ZIMBABWE
— Rick Sykes needs a few dozen “MacGyver guys” for a life-changing “extreme
makeover” adventure that will make an eternal difference for thousands of
people.
Interested?
The project Sykes has in his sights is rehabbing Sanyati
Baptist Hospital
in Zimbabwe, a
60-year-old icon of Southern Baptist overseas work that has fallen into serious
disrepair as that country’s economy has collapsed.
When Sykes, a member of Pleasant Heights Baptist Church in Columbia, Tenn.,
first visited Sanyati in 2009, he was distressed at what he saw: a completely
broken water system, leaking roofs, rotting fascia, termite damage, electrical
malfunctions — and a set of auto headlights hanging from the ceiling of an
operating room.
The hospital’s electrical supply was so unreliable that staff had installed the
headlights and a battery in an operating room to be sure doctors weren’t
plunged into the dark in the middle of surgery.
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The situation was intolerable for Sykes, a retired maintenance project leader
for General Motors.
Sykes was at Sanyati to help with the hospital’s water problem — the compound’s
wells and pumps weren’t working, but he quickly saw a host of other maintenance
issues.
“In the two weeks I spent there, the electricity was on maybe 30 percent of the
time,” Sykes said. “When you go in the operating room and they have two car
headlights mounted in the ceiling and a battery over in the corner, you know
there’s a problem.”
A couple of days into Sykes’ two-week stay at Sanyati, a thunderstorm knocked
out power in half the compound.
“My son is an electrician and we are fixers, so we started
digging around and found the problem. Since you couldn’t cut the power off, he
rewired it hot and got the lights on for the whole rest of the compound,” Sykes
said. “After that, we had people from all over coming and saying to us, ‘This
is broken. Can you look at this?’
“When Dr. (Mark) Byler showed us through the hospital, it just started breaking
our hearts — all these people there and the dilapidated condition of the
hospital,” Sykes said. “The hospital is so remote, and it’s the only real
medical care these people can get in a very large radius.
“That was when the wheels started turning. We did some brainstorming and talked
with Mark Hatfield and Dr. Byler,” Sykes said. “Somewhere in the midst of all
that, this concept was birthed of an ‘extreme makeover’ for Sanyati
Baptist Hospital.”
Sanyati Baptist Hospital, under the leadership of Mark Byler, a physician from
Kansas City, Mo., treats an average of 35,000 outpatients and 1,800 inpatients
a year, said Mark Hatfield, who with his wife, Susan, directs work in
Sub-Sahara Africa for Baptist Global Response, the international relief and
development organization coordinating the makeover project. The staff performs
about 1,000 surgeries and delivers more than 2,000 babies each year. Southern
Baptist missionary physician Archie G. Dunaway Jr. was killed at Sanyati in
1978 by guerrillas fighting against the government of what was then Rhodesia.
“The five-year plan for the ‘extreme makeover’ project intends to restore the
hospital facilities to a state where they can be locally maintained,” Hatfield
said. “God has used Sanyati Baptist
Hospital to meet both physical and
spiritual needs for 60 years. Its ministry extends far beyond the 100,000 or so
residents who look to the hospital for medical care. Sanyati is a symbol for
the whole country of Christ’s loving compassion for the sick and hurting and I
don’t think God is finished with Sanyati
Baptist Hospital
yet.”
In 1981, the government assumed control of the facility, but economic issues
have prevented it from being properly maintained.
“Even if the hospital is owned by the government now, the
sign out front says ‘Baptist,’” Sykes said. “What kind of impression is that
creating?”
A dozen teams a year will be enlisted over the course of the project, Sykes
said.
“There’s something here for everybody to do. It’s way bigger than one church,”
Sykes said. “The biggest challenge and prayer concern is that we really need a
project coordinator on site. I’m heartbroken we don’t have someone there.”
The Sanyati extreme makeover could be “a perfect place for Sunday School
classes, churches, associations or state convention groups like Baptist
Builders and the disaster relief network to become involved in something much
bigger than they could take on alone,” Hatfield said. “But together with other
churches and groups, they can be part of something very significant in Kingdom
ministry.
“It will take a united effort by groups who don’t even know each other — and
may never see each other face to face — in order to complete the five-year
project,” Hatfield said. “We are trusting God to provide the volunteer teams
and the financial resources needed to complete this project. We have stepped
out in faith that God will call out those who He desires to work on this
project, both those who will come and those who will give.”
The Sanyati project offers men like the “MacGyver” TV character — who could rig
up practically anything with whatever he found at hand — a great opportunity to
get involved in a major overseas project, Sykes said.
“All over the world, we’ve got ‘MacGyver’ guys sitting in pews, who want to
make a difference but don’t know what they can do,” Sykes said. “They’re
saying, ‘Someday, somewhere, I want to get involved,’ but red lights down the road
keep them from volunteering.
“Guys, we need your skill and want you to charge up this mountain with us,”
Sykes said. “This is your ‘somewhere,’ right now. You can’t wait until all the
traffic lights are green before you leave the house.”
(EDITOR’S NOTE — Kelly is an assistant editor and senior writer for Baptist
Press. For more information about the Sanyati Extreme Makeover project, visit www.sanyatimakeover.com.
Individuals or groups interested in participating may e-mail Peter Sierson at [email protected].)
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