Update from missionary Hanneke Cost Budde

Dear friends,

Greetings from hot and dusty Shinyanga.
At this time we are hoping and praying for rains.  The second rainy season started off well but then the rains stopped early and the crops dried up. We are again coping with famine. This coming week we are expecting to give aid to over 180 widows living with HIV/AIDS or to elderly grandparents with orphans. We are hoping for more food-aid for the next 4 months, as it will be February before the first harvest. Please pray for good rains and a good harvest.

The hardest thing for any of us is to see children suffer. The hardest thing for any of us is to see children suffer. This past week some of the children, living with HIV/AIDS come to my office:

I had Sarah, who is now 13. She is beautiful girl with a gentle spirit. When she came into my office she burst into tears and held on to me. She was living with her grandmother who left and had send her to an unmarried younger uncle, who lives by him self. He send her away. She went to her grandmother’s neighbor but that lady does not want her either. She had nowhere to go and she came to our office for help. We decided that pastor Meshack, my co-worker would visit this neighbor and promise some food-aid to her, so Sarah can stay with her. We hope this will work.

Later that day, Anna came in. I had not seen her for over one year. She cried quietly and also held unto me till she was able to tell me her story. She is now 14 and her beautiful face and the rest of her body were covered with bleeding sores and puss came out of her ears. She had lived in Shinyanga for several years and we had been looking after her. Then the family in town did not want her so she was send to the village where she was neglected. I send her to our clinic and she was looking a bit better before she had to go back to the village. Later I saw her aunt who is well off and challenged this lady to take her in so she can come to our clinic. Pray for a softening of heart for this woman so she will agree.

I also would like you to pray for a young boy named Yohana. He is 14 years old and looks like he is an old little man with the height of a seven-year-old child. He had been in the hospital for a long time and was send home with a referral for the hospital in Mwanza. He weighs about 35 kg and his abdomen is filed with about 15 liters of fluid. We had some doctors from the States who had promised him care. They left and the boy never was treated. I took him to the hospital in Mwanza where they did a chest X-ray and a n Ultra sound. They told me that he has a growth on his heart and nothing can be done for him. So he is back home carrying this big stomach filled with water.

As we face these challenges from day to day we really can use your prayers! God does hear and answer. Thank you for all your prayers and support. May the Lord bless you!

With love in Christ,

Hanneke

Jon, Cynthia & William Detombe flew back to their home in the Ssese islands on Saturday 22nd.  They had been in Entebbe (the mainland) for the past few weeks, and though this has been a time to rest and enjoy fresh fruit and vegetables, there have been fighting discouragement.

Non-delivery of quad

They have been waiting for months for the delivery of an ATV quad that will allow them to visit scattered groups of believers on the 20-km- long island where they live. It did not arrive on Sept. 19^th when it was promised.

“Death” of computer

Their second used computer in two years died a few weeks ago. Their email communications were severely restricted even though they were in the city. They are hoping a new computer can be brought to them from Canada in mid-October with a dust/water/shock-proof case that will withstand the challenging travel conditions.

Loss of friends

The people they have been working most closely with have moved off the island.

Loss of pets

The chickens they’d raised to provide eggs and meat were killed by a wild cat because the person caring for the chickens did not take care of them properly.

As they return, John and Cynthia hope for a fresh start in their ministry. The church they have been working with has shrunk dramatically in the past two years so they want to renew contacts in the community. They will start with some outdoor preaching wherever they can gather a group of people. 

Praying friends across the country:

The horrible disease Ebola has broken out in the central Congo city of Kananga.  This is right where AIM Canada’s Relief and Development Department has been working with Dr. Cecile De Sweemer and regional churches in the “Butoke” Food Security Project.  Lest there be any doubt about the seriousness of this disease, let me quote an article from the Chicago Tribune, Jan 11 2000:

The wind has no name. But it is a fierce wind, a bad wind, and when it blows down the Ivindo River in Gabon, most people run. Because it turns their eyes the colour of blood. Because the wind kills them.

A man named Isidore knows. He survived the evil wind, though it left him a broken man.

61-year-old Isidore is one of scores of gold panners who were brought down the Ivindo River in dugouts, vomiting blood and semiconscious.

He recalls, "People thought it was yellow fever at first and weren't that frightened.  But the next time the wind came they all ran away. The police had to set up roadblocks in the towns. They wanted to run all the way to the capital."

Isidore’s horrifying brush with the foul winds of the Ivindo River was the world's last recorded outbreak of Ebola, Africa's notoriously lethal virus.  

The dying floated down the inky currents of the Ivindo in canoes. People rolled their bodies hurriedly into the water and marked their graves with beer bottles on sticks.  Their cherry-red eyes: that's what everyone remembers.

For all scientists know about Ebola, it might as well be a mystical wind.  

It’s ironic that what terrifies international medical authorities isn't so much Africa's mammoth epidemics—like AIDS and malaria—but instead the small ambushes being set by new diseases that surface in the forests, pick off a few human beings and disappear—like a drive-by shooting.

Viruses such as Ebola liquefy the internal organs, causing some victims to bleed even from their pores. Most don’t have a cure, and they can kill within days.

Yesterday Dr. De Sweemer wrote:

"I am on the Provincial Crisis Committee and continue the medical services at Tshikaji….  As of yesterday there are 380 cases, with 171 deaths. There are 137 probable contacts which need to be observed for 22 days before we can be sure. Contacts are all over the province given people's mobility. We have stocked up on ORS and IV fluids insofar we had means. Please if possible provide help either for Butoke or for the province as such.  Much love, Cecile"

Besides Dr. De Sweemer, Butoke is led by Dr. Jean Lumbala, Pastor Jean Tshibuabua and Pastor Sylvain Kazadi.  Please pray for the safety of the Butoke team as they care for the patients and minister to their church members.  Ask the Lord to guide them and other medical and emergency workers, that this outbreak may be quickly stopped.  And pray that during this crisis many would reach out to the Great Physician.

Because of Him,

John P. Brown
Canadian Director

Letter from Charles Mulli, AIM Canada ministry partner and director of the Mulli Children's Family

 Charles Mulli