Following God's Lead

We appreciate you taking the time to read our newsletters each month. We love to hear back from you whenever you get a chance to reply. Some of you have asked, “What has Amy been doing there at Bongolo?” Well, here you go!

Hospital
Four days a week Amy works at the Caisse or cashiers office at the hospital. This is a first stop for every patient coming to the hospital. They get registered in a log book for the day, and pay for the services they will receive. If other tests or labs get added they return and those amounts are added to their name in the log. This has been a good way to get familiar with Gabonese names, learn the money (CFA) quickly and work on French, as all the ladies in the Caisse speak only French. It is a totally cash system here in Gabon so every patient is paying cash and all the employee salaries are paid in cash. After the morning rush at the Caisse, there is also monthly bookkeeping and accounting for the hospital to be done. The hospital accepts one national insurance company so Amy also helps with processing the claims to be sent to the insurance company. The hospital tries to send in 3,000 claims a month so she helps with data entry whenever she can.

Insurance claims ready to be mailed.

One day a week Amy has started to help her teammate Meladee with the inventory of medical supplies that Bongolo receives. Each container we receive is full of donations of various medical supplies. They sort, group and organize the supplies, looking for expired items and trying to find what the doctors and nurses need up at the hospital.

Sometimes you find things that are really old!

Home
Everything takes just a little longer here at home. All our drinking and cooking water needs filtered, fruits and vegetables need washed or bleached, and we can’t make a quick run to the store to find all the items we have planned for our weekly meals. We do have steady electricity with a good backup generator for the station, hot and cold water, a washing machine and dryer and a deep freezer along with the other basic appliances. We go to the grocery (do not picture Kroger, it is more of a mini mart) and market each week to see what they have and then figure out our meals from what we can find. The freezer is handy because when we are in Libreville (the capital city) for any reason, we try and do some shopping to profit from the variety of frozen meats and vegetables there (and mini Magnum ice cream bars!!). We have a house helper or ménagère, Isabelle, who comes twice a week to help clean, do laundry, filter water and burn trash.


Amy is grateful to have a place to serve at the hospital and at home. When we arrived we knew God had plans for her to serve in some area(s) of the hospital ministry, we just didn’t know where. After praying and seeking God’s will, these areas became evident and Amy has found her niche here on the team.

"For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” (Jeremiah 29:11)