Handing Over
April 2022
Handing over – is not easy. We have a history that we introduce to employees. It is more than 90 years of events with the radio mission HCJB and the first medical work ever in the eastern part of Ecuador. We bear this legacy. How much history from staff, missionaries and especially patients?! This history obliges. All this is now handed over to a mostly very young team. Will they continue this blessing?
Old donations are currently weighing on us. For decades, donors, mostly from North America, have showered us with medical equipment and supplies. Now we’re sitting on a hundred boxes of mostly expired “gifts” that shouldn’t just be dumped on the garbage. It is now sometimes disposed of at great expense.
The preparation for the permit as a base hospital is ongoing. In addition to changes in the surgical area, a new toilet in the emergency room and, above all, new protocols, service instructions and regulations for the staff are needed. The paperwork in particular is increasing, but these are the specifications.
And yet – a lot of positives. We have a pastoral team of 4 people who we release on an hourly basis to talk to the patients. Two of them are in a one-year online training course to become hospital chaplains.
The Wolffs are leaving! At the beginning of May, the responsibilities in the Ecuadorian Foundation will be redistributed.
The newcomers are ready to take on responsibility. Dr Juan Carlos Panchi as managing director is already clearly organizing with the new management team. Klaudia and Eckehart have their last working day on May 28th, after which they travel to South America before their children come to visit with their families. Then they have to sell two households. The return flight to Germany is booked for September 13, 2022 – exactly 33 years after our arrival in Ecuador. We would like to conclude our journey in the chapel at Frankfurt Airport, from where we were said goodbye to our church in Mainz in 1989.
In the fall, a new family is coming from the USA (general practitioners). They already speak Spanish. They want to start the año rural (the year of recognition as physicians) in January 2023. New doctors for Shell are also in sight from Quito. God opens new doors. We still have big goals until the end of our “term of office”: In addition to the “handover of office” to our successors, it is about setting down the rules for our team in writing. And there will be many changes in which we will not be part of.
The new shelters for indigenous people from the jungle have been inaugurated. A family is beginning to manage and maintain these rooms these days. This family will live in one of the rooms.
Our next big goal is the guest house for short-term visitors from all over the world who want to help here for a certain time. We will pass this next big plan on to our prayers and donors. And it would also be nice if we could pay off the next quote of the land purchase.
Handing over – these are worries, but also joy about what has been achieved so quickly. Who would have thought of what would happen to us when we received the request in 2013? We are amazed at what God has made of it. So we know that things will continue, although sometimes differently than we imagine. We old people can let go. It was the same with the disciples during Holy Week. The resurrection came after that. Then their sorrow and sadness was turned into joy. That’s what we live by today.
ECKEHART & KLAUDIA WOLFF
You can send your tax deductible US contributions to Lightway Medical Foundation at the address below. As of right now, 100% of your contribution will be given to efforts here in Shell. There is NO administration fee because of the volunteer service of those running Lightway.
Contributions can be sent to:
Lightway Medical Foundation
PO Box 8066
Fort Wayne, IN 46898
Or you can donate through the website:
Donations – Lightway Medical Foundation
