Christian Hospital Tank

At the end of February two of our long-term missionaries to Pakistan left the field and have returned to life in the United States. Both of these women have faithfully served at Christian Hospital Tank (CHT) for many years. Jan Kersgaard was there for more than 30 years and Elenn’ Elness served at CHT for the last 18 years. The talents and leadership that both have utilized in this ministry will be missed.

The hospital in Tank remains a vital ministry and one that WMPL is committed to support. For the moment WMPL does not have any missionaries serving on site at CHT. But we do continue to support the hospital financially and we continue to receive donations for CHT. For those of you who have supported the hospital you may continue to do so through WMPL.

The hospital will also continue to be a focus of prayer for us. Jan Kersgaard has told me that the need for additional staff remains high. Currently they are in need of a hospital director, more doctors and nurses and nursing teachers. Over 150 national workers continue to work at CHT along with a handful of expatriates.

While praying for the medical work in Tank please remember to pray for Elenn’ and Jan also. Elenn’ was married to Steven Parrish on May 16th they are currently living in Michigan. Jan is looking for a nursing position in Eugene Oregon where she can spend some time with her father and family.

Health  Insurance

Health care costs continue to be an area of concern for WMPL. I am sure that each of you has had to deal with this problem personally as well. Each year health costs rise faster than the rate of inflation. This year our health insurance increase for our overseas personnel was far greater than we anticipated. For that reason we have changed health insurance carriers for our overseas group. The change occurred on June 1^st. I expect that we will save $40,000 over the next 12 months with the new plan. Changes in health insurance carriers always come with challenges there are new insurance cards, new phone numbers and new procedures to get accustomed to. These challenges are sometimes exaggerated for those who reside outside of the United States. Please pray that the transition will be a smooth one.

Financial Update

We were not able to pay full-allowances to all of our missionaries in June. The general fund was $20,230 short of the necessary amount. This was considerably better than May when we were nearly $39,000 short. We used $3,772 in estate funds to increase the minimum allowance to 65 percent. The minimum allowance was paid to 28 of our -missionary units, full-allowance was paid to 17 missionary units and two units were in between. Thank you for your partnership in this ministry.