God You Rock

I'll like to share an update on my ladies and the amazing healing God is doing. First off, thanks for helping me to cover them in prayer. God is answering these prayers right before my eyes and it is so cool. The two women with the wounds are making great strides toward healing and the third went home.

In just 2 short days, Beatrice's wound is 3 cm's smaller than it was on Wednesday and it appears to be healing beautifully. This is an amazing improvement. It is almost mind blowing. Let me tell you only supernatural healing closes a wound 3 cm in 2 days. She is in such good spirit's and I just love walking in to the ward and seeing her face light up to greet me (she even told me I could marry her grandson and stay in Benin forever).

On Wednesday Therese had been put on isolation because her wound had an infection in it that was resistant to multiple antibiotics. It was so sad walking by the little opening in the curtain and seeing how sad and isolated she felt. She would smile at me and say she was ok, but I could read all over her face how sad and overwhelmed she was feeling. She went back to surgery on Thursday and again on Friday to have her would cleaned and surgically closed. We closed the ward that the ladies were on as the number of patients here is dropping and we begin to pack up. We were going to have to separate the two of them into different wards as we wanted to put Therese in a place where the chances of her infection spreading to another patient would be decreased. Before we did this we took another culture to see if her wound still was growing the same organisms and it came back no growth!!!!!! It was going to break my heart to separate them. The thing with VVF women is they feel so alone in their problem and then when they come to a place like this and find other women who have endured the same thing they bond so tightly and help one anther so much. Now thankfully they got moved together and now their beds are side by side. So now we continue to pray that the surgery will help and that her wound will begin to heal quickly.

As I awoke this morning and thought about these two women and how God is good. I was completely overcome with joy. I am a little extra excited that I get to serve Him today. God you Rock!

Prayer

There are only 3 VVF women left and I praise God that we have sent so many home dry. I am also thankful that the ship will be in Togo next year which is close enough for those that went home wet to return for follow up surgery and they will have another chance at healing. The 3 women that are left are named Akouvi, Terese, and Beatrice. Terese and Beatrice have wounds that need a lot of time to heal and time we are quickly running out of. We are doing all we know how to do medically and now it is time to pray. Today the nurses and staff that have been caring for these women are going to fast over lunch and meet and pray over them. If you feel led please join us in doing so over your lunch. We are claiming this scripture over them.

"And the prayer of faith will save the sick and the Lord will raise him up..." James 5:15

"Elijah was a man with a nature lie ours, and he prayed earnestly that it would not rain; and it did not rain on the land for three years and six months. And he prayed again, and the heaven gave rain, and the earth produced its fruit." - James 5: 17&18

Today We Danced

VVF surgery has finished but the work is no where close to finished. We are still working with the women who are recovering after surgery. This set of surgery feels much different than the last set. It has it's own unique set of challenges and joys. Even though VVF has been around basically forever we are still just at the beginning of figuring out the best way to treat these women. There is not a lot of research out there and every case is a little different.

I am asking for prayers for one women in particular who I screened and have cared for over the past two weeks. Her name is Beatrice, she had a bit of a unique problem and had a different surgery than most of the other women. I won't go into the details but she has an infection that is resistant to all but one of the antibiotics we have available. So what she needs is prayer and I know God is bigger and can heal her wounds and her infection. I want so badly to dance with her and I believe this will happen.

When I stop and think of the women that are going back home still leaking and when I think of those we never even have the opportunity to help it breaks my heart. The statistics are staggering, at the current rate that VVF surgeries are being done it would take 700 years to treat all the fistula patients that are currently suffering with this condition. But the thing is I can't think about all of this all the time because it becomes overwhelming and discouraging.

So today I am celebrating because today we danced. Four beautiful women celebrated God's healing today. The ceremony was wonderful. I'll share the story of one of the women, Veronique. Veronique has had 4 surgeries. She has had 3 of them with Mercy Ships this year alone, one in March, then again in July, and finally just last week. Today she danced! She stood with the attitude and sass that I love about her and she gave a testimony. She thanked God, the doctors and the nurses and then with tears streaming down her face she shouted, "Today, I Veronique am dry!"