Back to Congo
by Tom Scatliff
on March 5, 2019
We’re returning to Impfondo, in the Republic of Congo! Why? To assist Pioneer Christian Hospital, a 75-bed missionary hospital that serves a very low resource population, in a variety of ways…


A virtual tour of Pioneer Christian Hospital.
First, the hospital feeding program that we established while there two years ago is now entering stage two. With the addition of a full time missionary to oversee the program, we get to move from relying on dehydrated vegetables shipped from North America to a more sustainable system of locally-grown produce. The garden we established on the hospital grounds is now capable of supplying this produce for the patients, and I (Candice), will be working with the new program director, Jesse Mitchell, to plan and implement these changes. Our goal is to not only improve the nutritional quality of the food, but also the cultural acceptability and reduce overall cost of the program. It has taken years, but it’s finally the time to marry the hospital feeding program with the garden initiative and I couldn’t be more excited about it!

Bean preparation in the hospital kitchen.
Second, to assist in the transition of leadership from Dr. Joe Harvey, the medical doctor that has been pioneering the hospital since its inception in 2002, to nationals and new missionary staff. Dr. Harvey’s own medical condition requires him to step back from leadership and Tom will be able to assist in training the national staff on many of the technical considerations of running the hospital (generators, solar power banks, communication systems, etc.) and the hospital’s Christian radio station (transmitter maintenance, broadcasting computer systems, and the like).
Third, to field-test much of the equipment Tom has been designing and engineering at SonSet Solutions.  This includes the new version of the solar-powered fixed-tuned SonSet radio®, a power quality analyzer, and the SonSetLink™ remote satellite monitoring system on an India Mark II water pump.
 
A “Behind the Scenes” look at baby entrance visa photos.
As always in ministry, I’m sure there will be a whole host of other activities we’ll be involved with during our time there and we’ll need to remain flexible, adaptable, and teachable (as being ‘FAT’ is a requirement to serve in Congo).
We leave mid-March and will be home, Lord willing, by June. This is the window we have between Tom’s responsibilities of mentoring engineering students in March, for spring break, and engineering interns over the summer. This time frame allows for ten weeks in Impfondo plus travel on either side. A fun side note is that the cheapest route to Congo takes us through Montreal! We are blessed to have a layover in Montreal that includes a Sunday… So we will see you, Lakeshore Church, on Sunday, March 17th! Woo-hoo!

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