Friday, August 19

Update on baby Yewlanda - this one will make you smile


The following was written by Pastor Hirbo who is the pastor in Marsabit who helped us rescue Baby Yewlando. Kacey and Cris made sure Yewlanda and her siblings were going to be taken care of. Pastor Hirbo is helping.

FROM EDGE OF GRAVE TO NEW LIFE

Yewlanda is a baby girl of 3 years but she looked like a three months old baby when she met a young woman - Kacey. Kacey was on a medical mission trip with her Mom Cris. They were serving with Partners for Care. Yewlanda was half dead, not moving her hands or legs. She only moved her eyes. One day and one night spent in the hospital but no service was given. On Sunday evening at 10 pm I took her to my house carrying her in my arms. Yewlanda lay on the bed with my six month baby boy. My wife (Zainabu) and I prayed for her. Yewlanda was not even able to turn on the bed. My wife woke every two hours to turn her on the bed to another side.

What God Can Do No Man Can.

The second day I saw Yewlanda stand by our bed laughing, I was amazed and did not believe my eyes. The third day Yewlanda walked from our house to the kitchen outside 3 meters away -another miracle.
What has happened;

  • Yewlanda is a hundred percent free from jiggers.
  • Her body is strong so we can take her around other children.
  • Her appetite has increased she is eating well
  • She is a joyful girl throughout and attracts all the village children and mothers and is loved by every one.
  • She never cries a single minute

Yewlanda very happy
Challenges

She left two brothers and three sisters behind at her village who are in the same situation as her
But honor and glory may return to God and blessings to Partners for Care and those who support it.
The six children were malnourished and highly infected by jiggers and not able to come out of their house even for the porridge provided at the nursery school once a day for the village kids.

Most needy at Parkishon
After the 6th Aug, 2011 medical camp by PFC, all of them can now walk from their house to the nursery school to have porridge at the school walking on their own feet. This is a great improvement.
I am visiting them every Wednesday for check up on jigger's infection, their health and to connect them to the clinical support from the government.

The children of Parkishon
Children line up for jigger treatment
Pastor Hirbo treating the children
Boy healed of jiggers proudly walks home
Treated children with new shoes now can walk
Thus far I have a lot to say thank you to Jesus the Father to the fatherless and to Kacey who came so far to save a child. May God bless all those who support PFC and for the lives you are saving. You are helping the marginalized and forgotten people groups of Marsabit.

Pastor Hirbo
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Friday, August 12

Message from Cris to her friends/supporters

This is the message Cris who is here with her 18 year daughter Kacey wrote her friends and supporter. She titled it "Saving baby Yewlanda".


Dear friends and supporters,

We have been very busy and very blessed since we last sent an email. So much has happened and we cannot wait to be able to share it all with you. We have truly come to the end of the earth and we have seen and met the most wonderful people. Today was the best day and the worst day rolled into one. It was our third day of medical mission camps so we figured we knew what to expect, but boy was it different. The children were sicker and so much more in need. We saw over 240 people and many of them were children with parasites (jiggers) in their hands and feet. And it was the dirtiest day yet, the wind blows the dirt so much you just get caked in dirt. It was overwhelming. Kacey got the best graduation present of all today. She fell in love with Yewlanda a little 3 year old girl who is severely malnourished.

Bringing her from the village


Treating baby Yewlanda for jiggers
Because of your genorosity we were able to fund this trip to bring doctors to these little villages where people are suffering so much. So I want you to know you all helped to save a special life today. We transported her to the hospital today. We admitted her there and went to buy what she and her caregiver would need. She only weighs about 14 pounds but she is so beautiful.

Kacey with baby Yewlanda


Baby Yewlanda at the hospital


Please pray for her and her family. The doctors with us say she would not have survived much longer. There are 4 other children in that hut and they did not seem much better off, but she was the worst we found today. I could not hold back the tears today. Kacey and I cried more today than the others combined. This has been an amazing trip so far and we are only half way through. Kacey has not complained once and we have had some tough living conditions plus she has been peed on and pooped on. She is amazing. I wish you could have all seen her today with that baby, she was amazing.


Kacey with baby Yewlanda at the hospital

 We have one more full day in Marsabit with a what if? Event and then we take the long bus ride back to Nairobi. We have a full week planned after that. We will send another update in a few days. Thank you again for your generous donations that provided the medicine for these camps and the soccer supplied for the kids and the books for the leadership team here. I cannot wait to get home and tell you all about the wonderful PFC team here in Kenya. We have been so impressed with each and every one of them. This is an amazing organization.

Love, Cris and kacey
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Thursday, August 11

Feeding the children at CT


Many of you have been involved with the 34 children Nick and Charles have rescued. You have built a home for them and moved them from the slum. You have provided medical care for them. You have fed them, prayed for them and loved them from a distance.

It hasn't been easy for two young men who struggle themselves to care for so many children but they have always believed God would help them to care for the children.

Yesterday the Partners for Care team took them 60 3-month old chickens. Cris and Kacey were amazed to see how they were transported there - in our van without cages! (Bridgette..not the Noah). It was funny to see George driving 60 chickens to the CT children's home. But, George didn't think it was funny to clean the van after the chickens were taken to their new home. But, he understood and took the van to clean it out.

It was so sweet to see the children one by one carry the chickens to the chicken coop. And, Nick and Charles were so excited knowing soon there will be eggs everyday for the children.

One of the children carrying a chicken

Dr. Vincent with the help of Cris, Kacey, Charlo and Franko saw and treated all the children. And, all of them were dewormed.

And, everyone was encouraged to see the sack gardens Nick and Charles have planted....soon there will be greens everyday for the children.

It was a good day...it is always a good day in Kenya when you see the hope of feeding the children.

Thankful for all your love and support for Nick, Charles and their children,

Connie


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GOD IS FAITHFUL...if we continue to TRULY believe! Love to you today from afar...

Bridgette

Monday, August 8

The drought has brought desperate conditions to Marsabit

Marsabit has for many years suffered from drought....but this mission trip we have learned why the cry of the people is so desperate this year. In years past the animals survived the drought but this year the animals have died from the severe drought. The animals that have not died have been taken to Ethiopia by the herders in search of water.

Our overnight bus to Marsabit
Immediately when we arrived we were taken to a village where hundreds of cattle had died. The people are surviving on the relief food that comes once a month...which isn't enough food to feed the people.

Only 2 cows left in this village
Government relief food - not enough for this village
Grazing off barren land 
Where they live
Cataracts are a major problem in this area
We have done three days of medical camps in three different locations. We were blessed to have Pastor Hirbo travel with us for all the medical camps.

Our transport to the medical camps
On Thursday we traveled almost three hours to a village called Kargi. There is only one store and a tiny cafe in this village. We had carried our food as food is scarce there. We treated 250 people. We used our rented Land Cruiser to go to the clusters of manyatta (huts they Iive in) to transport the very sick to see Dr. Vincent and Dr. Joe as some of them were too ill to walk. The main health problem we saw was malnutrition and mature eye cataracts. We transferred two elderly people to the local mission hospital who were emaciated from starvation.

Dr. Vincent treating a patient
Dr. Joe treating a patient
Connie treating a woman with a wound
A child receives her medications

Too sick to come to the doctor - Dr. Joe visits
Taking him to the hospital
He is severely dehydrated
Taking him into the hospital
In this area there have been 180 children enrolled in the government nutrition program since April 4. Three babies have died from malnutrition in the last two weeks.

Saving every grain of the relief food
Children depend on the relief food
 At the end of the medical camp we went to the missionary house where we had hired a local person to cook our dinner. Some of our team slept in a manyatta, some in tents and David slept outside in his sleeping bag.

Some of the team members slept in manyattas

Some slept in tents
David slept outside
The next day we drove further interior and held a medical camp in a village without even a store. The people walk to Kargi (20 kilometers!) for shopping and medical care, but here they had a well and animals. What a difference a well makes. We spent time at the well with the chief and the men of the village as they watered their animals. This village isn't suffering like the other villages we went to.



 

Water makes all the difference

This child had been burnt
The last day we went to Parkishon the village where we held a medical camp last year. Nine people from the Redeemed Gospel Church (our partners on this mission) joined us. We were warmly greeted by the people and appreciated. Some of the people including the chief remembered our team from last year. One man sent a note to Dr. Craig sending his greetings. We were especially encouraged as when the people were prayed for this year and ask about salvation they said they were Christians. These are the same people who accepted Christ last year during our medical camp when Pastor Hirbo prayed for them .
Our hearts were broken at the condition of the people especially the children. They are sicker and more desperate than last year. We were treating the children for the jiggers when they told us there were children in the manyatta that couldn't come to the medical camp because they couldn't walk, their feet were so jigger infected. We took the Land Cruiser to get them. As they brought the children to us and put them in the vehicle we could hardly keep our composure. Not only were their hands and feet jigger infected but they were severely malnourshed and so dirty with rags for clothes barely covering their little frail bodies.


The jiggers affect the children's hands and feet
Treating the children for jiggers
We treated 25 children for jiggers. Some children had severe wounds on their backs caused by intense itching due to massive intestinal worms infestation, We dewormed them and left more medications to the community health workers for repeated therapy. Deworming medication is FREE. It is just getting the medication to the children. Kingsway gives us 1500 tablets every time we do medical camps.
When we finished camp we carried the sickest child back to Marsabit with us. Her name is Yewlanda. She is 3 years old and weighs 14 pounds. She is 40% of the normal weight for her age. She looks like an infant. She is in the final stage of starvation,so frail that she cannot respond to any pain inflicted to her body or even cry. She was admitted to the Marsabit hospital with severe malnutrition and brochopneumonia. Our hearts broke though when we saw the condition of the Marsabit hospital. We knew we couldn't leave her there. In the hospitals in Kenya you must have someone with the children to feed them and provide all their basic needs. There isn't anyone to stay with Yewlanda to help her. Pastor Hirbo and his wife have agreed to take her and nurse her back to health. She was already enrolled in the government nutrition program but no one was able to take her to the clinic for her weekly weigh-in so she can receive the Plumpy Nut. Plumpy Nut is a nutritional supplement that saves children who are starving. Pastor Hirbo will take her to the dispensery every week to get it for her. Kacey, Chris and David bought her clothes, diapers, shoes, a cup, a bowl, a spoon and a pink backpack to carry her things. She will live and grow.


Kacey with baby Yewlanda

Sam with Baby Yewlanda
While we served in the field, Pastor Martin from Redeemed Gospel Church held a 3-day conference for Marsabit pastors. There was a revival every night. Sunday the last day of the conference the church was full. The Partners for Care team did a what if? event with one of the bishops testing publicly. Many signed the commitment cards.

Signing the commitment cards
Pastor Martin and Marsabit pastors
Sammy at the keyboard


The Partners for Care team have all been outstanding in their work. The Temples of Worship played all day for the conference and then in the evening for the revivals. The people including all the pastors loved them. Sammy led the medical team with Dr. Vincent and Dr. Joe, treating over 600 people. Sam and David have captured the desperate situations of the people through photos. We were blessed to have Mark with us from the Lumumba Foundation. Mark served the people passionately especially treating the children with jiggers. Mark will help tell the story in Nairobi.



Mark treating the children for jiggers





Cris and her daughter Kacey have served in the most difficult of conditions without one time complaining or being concerned for themselves. It feels like they have always been a part of Partners for Care. They have cried with us at the condition of the children, laughed together as we hung on in the back of the Land Cruiser as we traveled on the rough roads to the medical camps and together we celebrated the small victories.

Cris treating the children
We ask ourselves what does God want us to do now? We cannot forget the desperate conditions we have seen, the children we have held and loved. We will give our report to the Ministry of Health in Marsabit. We will share the stories and photos in Nairobi to hopefully bring more relief food to this area. We also want to employ a person to make a weekly visit to Parkishon to take the Plumpy Nut to the children and to treat the jiggers. We want to work with Gospel Redeemed Church to help get shoes for the children to prevent the jiggers from infesting their feet. And....we will pray for the children of Marsabit. This is a place where God is needed to bring rain and save the children.

The people are desperate
We are all tired and dirty. The dust here makes everything dirty, nothing is spared from the dust. We leave early this morning for the long bus ride to Isiolo to get our vans and then travel 5 hours to Nairobi. Nairobi will look like a developed city...even Marsabit town looked like a big city after where we have been.

Praying for the children of Marsabit,
Connie.

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