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Malaria Has a Name

I woke up this morning ready to go to church in Lietnhom, South Sudan.  I mean, it’s Sunday and even though I’m in Africa I was doing what I regularly do on Sundays which is to fellowship with other Believers.  I was told church starts at 9am so about 8:50 I walked over to the church – a grove of very large fig trees which created a large canopy for us to worship underneath.  The only problem was that I was on American time.  A 9am church service in Africa can actually start anywhere from 9am to about 9:45 and today it was going to start, well, not at 9am.  So I sat there by myself on a rickety “pew” of a bench and I prayed. 

I have to admit that sometimes it’s hard for me to pray for more than :60 seconds before I get distracted or – sadly – bored.  But not today.  I was amazed at how easily my prayers came.  Africa has a way of softening my heart.  I prayed for my family, my job, the people of South Sudan and I prayed for, by name, all the people I had interviewed the day before.  It all felt so natural to just talk with the God of the universe – my Creator.  I ended my prayer inspired and at peace.  I felt like I connected with God – but God was about to connect with me in a way I had never experienced. Today was the day God gave me the gift of witnessing a bona fide, life- saving, miracle.

Sure enough, church eventually began and toward the end of the service they asked for those needing prayer to come forward.  A woman named Mary came to the front holding her very sick son who, we found out later, was named Peter.  As soon as this woman laid her son before the church two things happened: 1. People came forth to pray, and 2. the man seated behind me said under his breath (but clearly) “The boy has malaria.  He needs to get to the clinic.”  His comment was heard by many of the World Concern staff who were sitting around him too and I heard mumblings and discussions occur quickly.  So we prayed for the child and church was soon thereafter dismissed.  I turned around to talk to the man who mentioned the clinic and found out that his name was Daniel and he was actually the one in charge of the clinic.  As we began talking I noticed the woman we had prayed for carrying her son away from the church down a dirt path…alone.  My colleague Derek immediately saw this too and he, along with Harun (The World Concern staff person who heads up the work in this village) chased her down the path to talk with her further.  Usually when I hear the word “intervention” I think of an addict’s family stepping in, but this was an intervention as well…and it saved Peter’s life.  Shortly thereafter Mary and her son were put in a World Concern vehicle and taken to the clinic several kilometers away.

When I arrived at the clinic about 10 minutes later I was ushered into the room where Peter was being helped.  An IV drip had been inserted into his right hand and he was given a cool cloth to cover his body to help reduce the fever.  The clinic was very primitive, but it had what Peter needed – anti-malarial medicine.  As I watched and tried to stay out of the way I found myself praying for Peter and his mom.  In the midst of these silent prayers I started to overhear more of the background to Peter’s illness.  He had been sick five days. As per local tradition his mother had taken Peter to the local witch doctor (called a Spearmaster) who had given Peter herbal medicine and told them not to go to the clinic.  Peter had not gotten better, obviously, and the mother had brought her to the church for prayer.  As the mood in the room became less tense Daniel, the Clinic Director, said “This boy would have been dead in 6 hours.”  Seriously?  Six hours?  But then, the miracle.  Daniel said “If you come back in three hours you’ll see this boy already feeling better.  Within 24 hours he will be almost normal and within five days he will have no effect from the malaria.”  I was overwhelmed.  I had to leave the room.  Never had I witnessed a child so close to death…not die.

And you know who I thought about during all this?  My soon-to-be adopted daughters from Ethiopia.  The reason Lidya and Tsion were relinquished to an orphanage was because their father had not only seen his wife die from a liver disease, but Lidya and Tsion had two sisters die from malaria.  What was that like for them to see their sisters get as sick as Peter?  What was that like for their father to watch two of his children die?  Even now, tears fill my eyes several hours later as I write this.  I can’t even imagine.

On every trip I take like this I try to come home with a souvenir that is truly unique and will remind me to pray for the people I met on that trip.  Usually you can’t buy these souvenirs because typically they are things I pick up that are discarded.  That’s why if you come into my office you’ll see a piece of rubble from Haiti, you’ll see rice husks from Tanzania, you’ll wonder why I have a Massai cowbell, and, you’ll see a bottle of very dirty water from Kenya.  Today, I added to my collection: an empty IV drip bottle labeled “D5 Glucose Intravenous Infusion BP 50g/L” from the health clinic in South Sudan that saved Peter’s life. 

Malaria may be a disease that kills hundreds of thousands of people each year, but today, for me, malaria had a single name: Peter.  And from this day forward every day that Peter lives will be a miracle.  I know it was a miracle…because I was there.

Poverty Has a Name

In my line of work it can sometimes be easy to look at the issues of poverty as numbers not people. My first blog entry on this trip talked about this internal conflict. Numbers are impersonal and easy to hide behind. It’s hard to have a relationship with a number. So even though it was not my intent at the time, it seems like the Lord is using that first blog post as if it were my prayer…and he’s answering that prayer loud and clear. It’s a bull horn aimed at my heart and it’s God saying “Poverty has a name David.”

Today I met some of the people of a village called Lietnhom in South Sudan. I’m here to capture some of their stories…and today the stories were heartbreaking. So, much like they introduced themselves to me, let me introduce you to them.

Meet Teresa. This mother of seven was widowed about 10 years ago. Since that time she has struggled to survive and feed her family. Without a doubt hunger is the primary problem facing the people of this community of about 10,000 people. Please notice how thin Teresa is…that’s because in order to make sure her children eat (and many days they don’t) she many times misses meals. The longest stretch where she went without food so her children could eat? 8 days.

Meet John. John is one of the few Believers in Lietnhom. He and his family get sick often because of the lack of clean drinking water. Just yesterday he officiated over the funeral of a 10 year old child who died as a result of drinking bad water. Still, he finds hope because of his faith and because of the optimism that World Concern will be able to help his family and his village.

Meet Bronica. This 8 year old girl is charming and bright but is seldom in school because she is too hungry to go. In the last 3 years she has seen three of her siblings die from poverty related issues. Notice the scar on her forehead. When she was sick the local witch doctor (called a Spearmaster) cut her face to try and cure her by letting the illness “bleed out.” She was unconscious at the time.

Meet Elizabeth. Two years ago during Sudan’s Civil War Elizabeth and her family were running along the path to escape the attacking soldiers when the woman in front of her tripped and fell on the path. The baby the woman was carrying broke her neck in the fall and died instantly, but the mother had no time to stop because of gunfire so she kept running to avoid getting killed herself, leaving the body of her baby behind.

Meet Kon. When asked what Kon wanted to be when he grew up he said that he wanted to enter politics and become the next Commissioner (Similar to our Governors). Why? Because he said if he became a teacher he could influence students, if he became a doctor he could create medical clinics, and if he became a pastor he could influence people spiritually. But, if he became Commissioner he could influence ALL of those areas. Inspiring isn’t it?

Meet Mary. This widow is struggling to feed her five children. She tries to earn a little money every day for food, but on those many days she doesn’t earn any money her only alternative is to go into the nearby forest and pick leaves for her and her children to eat.

Six people. Six stories. Six names. Please join me in praying for them…by name.

Random Thoughts On My Way to Juba

Random Thought #1: Everything takes time.

Our final destination for this trip will eventually be a village called Lietnham. But to get from Nairobi to this village is not a quick trip. Just how remote is this village? Well let’s just say that our sole task today was to get from Nairobi, Kenya to Juba, South Sudan. That’s it. Mission accomplished thanks to a commercial flight on Jetways Express. Tomorrow’s goal: get from Juba to Wau. That’s it. To get there I’ll take a UN flight leaving tomorrow at noon to a city called Wau. That flight will take about 90 minutes and that is our only goal tomorrow. We’ll spend the night in Wau and not until the next day will we finally get to Lietnham…by Land Cruiser…after a three hour drive on dirt roads. Going to the ends of the earth? Feels like it.

Random Thought #2: Africans love stamps

I don’t think anything happens in Africa unless some form of paper is filled out and then stamped with something that looks very official. My colleague Derek went to check in today at the airport and the agent asked for his yellow fever inoculation record. He pulled out his form which was signed, initialed and most of all accurate…but it didn’t have a stamp. After a few moments of anxiety and persuasion Derek got his boarding pass…but only after it was stamped.

Random Thought #3: I’m thankful for Malerone, deet, and a mosquito net.

I have been very faithful about taking my Malerone – my daily anti-malarial medicine. Good thing. Sat down at the table tonight at the Juba Guest House and almost immediately got bit by a nasty mosquito on my arm. That mosquito is now a former mosquito. A quick lathering up of repellant with deet and a bed tonight with a net and I’m confident I’ll be OK…but, how many die needlessly around the world lacking medicine, deet, and a simple mosquito net? Tragic.

Random Thought #4: The Lost Boys of Sudan

A quick history courtesy of The Oregonian:

The first southern rebellion against Sudan’s Arab-ruled north burned from 1962 to 1972 and resulted in a peace deal that largely did not satisfy the South’s desire for autonomy. War between north and south resumed in 1983, when the Sudan People’s Liberation Army launched a violent struggle that would last until 2005, claiming more than 2 million lives and forcing an estimated 4 million southerners to flee their homes.

James was a 13 year old boy living in Lietnham when he fled the violence in 1983. I met (and interviewed) a man named James Baak today and got a very personal reflection of what happened in his life when he became one of the “Lost Boys of Sudan.” His hut was set on fire. Neighbors were killed. He was separated from his parents in the panic. He joined with dozens of other boys and fled. They would lock arms in their 3 month journey to Ethiopia in order to protect themselves from lion attacks. They consistently went days without food. Water was scarce. Many died. But he survived. Ended up staying in a refugee camp in Ethiopia and eventually moved to Kenya. He got an education…became a Believer in Jesus and just recently moved back to South Sudan as the Country gained independence. He’s working in the ministry now.

Remember my first blog entry about how it’s easy to hide behind numbers because they aren’t very personal? Well the same thing is true when we slap a title on a group of people – they become a group and therefore impersonal. Well for me, those kids will no longer be the “The Lost Boys of Sudan” but rather a man named James Baak. Not a group…a person.

I Hate Numbers

I don’t like numbers. Not just because balancing my checkpoint every month usually takes up an entire Saturday morning and inevitably puts me in a sour mood. I hate numbers because when it comes to understanding poverty numbers are so…darn…safe.

Let’s look at these numbers for the new Republic of South Sudan:

* 90% of the country lives below the international poverty line of earning less than $1.25 per day.
* 85% of children are illiterate
* 75% of the entire population has never been to school.

I hate those numbers. They represent pain, and heartache, and suffering, and death. But as long as they remain numbers to me then they are safe, impersonal, and even theoretical. I can keep a number at arms length…but that’s not what I’m called to do. God’s call on the life of a Believer is to engage with this world, just like he did. He knew names…not numbers. Me? I can hide behind a big number like 90%.

Tomorrow I begin to make my way to South Sudan where those numbers I quoted represent real people. I’m here with World Concern to gather stories for some radio fundraisers. I love this part of my job because I love the first question I always ask: What is your name? That simple question jolts me to my very core because it refuses to let me think of that person as a number. I don’t want to know a number, I wanna know what it’s like to try and feed a family on about $1 a day. I want to know where they find the strength to survive. I want to know their understanding of God. I don’t want them to be a number to me because even if it’s just for the 20 minutes of an interview I want to know THEM as a person, a person created in the likeness of God Himself. A person has value, the kind of value God himself sees fit to rescue (see Isiaiah 61:1 and Luke 4:18) so now is not the time for me to hide behind a number.

It’s gonna be a great week.

Haiti Photos

While I was in Haiti a couple of weeks ago working with World Concern I was able to do from the iPhone. Photos, video and audio recording as well as all my email! Below is a snap shot of our trip and the work that is being done there.

I was able to capture a few videos and post them on facebook. If we aren’t friends on yet, add me. I’d love to connect! Take a look at a few of the videos below.

World Concern Haiti Video 1
World Concern Haiti Video 2
World Concern Haiti Video 3