Wednesday, May 20th:
Wow what a day it has been! Thank you God for your strength and guidance today. Freeman drove Mark and Chad to St. Joseph's Hospital to see patients and do surgeries. They irrigated an infected knee and gave a shot to a nun who was having knee pain. Things don't always go as plan here and one of the patients needed blood so hopefully they will have it tomorrow so we can do his surgery. Then they had electrical problems and could not do x-rays so things were delayed until tomorrow. Only in Africa.
The rest of us crawled into a safari vehicle that we were not quite sure if it would make the ride. Poor Brandon's head hit the ceiling. I sat between Julius and the driver, who had not had a bath for a while and so Julius wondered why I was crowding him on his part of the seat. Brandon and Emily were sitting behind the driver and put mint chapstick under their nose to help with the smell.
Well we started onto the most unbelievable rough roads and Julius said we were getting a free African massage. They had flooding on these roads earlier in the month and there was still big pot holes with alot of water that our safari vehicle waded through. We finally arrived at Dr. Richard's clinic in Mererani and the sign above his clinic said "Asante Mungu" which means thank you God. We spent time working at the clinic. Julius and I were sitting there and feeling we were not being of much help, but God always has a plan. First Dr. Richard's brought us in to see a lady with a C/S and she needed her sutures out and I have never seen anyone suture a wound like that and they had been in for 2 months. The removal of the sutures proved to be very challenging but the doctor said he did not have any idea on how to go about removing them. We continued to see very challenging patients and we continued to assist with diagnosing and providing guidance with treatments.
A very interesting case was a 9 year old girl named Ester. She was absolutely beautiful and she stoled our heart. She was born with a spine defect and had surgery right after she was born. Then she developed a blister on the bottom of her heel which became an infected wound. She then had surgery and they sutured it up and she was in the hospital for 3 months. Then see got home and then started to walk and then it split open. She had a hole the size of a silver dollar and was open to the bone. I asked if they could bring the child to St. Joseph's Hospital where Dr. Mark could see her the next day. The grandma said the girls mother had ran away because of the child's condition and the grandma was left to take care of her. She said she did not have any money to get to the hospital. This little girl stole my heart so I gave the grandma some money so she could get the little girl to St. Joseph's so we could get an xray and then I told grandma Hope Ministries will play for any tests or treatments. The grandma told Julius that she felt like God sent her a miracle today that God sent someone to help her granddaughter. Please pray for this girl and her family that we can do something to help her, but I am concerned about the outcome. Isn't it amazing what God puts on our plates!
We then went to help at a feeding camp that Mama Lynn provides to the poor children in this village. There were young kids bringing in little kids. It was so sad. There was a 4-year boy so came walking his cute little brother that was 2-years old. He made sure his young brother washed his hands and helped him with his food. They came in with very tethered and dirty clothes but were the most beautiful kids with smiles that showed how happy they were. This humbled all of the team. To have so little and be so happy. They broke our hearts. Was hard for all the team to witness these poor little kids. There was some tears shed today. It was hard to handle the reality of these precious little children's lives. We need to be thankful for all we have. We brought toys for each one of the kids at the feeding camp and they were all so excited!
Upon returning home, we went and spent some time with the children at Tudor Village. It was a challenge but so much fun when we had the children sit in the form of the word HOPE and then we took pictures. Then the kids sang Happy birthday to Brandon's daughter Olivia as he videoed it so he could send to her. It was priceless.
Well the day has been long and we had a great devotional and now the team is exhausted. Thanks for all your continued prayers and thanks to the donors who support Hope Ministries, because without your help we would not be able to provide clinics, medications and help to these beautiful people. May God bless you all abundantly.
