December 2009
December 22, 2009 - Final Update of 2009
Updated provided by Dr. Jerome Harvey
You may remember that this fall when we moved our two highway warehouse trailers into the back of the warehouse property,
the trucks pulling them bogged down in the muck so we had to leave them helter skelter until 
the ground froze.
So this last week, thanks to a 30 tonne crane donated by GC rentals here in Thunder Bay, we were able to lift them into place fitting tightly
in a corner of the property to maximize the Sunday parking available to Grace Church, the owner of the property.
That's the good news!
The bad news:
As the last trailer was being lowered into place, Dave March was steadying the swinging 10 tonne trailer with his hand when it suddenly dropped onto his
upright arm trapping it on the top of a fence post. His arm was no match for the trailer and his wrist bones were crushed into his forearm bones.
The pain was so severe that he went into shock and had to be transported to hospital by ambulance.
A temporary reduction and cast was applied at the hospital and today (Tuesday 22nd) he had open surgery to screw things back into place.
We are thankful to God it was not more serious but this reminds us to be careful as we move a lot of heavy equipment from time to time.
We wish Dave a speedy recovery from this and his previous MEMO knee sprain from June. I appreciate Dave's positive attitude to these set backs.
This year saw teams in February, April, and November, evaluate our collaborative efforts in Cancer Care, laboratory, xray, maintenance and ambulance services.
We were very grateful to receive pictures of the insertion of 3 PICC lines (For painless chemotherapy) by Cuban oncologists after we left in November. Also, breast cancer screening is progressing.
To date, we have shipped 37 40-foot ocean containers of hospital supplies including 6 this year alone! This has made a huge impact on the level of care provided in Villa Clara province. At the moment, Dr Aurora will most likely be coming to study mammography in Thunder Bay in the early summer.
OUR NEXT TEAM MINISTRY TRIP IS FEBRUARY 28 TO MARCH 9. The main thrust will be working with our Cuban Colleagues in painting the Placetas Hospital kitchen and cafeteria. There are only six places available. I know some of you have expressed interest in this outreach, so contact me soon for details if you want to go. This is not a holiday or for sightseeing, but will be a life changing event as you enter into the lives of our Cuban friends.
We hope that Steve Neufeld will tell us in the New Year that we received enough money in donations over Christmas to ship a container in early spring.
On this last trip, the Cuban hospital officials pleaded with us to send furnishings to replace totally worn out desks, chairs etc.
In the Hospital for physically and mentally Incapacitated children, we have promised to send simple chairs we now have in our warehouse.
It is hard for us to imagine what it will mean to these special children to have a chair to sit on!
As I read over the BCC list of all your names my heart swells with thankfulness for each one of you as you remember MEMO in your prayers and contribute in so many different but necessary ways to what God is doing in this corner of Cuba. May you have a contented Christmas and New Year of good health and ministry to others. Jerome