Thursday, January 11
Hi this is Gayle. The team is on safari and I just talked to Julius and they are all having a wonderful time. I am so happy for them for being able to see God’s beauty of Africa.
I come to you tonight after a long very challenging day in surgery. Mark and I were faced with very difficult cases and many challenges with not always having the resources or equipment that we need to get the job done. Amazing on how creative they are here and Mark always has great ideas on what we can make or use in place of what he is used to. The days have been long and I am so blessed with Mark’s patience and he is absolutely awesome at taking time to teach to these people. The staff here at Selian have been so kind and very appreciate for all we have done.
As I laid awake the other night and could not sleep, I prayed for the Holy Spirit to bring me strength to face the daily challenges. It is hard for me to comprehend that families are faced with the fact that they have to choose life or death of a loved one based on finances. We have funded and sponsored two outreach clinics, in which many of these patients have been sick for a long time and just were unable to afford to seek health care. They are struggling just to work to put food on the table for their families. I saw so many old wounds, fractures and a lot of malnutrition and anemia. I saw a lot of orthopedic cases that i paid for their transportation to travel to the hospital that we would be working at. We saw them at clinic and many have no money so Hope Ministries has funded many patients to get X-rays and tests and then we have paid for many surgeries. I am overwhelmed with the needs.
There was a young man who had been attacked with a machete and he came to our clinic. He had a laceration on his head and was vomiting and then we admitted him to watch for a concussion. He then had both bones broke in his arms that we needed to take to surgery to put in plates and screws. So he was added to the surgery schedule and then when he was laying in OR waiting for surgery they told me that we would not be doing his surgery because he had no money. WOW!!! So Hope Ministries funded his surgery so that he did not have to go home and live with his injuries.
There is a little girl that I saw a couple of years ago in outreach clinic that had spina bifida and has no feeling from the knees down. She had an open wound on the bottom of her heal that was open and draining all the way to the bone. We took her to surgery and cleaned it all out and I admitted her for 3 weeks to be on antibiotics and soaks so it would heal good so she would not get a bone infection. She lives with her grandmother and is such a beautiful and gracious girl. Well she came to see us at the outreach clinic and now she had open wounds on the bottom of both feet. They are big holes and draining with infection. They were packed with dirt and her dressings were her socks. I knew we needed to get her in and check for a bone infection and treat her. Grandma has no money, in fact the child was wearing the same outfit I saw her in two years ago. Hope ministries is funding for all of her diagnostic tests and treatments. We will do surgery on her tomorrow and then we have paid for her to get braces for her legs to decrease the pressure on those areas of her feet and then have bought her a wheelchair. We pray that this will help her and we are trying not to get to the point of having to amputate her feet. Hopefully this will allow her to go to school.
Then as we were making medical rounds to see all of our postop patients in the morning, a friend was sitting outside of the hospital and called me over and took a hold of my hand and dragged me to the ICU. His wife has laying there unconscious and very sick. I reviewed her chart and went and got a medical doctor to see her. We evaluated her and determined she needed further tests and would have to be transferred to a facility that could get the diagnostic tests done so we know how to treat her. They would transfer by ambulance. Hope Ministries is funding to help them and my friend that works at a lodge that we stay at all the time hugged me and said God bless you. It was hard for me to keep from crying.
The stories like these are many. Please pray for our brothers and sisters her in Tanzania. I am overwhelmed with the need but I know God has sent our teams here for a reason. Please pray for continual strength for the team as we continue to do God’s work here. I never have enough money to help all those in need and the needs are endless. My heart aches and I turn to God in pray to help these people. I need your help financially to help these people. I encourage all of you to come to our fundraiser on January 25th to hear Dr. Isidor from Tanzania talk about the health care in TZ and how Hope Ministries is working to help them. He is a very dynamic speaker and I know that you will enjoy it. Dr. Isidor serves on my NGO board here. The information on how you can get tickets for the event are on my web site www.hopeministries.co and hope Ministries facebook page. If you feel called you can go to my web site and donate through paypal.
God bless all of you for your continual prayers and your support. I wish you were here with me to see first hand how you are touching peoples lives. I get the hugs, and see the tears of how you helping him.
God bless,
Mama Gayle
