Renee Valach

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Prayer Letter/Ministry Update

October 2009

At Bongolo Hospital
This month in the hospital there have been several small babies with tuberculosis. One baby in particular is a 9 months old girl. When she started to become very sick, instead of coming to the hospital, the family took her to the witch doctor, who made cuts in the skin of her abdomen over her spleen probably with a razor blade. When the baby finally arrived here she was having trouble breathing and for the first two weeks was near death. She is now off oxygen and is starting to improve. At this time, it is not possible to say whether or not she has HIV, although it is likely she is infected. In any case, she still has a tough road ahead. There are currently two other babies younger than this infant in the hospital with tuberculosis, one of whom has a mother with HIV. Jacques is a much happier child with tuberculosis. He is responding well to the treatment, and after 6 weeks of medicine, he is a 7 year old bundle of playful, boy energy. He attends Sunday School while he is in the hospital.

Kombé is another child in the hospital this month. He is 11 and has Burkitt’s lymphoma, a kind of cancer found particularly in children in Africa. It is the only childhood cancer we treat with chemotherapy here at Bongolo. In America, pediatric chemotherapy is very specialized, but here he is receiving 3 very strong chemotherapy medicines without the normal lab tests. He is currently part way through the first cycle of chemo and the tumor is obviously shrinking! Medically speaking, his tumor was so extensive that his chance of cure is low, but God can do marvelous things.

Life in Gabon
A common homemade toy in Gabon is made of a piece of wood, which kind of resembles a car, which is pushed on the end of a long stick. (In the original prayer letter there is a picture of 5 smiling children, two of whom have this kind of toy.) The names of the grades in school are different here than in America. Secondary school starts with 6th grade and counts down, instead of up, 5th, 4th, 3rd, 2nd, 1st and the last year, Terminale. Primary school, instead of having numbered grades, starts off with CP1 and CP2, then goes to C1 and C2, and finally CM1 and CM2. This year in Sunday School I am teaching the children in CM1 and CM2 which is roughly equivalent to American 4th and 5th grades.

Thanks for praying.
Renee

Prayer Requests/Answers to Prayer

Praise/Thanks
• The car has arrived at the port in Libreville! There is paperwork involved in getting the car released to me. Please pray that the paperwork is processed quickly. (The rainy season has started, and I have already been drenched several times coming back from the hospital. I particularly appreciate the arrival of the car now!)
• The new pastor has arrived at the Bongolo Church. He has some good ideas for the Sunday School and has designated the land for the Sunday School building.
• The votes for the Gabonese presidential election have been recounted and the new president has been inaugurated without incident.
• We are very thankful for a grant from The Alliance Women in the US to help women in crisis. It has arrived at a good time and we are already starting to put it to use.
• Dr. Alain and Dr. Walker are returning next week.

Prayer Requests
• Nelly is in Libreville and will start university classes in November. She has found a place to live with another student. Pray for her as she starts classes and that she can find a part-time job.
• Pray for Kombé the boy with cancer.
• Pray for the children with tuberculosis and children whose mothers have HIV.
• Pray that the lab machine, which has been in the US for repairs, arrives here soon.

Gabon

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