Past the Half Way Point (February 2014)

This comes with belated wishes for a Happy New Year.

Greetings from a hot and dry Kiwoko. The dry season has been here for over 2 months now. The land is looking parched, the roads are extremely dusty, the maize has dried out and (worst of all) our enormous underground rainwater tank, on which we rely for water for our shower and flush toilet, is almost empty. Fortunately, the signs are that the rainy season will soon begin which means that the farmers will be grateful for God’s continuing blessings and we can continue in our relative comfort with access to water to our bathroom.

We are now more than half way through our time in Kiwoko and soon we will need to begin thinking about arrangements for returning to England. As we write this Irene is in England visiting our expanding family and making arrangements for us to relet our bungalow in Boston. She, in particular, has found it difficult to be so far away from our 5 grand-children and being there to support our children as they expect 2 more grandchildren in the next 4 months.

The next few months will be challenging. We are delighted that the Hospital recruited a new Finance Manager, Alex, to replace Joseph who left in November. He has just taken up the post but it will take some-time for him to understand how we work and be able to assume some of Malcolm’s responsibilities when we leave. So far, so good!

Ideally the Hospital needs a Christian Mission worker to take over Malcolm’s responsibilities. In addition to being responsible for Financial Management and managing other support Services, Malcolm and his predecessors have been invaluable in supporting the Hospital’s Medical Director. However, although there are a steady stream of young and older doctors willing to offer  their services to the hospital, it is more difficult to find someone with management skills, willing to offer their time and expertise. It is hard to know why.

A looming challenge is coming. In March the Medical Director, Rory and his family return to Ireland for a well earned 3 month leave. This means that Malcolm will take up the responsibility for he management of the Hospital, though fortunately there is an experienced Deputy Medical Director to look after and Medical management issues.

Prayer points

• Praise God that at the second attempt to find a suitable candidate, Alex was appointed as the Hospital’s new Finance Manager.
• Thank God that the auditors have signed off the Hospital accounts for the past too years. These show that although the Hospital faces some financial challenges, it has survived through a few years when the economic difficulties in the developed world has affected the financial support that donors have been able to offer
• Thank God that the HIV Building is almost complete and arrangements to move back in are going well
• Pray that Irene will manage to complete all she hopes to do in England and returns refreshed to Kiwoko.
• For those Hospital staff who are going on a week’s mission to Karamoja, one of the poorest  and neediest regions in Uganda.
• That God will call an experienced Mission Worker to take up the Financial and other management responsibilities at the Hospital when we leave.
• For Malcolm (and Irene), that he has the wisdom necessary to cover for the Medical Director during his leave to Ireland
• For refreshment and Fellowship as we prepare for a week’s CMS (Africa) conference in Nairobi in February, where we shall meet amongst others Simon and Laura Walton and family, who we worked with when we first went to Tanzania.