God is good.
First ride!
Yep, Prosper got her wheelchair today. :) When Nurse Betty at our medical clinic in Asikuma found out about Prosper’s need yesterday she took action and immediately hooked us up with one! Jake got the joy of delivering the chair this morning. He said that when they started pushing Prosper she began smiling and was telling everyone that she can now go to school! Now that is the Ghanaian spirit! Rejoicing today that the Lord allows us to be part of His amazing work in the lives of these people - they change our lives more than we change theirs.
I waited patiently for the Lord; He turned to me and heard my cry. He lifted me out of the slimy pit, out of the mud and mire; He set my feet on a rock and gave me a firm place to stand. He put a new song in my mouth, a hymn of praise to our God. Many, O Lord my God, are the wonders you have done. The things you planned for us no one can recount to you; were I to speak and tell of them, they would be too many to declare. ~ Psalm 40:1-3, 5~
Jake took little George to our medical clinic right away this morning and got the medicine he needed. As it turned out, George did have very severe ringworm of his scalp.
Ringworm meds.
He received a lotion that needs to be put on his head twice per day, as well as an oral pill that he takes each day for two weeks. Tomorrow Jake is taking Nurse Betty from the clinic to George’s house so she knows where it is. Our Foundation will be paying the clinic to make daily checks on George and his siblings since they’ve really got it rough. The clinic staff will also assume responsibility for ensuring that George receives his doses of medicine each day once Jake leaves. In addition, Nurse Betty is going to take George to a main nutritional center in a neighboring town in order to receive some nutrition packs. She noted that George is very malnourished and underweight. The nutrition packs will enable him to get some of the calories that he is lacking. Jake might even be able to accompany them on that trip before the team leaves Asikuma. We are so thankful to have such great staff that are willing to go out of their way to help these precious ones.
For the past couple of trips Jake and I have had it on our hearts to help
Yaa and Adjoa (cared for by their aunt and elderly grandmother) to get a new home. Here is where the 4 of them live currently…
About a year and a half has gone by since we met them (and since that picture was taken) and now the walls of the home are caving in…
A few trips ago, Jake had told Yaa and Adjoa’s aunt that our Foundation would like to help them get a new home. Since then, we’ve waited on the Lord to provide some direction. Today, the aunt told Jake that she had been scoping out some places to rent over the past few months and she found one. She said that she herself could afford the rent on the place because her business of selling bo-froot (a deep-fried doughnut-like ball) on the street-side was going so well! This was encouraging to hear because on one of the last trips we had given the aunt a monetary gift to put into her business! She put it to use! YAY!
Me and Auntie streetside with her bo-froot on our March 2012 trip
She did ask for our Foundation’s assistance on helping to get the place fixed because it is not finished or ready to move in. She took Jake to view the home today. For lack of better words, the home would be kind of like a ‘townhome’ here in the U.S. It has 3 units shared by different families…Yaa and Adjoa’s family will occupy the unit on the very left.
Among other things the place needs a new ceiling put in, walls plastered, windows put on, and some of the flooring needs pulled up in order to make it liveable for the long term. Sounds like a job for……
SAMPSON! Sampson went along with Jake today and estimated that the construction job will cost a total of 350 Ghana cedis, which with the current exchange rates puts it equivalent to $135. Sampson, consider yourself hired! Some more pictures of the place, with an excited Sampson posing on his new job-site!
Outside entry
One of the rooms indoors
Front entry right when you walk in
It’s going to be so exciting to keep track of Sampson’s progress on the place! I can’t wait until they get to move in! Jake pre-paid Sampson for the work today, and he also felt led to cover the first
two years of rent on the place with the landlord (360 Ghana cedis total for the rent). Jake did not want auntie to have to worry about paying the rent from month to month (rent is 15 cedis per month). Yaa and Adjoa, their aunt and grandmother literally feel like family to us, and it is such a joy that our Foundation is in a position to help them get on their feet and stay there.
PLEASE CONTINUE PRAYING that Jake and the team would be led to the children and families in most need. God continues to answer this prayer, and is literally bringing situations right to Jake’s feet. I got this text from Jake earlier today (Ghana is 6 hours ahead of Iowa time):
Been a crazy day. A Grandfather is bringing four kids to me to meet tonight at the hotel that have been orphaned.
In addition, when Jake met with one of the chiefs of Asikuma today, the chief gave him a letter from a mother in the community. She had written this letter specifically to Jake…written in the local language (and blurred here to maintain privacy)...
This mother and her husband have 6 young children. After her last pregnancy the mother developed severe breast cancer. The couple's religion does not believe in family planning, and she recently became pregnant again. She knows she will not be able to breastfeed the child in her womb (due in approx. 6 months) because of the breast cancer, which in reality may also end up taking her life. She had heard how our Foundation had helped Emmanuel’s family, and she was hoping we could help her care for her baby once he/she is born. She knows she will be extremely weak after the birth, and won’t be able to feed the baby. Jake is meeting with our in-country staff over this situation tomorrow. As a mother of my two little formula-fed babes myself, I think I have a solution to this one....
To be continued…..
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