Dear friends and partners in the CEH work, When Christ left us with the Great Commission as He prepared to return to heaven there were two central aspects of the commission: Preach the gospel to all people for this you are His witnesses and the second: Make disciples of Christ teaching them to obey all that He commanded us. (Matthew 28:16–20, NIV) At CEH we fervently seek to obey both aspects. Situated at the crossroad of Guinea, people from each of the nations’ 42 different tribal groups come to the hospital to seek medical care. There, through many modes of sharing, we speak of Christ to every person who comes. Pray with us that these would effectively bear fruit. Anyone who chooses to follow Christ is referred to churches and missionaries in their area of origin. For those local to Mamou we have an excellent local church that seeks to disciple them in obedience to Christ. This church is growing about 20 percent each year and has cell groups in the five major neighborhoods of the city where future churches may be established. We collaborate with the three other evangelical churches in town and each of them is growing. Challenging issues are confronted as the truths of Christ contrast with the culture that never knew Him well. 99 percent of the local community is Muslim with a strong overlay of animism from their African heritage syncretized into their Muslim or at times their Christian faith. We will seek to be faithful. As we enter the Thanksgiving and Christmas seasons may your celebrations be precious. We have much to be thankful for, especially the wonderful gift of God in and through His Son. May each of your households be richly blessed! Your fellow servant, Dr. Dwight Slater MD CEO of CEH TRAINING NATIONAL PROFESSIONALS Our major medical challenge is that the nationals trained in Guinea are not yet medically strong. Their national training for nurses, technicians and doctors is often academic with little practical supervised clinical training. There were no residency programs available in the country until the first one was inaugurated in ophthalmology about 12 years ago. The Guinean work ethic was influenced greatly by the nation’s participation in the communist block from 1958 through the 1980s leading to less rigor and self-initiative than many other African nations. Some positive influences from our Ivoirian missionaries who were trained at Ferke, Cote d’Ivoire improved the care we give especially in the surgical areas, but the total care is not yet where it needs to be. We seek to recruit well trained African and western medical personnel who can teach and mentor CEH African staff to excellence. We also respect the reality that Guineans know their national culture and language far better than expatriates, so in collegiality we are serving Christ together in humility and love to influence the Guinean people for Christ. We are grateful to Dr. Pepper, Dr. Kristen, and Doris Nuss RN who served with us and they have or will soon move on. We are open to missionaries sent through larger more experienced missions to serve with us. We are developing these types of relationships with several mission organizations. Two groups of potential missionaries visited this summer with a Swiss Bible Mission, which served in Guinea since 1970s primarily at a specialized hospital for TB and Leprosy. They were very interested in our emphasis on evangelism, discipleship and training. We are sending five of our Board and Advisory members to the Global Missions Health Conference in Louisville, KY on November 7–9th with the prayer of recruiting a team to work in this way. Pray with us that the Lord of the harvest will send out these laborers into His harvest field! Our CIHI nursing school did a great job of training their first group of six students and they began their second year this October. We were recruiting the second class when the Minister of Professional and Technical Education prohibited ALL nursing schools nationwide from admitting new students until the Ministry has revised the government curriculum to better address the quality of training issues they recognized. Because we are accountable to them, we will honor this. We believe we are addressing the deficits they saw elsewhere with our more comprehensive curriculum incorporating their core plus additional areas and practical training in the CEH hospital. We may be able to offer refresher courses for nurses that previously graduated from government programs but lacked clinical training opportunities. We did this with a prior group of 25 Guinean nurses in 2022–23. Pray especially for Doris Nuss as she directs the school in this final year prior to her retirement. We currently have one medical student, Yvan, on scholarship. Yvan is in his 6th year (7 total) of training in Dakar, Senegal. He recently became engaged to be married to Yvenne, another Christian medical student in the same class and originally from Benin. Both would like to pursue training in Christian residency programs in Africa; through PAAC (for Family Practice) or PACCS (for Surgery) and return to CEH to serve with us. Dr. Merry will facilitate these contacts and training relationships. REKINDLED MEDICAL MINISTRIES Monthly Zoom meetings are scheduled with the Guinean-based doctors and the US doctors on our board— Dr. Merry, Dr. D. Balon, Dr. M. Balon, and Dr. Slater. They receive mutual advice, encouragement and education. Some improvement of internet in Guinea allowed this communication showing its potential for consultations on challenging cases and remote class room instruction. Dr. Cécé is resuming ophthalmological services including cataracts after a one-year pause. He did several hundred with us previously. Dr. Harry is a recent medical graduate spending three months with us in an internship prior to seeking a residency in Senegal. Six prior interns spent time with us in their training. Dr. Bello, a recent dental graduate, will renew the dental services we offer, facilitated by Dr. J. Michaelson. He is eager to train a nurse as his assistant/technician. We want to restart medical evangelism outreaches by teams from CEH two to three times a year to surrounding villages. These have lapsed for about three years, in part due to fear of Covid. CAPITAL DEVELOPMENT PROJECTS We are completing five major capital development projects this year.
HOSPITALIZATION RESTRUCTURING We reorganized the ward assignments of responsibility to facilitate care and efficiency between the three African doctors, Dr. Jean Paul (JP), Dr. David (D), and Dr. Paul (P). Dr. JP will primarily cover ICU, next to the nurses station, with three beds for the most critical patients and Ward A with four beds/OB Gyn. Dr. D will cover Ward B and C with 18 beds and care for pediatrics and general medical needs. Dr. P will cover Ward D, E, and F with 28 beds and cover general surgical, chronic wound care and orthopedic, and trauma surgical. The Welcome center has 18 beds for MIAPE ministries and overflow when needed. |
YOUTH MINISTRIES
Recognizing that the median age in Guinea is 18 years old, we along with MIAPE have a strong emphasis in trying to have outreach to children.
Fresh Rosée school offers the best quality pre-K to 10th grade education in the region. The 425 students come mostly from the Muslim neighborhood or are bussed from Mamou—nine miles away. Annual passing scores on the graduating classes’ tests are twice that of the public schools.
In the area of sports, we have the only two playgrounds in the region. One of the best soccer fields in the Mamou area is used for school, church and youth functions. We sponsored a city-wide tournament this year.
In music we are well equipped with donated instruments from the USA. PA equipment was purchased locally and is used for church and youth functions and shared with other churches when needed.
Camps and retreats are also planned, using the MIAPE church and Fresh Rosée school facilities. This past summer children were sent to a town three hours north for summer camp housed in a public school. An incident occurred where Christian children were injured from stones thrown by children in that neighborhood.
In response to this and at the request of the African leadership, the CEH Board approved upgrading our facilities with screens on classroom windows, simple toilets, showers and beds to accommodate groups up to 180 persons for future events. This may also be used for future medical conferences. These are listed as low-cost special projects on our website for those who want to partner with us for this(cehguinea.org)
In general, Guinean youth are very attracted to each of these ministries and the MIAPE Sunday school and youth ministry attendance has doubled this past year. Praise Him and pray!
2025 SPECIAL PROJECTS
This next year we plan to accomplish several new projects.
A duplex to house missionary and western trained professionals to better educate our staff through mentorship and development of residency programs. $75,000
Nursing student housing in a simple local style. $15,000
Laboratory equipment: Blood bank transfusion refrigerator $1,000), an Incubator and set-up for a culture and sensitivity program to guide treatment of infections $2,000.
Ophthalmology: Automated refractometer $7,000, tonometer for glaucoma. $800
Building of Ward G for OB Gyn care including a delivery area. $50,000 (partially covered)
Operating Room expansion with two more units and improved recovery area. $75,000
To those who partner with us financially or are considering doing so, here is some information to help facilitate your donation. The CEH website contains a Support Page showing many ways to give including: Check or Money Order, Text2Give, and Online options. It also shows the progress in funding of each current Major Project. Use link below to visit our Website for more details. God accomplishes great things through your faithful giving, thank you!
Some donors asked if it’s possible for CEH to accept Donor Advised Funds (DAF) and Qualified Charitable Distributions (QCD) directly from an IRA. This could reduce Required Minimal Distributions (RMD), potentially reducing one’s taxable income level. Yes, we are able to assist with these items. If you have questions, please contact us at 1-877-948-8729 or gmoody14@gmail.com.
May God continue to bless each of you who give joyfully!
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