularly when you've shared how God has been working in your hearts, etc. I don't have time for individual comments this time (I'll try to before the next time we connect), but just let me say a blanket PRAISE THE LORD! PRAISE THE LORD!! PRAISE THE LORD!!! for how He's been faithful to each one of you. Wow! He is doing some pretty amazing things in your lives, and I thank Him for it. What a lift!
Not everything, of course, that I got was all a bed of roses for each of you. Please know that I'm keeping you & your situations in my prayers. God says He is near to the brokenhearted.
Tomorrow is Easter Sunday, but by the time you receive this, it'll already have passed, I'm sure. I hope that the day was a very meaningful one. Praise the Lord that He not only died for our sins, but conquered death through His resurrection. I know that for many of you Jesus' resurrection has very deep meaning, and as your emails attest, that very same resurrection power is still at work. I've been on call again this week, & it'll last until Monday morning. Hopefully I'll be able to go to church.
Guess what happened on Monday night, the first PM of my call week? I saw an ambulance, and I never expected to see one since those who are not able to walk are usually handcarried to the hospital, or carried on makeshift stretchers. The closest thing to an ambulance I saw before Monday was a wheelbarrow. So anyways, as you can imagine, I was quite surprised to hear that an ambulance brought a patient. He was a young adolescent, (re)transferred from another hospital, who'd sustained a serious injury to the head. No CAT scans here, but his diagnosis on his chart was "subdural hematoma," meaning there was a blood collection in his skull that was putting dangerous pressure on his brain; the child was in a coma already a day & a half. He was sent to us because we have equipment to put the necessary "burrholes" in his skull, which would be like pressure-relief holes. Anyways, at conferences in the past, I'd heard of missionaries doing surgeries while reading textbooks, but this was the 1st time to see it 1st-hand, & I didn't expect it to be a neurosurgical procedure!!! How weird it was: I was the one reading the textbook to the surgeons while they were operating. Thankfully we found the subdural hematoma, along with an epidural one (more dangerous), although unfortunately his neurologic status hasn't changed since. Please pray for the boy & his family.
Thanks again for your prayers! And again, PRAISE THE LORD!!!
Sid
************************************************************************************************
ANSWER TO AFRICA BIOLOGICAL 'TRIVIA' QUESTION:
The correct answer is "e." None of the animals listed are close to the most dangerous animal, whose bit is so severe that it kills one Jumbo-Jet-full of children under 5 EVERY HOUR!!! This animal is the mosquito, which harbors the parasite Plasmodia, causing the disease MALARIA. (Actually, I got a little scare this week when Tue AM I woke up with a fever, headache, and sore throat. I've been getting mosquito bites fairly regularly, and got a little worried since I'm taking malaria-prophylaxis meds! With the help of my "Sanford's Guide" & the "Clinical Microbiology Made Ridiculously Simple", it turns out I've got herpangina instead, caused by Coxsackie A virus.) It's sad to think that this disease receives little of the world's attention since it takes place in places that are not socioeconomically, and thus politically, unimportant. Pray for this, especially as we're seeing increased resistance of the microorganisms to even the 3rd- & 4th-line drugs we have.
************************************************************************************************
Greetings, Everyone!
Before I go into anything else: a piece of African biological "trivia" (it's actually not that trivial):
************************************************************************************************
What animal kills more children in Africa than any other?
a. the lion
b. the hippopotamus
c. the crocodile
d. the elephant
e. other: _________________
************************************************************************************************
Anyways, although I don't have much time to write this time, I wanted to say THANK YOU for all your prayers & for the emails that you've sent. Your own stories have warmed my heart immensely, particularly when you've shared how God has been working in your hearts, etc. I don't have time for individual comments this time (I'll try to before the next time we connect), but just let me say a blanket PRAISE THE LORD! PRAISE THE LORD!! PRAISE THE LORD!!! for how He's been faithful to each one of you. Wow! He is doing some pretty amazing things in your lives, and I thank Him for it. What a lift!
Not everything, of course, that I got was all a bed of roses for each of you. Please know that I'm keeping you & your situations in my prayers. God says He is near to the brokenhearted.
Tomorrow is Easter Sunday, but by the time you receive this, it'll already have passed, I'm sure. I hope that the day was a very meaningful one. Praise the Lord that He not only died for our sins, but conquered death through His resurrection. I know that for many of you Jesus' resurrection has very deep meaning, and as your emails attest, that very same resurrection power is still at work. I've been on call again this week, & it'll last until Monday morning. Hopefully I'll be able to go to church.
Guess what happened on Monday night, the first PM of my call week? I saw an ambulance, and I never expected to see one since those who are not able to walk are usually handcarried to the hospital, or carried on makeshift stretchers. The closest thing to an ambulance I saw before Monday was a wheelbarrow. So anyways, as you can imagine, I was quite surprised to hear that an ambulance brought a patient. He was a young adolescent, (re)transferred from another hospital, who'd sustained a serious injury to the head. No CAT scans here, but his diagnosis on his chart was "subdural hematoma," meaning there was a blood collection in his skull that was putting dangerous pressure on his brain; the child was in a coma already a day & a half. He was sent to us because we have equipment to put the necessary "burrholes" in his skull, which would be like pressure-relief holes. Anyways, at conferences in the past, I'd heard of missionaries doing surgeries while reading textbooks, but this was the 1st time to see it 1st-hand, & I didn't expect it to be a neurosurgical procedure!!! How weird it was: I was the one reading the textbook to the surgeons while they were operating. Thankfully we found the subdural hematoma, along with an epidural one (more dangerous), although unfortunately his neurologic status hasn't changed since. Please pray for the boy & his family.
Thanks again for your prayers! And again, PRAISE THE LORD!!!
Sid
************************************************************************************************
ANSWER TO AFRICA BIOLOGICAL 'TRIVIA' QUESTION:
The correct answer is "e." None of the animals listed are close to the most dangerous animal, whose bit is so severe that it kills one Jumbo-Jet-full of children under 5 EVERY HOUR!!! This animal is the mosquito, which harbors the parasite Plasmodia, causing the disease MALARIA. (Actually, I got a little scare this week when Tue AM I woke up with a fever, headache, and sore throat. I've been getting mosquito bites fairly regularly, and got a little worried since I'm taking malaria-prophylaxis meds! With the help of my "Sanford's Guide" & the "Clinical Microbiology Made Ridiculously Simple", it turns out I've got herpangina instead, caused by Coxsackie A virus.) It's sad to think that this disease receives little of the world's attention since it takes place in places that are not socioeconomically, and thus politically, unimportant. Pray for this, especially as we're seeing increased resistance of the microorganisms to even the 3rd- & 4th-line drugs we have.
************************************************************************************************
Friday, April 14, 2000
a letter from Luampa
Subject: a letter from Luampa
Date: 10‑Apr‑00 at 16:06
From: Luampa Hospital, 1106104
written Fri, 14 Apr 00
Hello, Everyone!
Well, it's been almost 4 wks since I arrived in Zambia, so I'm in the middle of my experience here. In some ways I've become much more settled in, yet of course there's much to learn (esp. when you're 10,000 miles from home!).
Today alone was quite a full day. (Take a deep breath: long sentence ahead...) When I learned a few days ago that there's a meat market (literally, not figuratively) near the mission station, I the Western (actually, why do I say "Western"? If it's as opposed to "Eastern," what then is Africa considered?) CITY SLICKER whose experience with carrots is "they come in sprayed‑down bundles under supermarket lighting" & with beef is "it comes in clean‑cut slabs on polystyrene rectangles wrapped in plastic," I made an appointment with one of the Zambian nationals I've gotten to know through a men's Bible study, to see how a cow is slaughtered. I'll spare you the details: suffice it to say, it made me glad God doesn't require animal sacrifices anymore. (God of the Bible required sacrifices until Jesus' own sacrifice on the cross.) Several of the men doing the slaughtering thought it was funny that this "white man" made these weird expressions & kept taking pictures. For those of you who DO want details, you'll be able to see the photos later.
For the rest of the morning, I was at what's called a "Primary Health Clinic," which the Luampa Mission Hospital coordinates in conjunction with the Zambian gov't & sponsoring communities. This was my 1st significant distance away from the mission station since I got here, & my 1st look into a typical village. The whole trip ‑‑ in addition to my conversations with the hospital staff, incl. missionaries ‑‑ has given me a better understanding of good approaches to missionary medicine. It
really is critical to have community involved in their own health care. One statement I heard was pretty enlightening, esp. b/c I've often heard the generalization of women's better communication skills mistaken as only negative; it's very often a great strength. The statement was "When you teach men [how to prevent, recognize, & treat diseases], you teach INDIVIDUALS, but when you teach women, you teach WHOLE COMMUNITIES." I laughed (respectfully!) when I heard that fact.
One thing that I noticed abt. life here in the last few weeks before today is something I discovered this week when learning to ride a dirtbike in order to go to the PHC today (another thing I didn't expect to learn: to ride a dirtbike in the Kalahari Desert!): according to the bike's odometer, my life before today has been lived all within a 3 km (<2 miles) radius of the hospital. I compared that with life back home where I routinely drive 20‑50 miles a day, & thought abt. why life couldn't be simpler (ie: wake up, work hard @ my job, love my family, spend time with
God, go to bed) & how modern "conveniences" often make life more complicated. To be sure, it's a blessing also to have been able to fly to Africa in one short weekend, but sometimes it seems life'd be easier without a car. (maybe I'm being naive...)
Thank you so much for your prayers. God has been teaching me quite bit, both in ways I expected (abt. medicine and culture) & ways I didn't expect (abt. how I wrongly base much of my feelings of self‑worth on others' opinions of me & my performance). Please continue to pray for me, particularly with regard to having peace in God's great love, having godly humility before others, & also understanding what God has in mind for me with mission medicine as a possible career.
You may also pray for increased understanding of & sensitivity to cultural issues & language for the remainder of my stay here. One issue that I came across once in clinic was polygamy, in which the female patient had travelled a long distance to come to the hospital for help with getting pregnant, which she had been unable to do in her 2nd marriage, this time to a polygamist whose other wife already bore him 6 children. Although she didn't say it, she seemed to be struggling because her value as a person was being measured in her culture by her ability to bear children,
& she had bought into it. I must admit that in my mind I was pretty quick to condemn the culture (unfortunately we weren't able to address the spiritual issue during clinic), but just days later God reminded my squarely in my face how I have bought very much into the equally wrong lie in my culture that my worth is determined by how many people appreciate me, or my line of work. Call me a 'brown‑noser' if you will, but the fact that days ago when I was hurt to the point of becoming seethingly angry inside when one of my supervisors used very negative language to evaluate my clinical skills, probably showed me more abt. my own misplaced values than abt. his own. (He later apologized & asked for forgiveness, by the way.)
I don't know if any of you are dealing with some of these issues, but perhaps God's putting them in the forefront of my own life might open us this area in your own. May God have mercy on all of us.
Well, I think it's abt. time to go to bed now. I'm 'pre‑writing' this letter by candlelight, and Tui our housedog is snoring from across the room. I hope you don't mind the long letter. I really would not mind it one bit if you only skim through my emails (it IS a mass mailing, after all); this is just the easiest way to do things from this end. If you have the time, I'd be honored to hear how I may pray for you.
As the song goes, He's [REALLY!] Got the Whole World in His Hands!
Sid
EFC people: has there been any talk of Mexico Missions? Please let me know ASAP if anything's being organized.
Dad & Mom: please don't worry about the motorcycle. Usually there are very few people on the roads, and the 'roads' themselves are made of very deep, soft sand in case I fall. But I haven't fallen yet!
Eric (my brother‑in‑law): I know it's still a month away, but please don't hesitate to let me Greyhound from Atlanta, and don't let Ruth 'guilt‑trip' you into driving all the way out! Hee hee. I've been praying for you guys & really look forward to visiting.
Ruth: don't misuse those feminine powers! In the next few wks I'll put together a talk for hypertension & stroke; how long did it need to be again?
Anneta: sorry to hear abt. Bingo; hope he comes back. Continuing to pray for the situation with S's family, and also your living & work situations. Notes are VERY encouraging; thanks! There's been no change in my itinerary.
Men's Group: Funny thing: since I've been taking malaria‑prophylaxis meds, I've had much more VIVID dreams (one of the side effects), and Tue night I was dreaming abt food & woke up Wed AM almost chewing my blankets!
Date: 10‑Apr‑00 at 16:06
From: Luampa Hospital, 1106104
written Fri, 14 Apr 00
Hello, Everyone!
Well, it's been almost 4 wks since I arrived in Zambia, so I'm in the middle of my experience here. In some ways I've become much more settled in, yet of course there's much to learn (esp. when you're 10,000 miles from home!).
Today alone was quite a full day. (Take a deep breath: long sentence ahead...) When I learned a few days ago that there's a meat market (literally, not figuratively) near the mission station, I the Western (actually, why do I say "Western"? If it's as opposed to "Eastern," what then is Africa considered?) CITY SLICKER whose experience with carrots is "they come in sprayed‑down bundles under supermarket lighting" & with beef is "it comes in clean‑cut slabs on polystyrene rectangles wrapped in plastic," I made an appointment with one of the Zambian nationals I've gotten to know through a men's Bible study, to see how a cow is slaughtered. I'll spare you the details: suffice it to say, it made me glad God doesn't require animal sacrifices anymore. (God of the Bible required sacrifices until Jesus' own sacrifice on the cross.) Several of the men doing the slaughtering thought it was funny that this "white man" made these weird expressions & kept taking pictures. For those of you who DO want details, you'll be able to see the photos later.
For the rest of the morning, I was at what's called a "Primary Health Clinic," which the Luampa Mission Hospital coordinates in conjunction with the Zambian gov't & sponsoring communities. This was my 1st significant distance away from the mission station since I got here, & my 1st look into a typical village. The whole trip ‑‑ in addition to my conversations with the hospital staff, incl. missionaries ‑‑ has given me a better understanding of good approaches to missionary medicine. It
really is critical to have community involved in their own health care. One statement I heard was pretty enlightening, esp. b/c I've often heard the generalization of women's better communication skills mistaken as only negative; it's very often a great strength. The statement was "When you teach men [how to prevent, recognize, & treat diseases], you teach INDIVIDUALS, but when you teach women, you teach WHOLE COMMUNITIES." I laughed (respectfully!) when I heard that fact.
One thing that I noticed abt. life here in the last few weeks before today is something I discovered this week when learning to ride a dirtbike in order to go to the PHC today (another thing I didn't expect to learn: to ride a dirtbike in the Kalahari Desert!): according to the bike's odometer, my life before today has been lived all within a 3 km (<2 miles) radius of the hospital. I compared that with life back home where I routinely drive 20‑50 miles a day, & thought abt. why life couldn't be simpler (ie: wake up, work hard @ my job, love my family, spend time with
God, go to bed) & how modern "conveniences" often make life more complicated. To be sure, it's a blessing also to have been able to fly to Africa in one short weekend, but sometimes it seems life'd be easier without a car. (maybe I'm being naive...)
Thank you so much for your prayers. God has been teaching me quite bit, both in ways I expected (abt. medicine and culture) & ways I didn't expect (abt. how I wrongly base much of my feelings of self‑worth on others' opinions of me & my performance). Please continue to pray for me, particularly with regard to having peace in God's great love, having godly humility before others, & also understanding what God has in mind for me with mission medicine as a possible career.
You may also pray for increased understanding of & sensitivity to cultural issues & language for the remainder of my stay here. One issue that I came across once in clinic was polygamy, in which the female patient had travelled a long distance to come to the hospital for help with getting pregnant, which she had been unable to do in her 2nd marriage, this time to a polygamist whose other wife already bore him 6 children. Although she didn't say it, she seemed to be struggling because her value as a person was being measured in her culture by her ability to bear children,
& she had bought into it. I must admit that in my mind I was pretty quick to condemn the culture (unfortunately we weren't able to address the spiritual issue during clinic), but just days later God reminded my squarely in my face how I have bought very much into the equally wrong lie in my culture that my worth is determined by how many people appreciate me, or my line of work. Call me a 'brown‑noser' if you will, but the fact that days ago when I was hurt to the point of becoming seethingly angry inside when one of my supervisors used very negative language to evaluate my clinical skills, probably showed me more abt. my own misplaced values than abt. his own. (He later apologized & asked for forgiveness, by the way.)
I don't know if any of you are dealing with some of these issues, but perhaps God's putting them in the forefront of my own life might open us this area in your own. May God have mercy on all of us.
Well, I think it's abt. time to go to bed now. I'm 'pre‑writing' this letter by candlelight, and Tui our housedog is snoring from across the room. I hope you don't mind the long letter. I really would not mind it one bit if you only skim through my emails (it IS a mass mailing, after all); this is just the easiest way to do things from this end. If you have the time, I'd be honored to hear how I may pray for you.
As the song goes, He's [REALLY!] Got the Whole World in His Hands!
Sid
EFC people: has there been any talk of Mexico Missions? Please let me know ASAP if anything's being organized.
Dad & Mom: please don't worry about the motorcycle. Usually there are very few people on the roads, and the 'roads' themselves are made of very deep, soft sand in case I fall. But I haven't fallen yet!
Eric (my brother‑in‑law): I know it's still a month away, but please don't hesitate to let me Greyhound from Atlanta, and don't let Ruth 'guilt‑trip' you into driving all the way out! Hee hee. I've been praying for you guys & really look forward to visiting.
Ruth: don't misuse those feminine powers! In the next few wks I'll put together a talk for hypertension & stroke; how long did it need to be again?
Anneta: sorry to hear abt. Bingo; hope he comes back. Continuing to pray for the situation with S's family, and also your living & work situations. Notes are VERY encouraging; thanks! There's been no change in my itinerary.
Men's Group: Funny thing: since I've been taking malaria‑prophylaxis meds, I've had much more VIVID dreams (one of the side effects), and Tue night I was dreaming abt food & woke up Wed AM almost chewing my blankets!
Friday, April 07, 2000
Life at Luampa!
Subject: Life at Luampa!
Date: 07‑Apr‑00 at 00:17
From: Luampa Hospital, 1106104
HELLO EVERYONE; SOME OF YOU HAVE ASKED WHAT LIFE IS LIKE OUT HERE; HERE'S A COPY OF A LETTER TO MY FOLKS THAT SHOULD ANSWER SOME OF YOUR QUESTIONS; I'M SURE I'LL REPORT MORE STORIES AS THE WEEKS GO BY, & WHEN I RETURN.
Dear Dad & Mom:
How are you doing? I'm glad to hear that you're home from Taiwan, Dad, and that the trip went well. How much weight did you gain, anyway? I remember all the Sa‑ba hi (milkfish) I ate when I was in Tainan summer '96. Yum‑yum. I could use some Chhoa‑peng right now.... You must be really happy that Tan Chui Pi (A‑pi) won the election. How has China reacted to the news? Here, although there is radio news available, I don't listen to it much. I haven't watched TV in almost 3 weeks now since there isn't one to watch, so I've had more time to read.
I'm glad you got my previous emails. It has been already almost 3 weeks since I left California; it'll be abt. 5 more weeks before I go to see Eric & Ruth in Georgia. Life here in Zambia, & specifically at this mission hospital, has been quite different. There is electricity only 8 or 9 hours a day (8am‑noon, 6pm‑9 or 10pm), more if there is an emergency surgery, so I use a flashlight or candle afterward. I am staying in the same house with Dr. Peter Nicodemus, a surgeon from Germany and the acting medical superintendent of the hospital, who has been very kind to me. We also have a dog Tui. The house is actually fairly large for us (a little smaller than our old 3 BR house)‑‑ it's a 3 BR "Western style" home, and
we employ a housekeeper who comes 5 1/2 days a week to wash dishes, clean the bathrooms, take care of the huge garden, & even do the laundry!!! His name is Chimbali, and he is also very nice. I'm also trying to learn some Mbunda (the predominant vernacular language here) from him, and he is very helpful.
This week I have been a little busier because I started taking call, which is only for nighttime (9pm ‑ morning) for the whole week. At 1st I was scared but it hasn't been too difficult, & I have been learning a lot. My schedule usually is like this:
7:30 AM Chapel
8:00 go to see patients (I have been assigned a section of the female/pediatric ward, discuss care plans, examine patients, or help with surgery
1:00 PM Lunch
2:30 Clinic
6:00 Come home, eat dinner
Weekends I go to the hospital for a few hours if I'm on call.
Sun PMs dinner with Peter & other single missionaries
Mon.PMs Bachelors' dinner
Wed PM prayer meeting
Thu PM Bible study with some men
The schedule is a quite flexible, esp. when we have emergency surgeries. Before I was on call, I had a good amount of time to read some good books & study. Life here is fairly relaxed, & I like living within 5 min's walking distance to the hospital. Even when I'm on call, I get to sleep in "my own" bed. Most of the extra time beyond reading I spend playing & talking with the neighborhood children, which has been quite fun & meaningful. Some speak English pretty well; others don't so I have the ones who do translate for me. I'll show you their pictures when I get back.
Are you wondering what I eat? Again, just as with the laundry, I have been surprised with what I'm eating. Most of the time, I boil water & make some instant soup, pasta, or potatoes, since Peter's mom sends big boxes of dried instant foods for him. You could say that I'm eating more German foods than African food! The Zambian staple food is maize (corn) which is made into a mashed‑potatoes like mash and eaten with different kinds of meat &/or vegetable sauces, which they call relishes. It's eaten with bare hands, & I'm pretty clumsy/messy with it. Maybe when I get back we can try using our hands for our rice & "relish" just for one meal.
What abt the hospital? By US standards, it would never pass inspection, but it serves the great needs of the surrounding people. In the short time here, I have seen diseases of all kinds, many of which I'd never seen before: malaria, Borrelia, Bilharzia, etc., most of which is an infection of one kind or another. The 1st week I was here I really felt overwhelmed because of the terrible living conditions that people here have to live in, esp with regard to health. Alo, I really felt like there was no way I could help these people. Praise God, though; He has helped me learn how to treat some of the most common problems. I really think this'll help me
with being ready for residency, which begins frighteningly soon.
I've been going to church abt. 15 or 20 minutes away by foot; I usually walk with Gifti, a neighbor boy whom I really like. It's a really blessing to hear some of the preaching, esp. by Zambian pastors. Also, the singing is really great! I hope to record some of it so you can hear it. The church building is actually an old leprosy center, located on what is now a Bible school campus.
Hopefully this answers most of the questions you had about life here. I really do appreciate your prayers. I have made a commitment to pray for you daily, too.
Thankfully, we have email here, which we access twice a week. Although it's theoretically possible to make phonecalls, it's done by satellite phone & is quite expensive, so email is the best way to communicate. I haven't even seen a real phone (one that calls outside the mission station) since I got here! Also, in case you'd like to send anything, it takes a little over 3 weeks, so if you haven't sent anything by Monday or Tuesday, just hold onto it until I get back to CA.
Yes, God has been very, very good. See you soon!
Love, Stephen
PS: Thanks, Anneta, for the encouragements. I have D15 in my Bible. It's the one that says "..., man?" at the end of each question. How FUNNY!!!!! BTW, how's your new doggy? Johnny wrote & told me a little about him. Ours here is quite funny but just a little hyper. I've never had an inside dog before, and she's quite a character. She's fast (very fast!) & playful, and whines a lot when Peter & I are eating, even after she's finished eating her own meal. We let her lick our plates clean after we're done. She knows how to sit, shake, and (now) lie down. I'm trying to teach her to catch, but she just lets the ball hit her nose or bounce in front of her. Still praying for you & S's family, & also your job situation for next year.
Date: 07‑Apr‑00 at 00:17
From: Luampa Hospital, 1106104
HELLO EVERYONE; SOME OF YOU HAVE ASKED WHAT LIFE IS LIKE OUT HERE; HERE'S A COPY OF A LETTER TO MY FOLKS THAT SHOULD ANSWER SOME OF YOUR QUESTIONS; I'M SURE I'LL REPORT MORE STORIES AS THE WEEKS GO BY, & WHEN I RETURN.
Dear Dad & Mom:
How are you doing? I'm glad to hear that you're home from Taiwan, Dad, and that the trip went well. How much weight did you gain, anyway? I remember all the Sa‑ba hi (milkfish) I ate when I was in Tainan summer '96. Yum‑yum. I could use some Chhoa‑peng right now.... You must be really happy that Tan Chui Pi (A‑pi) won the election. How has China reacted to the news? Here, although there is radio news available, I don't listen to it much. I haven't watched TV in almost 3 weeks now since there isn't one to watch, so I've had more time to read.
I'm glad you got my previous emails. It has been already almost 3 weeks since I left California; it'll be abt. 5 more weeks before I go to see Eric & Ruth in Georgia. Life here in Zambia, & specifically at this mission hospital, has been quite different. There is electricity only 8 or 9 hours a day (8am‑noon, 6pm‑9 or 10pm), more if there is an emergency surgery, so I use a flashlight or candle afterward. I am staying in the same house with Dr. Peter Nicodemus, a surgeon from Germany and the acting medical superintendent of the hospital, who has been very kind to me. We also have a dog Tui. The house is actually fairly large for us (a little smaller than our old 3 BR house)‑‑ it's a 3 BR "Western style" home, and
we employ a housekeeper who comes 5 1/2 days a week to wash dishes, clean the bathrooms, take care of the huge garden, & even do the laundry!!! His name is Chimbali, and he is also very nice. I'm also trying to learn some Mbunda (the predominant vernacular language here) from him, and he is very helpful.
This week I have been a little busier because I started taking call, which is only for nighttime (9pm ‑ morning) for the whole week. At 1st I was scared but it hasn't been too difficult, & I have been learning a lot. My schedule usually is like this:
7:30 AM Chapel
8:00 go to see patients (I have been assigned a section of the female/pediatric ward, discuss care plans, examine patients, or help with surgery
1:00 PM Lunch
2:30 Clinic
6:00 Come home, eat dinner
Weekends I go to the hospital for a few hours if I'm on call.
Sun PMs dinner with Peter & other single missionaries
Mon.PMs Bachelors' dinner
Wed PM prayer meeting
Thu PM Bible study with some men
The schedule is a quite flexible, esp. when we have emergency surgeries. Before I was on call, I had a good amount of time to read some good books & study. Life here is fairly relaxed, & I like living within 5 min's walking distance to the hospital. Even when I'm on call, I get to sleep in "my own" bed. Most of the extra time beyond reading I spend playing & talking with the neighborhood children, which has been quite fun & meaningful. Some speak English pretty well; others don't so I have the ones who do translate for me. I'll show you their pictures when I get back.
Are you wondering what I eat? Again, just as with the laundry, I have been surprised with what I'm eating. Most of the time, I boil water & make some instant soup, pasta, or potatoes, since Peter's mom sends big boxes of dried instant foods for him. You could say that I'm eating more German foods than African food! The Zambian staple food is maize (corn) which is made into a mashed‑potatoes like mash and eaten with different kinds of meat &/or vegetable sauces, which they call relishes. It's eaten with bare hands, & I'm pretty clumsy/messy with it. Maybe when I get back we can try using our hands for our rice & "relish" just for one meal.
What abt the hospital? By US standards, it would never pass inspection, but it serves the great needs of the surrounding people. In the short time here, I have seen diseases of all kinds, many of which I'd never seen before: malaria, Borrelia, Bilharzia, etc., most of which is an infection of one kind or another. The 1st week I was here I really felt overwhelmed because of the terrible living conditions that people here have to live in, esp with regard to health. Alo, I really felt like there was no way I could help these people. Praise God, though; He has helped me learn how to treat some of the most common problems. I really think this'll help me
with being ready for residency, which begins frighteningly soon.
I've been going to church abt. 15 or 20 minutes away by foot; I usually walk with Gifti, a neighbor boy whom I really like. It's a really blessing to hear some of the preaching, esp. by Zambian pastors. Also, the singing is really great! I hope to record some of it so you can hear it. The church building is actually an old leprosy center, located on what is now a Bible school campus.
Hopefully this answers most of the questions you had about life here. I really do appreciate your prayers. I have made a commitment to pray for you daily, too.
Thankfully, we have email here, which we access twice a week. Although it's theoretically possible to make phonecalls, it's done by satellite phone & is quite expensive, so email is the best way to communicate. I haven't even seen a real phone (one that calls outside the mission station) since I got here! Also, in case you'd like to send anything, it takes a little over 3 weeks, so if you haven't sent anything by Monday or Tuesday, just hold onto it until I get back to CA.
Yes, God has been very, very good. See you soon!
Love, Stephen
PS: Thanks, Anneta, for the encouragements. I have D15 in my Bible. It's the one that says "..., man?" at the end of each question. How FUNNY!!!!! BTW, how's your new doggy? Johnny wrote & told me a little about him. Ours here is quite funny but just a little hyper. I've never had an inside dog before, and she's quite a character. She's fast (very fast!) & playful, and whines a lot when Peter & I are eating, even after she's finished eating her own meal. We let her lick our plates clean after we're done. She knows how to sit, shake, and (now) lie down. I'm trying to teach her to catch, but she just lets the ball hit her nose or bounce in front of her. Still praying for you & S's family, & also your job situation for next year.
Friday, March 31, 2000
Tambukeni Mwane 2
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...
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...
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
Thursday, February 10, 2000
pre-Zambia prayer requests
February 10, 2000
My Dearest Brothers & Sisters in Christ:
Praise the Lord for His never-ending faithfulness to His children! I pray that all of you are doing well, particularly among your circle of friends and family, and with our Lord. As some of you may already know, I am in my last year of medical school at Loma Linda University, but before I graduate this late May, I wanted to take the great opportunity that God has given me in this Christian university to go on a senior missions elective. I will be leaving March 18 to spend eight weeks at the Luampa Christian Hospital in Zambia, a country in south central Africa. As I believe the Lord has given us to each other for mutual support, I'd like to use this letter to let you know a little more about my trip.
God has somehow put missions on my heart for several years now, and I now feel a strong desire to go into career medical missions as soon as I can after medical training, to use medicine as a model of and vehicle for sharing the Gospel. Since the beginning of this school year, I have explored different possibilities with regard to Christian hospitals in Africa, and Luampa Hospital has all of the ingredients that I felt were important: a strong commitment to evangelism as well as medicine, English-speaking peoples (although there are many other languages spoken in this former British colony), and openings for medical students. This hospital is under the Evangelical Church of Zambia, which works with missionaries from the Society for International Ministries (SIM), under whose leadership I will be serving. At Luampa, I will likely be rotating as a student-doctor through their female/pediatric, maternity, male, and surgical services.
SIM is an interdenominational mission organization whose ministries began in 1893, and whose main focus is to glorify God by evangelizing the unreached, ministering to human needs, discipling believers, and establishing national churches that fulfill the Great Commission.
My main purpose in writing this letter to you is to recruit your help in praying for this missions trip, both now as I prepare to go and also while I am there. I would greatly appreciate your prayers in the following specific areas:
- the next 4 ½ weeks of heart preparation before I go, not just for my service abroad, but for a lifetime of service to our Lord, that I would be free of selfish and worldly pursuits, and that I would always seek opportunities to share the Gospel.
- daily time with the Lord, that I would look to Him for guidance and strength, and that I would realize that He is the One who accomplishes any significant work in and through me.
- deep compassion for those with spiritual and physical needs around me (many Zambians, as do Americans, claim to be Christians but do not have life-changing personal relationships with Jesus; the HIV/AIDS epidemic is running rampant in Zambia, affecting more than 15% of the adult population!)
- time with my family, that I would honor, respect, and serve them while I’m with them. Shortly after graduation, I will likely be leaving the state for residency training, and God has been putting it on my heart to spend more meaningful time with them while I can.
- sensitivity to cultural differences, that I would be willing to give up my “rights” for the sake of the Gospel, as God gave up even His own Son for our sakes.
- humility in the midst of different leaders, that I would graciously contribute what I can to our mission team without bickering or complaint.
I’ve asked for quite a bit of prayer support already, and I’m a little embarrassed to have done so, since I stated earlier that we have been joined in Christ’s body for mutual support. Please let me know how I may pray for you also. I would be very honored to do so.
Thank you very much for joining with me in God’s wonderful work.
Sincerely,
Sidney Wu
My Dearest Brothers & Sisters in Christ:
Praise the Lord for His never-ending faithfulness to His children! I pray that all of you are doing well, particularly among your circle of friends and family, and with our Lord. As some of you may already know, I am in my last year of medical school at Loma Linda University, but before I graduate this late May, I wanted to take the great opportunity that God has given me in this Christian university to go on a senior missions elective. I will be leaving March 18 to spend eight weeks at the Luampa Christian Hospital in Zambia, a country in south central Africa. As I believe the Lord has given us to each other for mutual support, I'd like to use this letter to let you know a little more about my trip.
God has somehow put missions on my heart for several years now, and I now feel a strong desire to go into career medical missions as soon as I can after medical training, to use medicine as a model of and vehicle for sharing the Gospel. Since the beginning of this school year, I have explored different possibilities with regard to Christian hospitals in Africa, and Luampa Hospital has all of the ingredients that I felt were important: a strong commitment to evangelism as well as medicine, English-speaking peoples (although there are many other languages spoken in this former British colony), and openings for medical students. This hospital is under the Evangelical Church of Zambia, which works with missionaries from the Society for International Ministries (SIM), under whose leadership I will be serving. At Luampa, I will likely be rotating as a student-doctor through their female/pediatric, maternity, male, and surgical services.
SIM is an interdenominational mission organization whose ministries began in 1893, and whose main focus is to glorify God by evangelizing the unreached, ministering to human needs, discipling believers, and establishing national churches that fulfill the Great Commission.
My main purpose in writing this letter to you is to recruit your help in praying for this missions trip, both now as I prepare to go and also while I am there. I would greatly appreciate your prayers in the following specific areas:
- the next 4 ½ weeks of heart preparation before I go, not just for my service abroad, but for a lifetime of service to our Lord, that I would be free of selfish and worldly pursuits, and that I would always seek opportunities to share the Gospel.
- daily time with the Lord, that I would look to Him for guidance and strength, and that I would realize that He is the One who accomplishes any significant work in and through me.
- deep compassion for those with spiritual and physical needs around me (many Zambians, as do Americans, claim to be Christians but do not have life-changing personal relationships with Jesus; the HIV/AIDS epidemic is running rampant in Zambia, affecting more than 15% of the adult population!)
- time with my family, that I would honor, respect, and serve them while I’m with them. Shortly after graduation, I will likely be leaving the state for residency training, and God has been putting it on my heart to spend more meaningful time with them while I can.
- sensitivity to cultural differences, that I would be willing to give up my “rights” for the sake of the Gospel, as God gave up even His own Son for our sakes.
- humility in the midst of different leaders, that I would graciously contribute what I can to our mission team without bickering or complaint.
I’ve asked for quite a bit of prayer support already, and I’m a little embarrassed to have done so, since I stated earlier that we have been joined in Christ’s body for mutual support. Please let me know how I may pray for you also. I would be very honored to do so.
Thank you very much for joining with me in God’s wonderful work.
Sincerely,
Sidney Wu
Tuesday, August 19, 1997
Friday, June 20, 1997
Thursday, July 25, 1996
Wednesday, July 24, 1996
Sunday, July 14, 1996
Wednesday, September 13, 1995
post-China thanks
September 13, 1995
Dearest Brothers and Sisters:
Greetings to you again in Christ our Lord!
It’s hard to believe that it was only about four months since I last wrote you, and it’s even harder to believe that it has already been almost a month since I returned to the United States from China. How time flies!
I hope you will forgive me for the lateness of this letter. When I last wrote you in the letter dated May 15th, I was in the UCR/UCLA seven‑year Biomedical Sciences program. This summer I discovered that I wasn’t accepted into the fourth year. Thus, before my senior year at UC Riverside begins, I’m trying to complete as many medical school applications as possible. God willing, I will be attending med‑school next fall.
Just as I wrote to you before, God has been good! I feel that I can especially say so for His faithfulness to His own this summer. It was a blessedly awesome experience I’ll never forget!
I had entered into this summer’s adventure rather naively. When I thought that I would be a missionary in China, I was shown that I would more accurately be an ambassador for Christ, what some people call a “tentmaker.” The organization I worked with, Educational Services International (ESI), in dealing with the Communist Chinese government, identifies itself as a blatantly Christian ‑‑ but not missions ‑‑ organization. My job in China was to teach English and teach it well, and in so doing I was to show who Christ is and be ready to answer questions about Him.
We had to deal with the reality of China. Not only is atheism promoted as the official “religion” of China, but missions, particularly Christian missions, are also seen as a remnant of the nation’s humiliating eras of imperialism and colonialism, and as a possible threat to China’s sovereign government. Thus one of our goals was to be sure that our Christian faith is separate from our culture. Certainly we know that “Christian” doesn’t mean “American” nor vice‑versa, but this is what we had to show the Chinese people. They didn’t have to become American if they wanted to become a Christian. Christianity could be just as much a part of China as tofu or chopsticks!
This summer for a month‑and‑a‑half, nine other teachers and I each taught three classes, our own homeroom and two others, at the Hubei College of Education in Wuhan. (Wuhan is the capital of Hubei province, located in the central region of China along the Yangtze River.) Each of our classes consisted of sixteen students who were primarily middle‑school English teachers themselves, and on the average they were older than I. What a privilege it was for me to be their teacher and to become their friends. They were particularly impressed with our teamwork, diligence, and patience. Knowing that we were Christians, some of them had the boldness to ask about it. Some went to church for the first time with us; for some we were the first Christians they had ever met; we gave some of them the Bibles we had brought. Near the end of the experience in response to many compliments they had lavished upon us (as it seems the Chinese do unto their teachers), I stated, “Please do not think that I am the way I am because of my own efforts. It’s not even because of my parents ‑‑ I do have good parents ‑‑ or because I’m American, but it’s because of God.” I pray that they took that to heart.
From God’s word in the third chapter of First Corinthians we know that in the “field” of lost souls, some workers are assigned to sow into people’s hearts the seed of His word. Others are called to nurture the ensuing plant. Still others are to reap the fruit of salvation. Though we did experience some sowing and reaping, much of our work instead dealt with the even earlier work of “breaking rocks,” the tearing down of obstacles blocking out God’s word, so that the “soil” of their hearts would be prepared and ready for the next step in God’s plan for them.
Our work is not yet over. I pray that our commitment did not end when we left Wuhan. As with any friendship, communication is essential, and our team is dedicated to continued correspondence with our students and friends. The Chinese have a saying: “A teacher for a day, a teacher forever.” We are still in a position through letters to plant seeds and nurture plants. May God bless us with being able to someday even reap fruits. It would be greatly appreciated if you could also pray for our continued commitment to loving the lost.
I suppose the main point of this letter is not only to tell you about my summer adventures but also to thank you for being so integral a part in what I believe to be God’s plan for me.
THANK YOU!
“I thank my God every time I remember you.” I don’t think I’d ever felt this sentiment for anyone to the same degree as the apostle Paul felt for the Philippian church (1:3) until I was in China. Every day during my quiet time I thanked the Lord for providing so much support, particularly in the form of brothers and sisters thousands of miles away ‑‑ YOU! ‑‑ who had provided financially and were committed to praying for our ministry.
I reread that last letter which asked for your support, and what awed me was the realization that every single thing that I had asked you to pray for was answered in a positive way! Wisdom and humility were constantly on my mind, and God gave me a team to keep me accountable in this area. I found that it was unusually easy for me to work with others and be flexible in the expectations I had of my teammates and of our accommodations. God showed me more and more how to love my students no matter how lovable they were. And lastly, God had provided enough funds for me to go to China in the first place. At last count, financial support had come in at over $3000!!! You’d better believe it: God is truly faithful!
I feel that it’s my obligation to tell you that since the funds raised exceeded the need, the church has designated the surplus money for future missions trips. If you have any questions or comments about this, please ask me.
Again, I thank you so much for making this summer possible! I hope you are encouraged by this letter. Perhaps you’d like to know more about the organization I worked with or details of the program and/or ministry. If you have any questions, please feel free to write or call. I’d love to hear how you are doing. I’d especially like to know how I may support you in prayer or perhaps even financially for your own endeavors for God.
May God continue to bless you abundantly with His grace.
Another witness to His faithfulness,
Sid Steve Wu
Dearest Brothers and Sisters:
Greetings to you again in Christ our Lord!
It’s hard to believe that it was only about four months since I last wrote you, and it’s even harder to believe that it has already been almost a month since I returned to the United States from China. How time flies!
I hope you will forgive me for the lateness of this letter. When I last wrote you in the letter dated May 15th, I was in the UCR/UCLA seven‑year Biomedical Sciences program. This summer I discovered that I wasn’t accepted into the fourth year. Thus, before my senior year at UC Riverside begins, I’m trying to complete as many medical school applications as possible. God willing, I will be attending med‑school next fall.
Just as I wrote to you before, God has been good! I feel that I can especially say so for His faithfulness to His own this summer. It was a blessedly awesome experience I’ll never forget!
I had entered into this summer’s adventure rather naively. When I thought that I would be a missionary in China, I was shown that I would more accurately be an ambassador for Christ, what some people call a “tentmaker.” The organization I worked with, Educational Services International (ESI), in dealing with the Communist Chinese government, identifies itself as a blatantly Christian ‑‑ but not missions ‑‑ organization. My job in China was to teach English and teach it well, and in so doing I was to show who Christ is and be ready to answer questions about Him.
We had to deal with the reality of China. Not only is atheism promoted as the official “religion” of China, but missions, particularly Christian missions, are also seen as a remnant of the nation’s humiliating eras of imperialism and colonialism, and as a possible threat to China’s sovereign government. Thus one of our goals was to be sure that our Christian faith is separate from our culture. Certainly we know that “Christian” doesn’t mean “American” nor vice‑versa, but this is what we had to show the Chinese people. They didn’t have to become American if they wanted to become a Christian. Christianity could be just as much a part of China as tofu or chopsticks!
This summer for a month‑and‑a‑half, nine other teachers and I each taught three classes, our own homeroom and two others, at the Hubei College of Education in Wuhan. (Wuhan is the capital of Hubei province, located in the central region of China along the Yangtze River.) Each of our classes consisted of sixteen students who were primarily middle‑school English teachers themselves, and on the average they were older than I. What a privilege it was for me to be their teacher and to become their friends. They were particularly impressed with our teamwork, diligence, and patience. Knowing that we were Christians, some of them had the boldness to ask about it. Some went to church for the first time with us; for some we were the first Christians they had ever met; we gave some of them the Bibles we had brought. Near the end of the experience in response to many compliments they had lavished upon us (as it seems the Chinese do unto their teachers), I stated, “Please do not think that I am the way I am because of my own efforts. It’s not even because of my parents ‑‑ I do have good parents ‑‑ or because I’m American, but it’s because of God.” I pray that they took that to heart.
From God’s word in the third chapter of First Corinthians we know that in the “field” of lost souls, some workers are assigned to sow into people’s hearts the seed of His word. Others are called to nurture the ensuing plant. Still others are to reap the fruit of salvation. Though we did experience some sowing and reaping, much of our work instead dealt with the even earlier work of “breaking rocks,” the tearing down of obstacles blocking out God’s word, so that the “soil” of their hearts would be prepared and ready for the next step in God’s plan for them.
Our work is not yet over. I pray that our commitment did not end when we left Wuhan. As with any friendship, communication is essential, and our team is dedicated to continued correspondence with our students and friends. The Chinese have a saying: “A teacher for a day, a teacher forever.” We are still in a position through letters to plant seeds and nurture plants. May God bless us with being able to someday even reap fruits. It would be greatly appreciated if you could also pray for our continued commitment to loving the lost.
I suppose the main point of this letter is not only to tell you about my summer adventures but also to thank you for being so integral a part in what I believe to be God’s plan for me.
THANK YOU!
“I thank my God every time I remember you.” I don’t think I’d ever felt this sentiment for anyone to the same degree as the apostle Paul felt for the Philippian church (1:3) until I was in China. Every day during my quiet time I thanked the Lord for providing so much support, particularly in the form of brothers and sisters thousands of miles away ‑‑ YOU! ‑‑ who had provided financially and were committed to praying for our ministry.
I reread that last letter which asked for your support, and what awed me was the realization that every single thing that I had asked you to pray for was answered in a positive way! Wisdom and humility were constantly on my mind, and God gave me a team to keep me accountable in this area. I found that it was unusually easy for me to work with others and be flexible in the expectations I had of my teammates and of our accommodations. God showed me more and more how to love my students no matter how lovable they were. And lastly, God had provided enough funds for me to go to China in the first place. At last count, financial support had come in at over $3000!!! You’d better believe it: God is truly faithful!
I feel that it’s my obligation to tell you that since the funds raised exceeded the need, the church has designated the surplus money for future missions trips. If you have any questions or comments about this, please ask me.
Again, I thank you so much for making this summer possible! I hope you are encouraged by this letter. Perhaps you’d like to know more about the organization I worked with or details of the program and/or ministry. If you have any questions, please feel free to write or call. I’d love to hear how you are doing. I’d especially like to know how I may support you in prayer or perhaps even financially for your own endeavors for God.
May God continue to bless you abundantly with His grace.
Another witness to His faithfulness,
Sid Steve Wu
Sunday, November 13, 1994
...for EFCtIE's 3rd anniversary publication...
Mexico Missions 1994
"Queremos invitarles a un programa de payasos, dramas, titeres, y musica para todos empieza a la una a el Templo de Monte Carmelo."
That was the sentence (if I remember correctly) each missionary in our group had to say as we walked around the dirt roads of the poor colonias in Mexico to invite people to our miniature evangelical services. Continue reading, and you'll find out soon what the phrase means.....
Just last summer (1994) our local church of the Inland Empire sent eight people from our youth group on the EFC summer Mexico Missions, and even though the experience was a very short ten days, we were all very intimately blessed by being used as God's instruments in the missions field surrounding Tijuana, Mexico. We are especially thankful to God for His faithfulness, for the way He ministered in us, to us, and through us.
Perhaps you're thinking, "why did this guy italicize the words 'in', 'to', and 'through'?" It's because God ministered to us in different ways. I think you'll get my drift if you'll just read on.
Praise God for His ministry in us! Before we even set foot across the border, we went to the Youth With A Mission (YWAM) base in Sunland, California. There He gave us time to meditate on why exactly we were going on missions. He taught us that since "God so loved the world" (John 3:16) and not just us, we need to follow His commission to "go and make disciples of all nations" (Matthew 28:19). There is still desperate need for the Gospel in what the YWAM staff called the 10/40 Window (portions of Asia & Africa between the 10th and 40th parallel, which happens to include Taiwan). At that base and even while we were in Mexico, He taught us how we should always depend on Him through prayer. On a personal level, I learned that in our evangelism we need to be humble, being careful of the attitude that "we Americans are coming in to tell you about our Gospel, so you poor, ignorant people just listen and accept it." God showed us that we could learn a whole lot from the people we ministered to; yes, we Americans, for example, could stand to be more content with little and hospitable with others. Indeed, God is faithful in ministering in us!
Praise God for His ministry to us! You must have heard stories about the conditions in Mexico. Some of those stories are true, especially in the poorer sections which we visited. Sanitation in food preparation, drinking water, and bathrooms is pretty bad. Housing conditions are pitifully meager and inadequate. Many streets are still unpaved and uneven, which makes for plenty of dust (and fun rides in our church vans!). Despite all of this, God kept us safe and secure. We did have some gastrointestinal abnormalities (some were fairly severe), but nothing was truly unbearable. Perhaps this is another case of God's ministry in us, in that He was showing us one of the hardships of missions to help us decide if we could handle long-term missions. (Besides, through our experience we added new meaning to the words related to "missions"!) Other stories include His fixing our van troubles and helping us get past language barriers--I'll let you ask the team to tell you about them; writing about them here would make this article too long. But let this be said: God is faithful in ministering to us!
Praise God for His ministry through us! Most people think of missions as merely an exercise of evangelism. And our focus was on evangelism: We held miniature services in parks and in churches. The services included translated testimonies, and presentations of the various non-language-based ministries we learned from YWAM. All of us were involved at least one of the following: dramas, music, clowns, and puppets. One time at el Templo de Monte Carmelo (a church we visited several times), at least twenty grade-school-aged children responded to the minister's altar call to receive Christ! Jesus truly loves the little children! In all of our services, we believe that God planted seeds, to which He will be faithful to cause to bear fruit according to His will and timing (I Thessalonians 5:24). Sharing the Gospel of love implies that we not only tell people about Christ but also show them what His love is all about. Within the short time we stayed in Mexico, we were able to build a small house for a family and help in the construction of a church. Now, we may finally declare: God is faithful in ministering through us!
So what have you learned from reading this article? I hope by now you'll at least know that GOD IS FAITHFUL (I Corinthians 1:9)!!! And though our faithfulness to Him could never match up to His faithfulness to us, let us always strive to be faithful in serving our Lord, particularly in the area of evangelism. By the way, the sentence at the beginning of this article means, "We invite you to a program of clowns, dramas, puppets, and music for everyone at one o'clock at el Templo de Monte Carmelo." Basically, we were inviting people to meet God. It is our prayer that you do the same, for we should all be missionaries, sharing the Gospel with everybody we know, wherever we are.
"Queremos invitarles a un programa de payasos, dramas, titeres, y musica para todos empieza a la una a el Templo de Monte Carmelo."
That was the sentence (if I remember correctly) each missionary in our group had to say as we walked around the dirt roads of the poor colonias in Mexico to invite people to our miniature evangelical services. Continue reading, and you'll find out soon what the phrase means.....
Just last summer (1994) our local church of the Inland Empire sent eight people from our youth group on the EFC summer Mexico Missions, and even though the experience was a very short ten days, we were all very intimately blessed by being used as God's instruments in the missions field surrounding Tijuana, Mexico. We are especially thankful to God for His faithfulness, for the way He ministered in us, to us, and through us.
Perhaps you're thinking, "why did this guy italicize the words 'in', 'to', and 'through'?" It's because God ministered to us in different ways. I think you'll get my drift if you'll just read on.
Praise God for His ministry in us! Before we even set foot across the border, we went to the Youth With A Mission (YWAM) base in Sunland, California. There He gave us time to meditate on why exactly we were going on missions. He taught us that since "God so loved the world" (John 3:16) and not just us, we need to follow His commission to "go and make disciples of all nations" (Matthew 28:19). There is still desperate need for the Gospel in what the YWAM staff called the 10/40 Window (portions of Asia & Africa between the 10th and 40th parallel, which happens to include Taiwan). At that base and even while we were in Mexico, He taught us how we should always depend on Him through prayer. On a personal level, I learned that in our evangelism we need to be humble, being careful of the attitude that "we Americans are coming in to tell you about our Gospel, so you poor, ignorant people just listen and accept it." God showed us that we could learn a whole lot from the people we ministered to; yes, we Americans, for example, could stand to be more content with little and hospitable with others. Indeed, God is faithful in ministering in us!
Praise God for His ministry to us! You must have heard stories about the conditions in Mexico. Some of those stories are true, especially in the poorer sections which we visited. Sanitation in food preparation, drinking water, and bathrooms is pretty bad. Housing conditions are pitifully meager and inadequate. Many streets are still unpaved and uneven, which makes for plenty of dust (and fun rides in our church vans!). Despite all of this, God kept us safe and secure. We did have some gastrointestinal abnormalities (some were fairly severe), but nothing was truly unbearable. Perhaps this is another case of God's ministry in us, in that He was showing us one of the hardships of missions to help us decide if we could handle long-term missions. (Besides, through our experience we added new meaning to the words related to "missions"!) Other stories include His fixing our van troubles and helping us get past language barriers--I'll let you ask the team to tell you about them; writing about them here would make this article too long. But let this be said: God is faithful in ministering to us!
Praise God for His ministry through us! Most people think of missions as merely an exercise of evangelism. And our focus was on evangelism: We held miniature services in parks and in churches. The services included translated testimonies, and presentations of the various non-language-based ministries we learned from YWAM. All of us were involved at least one of the following: dramas, music, clowns, and puppets. One time at el Templo de Monte Carmelo (a church we visited several times), at least twenty grade-school-aged children responded to the minister's altar call to receive Christ! Jesus truly loves the little children! In all of our services, we believe that God planted seeds, to which He will be faithful to cause to bear fruit according to His will and timing (I Thessalonians 5:24). Sharing the Gospel of love implies that we not only tell people about Christ but also show them what His love is all about. Within the short time we stayed in Mexico, we were able to build a small house for a family and help in the construction of a church. Now, we may finally declare: God is faithful in ministering through us!
So what have you learned from reading this article? I hope by now you'll at least know that GOD IS FAITHFUL (I Corinthians 1:9)!!! And though our faithfulness to Him could never match up to His faithfulness to us, let us always strive to be faithful in serving our Lord, particularly in the area of evangelism. By the way, the sentence at the beginning of this article means, "We invite you to a program of clowns, dramas, puppets, and music for everyone at one o'clock at el Templo de Monte Carmelo." Basically, we were inviting people to meet God. It is our prayer that you do the same, for we should all be missionaries, sharing the Gospel with everybody we know, wherever we are.
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