November 6, 2009

Dear Friends, November 6, 2009 My heart as been being stretched to limits that was not known possible. I have been signing children up for school left and right, only because of your donation. I never imagined this kind of response. Having the opportunity to be used as a tool for God and His children has been a humbling experience. To see clearly the hand of God working is such a privilege that I will never forget. A few weeks ago I opened the door for all of you to help in a specific need to send children to the Bere Adventist School. When people heard about the "Nasara" that was helping children for school, well people started coming to my home in droves. I had to have Naomi's help to interpret all the different languages so I could hear each story of why they would need our help. Some of the stories broke my heart, one in particular that I will share with you in a moment. But now I want to share how God conquered over Satan. Satan tried his best to make this as difficult as possible. Once the donations started coming in Naomi and I started having all kinds of trouble. Naomi's son Danielle was admitted into the hospital for the third time since I have been here for malaria. The day after Danielle got out of the hospital then Langue her second youngest was brought in for malaria. Langue has never had malaria before. Never! This overwhelmed Naomi for she is alone with no family and four young boys to take care of. When one is in the hospital that ties you down for three days. She had to find a way to get food there to prepare for all of them. Most of the responsibility fell on Sam her 10y/o oldest. He had to walk about 3.5 miles to their home and get all of the cooking supplies and mat to sleep on or anything that she would need for their stay at the hospital. Jamie and I helped her out with some of her needs and did all we could to make her stay easier. At the same time Cory was sick. In fact Cory was sick for three weeks and we couldn't figure out what was wrong with him. We finally figured out that he has amoeba's. Since Cory has been here and been sick he has lost 25 lbs. He does not look like the same boy I brought with me. Even though Naomi and I were really busy and sometimes overwhelmed with our own lives we didn't let it stop us from admitting these kids into school. I would have parents and children at my front door early every morning waiting to talk to me. I would take them over to the hospital to talk to Naomi so I would be able to hear why they needed our help. We both agreed that this was important and we were going to keep going. Despite everything that was happening around us, we were able to admit over 75 children into the Adventist school. "Praise the Lord". The Adventist school is on the hospital property right beyond the gate of our housing compound. One morning, like most, for the last two weeks I would have to go first thing over to the school to do the paperwork for the children I reviewed the day before. This one particular morning I found a small boy waiting for me outside the gate on my way. This was not unusual since I started this project and he followed me around and patiently waited for his appointment when Naomi and I could talk with him. When all business was done at the school there he sat on a bench down from me with his head down. I asked Naomi to talk to him for me and find out what it is that he wanted. Most children had a parent with them to talk to us but this little guy was all alone. Naomi told me that he was here to go to school with our help. We asked about his story and this is what we found out. He is all alone and has no parents. Both his parents died years ago and he lives on his own and does any work he can find in order to eat. As the other adults in the building listened in, one lady said that she remembered him when this boy and her own where smaller and she thought then how is this boy being able to grow without his needs met. This little boy is only 8 y/o and has already lived full life of hardships. But the amazing thing is most of us would have given up and I see that this boy is fighting harder than ever to stay alive and make something of himself. When we of course on the spot signed him up for school I found out that he is in the highest grade in the school. After all was said and done for him at the school we walked together talking. I told him if he has a day that he is really hungry he needs to come find me and I will help him. I walked away from him with tears in my eyes and my heart braking and pleading with God to come soon and save Your children. One morning Naomi came to work but this time she was not alone, she had two other boys with her. She told me a story about her best friend that has ten children, all boys, and a husband that beats her which is very common here. Most of the things that she shared with me are too disturbing to repeat. Naomi's friend came to her to plead with Naomi to please help her and her children. Naomi's friend was on her way to N'Djamena to get medical attention. She was beaten so badly her stomach swelled and her uterus came out. She begged Naomi to please keep an eye on her children while she is gone. Naomi later that day went to check on her friends boys and when she got to their hut she was horrified at the look of the place. She said it was a wreck! She had all the children take off their clothes and washed them all. Then the next morning she brought two of the older ones to me to please put into the school. We fed the boys and quickly signed them up and supplied them with all the papers and pens that they would need. Even though Naomi washed their clothes the older boy had a t-shirt that was falling apart. My sister sent us some t-shirts for Jamie and Cory and we quickly found one to send home with him. Since, I am on my second week of teaching English at the school and I have one of these boys in my class. He works very hard and Thursday I was able to have him stand before the rest of the class and reward him for getting 100 on his English spelling test. I think those that have things really bad seem to work the hardest. I want to thank all of you who have donated money toward the school education here in Bere. I believe we will never fully see all of the rippling effect of blessing through this mission. But I do believe with all my heart that God is performing miracles and reaching these children because of it. These precious young lives will be forever changed. Thank you for blessing me in having the privilege to be a tool just to make it happen. Just like Naomi reminds me every day, "God will bless you".