“There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity.” Ecclesiastes 3:1
Many of you are experiencing the arrival of the autumn season. We at Shyira are thankful for the arrival of rainy season. During this time it will rain almost everyday, though usually we have sun, too, thankfully. The people here have started planting their crops, and we’re looking forward to having a better water supply.
What other “seasons” are we in?
Well, we had a busy season of visitors this summer: 3 Morehead Scholars from University of North Carolina—Ali Tharrington, Caroline Schneider, and Lisette Yorke— and 6 from St. Andrew’s Mt. Pleasant—Amy Ruddy, Julia Richards and Jane Bond, followed by Bill and Susalee Sasser and Reese McElveen.
Our visitor who came from furthest away was Misako Kaji, who came all the way from Japan to see us. I think she was impressed with our lack of electricity, but she managed the conditions well, even though she lost her suitcase, and only got it back on the day she left. We also had visitors from NY, Atlanta, Connecticut, Arkansas, Falls Church, VA and other places.
It was also a season of celebration. Louise celebrated her 40th birthday on July 4th. As in the US, the 4th of July is a holiday here, commemorating the day in 1994 when the RPF took over Kigali, ending the genocide and war. We had a picnic by the river, and we had lots of guests, including about 80 children who waded across the stream to watch! She’s talked about climbing Kilimanjaro for her 40th, so we still have 9 months left before it’s too late. Just living and walking around here isn’t a bad preparation.
We also celebrated the 75th anniversary of the church at Shyira. The church, hospital, and school were started in 1931 by the Rwanda Mission which came out of England. We had a big celebration, and enjoyed having a delegation from St. Luke’s, Formby, England, who have done so much for the hospital, church, and schools.
Both of these occasions were also seasons of reflection. Especially for the mission, we ask ourselves, what has been accomplished? What else needs to be done? What’s the best way to help? The theme of the conference was “By their fruits you shall know them (Matthew 7:20).” We are thankful for the fruits we see around us—the church, the hospital, the school, but still see more work to be done—to help the poverty, the many people who don’t attend church, and the continued ethnic tensions.
It has been a season of work: with the hospital work, overseeing construction, homeschooling, language learning, we have all been pretty busy.
We are thankful that we were able to finish the house for our new pharmacist, Felicity Williamson, as well as that for our new OB/GYN, Matthias Kohls, and his wife, Iris, and their 3 girls. They are a great addition to our community. They have gotten over some initial “Shyira shock”—electricity only 2 hours at night, intermittent water (worse than usual during our recent dry season), bad roads—and have settled in well. Their 2 oldest girls go to the nursery school with Lydia and they all enjoy playing together. Iris has started doing a Bible club on Friday afternoons, which our children really enjoy, and I really enjoy the peace and quiet for those few hours. Matthias has started taking on some cases that we previously had to transfer, like a case yesterday of an intestinal perforation from typhoid, which is so much better for our patients. Keep them in your prayers as they continue to adjust to life here.
We did have a brief season of rest, when we went to the annual Kumbya mission conference, for missionaries in this area. We had a good time of fellowship and relaxation. The children had a great time at the children’s program, and at the beach.
As we close this letter, we do want to mention some prayer requests:
We have some upcoming projects, including renovating our operating room. Now that we have a surgeon, we’d like to get our operating room better functioning (how do we get those pesky flies out?) and we’ve received some funds from St. Andrew’s Mt. Pleasant to do it (thank you, Lord), so we would like to make it a really well functioning operating room. Of course, now that we are operating more, we need a real post-operative patient ward.
Please pray for a potential hydroelectric project. The U.S. Ambassador is coming out to visit in the next weeks, in part with a view to looking at the site, which could power not only the hospital, but our surrounding district.
My sister-in-law, Julie Convisser, and her friend Amy Ball, are working on a project to connect Shyira with Chatham, NJ to help build
housing for patients with HIV/AIDS as well as for the staff who care for them. Many of these are widows and orphans, with very little income. Please pray that this project will go well. If you want to know more, or help out, you can write us or contact Julie at
convisserjm@earthlink.net.
Please pray for our patients, especially the children. We have an overflowing malnutrition ward—we’re not sure why the numbers are increasing. Many of them have protein malnutrition, and they look very swollen. Also, our HIV children have a hard time—sick, malnourished, often in the poorest of poor families. Despite access to antiretrovirals, many of them don’t survive long enough to start them.
Please continue to pray for our children—Sara, Hannah, Caleb Jr. and Lydia—for their continued good health and that they would grow in their love of the Lord. Pray for Caleb and me, too, that we would be prepared, in season and out of season, to be witnesses for our Lord.
We give thanks to all of you who support us with your prayers, interest, and financial contributions. We pray that many will continue to visit and that those unable to come will keep in touch by email and letters. We thank you for sharing these seasons.
Contact info:
Caleb and Louise King
Shyira Hospital
BP 26
Ruhengeri, Rwanda
Phone, in Rwanda +250 0830 7417
For donations:
King Family/Shyira Hospita
c/o DOCS
PO Box 24597
St Simons Island, GA 31522
Call Caroline at 912-634-0065 with questions
