Here at AIM!

Malachi 1:11

Hello everyone.

We made it to NY.

We spent two nights in Washington DC on our way to Pearl River NY (just across the New Jersey/NY border). We took a fast tour of the National Mall, seeing the Capitol, Washington Monument, Lincoln and WWII Memorials, and the National Air and Space Museum as well as several statutes along the way. We saw four helicopters land on the green in front of the White House (go tax dollars!!). And Drew took 172 pictures and 8 videos in ONE day! I'll try to post one or two to give you a (tiny) flavor.


We arrived here in Pearl River on Monday. Its been a whirlwind of an introduction to AIM (Africa Inland Mission). The people have been great. There are daily testimonies about how God has been working in everyone's life and the stories are pretty amazing. We've several choices in terms of potential mission fields and are praying that God would help narrow it down for us (preferably to 1 :). Some of the options include Chad, Democratic Republic of Congo, Central African Republic, Namibia, and Uganda.

Our main prayer requests continue to be a clear vision for our future steps and that the boys would be able to adjust and thrive wherever we end up.

We also hope you will pray and consider coming to visit us once we get where we're going!

Love from the Robertsons, Cari, Andy, Drew, and Tony.

AIM candidate school

We're headed to school! Well, actually it's just a one week conference at AIM headquarters in NY. But we are excited. It is the first step in deciding if AIM is a good fit for us as a missions agency. They meet and evaluate us and we meet and evaluate them. We also get valuable information regarding working as a full-time missionary: preparations, sending churches, friend-raising, saying goodbyes, adjusting to other cultures, etc. We will be going as a family - staying in Washington, DC for a couple nights on our way up (we are driving). For those of you who have been supporting us in prayer and on our other trips, we would love to have your continued prayer support as we head into this conference. We are asking God to direct our steps. I am really challenging myself to be attentive to Him - listening to all He wants me to hear. And I know that I will need help with that! Especially since I let the boys and the world drown out His voice. Also, Andy has been sick - first with H1N1 and now with a nasty cold. Please pray we all stay healthy for this week, especially. I know many of you are dealing with sickness, too. Please let us know if there are specific ways we could be praying for you! I am hoping to spend some serious time with God next week, so I would be happy to bring your requests before Him:)

Cari Robertson cuts her ........Hair, hair, hair!

Okay, so some of you know I decided to grow my hair for locks of love. I had always assumed I could not do this as I cut my hair all the time and love to play with color. But I was convicted when listening to an organ donor commercial (of all things) and getting weepy over the idea of people getting a new life through a new organ. Something we can do when we die, but hair, well, hair we can donate before we die! So why wasn't I taking the opp? Well, that was nearly two years ago! The hardest part of long hair - it is constantly in the way! Getting caught in the car door, turning up in my cereal, poking my child in the face, blocking my view as I wipe a 2 year old's bottom...the list goes on! The good thing about long hair? Well, my husband liked it. That's about all I can say on that. Anyway, for those who are curious, I am including a before and after photo for you to see what long hair looks like on me. I also have a short hair photo (not the best) and will try to add another when I get onto the right computer. So, if any of you are thinking about growing out your hair - if I can do it, so can you!

"However, I consider my life worth nothing to me, if only I may finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me -- the task of testifying to the gospel of God's grace." Acts 20:24

We're home. God has been incredibly faithful and we are incredibly grateful. We leave behind in Togo good friends, great memories, and a wonderful ministry. We have completed this task and look forward to the next one!

The trip was long -- about 36 hours (3.5 hours and 7 separate passport checks in the first airport, just to board the first plane) but very smooth, with easy changeovers and an early arrival in NY. We experienced no ill effects of the reported Royal Air Moroc pilots' strike; quite the opposite, actually. Our transfers and layover in Casablanca were remarkably pleasant (unlike our one trip through Paris two years ago). The kids did great, sleeping sans Benadryl everywhere we needed them to. In fact the only one who caused trouble was Andy, getting reprimanded by an airport worker at JFK for wrestling with the boys on the carpet in front of the Club Lounge. ("I'm sorry sir, you can't do that here!" What, wrestle with my kids? "I'm just trying to be nice and warn you, security will be here soon..." And do what? Am I packing heat? Did someone mistake joy and laughter for the cries of a whuppin'? Oh well, welcome home to America....) Our skin and noses immediately dried out. Our air conditioned home felt COLD. We'll finish out our malaria and worm pills just to make sure no little friends survive.

We'd like to thank everyone for supporting our trip, hopefully in person if possible. We have pictures and stories, of course, for those who would like to see. And we pray each of you has been strengthened and encouraged and comforted by the work being done not just in Togo but here as well. God's Spirit is moving through the land, and we pray you are tasting and seeing that the LORD is good!

Your faithful co-workers in Christ,
CADT - the Robertsons

August 22, 2009

22 Aout 2009 – Day 73

“Though the fig tree does not bud and there are no grapes on the vines, though the olive crop fails and the fields produce no food, though there are no sheep in the pen and no cattle in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the LORD, I will be joyful in God my Savior.” Habakkuk 3:17-18

We spent morning devotions Monday talking about worshiping God for who He is, not what he does. It was challenging. Would we still praise him in all the circumstances that Paul was able to praise Him, or the persecuted church (in jail with every possession taken)? Along with Proverbs 30:8 – that we might rely on our amazing God, not ourselves. I half-jokingly called it the “anti-prosperity” gospel. Not as popular with the masses, I’m guessing, but seeing the circumstances in which people praise him here is humbling.

Had a great walk to the waterfall last Saturday. Drew was a trooper and made it all the way. We had misty drizzle from time to time but that kept the temperatures down. Mauwli and Dan (Stoner) jumped in the small pond at the base of the falls and both boys were clamoring to get wet so Cari and I jumped in too. All the rain we’ve had made the falls pretty powerful. On the way Drew was complaining about the rain (“why does it have to rain?” so the plants can grow “but why now, cause we’re getting wet” I don’t know, Drew, but God wanted the plants to get a drink, you’ll have to take it up with Him……). Once we went swimming? What do you think about the rain, now, Drew, and the big waterfall? “Great!”

The Italians have been here a week now and with all the arrivals (Bonts, Summerfields, Ken and Terry Crowe, their friend Angie an ultrasound tech) and returns (Steve and Mary Jo Mills) the place is fairly hopping. We’ve had almost rowdy mealtimes (for Baptists, I mean). Dr. Sam has requested Italian food for meals so we’ve had spaghetti and lasagna and Dr. Sam even played Pavarotti off his computer! The lady with the pelvic fracture is recuperating well. Last night we had a movie night – The Los Ban~os Raid in WWII. Russ’ mom and uncle were interred at that camp and were rescued. It was pretty amazing.

Hard to believe it’s my last call. One lady almost dead from a botched abortion 2 weeks ago and another young mademoiselle from gay Paris, here for 4 weeks teaching AIDS education, fell and broke her wrist sightseeing at a waterfall. Amazing what walks (or is carried) through our doors. I’m definitely going to miss sitting in Russ’ command chair, getting toys for the kids, and hearing the moms of premies who’ve been here two months smile and yell “wezalo!” when I come in.

Thank you to everyone for supporting us in this endeavor. We look forward to sharing our stories and encouraging others who might wish to do something similar in the future.

May you seek the LORD while he may yet be found. And may you praise though there are no sheep in the pen or cattle in the stalls!

Mawu ne no kpuli wo (May God go with you).

Yours in the service of our LORD,

CADT (The Robertsons)

August 16, 2009

16 Aout 2009 – Day 67

“My name will be great among the nations, from the rising to the setting of the sun. In every place incense and pure offerings will be brought to my name, because my name will be great among the nations,” says the LORD Almighty. – Malachi 1:11

Trying out new phrases in Eve is a lot of fun. I’ve mentioned before how I like to laugh and hear others laugh and stumbling through a new Eve phrase is one of the quicker ways to do that. The downside to trying out a new phrase at the hospital is that the Africans are very community oriented (this actually is a very positive aspect of the culture, they do everything together, the good and the difficult, the joys of recovery and the sadness of death). Once I speak Eve (Devi effwo? = How is your child?) to one family I must repeat it to every family! The moms start laughing before I even get to their child, anticipating my weak stumbling Eve phrases. Right now we have about 15 pediatric patients. That’s a lot of laughter……

Its been a crazy last 24 hours. The Bonts have arrived – a family physician, his wife and 15 year old daughter. Their traveling companions, the Summerfields, are in Lome and should arrive today. They were all diverted through Paris because of the Royal Air Moroc pilot strike (have I mentioned that we heard the Royal Air Moroc pilots have gone on strike? ………getting home next Tuesday should be interesting). They got separated by luggage problems and their stories are incredible – including stolen passports and lost credit cards. We’re all glad they’re here.

Several baby emergencies during my day and night on call – including a 32 week placental abruption (treatment is emergent delivery – are we sure of her dates? Who did her ultrasound last week? Oh! I guess that was me!). She presented at 10:15, about 5 minutes after our surgeon, Dr. Sam Williams, told me “Well, Andy, everything looks calm here, I’m going to head to church in Tsiko if that’s ok.” Surgeons often do that because few surgeries are that urgent, and most of the surgeons have cell phones. Sam doesn’t have one of course, so after stalling for a few moments hoping it really wasn’t THAT critical, (“please doctor?”) we realized her labor wasn’t progressing, her BP was dropping, the fetal heart tones were dropping, so yes, please send the guard to the Tsiko church and fetch Dr. Sam. Sam thanked me later for being kind enough to arrange for his first moto ride in Togo (he’s been here 9 times). Baby got delivered “Toot Suite” and both mom and baby are fine.
Around 6 pm we had another stressful birth with a sick baby. Then this morning we had a baby try to come out hand first (the name for that would be MAL-presentation with obvious emphasis on MAL). Another Dr. Sam C-Section Toot Suite, another stressed baby, probably the worst yet, including an umbilical catheter for IV access. In between there were several sick malaria kids and one piece of corn up the nose (don’t do that again!). But the big news was our emergency call at 11pm………

Todd drove up the mountain last night in the ambulance (one of the minivans) to rescue 4 people from a car accident. They turned out to be Italians! From Naples. All of them high school teachers. They were on holiday touring Benin, Togo, and Ghana, somewhere up our road the brakes went out and they careened off the cliff, rolling several times about 20 yards down the slope (in the middle of the night). 3 of them walked away. 1 very nice lady has a broken pelvis but is otherwise well. The driver has bruises and one laceration but is also ok. Considering what we’ve seen and what can happen its pretty amazing they’re not worse off (that they’re even alive?!). We had an interesting time getting to know one another, one man spoke good French, 3 of them spoke a little English. Je na parl pa Francois, Je na parl pa Italian, for that matter. I’m sure their first impression was NOT that they’ve been brought to the best hospital in Togo (personal bias inserted here). In fact, the second lady MUST have had a concussion because her first question to me was could she have some Perrier? It was an interesting pantomime trying to explain that no, I’m sorry, but we don’t have any Perrier in the hospital, any bottled water at all for that matter, but yes, it’s perfectly safe to drink out of the tap, see here (me drinking) I’ve been drinking it fine for three months. I hope she had a concussion, because she asked me to look at her scalp numerous times, it was fine (just a bruise, no bleeding, no you don’t need stitches, yes you can have some pain medicine), and after a while I wondered if she maybe couldn’t tell that there some REALLY sick patients all around her – including her travel mate with the broken pelvis and the driver and all my 10 premature infants and …….Yes, I will check back on you in a minute, but for right now, S’il voux plait, your scalp is fine, I’m BUSY.
I did feel really bad for them. Apparently some of their bags went missing after the crash. I even offered pelvis lady some of Cari’s clothes (Cari doesn’t know yet, nice of me, eh?) which she declined. I walked back and forth to the guesthouse several times getting clean glasses then some muffins. (I don’t know how they’ll eat while they stay here – the Togolese make fufu). The dirt-floored, no running water cuisine may work for the Togolese but they probably won’t feel comfortable there. On my last trip back (around 1am) the guard waved me down to tell me ……something (my French just isn’t that good!). Finally I recognized a word – “serpen” Serpent! SNAKE! Probably 6 feet long right along the hospital path! I used the flashlight and chanted “no snake, no snake” (Tony style) the rest of the way in. Todd told me in the morning that it was dead, the guard had killed it and thrown it over the wall, but apparently told everyone he saw, including me. Somehow I missed the part of the explanation where the serpent was dead. The next morning our intrepid hospital administrators swooped in and the Italians (the 3 without pelvic fractures) are put up in style at our Guesthouse now. I just finished having lunch with them!

I think we have more pediatric patients – at least 15 – then ICU, women’s and men’s put together! YEAH!! We have eight isolettes (two of which still work) – all full. The hand presentation this morning had nowhere to go, we played musical isolettes again. Not included in the last 24 hours but adding to the craziness – we admitted another oomphalocele 3 days ago (the first oomphalocele baby died), and 2 days ago a baby with a vagina but no connection for stool (anal atresia) or urine (epispadias). That surgery was amazing. We’re trying to keep her alive until the pediatric surgeon comes in September. Russ is going to be way jealous (and sorry he left for his daughter’s wedding in the States?)!

People are coming even as we are thinking about returning home. I will be so very sad not to be here. Could you please pray for our flights?

God is calling us to the nations (Malachi). Are we listening?

May you seek the LORD while he may yet be found. And mawu ne no kpuli wo (May God go with you).

Yours in the service of our LORD,

CADT (The Robertsons)

August 13

13 Aout 2009 – Day 64

I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to follow my laws. – Ezekiel 36: 26-27

More joys and sorrows, more hills and valley (…..and many many days on call!) I’ve been on call every other day for 2 weeks now and I’m counting the hours until Dr. Bont arrives on Sunday!

One of great joys here is seeing very sick patients get better. The ones that arrive in a coma, with troubled breathing patterns, where we explain to the family that the patient might not survive, we might pray with the family and try a few (the typical) medicines, but really their life is in God’s hands. The Pediatric ward was like that today. I was up much of the night trying to keep one of our 28 week premies alive, he died around 4am. But during rounds three of our comatose-seizing-with-malaria-one-vomit/aspiration-away-from-death children woke up! Yes, THREE. Synchronized healing. It was wonderful.
PE-5, a 2-year old, had only been deathly sick for one day – he was sitting up acting normal asking for food (I love when Quinine works that fast!).
PE-4 is the patient I mentioned last letter – 2 year old girl with malaria and seizures – the Moslem family I almost didn’t pray for because I was angry at faker-guy, but ended up praying with them later, with the echoes of “amen” from around the room. She has been in a coma ever since arrival (1 week). Her breathing had improved, her seizures had stopped, her kidney failure had reversed, but she just hadn’t woken up from her coma. Things had been looking dismal (the longer coma lasts the worse the prognosis), we had started tube feedings with water and then bouille (porridge) in preparation for having the family take her home. (Because of the absence of specialized rehabilitation facilities and the relatively steep cost of inpatient care, we try to get patients home as soon as we can. This often means families are responsible for Foley catheters, NG tube feedings, range of motion physical therapy and dressing changes. It involves a bit of teaching and lots of wishful thinking but works out well more often than I would expect. Luv is a good example of a positive outcome.) Well yesterday she opened her eyes for the first time and this morning the family called out to me (“Yovo! Yovo!”) to show she had pulled her NG tube out herself, was trying to sit up, and was looking around! I think she even had enough strength to glare at me (scary white person). I started clapping and praising God (akpe na mawu!) and we were all having a joyful time. (And I really mean “all”, the whole room grieved with the mom of the 28 weeker who died in the night, and the whole room celebrates with families when things go well.)
While we were standing there having joy, the mom of PE-3 started slapping me on the arm. “Yovo, Yovo!” PE-3 was another 2 year old girl in a coma from malaria and seizures. She arrived two days ago, so not as worrisome as PE-4 (but who am I kidding? If the kid’s in a coma, I’m worried! 2 days, 7 days, coma is coma!). PE-4 heard all the commotion, opened her eyes and was staring right at me! Sometimes a little joy is a good thing. It was refreshing after a tough week.

With Drs. Briggs and Ebersole gone I’ve tried my hand at ultrasounds to take the burden off Todd a little. Monday was my call day and I think we did six. Often they are fairly straightforward -- check pregnant moms for accurate dates, confirm twins and check women with fibroids in preparation for surgery. Fibroids are masses of muscle in the uterus that can be HUGE here, and very painful, and definitely decrease fertility. The surgeons try to remove them for infertile women who desire to become pregnant. Once we see one on ultrasound the next question is “Do you want to be pregnant?” Most do, of course, which makes the surgery more technical. If not, the treatment is just a hysterectomy. One of the ladies was in her mid-thirties and had no children. So I was a bit surprised when she said, “No” she did NOT want pregnancy. For the first time (it was a busy day) I turned and really looked at her and noticed how sad she appeared. Was she married? “Yes” What did her husband think? (The men have the money) (Now we get the real story….) She had been diagnosed with this fibroid 8 years ago at another hospital, had been told it would make pregnancy difficult, so the husband left her. Just left. No baby, no commitment. Gone. No wonder she looked so sad. What was different now? Now the fibroid was so painful she wanted it out. How very sad. Thanks be to God His faithfulness is true and His promises are forever……UN-like ours, yes?

Sunday night Cari and I shared our testimonies at the evening worship time. It was nice. We shared our slideshow from two years ago and I shared several life verses including the one above. Cari shared what God’s been teaching her about hospitality (did you know the word “hospital” comes from the Latin root?) Dan and Rachael Stoner arrived Sunday for a survey visit and gave their testimonies Tuesday at prayer meeting. They are pilots and have committed to the mission here. They are in the final phase – just need to raise support. It was great to hear about that part of the ministry – a plane here could open up all kinds of doors. We walked down to the hanger Tuesday and the boys got to sit inside the plane – a little 6 seater. Speaking of missionaries who could use our financial support (!) there is a surgeon and his wife in MI who are committed to a career here, but they still need to raise over half their support. The hospital could desperately use them, we’ve been without a full-time surgeon since Bob Cropsey left 7 years ago.

Anyone looking for a career missionary to support – to get magnet family pictures for the fridge, monthly prayer letters, and once-every-four-years visits from fatigued missionaries home on furlough? 
(Besides us, I mean?)

While I’m thinking about that, visits from friends and family back home can be an incredible encouragement to the missionaries out here. Anyone want to visit us while we’re on the field next summer? Your letters and messages have been a blessing for sure, thank you again to everyone who prays for us and writes to us, please don’t stop (but just in case some of you were feeling a prompting about international travel………)

We hope you are also well. The summer is winding down and school is near. We pray you find rest and peace solace in the presence of our LORD. Thankfully he has promised to save us from all our uncleanness! (Ez 36)

May you seek the LORD while he may yet be found. And mawu ne no kpuli wo (May God go with you).

Yours in the service of our LORD,

CADT (The Robertsons)