Update re: Pioneer Christian Hospital
by Tom Scatliff
on November 19, 2018
A lifetime ago (or was it just 18 months ago?) our family was in the Republic of Congo for a few months to help establish a feeding program for inpatients at Pioneer Christian Hospital. In addition to the feeding program, we started a gardening initiative to help supplement the cost of the feeding program and provide a locally available, culturally acceptable, and more sustainable source of food. I am thrilled to provide the following update on these two projects.

The chapel building at Pioneer Christian Hospital, Impfondo, Republic of Congo.
A new full-time missionary has arrived at the hospital! Those with fantastic memories may recall Jesse Mitchell visiting us while we were still in the Congo. He is trained as a chef, has served aboard Mercy Ships, and has undergone Gardening God’s Way training (a program aimed at starting community gardens in developing areas). Jesse fell in love with the ministries of the hospital and raised the funds required to head back to Congo full-time and long-term. He is now there and has taken over as acting director for both the feeding program and the gardening initiative. I am greatly relieved that Jesse has taken over these programs and I have stepped back into a role of assisting him in not only keeping both programs running, but also improving, now that we have full-time hands on the ground at the hospital.
I am happy to report that the feeding program continues to run seven days a week to provide all inpatients with hot, nourishing meals. These meals alleviate each patient from needing to find their own food, and provides well-balanced meals in an area with rampant, chronic malnutrition.  
Additionally, when we left the Congo, the garden project looked like this:

Freshly plowed land in June 2017.
And now it looks like this:

Fresh, plump produce in July 2018,
tended to expertly by Jean-Pierre (a national).
I am overjoyed that the projects have been sustained! We are prayerfully considering returning to the Republic of Congo in the New Year to again plug in and assist in the various ministries of the hospital. The radio transmitter of Radio Sango Kitoko, the hospital’s Christian radio station, suffered great damage in a recent lightning strike and the hospital’s communication system and power supply have been intermittent over the past few months. Those issues alone will keep Tom busy for the duration of our stay. Dr. Joseph Harvey and family are set to return to Congo at the end of November and we are praying for the opportunity to go and assist in various ways. Please pray as we will first need to navigate the logistics of acquiring correct documentation for the newest member of our family’s team (set to join us early December).

Thank you for all you do so we can continue to serve in ministry. I hope this update is as encouraging to you as it is to me. Knowing we, together, can make a sustainable impact in an area of such need. Thank you for your sacrifices so we can continue to serve in missions full-time.

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