Home of Love

Thursday, September 30, 2004

TB Skin Test Results

For many tuberculosis is an old fashion word that reminds us of war, poverty, and ancient disease. In Bangladesh tuberculosis (TB) represents a growing problem that robs life quickly especially in the lower class. I found on the internet that TB is the leading killer of young adults worldwide and that some 2 billion (1/3 of the worlds population) are infected with the TB bacterium. Each year 8 million people are infected and 3 million die of tuberculosis. Tuntu, is a 15 year old normal boy at Home of Love. He contracted TB at some point and it recently became active. Presently he is very ill. Tuntu is quarantined in a separate room and has to keep his eating utensils all separate. Over the years we have had 2-3 TB patients but now TB has become like an epidemic unfortunately. We had 18 kids + staff test positive for TB last week. These kids are not ill or showing signs of the disease at all but they will need to be on the medication to rid their system of the bacteria. Even though they are not ill now, they could develop TB as they have been exposed to it and have strains of it in their bodies. They will now start a 6 mo. medication program that will cost about $2.80 a week per person. Altogether we'll need over $1400.00 to complete the 6 mo. treatment for all the 18 persons. If you are interested in contributing please let us know or look at our link "Contact us" to get info on where to send. For more information on TB please look at www.tuberculosis.net

posted by Thomas at 7:00 PM

Wednesday, September 29, 2004

Some of the little ones

From left: Julia, Asha, Shimol, Phoebe. In this picture they are having some chips after Sunday school. Aren't they cute?

posted by Thomas at 9:55 PM

Sunday, September 19, 2004

Will it hurt much?

Today, our colleague from Korea, Miss Han tested the kids blood and urine at the orphanage. She is a trained laboratory technician and has set up a laboratory in conjunction with her work at Faith Clinic. The clinic is next door to the orphanage so we were able to give her an empty room for her lab. The nanny from the nursery was scared to death and did not want to have anything tested! We eventually convinced her that it was good to have a file on each person so we could quickly find blood donors if the need arises one day. In Bangladesh the hospitals do not keep blood on hand and if you suddenly need some you have to go out and find a person with your blood type and then pay for him/her to give blood. It is time consuming and costly. Today Sister Han checked the kids and staff for their blood group, Hepatitis B, glucose level, and kidney functions.
Sister Han has a vision to see the poor people treated with right diagnosis through proper lab work and she would love to see the indigenous people receive basic training to take back into their villages where people die at alarming rates from diarrhea and most often unknown diseases. For the future, we believe with Miss Han for Gods provision in building a 10 bed hospital next to the clinic.

Beauty is back
Just a quick update on Beauty, she is back at Home of Love and doing very well. She is not able to work yet but is shedding her giant smile around and making us all remember how God has worked in her life. She is not supposed to get her hands wet and needs to go back for a check up in 2 weeks. We are all so happy the way this has all worked out! Thanks again for praying for her.

posted by Thomas at 11:04 PM

Friday, September 17, 2004

Greetings from the Home of Love

This is an updated picture of all of us. We now have 53 children.

posted by Thomas at 5:39 PM

Wednesday, September 15, 2004

The Lord, your healer

Today when I opened the squeaky screen door into the female ward and saw Beauty flash me a gorgeous smile, I knew she was better. Beauty has not only had an amazing speedy recovery she also is not in need of skin grafting and will be released in a few days! Her hands are still bright pink in contrast to her naturally dark skin, but she radiates sunshine. Beauty is a Christian believer but this accident has cemented her belief in the God who heals, who loves, who watches-over, who comforts and who gives peace. She told me that she took the verse I am the Lord, your healer as her own this week and kept believing it was true. The Dr. and nurses are all surprised how quickly she recovered and we told them that people here and in Germany and the U.S. have been praying!

posted by Thomas at 9:49 PM

Tuesday, September 14, 2004

Rain

We have just experienced almost 96 hours of very heavy non-stop rain. In just 24 hours it had rained more than 6 inches. It was very extreme. Now we are glad that it seems to be over. At the end of September the rainy season usually comes to an end.
Colleen will be on her way to visit Beauty and we will post a record as soon as she is back.

posted by Thomas at 10:49 PM

Friday, September 10, 2004

Lillian Trasher 1887-1961

The Lord feeds the sparrows and clothes the lilies in the fields, and He looks after the widows and orphans.

Lillian Trasher, who founded Egypts first orphanage found this to be true almost a hundred years ago. Today in 2004 we can also testify of the same faithfulness of God as we experience God providing day after day. Thank you for your prayers!

posted by Thomas at 3:47 PM

Wednesday, September 08, 2004

Update on Beauty

Today, Colleen went to see Beauty in the hospital. If you can imagine huge passenger buses on narrow roads, driving like a teenage boy on his first night on the town, that is sort of what its like. No one wears seat belts on the 2.5 hour journey; horns sound off in every kind of tone, livestock and pedestrians weave in and out of traffic. Anyways Beauty is doing alright, considering everything. Her burns are 2nd degree and will probably require skin grafting. One of the American doctors at the hospital is a surgeon and he is looking after Beauty. We are so glad that she is in such good hands and at one of the best facilities in the country. Medical care is a pure disaster in this country. Beauty has only a grandmother and older sister for family; she is also like an orphan even though she is one of our staff. It is with joy that we show her how precious she is and take good care of her as one of our own.

One of the older Bengali nurses told us today that actually they could all learn a lesson from us about love. She said, People do not have their religion stamped on their foreheads or tattooed on their backs but by your act of bringing her to this hospital, sitting by this young womens side feeding her, washing her, giving her medicine you are showing the world what a Christian actually is.

posted by Thomas at 11:10 PM

Monday, September 06, 2004

Pray for our orphanage staff, Beauty

Yesterday, one of our staff at the Home of Love was badly burnt. Beauty is the young womans name. She was draining the water off of a huge pot of rice when it happened. Her burns are quite serious and cover her whole left arm, right hand, chest and legs. We sent her this afternoon to the missionary hospital 2 hours south of Chittagong for treatment. There she will be treated by foreign doctors and given the best possible care. We would ask you to think of Beauty in your prayers, she is very concerned that she will have bad scars that will eliminate her chance to get married someday and that she will lose mobility with her left hand.

posted by Thomas at 9:56 PM

Sunday, September 05, 2004

Elizabeth

Let me introduce you to Elizabeth. She is about 9 years old; most of our children at Home of Love do not know exactly how old they are. Parents do not get a birth certificate for their babies normally; we read in the newspaper that if you are found without one for your child you are fined a few pennies. The majority of the people in this country therefore are born on Jan. 01 as that is the common date if you do not know your birth date! Elizabeth has been at the orphanage ever since we arrived seven years ago, she taught us Bangla, played many games with us and always was able to laugh at our attempt at jokes! Elizabeth struggles in school perhaps from a learning disability and/or her repeated illnesses. She has tuberculosis and is often weak, but still fun-loving. Her laugh is loud and her smile big. Our staff makes her special food each day like a bit of meat, an egg or a glass of milk to supplement her diet. Pray for Elizabeth that she might become totally well, gain weight and do well in her studies.

posted by Thomas at 9:34 PM

Saturday, September 04, 2004

Checkers

Thomas enjoys playing checkers with the kids. He taught them how to play and now they can occasionally beat him! Checkers at Home of Love, is not normally as quiet as this picture suggests, most often they are surrounded by many faces all giving advice in loud voices! Thomas is playing with Caleb in this picture.

posted by Thomas at 4:55 PM