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Andrea and Mark Hotchkin
June 2025
Life is full of surprises
Dear Friends,
Trust in Lord with all your heart and do not rely on your own insight. In all your ways acknowledge him and he will make straight your paths. Proverbs 3 v 5 - 6.
This has been a season of trusting God of finding how he has provided for our needs and shown us how to use our time. As you are aware this has meant helping with the Guest house here at TEAM in the absence of one of the other missionaries and having a prolonged opportunity to learn the Tedaga language. Now it seems that season is over but not exactly as we would have imagined. We were recently able to find out that the waiting list for Marks procedure is 7 months. That means we are looking at November as a possibility with a return to the UK a month before for tests. Coupled with the fact that Mark has not had any problems for 2 months now, we are considering going to Bardai for a few months as we wait. This is exciting news and we are now awaiting health clearance. If this happens we are making tentative plans to fly on the 24th July, just a month away.
At the hospital the emergency room has been progressing well and is now awaiting the roofing materials which are travelling across the desert at this moment, it looks as if it will be such a huge improvement on the present situation where you barely have room to see a patient. The best and again surprising news is however that we have new staff arriving to work in it. A large number of staff including 19 doctors and 17 nurses and 2 midwives have been sent to the Tibesti. They will work in health centres and the other hospital in the area as well as Bardai. Some have already arrived and the rest will arrive in a few days in a military plane. We hope that many will stay and that this will really mean a step forward in the care the hospital can offer.
In the meantime, the church has also seen the reality of the words from Proverbs as the building is now complete with a roof and just when we were getting excited about this we received a picture from our missionary colleague in Bardai astonished to find as he walked into church that they had also managed to concrete the floor too. A special offering was made that same Sunday and 126,000 CFA was raised (£170). An average normal offering is around 30,000 CFA (£40) to give you an idea of how amazing this is. We praise God. Doors and windows are still needed and eventually the walls will be plastered but there is already a good solid building for services.
Last time we asked for prayer for our invitation letter to be renewed and it is good to say this was achieved with the minimum of fuss and when we went to pick it up we were invited to meet with the Minister of Health on his return from Geneva where he was at a WHO conference. We plan to do this when Dr Abdelkerim returns from Bardai to Ndjamena which he will do soon now there are some doctors in Bardai. The letter has already been put to good use enabling us to receive some medical supplies sent by DHL without paying any Import Tax, which we can take with us to Bardai.
We thank God for:
- Marks good health
- The good news of the new Emergency department nearly completed.
- The almost completed church building
- The new staff for the hospital
- Our invitation letter
Please pray for:
- A visit to be possible with Dr Abdelkerim to the Minister of Health before we leave for Bardai
- Good relationships and collaboration with the new doctors and nurses.
- A good resettling in Bardai.
- Wise decisions around the procedure on Mark's heart.
Let us all continue to trust in God whatever our situation and to lean on him for guidance and not rely only on ourselves as we follow him each day.
With love
Mark and Andrea