Kette

No, I haven't dropped off the face of the earth! Sorry for the long silence! Some of you know that I've been a little busy over the last few months, falling in love,
traveling across North America seeing family and meeting future in-laws, and getting engaged!

But here I am again, back in South Sudan for the past month, with a fantastic story of hope to share with you at the end of a busy day! You may want to go back and review
my entries from Oct. 29th and Nov. 13th to get the full story. Remember Kette, the severely malnourished little girl who came to see us the same week as little John?

She was severely wasted, had a very bad chest infection, and was lying lifelessly in her mother's arms, unable to even stand. Her mother struggled to feed her the
goat's milk formula and other foods over the next few weeks as she took medicines to treat her infections. At the beginning she began to improve rapidly and gain a
bit of weight, only to deteriorate when her mother couldn't get the goat's milk she needed. At one point, Vicki and I wrote a letter to the pastor of the local
church in their village, explaining Kette's desperate situation and asking for the church's help. We saw her one more time in November after that. She had gained a
bit more weight but still had very bad pneumonia and we gave her a different antibiotic.

Recently, since we returned from Nairobi, Grace has been trying to find all our malnourished children and review them. She sent word to Kette's village and today, her
mother brought her to see us. Grace came to my tukul this morning and excitedly announced that Kette was at the gate. I quickly went out to see her and looked around in
confusion as I saw several adults, including her mother, and a cute, chubby 3-year-old girl wearing a dress that looked very familiar but no Kette. It took me
several seconds to fully comprehend that this happy, healthy child was indeed Kette--a completely transformed Kette! I laughed, I nearly cried, as I greeted her beaming mother and took her little hand in mine.

In November, she didn't have the strength to stand and was completely uninterested in the world around her. Today, she was running around, chatting with her mother, and even gave me a shy, little smile at one point. It was absolutely thrilling to see the change in her!

We also found out that the pastor and church in their village had indeed responded to our letter and their request for help by providing some goat's milk. We were very happy to see this partnership with the church and how they reached out to this needy family.

Thank you to those who prayed for little John and Kette. Our sovereign Father in heaven answered in both situations. He took little John home to be with Him where he suffers no longer and He restored hope to Kette's mother and provided a way for her to be healed. Let's praise Him and pray that both families will one day soon find their hope in Jesus Christ.

Children like these are the reason we will soon, God-willing, have a nutrition center here in Doro alongside the new clinic. Stay tuned for more on this in days to come...

Juang Bala the Fourth...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.

I also want to ask you to pray for K., a lady from this village who is known to be troubled by evil spirits. She is the sister of Issa's father and belongs to the extended family that Vicki started the Bible teaching with. Her brothers were planning to bring her to see Pastor John on Saturday but on Friday night she fled the village, as she often does, believing that if she came to our compound, she would be killed. Her family are very worried about her. Whenever she leaves the village, she leaves behind a beautiful little 3-year-old daughter. Today Pastor John had the opportunity to share the story from Mark 5 about Jesus healing the man possessed by a legion of demons, with some of K.'s family after church. After the story was read, several ladies responded that K. seems to have the same problem as the man in the story. We are praying that she will return home, have the opportunity to hear the gospel, and be delivered from these spirits that torment her.

I hope this story gives you a glimpse into the vast spiritual needs of the M. people in this part of South Sudan, so you can help us through your prayers!

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...