Dear friends,
The festive season is now over. What does this mean for Shell Hospital? Christmas and New Year’s were a time for fellowship as a team, but also for spiritual reflection.
January is traditionally a busy month. They are well prepared for it. Dr. Jorge Rivera treated many patients again during this “holiday period.” The community is strengthened.
But the political situation in South America has changed abruptly. Ecuador is trying to protect itself from Venezuelan refugees. Many already live in the country and have more or less settled in. Will regime loyalists arrive as refugees in the future? Will such groups then fight each other on foreign soil? What does this mean for the drug cartels? They are very adaptable. Will even more drugs flow through Ecuador? Will the US continue to expand its former base near Manta? Even in Ecuador itself, not everyone welcomes these drastic changes.
Hospital Shell has its place here and is grateful for the blessing God bestowed upon us around Christmas time. The funds for the anesthesia machine have arrived. Thank you! This means the biggest hurdle for the health department’s inspection at the beginning of March has been cleared. Now we’re back to the annual check of every single machine and diagnostic device. Our maintenance department will certainly have plenty to do as well.
We’ve already reported on Dr. José Eras, the experienced family practitioner. Now the team is working on admitting more inpatients. We are still looking for a young internist for a full-time position at the hospital. This has been a long-standing prayer request.
More inpatients often mean elderly people in critical condition. For this, we need a new blood gas analyzer in our laboratory, plus training for the staff. This is currently being prepared and is our next goal.
These days (January 8, 2026) mark the 70th anniversary of the deaths of the five missionaries who lost their lives among the Huauranis (Wardani). Our friends at T-Tech have compiled a film that will be shown publicly in the central park of Shell on this anniversary. We hope that this film will also be translated. It also shows the beginning of our story as Hospital Vozandes del Oriente and later as Hospital Shell today.
We have predecessors in faith, and we continue to follow in their footsteps. We are always grateful for the international support of our team.
The new year 2026 will thus be another important step towards the institution’s independence and international networking. Hospital Shell is an important part of God’s plan for Ecuador and for many people from abroad who receive crucial inspiration for their lives there.
With this in mind, God’s blessings in the New Year and thanks for all your faithful connection.
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.