Bethlehem Baptist Team and Hospice Seminar

Well, after all the planning, preparation, and then, by God’s grace, the execution of those plans, the Bethlehem Team trip is all wrapped up, and they safely left on Tuesday night and arrived home very early on Thursday morning in Minneapolis. Because of the August 11th elections for President, Parliament, and a referendum, plus other offices, we were a bit worried with BBC coming and how everything was going to come together. We were also concerned just with safety, since the lead up to this election has seen a lot more violence in Lusaka and around Zambia between the two parties than in times past.

We did run into some (actually, kind of a lot of) political cadres in George Compound on August 1st, as we did three home visits with the team and Pastor Wozifera Ngoma and his wife Easter. There was a political rally going on close to the houses we were visiting. But God gave us safety, and we were able to visit three homes and pray with and encourage those folks, plus the nurses on the team also did some trouble shooting. But it was helpful for the team to see compound life and where people are coming from and the conditions they face and the challenges compound life brings for caregivers as they seek to care for loved ones, friends, and others with very little.

Hospice Training 

Then, over August 2-5, the BBC Team conducted a basic Hospice Seminar, similar to 2014, for former CROSS Project (CP) participants. Over 110 former CP participants from churches we taught in 2015-2016 went through six different stations on hospice care –

• Hand Washing and Sanitation
• Wound Care
• Nutrition and Dehydration
• Bed Bath
• Turning, Transferring, and Positioning Patients
• End of Life Care

As with the 2014 seminar, we heard encouraging stories about how the stations were very helpful to the caregivers. We even had one nurse’s aid remark this time how the things they were being taught were so helpful and practical and were things that she never learned in nurse’s aid training.

Below are some pictures from the Hospice Seminar and BBC in action (sorry, Liz – we can’t find the pics of your station!). We are so thankful, as AZ and the CROSS Project, to have BBC come and help us!! Please pray that God would help people remember what they have learned from this seminar and that God would be glorified as these former students seek to help people physically, share the gospel, and share this important information with others in the compounds of Lusaka!