Juang Bala the 4th...the story continues

This morning I believe the angels in heaven were rejoicing as little Issa's father and mother decided to become followers of Jesus, along with several others!!! We have a visiting pastor from Zambia, Pastor John, who is here to speak at the M. church leaders' "Unity Conference" this week. He went out to G. with Vicki and I this morning and preached a powerful message about the kingdom of God being like the treasure discovered in a field and the pearl of great price. He gave an invitation to believe at the end, and to our great joy, Issa's parents who we've been praying for since we met them, responded to Jesus.

Issa's father has been one of the building workers on our compound for a few weeks and has been considering believing in Christ. Today was the day! Those who responded stayed behind after the service and Pastor John shared John 5:24 with them to give them some assurance to hang onto: "I tell you the truth, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be condemned; he has crossed over from death to life." Please pray for these new believers in G., that God will keep them in the palm of His hand and help them grow. Pray for Vicki and I as we continue to teach through the Bible, "Creation to Christ" in this village. Many of those who believed today come regularly to the sessions and we are slowly teaching through Genesis, trying to lay foundations. This community is very hungry to hear the word of God.

Little John

9 pm:

I told you about him a couple weeks ago. He's a little boy who we think is about 3 years old, with severe malnutrition. After one week, he had gained a little weight although his family was still struggling to get goat's milk.

I went to see him today, accompanied by 2 students from our BELC (Basic Education Learning Center) to translate. What we saw was not a pretty sight. Little John has actually lost weight and is thinner than he was when we first met him a couple weeks ago. This is not good news for him. His mother and grandmother reported that he is refusing the milk and refusing most food also. He is literally starving to death before their eyes. I found it seriously disturbing to see him in this state today and to sense the apathy and hopelessness that hung in the air. I tried to figure out what foods they have available to give advice about putting them together to give him some of the nutrients he so desperately needs but they denied the availability of most things.

I began to feel this cloud of helplessness and discouragement around me as well and found myself thinking, "He's just going to die and there's nothing we can do about it." Then, a glimmer of hope. Remember the man with the goats who crossed paths with Grace and Butros on their way to see little John a couple weeks ago? Well, lo and behold he came into the village with the goats just as I was ready to give up and go home.

Luke, one of the BELC students, began to realize the seriousness of this situation and took it upon himself to find the one goat in the herd that the ladies said is producing milk right now and brought it over and milked it himself. I asked John's mother to find the 500 ml bottle we had given her to make the milk formula and to bring some oil and sugar, which they had a small supply of. We made the formula together: half cup of milk, add 1 tablespoon of oil and 4 tablespoons of sugar, and fill the rest of the bottle with water. A simple, dilute milk formula, high in energy, vitamins, and some protein for early recovery from severe malnutrition. As his guts begin to heal, God-willing we can increase the concentration of milk so he can gain weight rapidly and survive. I asked John's mother to take a small cup of the formula and begin to feed him with a spoon, while we watched. After what they had said, I fully expected him to put up a fight but, thank God, he opened his mouth and swallowed 2 teaspoons of the formula with no problem at all. A glimmer of hope! We encouraged his mother to continue to spoon it into his mouth slowly, starting a new small cup full every 2 hours.

Then, we knelt by him and prayed again, asking the Lord to place His hand on him, to provide the milk, sugar, oil and other foods he needs, and to strengthen his mother and grandmother to care for him. We're going back in the morning, when the goat should be producing milk again, to encourage them to make up another bottle and carry on. Titus, one of our watchmen and a church elder, volunteered to go along to talk to the little community there.

10 pm:

Titus is the watchman on duty tonight and just came over a little while ago, as I was writing this, to tell me that he got word that little John passed away this evening. I immediately went to tell Grace and Vicki. I think I'm still in shock. I was going to delete what I've just written but then I thought, no, this story still needs to be told.
Several thoughts: his suffering is over and he really is in the hands of the Lord. I thank Him for that. I pray that God will use his death to speak to many in this community and beyond about the needs of children like John and what they can do to prevent and help these nutritional problems. Please pray for us as we go to visit the family tomorrow. May God give us his wisdom, compassion, and a message of hope to communicate.

A tale of 3 scorpions

This evening God sent a bird to protect me from 3 scorpions! Yes, that's right. I had just gone into my tukul after dinner and was sitting on my bed when a bird
started flying around wildly on my porch. Birds kind of freak me out so I was watching it and had the fleeting thought, "I sure hope he won't find a way to get
inside." I looked up at the chicken wire and mosquito netting and thought, "Nah!" when all of a sudden that goofy bird crawled through part that overlaps and is not
secure and started flying around my tukul! I screamed and quickly clawed at my mosquito net which was still wrapped neatly above my bed for the day, and pulled it
around me. Then I worked up the courage to climb out and run out the door, calling for Sebsibe and Abebe. They came over with their sticks and managed to get the
bird out of my tukul alive. As they started to leave and I turned to go back inside, my headlight shone on a massive scorpion by the wall of my tukul. The guys
quickly killed it with their sticks. Then they wanted me to show them how the bird got in, so we went over to my door so I could explain. Again, as they were leaving
and I was about to close my door, I noticed a smaller scorpion along the bottom of my door frame. Smash! That took care of that one! We were all a little unnerved I think. By this time I'm thinking I'm seeing scorpions every which way I look, right? So after they left, I sat under my mosquito net for a few minutes and then
decided I needed to venture outside and get some water to wash. I put my headlight on and shone it all around me as I went out to my water drum. Wouldn't you know, about a foot behind my water drum was a third scorpion! So I've now killed my first scorpion (on my second try--I have bad aim!). I went to get Abebe again because I don't keep a
stick in my tukul (I will be as of tomorrow!) and this time he left me his stick. I have only seen one tiny scorpion during my whole time here until tonight and all of a
sudden there were 3 within a few feet of each other! If the guys hadn't been here getting that bird out and I hadn't noticed them then, they could have easily come in
one of the cracks by my door. And I have this bad habit of getting out of bed at night with my bare feet and not shining my flashlight down first...Like I said, God sent a silly old bird to protect me!

Little ones

They continue to come to our gate. On Friday morning and Saturday morning, we had 2 more severely malnourished children come to us. These 2 are the most severe we've seen yet. Imagine if you can a 5 year old girl that weighs 7.5 kg and a 3 year old boy that weighs 7 kg. It is almost unfathomable until you see it with your own eyes. Kette and John are their names. Their bodies are skin and bones; their fat and muscle completely wasted. Neither of them has the strength to stand. They lie in their mothers' arms staring blankly into space, completely disinterested in the world around them.

This is the work of the Enemy at its worst. It is unjust and cruel that children who should be running around and playing and learning and discovering the world around them are languishing away like this, literally starving to death. It's not that there is no food. It's hard to pin down what has triggered these children's condition. For some it is a sudden, early weaning due to the mother's next pregnancy with a lack of nutritious weaning foods. For others, it seems to be a severe illness that set them back and they lost their appetite. Protein-energy malnutrition is a vicious cycle. The more malnourished they are, the more illnesses they have and the less interest they have in eating, and the more malnourished they become.

Please cry out to God on behalf of Kette and John. We have seen wonderful progress in several children as we've treated their infections and given their parents a simple formula of goat's milk, sugar and oil to follow to give them every 3 hours around the clock as they recover. Specifically, please pray that Kette's mother and big sister will remember how to give her 2 medications and how to make up the formula. Her mother was having trouble remembering everything on Friday since we also had to give Kette's baby brother 2 medications. He had malaria and possible pneumonia. You mothers out there--imagine having all of that to deal with! Pray that these children will be able to keep their medicine and milk formula down (both have been having trouble with vomiting) and that their bodies will begin to heal and recover and gain weight. Pray especially for a miracle for Kette. In addition to being severely malnourished now, she has clearly had stunted growth for a long time. We could hardly believe she was 5 years old.

We have already seen a wonderful answer to prayer for John. On Saturday his mother and grandmother told us that they had been getting goat's milk from a neighbor but that he had begun refusing to give it to them. Today Grace and Butros, our language helper, walked over to their home to check on John. On the path, who did they bump into but the neighbor with his goats! Butros was able to explain to him that this child desperately needs the milk in order to survive and asked him to provide it, which he agreed to! Talk about a divine appointment! John's mother remembered exactly how to make up the milk formula and has started giving it.

These are the little ones that move the heart of God. We've got their names pinned up in our dining hall now so we'll remember to pray for each of them. There are 10 now that we know of, some making remarkable progress and others still in serious danger: Gideon (a little boy that Vicki saw while we were away), Issa, John, Kette, Martina, Omo, Ona, Phoebe, Stephen, Tienga (the 10-year-old with leprosy). Please join us in lifting them up to the Father.

Juang Bala the Third

Those of you who've been following my blog for a while will know that "Juang bala" means "God is present" in the Mabaan language. You will also have read about little Issa and his battle with severe malnutrition in "Juang Bala the Sequel". Well, his story and others are piling up on me so I'd best get busy and tell you about them. I have 3 more children to ask you to pray for...but first, more praise!

Today Vicki, Grace, and I went to G. for Creation to Christ teaching. It was fun to greet everyone there--they are so warm and friendly in that village and they were so happy to see us back. The person I was most anxious to see was little Issa, who I and many others have been praying for over several weeks. My prayers for Issa have been a real test of faith for me. In many ways his situation seemed hopeless and I found it difficult to believe that it could change. When we arrived, his mother greeted us with a big smile and Issa's baby brother (who weighs more than him) on her hip. She pointed to where Issa was lying asleep on a bed outdoors in the shade. I went over to have a look at him, almost holding my breath, hoping that he would look so much different than the last time I saw him.

Well, he certainly looked different! I would not call him a healthy-looking child yet BUT the swelling in his body had completely subsided and he had some "meat" on his arms and legs. His face also looked fuller. He could stand up and his father told us that he's been able to run around! Wow--that certainly was not about to happen 3 weeks ago! He looks like he still has a big worm load--we need to try a different medication to take care of that. His father indicated they are still giving him milk every day and trying to give him a variety of foods. Both parents seemed happy and encouraged with his progress. Even more exciting is the work God appears to be doing in his father's life. He eagerly came and sat down for the Bible teaching and was very engaged in Vicki's teaching about creation. At the end Vicki asked if anyone from the group would like to close in prayer and he volunteered. It was wonderful to hear him pray in Mabaan. He's working with John on our compound each day and John is a Godly man who speaks fluent Arabic and is seeking to be a witness to those he works with. It's amazing to see God connecting our various ministries--caring for malnourished children, Bible teaching, building work--to reach out to this family and their community. Please keep praying for Issa.

Another malnourished child we've been concerned about for some time is 5-year-old Martina. She has a very loving, attentive grandmother that she's been living with but made so little progress over the weeks that we saw her at the clinic. I didn't know what else to do for her but pray. We had given her all the different medications we could to treat her infections but still she had symptoms (could she have TB?). We kept reinforcing the feeding formula for her grandmother but didn't know how closely it was being followed.
Well, today Grace noticed some medical notes that Dr. Rob had written on the back of Martina's record card while he was here. We didn't know this, but he had seen her at the clinic while we were away. According to the notes, she has gained a considerable amount in her Mid-Upper Arm Circumference (a good indicator of nutrition status), is mostly symptom-free, and is eating with a good appetite! We were so excited when we read this--I can't wait to see her for myself! Hopefully she and her grandmother will come to the clinic this week so we can weigh her and see how she's doing. Praise God--we have now seen good progress in each of the children!

And still He brings us more...

I'd like to tell you about a 10 year old girl named Tienga. On Wednesday morning, the day after we returned to Sudan, the medic at the clinic in B. sent her to see us with her father. I went out to the gate to see them and met a tired looking girl with strange nodules and patches of discoloration on her face, arms, and legs. They had walked for A WHOLE DAY to the reach the clinic, in the hope of finding help for her. When I saw her my mind immediately began to race through several different parasitic diseases that I had learned about during my Tropical Nursing course--filariasis, leishmaniasis...Just then Vicki came out to give me a hand and I'm sure glad she did. Vicki has a lot of experience with leprosy patients and is hoping to start leprosy/TB community outreach here in Mabaan soon. It turns out that this girl's skin condition is very likely leprosy. She has a strong family history; her father described both maternal grandparents as having lost fingers and toes due to lack of sensation). It was heartbreaking to see such a young girl with such a horrible disease. Unfortunately, we currently have no way of testing to confirm leprosy or the medication to treat it so we had to send them east 30 km to another town near the Ethiopia border where there is a clinic with leprosy treatment. The little girl looked completely exhausted from her journey and we were sad to tell them their journey would be even longer. We prayed for them, asking God to heal her as He healed so many people with leprosy long ago. Please pray for Tienga, asking for God's mercy upon her, however He chooses to touch her. Pray for hope in the midst of despair. There are sometimes tractors pulling trailers heading to that town from here. Maybe God will provide a ride so they don't need to walk all that way.

Well, my computer battery is about dead for tonight so I will have to continue with the stories of 2 more children tomorrow. Stay tuned...

Return to Sudan

The trip to D. began at 6:30 am when we left Loki. We took the "scenic route" back this time! Our first stop was for fuel in a village in Nuer country where there
is a Primary Health Care Center run by Medicins Sans Frontieres. It was interesting to see from the air how different the Nuer tukuls look from the Mabaan tukuls.
While the pilot fueled up the plane we walked to the PHCC to use the latrine and shook hands with many smiling Nuers. The place was buzzing because they had some
visiting eye surgeons seeing patients. We wished we had more time for a tour of the place. God-willing we will soon have similar facilities for the Mabaan people!

We hopped back in the plane and headed for a village on the White Nile in Dinka land where we have another base, to drop off Jimmy and Barb who are setting up a
water-purification system there this week. The Nile was breathtaking--so vast and sparkling in the sunshine. The land is so green this time of year and the Nile is
overflowing its banks. On both sides of the river around the village there were huge pools of water among the trees. We stepped off the plane to greet Sisay, one
of our Ethiopian colleagues who is currently running the Basic Education Learning Center there by himself, and many tall, smiling Dinka people. We had to laugh--so
many of them were chewing gum. It was quite noticeable--the gum-chewing Dinkas!

Then we got back in the plane and the pilot asked if any of us would like to take Jimmy's place in the co-pilot seat. I volunteered and was soon flying over some
of South Sudan's vast oil fields with the pilot explaining different features of the landscape to me. As we neared Y., about 20 minutes by plane from D. where we live, the pilot asked me if I'd like to fly the plane and I was definitely up for trying that! He showed me how to push the controls in (slowly!) to go down and out to go up and how to watch the horizon to keep the plane level. I helped descend toward the airstrip in Y. as he showed me how to watch the instruments to make sure we were descending at the correct rate and heading in the right direction. I even got to help land! In Y. we picked up teammates Vicki and Abebech who had spent a week there at one of our other bases and dropped off some mail and supplies for the missionaries there. Then it was time to head the short distance home to D. No one else was interested in co-piloting so I jumped in the front again and this time got to steer the plane as we taxied down the runway and then made our ascent after we had taken off. It was very exciting! Maybe I should give up nursing and become a pilot!

It was such a joy to land in D., hop out of the plane, and be greeted by so many friendly, familiar Mabaan faces! We were home! Our compound looks a bit different, as heavy October rains have destroyed most of our grass fence and also caused damage to other buildings. Fortunately, we have a builder from Kenya called John who is here for three months to work on the buildings on our compound, build new tukuls for staff arriving in the next few months, and finish the Community Health Worker Training Center.

Some of you have been praying particularly for little Issa, who was severely malnourished when I left for Nairobi. His father is one of the men hired to work with John on our compound, which means he now has a job and can provide for his family. He was very concerned about his lack of work the last time we visited them. He greeted me with a big smile when I arrived on the compound and exclaimed, "Issa tamam! Issa kues!" (Issa is strong! Issa is fine!) Vicki says she saw Issa once a couple of weeks ago and he did look much better. I can't wait to see him! We're going to G. for Creation to Christ teaching on Saturday so we will see him then. I'll keep you posted, but let's praise God for this wonderful answer to prayer.

Today Vicki, Grace and I cycled into B., the market town and received a very warm welcome from everyone we met. It was great to be back! On the way we bumped into Stephen, his mother, and big sister by the road near their hut. This was a direct answer to prayer--I had been praying that we would bump into them since I had forgotten how to find where they lived so we could do a home visit. Stephen is the first severely malnourished child that we came across back in August and the last time we saw him in September he was still struggling. Today he looked amazing! I don't think I would have recognized him had I seen him without his mother. She emphasized that she's giving him lots of milk! His face was full and he had flesh on his arms and legs. His mother was overjoyed when we told her that many people we know have been praying specifically for Stephen. We stopped to visit with them in their hut for a few minutes and his mother shared the struggles they are having as her husband also has no work and their fragile grass hut covered with a tarp gets flooded with water during the heavy rains. We prayed with her and asked the Lord to provide a solution to these problems. Please join us in praying for Stephen's family.

I have another story about a child we met yesterday but this story warrants its own post so I will continue later...

Juang Bala the Sequel

Juang bala: "God is present". These were the words of Issa's father a few weeks ago when we saw such progress in his health, following severe malnutrition. Issa is a 2-year-old boy who lives in G., the village where Vicki and I go for health education and Bible teaching.

Last Saturday, I FINALLY managed to get back to G. for the health education. We tried 3 Saturdays in a row to get there but one week our translator/language helper Butros was very sick and 2 other weeks it rained heavily (being rainy season and all!). Last week we went and had a good group of women and children, as well as Issa's father, out for the lesson on Vitamin A deficiency. As usual, the group was very attentive and interested and discussed things a lot. Grace and I did a little skit on night blindness, pretending we were 2 little M. girls in a village, which was fun. Then I read the story of Jesus healing the man born blind from the M. New Testament, which I had been practicing with Butros, and we discussed that a bit. At the end of the lesson, we gave all of the children there a high dose Vitamin A supplement.

We also saw Issa that day, and to our dismay he had taken a turn for the worse. His little body, especially his legs, feet, and face, were once again swollen with fluid from electrolyte displacement caused by severe malnutrition. I talked to his parents a little with Butros but it was difficult to ascertain what had caused this relapse and we didn't have too much time to spend with them.

I began to pray about how to help this family and to cry out to God to heal Issa once again. I wanted to do something before I leave for Nairobi on Oct. 1st. I knew that if nothing changed and his malnutrition got worse, he could die of heart failure or severe infection since his immune system is so weak. I had the idea that I should talk to some church elders and go back to G. during the week, specifically to pray for Issa and to have a serious talk with his family.

I talked to Abebe, one of my team members, and Nehemiah, our compound manager who is also a Mabaan church elder, and they volunteered to go with me to G. on Tuesday. In the meantime I prayed about what to say to this family and how to communicate the seriousness of his condition.

On Tuesday, the 3 of us rode our bicycles to G. and found Issa and his parents and siblings outside their tukul. Nehemiah asked them to gather extended family members together and people began to wander over and sit down. I had felt that we needed to talk to the extended family about helping Issa's parents get enough goat's milk and sugar and oil to make the high protein/high energy milk feeds that he needs to have in small quantities every 3 hours. His mother had told me on Saturday that their goats had been sick and that they were struggling to buy sugar. So we gathered the extended family together so they could all hear what we had to say, which is a very African way of doing things anyway. Families live their lives in community very close together. With Nehemiah translating, I tried to communicate clearly that Issa could easily die if he continued in his present state but that there is hope--they had seen him improve a few weeks ago and he could become well again. The day and night 3 hourly feeds are crucial to severely malnourished children's recovery and we proceeded to carefully explain how they were to make these up and give them. Then Nehemiah read the Scripture about Jesus welcoming children and blessing them and about us needing to change and become like little children to enter the kingdom of God. Then we all bowed our heads and Nehemiah prayed for Issa and for his family as they care for him.

He has been on my mind a lot this week and we have prayed for him often as a team here. Today (Saturday) Butros and I braved the looming thunderclouds to trek through the bush and maize fields back to G., to see how he's doing. Praise the Lord, his swelling has gone down some, his diarrhea has stopped which indicates his guts are recovering a bit, and he looked more alert and less irritable. His mother seems encouraged that he is improving and they seem to be following the feeding plan carefully. We explained a change they need to make to his feeding in 3 days time that they will continue for 2 weeks. The wind started to blow and the rain started to sprinkle so we had to quickly head back home, but not before several ladies presented us with a pumpkin each and a few cobs of maize!

Juang bala--always, even when He seems absent. I confess that I was a bit disappointed with God when I saw how sick Issa was again but I continued to pray for him and seek God's guidance in this situation. We walk by faith, not always by sight. Issa's family is learning how to care for a severely malnourished child and about what kinds of food he needs to be healthy, and that is a blessing from God that can empower this whole community. I pray they are also sensing the presence and power of God to heal and His great love for one little suffering child.

On the way home through the rain drops, Butros commented that God is with us on the path. I looked up at the tall grasses, the massive trees and palms, and the dark thunderclouds ahead bringing us the refreshing African rain, and smiled. Indeed--Juang bala.

Happy New Year!

Yesterday morning we were woken up at 6 am by the sounds of people running, shouting, ululating and banging on drums outside our compound fence. It was very dark
still and I could hear thunder rumbling so I knew the clouds were hiding the sunrise. I groggily crawled out from under my mosquito net to put on some socks and
shoes and find out what on earth was going on. I joined Abebe and Abebech and Grace who had also emerged from their tukuls and Amos our watchman came over to laugh
at our reactions and tell us that the Mabaan are celebrating the new year! It was the first we had heard about it! Apparently the celebrations move from village to
village over the next few days--yesterday it was in G., today it's here, tomorrow it goes to N. etc.

In any case, Grace and I got in on the celebrations just outside our gate, at the home of Joseph, one of our watchmen and a church elder, his wife Mary and their 5
children. These children are quickly becoming very dear to Grace and I. Two of them are around the same ages as my nieces and nephews and their baby brother is one
of the cutest ever! They pop in to see us often when their father is at our gate. Recently, I started going out to their house on occasional afternoons so Mary can
show me how to cook Mabaan food! Last week I got to practice stirring the "chilku" sauce made of some type of dark green leaves with a special wooden stick that you
twirl in your hands to mix the sauce and make it kind of frothy. Mary also tried to show me how to make "kisra", the flat, pancake-like bread made of sorghum and
maize flour. Both the chilku and kisra are real staple foods for the Mabaan and the kisra takes literally hours to prepare. The sorghum and maize need to be
pounded and mixed with water and then a fire is lit with a big square piece of metal heated on top. The batter is then poured neatly one cup at a time onto the metal slab and smeared very thin and cooked for about a minute. The Mabaan ladies make a big tub of batter each time to feed many people so it takes a long time to get through it all. Mary's kids enjoyed laughing at my attempts to swirl the chilku and howled with glee as I made the kisra way too thick and burnt my fingertips trying to pull it off the slab before it burnt. After 2 attempts, I gave the cup back to their mother so I wouldn't ruin their dinner!

So yesterday I spent another afternoon there and this time the family was cooking pork. The Mabaan kill pigs for this occasion and relatives appear from all over to help eat them. Mary was again cooking a huge number of kisra with the help of several other neighbor ladies. The men were cooking chunks of pork under a tree and the kids would bring some over for the ladies and kids to snack on while they cooked. Grace and I enjoyed playing with the kids and trying to talk to them in Mabaan as we watched what the ladies were doing. Mary prepared a delicious, spicy tomato and onion sauce with some of the pork and in the late afternoon we were treated to that with the kisra and thoroughly enjoyed it. I've never eaten so much pig in one day in my life, that's for sure! As the pork was cooking, groups of happy, singing Mabaans would emerge from the bush and pass from the men to the ladies with loud greetings. It was fun to be a part of this!

The Miracle of Phoebe

Yesterday, the plane arrived and we had an overnight visit from Barb, one of our nurses who is currently still based in Nairobi and preparing for the Community Health Worker training school. She came with several people from SIM Australia who are involved in raising prayer and financial support for many of SIM's projects. They, along with a Dinka Christian leader, had just spent a week in a village along the Nile at another one of SIM Sudan's stations, introducing the community to a water purification system that will be implemented in October. It was great to have visitors here and we cooked up a storm for them and showed them the beginnings of the health and educational work here in D. One of the guys also made some adjustments to my solar system and put up a second light bulb in my tukul so it's a lot brighter now. Barb also brought my repaired satellite phone and the fact that you're reading this means that I've just been able to go on-line with it for the first time! Yahoo! Praise the Lord--I won't be in cognito for the next 3 weeks! I'm also available for text messages and phone calls, if you feel so inclined! Barb also brought our mail from Nairobi and I got 3 snail mail letters, which absolutely mean the world to me. There's just something about a hand-written letter...I've also had quite a few nice emails since I sent my prayer update a few days ago. So thank you to all who've taken the time to write and encourage me and tell me little stories about what's happening back home in Canada and the UK. This contact with home is so precious!

Anyway, back to Phoebe--the girl of the hour! She's one of the malnourished children that I told you about 2 weeks ago. This morning her older sister and brother-in-law made the journey here with her so we could see how she's doing. Wow--God has shown us another miracle! She walked in here strongly on her own 2 feet, whereas last time she was very weak and hanging limply on her brother-in-law's back. She had obviously gained a significant amount of weight in her face and arms; when I measured her arm circumference it had increased by almost 2 cm in less than 2 weeks!!! Now, I'm not very experienced in this area but I was shocked! The biggest increase I have seen so far in another child was 6 mm in just over a week; this was 18 mm in less than 2! I exclaimed to Phoebe how good this was in the M. language and she gave me the hugest grin ever. I'm telling you, a smile like that from a child so weak and lifeless just a couple weeks ago is worth it all! Phoebe's symptoms of chronic cough and diarrhea had cleared and her sister and brother-in-law had clearly worked very hard to feed her. Grace and I had the privilege once again of praying with them, giving God glory for the work He's done in Phoebe's life and asking Him to continue to heal her.

Thank you for praying for Phoebe and the other children. Last week we also paid a home visit to little 18-month-old Stephen, the very first severely malnourished child we met before we started to volunteer at the clinic in B. His mother is the most wonderful, friendly young lady ever and we tried desperately to communicate with her broken English and our broken Mabaan...and laughed a lot. Stephen has also gained some weight and is looking more like a normal boy, although his progress has been slower. If you've been keeping up with my blog you'll know that we've now followed up each of these 5 children at least once if not more, and that each of them is gaining weight and becoming healthier. God is good! Next month when Doctor Rob comes for a couple of weeks, we hope to have each of the children come for a thorough medical examination, and have the doctor's input into their care.

Juang Bala!

This means "God is present" in the M. language and these were the words of Issa's father today as we sat under the tree in G. with a group of men, women, and children who came for the Creation to Christ Bible teaching. Issa is one of the little malnourished children that Vicki and I have been seeing. His father walked up to us with Issa in his arms today and once again we couldn't hold back our excitement over how different he looked. He is most definitely and obviously gaining some weight and is beginning to look more like a normal child. His father smiled and said these words in M. that really say it all: "Juang bala!" Yes, indeed God is present and we are thrilled that his family is recognizing God's touch on his life. That has been our prayer from day 1. So let's praise God for His presence in G. and keep praying that God will draw Issa and his family to Himself.

We had a great time in G. today. Vicki gave the lesson on the character of God partly in M. and partly in English with Nehemiah, our compound manager translating. The group has grown from one family to many men, women, and children who are eager to learn. We will have a break for a few weeks while Vicki is gone to Nairobi but hope to continue the teaching in October. Please pray for this village.

This is also where we do the health education on Saturday afternoons. This week I'm giving the lesson on Vitamin A deficiency and nutrition and Vicki and Grace will do a little drama to set the scene for the lesson. This will be my very first time to teach in this kind of village setting to all these different ages (not to mention the random goats, cows, chickens, pigs, and dogs that roam around making noise!) so I would appreciate your prayers. I'll be doing it through a translator. I'll also be sharing the story of Jesus healing the man born blind as it ties in with our discussion of blindness caused by Vitamin A deficiency.

Cobras!

I can't believe I keep forgetting to tell you all about the snakes and in particular, the cobras! The most recent incident happened just today and reminded me.

My first snake sighting was a couple weeks after I got here. I was walking across the compound to my tukul in the evening and a few yards ahead of me my headlamp showed a black snake slithering away from me. I had always wondered how I would react the first time I saw a snake out here. Well, I was perfectly calm and backed up a few steps. I heard Amos, one of our watchmen, doing a walk-around of the compound with his flashlight and he happened to be walking my way at that moment so I called to him that I had seen a snake. However, I then wondered if that was a mistake because Amos is partially blind. Nevertheless, he carries a stick and loves to chase any stray animals (goats, pigs, dogs, you name it) out of the compound. He went over to where I'd seen the snake and started to beat the grass, looking for it, but never did find it. The next day we realized there was a hole in the ground near my tukul that the snake might live in so we filled it in and that was the end of that. That was the first snake I saw here but now that I've seen others I think it was probably a cobra.

Then there was the snake on Grace's porch! This was in broad daylight and she was coming back to her tukul after having a shower, and there was this little black snake (we don't know what kind) curled up on the porch. She started calling our names and yelling "Snake!" until Vicki and I heard her and came running, calling the others. Abebe killed that one with a stick.

Another day, Vicki and I were seeing some patients in the watchmen's tukul by our gate. Nehemiah, our compound manager, was bringing a big bag of charcoal into the tukul, when all of a sudden he tells us, just as calmly as you please, "There's a snake in this bag." He dragged the bag out of the tukul and started beating it and emptying the charcoal onto the ground, trying to find the snake. Nobody gets too excited--we carried on seeing the little malnourished boy and his family inside the tukul. After a few minutes we saw Nehemiah beating something with a stick and it turned out to be a big black cobra! I think about that cobra almost every time I reach into our big bag of charcoal to light the fire!

Another night, I walked across the compound to the latrine and on my way back past Vicki's tukul, she called out that 10 minutes earlier, Titus, our watchman on that night had killed a big cobra nearby. That was the night I decided to forget the latrine at night and opt for a chamber pot! I now rarely leave my tukul after dark. The next morning Titus showed us the 5 foot + cobra he had killed! He had been doing a walk-around the compound and came across this snake, heading in a direction that could have easily crossed my path 10 minutes later. I have great pics of Titus and his big stick and the cobra--one with him holding it up next to Grace and it was longer than she is tall! Can't wait to show you when I get to Nairobi!

Today, a soldier came to the compound to tell us a man at the SPLA camp had been bitten by a cobra. Sorry, Dad, no anti-venom serum here! We do however have a few things we can try when someone is bitten. We have a home-made device that delivers electric shocks to the bite that we learned how to use in Nairobi. Each of our stations has one. They are not exactly proven to be effective but there is lots of anecdotal evidence from many places around the world that they work and out here it's worth trying anything that might help. I also have a device called Aspivenin that uses suction to draw out the poison from recent bites. Abebe, Vicki, and I grabbed these devices and a couple of our medical books and followed the soldier up to the camp to see what we could do. Johnson, the evangelist from D. church "happened" to arrive at the compound just when the soldier did with his little girl who's sick so he ended up going with us. When we got to the army camp, the soldier motioned for us to wait in a small hut with a table and chairs in it and he and some other men brought the man with the snakebite on his big toe. They had immobilized his leg, which was good. He was in pain but seemed to be suffering no serious effects from the venom. He had actually been bitten 3 hours earlier. Abebe and Vicki delivered 4 electric shocks and we figured there was no point in using the Aspivenin device so long after the bite. The electric shocks are supposed to be given as soon as possible after the bite also but have been seen to be effective in stopping the spread of the poison several hours later so we tried it. We gave him some painkillers but really the most important thing we did for this man was to pray for him. It was great to have Johnson there, because he could pray for him in Arabic. We could not communicate with any of the men because none of them were M. but all from different tribes with the common language of Arabic. We don't think too much venom was injected by that snake because the man looked quite comfortable by the time we left. It could have been much worse. We said we'd go and check how he's doing tomorrow.

Thanks for praying for our safety out here--I hope these stories illustrate why we need it! God continues to give us all sorts of opportunities to reach out to people--from malnourished children and their families to the soldiers living nearby.

The Kingdom of Heaven Belongs to Such as These

Aug. 30th

Today we witnessed many blessings and many answers to our prayers...and yours! Thank you for praying for the malnourished children that we have been treating. This morning when Vicki and I arrived in B. at the clinic, 2 of our precious little patients were there waiting for us--4 year old Martina with her grandmother and 5 year old Omo with her mother. Both girls looked more alert and interested in their surroundings than the last time I had seen them and Martina walked into the room for the first time--the other times she was too weak and was carried in.

We set both girls on the scales and found that they had both gained over 1 kg! Omo's mid-upper arm circumference, a measurement of the severity of malnutrition, had increased by several millimeters in just one week although Martina's was the same. We and the translators couldn't hold back our excitement over what we were seeing and the girls' care-givers were very pleased. Martina's grandmother has been giving her the liter of goat's milk with oil and sugar per day that we showed her how to mix up on Monday in addition to frequent small feeds and Omo's mother has been doing what she could--giving her goat's milk in the morning and increasing her food. Today we told her how to make the high energy formula for Omo also and suggested they go home to their village for 3 weeks where they have access to more goat's milk and then return for re-assessment. Their village is at least 4 hours' walk away!

This was such an encouraging boost to start our day and we believe that God has had His hand on these children and their families in a special way. However, there were more blessings to come--the day was just beginning!

The day started out cool and then became very hot while we were in B. By the time we got home and had some lunch and cleaned up, I was exhausted and went to my tukul to have a little rest before it was time to leave for G. village for the Creation to Christ Bible teaching. As I was trying to muster the strength to get up and get ready 10 minutes before we were due to leave, I heard Amos, one of our watchmen calling my name. I went out to see what was up and he asked me to come out to the gate. I followed him out to find an older, very familiar-looking lady with a boy about 7 or 8 years old, who was crying and furiously scratching his body. His grandmother showed me that he was covered in an allergic rash which she said had appeared "Acca!" (now) and "Warda" (all over). I thought quickly--we had no anti-histamines in our medicine stores-- but I knew I had some in my personal medicine kit that I had been required to put together before I came to Sudan. I couldn't give him my Promethazine because the tablets are too tiny and coated to break and one of those had knocked me flat on my back for most of a day a couple weeks ago after I took one following a nasty insect bite to my toe! Then I remembered that I had several Chlorpheniramine anti-histamine tablets that Grace and I had bought in Loki to sedate our cats on the airplane. There were several left over and they were easy to break so I gave him half. We also gave him some baking soda to take home and have a bath with to ease the itching.

We sent him home and headed to G. and I just prayed his body would respond to that anti-histamine. We sure don't have anything to treat anaphylactic shock our here! In all the excitement I didn't have a chance to find out why the grandmother looked so familiar. I found out later that it really was a "God-thing".

We had an interesting time in G. As we arrived in the village it started to sprinkle with rain and some of the adults in this family who normally come were busy and didn't show up. However about 20 children came and a few women, including little Issa, the 2 year old with Kwashiokor malnutrition, and his mother. Another miracle--the swelling in Issa's face and body had gone down so much that we nearly didn't recognize him and had to ask his mother if it was really him! Praise the Lord--this is a sign that increased nutrition has re-balanced his electrolytes some and reduced the fluid leaking into his tissues. He still has a long road ahead of him--the reduced swelling reveals his thinness--but this is progress! It was also wonderful to see a smile on his mother's face today. The other times we had seen her she looked very depressed and beaten-down. Perhaps she had given up hope that this child could survive? Please keep praying for Issa. His family is struggling to have enough food.

Pretty soon the sprinkling rain turned into a torrential down-pour and Vicki's Bible lesson was cut short. However, we and several adults plus a crowd of children crammed into a little tukul to get out of the rain and pretty soon the lesson was being discussed informally by Titus our translator and several of the adults, with the children all sitting quietly and listening, which was cool. We also had the opportunity to pray for one of the ladies, suffering from joint pain. The the rain stopped, the sun came out again and we headed back to D., after greeting and stopping to talk to many people as we walked through the village. It's such a friendly place!

When we got to the compound, I asked Titus where the elderly lady and boy with the itchy rash lived. He pointed and said it was just "over there" on the other side of the airstrip. I asked him to walk over with me to make sure the boy was recovering from his allergic reaction. When we got there, we found the boy happily playing with his cousins, completely recovered from his ordeal! They asked us to sit down and the grandmother was in the process of roasting coffee beans for the evening coffee so I knew what was coming! (The coffee comes from Ethiopia and is absolutely delicious--it has some sort of spices mixed with it--yummy!) I kept thinking how familiar she looked and the thought had crossed my mind as soon as I saw her at the compound that she was a grandmother with 2 orphaned grandchildren that we had treated at the clinic. The father was gone to Darfur as a soldier and the mother had passed away just a couple weeks ago suddenly in a town on the Nile. When I saw the children, both were sick and had just lost their mother less than a week before. However I wasn't sure if this was them and I didn't want to ask if it wasn't.

I didn't have to wait long to find out--the lady confirmed that they were indeed the same family in short order. I had sensed her sorrow and love for her grandchildren at the clinic and had prayed for them there. I found out she was from D., where I live, so I told her to come and visit sometime. I reminded her of this today and told her "Now I'm visiting you instead!"

The sun started to dip in the sky and bathed the huts in the pretty clearing surrounded by trees and palms with golden light. It was a beautiful, peaceful evening and I was content to sit there and listen to the M. language around me, watch the children playing, and talk to the ladies there through Titus' translation and my limited M.! I've said it before and I'm sure I'll say it many times again--I LOVE being out in the villages, getting in on village life. She did ask us to stay for coffee and I got to watch the whole process--the roasting, the pounding, the steeping in a clay pot, the addition of generous amounts of sugar! It's then poured into little glasses and is well worth the wait. Oh so yummy!

It was such a pleasant hour there and as we left, she told me to come back and visit them any time and I told her to come and visit me also. Yeah, it was a God-thing, one of those encounters that you know is not a coincidence. I've been praying for more freedom to visit people around here and now I have an opportunity to return to this collection of huts on the outskirts of the village and get to know this family better.

Phoebe

They keep coming. Yesterday afternoon Vicki and I were cycling home from B. and came up behind a family walking down the road. A young man carried a very thin child on his back and a young woman swathed in colorful cloth walked beside him. We greeted them and Vicki stopped because she noticed the child. It turned out that the man and woman were husband and wife and the child was the woman's 4 year old sister. They had been asked to bring her to the clinic in B. because she had been sick for 3 months. They had been to the clinic that afternoon and been told to return the next morning when we would be there to see her. When we met them they were walking to D., our village, to look for a place to stay. The little girl's name is Phoebe and she is yet another child with marusmus, severe malnutrition with muscle wasting. We asked them to come to our compound so we could sit down with them and assess Phoebe. The brother-in-law spoke some English so that was really helpful.

They had walked from G., a village maybe an hour and a half to two hours' journey. The picture of Phoebe's weak, fragile body carried gently on her brother-in-law's back sticks in my mind. They were desperate for help for her and I knew the Lord had sent them.

It was nice to be able to sit down with them and have the time to talk and find out what had been going on to bring her to this point and to assess her as thoroughly as we could. We suspect TB for this girl also. We were able to give feeding advice and cover her with some good medicines to treat likely infections, as well as give her a mosquito net to help protect her from malaria. We also prayed for her healing and I would ask you to remember her in your prayers along with the other children I've told you about.

I will keep updating you on their progress. Tomorrow several of them are due to come into the clinic so we can weigh them and see how they're doing. Please pray that the scales at the clinic would work well so we could get an accurate idea of their weight. The scales aren't great.

It's heartbreaking to see these children in such a state. The saddest thing is that they just sit there lifelessly, showing no interest in what's going on around them, a dull look in their eyes or else they are just plain miserable and cry all the time. Please pray for their bodies, minds, and spirits to be restored: their names are Stephen (a boy with marasmus we've been following since before we started at the clinic), Martina, Issa, Omo, and Phoebe.

Martina

This morning Vicki and I had arranged to visit 4 year old Martina, the 4 year-old girl with Marasmus, and her father and grandmother at her grandmother's home in B. We've been praying for her healing and asking God for wisdom in helping them.

We set off on our bikes a little late this morning because we had a bit of rain which delayed us. We arrived in B. and went to the clinic, where we were supposed to meet them. Sure enough, there in the long line of mothers and children, were Martina and her lovely grandmother, who obviously loves her to pieces. We greeted them and Vicki said in the M. language, "We go to your village (house)." So we headed down the street with the grandmother carrying Martina, followed by many curious stares from people on the street, clearly wanting to know why we were walking down the street with this elderly Mabaan woman and her granddaughter. It was fun to use the Mabaan we know to try to communicate with them. We had no choice--no translator today! Vicki and I were both so excited to be out visiting by ourselves.

The grandmother led us over to where she lives and Martina's father, who speaks some English, came out to greet us. We caused a great ruckus in the neighborhood and about a gazillion smiling relatives came over to shake our hands and find out what all the fuss was about. We started talking to Martina's father to find out how she is doing and how the feeding is going. She has finished all of the medications that we gave her to treat a broad range of infections. It sounds like he has taken seriously our advice about giving her goat's milk every 2 hours and feeding her many small meals throughout the day and that she is feeding willingly. However, she does not appear to have gained any weight or any strength back. Vicki is concerned that she may have TB, perhaps in her abdomen. Unfortunately, we cannot test for TB yet without our lab up and running in D. and we won't have permission to give TB medication until we have the lab. So Vicki expressed her concern to Martina's father and said that when our clinic opens, we will see what further tests we can do. He wanted more medicine for her but we explained that we've given her all of the medicines we can for now and that the best medicine for her now is the careful feeding and lots of love and attention. Today we gave them an empty 500 ml plastic bottle and explained how to add sugar and oil to her goat's milk to make high energy feeds. Vicki says it may take several weeks of good feeding to see any difference in her, especially if she has TB. We also gave the family a mosquito net for her (and anyone else they want to put under it--it's huge!) since she is very susceptible to severe malaria with her weak immune system.

We then had the opportunity to share how much God loves her and that He has the power to heal in ways far beyond what we can do. We asked if we could pray for her again and knelt there on the ground beside her grandmother, who was holding her tightly in her arms, and entrusted her to the Lord. The presence of God with us felt almost tangible to me and it was one of those moments where I knew for sure that I am where God wants me to be.

A New Church Under the Tree

Today was an exciting day for the village of N. They had their very first Sunday morning church service under the big village tree! Sebsibe, Abebe and Nehemiah our compound manager have been going to N. once a week for evangelism and discipleship of new believers for about 3 months. This morning all of us ladies traveled with them by foot to join in their first Sunday morning service. We had been looking forward to it and praying for the village all week so we set off through the bush with great anticipation early this morning.

The one-hour trek through the bush was so much fun! We were kind of following the river, although most of the time we couldn't see it because the grass was so high--often above our heads! It was very beautiful--there were massive mango and baobab trees and many palm and acacia trees towering above our heads. I felt like I was properly in the jungle and I got some great pictures which I can't wait to share with you when I next go to Nairobi! It was really breathtaking--so lush. It's not very often that you take such a scenic route to church! I felt more like I was out on a hiking adventure on safari or something!

Finally, there was a clearing in the palm trees ahead and we emerged from the woods to find the cute little village of N. and were welcomed by everyone we saw. The whole area under and around the big tree where we had church had been carefully swept before we arrived and men, women, and many children began to come and bring logs or little traditional stools to sit on. They always bring out a traditional bed for guests to sit on and each person comes over to greet and shake your hand. Some of the children had clearly not seen a khawajah (white person) before and approached us with some fear and trepidation! One little boy about 3 years old mustered up the courage to come by and shake our hands and when he got to Grace, he shook her hand and then looked doubtfully at her and doubtfully down at his hand as if to say, "I wonder if that white stuff is going to come off on my hand?" It was very cute and we had a good laugh over that one!

It sure was exciting to be there to worship with them under the tree! Nehemiah got up and led the singing in the M. language, just off the top of his head as they do here. (Some other time I'll describe a Doro church service for you!) This week I was finally able to start to understand some of the songs and sing along with words or phrases I could pick out. Then Abebe preached in English with Nehemiah translating, about the story of Jesus visiting the home of Mary and Martha and the importance of seeking first the Kingdom and listening to the words of Jesus, giving worship the highest priority in our lives. It was really good and such a blessing to share this morning with the people of N.

We left the village to head back home just after 11 am and it was hard work! The sun was beating down on us intensely and it was about 40 degrees C. I kept my water bottle out of my backpack and sipped as I plodded along, forcing each foot to keep taking its next step and praying for the strength to keep going. I soon had a bad headache and just kept sipping that water. I'm sure glad I enjoyed the scenery on the way there because I barely noticed it on the way back! I had to concentrate so hard on just walking and drinking enough water. When we got home, I basically spent the afternoon sleeping and drinking lots of water to recuperate and now I feel fine. Guess my body just needs to adjust! The last couple days have been 40 C or so but most days are quite a bit cooler because it's rainy season and we get nice breezes coming through before the rain to cool things down.
But the pain was worth it to be able to enjoy that amazing walk to N. and worship with the people there as they started a new church!

At the Market

Today (Aug. 24th) I've officially been in Sudan for 1 month! As I cycled back from B. with Vicki and Grace this afternoon, I wished I could bottle up my happiness and send it home for all of you to taste what it's like to be here. On Friday afternoons, we've been taking the afternoon "off" and going into B. to browse around the market and have lunch. This week we met up with a new friend, M. a young lady from a different tribe in Sudan who is here working with an NGO in B. She's about my age and is here all by herself, far away from her family. We had such a fun time with her. It was great having a fluent Arabic-speaker accompanying us around the market. Here's a typical Friday afternoon:

We start out by having a cold soda at one of the little shops that has a big fridge run by a generator. We always go to the same place since we know the family and we always leave our bicycles there the whole time we're in the market. We sit down and then there's always random people we know who walk by and come to greet us and chat--always a barrage of M. and Arabic and English greetings all around. You're never sure what language to use with who there!

Then we go to lunch at one of the little "restaurant" shops and have fried goat meat and a bean dish with bread. They always cook the same stuff and we always go there because we like how they do their goat and there actually isn't too many other options! Today we ate goat and discussed Sudanese marriage practices with M. It was very interesting.

Then we wander around the market and buy our bread and look for vegetables. Lately there's been lots of maize (see my last post!) and sometimes okra and occasionally a few cucumbers or eggplants will appear. The other day we found some eggs which was very exciting. It's always fun to see what we can find.

Today was especially fun because we had M. along and she could speak Arabic for us. I've been getting by with a few Arabic phrases I learned in Nairobi like "How much is this?" and understanding the numbers they say back to me. I've even been able to barter a couple times with my Arabic numbers although sometimes not very successfully! =(
We've been looking for canned tuna in the market for weeks and I finally learned how to ask for tinned fish so tried that this week and we found it! Vicki got some curtains sewn for her tukul by a man with an ancient Singer sewing machine in a stall in the market. I've been dying to take pictures in the market for weeks and finally managed to get a few today, which I'll share with you when I get to Nairobi next time. I also got a marriage proposal--my second actually. Today it was a young man from a northern tribe called the Fulata and the translation I got from M. was "He said, 'This Fulata would like to marry you.'" I laughed and said "No, thank you" and Grace took over in her role as my mother (which everyone assumes her to be) and told him he'd need 500 cows to which he replied "I'd pay even more." I kept laughing and decided it was time to leave the shop immediately.

Speaking of laughter, there's always plenty of it. I noticed today that every interaction M. had with anyone involved lots of laughter and banter. I really love this about Africa. I remember the same thing from Sierra Leone. Every-day life is all about the people you bump into and talk and laugh with.

Then we sometimes go to a little tea stall where northern ladies sit and make little cups of shai (tea), coffee, or carcade (hibiscus tea). This has to be my favorite thing about going to the market. All of the above are sooooo yummy. They are also loaded with suger! The cups are little and they usually put 3 tablespoons of sugar in the bottom! I love sitting there sipping the strong, sweet stuff and chatting with the other ladies.

Always a colorful experience--never a dull moment!

Ears coming out our ears!!!

Ears of maize, that is! The people are harvesting maize and many have given us maize-on-the-cob as gifts. All week we have been eating maize once or twice a day with our meals. On Monday we had so much maize around that we skipped dinner and just roasted our maize on the charcoal and had 3 cobs each! Today Vicki, Abebech, and I and our translator Butros went to village G. for the afternoon and 3 different people gave us a bunch of maize on the way home so that by the time we got home our backpacks were full of maize! We had to laugh each time it was offered but we can't really refuse it. We were also each given a freshly roasted cob to eat as a snack on our walk home through, you guessed it, the maize fields. It's yummy--exactly like corn on the cob but not as sweet as sweet corn and the kernels are a bit chewier. I really enjoy it and am not sick of it yet! The Sudanese roast it as a snack rather than eat it as part of a meal and walking around the village this time of year, you see every child munching on a cob of maize.

It was a really interesting and enjoyable afternoon. I love being out in the villages! Our walk to G. was interesting as Butros told us tales of the war as we made our way along the narrow, winding path through grass and maize towering way above our heads.

We arrived in G. and greeted many families as we made our way through the village. People shout their greetings from all over the village and many were sitting around roasting maize (surprise, surprise!). A few children started crying when they saw Vicki and I, the scary khawajahs, and other children pushed them towards us for a joke, which freaked them out even more. Most of the children shout greetings in M. and laugh with glee when we answer in M. and think we're absolutely hilarious.

We greeted the family--man, wife, children, sisters, mother, etc.--that Vicki has started doing Creation to Christ Bible teaching with. She did the lesson in M., with Butros' help. The family are very keen to learn and were all very attentive.

When we finished we asked them if they knew baby Issa, the little one with Kwashiokor that we wanted to find and visit. Well, turns out the man whose home we were at and Issa's father are brothers, so pretty soon we were sitting outside Issa's family's hut with the whole extended family gathered around, discussing his feeding. Issa himself was looking a little better--Vicki and I both thought the swelling in his legs had gone down a little--but he is still very sick and has a long road ahead of him. It was good to discuss ideas for feeding him in more depth with his parents and to see what progress they were making with the medications we had given them. He had nearly finished one course of medication but for some reason there was half left of the other so we encouraged them to finish that. We were able to give him a Vitamin A supplement, like the children yesterday, and also to give his family a big mosquito net for their children to sleep under since Issa is high risk for malaria with his poor immunity. Finally, we were able to pray with all of them, thanking God for his life and praying for his healing, committing him into God's hands. This is such an amazing opportunity for a witness to the entire village. We will be able to visit them every Thursday and continue his care. Please continue to pray for him.

More Marasmus

Another morning at the clinic in B. and another 5 year old girl with marasmus (severe malnutrition). It is just heart-breaking to see these kids, so listless and lifeless, so thin and wasted. I felt a bit more confident today with how to treat her and what advice to give her mother about her feeding, the best we can do under the circumstances. So I have another little one for you to pray for: Omo is her name. The history her mother gave made it sound like she may have underlying tuberculosis, which we are currently unable to test for or treat although that will be Vicki's speciality along with leprosy once our health center opens. Her family lives in a village several hours walk away. They have goat's milk available at home so will make the journey and come back next Thursday to see us at the clinic. Her mother spoke of a shortage of food in their area, which we are hearing from other areas of the county also. This has not been a very good rainy season and crops are suffering. Please pray for increased rain.

The other little girl with marasmus who I've asked you to pray for, 4 year old Martina, came back to see me with her father and grandmother today. I was very happy to see her, looking a little brighter somehow and with a report from her father that she was feeling a bit better. According to the scales, she had gained a little weight but I don't at all trust the scales we have at the clinic so it's hard to say. After what I've learned this past week from Vicki and my malnutrition book, I was able to give her more medicines to cover likely infections and also high dose Vitamin A, to build up her immune system and prevent corneal ulcers from xerophthalmia associated with Vitamin A deficiency. Her father reported that he's giving her the goat's milk but that he hasn't really increased the frequency of her meals so I tried to stress the absolute importance of these small, frequent meals every 2 hours. She's going to come back to the clinic tomorrow so Vicki can see her also and so we can make an appointment to visit them at the grandmother's where they're staying and discuss feeding in more depth. Please continue to pray for Martina's healing and growth and for wisdom for Vicki and I as we try to help.

Last week I also asked you to pray for the 1 year old boy with kwashiokor. His name is Issa. Vicki and I haven't seen him since last Thursday as we weren't able to go to his village for the health teaching on Saturday because of a problem with our translator. We are going to that village tomorrow afternoon for visitation and Bible teaching so we're hoping to find him and follow him up.

Please pray that there will be nutritional intervention for children started in the county. We've been talking to the Sudanese man who heads up the work of an NGO in B., the organization that funds the clinic. He was interested to know that we've had several severely malnourished children at the clinic and said that their organization wants to start nutrition work here. Today he "happened" to be at the clinic when Martina and her family came in so he talked to her father and found out where they're staying. Please pray that this organization would make this a priority and that many malnourished children would receive help.

Kwashiokor

Today was my second morning at the clinic in B. Yesterday, I told you about my first patient of the day, a 4 year old girl with marasmus. This morning I walked in and my first patient was a 1 year old boy with kwashiokor, another type of protein-energy malnutrition that involves swelling of the legs, arms, and face. It is more complex than marasmus in that children with kwashiokor often have a very poor appetite and it is difficult to coax them to eat, whereas marasmic children are often very hungry and will eat eagerly. I was glad to have Vicki there to help me, since she has had a lot of experience with a feeding center for malnourished children in Zambia. It was a very good learning experience for me. I had never seen a child with kwashiokor before today, expect in the books, and this child had all of the classic signs and symptoms. His story is classic also. He was weaned from the breast very early because of his mother's health problems--very bad news for a child in this setting. The cool thing is that his family is from G., a village nearby where Vicki has been going for both Bible teaching and health teaching. There is a new church plant in this village. I have been planning to join Vicki for this health teaching on Saturdays but until this week circumstances have prevented me from going. This week I'll go along and after the lesson we'll try to visit this boy and his parents to see how he's doing with the medications (to cover a variety of infections that he's likely to have) and the feeding advice we gave them. Hopefully we can get a good idea of what food they have available so that we can give realistic advice and teaching.

Again, I would ask you to keep this little boy in your prayers, along with the little girl from yesterday, whose name is Martina. We were not able to call her back to the clinic today because the clinic staff didn't know her so I'm praying that God will be protecting and healing her over the next few days, until next week when I had asked her father to bring her back. Both of these children are very sick and at high risk of death because of the severity of their malnutrition. If the facilities were available, they would both be hospitalized and receiving intensive treatment and feeding regimes.

We don't think it's any coincidence that we have seen 2 children with marasmus and 1 with kwashiokor in the last 2 weeks. The child malnutrition rate in South Sudan is huge and although most of the children we've seen around here have looked quite well nourished, there are probably a lot more of these severely malnourished children out there in further villages.

Please pray for wisdom for us as we see patients at the clinic. We're finished for this week and will start again on Tuesday. This morning went really well and I enjoyed it. I'm starting to be able to communicate a little in the M. language, asking questions for health assessment and understanding some of the answers back. It's a lot of fun to be able to communicate with the parents, even a little. Aside from that, I had a good translator working with me who helped a lot.

After work, Vicki and I went to the market as usual to have a cold soda and buy bread and were thrilled to find some fresh vegetables for sale! This past week has been the first time we've been able to buy any vegetables here since I've been here. We had okra and maize (corn on the cob but not as sweet and juicy as sweet corn) earlier this week and today we found bundles of greens that the people use to make stews and eggplant! We were very excited.

Re: Challenges

Today was my first day of volunteering at the clinic in B. with Grace. Vicki, Grace, and I are each going in 2 mornings a week to work alongside the clinic staff and
help see patients. This was an idea from Dr. Rob, our medical director, to help us cope with the growing number of sick people arriving at our gate each day during
this time before our health center opens and we have the staff and resources to run it. During these months over the rainy season, our focus is Mabaan language
learning and building relationships with people in nearby communities and we were finding it increasingly difficult to do this with the number of patients coming at
all hours each day. So now we have been spreading the word that people should go to the B. clinic and that 2 of us will be there on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and
Thursdays.

There are no doctors at this clinic but 2 medics, a couple medical assistants and a traditional birth attendant. It is a very busy place and it is presently the only
health facility for most of M. county so people walk for hours to reach it (as they have been doing to reach us in D. also).

I've agreed to focus on seeing the children while I'm at the clinic. Reality hit fast and hard this morning as my first patient was a severely malnourished 4 year old
with a complex health history. Most of the morning there were 2 translators available but at the beginning there was only one who was helping Grace. The little girl's
father spoke some English so we did the best we could. Talk about being thrown into the deep end and feeling like you're about to sink! Malnutrition in children is a
real area of interest for me, but other than one little boy I helped Vicki with in Doro one day, I have only studied it in the classroom and the textbooks, and
certainly not enough! I had my Handbook of Paediatrics for Developing Countries with me so did the best I could with what I knew and what I had available for treatment
(which wasn't much). I tried to give some advice to her father about increasing the frequency of her meals and giving goat's milk etc. and asked them to come back next
week. I also asked if I could pray for her before they left. I had once again quickly come to the end of my knowledge and resources and knew this little girl needs the
touch of God if she is to survive.

She has been heavy on my heart this afternoon. After my language study, I spent a couple of hours pouring over my nutrition books, trying to learn as much as I could
about severe marasmus (protein-energy malnutrition with severe wasting). Fortunately, Vicki will be in B. with me tomorrow and she has had a lot of experience with a
feeding center for malnourished children in Zambia. We are going to try to send word to the family to bring her back tomorrow so Vicki can see her also and we can try to do a bit more to treat her underlying infections and hopefully arrange a home visit where we can sit down with the family and discuss feeding in depth. Severely malnourished children always have underlying, often hidden, infections and need a range of medications to treat these. They are also at risk of hypothermia, hypoglycaemia and many other complications. Please pray for this little girl. I don't remember her name after a hectic morning but God knows it! Please pray that we can find her tomorrow.

Miracle

I'm far too exhausted to write much tonight but wanted to say hi and tell you briefly about this week.

This week has been a mixture of the awful and the amazing.  On Tuesday morning, an 8 month old baby arrived at our gate with his parents, in severe respiratory distress.  In England I would have called the whole paediatric team or at least a senior paediatrician to lead his care.  All of a sudden that job fell to me, together with Vicki and Grace.

He was a very sick boy and we have no oxygen or any of the respiratory medicines I'm used to using.  We got a positive malaria test on him and decided he needed IV medication and IV fluids to keep him hydrated while he fought for his life with his breathing.  Trouble was none of us had ever put an IV line in a baby before.  And this was the toughest of the tough--black skin, slightly dehydrated veins, a chubby little baby.  Grace has had more experience with IV's in bigger people than me so she tried a couple times first, with the rest of us praying hard.  She couldn't get it.  At first I didn't want to even try--I've assisted with hundreds of IV lines in babies but only successfully put them into a few bigger kids and that was with difficulty.  I never got good at it.  But desperate times call for desperate measures and I was helping Grace look for a vein all over that baby.  (His name is Kamis)

Finally, I tried a vein we thought we saw on the back of his hand and failed.  We kept looking and praying.  Finally I thought I could see another faint vein in the back of his same hand.  It depended on the light and I wasn't sure and I didn't want to ruin our chance at that vein by going in the wrong way.  In the end I decided to go for it.  Grace was praying "Lord guide her hand" in my ear and I was desperately trying to believe that God could help me do the impossible but I didn't think it would happen.  It was such a stab in the dark.  Well, it happened and I fully believe it was a miracle.  I got a good IV line in that remained intact for the next 30 hours while Kamis had continuous infusions of IV fluids with malaria med. in it.  We nearly lost the line a few times when we had to fiddle with the bandaging, etc. but it kept going amazingly well.

That was miracle number one.  Then there was the issue of severe respiratory distress with no meds. to treat it.  We knew he could become exhausted, hypoxic, fall unconscious, and stop breathing at any time.  We had to check his IV line every hour and replace the medication every few hours.  He stayed in the empty tukul next to mine with his parents taking turns sitting up and holding him all night.  There were massive spiritual issues too.  They had taken him to a witchdoctor the day before and he had been given some traditional medicine that his parents felt had made his breathing worse.  Their village is 2 hours walk from D..

We knew that it would truly take a miracle to save this baby.  We did a lot of praying that night.  Grace and I stayed up for most of the night to look after his IV and to pray.

Titus, one of our watchmen who is a church elder, translated for us whenever we needed him, and with his help I had to tell the parents that we were doing everything we could but that we could lose him that night and would be praying for God to save him.  Then Titus led us in prayer for him in Mabaan and that was a powerful moment--he was completely in God's hands.

Well, that little boy kept chugging away all night long-he just kept going.  His parents were great.

Vicki woke up very early to take over so Grace and I could sleep but the tukul where they stayed is right next to mine so I was listening for his breathing and coughing half the time and just praying they would keep going.  I woke up at 7 and went over to check him and found him awake on his Mom's lap, still with significant difficulty in breathing but MUCH improved.  It was an amazing moment--to see that God had heard and answered and saved his life!  We had a chat with them later that morning with Butros, our language helper translating.  They recognized that God had saved his life and said that they would not be taking him to the witchdoctor any longer.  The father said people had tried to get them to go back to the witchdoctor when his breathing got worse but that they had come to us instead.

We had to keep him on the IV all yesterday too because he was still working to hard to be able to feed much and vomitting sometimes.  We sure weren't about to lose that IV line since we had it!  They had to stay a second night because of it but his breathing was much better and we only had to check him every 3 hours or so.  At 12:30 am we were able to disconnect the drip because he was doing better with feeding and keeping fluids down.

Last night I had suggested to them that they could probably leave in the morning but stick around D. until the next day so they could bring him back if he got worse again.  But the next morning he had improved so drastically that we were able to send them home to their village with some oral meds to finish.  His respiratory rate went right down to normal and he was all bright-eyed and bushy-tailed!  Man, he was cute--I got some good pictures of them before they left.

We all prayed with them before they left and praised God for saving him.  It was emotional to see them go, after 2 days with us and such an intense time.  I feel blessed to be here and to be seeing God at work!

Needless to say we are all exhausted today and behind in all of our language learning stuff, laundry, everything.  We made a schedule for ourselves this week to allocate a rota and times for seeing patients and cooking dinner, etc. but that all went pear-shaped this week.  2 of us at a time have been seeing patients from 2-4 or 5 each afternoon but the number of people coming--some sick, some not is getting overwhelming and taking away from our language-learning focus.  They are coming from all over M. county.

Today we got an email from Rob giving us a rather drastic solution to the problem because we are not supposed to be a clinic yet.  He's suggested that we volunteer at the government-funded clinic in B., the market town 3 miles away.  We've been trying to send people there as much as we can, although the care there leaves a lot to be desired by all counts.  However, the 2 medics there know and like Grace and have recently given her lots of dressing supplies.  It's a way of building a relationship with the B. clinic and getting patients to go there to be seen until we officially can open the health centre and getting ourselves off the compound and away from the pressures of people coming.  We are going into B. tomorrow anyway so we're going to stop by the clinic and put Rob's suggestion to the medics and see what happens.  Something's got to change here.

Please pray for another patient we're worried about--8 year old Johanna with severe pneumonia and difficulty in breathing.  He's come 3 days in a row and the oral antibiotics have not done a thing for him.  Today Vicki went into B. to the little pharmacy and managed to get some antibiotic injections.  She gave the first one this afternoon and he'll come every day for an injection until he improves.  He really is very sick and if he wasn't in rural S., he'd be in hospital on oxygen for sure.  He needs the touch of God too.  He's also from a village several hours away.

Stephen, the boy with the bad finger injury that I asked you to pray for, finally headed home to his village yesterday.  Sorry to be graphic but the dead end of his finger finally came off so new tissue can grow over it and his dad will do the dressing changes at home.  Another miracle that he didn't develop a severe infection from a dirty axe chopping off part of his finger, including the bone.  We were very glad he could go home--the dressing changes were a nightmare, especially for Grace who did most of it.

Well, again this was supposed to be quick, but there are too many stories to tell!  Sebsibe managed to fix the problem with my inverter today so I can charge my computer in my house again.  My sat phone is dead--it won't charge at all.  I don't know what the problem is but I may have to wait till Nairobi to get it fixed.  Vicki and I are doing email with my computer and her phone.

In spite of all the challenges here, I'm very happy and know that this is right where I'm supposed to be.

Tuesday

I've now been in D. for one week.

Today was a good day.  I had my first language lesson under a tree with Butros.  I had prepared some greetings and responses that I wanted to learn as well as a few useful questions like "What's your name?" "Where do you live?" etc.  That led on to learning numbers 1-10.  I then had a couple hours in the morning to start looking at the written Mabaan lessons with a CD that we have from a retired Canadian missionary.

We've had a bit of excitement around here since yesterday afternoon.  51 Mabaan people from the S. refugee camp in E. arrived to tour M. county with evangelism.  They've been walking West and staying in villages and in the bush at times.  A lot of them are young people.

The place went NUTS when they arrived at the church, which is not far from our gate.  Exuberant praise and worship and dancing Mabaan style!  We all went out to the church to see what was happening.  It was amazing to see the excitement of the community.  These are people who have been away for 12 years and we got to be right there and see people greeting and hugging long lost friends.  The singing was amazing and carried on into the evening.  Then this morning they were at it again and again this afternoon.

This morning they all had these banner things on with a cross and did this march/dance from one side of the village to the church.  It was crazy!  I got some pictures and a video clip this afternoon so once I'm in Nairobi again I can share those.  They have now left for B., the market town and will be carrying on to other villages.  You can pray for them as they go out to reach out to their people.

This afternoon a few of them came to us for treatment, so we got to chat with them a bit.  One of the guys spoke pretty good English and translated for the rest.  It was interesting.

Then the local evangelist brought the leader of the group to ask us for medicines to take with them on their journey.  It was a bit of a tricky situation--we had to explain that we have to account for all the medicine we give as treatment and don't have the authority to give out a whole bunch like that and that we didn't feel we could send things like malaria medication that they wanted because there isn't a medical person in the group to assess people etc.

It was a classic cultural experience.  We talked with them for a long while and I thought Vicky, Grace, and I did a great job of beating around the bush and saying no without saying no.  In the end they seemed satisfied by our explanation and the fact that we had taken the time to listen to each of the sick members' complaints and treat them if we could and that we would continue to do so if there were others who were sick.

I had started my laundry by hand before they all arrived so went back to it afterward.  It's actually not that bad!  The sun was really hot today so it dried quickly.  I got really dark today, in spite of my sun block.  The sun was intense.

Another great thing--I have the language helper (besides Butros on Tuesdays) that I've been praying for.  Grace suggested a teenage girl named Padda that she had noticed being quite involved at the D. church.  We suggested her to Butros and he thought it was a great idea so went to find her and ask her.  She apparently was delighted and he brought her over this evening to meet me.  She seems like a really sweet girl.  I think she's about 15.  So she'll help me for an hour on Wed, Thurs, Fri and I will have to do a lot of preparation before these lessons because she doesn't speak any English!  But I think it will be really good and I'm really glad to be giving a young girl with a lot of family responsibilities a job.  Tomorrow she will be going to the market with her mother to get grain or something so we'll start on Thursday afternoon.  She goes to the school that's been started in the village in the mornings.

So this will be a challenge but if it works I will start learning Mabaan very quickly!

I don't think I told you guys that I have a Siamese cat!  Grace and I brought 2 from Loki, one for Vicki who's been wanting one and one for me.  There were lots of them at the Across Compound where we stayed and the staff were happy to be rid of a couple.  They are both male and are beautiful cats-part Siamese with something else.  Vickie named hers Frankie and he's the bigger one and older.  I named mine Tamam, which is Arabic and means something like "strong". It's a word that the Mabaan use all the time as both a question and an answer for how someone is feeling and is something of a joke around our compound.  Mine is very friendly and purrs a lot.  We think they think they've died and gone to heaven because we treat them so well.  They get milk in the morning and our leftovers in the evening.  And who knows what all they hunt on the compound!  The other night I saw Tamam catch a lizard.  We got them to catch rats but we haven't seen any since I've been here.  They went out hunting a couple of nights last week and each got into a fight with a dog or another cat or something but survived it with just a gash to the face each and now they stick around the compound waiting for their leftovers for the most part!

There are so many amazing things about being here.  Tonight I went outside my tukul for something and happened to look up and had to gasp at how beautiful the stars were.  It was such a clear night.

Oh yeah, another great thing about today...thanks for praying for Stephen, the little boy with the bad finger injury.  We've been really praying about how to make the dressing changes less painful for him.  Until today, he's been in hysterics each time.  Today we decided to try giving him some acetominophen/codeine that I have in my own medical kit, 45 minutes before the dressing change.

Grace also came up with the brilliant idea of having him listen to her CD discman to distract him.  So he listened to Spanish guitar music and was loving it!  We got some smiles from him today and all he did was whimper a little while the new dressing was going on.  His father has looked so stressed and worried every time until today but he was actually smiling today too and seemed very relieved, in spite of the fact that Grace warned him of the possibility of the end of Stephen's finger falling off.  And indeed, barring a miracle, that's what we think will happen.  The end of the finger seems dead.  However there is healthy tissue growing and he can still move the finger.  It doesn't look infected.  Keep praying for him!  He's such a sweet little guy.

Yesterday Vicki and I went to P. for the health teaching.  Mark the evangelist walked 2 hours to pick us up and then cycled to P. with us (an hour in the hot sun!) and back and walked back to P..  Wow, that's 6 hours of travel for him!  And he translates the lessons.  He borrows one of our staff bikes for the cycling part at the moment but is due to get one of the bikes that SIM is getting to help some of these evangelists in the near future.

It was great to be out in a village.  We started with only 5 people but by the end of the lesson there were 11.  There were a couple of old men, a man who did a lot of the talking who Mark later told us is some sort of witchdoctor, and a bunch of friendly ladies.  A whole bunch of kids gathered when we first came but they were sent away by the adults.  We asked them to please let the children stay and encourage them to come the next time.  Next time it will be my turn to try doing the lesson!  I picked up 2 new Mabaan words during the lesson--faeces and flies!

It was a BEAUTIFUL bike ride to P., along a good, flat road.  I was soooo sore last night.  I definitely am getting my exercise here.  At meal times, I feel famished!  My metabolism, which has always been good anyway, is in overdrive.  I eat a lot because we really can't keep leftovers and there's usually a bit too food and neither Grace nor Vicki has a very big appetite.  So I'm the garburator and the cats get what I can't eat.

This Saturday, I'll go to another village called G. where Vicki is also doing the health teaching.  I want to be out in the villages as much as possible because we don't have the freedom to be out of the compound without an escort here, because of the soldiers nearby.  If it doesn't feel like too much, I'll help her with the health teaching in G. too.

Wow, this is becoming a book and I've mostly written about one day!  I'd better go get some sleep here!

continued!

Tomorrow I'm going to a village called P. with Vicki and an evangelist from there.  Last Monday Vicki started going there for health teaching.  This week I will observe and help her with a skit and then next week we'll start alternating.  We're doing a series of lessons called "Community-Based Prevention of Blindness" about hygiene practices and flies spreading trachoma, that we got at our seminar in Nairobi.  Mark the evangelist will translate for us.

Then on Tuesday I'm going to start learning Mabaan with Butros, a sweet Mabaan man in his 70's who's been working with Vicki and Grace.  He's super cute. He lives just outside the compound and comes and translates often when we have patients.

I've asked him to help me find a lady who can be my language helper on Wed, Thurs, Fri.  Please pray that we'll find the right person.  It's going to take a lot of preparation on my part because this lady/girl will not speak a word of English most likely and we'll be starting right from scratch.  I'll need to use lots of pictures or objects in the beginning.

It will be good to have Butros on Tuesdays so I can get some explanation of grammar (I also have some exercise books to work with), ask "How do you say..." so I can have a few useful greetings and phrases to try with people, and get him to communicate with my other language helper how I'd like to go about the lessons.

I also hope to spend time each day studying my tropical diseases, in preparation for the time when we open this health center for real.  I also would like to start visiting the neighbors to try to practice my Mabaan as I learn.

On Saturdays, Vicki is teaching at another village called G. and Grace and I may or may not join in on that, depending on how busy the rest of the week becomes.

I moved into my tukul (mud hut) yesterday.  Until then I was staying in Rob's safari tent while a guy made my bed and the mud walls finished drying.  I love my little house!  The walls are actually not finished yet.  They need to be plastered still.  Normally it's done with mud but the ladies around here started charging way too much for it so Rob decided we would wait until a guy can come from Kenya in October and plaster my tukul and another one with cement.

So I have cracks in my walls which is not terribly comforting but hasn't been a problem yet!  A few moths get in but mostly swarm around my light.  There's an open space all along the sides of the room from where the grass roof ends to where the mud walls start but that is covered with screens and chicken wire so it lets the air in but keeps critters out.  My grass ceiling is covered with clear plastic which is a good thing because lizards crawl all through it!  I can see them but they can't get inside!  It stays remarkably cool in these tukuls.

Well, I could go on and on but I really need to go and do some work.

Hi from D.!

Hi Everyone,

Just wanted to drop you all a quick note, before I go and help cook the goat!

Today is Sunday and I went to my first Mabaan church service in the little grass building in D.  Wow these people can sing--I just loved listening to them this morning.  Music all in Mabaan, preaching in Mabaan and all translated into Arabic since there are some SPLA soldiers and families from other tribes.  I could catch a few of the Arabic words so that was interesting and kept me from getting bored and tuning out during the preaching.  I can't wait to start learning Mabaan--I HATE not being able to understand and talk to people.  There are a few elders who speak English and the BELC students are learning in English but most people know not a word of English.  There is also a lot of Arabic mixed in with the Mabaan.

We have had a few patients come every single day.  2 days ago the sick babies started to come so I've been involved with those.  Yesterday something really amazing happened.  We had a positive malaria test result for a 2 year old boy, the son of one of the church leaders here.  Yesterday morning an MAF plane delivered new medicines for our clinic from Voice of the Martyrs and included in those were the best oral malaria treatment for children that you can give so I was able to give him that and could tell the family that God had provided just in time so he could have good treatment.  Before the plane arrived we only had medicine that the malaria can be resistant to and more difficult to give to young children.  The little boy walked into church with his mother this morning, looking all right as rain, thank the Lord!

Please pray for a 10 year old boy, named Stephen who came to us yesterday having nearly lost his finger when it got in the way as his brother was chopping branches off a tree with an axe.  The injury was 3 days old and looking very nasty.  Grace is dressing it every day and giving him what antibiotics we can but it really is beyond what we can do.  There is no tetanus immunization available here and he really needs much better antibiotics than what we have.  He's also been in excruciating pain during cleaning and dressing of the wound and we have no strong pain killers for him.  He and his father walked several miles from another village to bring him.  Please pray for protection against infection and for his healing because this really will take a miracle.

Gotta go help with the goat...will continue later!