Answered Prayers/Friday at Mazimbu

For all of you who prayed for power today, prayers were answered. Although fuel for the generator had not yet been purchased, the electricity worked uninterrupted. Please continue to pray for consistent, dependable power for us for the rest of our trip.

Doug did one surgery alone today and worked with Dr. Swai on two more. The power outage yesterday delayed our start because they were unable to sterilize the instruments until this morning. So we got started later than intended. That caused us to reschedule the fourth surgery to Monday. As we always find in Tanzania when we have to change a schedule, our patient was understanding and did not complain. She accepted the news and wished us a good weekend.

Due to the late start to the day, it was almost 7 pm before we left Mazimbu. To celebrate the end of our first week, we enjoyed pizza at a local haunt, Dragonaire. It is almost 10 pm now and we are just finishing up our meal, sitting at an open air table under the stars.

Update on Ben—He was blessed by a visit from his aunts and uncles and cousins, who travelled from Dar es Salaam to see him. The mattress was successfully purchased in Oklahoma and, thanks to the USPS, is en route to Tanzania and is expected late next week. He is no longer troubled by nausea and is enjoying food again, along with protein supplements. Our hope is that he will start to regain some of the weight he has lost and that he will be able to begin to rebuild muscle.