Malaria Strikes

Please pray for these people whose lives have been affected by malaria. A couple of weeks ago, Richard's 7 year old nephew, named Sunday, fell ill to malaria. He lives about 30 minutes outside of Ndola in a farming village with Richard's mother and one of Richard's sisters. Richard received a phone call stating that Sunday had been ill with malaria for several days and was doing very poorly and they did not have any medicine for him. So Richard bought transporation to the village and picked up his nephew and mother and sister, and brought them in to Ndola to go to the hospital. Sunday was very sick and he spent 4 days in the hospital. Praise God he recovered after treatment and went home. But on the way home, Richard's mother began to feel ill also, and in the next few days fell ill with malaria also. She also became very ill before contacting Richard for help. They do not own a phone to call for help and had to borrow a neighbor's. They also do not own a bicycle to go to the local clinic for help, so Richard's sister had to borrow a neighbor's bike to take Richard's mother to the clinic. But when they got to the clinic (several hours away) it was closed for a holiday and they were unable to get any medicine for her. By the time Richard heard about her illness (last Friday), it had been several days already. It is important to catch malaria early and treat it or it is sometimes fatal within days. At this time, Richard had no money for transportation to go and buy malaria medicine for his mother, or the cost of the transportation to go and bring it to her, so he had to wait until a friend could take him 3 days later. At that time he was only able to bring her a type of medication that is insufficient for treating malaria if you have had it for a long time already. So we are praying that God is watching over his mother until he is able to bring her the correct kind of medication today. I pray that it has arrived in time! Also, his sister has a severe cough and her ears are so infected that she can hardly hear now, so he will bring her some medication for that. It is hard for us to imagine not having these simple medicines available in our cupboards when we need them, or just down the street at the nearby 24 hour drugstore. Even having the transportation to get to the drugstore is no problem, and the money to buy these medicines is usually something we don't think twice about having available. Also, 24 hour urgent care is so easy to access. In Zambia, it is a different story for most people, and malaria is such a severe issue of life and death. Please pray for Richard's mother and sister.

Another family which has been affected by malaria in the last two weeks is a family from Richard's small church. The church that he began just months ago has been growing, and one family that has been very active in the church held morning pray meetings at their house and some evening Bible Studies also. The man and his wife had several children, and the wife has been ill with many things over the last year. One thing that was affecting her was blindness, and I wrote about how she was healed of her eye problems a few months ago during a church service. But just a few weeks ago, the man contracted malaria and fell very ill. Richard took him to the hospital where he stayed for many days and then was released. But after a few days at home, he became ill again and died a few days later. It was devasting for this new little church, to have a very devout brother in the church die. They buried him on Sunday, and held their church service at the graveyard. Now the wife will have difficulty supporting all her children and also her two elderly parents without a husband, and with her other health issues. Please pray for the Lord to take care of this family.