Filled with a heart of gratitude, Dr. Jean Claude Bataneni visited MMI this past week to thank MMI for sending two containers full of medical equipment to his hospital in a very remote area of the Congo.

Dr. Bataneni was trained by the Pan African Academy of Christian Physicians (PAACS) in Gabon to be a surgeon. His wife Christine is an internist and pediatrician. Together they were “Called by the Lord” to return to Nebobongo Hospital to serve that region. In obedience to the Lord and with a walk of faith, they took on God’s challenge to trust Him to supply their needs to transform an old hospital built in the 1950’s to a working facility.

Little did they know at that time that God would raise up Dr. David Young, Dr. Grace Leu, Dr. George Gonzalez, Dr. Denard & Pam Fobbs, Dr. Julianne and Andrew Randolph from the Fresno CMDA Council to raise money to send two MMI containers full of medical supplies & equipment in 2012 & 2015.

In addition, God sent a MMI Team called the Congo 7 in January 2013 to provide Continuing Medical Education (CME) to the staff. The Congo 7 visited the Nebobongo Hospital after a malaria/salmonella epidemic and ebola epidemic in 2012 that took the lives of over 300 children. When the Congo 7 asked Dr. Bataneni how they could come along side him, he asked them to raise money for a new pediatric ward in order to accommodate more children during these cyclical outbreaks of malaria. However, it was not finished when the last malaria/salmonella outbreak occurred this past January 2016 which claimed the lives of more children. MMI is partnering now with E 4 Project to finish this pediatric building and to help with community development.

JC Bataneni’s sincere heart of thankfulness has touched us all at MMI. His personal visit to the volunteers, staff and MMI Board has renewed our commitment to continue the work God has called us to do at MMI—“To Serve the Least of These.”