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We are also in the very early stages of planning to build a clinic in Kafanchan. We will be working in partnership with Bishop Marcus Dogo, head of the Anglican Diocese of Kafanchan – a city located about 3 hours drive southeast of Kaduna. We hope to build a clinic on the grounds of a thriving secondary school and church compound in Gidan Wari – about 15 miles from Kafanchan. The school has a very large population with hundreds of orphans who are boarding students. There are no other medical facilities of any kind in this city. If we build the new clinic, we will be able to reach thousands of people who have no access to medical care.  We have begun plans for building our next clinic in Gusau, a city about 4 hours drive north of Kaduna in Zamfarra State. We have been working with Bishop John Danbinta, head of the Anglican Diocese of Gusau, for many years now. We have helped to start a diocesan secondary school, called Grace International School. The school is now built and thriving. We hope to build a new clinic on property adjacent to the school which is already owned by the diocese. We hope that the school and the clinic will have a synergistic relationship. Many of the school families are economically challenged and will need medical care. And many of the students are studying biology, chemistry and physics and aspire to be doctors, nurses and pharmacists. We hope that the clinic will be able to help the students nad their families to have more healthy lives. And we hope that it will be an “on the joib training” center for aspiring medical students.  Eight years ago, we had a dream. The local Muslim village chief in Iburu donated a large parcel of land to the Anglican Diocese of Kaduna with the proviso that the diocese build and run a medical clinic on this land. Why did he do this ? Two reasons. First, he had a very personal reason. His own daughter had died on her way to a far away hospital because there was no medical care available for her in Iburu. Second, he donated the land to the Anglican Diocese because he knew that the Anglicans could be trusted to deliver medical care. For many years, the diocese had been conducting free rural mobile clinics to nearby villages. The chief knew that he could trust them to deliver quality medical care to needy people. When the Anglican Bishop Josiah Fearon told the Rev. Tom Furrer about this offer of land, they decided to build a clinic here when funds became available. Five years later, in 2013, the funds were raised to build the clinic and to fund a doctor and two nurses for three years. After many challenges in construction and budgeting, the clinic was completed in June of 2016.  On Sunday, July 30, we held a Dedication Service for the new clinic. The Clinic is dedicated to Nancy Mason. Nancy was a nurse who worked with children here whole life. When she was young, she wanted to be a missionary. But she married early and her missionary dreams were not fulfilled. While raising her children, she continued her career as a school nurse. She died about 20 years from cancer. In 2013, her husband, the Rev. Alan Mason donated $20,000 to build a new Clinic in her honor. In a sense, her work of caring for children continues through this clinic and her desire to be a missionary is being fulfilled.
On Monday, August 1, we began our full time work at the new Iburu Clinic. In the first three days, we offered free medical care to 801 people. The last of these to be helped was the local Muslim village chief. He insisted that he be the last – not the first – to be served. He wanted his village members to be helped before him. We have received funding of $60,000 from another donor (who wishes to remain anonymous) which will pay the salary of the doctor and two nurses for the next three years. So we are overjoyed to finally have our new clinic up and running. With God’s help, we will be able to help many thousands more people with medical care in the years to come. From July 23 to August 7, 2016 , we conducted our annual FaithCare Medical Outreach in Kaduna, Nigeria. As always, this is a joint effort between Kateri Medical Services, Inc. , FaithCare and the Anglican Diocese of Kaduna. A team of 14 people from the US joined about 100 Nigerian volunteer surgeons, consulting doctors, eye doctors, nurses, dentists, prayer counselors and crowd controllers to conduct an annual intensive medical mission. This year, we held our main mission venue at Jacraranda Farm in Kaduna. And we also held two satellite clinics at Kateri Medical Clinic and at our new Iburu Clinic. For the past five years, we have not been able to hold our FaithCare outreach at Kateri because of security concerns. But the security situation seems to be improving and we decided to try a three-day satellite clinic at each of our existing clinics in Kateri and Iburu. This experiment worked out very well and we hope to relocate our main clinic venue back to Kateri and Iburu next year. We feel that this is a better model because it strengthens the tie between our patients and our year-round clinics. When they need follow-up care, they can return to the Kateri and Iburu Clinics.  The multiple venues for the clinics allowed us to help more people than ever before. Here are some of the statistics: Surgeries 229 Dental Care 578 Eye Care 2,226 Eye Glasses 912 Prescriptions filled 5,024 Prayer & counseling 6,810 Receiving Christ 493 Kateri Satellite Clinic 781 Iburu Satellite Clinic 801 Jacaranda Main Clinic 7,947 Total People Served 9,529  We were greatly encouraged by the success of the satellite clinics and the overall increase in the number of people we were able to help. This is the highest number we have ever helped in our many years of doing these summer intensive clinics. We are very grateful for all of your support by prayer, moral support and donations. We couldn’t have done this great work without all of you, our supporters.  Rev. Tom Furrer is Leaving Church Pastorate – Will Be Full Time At Kateri Medical Services8/24/2016 Dear Friends and Supporters, At the end of September, I will be stepping down as the pastor of Trinity Episcopal Church in Tariffville. But I have no intention of “retiring”. Instead, I will be working full time as President of Kateri Medical Services. Now that I have reached the age of 66, and thanks to the Church Pension Fund and Social Security, I will be able to serve in this role for no salary. Our goal is to continue to run Kateri Medical Services with as low an overhead budget as possible. Currently, about 99 cents out of every donated dollar goes to pay the salaries of medical professionals and to buy medicine. We have had to spend a little money on website development and mailings, but we have managed to keep our overhead very low. And we plan to keep I that way.  In the days ahead we will be expanding the work of Kateri Medical Services. We now have two full-time clinics. We are planning two more for next year. In 2017, we will be doing four weeks of summer intensive medical mission instead of two. Our goal is to have 10 full time clinics built, running year round and self-sustaining by 2025.
We began this ministry, quite literally, on a wing and a prayer thirteen years ago. Since our small beginnings in 2003, we have run a clinic 365 days a year ever since. We have never missed a payroll and we have never stopped caring for hurting people through medical care. God has answered our prayers and we have grown every year. To date, we have helped more than 200,000 people with medical care and the number is growing every year. After many years of work and thought and prayer, this is what I believe God is calling me to do with the rest of my life. The challenges are daunting, but the needs are great. I hope and pray that you will continue to help us in this great work of love. Please keep praying for us. Please consider joining us for a summer medical mission. And please give generously. Sincerely yours, Rev. Tom Furrer, President, Kateri Medical Services. This lady returned yo say "thank you". year, pne of pur suregeons removwd a goiter from her neck. She had suffered with this affliction for many years but was not able to afford surgery.  In August 2016, Rev. Tom Furrer, President and Executive Director of Kateri Medical Services traveled to Kafanchan to meet with Bishop Markus Dogo and his wife Nana. They have been discussing the possibility of a new clinic here for the past for years, but now it seems that the time is right. Both Bishop Markus and Nana are energetic and zealous to bring the love of God to bear on real life struggles and problems of the people in Kafanchan Diocese.  Rev. Tom Furrer meets with Bishop Markus Dogo and his wife Nanna to plan for new clinic. Because of religious riots, the diocese has about 2,000 widows. Nana is developing womens’ training center to equip women to set up small businesses to support themselves and their children. They are also developing housing for widows and orphans. Both Bishop Markus and Nana were orphaned when they were young children. They know the pain and needs of those who have been left behind and they are committed to sharing the love of Jesus with the least, the last and the lost.
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