Transition

Hello Everone,

I am sorry we have not written sooner, but things have been busy, what with travelling back from Uganda and re-opening Shammah Health Center this week. Before I continue, we would like to say a massive thank you to those of you who responded to our last blog regarding shipping costs for the Ambulance we are sending to Nairobi. We needed to raise £700 and you guys did it, you have made it possible for us to ship the ambulance! This month on August 23rd my dad (Danny) is driving the ambulance up to Sheerness, Kent where on August 27th it will be shipped to Mombasa, ready for us to collect it on approx. Sept 27th. Please pray the ambulance goes through customs without any extra expenses or corruption.

This ambulance is going to be a large part of us increasing the awareness of the services Lina Medical Health Services offers as well as expanding services currently offered. The ambulance will also in time allow us to take a free mobile clinic once a month to the slum areas, with specific focus on family planning and immunisations, initially. Thank you for coming on this journey with us and enabling the ambulance to be shipped so soon!

Our last week in Uganda was great. Thanks to those of you who blessed us and enable us to have this much needed break, we were able to spend two nights in different hotels, where we had the best food we have had in five months and were even able to wash with warm water and have a bath. It blessed more than words can express, particularly at a time where our emotions are a little flat. We believe this is because we are starting the transition between Burundi and Nairobi. This last 5 months soon to be 6 in a Burundi has been an amazing time to learn and get equipped for the next part of our journey. We are eager to see our family/friends in a Nairobi but want to finish well here. Things have been slower at the clinic this last few weeks, which we think is related to the dry season, when there is less produce to sell, so less money......with approx. 10-15 patients seen each day. As a couple who love to be busy and are used to this in our UK jobs it has been difficult at times adjusting to a slower pace of life, but we are fully aware that it is in these times that God can speak to you the most! We are eager to stay zealous for the work we have left to do in a Burundi and for the next chapter in Nairobi, but are terribly homesick and have been tempted to give up at times. However, we know Satan would love nothing more than for this to happen, so please can we ask for your help in prayer to push through these feelings we are facing. A good friend gave us this passage this week, which was a real encouragement:

1 Corinthians 10:13 - "You have been put to no test but such as is common to man: and God is true, who will not let any test come on you which you are not able to undergo; but he will make with the test a way out of it, so that you may be able to go through it."

........So here is to going 'through' the door!

On a more positive not we have had a new volunteer from the UK this week, who is staying for three weeks. His name is Chris and he is study Chemistry in Manchester at the moment. Chris has been a great asset to Shammah. He gets stuck in wanting to help with anything he can. He has been a real blessing to Matabishi (Lab Technician) in the lab, learning about several illnesses the clinic tests for a swell as assisting Matabishi with the Tests.

What was really special when we re-opened the clinic this week, was how all of the team members got stuck in together with cleaning the place from head to toe. We gave Shammah a proper deep clean. From where it had been closed for two weeks and it is dry season, dust had blown into the clinic and settled everywhere. Within an hour the clinic was spotless and we could continue to deliver a high standard of care. The whole team looked happy to have been a part of holding that high standard!

Another joy was to see a friendly face on the second day of being open, a patient named Marthias. He first came to us two months ago with a seriously infected foot. He had, had jiggers in his foot that had become infected leading to six abscesses all interconnected. The infection had got so bad that his small toe had fallen off. When he arrived at Shammah he had a dressing on that had been insitu for two months. Needless to say his foot was in a bad way, so bad that I truly believed amputation would be his only option. However, miraculously after strong antibiotic treatment and regular dressing changes his foot is nearly healed. Marthias had always been so impressed with the care he received at Shammah that he said he believed we could heal him. When he came this time for the first time he was wearing closed in lace up shoes. He had been continuing with dressings himself in the two weeks we were closed and only had a small wound from the final abscess which he is happy to dress himself at home. Praise God - he looked so happy and empowered. Before he left I prayed with him, that God would continue the healing he had started and then we parted ways, which God willing may be for the last time. Saying goodbye to a patient is always a little sad, but this is quickly overshadowed by the fact they are now well!

On the same day Marthias left us, we had a new arrival! A woman who lives near to the clinic - Odette, walked into Shammah Health Center saying she needed to give birth. We prepared the maternity room for her.

 Dr. Zenon asked her to sit but she kept refusing. He had to be firm explaining how did she expect him to examine her if she would not sit on bed. Therefore reluctantly she sat, within 5 minutes of sitting she gave birth to a health little boy, who enter the world with a good hearty cry. It was quite a shock for all of us, because no sooner had we got ready, he arrived! He is so beautiful - he has not been given a name at present, but Shammah has now been a part of bringing a healthy baby girl and boy into the world. Shalissa our first baby born at Shammah is also still doing well and is growing crazily fast, as you will see in the attached photo.

There were some complications with the birth, in that not all of Odette's placenta would pass, as some was still attached to her uterus wall. This meant that we needed to transfer her to Gitega Hospital, where with the assistance of a midwife the placenta was out within 10 minutes of arriving, which meant we could transport her home too. This highlighted to the whole team what a great asset to the team at Shammah a Midwife would be - please pray provision is given to meet this need. 

Odette came to Shammah Health Center the following day for a review and was a picture of health as was her baby boy. She has been given prophylactic antibiotics and will be coming back, with baby on 30th August. I can not wait to see how her little boy has grown! The amazing thing is that she had malaria in her first trimester and yet her baby has been unaffected.

Finally this weekend Andy, Chris and I went to see the Batwa people again, who are being helped by Harvest for Christ. We went to help the Muramvya Regional Leader, Donatien distribute the clothes that had been donated by St. Thomas' Church Team, Fair Oak, UK and USA Military Missionaries (Cadence) from Germany.

It was lovely to see some familiar faces from the villages that had been visited and to see the joy each person had upon receiving an item of clothing. We were told by one of the village leaders that they had many births recently and no clothes to give the families - amazing we had more baby clothes than any of the others donated. How good is God - meeting the need! It was so humbling to see how our second hand clothes can abundantly bless the people of the Batwa. The Batwa are a marginalised and discriminated against people, because of there basic way of life. Harvest for Christ is trying to change this. If you would like to be a part of this initiative then please contact us at Andy_faulkner@hotmail.com and we will give you Donatien's details so you can discuss with him how you would like to help.

Well we hope this blog keeps you well informed of how your support is helping us and what our present needs are.

God Bless you!

Love Hannah xxx