One Great Physician

There are more developments on the medical front out here. Yeye continues to fight TB with only minimal improvement, but we are pleased that God has allowed her to live this long. Pray that the medications would help her fight this sickness and that she would come to saving knowledge of our Lord.
We are also mourning our second death in the camp in the last month attributed to AIDS. Kosene was only sick for a few months, but she declined quite quickly. When presented with the Gospel on her deathbed on two separate occasions, Kosene refused. Our hearts grieve. She leaves behind two young boys, Angu and Ambili. The other young mother who died a couple weeks ago left behind a one year old daughter who is also fighting for life. Her name is Adja Noelle. We do not know if she has also contracted AIDS or if she is simply suffering from malnutrition due to her mother’s illness. Pray that her young body would gain strength and that those who are caring for her would be attentive to her needs.
Jeelo is also in need of healing and encouragement. She has been fighting a constant onslaught of illness for a few months now and is now battling a gastric ulcer and irritable bowel syndrome. She is very discouraged. Today she came to us asking her to take her to the hospital. She is convinced that she had a miscarriage and that her symptoms are complications. We ruled out the possibility of miscarriage once more and got her started on drug therapy for her abdominal symptoms.
With these recent deaths and illnesses, there is suspicion in the camp that someone is practicing sorcery against all the young women. While we don’t discredit the possibility, we know that the recent rash of sickness and death among young women can also be explained medically and that God is sovereign over spiritual powers and over medical conditions. One young woman, Ndae, who started treatment for leprosy about a month ago, is experiencing a painful leprosy reaction. She is quite discouraged and depressed and is convinced that sorcery has been practiced against her. Pray for wisdom in how to interact with her and how to treat her symptoms, and pray that God’s power would be demonstrated in her life, bringing her to knowledge of the Great Physician.

Kosene

For the last several months, we have been watching the very fast decline of a young woman in the camp. Kosene is the mother of two young boys and is not currently married. Through the course of her sickness over the last few months, she developed a very severe throat infection, lost a ton of weight, and lost a 5-6 month pregnancy. My heart breaks to say that she is likely dying from AIDS and has very little time left. Yesterday, I went to her bedside to deliver some pain medication, because that is all we can do right now. No, that is not all we can do. As a missionary nurse, though most of my time is spent tending to medical needs, my primary objective is to spread the Gospel of Christ. My teammates demonstrated how to do that with love and concern at Kosene's bedside the day before yesterday. The story of that interaction, with its heartache is here.

AIDS takes its toll

This morning we received word that Mbele, the woman who likely had AIDS, died. She had been at Grand Pol to visit the traditional healer for a few weeks and came back yesterday. We don’t know how her baby is. If she has gotten some nutrition, she may still be living, but now the question is who will care for her and does she also have AIDS. Yesterday, we saw Mbele’s sister, Jeelo. She had some vague complaints that were hopefully related only to a viral syndrome and we gave her a refill on iron supplements. She says she is faithfully taking the papaya leaf tea that we suggested for malaria prophylaxis. I really hope that works for her. I also saw her visit my teammate’s house and come away with a small jar of white powder. I found out later that it was milk powder. I wonder if she bought it for her niece who she will most likely be caring for now.