My apologies for a very crowded headline on this update! It’s hard enough to fit all that’s going on out here into our daily schedules, much less fit it into a small headline. We’re thankful to be serving with a full plate for the Lord. As it’s been said before by others, we are weary in the work but not of the work for Him.

We’ve had a lot go on this fall out here in the service of the local church, the local impoverished and the local refugees. Our host country continues to groan under the burden of their unending economic collapse. Remittances – money sent from relatives/friends living outside the country – now surpass that of Gaza or the West Bank and make up more than HALF of the GDP for the economy. The only life line for most people to survive is the charity of others living outside of this place. We thank the Lord for those He has moved to help in that regard, and thank you to those reading this who have done so in the past!

For this update and others moving forward I am going to aim to release them in smaller, single-subject posts throughout the days ahead, so as not to overload your inboxes or consume too much of your time in a given day trying to read these updates. If you find that format more helpful, please reply to let me know. We value your attention to these needs and prayers to God on our behalf!

This first update post will cover the current ongoing medical needs and prayer requests for that area of ministry out here.

A Dying Cancer Patient & Multiple Medical Crises

The hard truth is that out here, things that could be cured in the West are difficult or impossible to treat. We do what we can, and have put a lot of funding to ensure people with real, life threatening medical needs get into some of the best hospitals here, facilities that programs like the UN could never cover. We’ve had some answers to prayers, such as helping a man who had a heart attack in our outreach center earlier this year get a stent and multiple heart bypass. We’ve had some successes with treatments, such as a middle aged woman with a lymphoma who, thankfully, is 100% cleared of the cancer now as of her latest check up, and only needs a couple more maintenance chemo treatments.

But sometimes it doesn’t work. We have a woman we’ve been helping since last year who came to us with advanced stage 4 cancer that had already metastasized. It was already pretty late for her. The doctors did what they could and lamented that if she was elsewhere in the world she might have a chance. However as of this week we fear she is in her final days. Her kidneys are infected, failing and blocked by the tumor. There’s a last-ditch surgery scheduled to try and re-open a line into her kidneys to relieve the backup, but this could also prove to be fatal if it fails. Pray for her. She has heard of the Lord from many around her. She knows her situation is grim yet assumes she still has tomorrow. We’ve warned her that her tomorrows are not guaranteed. We hope she would be with the Lord before her final day comes.

ICU Admissions, ER Visits & Surgical Interventions

We also had multiple women in the church and community experience severe and unusual medical emergencies. One middle-aged woman who is generally in good health began to complain of recurrent headaches over the summer. She became dizzy, falling over and weak. Suddenly the right side of her mouth went numb and she had difficulty speaking. When we took her to the ER her blood pressure was 260 systolic! An MRI showed she had suffered multiple small strokes over the summer months. She was in the ICU for almost a week before getting her BP under control with a half dozen medications. She now relies on these meds to stay alive, unfortunately, and the doctors have not yet found any underlying cause.

We also have the usual medical emergencies coming our way. A woman in the church suddenly experienced excruciating pain in her kidneys for no explainable reason. She needed multiple days in the ICU to stabilize.

One man, the main baker at the Daily Bread Bakery, hit a dog on his motorcycle/scooter on the street and broke his leg, needing the ER and month of recovery. Another man, the father of an EAP student, broke his hand in a fall. We brought him in to get casted too!

Another man, also a father of an EAP student, had a large tumorous growth on his left cheek/chin that’s been there for years. Out of concern it could be cancerous, or at the least keep growing and cause respiratory issues, we took him for surgery last week.

Yet another man we know began having problems walking and experienced recurrent knee pain. After doing a CT scan we found he has a sizable tumor in his leg and needs it removed surgically. That is the photo posted above. It was a rather unexpected find when we thought he’d just sprained his knee!

Numerous kids with fevers, infections and other issues continue to come for help, along with the elderly needing their heart meds. There’s a cholera outbreak going on too, which we are mindful of watching out for. The list could go on! We are thankful to be able to provide help to people medically. Each act of compassion in the Lord’s name can be that one act that opens a door for the truth.

What To Pray For With The Medical Ministry

You can pray for the many sick that come to us for help. We are often the last place they can find help, meaning that they have no where else to go. We are humbled to be on the front line in that area, and are hopeful the lives saved will translate into souls saved in due time. Pray to that end.

Pray for doctors to remain in this country. Some of the best ones we’ve worked with have left due to deteriorating situation. Finding good doctors is getting harder and harder, though some do remain.

Thank you again for your prayers and support. This is a work bigger than any of us, but not bigger then God or His church! If you wish to be involved in any way, you can support TGI via our site, sign up for our relief updates e-mail newsletter to better know how to pray, or contact us if you are interested in knowing more about how to be personally involved.