Praise and Prayer Bulletin . . .

1. There have been quite a lot of patients who have been healed over the last week. SD1, SD2 and MD who have made good recovery. Both RR and RK, who came with burns have made remarkable recoveries. We’ve also had couple of more eclampsia patients and a young girl with Aluminium Phosphide poisoning who have all recovered. We thank the Lord.

2. We thank the Lord for babies. There have quite a few new arrivals at NJH since the last 3 months which will stretch on for the next 3 months too. We thank the Lord for new arrivals in the families of Dr Johnson and Dr Kumudh, Mr. Immanuel and lastly Mr Malay and Mrs Prabhavathy who had their second child today. We have 3 more expected new arrivals for the next 3 months – the families being Mr and Mrs Manohar, Mr and Mrs John Jeyachandran and the last one being ours.

3. There has been quite an improvement in our patient load after a serious lull in the outpatient and inpatient statistics in December. Kindly pray that the confidence that people have in our services will continue its’ upward trend. Most of our patients look at us as a last resort. We pray that we would be the first point of contact for healthcare in our block.

4. The violence in the region has increased. Last week, there was a major attack on the security forces in the nearby Garhwa district where 13 were killed. Kindly pray for lasting peace.

5. There was a criminal case which was filed against the hospital 2 years back. We’ve had a respite from the police as the case has been dismissed after we gave a representation to the police authorities.

6. There are initial reports of our being accredited for Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana (RSBY) programme. We had someone from the insurance agency coming for inspection yesterday. Please do pray that the staff would receive it positively and would support the smooth implementation of the programme. Also pray that the Janani Suraksha Programme would also be restarted at NJH by the government. Both the programmes give quite a lot of relief in healthcare to the poor.

7. The electricity woes of the region remain. However, last week, we came to know that new young sincere officer has taken over charge of our region. Kindly pray that he would facilitate regular electricity supply. A transformer exclusively for our campus has been a longstanding need. We had raised it up many a time. Please do pray that this would be a reality soon.

8. Our burns unit construction is going on quite well. We thank the Lord for the donors. We however need another 2,300,000 Indian Rupees to complete the building and run the programme.

9. We are planning to streamline the supply of water within our campus. The present system is very hap hazardous. There have been initial discussions with like minded organizations and we hope that we would be able to make some progress.

10. We’ve had a number of sick patients in the ward who require portable X-Ray and the poor power supply has necessitated that we have a 100 mA X-Ray machine too, in addition to the present 300 mA machine. The cost of purchase of a new machine is about 250,000 Indian Rupees.

11. The poor power supply requires us to purchase one more generator. This would cost us about 350,000. Kindly pray for the necessary resources.

12. There are a few new staff joining us over the next one week. Kindly pray that the Lord would lead them into being effective leaders who would contribute towards the building of the Lord’s Kingdom in this region.

13. Malnutrition along with severe poverty has been something which has been staring at our face, ever more over the last year. The cold has only made matters worse. Kindly continue to pray that we would continue to be a beacon of hope for the poor and marginalized  and our actions would reflect the love of Christ.

14. Communications (telephone, mobile and internet) have been a major challenge in the region. Kindly pray that we would have fruits of the endeavors which we take.

15. We thank the Lord for quite a lot of visitors who would be in NJH over the next 2 months. Prominent among them are Gerald and Wendy Cowles, who have been facilitating neonatal care in EHA units. Grace Babies, the organization they head pioneered the neonatal unit at NJH.