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.
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