Summer Newsletter 2010
I am very fortunate to be invited to speak to meetings all over Yorkshire and Lincolnshire and last week I saw the best of Britain. I was hosted near Whitby in the lovely old buildings that were once a school owned by the order of the Holy Paraclete, Anglican nuns. In the beautiful gardens and hot sunshine it was easy to forget the political turmoil and the cuts that the new Government are about to inflict on us all and the worry of how it will affect the work of Jacob’s Well.
However some miracles have already happened. Only a few months ago we learned from Margaret, our fundraiser who lives in Lancashire, that the new priest at her church had been a chaplain with the army during the war in Iraq. He was based in Basra and acted as chaplain in the local hospital. He said that the doctors were really struggling to treat the many seriously ill patients as they had nothing. He was there when a container came from England full of medical supplies and it was like a gift from heaven. It was from Jacob’s Well! He had never heard of Jacob’s Well and didn’t know that Margaret was involved. We never had any feed back about these supplies and were not sure what had happened to them. This was a great joy and encouragement to us all. Last week a small consignment of our medical supplies should have been delivered to Gaza in the Irish ship but sadly they have ended up in an Israeli port instead. However we must pray that, like the Iraq supplies, they will eventually arrive safely and be delivered to the people in need. Our Ghana work is proceeding at quite a pace. The Rotarians in York have helped us to set up a seed bank and a local farmer has kindly donated his prized old Massey Ferguson tractor. It arrived in May to Nadowli just before the rains were due. Sandra and Sister Justina have been busy helping the women’s groups to grow more food to feed their families. They have registered Jacob’s Well Ghana as an NGO which will help greatly. We are very hopeful for the future. There is still much to do to make progress but our leaders out there are good and working very hard to reduce the poverty.
In Romania I am able to report that there has been another wedding. Marian Paun has married Viorica but I was not able to go as I only got a week’s warning. It happened at the end of May and we wish him well. He has been living in a small flat in the town for the last year now. Ilie now lives in Ukraine and they have a baby girl. At the end of this month we hope to have the first of our new houses ready for Elena and Vasile to move in. We still have three more to finish, just the bathrooms and kitchens to fit and decorate - we are nearly there! Thanks to all of you who have helped us to fund raise for these over the last few years.
Titi has delivered two very precious loads of medical supplies to Moldova during the last year. Some of our colostomy supplies have gone to a hospice there and they were extremely happy with them as the need for them is great. We were also able to donate some oncology supplies which they requested..
In Burkino Faso Hinryk and Gully received their first container to distribute. Their ABC school had many gifts from Beverley’s Swinemoor School and they were very happy. The six hospitals and clinics also received their supplies and the distribution went well. They worked hard together to empty the container and ended up good friends! We hope that they will be able to continue to work together in partnership from now. The Mayor came and there was much singing and dancing that day. We are now packing another container for them which we hope will sail by the end of June. The ABC school still has no water or electricity supplies and the whole district is extremely poor. There is still much to do.
Our Afghan containers are still just about getting through to Kabul though their journey now takes almost three months. It also takes almost three months to free the container from customs so we are now down to sending only two containers a year. It is quite an achievement to get them through at all and the cost is escalating as the fighting gets worse. The delays are very costly and the fall of the £ to the $ has also hit us hard as our shipping is always in dollars.
Since the Well-One Clinic opened next door I have come into contact with patients with Lyme disease who really need much help, often not given by our NHS. It is a tick born disease and we do not easily make a quick diagnosis when people develop the symptoms. Chronic fatigue syndrome goes on for years and I realised the need for more research. I am pleased to say that we now have a small research project about to start to see if we can provide a better diagnostic tool for the Lyme disease. We are just at the beginning and have received our first grant but need more funding to do this work which we hope will take 6 months to a year. It is led by Dr Chris Newton, biologist, and helped by an Iranian doctor, Sirous, who has both biology and medical degrees. We will do what we can to support this much needed research.
This spring we received a request for supplies from a hospice which is just being built in Paphos, Cyprus. They are hoping that the Pope will open it this summer and they requested some dressings and bandages. We were able to deliver these when one of our staff went on holiday with an extra suitcase. Peter and I were tempted but so far we don’t seem to get the posh holidays.
In April Peter and I celebrated our 50th wedding anniversary and staff and volunteers stopped work to give us a surprise big party and lunch was quite extraordinarily good! Many friends came and so did a new table and chairs set for the garden. Now we pray for the time and fine weather to sit out in the sun. Retirement hasn’t arrived yet but we thank God for all his gifts and for the privileges of being able to do his work with so many angels around us.
Beryl Beynon, Medical Director
Trying Out The New Tractor in Ghana
The Whole Town Come to Watch Our First Supplies Being Unloaded In Burkina Faso
The Men Unload The Container
The Women Sort and Distribute
Please note our new email address which is;
office@thejacobswell.org