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.