Mission to Tanzania
Our church has maintained a missions
ministry in Kagoma, Tanzania since 1983.
UBC has helped build a
Baptist hospital in Kagoma and continues to send volunteers to help there.
Follow the history link below for a section outlining UBC's Involvement in
the
mission in Tanzania, including pictures (see link below).
Are YOU interested in
becoming part of the mission team to Tanzania? Click the "Mission Team" link for
more information.
[ Barabaig ] [ History ] [ Kigoma Hosp. ] [ Mission Team ]
[Hospital
Website]
Our first missionaries to Tanzania were
members of our own church, and their latest letters were posted here as
received from them. By 2002, we were supporting several different mission teams
in Tanzania. Please remember them all in your prayers.
[Ed. note: Recently letters (2001) have been printed
in the church's newsletter, the UBC Informer instead of here. We will be
copying them to this page as time permits.]
April 26, 2002
January 2002
November 2001
March 2000:
April
1998:
March
1998:
April 26, 2002
(Ed Note: The following letter was a reply to someone asking where to send
medical supplies meant for the hospital in Kigoma. It includes information about
mailing to Africa.)
Dear Glenda,
I am a former missionary doctor who ran Kigoma Baptist Hospital until 2 years
ago. We send supplies by sea container about once a year to the hospital, which
is the cheapest way to send bulky or heavy items. If it is one box, you might
want to send it by mail. If it is something valuable, definitely do not send it
by mail because of the potential for theft. Remember on the customs declaration
to put the lowest price the items would sell for at a yard sale--most medical
items have little value at a yard sale. The Kigoma Hospital will have to pay
customs on whatever value you declare.
Mail to: Kigoma Baptist Hospital
Box 89
Kigoma, TANZANIA
East Africa
Remember to mark the envelope/box "Air Mail" or it will take 6 months to get
there.
I have attached two information sheets
to this e-mail to give you something to share with people about the hospital. We
badly need donors to the hospital endowment to make the hospital sustainable. At
present it is not financially sustainable. Our goal is to raise 1 million
dollars. So far we have about $330,000.
Thanks for your interest, prayers and support.
Bill Harrington
January 11, 2002
(Ed Note: The following letter was written to a surgeon who was seeking
information about volunteering in the Kigoma Baptist Hospital. It is reprinted
here because it has so much good information about the hospital and life in
Tanzania.)
Dear .....,
I am Jonathan Newkirk MD, Director of Kigoma Baptist Hospital in Kigoma
Tanzania. We are located on Lake Tanganyika, near the Burundi border. I heard
you were interested in medical missions here in Tz so I thought I'd send you
some information.
Kigoma Baptist Hospital is a 40 bed tropical hospital that serves a
population of about 350,000 residents in the towns of Ujiji and Kigoma. It also
is the referral hospital for much of western Tz. Most of our patients are
Muslim. We are also the referral hospital for the International Red Cross and
the UNHCR. Kigoma is the site of the single largest refugee population ever in
the world. Kigoma is the logistics hub for over 20 refugee camps within a days
drive of here, housing over 500,000 refugees from the ongoing conflicts in
Burundi and Congo. We are currently receiving about 500 refugees a week, mostly
from the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Our little hospital, although small and basic in scope, is considered the
best hospital by independent government evaluation in western Tz. We are
isolated, understaffed and undersupported, and we are the end of the line for
most medical problems that arrive here. Our missionary staff consists of me
(Board certified FP from Kansas), Susan Smith MD (general surgeon) and Patrick
Brunson (Pharm/Administrator). Patrick and his family will be going on stateside
assignment in May or June and will be gone from the field for at least 12
months, perhaps 18 months.
Due to our limited staff and general patient population everyone participates
in all aspects of medical care. Susan, for example makes rounds on all patients,
regardless of who they are (peds, OB, gyn, internal med, burns, etc) in addition
to operating, and I not only care for general medical patients, but do pretty
much all the surgical procedures that Susan does. We of course help each other
out and supplement each other's strengths and weaknesses. However, the scope and
amount of work requires us all to pitch in everywhere.
We are also involved in initiating mobile medical clinics to some very remote
and unreached areas in Western Tz. This is primarily my responsibility. We have
been limited in doing this due to inadequate doctor coverage however.
In addition to the medical evangelism, we are all involved in supporting the
local churches, preaching, teaching, disciplining, supervising and advising. We
try to have the local churches be as independent as possible, therefore we end
up refocusing them on trusting God for their needs instead of supplying monetary
support ourselves. There is no mission budget for these activities but we all
truly enjoy it. My wife and I particularly like traveling to the remote villages
in our area and to the various refugee camps to preach and teach and help build
churches. (Not necessarily church buildings however) Most of this activity is
squeezed in around hospital responsibilities.
Kigoma and Ujiji are responsive to the gospel, with Muslims receiving Jesus
Christ as Savior on a regular basis. We have a well developed chaplaincy at the
hospital and a Christian bookstore as well. This is one of the few places in the
world where Muslims are open to the gospel. We see several receive the Lord
weekly.
Our current needs include more doctors, short and long term. Medical
students, particularly fourth year students would also be welcome in addition to
residents in family practice. Doctors and residents of other specialties are
welcome, but must realize that they will be required to pitch in with all types
of patients. Our surgical capacity is limited due to nurse/surgical staffing and
instrument availability. Doing three cases a day is about our limit and cannot
be sustained everyday due to problems with keeping instruments sterile etc. (We
have problems with adequate electricity and old sterilizers!) Flexibility and
adaptability is an absolute necessity to survival here.
Kigoma has all the basic necessities, including food, running water and
electricity much of the time, a great lake to swim in and lots of spectacular
scenery and wildlife. The political environment is pretty stable even though all
of our nearby neighbors are at some state of war or conflict. Housing is
available, both mission housing and rental housing, with all the basics,
including kitchens, pots and pans, bathrooms, showers etc. The housing is basic,
but very livable. The climate is nice, with temps in the 88-90 degree range
daily, with fairly high humidity. Lows at night rarely get below 70. We have a
distinct rainy season and dry season. (Six months of each) When in the rainy
season, it is really wet, making the roads impassible much of the time. When it
is the dry season it won't rain at all for six months, making things incredibly
dusty.
Well, that's the basics! What do you think? Are you interested in coming to
work with me, my wife and family and the rest of our team for short or long
term? Let me know about any questions you might have and I'll try to give you
the straight story! We are constantly praying for more help. Maybe the Lord is
answering through you. We truly want those who God has called to come here. We
don't want to recruit! This is an incredibly rewarding place to live and work,
but it is one of the most difficult places to live and work as well.
Looking forward to hearing from you soon.
In Christ,
Jonathan Newkirk MD AAFP
Kigoma Baptist Hospital
newkirk@africaonline.co.tz
November 28, 2001
(Ed. Note: The following is from a letter from the Harringtons, missionaries
serving Kigoma)
Why would anyone devote years of their life to a mission hospital on the
other side of the world? We spent 10 years in Kigoma and continue to spend hours
each week working on behalf of Kogoma Baptist Hospital because God has given us
compassion for those physically and spirutually needy souls. The recent terror
we have sensed among Americans [Ed. note: the September 11
tragedy in New York] flashes us back to the fear of disease that torments
Tanzanians every day as parents wonder whether their children will live to
adulthood or whether they and their spouses will survive long enough to raise
their children. The harshness of African diseases, scarcity of good medical
care, and lack of financial resources combine to create a fatalistic perspective
for them. Kigoma Baptist Hospital provides hope as we treat, teach and preach
physical and spiritual health.
Southern Baptists' gifts through the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering and the
Cooperative Program provide missionaries to serve Kigoma and the rest of the
world. Gifts by others directly to the Kigoma Baptist Hospital Endowment help
make medical treatment and surgery affordable and sustainable for the sick and
dying. The endowment is approaching a balance of $400,000, but another $600,000
is needed to ultimately sustain this ministry. A newly constructed obstetrics
ward stands unopened because we still lack sufficient funds to hire necessary
personnel. Please contact us if you would like to participate in this ministry
or know of others who would like to join us in this endeavor. Our email is
SBCHarrington@aol.com
March 2000 Letter:
(Ed. Note: The following are excerpts from a letter sent to
Dorothy Miller's sister.)
...The Brunsons had invited a volunteer team to come from
Alabama. They have been here the past 10 days. They leave
today. Three of the men lived with us and one stayed with
Sid and Shirley. I served them breakfast, they ate lunch at
Billie Bob's Hotel Restaurant at the hospital, and then we
all shared taking turns for the evening meal. They helped
finish pouring the cement floor for the new OB ward. They
fixed many electrical things; two of them are electrical
engineers. The washing machine in our house had just quit.
Kelly fixed it, so now I don't have to carry my laundry to
Sid's house. One of the guys tried to match all the
unlabeled keys at the hospital with a door and then label
it. I don't think he was totally successful. They helped
haul gravel and sand, mix cement and lots more.
...David's been busy keeping the volunteers busy. They
leave at 7:15 in the morning and don't usually return until
at least 5:30. Now the cement needs to cure, he's planning
on letting his day workers have a week off and catching up
on paperwork. The government is trying to decide whether to
let organizations keep their duty free status, so the
Baptist has 2 sea containers sitting in the port in Dar. One
of them has the goods from Dubai that David had Mike E.
purchase for the OB ward and the other contains the x-ray
machine that Sid purchased for the OB ward. David's been
calling Dar giving them suggestions that might help get the
containers through customs. We ask your prayer support in
getting the containers through customs. Because after the
walls go up they will just have to wait for the supplies
from Dubai.
Cheryl H., missionary from Arusha, is staying in Dr.
Susan's house for the next 5 weeks. She is finishing her
nurse practitioner's degree. She needs hours of practice, so
she is working with Dr. Jonathan N. to finish her degree.
Dr. Susan is on vacation in the States. She'll return at the
end of this month.
We're looking forward to David's brother, Greg, who's
coming for a visit at the end of this month.
Shirley's doing such a good job on the hospital books
that I'm just putting hospital information on the computer.
I'm also teaching Drew B. 5th grade math in the afternoons.
Cheryl and I were having 30 minutes of school every morning.
We'll start again now that Cheryl will have her bedroom
back. We're learning to color, cut, put puzzles together,
glue, stack blocks and lots more.
The rainy season must have just started. We had a hard
long rain 2 days ago. This morning it was thundering and
lightning, now it's started to rain gently. It's been very
dry.
The other day we had lots of water. I don't know what my
house worker was doing, but she broke the main waterline to
our house. We had water gushing everywhere. I didn't know
where the cut-off from the city line was to be found. I
asked help from the men missionaries, but they didn't know
where the cut-off was either. I was lucky because it was
time for Dave and the guys to come home. It was a good
lesson for the missionaries to learn. Now Jonathan and
others know where the main water cut-off is.
Love, Dorothy, David, and Cheryl
April 1998 Letter:
Greetings to our Church Family,
I have just returned from a trip to Dubai, UAE (middle east). I was asked by
the mission to go and investigate two subjects, health and wholesale foodstuffs, for them.
The trip was very interesting and fruitful but I will send more on it at a later time.
Here in Kigoma, the hospital has gotten very busy, based on receipts we are
about twice as busy as when Sid was here. The battery backup system is almost on line
which is good because the hospital is getting only about 5 hours of electricity every
WEEK. The railroads and roads are still not functioning because of high water. We still
have some shortages in town.
Something to think about: In my Sunday School class, we have been studying the
story of The Good Samaritan. For homework, I asked each student to do an act of kindness
expecting nothing in return like the Good Samaritan The next week I asked for a report. No
one had done anything! Most kept their heads down. After some more questions one student
said, "If we stop to help someone who has been beaten and we take them to the
hospital, then the police will come and arrest us. Because in this country if you help
someone like that it is assumed that you took part in the beating."
At this time our local church is thinking about buying a plot of land to build
a new church in the heart of Ujiji. It will cost them 5000,000 Tsh. Please pray for this
with us.
David, Dorothy, and Cheryl Miller
March 1998 Letter:
Since our last report the weather has let up a little. The train started
running part of the way from Dar to here. Our only road connection to the rest of Tanzania
is now open for 100 kilometers - only 250 more and we can get to another city.
Sid and I have all the back up power solar/battery hooked up. We are waiting on
battery acid to charge the system and test it.
Shirley has been keeping the hospital books and helping with teaching at the MK
school
I had another Tanzania adventure last week. I hopped a small plane from Kigoma
to Torbora. The purpose of the trip was to evaluate a house the mission is buying for new
student work being opened. The next day I was to take the train back home. The schedule
was changed without notice giving me an extra day in Torbora. The second day the train was
to leave at 6:30 a.m. I got to my compartment at 6:00 a.m. and sat there until 4:00 p.m.
(Yes, that is 4:00 p.m.!) The train left the station around 4:00 p.m. and traveled for one
hour and stopped. We sat on a stalled train for over 24 hours at a place with no water, no
food, nothing. After several more starts and stops we made it to Kigoma in only 41 hours.
Usual time for this trip is 12 hours. In early March I will try the same trip again only
this time I will take the train both ways!
We should get to visit two refugee camps this weekend. Pray for this refugee
problem and a way to share the Gospel with these displaced peoples.
Pray for the Bible school here in Kigoma, and that I can get time to finish the
library there on this trip. Pray for Dorothy and I as we work with Cheryl. Pray for my
Sunday School class (meets Monday at our house). I have about nine young men I am working
with. They are the future church leaders for here. Our love to you all and our deepest
thanks for your prayers and support.
David, Dorothy, and Cheryl Miller
