The Easter Bunny Comes to Tabitha House!

Yesterday was a busy day at Tabitha House!  A number of years ago when the center was first opened, a missionary named Beth Albright worked with the women.  The group consisted of about eight women and they all attended the church in Sector 30. Yesterday she and her family spent the morning with us and we celebrated their presence. They spoke to the women and reminisced about the early days. We enjoyed apples, cupcakes, peanuts and bread with Nutella.

And then the Easter Bunnies debuted!  Each child was given a set of bunny ears. We originally thought it would be just for the toddlers, but moms wanted them for their infants, and the older children as well. When we finally got a pair on all the children, we gathered them in a big circle. I asked if they knew what the ears were for and one little guy proudly shouted "a rat!"  They had never heard of the Easter Bunny!  So instead of focusing on the baskets of candies and toys the Easter Bunny brings to children in the U.S., we focused on hopping around like bunny rabbits. They were all so proud of their ears, even if they didn't have a clue about the Easter Bunny. I even saw one mom nursing her infant with his little bunny ears on! 

I love the joy that the women and children get from such simple things. Their life is not complicated or filled with extravagances. They are so happy about the little things like bunny ears made out of card stock.

National Women's Day at Tabitha House

Today was one of the best days of my life.  We celebrated National Women's Day at Tabitha House.  For over three hours, we sang, danced, laughed, ate and praised God.  The noise level of the laughter and singing was so high you couldn't carry on a conversation.  The women took turns singing songs, accompanied by one of the women on the bongo drum.  Whenever singing would start, so would dancing and clapping.  Have to say, I've never seen such hip action!  I'm very  happy to know that as I tried to dance, there are no incriminating videos!  I don't even know how they can shake it like they do! 

Several women cooked a huge pot of noodles and I brought spaghetti sauce, bread and cookies.  I'm not sure how many people we fed - the noise had attracted quite a few from around the center (especially children) but I'm sure it was close to 150.

We closed the day by distributing a 50 lb bag of rice to each woman.  That means that at least for the next month they will have food.

You know one of the coolest things about the day?  They didn't want to go home.  They were having so much fun that they just wanted to continue singing and dancing.  But the best for me was being with them.  When you look at all those faces, there is not one woman that I can talk with - they all speak a language very different than mine.  We don't talk with words, but with love.  What an incredible group of women!

Little Bare Feet

There is a little boy that loves to come to Tabitha House to play.  For the safety of the children at Tabitha House, we usually don't let children in the play area unless their mom's attend, and his does not.  He shows up every day and he loves to let me know he's there by coming up and "accidentally" bumping my arm, then gives me a big smile.  He has one blue eye and one brown eye, is a bit feisty, but really needs us so we don't turn him away.  On Monday he kept looking down at his toe and making sure it was protected when he was playing.  I went over to look at it, and the infection was so bad it looked like it might be eating away the skin.  I take a little medical kit with me so I took out some antiseptic swabs and bandages.  I first poured water over it so I could get a better look, but that didn't help much.  I swabbed it as best I could and then put band-aids on, but he doesn't have shoes so it would be a matter of seconds before the bandages fell off and the toe was exposed again.  I was digging in my little medical kit for an ace bandage when I realized that there were about 20 kids all crowding around and leaning in to see what was going on.  I put the ace bandage around his foot to keep the toe clean.  He became an instant rock star!  Every kid wanted to check out his foot and be near him.  I gave a couple of the cleaning swabs to the pastor's wife and she was going to take them to his mom so that she can continue to care for the toe.  If the infection doesn't get any better, we'll send him to the doctor. 

This is life at Tabitha House.  No one likes to see someone suffering or in pain, but every time something like this happens and we can help, the people of Sector 30 see Jesus in action.

Recently a video was produced on the work that I'm doing here.  If you would like to watch it go to http://vimeo.com/61112006  Since the viewing of the video, many  have asked what they can do and what needs we have.  This is a very hard time of year for the people of Burkina Faso to stay healthy.  When we ask those that need prayers for sickness to come to the front, almost the entire room comes up.  We have a real need to buy medicines, band-aids, antibiotic cream, cleaning swabs and gloves, and in more severe cases to send someone to a doctor.  If you would like to help with medical supplies, you can send a check to:
Engage Burkina
3522 Hiram-Acworth Hwy
Dallas, GA 30157
and mark the check for Tabitha House medical supplies.

It's hot season now with the temps somewhere between 106-110 degrees and climbing.  I just think of my friends in Indiana who are dealing with snow and grey days and the heat doesn't affect me at all!




 

Saving Babies

I just returned from four days in the bush with some amazing people.  There is so much to tell about this vision trip, but one event bears telling by itself.  We were visiting a place where pastors are trained and then placed in villages where a well has been dug.  The team brought hundreds of pillow case dresses for the girls and the time had come to distribute them.  We were in the area where the pastors-in-training and their families live.  There are long rows of single rooms (12 x 12) with an area to cook outside and each on the pastors and their families live in that one room.  Saying that it is primitive is an understatement.  As the pillow cases were being sorted someone pointed to a woman and said she was the one that recently had twins.  Several of us made our way over to see the new little ones.  I asked to hold one and the first thing that struck me is that I could feel every rib and bone.  We were then told that the babies were five days old and since the mom’s milk had not come in they hadn’t had anything to eat for five days.  The babies were five days old and had never eaten!  I looked at John Arnold who was the leader of our trip and said that we couldn’t let these babies die.  Can you imagine – for five nights the mother and father of these two little boys had listened to them scream for food, and how the mom must have felt because she couldn’t produce any milk?  The grandmother was the one who was telling us this so we asked where we could buy formula.  She took us to a pharmacy not far from the school and the woman there told us that we should let the babies die because no one in the area had enough money to buy formula to feed the babies.  We told her that we would buy the food and where was the nearest pharmacy where we could find it.  When we walked back to the home of the twins we decided that John would drive to the village with the grandmother and father and that I would stay and pray until they returned.  The mom sat with one baby and I with the other in their little one room living space.  It doesn’t have a door – just a curtain which had been pulled back and I caught sight of two of the women from the team out of the corner of my eye.  I called for them to come and help pray with me.  One of them was a nurse, Vickie, and as we stood there with our minds and emotions reeling, she said that we should try pouring water on a rag to see if the babies were strong enough to suck.  Karen, the other woman with us, went back and brought a clean bandana she had.  We tore it in two pieces and poured water on them and put it the babies’ mouths.  Both started sucking right away.  It was the first liquid they had received and you could tell they were enjoying it.  It took about an hour and forty-five minutes for John to return.  We didn’t want to give them too much water so that they wouldn’t be hungry when the formula arrived, but those little babies were craving liquid.  John returned with a one-month case of formula, two bottles and a prescription for the mom to help stimulate her milk to come in.  One of the team members paid for everything.  Vickie mixed up the formula and explained to the grandma, mom and dad how to prepare it.  When the grandma and mom put the bottles to the babies’ mouths, both started eating right away.  We left for the evening planning to return this morning as we left the compound.  I dreaded to stop and check on them for fear they hadn’t made it through the night but when we walked up we were greeted by the grandma with a huge smile.  For the first night, the babies had slept all night without screaming from hunger!  We prayed for the little family one last time and started our journey back to Ouagadougou.

It is so totally impossible to comprehend a situation where someone has to watch as their babies starve to death because they don’t have the money to buy formula.  As a mother I can’t imagine the emotions of watching that process.  For these two little boys, we were there at the right time and had the resources to spare their lives.  The timing wasn’t by “accident” or coincidence.  As remote as the school is and with the few visitors they receive, only God could’ve come up with the plan. 

This is a hard country and starvation happens frequently.  But today, two little boys won’t starve to death and the joy of that is indescribable.