Saving Lives in Zambia

Dear Heroes,

I am always so blessed to be able to help those who are in very serious need in Grippis with the funds that you are providing.  This trip I encountered some very serious medical situations which were quickly becoming life threatening.  The first day I was at Grippis, Lillian, showed me her finger. It looked to me like there was some of it actually missing. She said she had not injured it, that it just started swelling and then it turned into what you see in the photo.  She had gone to the local clinic and had already received 10 injections, but the finger was not improving.  I was able to take her to a surgeon in downtown Lusaka where they x-rayed it and then opened it  up and cleaned out the infection.  It took three trips downtown to get it all taken care of. The nurse told me if we hadn’t intervened it would have soon developed gangrene.  Lillian sent me a message through Vincent that now her finger is better.  Lillian is able to go back to work now.  She got a job as a maid in the nearest community to Grippis. (She earns $45/month) She has built a small mud brick house for herself and her 6 children – she recently separated from her abusive husband to make a better life for herself and her children.  She is more confident and joyful than I have ever seen her. She is going to the new church plant in Grippis, and is the song leader there. Her relationship with God has given her new hope and faith that God will take care of her.  (She is pictured praying during the church service we attended at Grippis where Pastor Elias of Harvest Church is leading the new church plant which meets at Mango Grove School.)

Another person you helped was this little boy who came to the eye clinic in Chief Chipepo’s Chiefdom in Siavonga. (Pictured in pink) He was beaten with a stick that had broken his eyeball open.  The local doctor put gauze on the eyeball, but couldn’t do anything else to help him. He needed to have the eye removed and an artificial eye put in.  His family had no way to pay for the surgery. He had been living with his eye ruptured for almost a year. He is 9 years old.  We were able to pay for his eye surgery. With your donated funds. I don’t have contact information for the mother, but she was so grateful for the help that we offered, and I hope to be able to follow up with someone after he has his surgery.  He is pictured getting his good eye checked at the vision clinic.

One of my dearest friends in Grippis is Josephine Phiri. She has a heart of gold, and her family is an amazing bastion of God’s love and light in Grippis. She, her husband Fred and her adult son Abel took the tailoring class, and are all anxious to resume classes when we are able to fund those again.  She just had her eighth child, Emmanuel.  Following the birth she had surgery. About a week after surgery she developed pain in the area of the surgery, and then got a fever. When I saw her she had a raging fever, was chilling and in severe pain.  I took her to a good clinic in Lusaka where she received medications to fight infection and help with the pain and fever. I paid for that with your donations. By the time I left Zambia she was feeling better, and had had a check up with the doctor who adjusted some of her meds.  Thanks to you she is in good health again.

 As I walk through the Grippis community I see so many others who have received medical help from your funds – Mrs. Banda, who invited the teachers to start a school under the mango tree in her yard had a granddaughter, Teresa, with a hole in her heart. She was only 3 years old.  A donation paid for her to see a cardiologist, and when she grabbed my hand to walk around the village with me on this visit, I asked her how she is feeling “I’m fine now. I’m not sick any more,” she told me. “I’m six years old!” she beamed.  In 2008, Mr. Sachika’s grand daughter, Maggie was bitten by a snake, and by the time I saw her leg it was horrid – the skin was broken down, it was terribly swollen, and she couldn’t walk on it. The other children would carry her around the school yard. She was depressed, and would sit by herself a lot.  With donated funds we were able to get her help at an orthopedic hospital outside of Lusaka. She had surgery on her leg, and is now walking and running around with the other kids. You would never know by looking at her that she almost lost her leg!   Another teenaged girl was helped to get meds to stop her seizures, a little boy had an insect flushed out of his ear which was severely infected, another boy was treated for bilharzia which is life threatening.  So, I am saying thank you on behalf of all those you have helped over the years. You have saved many lives!

Rich Blessings,

Tanya Brenneman