Dear friends, The new year 2025 will bring many changes in the USA, in Europe, in the Ukraine, in the Middle East and also in Ecuador. We need wise leaders and cooperation, not just big promises that cannot be kept. New opportunities will open up that we cannot see today – an exciting time. We should learn to use these new chances and see difficulties as opportunities!
Ecuador is no exception. A new president will be elected in February from one of the 19 parties running. In the middle of it all is the Shell Hospital:
– We are grateful for a donor who helped to keep the price of the consultation at USD 5 over a period of 14 months in order to help the poor. Now that time is over and the prices have been “normalized”. The number of patients has increased slowly and steadily over the past year and we hope that the trend will continue.
– The Wolffs attended a large Christian youth conference at the beginning of January and presented Shell Hospital in the exhibition hall. 5,500 mostly young people gathered information at the stands. New short-termers are ready to visit Shell to do practical work there. It is the right time because our international guest house is almost completely furnished. All that is missing is the washing machine, stove and refrigerator. We will be opening this house soon. Special thanks go to Patricio Sánchez and his team for their wonderful work! Now we are able to welcome work groups. International exchange is growing.
In December/January we experienced a lot of blessings. We were able to make further progress on paying for the radio site. There is still a small remaining balance before we can complete the purchase of all assets from Reach Beyond – a 5-year process.
Our big internal problem at the moment is the operating rooms. The Ministry of Health has given us until the beginning of March 2025 to equip this area with special linoleum so that we can receive the annual permission to continue. Large Christmas campaigns by two church communities and other donors have helped us to nearly complete this goal. It is always exciting to see how God helps us just in time and when our own income is not enough.
The future: We often accompany young people who want to learn at Shell Hospital. To do this, we should improve the national foundations in Germany and the USA, find such people, establish new relationships and gain experience. To do this, we will need more workers, especially from the ministries UNIDOS e.V. and at LIGHTHOUSE. We older people should also be replaced by committed young people.
The team in Shell is still motivated. Dr.
Jorge Rivera, the head of the Fundación Misión Cristiana de Salud, the Ecuadorian non-profit overseeing the hospital, was in Shell for a few days again and performed eye operations. Here he is the removing scar tissue from the eye of an indigenous patient who lives near the Peruvian border, about an hour’s flight from Shell.
Dr. Jorge Rivera´s eye-surgery
Dr. Jacob Bezemer now works one to two days more in the hospital each week. This ensures more stability.
On the other hand, other employees have left us because they are getting better pay elsewhere.
The surgical department is growing again with Dr. Pupo as the full-time surgeon. This makes the renovation of the operating rooms all the more important.
– We are urgently praying for an internist or intensive care physician so that we can treat more inpatients. These are the current state regulations.
Thank you for all your support in prayer and continued donations into this New Year.
God bless,
The Shell Team
(Eckehart & Klaudia Wolff)
Donations: Lightway Medical Foundation
PO Box 8066
Fort Wayne, IN 46898
Checks can be mailed there, or you can donate through the website.
LightwayMedical.org/donations.
Eckehart.Wolff@gmx.net
KlaudiaWolff@gmx.de
An elderly patient recovered after a long and critical treatment, here with her happy family and Dra. Aslin Santos