Prayer Letter

Since I last wrote, I attended the BMS all-staff conference in the UK, which was a fantastic week of intercultural worship, learning and envisioning.  It was great to be with people from all over the world and to hear different perspectives on mission and ‘how things are done’.  It was also great to see colleagues who I rarely see or who I’ve only met online before. 

Coming back to Chad for my last 3 months has been good but also feels a little strange!  I have loved being able to ‘sit back’ a bit and see how the Chadians are dealing with work that I used to do, trying to ignore the urge to take stuff back on, but to leave them to it, knowing they can ask me for help or advice if needed.  It hasn’t all been ‘sitting back’ though, as I’ve continued to hand over more aspects of my work here to Chadians.  I’ve been encouraging and coaching Cleopas to train Valerie in the work of keeping the pharmacy stocked and hospital departments and patients supplied, rather than me training her and him observing.  He’s been doing great with some support and advice from me and Valerie is a quick learner which helps.  Valerie hasn’t needed to cover anyone else’s work in pharmacy for the last few months, so she’s been able to concentrate on learning from Cleopas and putting the learning into practice.  August will be her last month being able to do some learning for a while due to others going on holiday, including Cleopas.  I already knew about this and had agreed to cover Cleopas’s two weeks off at the start of September, but in various discussions between Cleopas, Valerie and myself, I’ve emphasised the need that they need to plan their holidays well for 2027, so that they can cover each other and not have others on holiday at the same time as them.  All part of the learning curve!  The two photos show Cleopas showing Valerie how to create purchase orders on the computer and there’s also a selfie of the three us to prove I’m still here!!

Apart from working with Cleopas and Valerie a bit (I’m mainly leaving them to it, so they continue to get used to working without me present) I’ve also been working with Agnès, our chief nurse.  The third photo is of Agnès and me.  You may recognise us from the front cover of the current BMS prayer diary 😉 Agnès and I have been working on her learning how to write donor reports, create beneficiary stories for donors and so on.  Agnès is on the management team and is a key member of staff at the hospital.  She is great, extremely proactive, energetic and has a ‘can do’ attitude.  Working with her is a joy and it’s great to see her take on different roles while leaving some of her previous tasks to her two nursing supervisors.

There are still things I need to hand over but, thankfully, I’ve got a few more months yet to do so.  Now that I’ve disengaged from a lot of my previous roles, it’s giving me time to focus on handovers, training and, hopefully, finishing well.  I leave Chad on 14 October.  It will soon come around, and my next prayer letter will be written with only a couple of weeks to go left in Chad.

In order to stay until October though, my annual visa needs renewing in the middle of August.  I don’t foresee any issues, but you can never tell what may happen, so your prayers about that would be appreciated!  The situation regarding the issuing of visas to Americans sadly remains unchanged.

After the BMS conference I had a week’s holiday with my family, celebrating my parents 50^th Wedding Anniversary.  It was good to spend time with them and explore a new area.  Pretty much after we got back, I was packing up ready to head back to Chad.  It was strange not bringing much personal stuff back with me and only leaving the UK for 3 months.  It feels good to be back, Chad is like home to me now after over 10 years.  Leaving is not going to be easy in some ways, as I generally know how things work here now and I don’t know how things work/are organised so much in the UK.  A lot has changed in the UK in the last decade!  Far more is done online, at a distance or by self-service than ever.  TV is on demand.  There is ‘smart’ this and ‘smart’ that! There will be a lot more to add to that list I’m sure, once I’m conscious of them!  I’m still at peace about the decision to leave Chad and I’m looking forward to a new challenge in the UK.  It is likely that I will head back to South Devon where I was before coming to Chad and I will likely try and get a job as a pharmacist there.  Any more than that, I have zero idea about right now but I’m glad that God does!  I will still be with BMS for 3 months after getting back to the UK.  Doing ‘re-entry’ things and generally trying to get used to living in the UK again after so long.

Praise and prayer points

Praise points:

An encouraging BMS conference

A good break with my family

Safe travel back to Chad

The new tarred road making rainy season travel a breeze in comparison to before

Cleopas, Valerie and Agnès learning and developing their skills

Prayer points:

Cleopas learning the best ways to train Valerie

For Valerie as she learns and practices how to make product orders, process their arrival and ensure the stock management system is up to date

For Agnès as she learns how to report back to donors

Ongoing wisdom for me as I continue to hand over more aspects of my role to others

That my visa will be granted in August with no issues

For me as I process leaving my life and home in Chad and prepare to re-enter the UK

Thank you for your prayers!

Blessings

Claire