Some Mississippi Lovin

A few human need stories (as brief as I can possibly be) from this week:

A young 20 year old girl was born with dislocated hips. She walks with a heavy limp and is in constant pain. One of the men from the mission team is an Orthopedic surgeon. He noticed her walking through her neighborhood last year when he came and spent some time examining her. He has lined up a doctor in the states that will do a total hip replacement for this young 20 year old girl (with 2 babies, ages 3 and 7 months). She really needs this surgery and will have to stay in the states for a month. All of her expenses will be covered. The only hitch is that now we are trying to get her a medical visa and that could take some time and a lot of leg work. She is extremely poor and lives in shack that only has a bed, table and bench. The walls in her place are literally made of blue tarps or sheets. After we visited her house, I couldn't sleep that night out of sadness and a sense of desperation of how she lives. She is the sweetest young women and is desperately trying to seek the Lord. Please pray for her. I am hoping to be able to disciple her more intensely.

Also, another young woman came up to me asking for help with her baby. She has a 15 month old baby girl who has a cancerous tumor in her neck. The tumor use to be the size of 2 tennis balls sticking out from her neck (I will scan the before and after pictures and put them up tomorrow). She has been receiving Chemo several times a month for 7ish months. The family lives in the same kind of conditions as everyone else and they too have a dirt floor and very unsanitary conditions. The doctor has requested that the baby not live with a dirt floor because of the bacteria and unsanitary conditions for a baby that is undergoing chemo. Plus, the neighborhood is filled with flea infested dogs (and the fleas are infesting our house too). Anyway, I brought the doctor into the situation and he spoke with the mission team and a concrete floor is about $80. The team generously donated the money and John is going on Sunday to buy the materials and help them put the concrete floor (yes, the kind we would put in our driveway and nothing will be over it) in their house. This little improvement will greatly improve the quality of life for ALL of them and especially for baby Yolinda. It is our desire to see this baby get healthy and live a long and healthy life and hopefully she will learn about the Christians who helped her out of their love for God and for people.

The team from Mississippi was just amazing. They had hearts to reach every single person for Christ. They shared and shared and worked and worked. They were very passionate in making the love of God known to the Urban poor. It was so encouraging and refreshing to be around them.

They had a birthday party on Tuesday night for ALL of OUR kids complete with a cake and a bag of toys for each one of them. It was truly magical for our little ones. It was like Christmas for them. HOW GENEROUS!

Last night we had to say good-bye to the team and Avery and Parker cried and cried and cried as we said our farewells. Even this morning the kids woke up feeling down over having to say goodbye to our new friends. I must say, we came to LOVE them so quickly in such a short time. John and I will definitely be making a trip to McComb, Mississippi when we return to the states. And hopefully they will come back next year so we can do a HEAVY emphasis on discipleship in this area.

The team also left ALL of the clothes they brought with them so that we can pass them out next week. I cleaned out the girls closets and took some clothes to the little kids and would give some shoes to one girl, dresses to another. They were so thankful. They literally have nothing so it's not like I am creating a dependence, I am just trying to meet a true HUMAN need in the name of Christ.

So many from the team commented that they didn't know how John and I were doing this week after week. All I can say is that when you know, know, know that God has called you to something, you are FILLED with joy and excitement to be doing it. We are the most fulfilled we have ever, ever been and it HAS to be from being right where God wants us.

I almost forgot to mention that 66 people made decisions for Christ. Now....we need to teach them to grow in Christ. :)