Aftershocks

What comes AFTER God shows up, in response to a church/people gathered together crying out in prayer and He performs a miracle??  The only sensible thing is to give praise, celebrate, and tell others of His goodness and mercy!  In fact, it doesn't seem simply sensible, but the only thing you can do....it's completely natural.  And that is what we are doing.

This weekend, starting after prayer at evening church on Thursday, God has shown up in mighty ways.  Not just in the life of little Nanda, but also in the lives of the tias and our Mozambican nurse that work with her.  This morning I spent a few minutes speaking with Nurse Aurora about what happened over the weekend and how God had been listening to all our prayers and was answering in a mighty way.  2 hrs later, I walked into the Bercario (nursery) to find her carrying Fernanda around, dancing and singing with the other 2 Mozambican tias, hands raised to the heavens, giant grins spread across their faces, praising the Lord for what He had done in Nanda's life and just giving glory to Him through worship!  It was breathtaking!  This evening I stopped by the weekly chefe meeting of the older youth that help with leadership/mentorship over the dorms.  They had been asking and wondering what was God's response to their constant prayers and Thursday night church.....so I told them the good news.....and......they were excited and encouraged and have seen proof of God's faithfulness.

One of the other nurses on base, Aleya, went with little Nanda today to the Tuberculosis clinic to get her started on treatment.....with the favor and mercy of the Lord going before us.....1-she got started on the meds, despite the fact that the correct paperwork hadn't been filled out by our doctor (so our doctor has to fill it out and we'll bring it back the next time we come).  2-Aleya didn't have to wait hours in line, but took little Nanda right in and was told that our Mozambican clinic helper can just bring the card and pick up her meds each time without waiting and there is NO NEED to bring Fernanda with her.  3-she gave us 2 weeks worth of meds!!!  4-They didn't have the medications our doctor wrote for so, she simply figured out the correct dosing for the same meds (just in a differnet pill/combinations instead of one single pill for all 3 meds) and gave them to us that way!  Praise the Lord.  These might seem like all logical simple things to you, but believe me when I say, these are amazing things that would NOT have happened without God's help as NONE of them are the protocol...Mozabicans are all about following protocols and almost never use rational thinking to make logical decisions if something deviates from the protocol.

Today Fernanda did wonderful with eating again.  She is a bit more alive and interactive and seems stronger.  She gained......another miraculous 390 grams today!  We dropped the 3:30 am feeding.  hip hip hooray!  She hasn't had any side effects from her first dose of medicine and kept it down....the first few weeks usually results in vomitting up food and the meds after each doseage as they are chemothearpeutic and are very harsh for such little ones.  But praise the Lord, all she's been doing in jumping out of our arms and squealing when she sees food!  How precious is this little one!

We are continuing to fight for Fernanda daily at 3pm as she gets through these hardest first weeks and we ask for you to join us.  But we are also crying out for 8 year old Naftal tonight!  He is waiting for a biopsy on Wednesday to redetermine the type of cancer he has before the proceed further, as they are beginning to think it is NOT as they previously diagnosed.  His condition is very grave.  He can't walk more than a step or 2 and can't sit up for more than a minute or two.  He is constantly writhing around in pain.  He is hungry, but cannot eat as he is too nauseous and doesn't have room in his tummy for anything but the oppressive fluid buildup and tumors.  He is only recieving tylenol (paracetamol) for his pain.  That is it!  He is struggling for breath and is unassisted in every way.  They are doing nothing for him and he is suffering.  In the natural....next week is a LONG way away for him to make it, still living.  And now he has malaria-on top of EVERYTHING else.  But our God is bigger than this.  We are crying out for supernatural lifting of his symptoms, pain...we want to see him comfortable, smiling, laughing, and eating.  We want the tumor to NO LONGER be there when they go to do the biopsy on Wednesday.  We want the malaria parasites to be removed from his bloodstream, from every organ.  We want health and life to be restored to this little boy and his family!

Thanks again for standing with us, for expecting and faithfully believing in the miracles He is performing!