Bringing Life to a Village
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Sometimes late at night Ahmed thought about his older sister. She would’ve turned 15 this year. He remembered her singing a solo in their school choir, dressed in her yellow dress, her teeth flashing a wide smile.
She had loved everything about school. In fact, when Dery stayed home from school that first day, that’s when Ahmed had known how sick she really was.
He remembered the worry on his parents’ faces when they had discussed his sister’s symptoms. Chills, muscle pain, nausea, a cough: the cyclical nature of it all had warned them of the seriousness of her condition. Malaria.
But there was no clinic nearby, and they had no transportation. There really was nothing to be done.
Some nights, like tonight, Ahmed still missed Dery.
The year that Dery died, 23 other villagers also had succumbed to malaria. Then the preachers—including the white foreigner—gave out mosquito nets. The very next year, only one person died from the same disease.
Sometimes Ahmed thought a little bit about the “what ifs.” What if they had received a mosquito net sooner? What if Dery had been able to go to a medical clinic?
But he was thankful for the nets now. And, he had heard a rumor that a clinic was going to be built soon. With that thought, Ahmed turned over on his side and drifted off to sleep.
While Ahmed and Dery are fictional characters, the truth of the medical need in the village is very real. Then-missionary Jere Gowin did hand out mosquito nets in 2010, which saved lives over the next year. But there is no medial assistance beyond what little relief our traveling pastors are able to provide.
Registered nurse Oleta Witt has accepted the call of God to move to this village and administer a medical clinic there. The World Mission Board has set a date of February 1, 2016, to begin construction on the clinic and living quarters. Your gift to this year’s Annual Harvest Offering will go toward this building which will provide Oleta a chance to minister to the physical and spiritual needs she encounters.
Will you give? Will you help bring life to the village?
Click here to donate.
