Dear
Friends:
“I
will lead them in paths that have not known, I will make darkness light before
them,
and crooked things straight...”
“He
that hath mercy on them shall lead them, even by springs of waters shall He
guide
them...”.
[personal,
redacted]
In recent
months there have been many new experiences along with the duties of
each day.
Life on “hospital hill” is never dull. Often there are weariness and stress
and
strain in caring for the sick, but there are also many joys, and we praise the
Lord
for all the
help and blessing that He provides. During this year a good deal of time
and
effort has gone into construction of new buildings and repair of old. The
biggest
of these
jobs was the remodeling of the dispensary building, which included the
addition
of some new rooms and an entirely new roof with tiles to replace the grass.
It was
well worth the effort for new the building is much more convenient and more
fire-proof
as well. We are hoping to start soon to put a tile roof on the other main
hospital
building, as it houses a good deal of valuable equipment and the fire hazard
is a very
real one.
Long
journeys have been made during the past year in an effort to establish new
leper
colonies at nine of our stations in the section of our field. A beginning has
been
made so
that more than five hundred lepers are now under treatment at these
various
places. Government formalities are still pending, but we trust this part of the
work may
be developed into a means of reaching many of the lepers for the Lord.
We would
especially value your prayer help that these colonies may be established
without
undue restriction.
This
year’s class of “nurses” or “medical boys” has settled in nicely. There are
fifteen
students,
coming from eight mission stations, all of them Christians who plan to
serve the
Lord in ministering to the sick on their own stations after their period of
training
is completed. The class work and the supervision of their practical work
helps
make a full schedule, but it’s all in the days work.
The
surgery has been a strenuous part of the job and somehow we never seem to be
able to
catch up with the waiting list. There is enough of variety to keep it
interesting.
This department more than any other enables us to reach patients from
far
afield, for they readily walk two or three hundred miles for an operation. One
of
the
recent “interesting cases” was an old man who walked about two hundred miles
from his
village in the Sudan for a cataract operation. He had waited over a year to
come
because his mother, whom he needed to lead him, had no dress to wear.
Somehow a
dress materialized, for she proudly wears it every day. And he too is very
pleased
with himself now that he can see again, and it’s fun to watch him walk up to
the
Gospel service in the morning on his own and not at his mother’s apron strings.
And her
grin is as broad as his.
Our warm
greetings to each of you, together with sincere thanks for your prayers,
your letters,
and your gifts, all of which have been a great help in the work here.
May his
blessing be yours daily in a very special way.
Yours in
His service, Ralph and Coralee Kleinschmidt
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