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.
Cessna Plane makes Unplanned Landing!
The end of March Pilot Steve Straw sent this news item about an unplanned landing of the Air Calvary plane:
“Air Calvary’s Cessna 207 aircraft, based in Gabon, Africa, experienced a loss in engine power and made a forced landing in the village of Owendo, just south of the city of Libreville. No one on the ground was injured and neither were the two pilots and one passenger participating in the training flight. There was minor property damage and the aircraft also incurred structural damage. A detailed report will follow.”
Steve and Alace Straw and their three children are now on a three month planned Home Assignment in the States. No repairs will likely be done on the plane until their return. To follow their trip you may visit their “Arrivals and Departures” blog.
Air Calvary Cessna 207 Arrives!
Today the Air Calvary Cessna 207 plane arrived at Lebamba, the town where the Bongolo Hospital is located. It came into the country last week but it took several days to get all the paperwork completed before it could be flown down to Lebamba and the Hospital. Many went to the airport to welcome pilot Steve Straw and his family after their two hour flight from Libreville.
Airplane Commissioning!
From Pilot Steve Straw we learned that there were “About 200 supporters gathered at CXY Aviation in New Cumberland, PA on Saturday, October 24th to celebrate a milestone. Soon, the aircraft refurbishment phase will be giving way to the start of (the Air Ambulance) operations in Gabon! The event was a great time to see so many friends, give thanks to our great God, and then, to lay hands on our “fill-in” airplane and ask for the Lord’s continued direction on this remarkable journey we’re on.”
CLICK HERE to read Steve’s Blog about the event
CLICK HERE to see 35 captioned photos of the event
Update on the new Plane!
Cessna 207
Air Calvary and Pilot Steve Straw have ordered a Cessna 207 plane to begin an Air Ambulance Service in Gabon. This plane has 8 seats and plenty of luggage room. The storage compartment is just behind the engine and the cargo pod under the airplane.
From Steve Straw’s blog of July 11: “We hope to see the aircraft in action around the end of the fall, this year. We’ll be adding the avionics, new paint, and then making a decision whether to put the aircraft in a container for 6 weeks and then reassemble it in Africa, or to set it out for an 8 day voyage across the North Atlantic and then through Europe to Gabon.”
The avionics are added as well as the new paint. Take a look at this good looking plane!
Fire!
From an August 1st letter written by Dave Thompson:
Dear Friends,
At 7:30 pm tonight I got a frantic call from one of our nurses with the alarming news that our hospital warehouse was on fire.
Becki called around the station for others to come while I raced to the hospital. When I arrived, about 200 people (mostly the local youth group, which was meeting in the church next door) were screaming and running around, trying to get into the lock building to put it out. I could see the glow of flames through the windows. Since it was dark, I parked my car with the headlights on the door.
I grabbed the fire extinguisher from my car and ran to the steel door with my keys. When I cautiously opened the door, I could see flames reaching to the ceiling from behind a six foot high stack of boxes–our most recent medicine order. The ceiling was already on fire, along with about 10 boxes. At the center was a refrigerator that was burning like a torch. I sprayed it with my car extinguisher, but it ran out after about 10 seconds. About 10 young men from the youth group and hospital crowded in, and I shouted for some to bring buckets of water and the others to form a chain to drag our medicines out. In seconds we had boxes flying out the door and buckets of water flying in–half the time colliding! What pandemonium! Above it all I could hear women singing praises and prayers to God!
Next to the fire, I was soon elbowed aside by younger firefighters who threw the buckets of water on the fridge and through the burned out ceiling and up onto the burning rafters. Keir Thelander arrived and took charge of that effort, so I worked on getting most of the boxes around the fire out of the building. Then I went outside and discovered the fire was spreading to the waiting area roof of our new lab, which is right next door. I got some good throwers working on that one and in a few minutes we doused it. The water coming out of the hospital faucets seemed like a trickle, but after 30 minutes or so, Keir and his team gradually got the fire inside under control.
We may have lost 10 to 20 boxes of medicines and supplies and a refrigerator full of we’re not sure what. The roof has a huge hole in it and there is extensive damage to the ceiling and rafters for about 1/3 of the building. But we could have lost the entire building, with over $200,000 of medicines and supplies in storage! We praise God that the youth group was there and that so many volunteers rushed to help. And nobody was burned or hurt.
Praise God with us for protecting these precious medicines and supplies and helping us to get it out. Please pray with us that God will help us replace what we lost, and repair our warehouse.
Praising our Great Lord and Protector
Dave & Becki Thompson
On the Road Again!
Laterite
Recently teams from South Shore and Faith visited to Bongolo and rocked the roads. Well actually they repaired the roads using laterite. Laterite is a naturally occurring gravel formed by the dissolution of primary rock. Located approximately 3 meters below the surface, laterite needs to be uncovered
then broke up with picks, a task that South Shore from Mass and Faith from Ohio, gladly accepted. These 2 teams put their heart and back in it and got the job done. In a matter of a few days all the roads on the mission were repaired what a great blessing to the mission staff. They are coming by the truck load and Jumping for Joy!
South Shore was the first official team for STMO (Short Term Mission Office) at Bongolo. A 22 person team could be viewed as a challenge to host, but working out the logistics for this team was well worth all the preparation. South Shore was a blessing not only to the mission but very specifically to the Kelly’s ( The STMO family at Bongolo). With a heart to serve they arrived willing to sleep wherever space could be found and the men were even willing to do all their showering outside to avoid an overload of the septic system. One evening there was a time of praise and worship, God was glorified as praise emanated from Foyer and ascended to the throne of the “KING”. The evening concluded as this team of 22 servants gathered around the Kellys and lifted them up in prayer. A day after their departure the Faith team arrived and finished the road work that South Shore started.
Thanks South Shore and Faith.
“how to put it into words…”
The Gabon Mission gets many visitors each year. Now with a Short Term Mission Office (STMO) in both Libreville and at the Bongolo Hospital, our visitors to the field have increased many fold. A group of YOUTH from Lancaster Alliance Church from Lancaster, PA were just in Libreville and kept a good blog of their experiences in the country. Please check out their blog by clicking “how to put it into words…” . You will get a little glimpse into village life.
Lancaster Alliance Youth visit Libreville
Prayer Requests- June 20
- Praise the Lord that the hospital now has a functioning X-Ray machine.
- Pray for the airstrip to get redone soon. A Chinese road company that is here to pave the main roads in Lebamba and the road to Ndende
(20 miles to the west) has signed an agreement with the hospital to grade, level and compact the runway, starting in about three weeks.
The Gabonese government has promised money to finance the project. - Pray for the roads on the Bongolo campus. The heavy rains this year have damaged them severely, and it would help us tremendously if
the Chinese would pave them! Join with us to ask God to put this project on their hearts! - Pray for political stability in Gabon, and for strong leadership in the Gabon Alliance church.
