Illness and discouragement

16, July, Friday



Hello team! Greetings from around the world in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, the one who heals and forgives and redeems. He came that we may have life and have it abundantly. We pray you are experiencing abundant life this week.



As for the Robertsons, we are praying through Psalms 5 and 6, for it has been a season (well, the last 11 days) of highs and lows, sighing and crying for help, of taking refuge in our just and merciful God, and praying for His protection. Tony got sick a week ago, Cari yesterday, and Drew today. You might say our family prayer has been 6:2-3, for everyone but Andy (not yet) has complained of being in anguish, painful bones and feeling faint, and we’ve all been wondering how long this fever/vomiting/diarrhea illness will go on. Thanks to God that his love is ever unfailing and we know that he hears us.



So we finally got on the road from N’Djamena to Bebalem on Tuesday. Up at 5:45am for the 6:30 bus. We arrived just as it was leaving which ended up to our benefit because we were able to all sit together in the front two rows and all 17 bags and packages came with (on top of) our bus. It ended up being a very smooth ride (Andy tried really hard not to be anxious about it, wasn’t altogether unsuccessful, and we were all very grateful to God that it went so smoothly), with no camels or livestock anywhere close to us. The boys slept nearly the whole trip. Dr. Ann, Pastor Dume, and the two English lads were there to meet us, we somehow got all our stuff inside the Toyota, and after a few errands and a 2 hour off-road trek on an ever-narrowing dirt road/wide walking path, we arrived at our new “home”.



After Andy said hello at morning devotions on Wednesday, the rest of the day was spent mostly unpacking and getting situated. We’ve moved into the other side of Dr. Ann’s duplex, but until the English lads arrived in April it hadn’t been occupied in over 4 years (possibly ten). The maintenance crew has put in a lot of work getting it fixed up (mosquito screens on doors and windows, repairing/replacing appliances, etc.) and the lads were able to take care of the 3 or 4 mice/rats that weren’t used to company (but unfortunately we do still have at least one stubborn non-houseguest that doesn’t even take a second sniff at our mousetraps – Andy has seen him nearly every day, but can’t seem to catch up with him. It’s been grand finally getting to unpack, but still a bit of a struggle since we’re getting by with thrown together housewares (several cups but only 2 bowls, etc.). We are very glad the stove works and we were able to get the door on the fridge fixed by Thursday so we have a place for coldstuffs so things are definitely looking up a bit.



Andy got a tour from Dr. Ann late Wednesday and then rounded with her Thursday am. It was pretty discouraging and heart-wrenching. Even fewer resources than Togo -- people have to purchase meds and even IV material before its given (no large benevolence from Western/European churches). Already three children in the “Swan” (intensive care) have died and I’ve only been here 3 days. One was a 18 month old with meningitis, positive spinal tap, but the family didn’t go get the medicine (Rocephin) the first day (Wednesday), we got the results and told them how important it was on Thursday, and by Friday she was dead. I’ve already seen three cases of measles, one in a coma; a heart failure, severe pneumonia, and countless malnutritions. The intensive care ward holds up to 13 patients and pediatrics alone holds 36 or more. It’s no wonder Dr. Ann is so tired. There is no xray capability, and with the people as poor as they are I am really struggling to figure out what my medical role will be here.



The boys spent much of Wednesday and Thursday playing soccer with Chadian kids. But by the time Andy returned from Thursday rounds the bug had started its progression. Cari went straight to bed and for the last day and a half Andy has been caring for three patients only. And first it was Pam Propst (“well, Andy, now you’ve taken care of your first patient in Chad” she joked after she got her first stitches). Simple things get much more difficult when there are so few resources and so many other bugs to consider. When Tony’s fever got up to 104 that night in N’Djamena Cari asked if I would have been so nervous about him if we were back home – and the answer was definitely not, I knew that a good ED was just a short drive away if anything worrisome happened. I didn’t have that same confidence in the middle of Chad the night before a 7 hour bus ride deeper into nowhere.



We are reachable by phone, we’re not sure about email yet (we’re sending this from Dr. Ann’s). But we have a Chadian cell phone – dial +23590576330 (235 is the country code, the phone numbers are 8 digits long, I’m not sure about the “+” sign). If we call it’s rather expensive. The missionaries here suggest having friends and family buy a prepaid phone card in the States that covers the country of Chad because the rates will be much better. Receiving calls here is free. We can also send and receive texts, but apparently only to Cingular, Verizon doesn’t accept them? Mail also comes relatively reliably toN’Djamena in about two weeks, but it sits at the TEAM compound in N’Djamena until someone travels down to Bebalem which sometimes takes a while. Cell service is VERY spotty and we often can’t get through to other missionaries here.



We love you all. Thank you so much for partnering with us. We both think this is our hardest trip so far. Please pray for us. We’re hoping that soon we can stop being a burden to Dr. Ann and start helping out here. We wanted to strengthen, encourage, and comfort the body of believers here (I Cor 14:3, II Thes 2:16-17). We’re still hoping to do that soon. We will also pray for you, that you accept, store up, turn to, apply to, call out for, cry aloud for, look for, and search for as treasure the Lord’s wisdom – because then you will find and understand the knowledge of God.



Grace and peace and love in our Savior.



The Robertsons