Dear friends,
It’s mid-November. The Wolffs have been in Germany for two months, have now set up their house and taken care of most of the important administrative procedures. Now the focus is on Shell again. We are in frequent contact with the hospital and want to report:
There were some initial difficulties, which the management team and the leaders of the foundation have overcome. The team has become more stable as a result and the patients are thankful. The number of surgeries increases. There was done a hip replacement on a Huaurani from the jungle. New
specialties were added, such as reconstructive surgery. Dra. Marisela Colmenares has further improved the ultrasound. Dra Karla Sasintuña, a former intern student with us, is a new support, especially in the weekend service. We are looking for new Family Practitioners and missionaries!!!!!. We from afar accompany the team through prayer and personal connection. It ́s a pleasure.
But there are also major challenges:
The hospital needs more patients. We would like to open up to private insurance companies and the military. The military hospital in nearby Puyo is being scaled back bit by bit. Shell and Puyo are military locations. Insurance companies need a lot more data for billing than our old software
system can provide. Our previous billing system often fails, is repaired by voluntaries from Quito and a company in Argentina, but is unsuitable for billing such external insurance companies. The team is planning a new software system, costing implementation and then around $10,000 per year with the option of external support 24 hours in Ecuador itself. This is an urgent matter.
After finishing to renovate the old kitchen and the lounge for the staff, our maintenance team is free to work on the guest house for working visitors. These spaces for international encounters are important to us because it would be another motivation for helping, which would benefit both the hospital and the young people and their communities and churches. There are still about $37,000 missing over the next few months.
The Hospital Vozandes del Oriente in the past received workgroups and young people from English speaking countries. Please, help us to spread out this message again, especially to North America and Australia/New Zealand etc.
The spiritual development of the hospital is also a source of joy. Some of the new hires are remote from the faith or not particularly dedicated. The leadership offers various Bible studies. Wednesday prayer continues. Employees have developed more initiative. The patients are also cared for in the waiting room and tracts are distributed again. The ministry continues, albeit in a different form. That’s encouraging. The hospital is God’s work, independent of the Wolffs and God stands by the promises of June 2013, which keep coming true. HE is faithful. We want to celebrate this faithful Lord, who himself started small and insignificant in Jesus with a big goal for the whole world, a fact we celebrate on Christmas.
Eckehart & Klaudia and the great team in Shell
P.S.: At the end of October 2022, Eckehart and Klaudia officially retired as missionaries of the Deutsch Missionsgemeinschaft. However, we are still connected to the Foundation and the hospital and willing to provide further information.
For Donations:
Lightway Medical Foundation
PO Box 8066
Fort Wayne, IN 46898
Checks can be mailed there, or you can donate
through the websites.
LightwayMedical.org/donations.
and
HospitalShell.org
