Since our last newsletter 6 weeks ago, we've been busy seeing patients, doing clinic administration, etc. We originally thought we'd be seeing more paying Western patients, but God knew all along that our ministry here is to the poor and He has provided donors from the U.S. to support the clinic so far. We are confident that He will continue to work through those of you who support us financially and in prayer.
We're happy to report that Kara returned to Bucharest last weekend! Her foot is a lot better, although not yet completely healed. She worked with us Tuesday and Wednesday of this week and is now in Greece with her IMB Baptist mission team for a conference. We're so glad that she's back. Her real love is home care, and we hope that she will be able to start a program for our clinic this summer.
Linda is keeping busy working 3 afternoons at the Embassy. She keeps hearing rumors about someone coming as the full-time replacement, but so far nothing definite.
We hired 2 new nurses, one to replace Cami, who decided that a 1+ hour commute each way to work was just too difficult. Commuting here involves being packed into a bus or streetcar, standing all the way unless you get on at the beginning of the line and get one of the few seats. Lili lives only a block away from the clinic. Monica is working as a "float," working both as a nurse and receptionist. She received Medical Office Assistant training in the U.S., which of course can't be certified in Romania because there is no equivalent training course here. Both of these women are strong Christians and good workers. We appreciate them a lot, as well as all of our staff.
We have one new resident, Ligia, who started working with us last month. She already has commented on how much she likes how we practice medicine compared with the typical style of the doctors she's worked with during her residency so far. She already sees the value of taking care of the whole person, rather than "just taking their blood pressure and sending the patient to a specialist."
This next Thursday 2 medical students from Duluth, MN, are arriving to spend 2 weeks with us. The CNN 5 day weather forecast says it will be 98 F. the day they arrive. We just got an email from them--they arrived safely in Prague and will be coming by train through Budapest. Please pray for safe travel for them.
Romania has a new Minister of Health! He is said to be a good administrator. We hope he is better than the last one! We hope he does something about quality in the medical care here, as well as about corruption. The previous one didn't seem to do anything to improve the medical system. Corruption increased and services diminished. Primary health care has always been a low priority in this country and during her time in power family doctors received even less support, actually receiving major cuts in their income during her reign. A doctor friend of ours told us that a family doctor working full time with 2000 patients that he's responsible for now receives about $150/month from the National Insurance House for all his work, including office hours, house calls, etc.
A friend of ours, Aristel, recently had a mastectomy for breast cancer. She had been to the "best" cancer hospital in the country about breast pain and nodularity. They did a mammogram and said she didn't have anything wrong. They refused to do an ultrasound or biopsy of a specific lump she was concerned about. She came back in to see Linda who insisted she get a biopsy. So she went to a different hospital and had a needle biopsy which was abnormal. After discussion with the surgeon she had her mastectomy. In the past, women would go into surgery not knowing whether they would come out with a breast or not--like it was in the U.S. 25 years ago.
Milt preached at BEL Church this morning, part of a series on prayer. It was well received. Following church, many of us went on a prayer walk. Milt also spoke at the church plant that meets in our clinic 3 weeks ago and spoke to the student branch of the Christian Medical/Dental Society 2 weeks ago.
But our medical care consumes the great majority of our time. Two weeks ago, Milt's first patient Monday morning was a young woman whose first sentence was that she had several medical problems but that her real problems were her relationship with her boyfriend, her relationship with God and forgiveness. Her priest had forbidden her from receiving communion because of her boyfriend for a whole year, and now had forbidden her from receiving communion for another year because she was still seeing her boyfriend. Because she was Orthodox she believed that forgiveness comes only through the bread and the wine. Milt told her about his own experience of God's forgiveness that comes from praying directly to Jesus. The look on her face at the end of the visit seemed to show a lot more peace, that she had understood what he was trying to tell her.
No doctors from the U.S. or U.K. have volunteered to cover for us while we are gone during August, so we will have to trust the Lord that the training of our doctors that we've done so far will be sufficient for whatever medical problems they see.
We are planning for next winter already. We are getting all the approvals to install a little apartment furnace to heat the water for our apartment's radiators and hot water. We have read that a private heating system like this should cut our heating bills by about 50%. Last winter, our apartment fees, including heat, hot and cold water and gas were almost $80/month! Our apartment has thermopane windows and we lose almost no heat. Of course, we didn't get a reduction for the fact that we had our radiators turned off most of the time.
We thank you again for all your prayer and financial support. Without them we would not be able to continue our ministry here in Bucharest