All the Glory

These last few weeks have been totally wild. January 24 was our scheduled "go-live" date at the hospital. It was a Sabbath, and we chose to officially start using the new computer system at 9:00pm because it would be the least busy. Dirk arrived on January 19, and together we had been coding non-stop in preparation for the 24th. Sabbath came, and I didn't feel like we were prepared AT ALL. There was no light at the end of the tunnel. The devil was assuring me that everything was going to crash and burn. The staff have no idea how to use this thing. You don't have enough computers for everyone. What if something breaks? Or what if stuff gets stolen? Then you're really up a creek. You hardly have any replacement parts. It's already the busiest time of year, and you want to add a bug-infested computer system to the mix? You can't even speak French. Everything will take twice as much time, and patients/visitors are gonna be super mad. You're gonna look like a complete fool. Pack your bags and get outta town.

Fair enough. We'll probably look pretty foolish. But I bet Noah looked foolish building a massive boat in the middle of the desert in preparation for an event that had never happened before in earth's history. And Sarah probably looked foolish buying maternity clothes at the age of ninety. And the Israelites probably looked foolish tooting their horns while parading around Jericho. And David probably looked foolish confronting Goliath with a slingshot. And the Wise Men probably looked foolish following a little star all over the country. And Peter probably looked foolish getting out of a boat in the middle of a lake...at night...in a storm. And Jesus probably looked foolish as he hung half-naked on a cross.

I didn't sleep at all Saturday night, and very little the rest of the week. There were so many problems. People got really frustrated. Ward rounds took forever, which backed up the doctors' surgery schedule. Receipts printed with things that had already been paid for, so patients were paying for the same stuff multiple times. Some staff arrived at work whom I had never seen in any of the morning training sessions we'd been doing. And they'd never used a computer in their lives.

I didn't think we were gonna make it, but we're hanging in there. Tons of other volunteers pitched in and helped in the different departments at all hours of the day, which was a HUGE blessing. Dirk and I were able to fix more stuff together in two short weeks than either of us had been able to do separately for months. It's now the end of week two, and things are starting to level out. It's far from perfect, but at least the staff are getting comfortable with the new workflow. By some miracle I've been able to speak French so that people can understand, which I couldn't do a few weeks ago. Everyone has displayed incredible patience. I don't want to make it sound like everything is peachy; there are still tons of problems. But it's the first electronic system of its kind at any Chadian hospital, and I think that's something to be proud of.

All the glory goes to God, not anyone here at the hospital. I think if God knows that he'll get the glory, he'll bless us beyond our abilities and beyond our resources. And He continues to do just that.