Thursday, August 11, 2011

Divine Intervention

Divine Intervention
Today we had to make an unexpected trip to the Moundou Hospital for a
young patient at the Bere Hospital. This little boy is about six years
old and had fallen down into a well. He cut up his head in many places
but the big concern with him was around the bottom of his eye. The two
Danish female doctors, that are here volunteering, stitched him up but
were concerned that there may be some kind of a fracture. We need to go
to Moundou to get an x-ray. We do not have an x-ray machine here in
Bere so this is a kind of trip we have made before. It takes about two
and a half hours now with all the rain water on the roads. The big
concern for the boy is that if it is broken there is a chance that the
brake could have punctured his eye or opened it up to the blood system
and if that happens then the immune system in the body will go to attack
this foreign body that has not been opened to the system but for some
reason it will not just go to the one eye but both eyes. We are told
that this is not good because then it can cause the boy to go blind in
his good eye. So if it is broken there is a good chance that he will
have to have his eye removed so that the good eye can be saved.
As we are in the car I begin to ask questions about his situation. He
is with his 11 year old brother who is taking care of him. Their mother
is dead and their father is in prison. They are living with their blind
grandmother, who by the way has been one of the people waiting outside
my door for help, mainly food. The 11 year old brother is the one who
goes out to the fields to work for about 80 cents a day. That is not
very much even for here to live off of. My heart just goes out to these
kids.
So after the x-rays are looked at the doctors tell us that it is broken.
The next step would be to get him to N'djamena to a specialist to look
at the eye and then a neurosurgeon. Coincidentally the Administrator of
the hospital along with a nurse volunteer are in N'djamena. We are able
to put the children on a bus to N'djamena and then they would pick the
kids up at the bus stop and take them directly to the hospital. The
doctors also asked me if I would be able to help with the medical bills
since we know there is no other family member? I of course said yes
but, how do we get the money to N'djamena? We can't send that much
money up there with two little kids. Then we all remembered that we
already gave the Administrator some money to exchange from U.S. dollars
to Franks. We all just thought that there was a lot of coincidences
happening all at once to get this little boy taken care of.
We don't know yet what is going to happen with this little boy but one
thing I do know, his family is one that I want to be consistent in
helping. We don't know why things happen but we have to trust God in
everything. Maybe God wanted us to look at this family for reasons we
can't even see yet. I would not have been able to help in this situation
if it were not for all of you who gave toward the "giving fund". This
really untied our hands for helping people in this way again. I just
want to thank everyone who gave toward this fund and give an example of
where this kind of fund goes toward. The ripple of God's love is really
beautiful to watch.
Blessings,
Tammy

Monday, August 1, 2011

Children Story

I have a couple of stories to share with you about a young boy named
Doulegue. He was a young boy that was brought up by good parents and
they loved him very much and taught him many good things. When Doulegue
was only 15 years old his mother and father and his oldest sister all
died of a sickness called tuberculosis. After their death things got
really hard for him. Everyday he could only think about what he could
do to make money to get some food to survive. For two years he would
have to wake up at 4:00 in the morning to walk 7.5 miles to go to school
then he would walk back to his village only to work in the rice fields
for four hours to get paid what is about $.50 per day for food. As he
got older he started to build up a personal relationship with God and he
realized that God could take care of him. He liked to go to church and
learn about all the stories of God's love for him.

One day Doulegue was walking on a path to his friends house because his
friend was getting ready to leave the village and he wanted to say
goodbye to him. On his way he was thinking about how he really wanted
to go to church that week but he didn't have any soap to wash his
clothes and he had no money to buy any. As he walked he prayed to God
about this problem about his clothes and church. He left it with God
and continued on his way to his friends house. On the way there is a
fork in the road where he can go left or he can go right but both ways
will still get him to the same place. He was really wanting to go right
but something pulled him to go left he felt like that was the way he was
suppose to go, so he did. As he walked around the bend he looked over
in the wet morning dew grass and found 5000 Franks which is $10.00 in
American money. That was a lot of money for anyone here in Chad. He
couldn't believe it and just knew at that moment that God was talking to
him letting him know that if you follow Me I will show you the way and
take care of you.

I have another story about the same boy. He was walking around in the
big city of Chad in a place called N'djamena. He noticed a women that
was begging people to give her money for a porridge called bwee. She
turned to him and asked him to give her just 100 franks which is about
20 cents in American money. He knew he didn't have 100 franks but only
a 1000 frank bill. He felt very inclined to give her his last bit of
money he had and did. A little while later while walking in the market
he found a 2000 frank bill and he felt like God sent it to him to double
what he gave the woman.

God talks to people in different ways. He will take care of all your
needs and He knows what you need even before you ask. You can find
this in your bible. One bible text is found in Matthew 6:8. "Do not be
like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask Him." And
another good verse to remember is Matthew 21:22. "If you believe, you
will receive whatever you ask for in prayer."

Love, Tammy