Dear Friends,
Hello from Toronto en route to Zimbabwe. We are writing you with the latest updates on our family and our mission – and an important fundraising request.
The Thistles are not surprised about how fast their trip to Canada has passed by. Summer vacations usually go so quickly. The grey skies and wet weather did not dampen our spirits and occasion to travel about Ontario from Ottawa to Stratford to Niagara Falls, then to Chicago and Moncton, then back to Toronto this week in preparation for our return to Zim. In between expeditions, Paul has been working part time doing obstetrics on call, and general practice. The boys have had a field day of soccer, football, cricket, and baseball re-invented (Czar Alexander’s rules). Pedrinah has had some quiet time, as she prepares for the next year of study towards her Masters in Public Health. We have been privileged to share our experience at Rotary clubs, in small group gatherings, at dinner parties with friends and family, and recently, at our brother’s church at Lutes Mountain, New Brunswick.
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| In Stratford, Ontario, Canada: James, Paul, Alexander, and Pedrinah |
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We welcomed the rest and recreation that our Canadian excursion encompasses. A change can be as good as a rest. We are ever grateful for the hospitality of our family and friends, especially our parents who allow us to use their home in Toronto as our base. We are blessed. An integral part of our trip this summer has been our formal connection and commissioning with TEAM (The Evangelical Missionary Alliance) which is affiliated with Karanda Hospital. TEAM is a 122 year-old organization which supports more than 550 missionaries and staff in over 35 countries; now, we count ourselves among them as we continue our work.
We return to Zimbabwe next week for another round in the ring. As we plunge into the work, there’ll be no time for a ‘rope-a-dope’ – just ‘dope’ (in the pharmacy). After the turmoil of 2012, we have mixed emotions but firm convictions. The country had a general election on July 31st, and there are feelings of anticipation and anxiety as we await the results. A lot of what we do in medical missions, in public health care, is tethered to the state and stability of the economy. We live and work in a world of paradox where extreme wealth coexists with extreme poverty, and though peace is sought many people, poor and disempowered, are often compelled to violence in their search for justice. Within this mission field of thickets, the Thistles have set our hands to the plough. To paraphrase Rabbi Tarfon, ”we are not obligated to complete the work, but neither are we free to abandon it.“
Karanda is known as the place to go for quality health care – especially surgery. This often overwhelms us with long queues of patients who have experienced delays and neglect at home or at their referring hospital. People often cannot afford the bus fare to hospital let alone the user fees. Furthermore, there is no ambulance service. You cannot dial 911. There are no Meals on Wheels. There are no wheels. After the poor harvest of early 2013, there are no meals either. Sick people in need of specialist services cannot afford the cost of transfer to - and treatment in - central hospitals in Harare, where a minor operation can cost three months’ salary … if you manage to have a paying job; 80 percent of Zimbabweans are unemployed. The provision of affordable, accessible health care to Zimbabweans is called unrealistic, unsustainable, and impossible by armchair critics. We disagree, but have preferred to voice our dissent with actions, rather than words. The naysayers discourage but do not defeat us.
We were excited to hear good news from Karanda while in Canada. The hospital hosted an ‘Eyes for Zimbabwe’ cataract camp in early July. 182 patients received sight. This sets a record (in the Thistles’ memory, if not for Guinness’) for the largest number of eye patients operated on in one week. We’re delighted that we were able to facilitate this venture, and look forward to a full report upon our return.
The Rotary bicycles arrived at Karanda in late June for our community health team, followed by the bike maintenance workshop. This project is now a reality, and we anticipate long-term benefits for patient care in our villages scattered throughout the district. Another Canadian Rotary initiative, the provision of equipment and supplies to support our Maternal Child Health program has also come to fruition with the delivery of the portable X-ray machine, and other medical equipment. Zvinonwisa mvura: It makes you want to celebrate with a drink (of water!). On that note, we hope that the next partnership will be a water project to improve the quality and quantity of potable water at Karanda Mission.
We have often been asked on furlough for an update on the situation at Howard Hospital. In response we have had little news to report. Unfortunately, the first-hand reports from the hospital staff, family members, and Chiweshe patients who are seeking medical care at Karanda continue to contrast sharply with the official Salvation Army communications.
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We request your prayers for:
- Peace in Zimbabwe after the elections.
- The people of Chiweshe. For reconciliation at Howard.
- Nurse Milton Zindoga who is out on bail over the Howard Hospital protest. His High Court appeal starts next week.
- Accessible and affordable health care for the people of Zimbabwe. Karanda has a vital role to play here.
- Education assistance for our orphans and vulnerable children in Chiweshe and Mount Darwin.
- The Thistle family. For our health, and our safety on the roads as the boys go back and forth to school. James (Grade 7) and Alexander (Grade 3) will be starting their new year of school in August.
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The Thistle family is in good health and strength as we transition to our longer-term appointment at Karanda. Our relationship with TEAM at Karanda requires us to be self supporting. This is a change from our previous 18 years of missionary work with the Salvation Army, for which we received a living allodwance. Under these new circumstances, we need to raise sufficient financial support to sustain our family while at Karanda, above which we can use funds for hospital and community needs.
In this regard, we are conscious that our newsletter is disseminated to the many colleagues and contacts, friends and family – those of you around the world who have partnered with us in our ministry in Zimbabwe. For some of you, your interests may have changed over the years. For those who remain concerned about our work in Zimbabwe, we kindly ask that you might consider supporting our work with a tax-deductible donation to TEAM, earmarked for the Thistle family. To give online, please visit http://goo.gl/zkaUib.
To donate a paper cheque, donations can be mailed to TEAM of Canada, #372-16 Midlake Blvd SE, Calgary AB, T2X-2X7, Canada. Please indicate on your cheque that the donation is intended for "The Thistles".
Paul and Pedrinah would be pleased to be in touch at a personal level should you have questions or require more information. Don't hesitate to email us atdrpthistle@gmail.com. If a printable handout for donations would be useful to you for to give to your organization, one can be found here.
Thank you for your ongoing care and concern for our work in Zimbabwe. Chara chimwe hachitswanyi inda: One thumbnail cannot crush a louse.
Yours faithfully,
Paul and Pedrinah
James and ("You can even call me Al") Alexander
[Scroll down for this month's photos]
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Karanda Mission Hospital
Mt Darwin
PO Box MR92
Marlborough, Harare
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Email: drpthistle@gmail.com
Phone: 263 (0)772 464 973
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29 comments:
A fresh start and a new beginning -every blessing to the Thistle family!
How moving - 'Chara chimwe hachitswanyi inda: One thumbnail cannot crush a louse.'
I'm sure, as a now previous Army fundraiser, I will be pleased to support the Thistles financially, if only because of their refusal to harbour grudges towards a 'humanitarian' organisation which has caused them so much pain, and shows no remorse whatsoever.
There's a petition on the right of the screen.
What a fantastic way to end his letter.
I wish there were more people who had such an attitude.
"I have decided to stick with love ... Hate is too great a burden to bear.”
- Martin Luther King Jr.
There are loads of people who share that attitude with you!
Interesting petition for a worthy cause. How long will it be up for and to whom will it be presented at conclusion?
With the present FSAO affiliation standing at over a 1000 there should be no problem reaching at least that number as everyone would want to associate themselves with this issue and show their personal concern by putting their name to it.
The petition will be posted to the General of the Salvation Army, registered mail and for his attention only, initially.
Quote from Dr Paul Thistle’s newsletter:
“And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work.” - 2 Corinthians 9:8, NIV
What a gracious man, having gone through humiliation at the hands of TSA leaders who tried to tarnish his reputation, and tried to vilify him like a common criminal.
Imagine yourself in his shoes – dedicated, providing excellent work among his patients, struggling with outdated drugs and with an outdated building - the brand new hospital complex outside standing in ruins because of SA officers failing to understand building requirements, so that it is classed as not fit for purpose – what careless regard to funds that could have done so much good.
Imagine looking forward to receiving the next drug consignment, only to find it has been thrown away as it was approaching its sell by date. All ready to roll with surgery and treatments but then – no drugs.
Imagine finding inconsistencies in the funds available with what you knew you’d raised back home. Imagine going to your trusted Christian leaders with this, probably having every confidence that they would do something about it.
Imagine your horror when it all turned back in on you, and the people at the centre of the issue weren’t even reprimanded, but found innocent, but the money still missing.
Imagine your shock when you are told to uproot your family, ignore the children’s education and your wife’s career, relocate out of the country, far away from the people you have been called to serve, and to whom you have a duty of care at least until another skilled surgeon arrives to take over from you.
Imagine – just as you’d absorbed this horrific information – there was a dramatic acceleration of the exit demand – 48 hours to pack up and leave. 17 years’ worth of work, your Hippocratic oath irretrievably broken through the callous demands of Christian leaders more concerned with their inner circle reputations than the suffering humanity you were called to serve, your grief apparent on You Tube for all the world to see.
Imagine leaving the people you have come to love, knowing that no surgeon will arrive in time for a handover period, and knowing that your people will suffer needlessly because Christian leaders didn’t consider them when they made their cold, clinical decisions.
And imagine being told you were no longer a SA officer because of these events, so as well as all the above, now you have no paid income either – all because you stood up for vulnerable people and highlighted the injustice of TSA leaders.
And imagine having the grace to rebuild your life, find suitable employment with an evangelical hospital and to continue to fulfill your calling, albeit in a volunteer capacity.
And imagine being so gracious as not to seek revenge, but to move forward in the grace and love of Christ, which seems to be sadly lacking in TSA leadership.
About 400 people have viewed this in 24 hours, but only 45 have signed the petition. Perhaps the 'viewers only' could say why they are unwilling to put their name to it. It’s all fact - TSA has been grossly negligent in its duty in its treatment of the Thistles, who have had the ignominious experience of having their reputation unjustly tarnished, in its treatment of the Chiweshe people whose medicines were withdrawn along with their trusted doctor, and also its contempt for the fundraising public, who have given very large sums of money, only to see them thrown away by mismanagement. Each of these groups deserves at the very least an apology from TSA – people would respect it more if they owned up instead of hiding away behind a blanket of secrecy.
Is TSA uniform for show only? Is there any compassion in the bodies and souls underneath the serge?
All the petition wants is an external investigation of the facts and TSA’s responses, which are inconsistent to say the least. All it’s asking for is accountability and justice for the Thistles and the Chiweshe people.
In fairness to the FSAOF I've decide to include a report of our just completed Mission trip to the Crimea. It will conclude on Sunday after which time we turn our attention back to the Zim tragedy...
Our Mission project remains underfunded- if you'd like to assist us please consider making a donation to selmoscow@aol.com PAYPAL NOTE! Our appeal and project is separate from, and has no official SA connection- ALL MONIES RECEIVED ARE ACKNOWLEDGE AND WE PROVIDE A COMPLETE SPREADSHEET LISTING EVERY EXPENSE.
THERE ARE NO MIDDLEMEN NOR ANY HANDLING FEES CONNECTED TO ANY FSAOF DONATION!
Dear Anonymous who said...
Quote from Dr Paul Thistle’s newsletter:
“And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work.” - 2 Corinthians 9:8, NIV
Pls contact me privately. I have an important question to ask of you- blessings, sven
SELMOSCOW@AOL.COM
This is a heartfelt plea.perhaps this well worded posting above should be sent to the editor of Salvationist, Evangelical Times, Methodist Recorder or even the Times or Telegraph. Alerting to the petition.
Why not have a Facebook Group ...TSA Howard Hospital Concerns ... posting all this blogs data and by asking people to "like" to support the external enquiry root. This would gain much better impact.
I have notice by a simple Google search the matter has been picked up by ... journalists/news.sky.com unfortunately this link fails to load. Maybe its beentaken down but it obviously reach this medium.
The grace of the Thistles should be commended. The compassion of TSA is still awaited.
Former Soldier TSA UK.
Dear anonymous who posted: "Why not have a Facebook Group ...TSA Howard Hospital Concerns ... posting all this blogs data and by asking people to "like" to support the external enquiry root. This would gain much better impact."
Pls contact me privately; selmoscow@aol.com
"I have decided to stick with love ... Hate is too great a burden to bear.”
- Martin Luther King Jr.
Have FSAOF decided to stick with love?
How far are you going to take all this?
Does the Apostle Paul not warn us against this kind of thing reminding us that God is Judge not us and anyone who has sinned will be held accountable to Him not us. Does he not also warn us against turning to ungodly men, the authorities, to judge the right or wrong of what should be godly issues?
Does anyone really expect 'Leadership' to respond to this, to the petition. They haven't responded yet surely this suggests they are not going to respond. It would seem that the people Chiweshe have been wronged and people have paid highly, including the Thistle Family. Would the risk of hurting a territory, which is a very large part of our Army, even more make everything ok? What territory wouldn't be hurting with suspected corruption within its leadership. What benefit do you hope to achieve by making their suffering known even more and even by informing some within the Territory and even the worldwide Army who knew nothing of all of this. I say 'Let God be God' 'Let God be Judge' Psalm 103: 6 'The Lord works righteousness and justice for all who are oppressed.' Let Him.
For the record, the FSAOF will not be creating a FB site.
And to: "Does anyone really expect 'Leadership' to respond to this, to the petition. They haven't responded yet surely this suggests they are not going to respond." IHQ has responded time and again by reading our series. We don't know who they are but 'they' look in several times a day. And THQs are also regular visitors... Their interest in what we're presenting may turn out to be all the response we'll ever get. But, at the very least they'll know that more than 25,000 blog visitors are now aware of the wrongs committed by those who claim to lead us in Jesus' name.
Sven, do not be misled by those who say you've done enough or that there'll never be an apology or admission of costly mistakes. Keep the info coming. Soon there will be a break through.
Any truth to the fact that 2 Commissioners like and are following the series?
Former NY
To 'Have FSAOF decided to stick with love?'
Jesus actually got annoyed and threw people out of the Temple because they were misusing it, I believe.
Love is a fine concept, and we are instructed to love even our enemies, but to appease wrongdoing within the church is to condone it.
How will a wrong be put right if no-one challenges it? We are urged to admonish one another in love, not to just let it go and hope it goes away.
If 'leadership' doesn't respond, what does that tell us? That there's a lack of Christian discipline within our Army and they can just do as they please because no-one will ever know about it? We've seen the Anglican church and The Roman Catholic church admit mistakes.
The apostle Paul calls upon the church to pass judgement on itself and clean up it's own act. Jesus did not pass judgement on secular Roman authority but he sure judged leaders of Judaism and wrong doing in the temple courts. He called Pharisees white washed sepluchres and threw out corrupt activity in the temple courts. The apostle Paul lays it on the church to purge itself of wrong doing.
Every Christian has a responsibility to hold others accountable especially leadership. Also God expects us to act justly and take up the cause of the poor and the oppressed. In this case those among the world's poorest have been dealt a life threatening blow (indeed many have died) as a result of the 2012 decisions of TSA's leadership. For their sake we must try our best to do something on behalf of the poorest and oppressed.
Yes I believe when we personally are the victims of injustice we trust in God's eternal justice but that does not mean we sit back and do nothing about social injustice on this earth.
To 'The apostle Paul' blogger - well said. We cannot sit back and do nothing about social injustice when it is committed inside the church either.
There are some verses in Scripture that we may well wish to note - from 1 Timothy 5:
'Don't listen to any charge against a church leader, unless at least two or three people bring the same charges. But if any of the leaders should keep sinning, they must be corrected in front of the whole group, as a warning to everyone else.' (CEV)
I think there are slightly more than two or three people who are saying there is something radically wrong with TSA leaders' judgment in this case. And I share a previous blogger's concern about washing our dirty linen in public. I don’t believe anyone wants this to happen.
We are urged to take any of the church's problems to our church leaders, but in this case, the leadership IS the problem. So what happens then? I cannot find any Biblical word for this situation. But we cannot sit idly by and be lulled into a sense of complacency as this event has unfolded - this may happen again in the future. It may happen in the West next time - who knows? There would be a bigger hue and cry then, because we are not like the poor and sick people of Chiweshe who had hope while being treated by Dr Thistle. If it happened here it would not have limped along ineffectually for almost 12 months until a few former officers, many of whom were treated badly themselves by TSA, got together to compile this very powerful case for justice for a family, a hospital and its patient community.
But the leadership is the same – they’ve just shuffled around a few territories’ commands (except, of course, for the sudden unexplained departure of General Linda Bond). And the mindset of our leaders is still the same, too - the breath-catching arrogance of giving Commissioner Chigariro prominence in the High Council was inflammatory, given the high level of interest in the articles on this website and the sensitivities of the Thistles' situation. It sparked a number of comments on these blogs.
And, as far as I know, the hierarchical structure of SA leadership precludes the availability of any fallback procedures when an impasse like this occurs – the faithful soldiery have seen what they perceive to be a great wrong committed in their name, and they want answers – answers that only the leadership can give.
It would be ideal if this could be sorted out internally. I believe it can be, but it will require much humility. But God does help us in our day of trouble. James 4 verse 10 says: ‘Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up’.
This advice is no respecter of people or SA rank. I understand this to mean ALL of us, whatever we do, think or say. I do hope something positive will come from THQ – it is the only way to get closure on this. Sure, there may be a couple who will gloat for a while, but I believe the vast majority would breathe a collective sigh of relief to see justice done and restoration made.
Pray for our Army – pray for our leaders, that they have the same humility and grace as Paul Thistle and his family.
"the breath-catching arrogance of giving Commissioner Chigariro prominence in the High Council was inflammatory, given the high level of interest in the articles on this website and the sensitivities of the Thistles' situation. It sparked a number of comments on these blogs".
To whom was it so inflammatory for the Commissioner to become one of the Tellers? A lowly task with no responsibilities attached to it in the greater scheme of things.
It is always best to keep things in perspective and not incite.
Could easily have been given to someone else, then.
But it wasn't !
After what Chigariro has done, she should be removed from office as a TC and should have been given no role at the HC. I personally feel her appointment to the questions committee at the HC signals the new regime will support her as they did Linda Bond.
How long will the new General remain silent on this issue? I would think he knows Commissioner Chigariro from before she became the TC of Zimbabwe. We can pray that General Andre Cox will:
1. publicly apologize for the Army's mistakes in this whole matter. He could say something to the effect that mistakes were made in the past in decision making relating to the HH largely due to misinformation coming to IHQ from the Zimbabwe territory and from an internal investigation of the situation.
2. He could apologize for the loss of life that these mistakes resulted in and could announce that therefore TSA are now offering transportation for people from Chiweshe to the Karanda hospital where they can continue to get affordable surgery and medical care from Dr. Paul Thistle.
3. The General could apologize to the Thistle's for the removal of them from their appointment in 24 hours, forcing Dr. Thistle to break his solemn oath as a doctor.
IHQ could also state that they hope to make changes in how they handle situations to prevent such things happening in the future.
Organizations who admit mistakes and try to make amends, gain back much lost respect. Those who sweep things under the rug, lose even more respect.
This would signal that a new administration is willing to change the way the Army handles situations.
'Organizations who admit mistakes and try to make amends, gain back much lost respect. Those who sweep things under the rug, lose even more respect.'
Well said - in a nutshell!
Well with a new General an Chief both very gifted men of God and of course their spouses; there are 4 very seasoned officers at the top.
So with some hope and a lot of prayer the future for change maybe just around the corner.
I thought they were all corrupt at the top? What has changed so suddenly?
The hope and prayers for change.
How can that be achieved when they have the blood and smell of death of innocents on their hands?
Only through confession and humility: James 4 verse 10 says: ‘Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up’.
Will that be sufficient as are these not criminal acts?
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