On 14th January 2022, we had the pleasure of welcoming the Malagasy minister of health to HVMM, to cut the ribbon and inaugurate our new surgical building. It was a time of great celebration, praising God for all his provision of all the resources that we need for this ministry. The regional governor was also in attendance and spoke very warmly of the hospital and its impact in this area. In fact, he humbly requested that we build four more hospitals around the region!
On the same day, we had out white coat ceremony for our first PAACS residents, welcoming Dr Tefy and Dr Rado into the PAACS family. The PAACS program is a 5 year surgical training program (you can read more here), with the vision of training and discipling Malagasy junior doctors to be fully qualified, compassionate, Jesus loving surgeons, who take the good news of Jesus and highly skilled surgical care to the nation of Madagascar. Both of our new residents have worked at the hospital prior to PAACS starting, and are wonderful young men who love Jesus and want to use the many gifts that He has given them to serve Him and to serve the poor. We thank God for bringing them to this program.
We praise God also that this celebration and the emphasis on sharing the good news of Jesus was picked up by the national Malagasy press here.
Please pray for:
Tefy and Rado as they start out on their surgical training
For all those associated with the PAACS program (faculty, trainees, and families): please pray that God will use this time to grow our faith, and that our weekly times of Bible study together will be formational in all our lives.
For the final finishing touches that still need to be done to the surgical building, so we can start operating there very soon.
For the application process for our next PAACS trainee, which will start in the next few months.