The Anthis Family Adventures

Volume 7, Issue #4 joel.anthis@sim.org www.anthisfamily.com August, 2004

Anthis Update

Dear Friends and Family,

Thanks to all of you who prayed for us during our recent trip home for Austin’s surgery. Austin’s surgery went very well and he is completely recovered. We returned to Jos on July 31^st. We also enjoyed our time with friends and family. We were blessed to have been able to spend time with Joel’s uncle before he died. God also allowed us to be in Houston when Joel’s dad required hospitalization for a heart condition. Please forgive us if we didn’t have time to visit with you personally. The time home was too short, but we have returned rejuvenated and with renewed vision.

Cindy’s Corner

Austin and Allison have returned to school. Austin is in 4^th Grade and Allison is in 2^nd Grade. They are happy to be back and have enjoyed reconnecting with their Nigerian friends. Thanks to all of you in Katy, Texas who donated your youth soccer jerseys. We have all enjoyed seeing just about every kid on our compound sporting a Katy Youth Soccer jersey!

Abby is thrilled with a gift that Joel received from a patient this week. It is a live chicken! She has been playing with it on our porch. I was hoping to have it for dinner tonight (for anyone wondering I don’t plan to do the deed myself!), but Austin, Allison and Abby all protested. Now I have to figure out what to feed it and how to care for it. Maybe that makes me a real missionary?

Joel, mother, patient, and chicken The chicken at home

Thanks to all of you who prayed for our move to a new house on the same hospital compound. We are now moved (notice I did not say settled!) into our new house. We are enjoying being closer to co-workers and feeling safer than we did in our previous house. We returned to find that a 100 yard section of the compound wall next to the house we lived in last year fell down during a heavy rain storm while we were gone.

The fallen wall and the wall repairs that the hospital can currently afford.

Medical Rounds

We are Praising God for all the new medical equipment that Joel was able to acquire while we were in the States. Some he bought with funds raised for that purpose and some was donated. Thank you to all who were involved in the on-going process of getting the equipment Joel needs to minister effectively here.

The first week we were back in Jos, Joel was able to perform what we think was the first ever stapedectomy in Nigeria. This is a surgery where the stapes (a tiny hearing bone) of a patient who can not hear is removed and replaced with an artificial hearing bone in order to improve hearing. The surgery went very well and the woman’s hearing was improved immediately post-op. We are praying her recovery will be complete. We are thrilled that Joel now has the instruments and artificial hearing bones he needs to perform this life changing surgery.

Joel with his patient who underwent stapedectomy hearing improvement surgery

Joel has also been encouraged since our return to see the fruits of his work teaching the Family Medicine residents at our Evangel mission hospital. We had a visit last week from a Nigerian resident who has done a rotation with Joel and is now working in the Outpatient Clinic. He reported seeing and successfully treating many patients that had been referred from other area hospitals to the “New ENT” at Evangel Hospital. We are excited to see the impact of having an ENT at the hospital multiplied beyond what Joel himself is doing. (Read more about Joel’s medical work in a blog that will be posted to our website in the next several days: www.anthisfamily.com)

Cindy has significantly greater medical responsibilities this year, in part because a previous missionary family doctor and his family returned to the US this summer. Cindy is becoming the Family Doctor for an ever increasing number of missionary families who live and work in Northern Nigeria. It is a challenging job trying to figure out how to provide quality care for these families. But it is a job that helps enable many missionaries from different agencies to continue working in Nigeria. Cindy is also the “Assistant Director” of the Family Practice Residency program at Evangel hospital – we have yet to see exactly what that will entail. She also continues to greatly enjoy her work in the Gidan Bege inner city clinic serving street kids and the severely indigent.

Cindy treating a patient in the hospital clinic

Prayer and Praise

Praises:

Praise God for successful surgery for Austin
Praise God for the medical equipment we were able to get while in the States
Praise God for His provision of our new house and for His continued protection

Prayer Requests:

Maintain our focus on Christ and His calling of our family to serve Him here in Nigeria
That each member of our family would increase in the fruits of the Spirit and the fruitfulness of ministry here.
For wisdom in how to balance increasing responsibilities for Joel and Cindy
For reconstruction of our compound’s security wall, and His continued protection in all circumstances.

In Christ,

Joel and Cindy

Austin, Allison, and Abigail