Ardill's News

Billardill@maf.org                                                            May 1999

Busy in the Kingdom

1999 started well with a visit from a team from two of our churches in the United States. Dorothy’s parents also visited for a month. They were all a great encouragement to us after a difficult time last year. Dorothy continues to be busy coordinating the home entertaining, housekeeping and home schooling. She is also enjoying serving as an enabler for the many ministries of Gidan Bege. Two close Nigerian women friends of hers contracted AIDS. It has been emotionally draining being involved with these women who are becoming more ill each day and whose families face difficult times ahead. AIDS is becoming an enormous problem in Nigeria and we are challenging Christians and the churches to become more aware of this devastating disease and its implications in families and every aspect of church and community life.

Marie is doing well in second grade. The four Kirschner kids will be leaving for the States this summer for their furlough and our girls will miss them a great deal. It is difficult to prepare them for this but unfortunately it is one of the most painful aspects of life on the mission field. It seems we are often saying goodbye.

Bill has also had a variety of teaching opportunities this year. He is teaching the Hillcrest School senior Bible/ethics class three afternoons a week, the book of Acts to the students of the Nigerian Evangelical Missionary Society every Thursday and medical lectures to the Evangel Hospital residents. It seems Bill is also on so many boards and committees that he is away from the hospital about one week a month. He has to regularly remind folk that he is a surgeon not a career committee member!

Since December 1998 the two government hospitals in Jos have been on strike so Evangel has been the only major hospital open in our city of 500,000. Bill has been very busy with the increased surgical load. The cases have been challenging and interesting but the hospital staff are tired. One hospital opened last week so the load should lighten a bit. We were thrilled to participate in the annual vesicovaginal fistula (VVF) reunion in April. Over 100 women who had received treatment for VVF at Evangel returned for a weekend of reporting, evaluation and thanksgiving. Many trusted Christ during the weekend and we are encouraged and challenged by their courageous faith. We also had the groundbreaking for a new hostel and ward for these women. This will enable us to provide better medical treatment, vocational rehabilitation and more focused counseling and follow-up.

During Dorothy’s father’s visit in December and January, he helped the hospital maintenance staff get operational the borehole we had dug six months earlier. It has been marvelous to have water during the dry season, especially when the water board has been on strike! Most surgeons like to use clean instruments and wash their hands once in a while! Dad had a good education in culture and frustration. A job that should have taken a week took him a month to finish.

We are also in the process of raising funds to purchase another generator for the hospital. The current Caterpillar diesel generator has been struggling for over twenty years and needs a lot of repair. With the inconsistent local electricity, reliable standby power is vital for smooth functioning of the hospital. Bill says, "It is a lot harder to do surgery in the dark, trust me!" If you are interested in contributing toward this project, send your gift to the SIM office in Charlotte and designate it for Nigeria Evangel Hospital Generator Project # 96503.

The urban ministry to the destitute in Jos, Gidan Bege, continues to grow by leaps and bounds. During this dry season we put in new outside pit latrines and renovated some of the roofs. All the former tenants are out of the hotel part and the shops. We have moved the staff into the facility and have a place for the new converts and cripples. We will begin using the shops for selling materials produced in the vocational training programs. Bill is planning to set up a prosthetics workshop to use to both produce prostheses and train amputees in various handcraft skills. A new night outreach has also started between midnight and 2 am to street boys. After they watch the evening martial arts movies in the local cinemas, they hang out in the motor parks/taxi/bus stations drinking and playing games. The Gidan Bege staff have begun Bible studies with these boys at 1:00 am and recently took in eight more boys who had been sleeping on the streets.

We are excited that we are going to Maryland for four weeks this summer – mid June to mid July. We are quite tired and the girls have been asking about their relatives in America, so we decided to use our vacation time for this year and spend the time in Annapolis. We regret we will not be able to see most of our friends and supporters in the U.S. but feel we need the time for rest and renewal. Thanks for your prayers and support in so many ways. We love getting your letters, packages and e-mails.