Dear friends and prayer partners of CEH,
I often say we accomplish God’s work in our prayer closets before we accomplish it on the field. That is not just a platitude but a discipline. On Monday mornings when I receive the weekly report from Etienne, we always close in prayer together. Later in the morning our Administrative Committee or Executive Committee, whichever is scheduled, start and end with prayer for God’s guidance. Our triannual board meetings start and end with seasons of prayer by the participants. As I average 20 hours of CEH ministry time each week several more hours are also just prayer. I have three large trees, a hydrant, and a playscape in my yard. As I mow around them or do gardening near them, I identify each one with one of the five MIAPE missionary units and I pray for them. When I give counsel to the national staff, I make it a point to pray with them. They also pray before each major surgery with patients. We offer to pray with the clinic patients, and 90% accept prayer daily.
When I was a young adult, my pastor used to say, “Prayer is a lever that moves God to do what He would not do if we did not pray.” God wants us to move this position of dependency on Him so He might bless us and accomplish what only He can accomplish for His glory. This is a great place to be. Some comment it is amazing what was accomplished in these first 15 years of CEH ministry. Yes, God is amazing!
Sadly, a young student from the church who was a veterinary student in the neighboring town of Dalaba was assaulted on June 13th and died in their local hospital. The young man’s name was Dieu Donné (which means God given) and he was a very active young adult in the MIAPE church. He was an only child, the eldest nephew of Etienne, our Hospital Director. The incident is still under investigation. The funeral was held in Mamou by the church community two days after his death. This loving support was a testimony to his classmates and professors. Etienne traveled to comfort his family back in Ferke, Cote d’Ivoire. This loss was very hard for his family; particularly for his bereaved sister Rachel and Etienne’s parents who were extremely close to their grandson. Please continue to uphold all who are affected by this tragedy. Sometimes we do not understand the plans and permissions of God, but we know He is sovereign and good. So we walk with Him through our "valley of the shadow of death" and He is our comfort.
Pray without ceasing. He hears and acts. It is all to His glory!
Your brother in Christ,
Dwight E. Slater, MD
CEO of CEH
Pray with thanksgiving
It is wonderful what God did already this year in response to special projects we prayed for and presented to God’s people. He moved many to respond in generous partnership.
At the end of 2022 it was essential we replenish the pharmacy stock. Those resources are a key factor in drawing the patients whom we serve, and our modest markup is a major source of funding for our national staff salaries. With end of year giving and juggling our expenditures we were able to replenish most of last year’s losses from theft. Praise God!
F Ward for Trauma and Ortho Surgery is complete, awaiting electricity and plumbing. $45,000 is funded and purchases are made awaiting a US construction team to complete the work in October.
Solar Electrical updates: $20,000 was spent in 2021. Then $30,000 was funded in July of this year by First Baptist Church of Northville, MI. CEH is grateful for this gift. Initial renovations and improvements are in progress. Termites recently infested one of the main electrical panel boxes and repairs are needed and extermination measures taken!
A three wheeled Moto taxi for night staff and patients was purchased for $2,700.
Lab and ICU equipment was funded by German GIZ aid, worth $15,000. Plus, they trained 12 of our staff in specialty areas of use, maintenance and administration of the equipment!
CEVEEN YOUTH MINISTRY CENTER was funded by ARC in 2022 and was inaugurated in 2023. It now serves groups from 8 to 80 children regularly!
A “new to us” 60 passenger school bus for the Fresh Rossée school ministry was purchased for $22,000.
A cafeteria for staff and patients was funded by two donors for $9,000 and construction is in progress.
A soccer field retainer wall, leveling, backfilling, and grass seeding will be completed in August. Ten new soccer balls are in the container to facilitate inviting a city-wide tournament and evangelistic outreach. This was funded for $7,500.
Recently an official tried to apply a new tax to CEH for work permits at $1,000/ MIAPE missionary. This would have cost $9,000. Most missions are exempted, but the official was not informed that our African MIAPE missionaries are not drawing a salary from the revenues of the hospital. They are fully supported from outside of the nation, as are other Western missions. Through Etienne’s administrative gifting and diligent labor as well as many prayers, God granted us a waiver the last week of July.
Pray with supplication
Ongoing projects which still need funding:
MIAPE support: $7,646 monthly for the nine CDI missionaries who are not supported from hospital funds. This is our highest monthly operational priority since they are the backbone of the work. Each laborer is worthy of hire.
Support of the maintenance and construction crew: $2,000 monthly. This covers the cost of their salaries to be covered as part of the US contribution to the hospital.
The current hospital 40’ container is ready to ship as we write this letter. We can cover the shipping costs, but the importation taxes are not yet clear. Two years ago, Guinea raised them from 2% to 20% of declared value. We asked for a waiver for this which can be a difference of $1,000 or $10,000. Please pray with us for favor.
Our nursing school started refresher courses for 25 previous graduates of government programs and received permission by the Minister of Professional Education to open its first class to 20 students in October. LPNs, RNs, Lab Techs, and Pharmacy techs will be trained. The $7,000 Government fee is funded. We also have $3,000 on hand and need just $2,000 more to cover incidental opening expenses. Thank God with us for the final written approval received in August!
In IT, MS Works programs were installed on all our hospital computers and security networks were improved internally for just $2,000. Progress on the government/public phone network’s fiberoptic system is stalled. So we paid the down-payment to be on the waiting list for StarLink, when it becomes available in Guinea in 2024. We anticipate an additional need of $8,000 for various components. This will help us provide some telehealth consultations for difficult patients (with Mayo Clinic Doctors) and assist in our educational programs to train
our staff!
Fresh Rossée, serving about 430 students, desires toilets, water, and electricity connections to their 7th–10th grade building. This will cost approximately $3,000. For those that took the graduating exams from 6th and 10th grades, double the percentage of Fresh Rossée students passed compared to the national average of other schools throughout the nation. Praise God and keep praying!
Pray with intercession
This spring Dr. Jonathan Morasse (AIM) from Quebec provided excellent compassionate medical care to the patients. He noted we have much room for improvement in the quality of our medical work. Training the national staff through mentoring by western professionals pursuing excellence is essential in improving the commitment to higher quality care at CEH. Jonathan served with us for three months with the potential of returning. He requests additional help to be effective in this huge task.
Our Lord told us in Matthew 9:37–38 to pray to the Lord of the harvest for laborers. In recent years, the Lord supplied laborers through cooperative efforts with like-minded mission organizations. Developing relationships with other established missions gives us additional resources to recruit, fund through support discovery, and administer these professional missionaries.
Surgery is the strongest department in the hospital. We are grateful for well-trained surgeons Dr. Allison Travis (IMB) and Dr. Paul S. (MIAPE), who provide the best service in the region and train nationals. The compassionate conscientious care of chronic wounds by Lacina (MIAPE) is also a strength of this department. Doris Nuss RN, (CMA) serves at CEH part time, helps in clinical training of our nurses, and will head up the nursing school. Doris desires the help of other US nurses to train the nursing staff. In addition to CMA, IMB, and AIM, discussions with missionaries serving in Guinea with CAMA services, PBT, World Venture, SIM, Ethnos360 (New Tribes Mission) are ongoing. Phil African is another mission organization and may be a new channel representing CEH to potential European laborers. Please pray for us as we have essential administrative dialogue with each of these missions. We pray this will be effective in providing the workers God wants us to have. Pray for unity in Christ’s headship as we seek to serve wholeheartedly as unto Him.
As I was praying through this area of staff development with George Weertz, our construction director, he said, “It is much easier to accomplish projects and build buildings than it is to change and help mature people.”
Christ said He would build His church. Despite cross-cultural challenges God is building His church in Mamou through CEH, our prayers and work. We see workers maturing in their faith. On July 15th six people were baptized in the river on the south side of the campus confessing their faith in Christ. Also, the founding pastor (Dore) of a smaller church in town is moving to another ministry. He asked Moise, our MIAPE pastor, and the MIAPE church committee to adopt his flock and continue to help them mature in Christ. The MIAPE Church agreed to join the two congregations.
The MIAPE church and their mission board in Cote d’Ivoire approved participation in the Acts 29 project which seeks to equip missional churches with resources to advance the Kingdom of God. West African leadership came to Mamou to encourage the church, and in 2022 Moise participated in one of the conferences for pastors in Abidjan. This local MIAPE church already helped start two other churches within Mamou!
For all of this we praise God who alone can accomplish this work.
Major Anticipated Expenses:
X-ray upgrade and repairs are needed as soon as possible ($50,000).
Fence, gates, and entry repairs in front of CEH ($5,000).
Clinic extension completion in 2024 ($65,000).
G Ward for OBGyn care in 2024 ($45,000).
Digital Expansion
More frequent updates are available on Facebook.
If you are receiving both a paper version and digital version of this newsletter and want to be removed from the paper version, please send a note to CEH, P.O. Box 870, Southfield, MI 48037 or email Dwight E. Slater at dwighteslater@gmail.com.