Category: Blog

Dear Family and Friends,

Last time we wrote our newsletter, we were preparing to return to Chad. When we arrived in July, everything was green and lush, the temperature cool as we were in the midst of rainy season. In the last two weeks, the weather has changed!

Things are drying up, it seems like the blow dryer has been turned up on the extreme dry setting, humidity has gone down from 70-80 % to 40% and dropping.

But we are so grateful that we are still having cool nights which makes life so much easier!

PRAISES:

• We didn’t have any real hiccups during our travel back to Chad- all ten pieces of luggage and motorized wheelchair arrived and we had no problem with customs. We are happy to be back!

Bert keeps on saying: “I am having the best time of my life!” His Parkinson can’t keep him down!

The new sidewalk that goes from our house to the hospital and his motorized wheelchair have truly been a blessing as he can go back and forth easily. It is amazing to see his stamina and courage to keep on going even when he feels so tired that he doesn’t think that he can put one foot in front of the other but an emergency arises and he arises to the challenge!

He has been doing surgeries especially thyroidectomies (the last one was five and a half hours long) and breast surgeries, seeing patients in clinic and taking call.

I continue to be busy with supervising construction., working closely with our nursing supervisors and guest house management.

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• Thanks to a generous gift from Samaritan Purse, housing for a surgeon was started mid-June and will be completed in about a month. We are so blessed to have Alphonse, our onsite buildings manager, guiding his team calmly and with strength.

Being a land-locked country, prices of goods in Chad, which have always been high but now with Covid, disruption of the availability of goods, prices have soared even more, and trying to keep within a pre-Covid budget can be difficult!

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• Building started on our early detection and treatment of breast cancer ministry at G2 thanks to a donation from a couple in the States.

Construction started in September and we are hoping to be opened early December. The word is out as we are seeing more and more patients coming to G2 looking for treatment for breast cancer.

At this point, we can only offer surgery but are hoping to be able to also offer chemotherapy in the future.

Another aspect of this program is to train nurses and other women how to detect breast masses so that early detection and treatment can be offered.

Our community health team will also be involved in this program.

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• God has also provided the funds through Guernsey Overseas Aid and Development Commission, UK, to for a physiotherapy building.

Our physical therapists, Mathhieu and Cria, are doing an excellent job seeing over 300 patients a month but more space and a better-ventilated area will be greatly appreciated by staff and patients.

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• God is continuing to bless and protect the team here at G2.

After evacuation due to political unrest, home assignment and disruption due to Covid, all fourteen adults and eleven kids are back!

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• We have had several visitors in the past month and more to come in the next 2 months.

Lawrence Jones, our chaplain with CHSC, was able to visit and encourage us.

Bill Wright, Power Quest, came to fix our broken x-ray unit and work on our solar system.

Daniel Fele, from Nigeria, came on a vision trip to look at starting an agricultural project to reach the Kotoko, an unreached people group in Dougia, a village about one and a half hours away from G2.

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But the most exciting news is that new believers coming to Christ and being discipled and others open to hearing more about Jesus!

PRAYER POINTS:

• A SURGEON is urgently needed!

• We have not had much rain this rainy season which has been good in that our road in and out of the hospital has not be difficult to manage, but many of the crops have not had the needed water to grow properly.

The millet, rice, and corn crops, which are staples for the people of Chad, are going to be very poor this year.

People are already talking about a famine in the future and high prices.

We are already seeing more malnourished children at the hospital. Many people in Chad live hand to mouth!

• Solar power is what is used on the compound. We have been plagued with problems with our solar batteries due to difficulty of finding good ones in Chad, and prices are exorbitant (each one cost about $400- need four to eight batteries/house). Another problem is that these batteries don’t hold up well in this extreme heat.

• For wisdom and unity amongst our national and missionary teams as decisions have to be made daily.

• To realize our goals of providing the best care to our patients under difficult circumstances so they will see Christ’s compassion in our work.

• For the new believers that their faith might stay strong as they count the cost of living a new life in Christ and that those helping them grow in their faith might have much wisdom as their guide them in their walk.

• Our children in the USA and Australia, personal stamina (as the weather is getting hotter, discouraging issues at the hospital and life), safety, health, and spiritual growth (our goal is to continue to grow spiritual to be a blessing others).

• Could you join us and praying Psalms 83:18 over the work at G2: “Let them know that you, whose name is the Lord- that you alone are the Most High over all the earth.”

We want to continue to thank each of you again for being part of our team keeping us in your prayers and supporting us financially!

We would love to hear from you with praise and prayer requests!

In Him,
Bert and Debbie
Psalms 119:114

Dear Family and Friends,

Greetings from SC! 

Missionary life isn’t always the easiest as one gets settled in a place just to have to leave in a few months again. Last-minute visits with family and friends begin as we wind down our time in SC and are getting ready to return to Chad on July 16^th. 

As we get ready to leave, the last-minute emails start arriving from the field asking if there is still room for needed supplies for the work. 

Next, frantic shopping starts: buying the various supplies and trying to remember what we thought we would want to bring back when returning (as we get older it is harder to remember 😊). Amazon becomes our best friend!

We have been sorting through the various medical supplies that we received, then packing, unpacking, repacking, trying to fill every nook and cranny but still making sure that no suitcase is over 50 pounds!

The last days can be very tiring but what keeps us going is knowing that we are returning to the work that God has called us to.

We look forward to seeing our team, both national and missionary, and the country and people that we have come to love.

The last few months in Chad have not been easy for the staff on the ground. 

On April 11, rebels entered Chad from Libya in a coup attempt.  

The president of Chad, Idriss Déby, passed away on April 20^th after sustaining injuries on the war front.  His son, General Mohamat Idriss Déby, was named interim president with a transitional council of military officers.

Because of the insecurity in the country due to the rebel’s advance on N’Djamena and then the death of Déby, most of our missionaries had to be evacuated to their home countries.   

Kalbassou, our Cameroonian nurse/surgeon and General Director of the hospital, Maïmouna, his wife, and their children, and Paul and Celine Boni, French nurses serving with SIM France/Belgium, and their two children remained at G2 as their government did not require them to evacuate.  

There is still some tension in the country, but missionaries are returning to Chad at this time. 

Claudia Wahl, German OB/GYN serving with CFI, returned about three weeks ago. 

Claire Bedford, British pharmacist, and Brian and Jackie Chilvers, British nurses, returned July 4th. 

It is amazing to see how God has protected the hospital and staff during this turbulent time and we can praise Him for how He continues to bless the medical ministry!  

We have been asked many times about COVID in Chad.  There were almost 5,000 cases and 174 deaths according to the Chadian government, but we are not sure how accurate these numbers are because of the lack of testability and reporting outside the capital. 

Our hospital has to refer all cases of possible COVID to the government hospital.  The Sinopharm and Pfizer vaccines are now available in Chad.

We have met many people who have asked us for information about Chad so we thought we would share these facts about Chad with you. The source is Wikipedia.  

• Landlocked and located in what is known as the “dead heart of Africa”.  This name is given due to its distance from the sea and its largely desert climate.

• Is eight times smaller than the USA, the 5^th largest country in Africa with a population of about 17,000,000.

• Colonized by the French and became independent in 1960.

• Ranked 187 out of 189 on the UN’s human development list.

• Capital: N’Djamena.  G2 is about 20 minutes north of N’Djamena.

• The country is separated into 3 regions: in the north desert (Sahara Desert), in the middle Sahel (where G2 is located) and Savannah in the south

• Official languages are French and Arabic but has over 100 different languages and 200 ethnic groups.

• Life expectancy- 54 years. Under-five years old mortality rate- 113.8/1000 live births as compared to 6.98/1000 live births in the USA.  (Source UNICEF).

• Literacy rate is only 33 percent which is one of the lowest literacy rates in Sub-Sahara Africa.

• Currency is the Central African Franc (CFA).  $1= 575 CFA. 

• There are only 345 physicians in country with very few specialists, for example no oncologist in country.

• Chad has religious freedom:  51.8% Islam, 44.1% Christian and 7.7% includes animism and 7.7% other.

• Crude oil is the country’s primary source of export since 2003 but most of the population does not benefit from the oil export.  Much of the population live below the poverty line.

PRAISES:

• For the safe travels and quality time with family and friends during our time in the States.

• Interest in our early detection and treatment of breast cancer ministry.

• God continuing to bless the team on the ground and protect them through difficult times.

PRAYER POINTS:

• A SURGEON is urgently needed!

• No problems at customs with the supplies we are returning with.

• Our health and safety as we return to Chad.  Bert continues to do well and now has a motorized wheelchair that will help him get around the hospital.

• That the Lord will show us exactly what projects we need to concentrate on during our time in Chad.

• For wisdom and unity amongst our national and missionary teams as decisions have to be made daily.

• To realize our goal of providing the best care to our patients under difficult circumstances so they will see Christ’s compassion in our work.

Thanks again for being part of our team keeping us in your prayers and supporting us financially!

In Him,

Bert and Debbie
Ephesians 6:10-20

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Dear Family and Friends,

“When morning gilds the skies,
our hearts awaking cry;
May Jesus Christ be praised!
In all our work and prayers,
we ask his loving care:
May Jesus Christ be praised!”

This song came to mind as I (Debbie) was watching the sunrise with its beautiful reddish, orange hue across the sky as we settle back in Lexington, South Carolina for a few months. That is our prayer that Jesus Christ be praised in all our work and our daily lives!

Our time at G2 (Guinebor 2) flew by and we have now been back for three weeks already. Time does not stand still, does it!

Our flights back were uneventful, and we were wonderfully welcomed home by our dear friend, Gail Ferguson. We have settled back into “our” home in Lexington.

Philippe and Brenna were able to come and surprise us the weekend we got home!

On the 19th of March, we were able to celebrate with Joël being accepted into the ENT residency program at The University of Louisville. He and Jenny will be living there for five years.

Heidi, Petter, and the children live in Australia and we have not been able to see them for a year and a half because of COVID.

The work at G2 continued at a fast pace. January is usually a very busy month for the hospital as the governance board meets yearly. This year was lighter as we did not have any guests due to Covid, and so we met on Zoom with people in six different countries. We were so grateful that the internet worked well during the meetings! New partnerships are developing which will allow the hospital to grow with more specialties.

Other exciting news is that some of our patients and others in the village have accepted Christ as their Lord and Savior! PRAY as they are being discipled and that they will stand strong in the Lord even through difficult circumstances.

Meet Musa- (name changed to protect the individual). Musa had come to visit his sick sister at the hospital and while he was there, he picked up one of the New Testaments, in Arabic script, that are in the ward. As Musa read the New Testament, he was impressed by who Jesus was. Our Ethiopian chaplains visit the wards daily, talking and praying with patients and their caregivers.

It was during one of those visits that Musa started talking with them and asked to know more about what he was reading. During one of these talks, Musa accepted Christ as his Lord and Savior!

He could not wait to tell his family and friends about the joy and peace that he was experiencing. He encouraged them to accept Christ as well. That did not sit well with this Muslim family!

Musa was thrown in jail by his older brother, who was an officer at the prison, for over 4 months because of the family’s anger towards him because of his change of faith. Four months later, he was released from prison. While in prison, the chaplains and other Christians visited him, encouraging, and discipling him in his new faith.

After his release, he visited with Bert and told him that nothing could take away his newfound faith and joy! Unfortunately, Musa was again found by his family. They kidnapped, beat, and tried to kill him.

During a machete attack, Musa put his hands up to try to protect himself. The tendon in his left thumb was severed, leaving him with a useless thumb and a mangled hand.

Through it all, his faith in Christ remained strong and he was finally able to escape and return to our area. Musa returned to the home of a local pastor who had discipled him prior to being kidnapped.

All along, Bert had asked about news of Musa, but didn’t have any until this pastor friend called Bert and told him the good news that Musa was still alive, having escaped from his family, standing very strong in his faith even through persecution, and what had happened to his thumb.

Bert met with Musa and was so excited that he was continuing so strongly in the Lord! Musa repeatedly told Bert that he would never deny Christ no matter what!

Surgery was scheduled a few days before we left Chad. It was a success! He can extend his thumb again. We all praised the Lord!

PRAY for Musa as his faith continues to grow stronger and that he continues to not be ashamed of the gospel.

Another issue is that all his legal documents have been taken by his family and now he needs to get them replaced which isn’t always easy in Chad. Without them, he can’t legally travel, get a job, etc. PRAY for wisdom for our team as they help Musa navigate through this issue!

Plans for a new women’s center at G2 Hospital are being made so that the women of the area can have more accessibility to care especially when it comes to breast cancer. Breast cancer is often not detected at early stages in Chad because of the lack of knowledge. Patients tend to go the traditional medicine route first, they lack funds to pay for surgery, and some are too far from the
hospital.

Bert has a passion to teach others about the importance of breast checks. He would like to train a team of women to go into the communities and teach the locals how to check themselves.

Mel Spears and Jackie Chilvers will be restarting our community health later this year and will also help with this new program. The new center will have an outpatient component, a breast cancer detection room, and an office for our OB/GYN, Claudia Wahl.

The inpatient component will have a new maternity ward with six beds for labor patients, six delivery rooms, an operating room, an antenatal, and a post-partum ward. A women’s ward and two private rooms will also be part of the new center.

Our plans are to be in the States till June/July and then return to Chad for a season. We would love to catch up with you to share what the Lord is doing in Chad. Thanks again for your continued prayers and financial support!

In Him,
Bert and Debbie | Ephesians 6:10

Isaiah 43:19 says “I am about to do something new…”

As I reflected on this verse I thought it applied to me and my life and my service here in Chad.

Breast cancer is such a terrible thing. It’s almost always beyond cure once we find it here. We have had a few cases where we have found it through breast exams.

Mammography exists here but it’s not practical. Most people don’t know how to read them, and even I’m limited with what I know of it. It’s very expensive too.

We will have to depend on breast exams and teaching women to examine themselves. If we can train one person in each family, we could have that person do breast checks.

My plan is to train maybe four women at G2 and also four women at Dougia. They could do examinations for free or a small charge, and if they have a lump they could be referred to our center at Guinebor 2 and Dougia. 

The reason I would like to go to Dougia is there are two people groups that we are currently not reaching here. The Kotoko and Kanembu are those two groups.

Once I have those two teams trained, they will refer back to me, and I will go out to the village myself with the community health team.

The breast exam will only be part of our work in community health and will be part of women’s and children’s care.

We do not have funding for it currently but anyone who has a personal experience with breast cancer or lost a loved one will hopefully be compassionate to these African women whose only hope is this kind of service. 

I first developed a hatred for breast cancer in high school when  I would go to my high school sweetheart, Alayne Knight’s home and noticed there was something wrong with her mom. I found out that she was fighting breast cancer and had had lots of medical procedures.

This pain shaped my future wife’s childhood and youth because her mother was always suffering.

Alayne even had a premonition that she would die of the same disease. Her mother died at age 43 and Alayne did as well. We lived with her breast cancer for 6 years. She had a lump and two positive nodes of breast cancer. She refused chemotherapy and seemed to have beat it and after her mastectomy and reconstruction, she developed vicious metastasis in her liver.

Cancer took Alayne’s life, but not before she professed her faith in Jesus Christ. I was saved and my commitment to the Lord, and it was real.

Now I’m at the ending of my career,  I am 80, and I’ve developed Parkinsons.  I’ve been able to still do surgery even though I can’t stand long.

I didn’t expect to be able to come to Chad after all the health issues I’ve faced, but here I am.

This simple method of creating a breast exam system and community care that I am proposing has the potential to save the lives of many women! 

I feel like I’m a solider in a the war against breast cancer, and we need others to help in the fight!

Any interest in being involved can be sent to to oubrebert@gmail.com.

No financial donation is too small! 

The address is: 

CHSC
PO BOX 132 
Fruitvale, TX 75127  

Thank you for your support! 

Dr. Bert Oubre

Welcome to the second quarterly newsletter from Guinebor 2 Hospital (G2)!

The last few months have been challenging for everyone, everywhere, due to the global spread of the Corona Virus and the necessary restrictions and limitations imposed to counter it.

Chad was fortunate to have been less severely affected than many other countries in terms of confirmed case numbers, but we are yet to see clearly the full impact it’s had in terms of increased mortality and the suffering caused by the economic burden of business closures and transport restrictions.

Here in Chad the government designated a hospital in nearby Farcha as the official testing and treatment centre for Covid 19. Therefore our primary concern at G2 in relation to Covid 19 has been how to minimize the risk of it entering the hospital while continuing to ensure that everyone who comes to the hospital gets the care they need for all the other medical conditions which are so prevalent here.

This involved creating a new sheltered triage area outside the gate, banning visiting-hours, establishing hand-washing stations everywhere, re-purposing our carers village as an isolation area for suspect cases (of which we’ve had several, but thankfully not many), improving all our cleaning routines and external security, improving our power generation to keep oxygen concentrators running, and equipping our staff with protective equipment including masks, gowns, gloves etc and additional training.

These actions all incurred additional expense at a time when our normal hospital income took a real hit from the combined effects of the Covid 19 business and travel restrictions and the annual reduction in patient numbers during the Islamic fasting month of Ramadan.

God is good, however, and ensured that the hospital got additional help from some of our partners, notably medical, cleaning and protective supplies donated from MSF, the Chadian Ministry of Health and SIM, and cash grants from BMS, CEF and some individual donors. We are so grateful for all those who gave generously, especially during this time of hardship for so many. Without this support we could not have kept functioning throughout April, May and June.

Patient numbers are now higher again, and the health needs here remain as great as ever, especially with the rains bringing the start of malaria season.

The Team at G2

G2 hospital has always attracted a mixture of long and short-term mission workers, in addition to our core team of Chadian staff. With the airport and borders closed for more than 4 months, we’ve had some volunteers who ended up serving here much longer than they had expected to!

With much patience and prayer, Dr Penny Hyde (UK) and Eric Tangen (CEF, USA) were eventually able to return home on special evacuation flights in April and May, and American Theatre/Operating Room Nurse, Tyler Fair will fly home on 2nd August, once the airport formally re-opens.

We thank them all for their service here, and for “going the extra mile” with us during these challenging times, both here and in their home countries.

For those of us who live here, the 6-month closure of all schools has also been a real challenge, as it has elsewhere. Home-schooling our children through the heat of Chad’s hot season and working at the hospital at the same time was not easy, but everyone helped each other.

The G2 children were the most excited of all when the rainy season finally started during June, bringing strong cooling winds, spectacular lightening storms, mud and green grass instead of sand, and some truly enormous puddles to be played in, jumped over, or driven through with much splashing!

The G2 soccer/football field we created in February on an expanse of unused sand is now complete and its fresh grass needs regular mowing.

Lives Transformed at G2 Hospital

Ahmat (His name is changed to protect his identity), a farmer from a village some 100km away from G2 hospital, was feeling troubled one night and, unable to sleep. He was walking in the dark and tripped and fell down a well. He broke his right leg so badly it sheared right through the femur and he also bruised his left knee. He spent a long and painful night in the well before help came in the morning to get him out and find transport to come to G2 hospital.

When our Hospital Director Kalbassou Doubassou saw his leg X-ray he was shocked. This would be a difficult operation with a break that severe. He prayed to God for wisdom and then worked hard with the surgical team on Ahmat’s leg.

With considerable skill and two hours of surgery, he was able to fix the broken femur with three screws. The leg is now healing in plaster and Ahmat has been discharged to return back to his farm, his wife, and 4 children, all of whom are dependent upon him.

Had his leg remained broken, or had he gone to a local witch-doctor whose remedies would probably have resulted in the eventual need for amputation, Ahmat’s life would have been ruined, and his family impoverished.

Thankfully, he was able to come to G2 hospital, which has a good reputation for surgery. Although Ahmat will need to keep his leg in plaster to strengthen for another two or three months, at least now he’s home in time for planting season, and he can supervise his children planting the new crop of millet and peanuts, using wooden crutches made for him by our physiotherapist, Matthieu.

After planting season he will return for removal of the plaster, a post-surgical check-up, and some physiotherapy. Ahmat said he is happy with the treatment he had here and thanked Kalbassou for saving his leg.

New Equipment & Services:

We are very grateful for a private donation to purchase an Immuno Analyser for our laboratory, enabling us to perform many new diagnostic tests, including PSA and TSH (prostate & thyroid tests) for the first time, for money raised by Staunton Alliance Church, which paid for our new mobile surgical lamp, and to the Dawn Laurel Foundation which donated money for a new delivery table, Operating table, and ceiling-mounted Operating lamp.

Our new mobile surgical lamp provides better light for surgery.

We also now have a G2 facebook page! You can find us at Hopital Guinebor 2

Prayer Requests & Opportunities to Serve

We are still in urgent need of a Surgeon.

If you have these skills and are willing to serve, whether long or short term, then please do contact us at Guinebor2@gmail.com

Please pray for our founder and surgeon Dr Bert Oubre, who is in the USA after recovering from knee surgery. Pray that he and Debbie will be healthy and able to return to Chad soon.

Please pray for Kalbassou, our General Director and currently our only Surgeon. May God give him energy, strength and wisdom for all the work he does, especially while Bert and Debbie are still away.

Please pray God’s protection over this hospital and this country as we emerge from the restrictions of Coronavirus, and also as heavy rains bring the start of malaria season and occasional flooding and storm damage.

Pray that we will be able to treat patients with the many diseases and conditions which shorten lives and cause so much suffering here in Chad.

Please keep praying for the work of our two Ethiopian Pastors/Chaplains and for all those they are reaching with the Gospel.

G2 Hospital is very grateful for all the volunteers, prayers, and financial support we receive from all over the world, including from AIM, DWAM, Humedica, CHSC, SIM-France, the Cutting Edge Foundation (CEF), and BMS World Mission.

We are also proud to announce a new partnership with the Neuenbürg hospital for anaesthesia training, funded by GIZ (German international development agency)

May the Lord continue to bless you in all that you do.

Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.

Galatians 6:9

Dear Supporters and Partners, 

As 2019 comes to a close, we reflect on the last 12 months. It was a year filled with exciting times of new adventures and progress as well as difficult times and challenges. Even as we walked through “desert” moments, we were reminded constantly of how good God is through the showers of blessings He sent. It has been a year marked with His provision and faithfulness and we are so expectant for what He is going to do in the new year!

Here are some of the blessings that we have received over the year and we feel that God is moving within the work in Chad. 

• Housing during our stay in the States:  We frequently joke that we are homeless, as we sold our house in Columbia, SC, before leaving for Nigeria in 2014.  We have always had a safe, quiet, and relaxing place to stay when we return to the States plus a car or two put at our disposition.

• We were back in the States just a week before Debbie had to have back surgery because of severe sciatic pain.  We thank God that the surgeon, who is a brother in the Lord, was able to operate so quickly and that Debbie woke up with no more sciatica.

• We were able to visit with our children, Philippe and his wife, Brenna, in North Carolina, Joël in Louisiana and Greg, Lily and our grand-daughter, Hannah, in Texas.  We also had the privilege of celebrating Debbie’s parents’ 65th anniversary in Pennsylvania and visit other family members.

• Sharing with old and new friends about our work in Chad was such an encouragement as they continue to pray for our ministry and support us in this endeavor.

• A very generous couple donated funds to remodel the old sterilization/laundry building into two one-bedroom apartments that should be finished in the next month adding much-needed housing.

• Our team is growing- a French nurse couple and the two children arrived in October.  Two British couples and their children will arrive in January.  Four more short-term missionaries (2-6 months of service) from the USA, Germany, England, and France will be arriving in December/January. Our compound will be overflowing!

• We have had many opportunities to share about our hope in Jesus with those around us!

• Our Ethiopian colleagues are doing a wonderful work as chaplains as they visit, encourage, and share the Gospel with the patients. 

• Working alongside our teammates, both missionaries and national, sharing, discussing, planning, laughing, and at times crying is a blessing that we can’t take for granted!

• The hospital received a sizable grant from the Swiss government which will help us improve our x-ray and laboratory services, purchase a larger generator and build a new building for ultrasound, prenatal clinic, and well-baby clinic.  Many also donated to help buy much needed new delivery tables.

But the biggest blessing is to be used by God in his work! We are imperfect vessels, but our prayer is that we allow Him to mold us for His work. 

Thanks again for all your support.  We want to wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year and God’s richest blessings to you and your family!

Bert and Debbie!

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If you’d like to partner with us financially, click here to contact us and we’ll be happy to send you more information.

We’re thankful to be working with Crossover Global.

Crossover Global (a trade name of Crossover Communications International) has maintained “good standing” as a member of the Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability (ECFA) since 1996.

The “Duplex Debbie” Building Project is going up! This project will provide needed short term missionary housing.

The small building below was our first sterilization building.

It is now part of our new duplex homes to be used by the short term missionaries.

“Duplex Debbie” was my smart little wife’s idea. She also developed the building plans, made our needs for this project known, prayed, and found the funds.

The Lord blessed her efforts and guided her and our building team through the building process in record time.

Time to install the doors, windows burglar bars and screened porches.

The Bible mentioned that it’s not good to put old wine in new wineskins. We would prefer to be putting a new ambulance in this new vehicle shed instead of our old one, but we were passed over last year when ambulances were given by the government.

Our latest building site.

And another of Debbie’s trees bites the dust.

This block of buildings will house the new Ultra Sound room, well-baby clinic, and vaccination room. There will be a covered waiting room for these patients as well as for X-ray patients.

The X-ray department is also being enlarged and improved. The new X-ray equipment should be functioning next month. 

The entire hospital team of 90 full-time employees and the 20 temporary construction workers are excited to see G2 “movin on up.”

We will have a little celebration when the newly renovated and enlarged labor and delivery department is dedicated next week to the Lord.

Many thanks to those of you who have given to or prayed about any of these projects. 

May the Lord bless you. 
Bert and Debbie Oubre

I (Debbie) have a cause I would love to share and have people donate towards.

I have been a Labor and Delivery nurse for over 37 years. I wouldn’t work anywhere else!

Here in Chad (where Guinebor 2 Hospital is located), maternal and infant mortality is one of the highest in the world (top 5 in the world).

We work and strive to deliver the best maternal/infant care possible. We deliver an average of 150 babies/month.

Our current delivery tables need to be replaced as we have recovered them many times. If a patient moves down too far on the table they can fall off. And we can’t put the back up anymore. Etc.

Would you be willing to help us by donating money toward buying at least 2 new tables? We really need 4 new tables.

Each new table costs about $1,000.

Email us at b.oubre(at)crossover(dot)global if you want to give to this great cause!

Thanks!
Debbie Oubre

When six-month-old Achta was born, her tumor was the size of a large peanut according to her parents. Her 79-year-old surgeon and his team performed a tumorectomy and gave her a new chance at life!

Good day at the office!

The biopsies will leave tomorrow with a missionary for the states.

Thank you, Jesus, for using us here and for this experience today!

Many thanks to those who prayed for Ashta and for our team. 
Bert 

This 11-year-old boy, Andre, has a history of this mass developing in the left facial area over a period of three years.

As you can see, from the large scar, another well-intending surgeon attempted to remove this tumor almost four months ago. However, he did not have proper training for a complicated case like this and the resulting extensive scarring made the case more difficult for us. 

Andre’s parents are poor Christians. 90% of our patients are Muslims. Most Muslims own sheep, goats, cattle and/or camels that they can sell to pay for medical/surgical needs. 

Our Poor Fund committee determined that Andre’s family is truly needy.

The family paid 5% of the patient’s hospital bill and the hospital Poor Fund paid the rest. 

If you would like to help us care for needy patients like Andre’s, please send a gift to the G2 Poor Fund at:

Crossover Global 
G2 Project-Chad
7520 Monticello Rd
Columbia, SC 29203

If your gift is designated for the  G2Poor Fund (Chad)  there will be no handling charge, and all of your gift will go to help poor patients receive much-needed care. 

Blessings,
Bert and Debbie