November 24, 2007

Things seem to have stabilized...

...an update from Amy in Zambia regarding my grandkids.

"Thank you for all the prayers and notes of encouragement. I copied them down and will share them with everyone.

Jennifer and Jasmine are doing much better. Their eyes are still sore and weak but they have regular appetites now and are getting stronger every day. We have been discharged from the hospital and are staying with friends in this town until Monday when they will repeat the blood work and chest x-ray.

Tom is at home with the the other four children who it now seems have come down with measles. We are attacking right away with antibiotics and forced eating. We won't let them get weakened the way the other girls were. Knowing what is happening is a big help. So far they are all doing okay.

Please pray for their cases to be light and that Tom will have the strength and wisdom for taking care of them. The medical care is usually my department so God is testing us all in every area. I am in regular contact with them and have been able to send boxes of food and medicine on the local buses so Tom has what he needs for the kids.

We still don't have a water pump or Internet due to the lightning strike. We don't know which piece of the Internet equipment will need to be replaced. Our water pump control box will need to be replaced (this was just installed 3 weeks ago and had a surge protector on it!).

Please pray for God's supply for this and the medical bills and other expenses related to the medical care.

God has been so faithful during all this. Please continue to pray for full recovery for the kids and for our strength. We love you all!

Amy for all the Morrows"

November 22, 2007

Some Welcome Good News From Africa


I promised to update you about my grandkids in Zambia:

...Dear friends, family, loved ones and all who have prayed:

We love you all dearly and thank you for standing by our side in the Spirit this last week. I am writing from Mansa as our Internet still has not been replaced/repaired.

The girls are doing much better! Praise God! I wanted to fill you in a little on what has been going on and what the Lord has brought us through.

A few weeks ago we had a baby brought to us that was severely malnourished. We began to integrate him into our program. The second day he came he had a fever and cough so when his guardians came we asked them to take him to the clinic and care for him before bringing him back to join the orphanage. We also told them to come each day to collect milk for him.
We didn't hear anything for some time and later found out he was diagnosed with measles. We asked them to keep the baby at home until he was fully recovered but to continue to collect formula to keep up his strength. Unfortunately, they did not do this and we heard that he continued to get weaker.

About a week later Jennifer came down with a fever and two days later Jasmine also fell ill. When the telltale symptoms of measles showed up and the girls were not able to eat we decided to take them to a local hospital for monitoring and treatment.

Jennifer responded well to treatment but Jasmine got worse. The crux came when she was given a different IV fluid and began having facial seizures which caused her tongue to curl up and she could not swallow. Her condition was first diagnosed as hypoglycemia since she had not eaten for 5 days and the new IV did not contain sugars.

Thankfully she continued to be able to breathe, her pulse remained strong and she had all her mental faculties. When she didn't get completely better and her legs and arms began to have muscle problems and her jaw was clenching tightly shut the doctor was concerned that it could be meningitis or cerebral malaria. He told me that if it was his child he would pray and that she may have only until the next morning. As you can imagine this was scary to hear when we are 12 hours away from the best hospitals and things move so slowly here.

We decided to take Jasmine to the nearest large city (usually 4 hours away--although this time only took 3) and contacted a doctor to meet us there. A friend from the city where we first took the girls offered to drive us to Mansa and he has stayed with the girls and me the whole time-- being such a help-- another blessing since Tom had to remain with the work and the other kids.

After desperate prayer we got on the road and, miraculously, after the first few minutes, Jasmine-- who still had trouble with her jaw clamping shut involuntarily-- fell into a peaceful sleep for most of the drive.

Upon arrival at the next clinic both girls were put on two antibiotics and blood work and other tests were done.

The doctor diagnosed Jasmine as having encephalitis (a complication of measles) and said the antibiotics should fix the problem. Jennifer's x-ray the next day also showed traces of bronco-pneumonia. Both girls have severely low white blood counts.

Since arriving here though both girls have made steady progress. They are still quite weak but are getting better day by day. We know this is testament to the many, many prayers that have been offered up on their behalf.

Working within the local hospital system here has been very challenging and frustrating at times but God has been so faithful. Someone asked me at one point if I trusted the doctor and I said no, I trust God. That is what it has come down to. Our lives are in God's hands and His are the best there is!

The girls should be able to go home by Friday or Saturday, God willing.

Continued prayer requests:

  • For the girls complete recovery--especially that their white count can come up to normal-- and that none of the other children contract measles

  • That our water and Internet problems will be sorted out--It looks like we may have to buy the equipment again.

  • For our encouragement, as the little baby that originally had the measles passed away yesterday. This is very hard for us as we already fell in love with him. We feel discouraged that his family didn't take better care of him despite our best efforts.

  • For the work here to continue to grow.

Thank you so much for all your prayers. They saved us! Praise be to God!

Amy and all the family...


November 20, 2007

Urgent Prayer Request For My Granddaughter In Africa

I was in the midst of planning a post to introduce my daughter, Amy Morrow, and her family's work in Zambia, Africa-- where she, her husband, Tom and their six children recently begun receiving orphans into an orphanage they are building-- however, circumstances brought my plans forward...

(Written from a message sent by JoAnne Leppo --Tom's Mother:)

...I just received a call from Tom in Zambia. Two of their daughters were very sick from measles that they contracted from one of the orphans last week when, yesterday, 12 year-old Jasmine's fever got so high that Amy took both girls to the local clinic.

They were tested for malaria and it seems that Jasmine possibly has cerebral malaria-- which can be fatal. She hadn't eaten for five days and reacted badly to the medicine the doctor gave to stop the vomiting.

Both girls are now on IVs; Jennifer's fever has subsided-- but Jasmine is still serious.

The clinic doesn't have facilities for further testing, and she couldn't survive the 12-hour ride to the capital's hospital-- so they are taking her to a hospital two hours away, where a Russian doctor is going to meet them. If they can't help her, they will possibly life-flight her to Lusaka or South Africa.

So please desperately pray for Jasmine's life and health-- and Amy as she makes many needed decisions.

Tom is at the mission with the other children. He just returned from a trip in the bush trip-- three days of Bible classes and ministering to tribes. As soon as he got back, lightening struck-- damaging their Internet system and the control box for their water-pump. They are also in the midst of the longest power-outage they've ever had.

So, on top of the children's sicknesses, they also have no Internet, no running water-- and only emergency battery lights.

They are, as you know, quite isolated, so please pray for their encouragement, strength and against any further problems...

I'll write more as soon as I receive news. I don't think there will be any updates on their site for a while-- due to the lightening strike mentioned above-- but you can learn about the Morrows and their work here:

http://www.missionaryfamily.com/


November 13, 2007

So Far, So Good

I recently updated my 'gateway' website at www.tipserve.com as it was pointing to an 'experimental' blog at Wordpress, rather than this one-- sorry. It will eventually be a digital hallway with doors to lots of interesting things, but for now, just one door that will take you here...

Websites and blogs have been a learning process-- see my: 'Blogging 101'. Most recently I've been researching which online resources have the most, while requiring the least from me-- Yes, you can read that as, 'finding sites that offer a lot for free.'

Right now my focus is to find a home for my photos. Over the past few months, I've edited and posted hundreds of photos on several sites. I have hundreds more chronicling decades of adventure in China, Japan, India, the U.S., Canada and Mexico. I'll soon be posting the stories to match these photos.

So far: Picasa was the easier to get started; Flickr proved to be the most resource-rich-- including 'tagging' which pushed some of my photos near the top of certain searches. I've also just tried Photobucket, and really like it, but it's too soon to draw a conclusion-- although they have also just added 'tags' for their photos.

If you have any tips for me, please send 'em! Thanks!

Picasa (1) Over 100 of my most current, up-to-date photos in folders by category

Picasa (2) Again, ten categories with about 100 photos of Fukuoka, Japan

Flickr a few folders, I just started here

Photobucket Also just started here.