There is a Measles Epidemic here.....it is a killer of many children. The parents are afraid of ‘lonod’ – a condition where the
measles spots are trapped inside the child and don’t come out and this condition kills the child.
At least this is what the belief is here. The only way they say to prevent ‘lonod’ is to wrap the children up in
thick blankets and keep them away from any breeze, give them hardly any water to drink and especially not
to bathe them.
So our job is to try and teach them - to convince the parents that what their sick child needs is lots of water
because their fevers are dehydrating them and that they need cool clothes and baths to keep them well.
We have a team involved in doing this job, the clinic workers, and Elsa and Bugsuk, our co-workers, who have
all been working tirelessly. It strikes the fear of death into the hearts of the poor parents to take our advise
but those who have tried it, have had no deaths from the measles. Two children have already died here in
Lapoc because their parents wrapped them up and didn’t give them water.
In this house lives a family with six children. Poverty......darkened minds.......and a Dad who doesn’t like to work
all combined together means that the six children in this family don’t have enough to eat, and that this five year old
in the photo below, who is sitting beside her Mum, looks like a two year old.
Their ‘bed’ was the torn remains of an old grass sleeping mat and their ‘bedding’ was floor sacks that were thin and
grey with age. We sent them food, medicine, blankets and a new sleeping mat.....and today the little one was
treated at the clinic for pneumonia which is often a complication here from the measles.
But this sort of help, although it will get these children through the measles alive, will not fix the fears and misery
they live in because of the spiritual darkness that is over their household.
So please pray for this family (call them Lisa’s family: that is the name of the young mother of six in this picture)
and the many others like them who we live amongst who have no hunger for the Gospel. Pray that maybe through
the love and care we have been able to show them, that they will be drawn to come and listen to God’s Word.
There are so, so many here whose lives are like this family’s and who are hard and resistant to the Light
because they prefer darkness.
Thank you so, so much for being part of the team with us reaching out to these people!!!
Lots of Love......
Paul, Deb and Jubab xxxxx
