Fire Truck Headed to BONGOLO!
After witnessing a fire in a Bongolo Hospital warehouse two years ago, Missionary Joanna Thelander’s visiting parents, Dave and Diann Conquest, returned home and purchased a Fire Truck on EBay for $3,175! With the help of the community in Pittsford, New York and local fire departments, the Conquests have collected over $20,000 in donations to help send the truck to Africa. Check out this online article as well as a Utube TV interview taken this Thanksgiving Weekend when the Fire Truck headed out to port in New Jersey, for it’s ocean trip to Gabon via Cargo Ship.
Special Finacial Needs!
40 foot Shipping Container.
If you would like to give towards the hospital but you are not sure which account to use, please give to the Bongolo Hospital Special Projects account. With this account we take care of many other smaller projects for which there is no fund or we can use it towards accounts that do not have enough money to meet the needs. Thanks.
Several times a year a container of medical supplies is shipped from Cleveland, Ohio to Gabon and the Bongolo Hospital. The shipping costs and port fees can cost around $10,000 each container. If you would like to give toward this ongoing need, please give towards the Bongolo Medical Supplies Shipping Charges account. Thanks.
First Eyeglasses Ever!
First pair of glasses made.
By Dr Wendy Hofman:
We at the Bongolo Eye Clinic have started making our own eyeglasses! Back in June 2010, Eric and I started a conversation with Wooddale Church in Minnesota as they were looking for ideas for their “Generosity!” campaign. We presented the great need for eyeglasses in Gabon, Africa, where we work. Here patients often have to travel to the capital city of the country and spend $300+ that they don’t have in order to get eyeglasses. Many times a day my nurses and I would write out prescriptions for eyeglasses to my patients who needed them, knowing that these prescriptions would never get filled.
First patient to receive glasses.
The result of this conversation was a donation for eyeglasses-making equipment – thank you so much, Wooddale! And thanks to our aviation missionary team partners, we were finally able to transport the equipment from where the oceangoing container had left it, in the capital city of Libreville, to our hospital out in the bush. Finally, thanks to work by our maintenance missionary team partners hereat Bongolo hospital, we have outfitted the eyeglasses-making room (“optical shop”) and set up the equipment. It has truly been a team effort!
And I have spent the last couple of weeks learning how to make eyeglasses along with my resident and nurses, with great success!
Nurse Jean Paul with patient wearing the first pair of glasses he had made.
It is such a joy to have patients come into our little air-conditioned optical shop to pick out their frames, and be able to give them what they need
Older girl can now see the board better.
to see well – without even the risk of having to operate on them! Praise the Lord for his provision and instruction to provide these glasses for our patients.
We are currently looking to hire someone in the community to help us with the backlog of glasses orders we’ve already accumulated. We’ll have to fully train this person, of course, but hopefully we can find someone who is good at arithmetic and has a faithful walk with the Lord. One of the applicants goes to our church. Please pray for wisdom in this hiring process.
"I can see all the way to the river!"
Pure Water!
In February a team of four visitors were on the hospital compound to install a PROFESSIONAL FILTERING SYSTEM that started to filter all of the water that supplies the Station and the hospital! It also chlorinates the water. After a few weeks of this purified water going through the old pipes to clean them out the water was DRINKABLE!
Update: Although the water is now MUCH cleaner than it was before, we have found that the price of paying for Chlorine locally is very high so have stopped using the chlorine. Please pray for wisdom as an alternate source of Chlorine, or another solution is being sought. Thanks.
1st Annual Bongolo 5K Walk-Run!
The 1st Annual Bongolo 5K Walk-Run took place on July 2, 2011. There were 24 people who participated in this event, with others cheering them on. Missionaries, Africans, American visitors, adults and children on the Bongolo Station registered for the 5K just before 10 am and the then the event started right away. All who finished the 5K were WINNERS!
Get READY, get SET, GO!
The Container is Moved!
January 8th Email from Joanna Thelander:
Today was an exciting day at Bongolo!!! 
The fun started at 2 pm this afternoon. Mel and LaVon (visitors from Ft. Wayne, Indiana) started digging under the 40 foot container that was placed in front of 2 apartment buildings 3 years ago that was needed back then to store materials. We have prayed and prayed for a truck with a crane big enough to move it and Mel and LaVon were inspired to move this themselves by sliding and pulling it. They have planned on doing this project since their last visit and Mel’s hobby is moving houses and barns so this 40 ft. container was nothing for them!
They dug under it, jacked it up, put a long “sled” under it and then the fun began. At around 6 pm tonight (as it was getting dark) they started the slow movements to pull this 8,000 lb. e
yesore to its final resting place (down a STEEP hill).
The sun set, it was getting dark and at one point they needed more weight in the dump truck that was pulling it since the wheels kept spinning in the soft, muddy grass. So about 10 of us jumped in the dump truck (praying for a smooth ride and that the chain would not snap or we would not get ejected from the dump truck). I was not really excited about climbing in the back of this dump truck and helping in this way, but honestly I thought, I have prayed and prayed and lots of you have prayed too that we would find a way to move this container. I know it takes prayer (and we had lots of people praying), but it takes faith as well and that faith sometimes requires action. So, I thought it was time for me to get in to the action and DO something. So I climbed in the truck (with my heart racing)- praying the whole time. Keir was in there too, so I figured we would at least die together, but then I thought of our kids…. OK it was a risk, but it wasn’t THAT risky. 
We successfully drug the container around 3 SHARP corners (sparks flying behind the container and almost taking out some steps) and down a STEEP hill and at 7:30 pm it was sitting, off the road, ready to be pulled into its final resting place on concrete footers next.
So, it was quite a day!
We praise the LORD that no one was hurt in the process. God is good, all the time.
Thank you for your prayers. They were answered today.
Love from the jungle,
Joanna
Triplets!
Triplets were born at Bongolo just after noon on October 4th. It was the first time we’ve had three LIVE triplets born since I (Carolyn) arrived in Africa in 1977. There have been a couple of cases where one or two babies did not live but all three of these BOYS did fine after some day one problems with one of the babies.
Weights: Baby A- 1kg520, Baby B- 2kg050 and Baby C- 2kg170. To change these weights into Pounds, multiply times 2.2.
The local Television station came and filmed the babies, Father, Pediatrician and the head Midwife. The father and Head Midwife are hoping that the family can get some government subsidy for their family. They have four other children.
Praise the Lord that mother, Ely, Ben and Tom did fine. Mom and babies went home just after one month of ages. The boys’ father was at the hospital the whole time Mom was and he was fully engaged with helping with baby care. The couple know the Lord and are from an Alliance Church in another city. They came to Bongolo Hospital after finding out they were to have triplets. Thanks to all who knew about the Triplets and prayed for their birth and progress. Check out the photo of the three boys shortly before they went home.
Firetruck Donation for Bongolo!
Word has been received by Bongolo Hospital that supporters have purchased a Firetruck for the Bongolo Hospital. Visitors had been at the hospital last year when a fire broke out in the main Hospital Warehouse. They returned to the States and purchased a used Firetruck online from E-Bay!
The Firetruck is a 1975 CF600 Mack Pumper Fire Truck. May 23rd the Firetruck bound for Bongolo was presented to the Pittsford Community Church, Pittsford, New York. A 3 minute talk complete with 26 photos was given and there was a Gabonese artifact-adorned display table and photo board.
Lots of kids were able to climb in, on and around the fire truck (as long as a parent was present). Lots of adults were able to stare in amazement that a 1975 MACK pumper was purchased on eBay and is en-route to Bongolo Hospital in the rain forest of Gabon Africa.
The truck has been prepared and inspected for use at Bongolo Hospital but has not yet been shipped. The Pittsford Community Church is raising money for the shipment of the truck. On “Presentation Day” in May funds were collected for the Firetruck’s shipment to Gabon but the total amount has not yet been raised. Click HERE to see more details on the Firetruck Bound for Bongolo” project. Your tax deductible check may be made out to Pittsford Community Church with “Bongolo Fire Truck” in the note. Pittsford Community Church is located at 421 Marsh Road, Pittsford, NY 14534
PAACS Graduation
Bongolo’s 6th & 7th African doctors will finish their Surgery Residency program in July 2010. Dr. Jean Yaradouno will graduate next month after five years of surgical training at the PAACS general surgery training program at Bongolo Hospital. His wife Jackie graduated from the Bongolo Nursing School in May, and gave birth to their second daughter, Grace (not pictured) in June. The couple is headed to Hope Clinic, in Guinea, where they will both serve with a multi-national Alliance team. Dr. Yali Bin Ramazani will graduate at the same time. He and his wife Eveline are planning to serve at the Kalukembe SIM Hospital in Lubango, Angola.
Dr. Yaradouno and family
Dr. Yali and family
Nursing School Graduation!
On Sunday May 9, 2010 eight Bongolo Hospital Nursing students graduated in a ceremony held during the Bongolo Alliance Church service. 
The regular church service was held, but the message given by the Alliance District Superintendent, Pastor Mbesse, was directed towards the new graduates. At the end of the service the new Graduate Nurses slipped out and went to the back of the church where they entered the church while doing the “African Shuffle”, to music provided by the worship team, an electric keyboard and guitars.
After several speeches by various people, the diplomas were handed out. A reception was for the new graduate nurses and their invited guests. They were so excited and Praised the Lord to finally be finished with this 29 month study program!
Included in the above photo are three of the school’s Professors: Carolyn Thorson, Lisa Nicky and Moungala Claude. Two Professors, Rebecca Thompson and Karen Fitch were in the States and missed the Graduation.
