The Steffescope Dear Friends and Family
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The SteffeScope Volume 4, 2001 © 2001 The SteffeScope Dear Friends and Family: The first day of the new year found us on our way to Zambia! A new location, a new experience and a new volume of The Steffescope all make a good start for the millennium. Leaving Sunday afternoon, we spent 43 hours in car, plane and airports to finally arrive at our destination in Zimba, Zambia late Tuesday afternoon. The nor’easter that dumped a foot of snow on JFK airport slowed us down a little on our way through but didn’t stop us. We were able to get 120 pounds of extra supplies on the plane without incurring any other charge (although it was nip and tuck at one point) and then get four trunks of valuable medical supplies and gifts through customs in both Zimbabwe and Zambia without duty fees! We praise the Lord for the traveling safety and for taking care of all the little details. One of those little details was not much in the great scheme of things, but seemed to show us in a definite way that the Lord is involved in even the minutiae of our lives. Saturday night, in a last minute packing frenzy, we were going through boxes of what is technically known as “stuff” when Bruce realized that he had neglected to beg, borrow or buy1 surgical masks and examination gloves. Those two items are often in short supply at mission hospitals and given the high prevalence of infectious diseases in Zambia, he prefers to carry them in a fanny-pack when he makes rounds in order to have them immediately available for use while changing dressings. To be a bit more graphic, he is also struggling with a cold right now and anyone who has had to reuse a paper surgical mask several times when they have a runny nose will understand. Anyway, back to the story: Before Sunday School, Pastor Bruce Martin called Bruce into his office and told him that he had a box of supplies for us that had been delivered to the church. Fully cognizant of the bulging trunks at home that were near their weight limit, Bruce despaired at the thought of taking anything more but dragged it out to the car. The box was a large one. We opened it at home and it was full of only examination gloves and surgical masks! We found room to take enough for the month and thanked God for His care in even the small things. Despite our fatigue upon arrival in Zimbabwe, we took an hour to walk along the Zambezi river gorge and marvel at the mighty Victoria Falls. Seen best from the Zimbabwean side, the Victorian Falls are actually situated all along the greater curvature of a crescent shaped gorge that cuts through the 4000 foot above sea level plateau. The falls actually cover several miles on that side and range from mere rivulets to roaring monsters that rival the Niagara in force, noise and mist. We overheard one repeat visitor say that we were lucky that it hadn’t been raining as much recently because the river was somewhat lower than its maximum level. When it is at full bore, the mist prevents much of the view. The best view is from a hot air balloon or helicopter because from that vantage point you can see the whole crescent. Maybe next time! As close as we were on the other side, the mist and limited angle of vision allowed us to view the Falls only a part at a time, but it was still worth the two mile walk in the 90o F humidity. As much as we enjoyed the spectacular view, we were ready to get to what would be our new home for the next five weeks. About an hour’s drive northeast of Livingstone, Zambia (which is on the border), we entered Zimba. Zimba, in the local Tonga dialect, means “bump in the road” and that pretty much is right on the mark! The local hospital, the primary and secondary school, a hundred foot long market and a few houses makes up all the sights there are to see. Under the aegis of World Medical Missions (the medical arm of Samaritan’s Purse), we are working at the Pilgrim Wesleyan Zimba Mission Hospital. The Wesleyan Methodist mission in America originally started the hospital in the 1950s and subsequently has turned it over to the national church. It is a hundred bed hospital but has been struggling with part-time physician coverage since two doctors here for two years under World Medical Mission left last July. There has not been a physician for six weeks but the four Clinical Officers (equivalent of Physician Assistants in the US) and a dedicated nursing staff keeps the place running. Off all the places we have worked and visited, it presently takes first place in being the farthest stretch from how Bruce practiced medicine in North Carolina. Anxiety and uncertainty are certainly part of his life right now. We would like your prayers about the following: 1. That God would show us where and how we are to be maximally effective for both the hospital and for the advancement of the good news of Jesus Christ. Stretching the envelope is never fun for us and yet we realize that it is an opportunity to learn more lessons about trusting God and seeing His hand in things. When you realize you are totally out of your element, anything that gets accomplished is obviously not of 1 We didn’t think it was right for even part-time missionaries to use the term “beg, borrow or steal”. 1 The SteffeScope Volume 4, 2001 © 2001 your doing. Micky is searching for her role here and Bruce is trying to clarify it – pray for clarity for us. Insomnia and jet-lag is making the problem that much worse. 2. We are here during the wet season and malaria is reportedly at a near record peak of prevalence throughout much of Africa including Zambia. Liz Anderson, the missionary we are staying with, had her second documented attack in two weeks. We are taking all the usual prophylaxis and trying to avoid getting bitten, but we would like you to pray for our health and safety. Also, the recent UN data states that Zambia has the dubious distinction of being tied for 5th place in the prevalence of AIDS – 20% of adults have the disease. This is a reason to pray for both a surgeon’s safety and for all those people who will face a Christless eternity unless they are told about His salvation. We encourage you not only to pray but also to take an active part in being a Sender of missionaries. Remember, Paul exhorts us in Romans 10:13-15 “…Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? And how can they preach unless they are sent?…” 3. Pray specifically that the Great Physician will work through Bruce and in spite of the limited resources to bring both physical healing and to demonstrate through him the loving nature of the Almighty God. 4. Our usual e-mail address is not available to us through AOL here in Zambia. There are AOL servers here in Zambia but we have not been able to connect despite multiple attempts. In case you are wondering why this newsletter is coming from our usual address, we are going to send it to Bruce’s son Ryan and he will send it out on AOL for us. For limited communication with our family, we are able to use the missionary’s e-mail site but cost and courtesy limit its availability and its reliability has already been demonstrated to be marginal. The server has been down all week. We are thankful that such an alternative is available but pray especially hard for Bruce – the withdrawal tremors from the loss of regular e-mail are terrible to behold! If you need to reach us, put our name in the subject line and send the e-mail to <<[email protected]>> Please pray for us. Yours, serving Christ in Zambia, Bruce and Micky Steffes Friday, January 12 Dear Friends and Family: The keyword for this week is “adjustment”. No matter how many times we do this, it is always difficult to adjust to a new area of service. Despite past experience that should give us a heads-up, we always seem amazed that the missionaries we meet are not perfect, that the resources are always more limited than we expect and that we ourselves are not really the cure-all to all medical, spiritual, economic and political problems we find in Africa. We feel more out of place, less efficient, less effective and less spiritual than we had hoped to feel. Our training, pretensions and dogma are never sufficient to avoid the stress of living and serving. But when we finally get to that point of realizing that we are not very much in the face of all we find, we begin to see more clearly, experience more fully and trust more unabashedly because it is then that it is evident that Christ is our source of strength and the only answer. It is sometimes pretty painful and God doesn’t share His plans with us for our approval as often as we might think appropriate.