The family has agreed and today we are flying him to Nairobi. His family wanted to send one person to travel with him but the high cost of getting in and out of Sudan has made this not possible. So Sabet and I will be solely responsible for him in Nairobi, accommodation and care as he goes back and forth to hospital and all his medical needs. We continue to need your prayers in the following areas:
- That we can secure him a connection flight from Loki (N. Kenya) to Nairobi as our charter flight only takes us half way.
- That in light of the circumstances, immigration in Kenya would allow us entry as Donato has no passport.
- For guidance to the right hospital and doctors to give proper investigation into the depth of the skull fracture.
- For Donato, who has never left the ‘bush’ and will now face many challenges as he endures the busy city of Nairobi.
- Pray the injuries to his head would not have any long term effects or damage.
- Pray for our safety, Nairobi can be a dangerous place and I don’t think Donato could take further incidents of harm to him.
- Pray for our time over Christmas as we care for him.
- We have no idea of the cost (though medical costs are substantially cheaper than USA) but would appreciate any financial assistance to get this boy the medical help and care he needs.
- We’re hoping he can be ready to travel back to Tonj on January 6th with our doctor, John Paul.
One of the most difficult things coming back was seeing our clinic struggling to operate in such tiny quarters. We are of course raising funds for a new building and hopefully we will get the remaining funds soon so we can begin construction. So as a tempoarary solution we have taken one of the three discipleship training buildings and converted it into a 4 room clinic, using plastic tarp for partitions. It looks so nice and has really helped us to get through 150 patients a day with proper care and love, taking time with each one. Our medical staff are amazing and we feel blessed to have each one of them. As we grow we continue to pray for the right staff, good quality medicine and provision from the Lord. The clinic outreach continues to be a tool to bring many to Jesus every day through the simple story of the wordless book.
Tonight during dinner a young woman came in labor. Our Sudanese clinic staff had gone home so I offered to assist our Kenyan nurse/midwife Linda with the delivery. When I got to the clinic, Linda explained that the mother was telling her she was 7 months pregnant and even she looked about that or even less. She was in labor though and dilated 8cm so we knew it wasn’t going to be a long time before delivery. At just 18 years old, this was Awien’s first child. As she progressed we prepared ourselves for another difficult birth, where this premature baby might not survive and we prayed with and for the mother and the baby. Without an incubator, we had blankets and cloths ready to try and keep the baby warm. Sabet came and prayed with the Dad as he waited outside. Awien was struggling to push and we couldn’t understand it as the baby was supposed to be small. Well little Laht finally popped out and weighted 4 kg (8.8 lbs). We were both in shock as the mother’s stomach was tiny. But we praise Jesus that once again the mother’s dates were wrong and this time it was in our favor!! He was a full term baby boy, healthy and so cute. Because it was now midnight, we cleaned up mummy and baby and put them to bed in the clinic (though we technically are outpatient only). I’ll be glad when we have a proper facility to better care for these newborn babies. I got lots of cuddles as I cleaned him, wrapped him and snuggled with him. In the morning Hannah and Jed both came to see him and Jed asked “is that our baby?” I was tempted to say yes!! The LORD really helped us and this family. We give HIM all the glory.
We have always prayed our medical clinic would be more than just a humanitarian service to the community of Tonj. This week we experimented a little to see what methods of sharing the gospel works best. One of the tools we’ve enjoyed is the Jesus film but it works best at night and during the day this is difficult to use. We have about 150 patients a day coming to our clinic and because of the high number and only one doctor they are usually waiting a long time. We wanted to use this waiting time to reach them with the gospel. So today Sabet took our national staff for a 30 minute devotion at 10:30am and while he was doing that I went to the clinic and shared the story of the ‘Wordless Book’. The patients were really engaged in what I was sharing and when I gave the invitation over 50 people stood to pray and ask Jesus to forgive their sins and be their Savior. We then shared about growth and invited them to join our fellowship on Sunday and come to the women’s bible study. I think this was so fruitful and simple to grasp, we will continue to use this method.