Mukinge Hospital is a 200 bed rural mission hospital that is now under the leadership of the Evangelical Church in Zambia (ECZ) and assisted with personnel through SIM. The hospital serves the people of Northwestern province and functions as a referral level facility, though the medical resources are limited. The HIV epidemic has hit southern Africa with full force and Zambia has estimates of an adult HIV prevalence of >15%, so you can imagine the importance of a functioning health care facility in such a rural area.Our friend and colleague, Dr. David Friend, is currently the only full-time physician on staff at Mukinge and his workload is tremendous. Needless to say, we are eager to get back. We are hoping and praying that we can return to Mukinge by late spring/early summer of 2012.We are the Tompkins family. We currently live in Wichita, KS but are headed back to Kasempa, Zambia to continue working at Mukinge Mission Hospital. Daren is a family medicine physician and Elissa has a background in nursing. We have 4 wonderfully energetic kids - Zach ('04), Nate ('06), Emelyn ('08), and Drew ('10). Needless to say, they keep us very busy Together, we will serve our Zambian community by giving compassionate, quality healthcare to those in need, and by speaking the truth of the Gospel into the culture as we share the love of Christ through word and deed and as we disciple young Zambian believers.
