Tino

Yesterday (Wednesday) morning I went to visit Tino and bring diapers and food for him and the tia who was staying with him. I and another missionary arrived at the hospital, and found his room. Much to our surprise, the tia had packed up his bag, and said the doctors had discharged him. "What?!" I was shocked. His was laying motionless on the bed. The doctor was still in the room, but dealing with another patient. When he finished I caught him and asked him why they were sending him home. "Oh, he won't get better. He will either stay like this, or slowly grow worse." "Yeah, but weren't you going to do another CAT scan to see if the swelling had gone down?" "He will stay like this or get worse. We are sending him home with you now." Oh how I have struggled these past 2 days with our lousy medical care. So, we brought him home with us. Today he went to GATV (HIV clinic) and was seen by several doctors and they said he definitely should NOT have been discharged. They did an EKG (or something like that, by the neurologist) and he is having seizures regularly. He is suffering so much. He's not had anything to eat today, and only drank a little water. To top it off, the hospital put a feeding tube in and sent him home again. Well, the tube is so tiny we can't get anything through it! 

Today I had to just come to the realization--God is in control. Obviously we cannot trust in medical care. And even then, they can only do so much. So, please pray. I talked to Tracey tonight (she is the missionary over the baby house) and she said she feels to pray God take him quickly or do a miracle. But either way do it quickly so he doesn't suffer any more!

Please pray as God leads you. Pray for those caring for him. Pray for the children that know him and love him. Pray for God's will to be done in perfect timing, and for Tino to be a testimony of God's loving care.

Thank you for your faithful prayers!!

In Him,

Anna

Little Baby Dear!

Baby Elliana arrived 9 days ago! She is now 3 weeks old, and doing so well. She was abandoned at the hospital by her mother. A big answer to our prayers that the hospital would start calling us when they have desperate cases, they did! And brought us this beautiful baby girl! We named her Elliana which means "The Lord Responds". 

She is such a gift:-) She weighed 5 pounds on arrival to our center. She is small, but very healthy. We missionaries have been taking turns having her each night. Tonight I get to have her again. She needs fed every 3 hours. It's such a joy taking care of newborns! Very tiring, I am not sure how a mother does it EVERY night. But I love it:-)

Isn't she so beautiful?!

(excuse the yellow medicine she spit up all over the front of her outfit)

Tino

The official medical diagnosis for Tino is cephilitis. It came on quickly and is very rapidly happening in his little head. He is on medicine to stop the swelling on his brain. He lost his vision, he cannot speak, he cannot sit up on his own, and yesterday when Tracey (director of the baby house) went to see him, he did not know her. She  sat and sang to him and prayed for him because she believes he can still here. 

The plan is that he will finish the medicine for the swelling in a week, and then come back to live at our center, in Tracey's little dorm of 4-5 year olds, and be cared for 24 hours. 

I know God has numbered all of our days and we don't lose when we die if we know the Lord. We get to dance with Jesus! Last night at intercession I had a picture of Tino's skinny little body holding out His hands to Jesus and dancing with him, even while in the physical he is on a hospital bed and can't see. 

Don't lose hope. Fix your eyes on Jesus.

Please pray:

• Tino would NOT suffer or be in any pain
• He would regain a good appetite
• His eye sight would come back
• Swelling on his brain would go down immediately
• God would give wisdom and peace to those directly caring for him
• And that God would HEAL HIM with a miracle!!!

Thank you for your concern and faithful prayers. Our God is a Faithful Father! I will update you with any new information as I receive it.

Update on Tino

Thank you for praying for Tino! For those asking, he is still the same. Feverish, diarrhea, weak. He has also lost his sight.  He is still in the hospital (almost a week now). I went to visit him last Wednesday. He could not sit up on his own, but was leaning on my shoulder, and then he was making Indian sounds while patting his mouth with his hand. It was good to see he is still his playful self. But just so weak!

Doctors have yet to find what is wrong, but here everything seems to take sooo long. They did a cat scan last Thursday, but then the doctor wouldn't be back to read it until today (Monday). It's so annoying.

Please continue lifting him up! THANK YOU SO MUCH!

Richest blessings on your week.

In Jesus,

Anna

Pray for Tino!

(Sorry the photo is not that great but the only one I have of him)

And the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well; the Lord will raise him up.

James 5:15

I am asking for your prayers for this little guy (in the middle) named Tino.

He is about 4 years old, and living in our baby house. He is battling health issues,

and this past week has gotten so weak! It is really strange, and the doctor at the clinic

sent him home saying he had a clean bill of health, but tonight in the baby house, he is so

weak he could hardly sit up on his own, and kept laying his head down on the table

because he can't hold himself up.

Please intercede on his behalf! Our God IS an awesome God! Let's keep defending the

weak and helpless by lifting them to our Father!

Thank you so much for your prayers.

Mail!!

Wow! Is that ALL for ME?!! 

Yes, it is:-) (a few letters and bracelets for some of the girls, as well, but that's ok)

Missionary friends were in South Africa and picked up my mail. When they brought it to the Monday night business meeting I got lots of comments on all the mail I receive! I was so surprised and excited! Lots of letters from my mom (I savor them slowly, read a couple a day with a cup of tea...or how about the apple cider mix my sister sent me?!), lots of Christmas cards-from relatives and friends, a box from my parents which included stove top stuffing mix, and my FAVORITE maple creams, and dried berries, and a puzzle. A package with a great teaching cd by a pastor--I've already listened to it! And some pictures drawn by my brother Sam (8) and sister Andrea (10). A package from my brother and sister-in-law with rug yarn for crocheting, candles that smell really, REALLY good, fruit teas and blue berry tea, and lots of wedding pictures (how did you send so many, Bethany?! they are beautiful:-), cards from the children's church from COB (so precious).

THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!!! 

What a wonderful Christmas gift (a couple weeks later) to get all this mail! What a wonderful evening of unpacking and reading letters and not able to wipe the smile off my face. What a special surprise! I feel sooo incredibly blessed. It's nice to be a missionary and get packages and letters from home!

By the way...it was 112f degrees today! It is almost 100 degrees cooler for my family in Ohio. It's so hard to imagine that.

Family

I have malaria so I have been in bed for 2 days. Whenever I have malaria it makes me home sick for some reason. So I lay in bed imagining what my family is doing at home. I was on my computer tonight and checked to see if a few of my favorite blogs and websites were updated. One of those is the Duggar Family with 17 kids. I love looking at those pictures. Maybe we only have 10 kids, but just seeing pictures of a large family makes me so happy I came from one:-) In the midst of me longing to spend just a day with my parents and brothers and sisters, God reminded me what a gift he has given me. 48 precious daughters/little sisters! I can hear them right now squealing with joy. They have been playing hide and seek for the past 2 hours! They came knocking at my door this morning saying "Mana Ana! We don't want to ask for anything, we just want to pray for you!" (They have been so good to not knock on my door while I am sick) Tonight when I went to see what all the noise was about (they apparently "found" whoever they were looking for) they said "Mana Ana, are you better?!" I said I was a little better, and Olga said "Yes, it's because we prayed for you!" And so it is:-) What sweet darlings God has given to me. I have a large family here, and I couldn't be happier (unless of course the rest of my family, in America, could come live here too!).

A tour around the Center

Thought I would let you have a look at some things going on around here every day:-) Enjoy!

(This is where I live in Zimpeto, Mozambique, Africa, at an Iris Ministries Children's Center)

Photos 1 and 2:  The wonderful kitchen staff who cook lunch and supper for 450 people every day! They are lovely and busy!                                                                                                                    

Photo 3: Our licensed clinic is open every day from 8-5. The kids are well looked after by our nurses, and we have 2 doctors that come in 3 days a week. Along with treating our own kids, we have Community day every Wednesday for people from the community to be treated for free. They come from far and wide, and often arrive in the wee hours of the morning to wait at the gate to be sure to get a place in line. We also have a milk clinic on Thursday afternoons for mothers that are unable to produce sufficient milk for their baby/babies. Many sets of twins and triplets are on the list. They come every other week to receive supplemental formula, and be examined by the doctor!

Photo 4: The Maintenance and Construction staff are busy from morning to evening building shelves, fixing toilets and lights, constructing new bathrooms and houses, doing the never ending repairs around here! They are amazing!

That's just a little peek for you...:-) Makes you want to come and visit doesn't it?!! 

Blessings,

Anna

Stormy Night

Tonight we are having a huge thunder storm with lightning and rain. This is the rainy season right now. We usually go about a week or two of hot days (in the 100's), then it rains. And when it rains, it POURS! 

It started this evening while we missionaries were at our Monday night staff meeting. It started with incredibly loud thunder and unbelievable lightning that just kept lighting up the sky and. The thunder was so loud and like one very long continuous rumble. One lightning fork hit one of our school buildings, and sent up a little fire ball! As it is still raining, we will have to wait until tomorrow to see if it did any damage. The cracks of thunder and bolts of lightning were sending bolts of fear through a few of us, and the kids did not like it at all. The little girls were screaming and one of them was so scared she soaked her clothes with perspiration:-( The babies and toddlers were also screaming and terrified. 

The bombs were 9 months ago, but when loud rumbling thunder and bangs are rippling through the air, it all seems like just yesterday we were running for our lives from those horrible bombs. 

Please keep the kids in prayer. Pray for God's complete healing and peace to flood them! 

"You will keep in perfect peace him whose mind is steadfast, because he trusts in you."

Isaiah 26:3