Start a Dance
Jesus is singing a song of restoration over Africa and he has invited us to join him in the dance. Will you dance with me?
“He rescues the poor at the first sign of need…He opens a place in his heart for the down-and-out, he restores the wretched of the earth. He frees them from tyranny and torture— when they bleed, he bleeds; when they die, he dies.”
A woman came to me one day at the Grace Center. She had a baby on her back and a baby in her arms. She began to tell me how difficult her life was with no husband and no one to help her. She concluded her story by setting the little girl in her arms on the ground and taking the little boy off her back. "I want to leave this twin with you."
I was shocked, horrified, and very, very sad. I could not imagine the kind of poverty, desperation and love that would end with a mother giving her child away to me.
Our committee at the Grace Center made a plan for her to keep the children providing formula and porridge. It made me so excited to see that the children could stay with their mother and we could help. I thought we had solved her problems.
Saturday morning the mother was found dead in her hut. Her twins were with her.
Leya and Laban are now living in Patricia's Home.
Friends, it is time to start the Restoration Dance. Laban and Leya are just two little ones who have lost their mother. Maybe we could have done something about that...I don't know. But I do know this: we need to try!
Here is our plan:
Through the development of the Maternal Care Center, families will be restored as mothers learn to cook nutritious meals for their children, are provided with quick intervention for breast-feeding problems, and are given a two week nutritional boost. Infants at risk will be entered into the Infant Formula Program.
All this makes me very happy! I don't know if we could have saved Leya and Laban's mother, but we never got a chance to try...we focused our efforts on the children, not the mother. What could happen if we looked at the whole family? Jesus is restoring Africa, and he is starting with the restoration of families!
Click on the link below to see the renovations and additions we'll be making to our current clinic building in order to start the Maternal Care Center.
Plans for the Maternal Care Center
Renovations and new building costs will be $25,000.
Bed for the Maternal Care Center: $200
Support a Mother and Baby for a two week stay at the Maternal Care Center: $50 a month. You will receive pictures of the mothers and babies you support!
Sponsor a Baby in the Infant Formula Program: $75 a month (or partial $25)
Leya and Laban still need $200 in additional support a month. Would you consider helping to sponsor our precious twins?