The Sick Man

Today we went house to house to visit those who were sick.  Pamela from Diakonia Compasionate Ministry has sponsored me to go on this trip to view their projects that are in need of clean water solutions.  She is also a nurse which proves to be quite useful and needed here in Kenya.
The first lady that we met had extremely high blood pressure.  Pam was worried that she may have a stroke so their family sent someone to go get her the medications that she needed.  At each house I would survey the area, house inside and outside and ask necessary questions pertaining to their water needs that would help us implement future water projects in the area.
The 2nd house we went to we found a man lying on a couch.  We were welcomed in by the family.  Pamela asked about his injuries and he showed us his left arm.  It was swollen very bad from the fingertips to the upper arm.  On his chest were many sores and a big open one the size of a kiwi.  My first thought was this poor man is suffering so greatly.  He used to be a soccer player and coach and now he is lying down too sick to do anything.  With more investigation after Pam cleaned his wound and read his Dr's notes she said that it was cancer.  The wound and Dr's note indicated that this was the case.  Many Dr's in Kenya are not very good about telling people the truth about their condition.  If they don't know what to do they just send them home with prescription.  I sat there looking at this sick man with his extremely swollen arm and knew that there were not many options for him.  I ache for his situation.  He has 5 children.  I spoke to his son about their water situation.  Him and his brother have gotten typhoid from the bad water that they drink.  They have many other illnesses from not drinking clean water.  Although the situation for the father is so saddening FOA along with Diakonia Compasionate Ministry would like to see this family receive a water filter to eliminate unnessesary future sickness and better health.  If there is something more that we can do for them I will be sure to let you know.  Please keep this family and John's painful condition in your thoughts and prayers.