Bibles and Nurseries

My nest will be completely full in just 4 more days, when our firstborn, Hannah Banana, will come HOME for Christmas!  I keep listening to Bing Crosby croon that tune on my computer in anticipation of her homecoming.  I can’t wait for her to arrive!  Only four more days! Yay!

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So many, many things have been going on at the mission – I’m way behind in reporting them all.  So much so, I’m afraid I may never catch you up, but may have to just pick up with fresh stories in January. 

One piece of news I need to be sure to pass along is this:  I finally broke down yesterday and bought 12 Bibles locally for the hospital, even though they cost a bit more in Kibogora than in the big city of Kigali. 

These were the only two Swahili Bibles in our village, so
I got them both for our Congolese patients.  

Here are the Kinyarwanda Bibles your donations
have purchased so far! 

Pastor Wacana with one of the Bibles....

They were so needed, and I thought I was being “penny wise and pound foolish” to worry about spending more for God’s Word.  So, I went and bought the ones we needed for now, and will be able to go purchase 150 more, plus assorted tracts, 100 New Testaments and 100 Bibles in Swahili for our Congolese patients at a much better price when I go to Kigali to pick up Hannah in four days!  Thanks again to all who donated to make this possible!  The chaplains are SO happy!    And so are those who have been waiting for Bibles! 

Also, I had the opportunity to distribute reading glasses to most of the elderly patients in the internal medicine ward a few days ago.  Our friends from Boston donated many sets of readers, and oh, the JOY on the faces of these men and women who could now read again!  They were so excited!

Lastly, our NICU nurse Julie, recently had a ministry dream fulfilled.  The hospital was able to knock out a wall of her tiny NICU, which was just so jam crowded, you could hardly walk between the bassinets and incubators. 

Many new electrical outlets were installed, so she was able to bring the place up to safety codes and not have everyone tripping over extension cords for all the cpap machines and other gadgets associated with a NICU.  The place looks so wonderful!  

Please accept our best wishes to you and yours for a very Merry Christmas Season!  We are enjoying the holidays here, even while remembering everyone there.  Hope this holiday is everything you hope it will be!