SARAH's news.... Feb / March 2010

Greetings from sunny Sierra Leone...
I hope the above photos, taken by my sister on her visit here in February, will convey to you some of the colour and beauty of this lively city I now call my home.

Time is flying by here, so here is just a quick overview of the last couple of months:

· Amara, the boy who was paralysed from the waist down after contracting TB spine, continues to do well. He is now walking without his crutches, able to kick a football, and, as the photo, shows he is riding a bike!

· One of our 24 new community assessments since January was Emmanuella (photographed left), a 7 year old girl, had no therapy prior to our visit. We set up a home exercise program so family can continue therapy in between our visits, working on developing her muscle strength and balance, tongue control (for slurred speech)
& pre-writing skills. We hope she will be accepted to SOS school for the physically disabled, as she has never been to school.

· As a Team we found a practical way to help Ramatu's mum, Fatmata, who was struggling financially we have given her a small loan to enable – her to start a portable business (selling cosmetics from a basket on top of her head).
Another family we are hoping to help in a similar way is that of Daniel, age 9, who was unable to get medical attention for his meningitis in time and as a result has severe learning difficulties and epilepsy. His mum has been unable to continue working and is now his full-time carer. We are sending him to the epilepsy centre for an assessment and medication and talking with the mum about any business opportunities we may be able to support her with setting up.

· We ventured up-line (out of Freetown) to do a one off assessment with Kadija, pictured left, who was abducted and used in a traditional medicine rite. It's unclear exactly what happened but as a result she has a significant neurological impairment. We are assisting the charity working with her by arranging to have gaiters and a standing frame made, and training their staff on how to best to work with her.

The Team:
Unfortunately Josephine has left the team in order to have more time to develop her
own business. This has made the work load a bit more demanding and we will need to think about looking for another Sierra Leonian to join the team and train as a rehabilitation assistant.

February has been my most challenging month here yet. In all of it God has given me the necessary strength to walk an often uncertain path, growing my trust in Him and teaching me the importance of listening to his heart for this place, the team, the children and their families that we see. He has also provided me with many supportive, lovely people here, which has been an amazing help!

I can't say enough how much I value your prayers they are – much like the roots of a tree giving us a stable foundation from which to reach out to the children and families of Sierra Leone.

Please pray for:
· Our Team: for God's perfect timing re increasing the team again and the right person for the job. Please pray for Abu and myself as we continue the work and try to juggle the demands of our heavy workload.

· Fatmata as she starts her new business and also Daniels family as we explore how best to help them

· Those of you who know Becky Harris (Mercy Vineyard) will know she is coming to visit me for a month to work with our team & another organisation called Word made Flesh. Please pray for her to have a safe journey, good health and an amazing time while she is here!

A long overdue update...

Dear Friends,

It's seems far too long since I wrote to you all last, and I apologise for the silence. As you know in the last few months I have been transitioning back to life in the UK, and it's certainly been a bumpy ride (though the roads are notably smoother over here!). It's not until you return to your supposedly 'normal' culture that you realise quite how much you have adjusted to your 'foreign' culture. Still, slowly life is becoming more 'normal' – grey skies and freezing winds are as miserable as I ever remember! Christmas and New Year has been full of wonderful times with friends and family, and Rob and I are fuzzy with excitement of being able to spend as much time as we like together (and he's not sick of me yet!).
From my last month in Sierra Leone, there were some encouraging moments that just left me with smiles.

Minkalu Junior – the police lady's son with quadriplegic cerebral palsy started school. He sits proudly at the front of his class in the chair we provided, and participates well verbally. We are yet to see how he manages with written tasks along with his peers. Abu and Sarah will continue to work with him on that, and will also advise the teacher. It was a privilege to see him amongst his classmates and since he is well know in the community he seems to have plenty of friends in the playground too.

Then there is Mamasu, a teenage girl with Cerebral Palsy who gave up on school last year as she was never passing Class 1 (with 6 yr olds). We have over the months been trying to get her into various vocational training placements, but since she is wheelchair bound it was difficult to find somewhere she could travel to by being pushed and once there could actually get inside. Finally Abu and Mamasu's mum found a kind tailor in the area who agreed to have Mamasu help him in the mornings. We watched to see his commitment to teaching her and we were happy to see that after a month the sessions were still going. Thanks to a kind donation from Mercy Ships, we were then able to present Mamasu with her own hand sewing machine and a box of threads and equipment. And as you can see she is thrilled with this. Pray with us that Mamasu will utilise this opportunity to be what she can be and that the tailor will continue patiently with her.

Before I left Sierra Leone in December, still so much more was happening than I could ever report back to you. If you want to see the real busyness of life out there, you really have to go and experience it for yourself. Sarah is finding that out, and since being there alone she has done a wonderful job of learning to juggle it all. I am supporting her with regular Skype calls, and she reports back that Abu is helping make some of the decisions as they go along. It's a joy to hear the work going on so well. Josephine too is continuing to work with Sarah twice a week and for both assistants, training in more Occupational Therapy skills continues.

Other current news from out in SL, Sarah has moved to a new apartment in Freetown with some American friends of ours running another Christ-centred programme with vulnerable children. It is a great move to be more central and will cut out much traffic time and has space for teaching. It may also lead on to having a more permanent office base there, which I dream might be utilised for theraplay groups offering support for the mums and a safe play space for the children with disability. It has been a real blessing to be helped along with wisdom, advice and encouragement from other similar organisations, and we give God thanks for them, whom without, ~Enable the Children~ would not be in existence.

Having now returned to the UK, ~Enable the Children~ work continues here for me and it's certainly keeping me on my toes. The biggest change you should know about is that we have come under the registered charity Links International (http://www.linksinternational.org.uk/). They act as an umbrella organisation and represent many smaller projects around the world. They will handle the finances and send it across to Sierra Leone when we request it (providing it's there!). The main reason we have done this, is that now we are officially recognised in Sierra Leone, we also want to have a more official front here in the UK.

So what will this mean for you as supporters?
We would love you to continue your support of our work in Sierra Leone if you still feel able to do so. The money you give pays for Abu, Josephine and Abdul's salary, the on-going costs of running Bertie the Landrover so we can get around, the specialist equipment we design and make with local craftsmen, donations to families in particular need, contributions to medical expenses of our disabled children if they go to other institutes for treatment, occasional sponsorship of our children into schools and many other day to day costs. We keep accurate records of our expenditure and are thankful for every penny that goes towards meeting these costs, without your generous provision we would not be able to continue this much needed work.

How can you give now?
For those who are already supporting I will contact you shortly about transferring your donation to Links International.
For those who want to start giving it's easy. All you need to do it send a cheque to Links International Trust, PO Box 198, Littlehampton, W.Sussex, BN16 3UQ. Make the cheque out to Links International Trust but clearly identify that it's for ~Enable the Children~ Acct No. 3507. However, if you pay tax we can also reclaim the gift aid if you sign a declaration, (can be found at www.linksinternational.org.uk/Give) or please do drop me an email, and I'd be glad to show you the way.

What else is new?
- Well, I hope to get a website up and running in the near future. This is a task I feel overwhelmed by, but one that once running will really advertise our work positively.
- Sarah's sister is currently out in SL, and she is gathering film footage of our day to day work. We hope she will then be able to turn this into a short presentation of our beautiful kids and our wonderful team doing their stuff.
- Having visited Church Mission Society (http://www.cms-uk.org/) my sending organisation last week, they continue to want to be linked with ~Enable the Children~ and support us with the HR of sending more people out. I hope to be getting involved in training more qualified therapists in this country in how to adapt their skills to work in poorly-resourced countries such as SL.
- We are also urgently looking for another qualified Physiotherapist or Occupational Therapist to go out to Sierra Leone and work alongside our team. If any one knows of someone who might be interested, please do let me know.
- As life settles for me, I'd also like to make myself available to come and visit different groups, both contacts of old and new places. There is so much I can report back on, and as most of you will know, my enthusiasm and love for these children best comes across when I tell their stories. If that might interest you, then please do get in touch, though beware it will not be for a while yet, too much job hunting to be done.

We'd still like to keep you in touch with what is going on in Sierra Leone, and so I will send on Sarah's newsletter instead of mine. You will however also hear from me from time to time. If you would no longer like to receive these emails please do reply me and I will 'unsubscribe' you! We will not be offended and in fact it's a privilege to have had you on board till now. We are so thankful for all who have given of time and money, prayers and encouragement, clothes, toys and chocolate! I want to personally say it has been true honour to me to have been able to do and see and achieve all that ~Enable the Children~ is now, thank you for helping me along, and let's give the glory and credit to our faithful Father in heaven.

My goodbyes in Sierra Leone were as you can imagine extremely difficult. I stumble even now as I think back to the many great friends I had made. The families were humbly grateful for what we do for them, and the children's courage and determination is nothing short of incredibly inspiring. Many tears flowed and many prayers prayed. Out of their little they gave a lot – a lot of love and life and hope. With so much despair in the world, and so much 'aid' being given, sometimes we can wonder where is it all going and is it all worth it. There are people in Sierra Leone who have the will to change their future, many of those are the children and families served by ~Enable the Children~ and of course people like Abu, Josephine and Sarah. As Mother Teresa once said 'In this life we cannot do great things. We can only do small things with great love.' And it has been with that great love that has been shown to me by Jesus, that I have indeed tried to be the gentle and devoted hands and feet of Jesus in the desperate places I found myself.

The memories will go on with me forever, and having founded ~Enable the Children~ not only will the work develop, but I'll have the privilege of being involved from the sidelines, most probably forever too. I am very sure that my feet will reach the red soils of Sierra Leone again, but for now I hand on the baton to the ~Enable~ team.

On this note, I will leave you to the joys of the SOS children at my farewell. We had an afternoon of fun and madness, they sang songs they had written for me, we shared soft drinks and presents.... an incredibly moving afternoon. All was well until Jeneba (see on my back) often a stubborn and difficult girl started the tears and begging me to stay, then Hawanatu, then Abu, Ishmael and Kadiatu, Isatu, Mohammed and Emmanuel.... before I knew it all the rest were all crying too. Such a sad day for me – and those cheeky rascals still managed to jump on Bertie and barricade my exit route!! One day I will return to see those beautiful faces again!
With love from Vez

matthew 19:14

Jesus said “let the little child come to me, and do not hinder them,
for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these”

SARAH's news.... Jan 2010

Hi everyone,
Happy new year from Freetown! January has been a busy month it – feels like I have been back here for a long time now, here are a few of the main events:

· Both I and Enable the Children have successfully re-located to an apartment in town (photo left is moving day featuring Abu, Rehab Assistant, Falla, who works for mercy ships & helped us move, and Abdul, our driver). I have moved in with 2 American girls who have been incredibly helpful and supportive to me personally at to Enable the Children as an organisation.
Thank you for all the prayers with regards to moving house. I'm absolutely certain that this is where God wants me and am once more astounded by God's goodness and provision to me in this move.


· The visits to the disabled children and their families continue to go well – Abu and Abdul did an amazing job at keeping the team going in the absence of the rest of the team during December.


· Amara, the boy with spinal TB, continues to improve and was recently photographed riding a bike.

· We have been experimenting with some Occupational Therapy specific projects, including a one handed kitchen aid (made with the carpenter) and we are currently negotiating widening the doorway & building a ramp up to a girl called Mamasu's house to enable her to get out of her house independently. Mamasu is a full-time wheelchair user as the result of cerebral palsy affecting her legs.

· This month has felt like a time where we have needed to offer encouragement, hope and prayer to mums who feel isolated and unsupported; we have had the opportunity to pray with 2 mums in particular, Fatmata the mum of a little girl with hydrocephalus, and a 12 month old boy (called Greatman) with cerebral palsy's
mum as they both expressed feelings of hopelessness at their situation.

Enable the Children Team update:
As a team we are greatly missing our team founder Vez, who has now returned to the UK to continue the work there. In her absence, Abu and I are trying to jointly creatively solve some of the many issues that come up, most not at all therapy related!

Photo of Enable the Children team (from left to right is Vez,
Abu, Abdul, myself and Josephine)

Abu has been unwell (diagnosed with Typhoid last week), but
is thankfully now on the mend following a hospital trip and a
course of medication.
Josephine is still learning lots and starting to take a more
active role in therapy sessions and do parts of the initial
assessment.

Since returning here I have found great comfort in this verse from James 1 in the message:

"If you don't know what you're doing, pray to the Father, He loves to help...ask boldly, believing,

without a 2nd thought."

I am grateful that God is able to do all. I sometimes feel out of my depth and but God is completely carrying me through and answering my many "help, what do I do?" type prayers in ways that can only be Him.

· Returning to work with the guests at the City of Rest has been good. One of the highlights has been a relaxation and anxiety management group that I have started with the ladies there. Also last week we had a slightly chaotic but very fun craft group with about 20 guests on the theme of rainbows and God's promises.

· Things are changing at the mercy ships land base as they undergo the founding of a much needed birthing centre in the next 2 months. My role at mercy ships will continue to be primarily therapy assessment for children referred by the mercy ships outpatient clinic and a craft group with the women who have had Fistula surgery.

I would really appreciate more of your prayers for:

· Wisdom for the many decisions that crop up for the day-to-day running of the team. These can be related to anything from maintenance on the car, to requests for money to just culturally knowing what is appropriate to do or say.

· Our families that struggle with the often thankless task of raising a disabled child, in a culture where sickness is seen as from the devil because of something the family or child have done. Please particularly pray for Fatmata and Greatman's mum.

November 09 Newsletter

Dear Friends,

Well this month has proven to be the busiest yet with administration, I'm so thankful that Abu and Sarah have been able to continue on with the home visits and patient care.
BUT the great news is WE ARE OFFICIALLY REGISTERED!!

That's right, ~Enable the Children~ is now under the Ministry of Social Welfare of the Government of Sierra Leone. And not only that but we have a Constitution, tax clearance, pay national insurance for our staff, Contracts, Terms and Conditions, Child Protection Policies, leave and benefits, job descriptions..... am I boring you yet!! This last month (and a bit – sorry for the late newsletter!) has been chokka full of writing documents and meeting officials. A huge learning curve for me, some paths being easier than others, but finally God has made a way. It feels a little daunting now too though as commitments are very official. However, another means of support has come out of this in the form of an Executive Board – made up of seven wonderful Godly people here in Sierra Leone – from friends, colleagues from other orgs, a Pastor, a disabled young lady who I've known and supported for years, and a patients mother. The Board will be a source of wisdom and encouragement and I'm thankful to have them aboard (pun intended)!

The other great news is that we have employed another Rehab Assistant, her name is Josephine and she's already been a blessing to us. She was the best interviewee by far and has proven to be reliable, keen to learn and good with our children already. One funny moment in the interviews was when putting a shape sorter on the floor to see how they would use it to play with a child, one lady shook it like a rattle, another broke it to get the lid off, and Josephine was the only one who did something sensible – lining the pieces up colour matching them. No one knew how to post the pieces through, I guess we take toys and how to play with them for granted. Still Josephine is under intensive training for now, but is also getting good exposure in the communities. Come December she and Abu will go out alone to continue treating our families.

There is so much to say this month so I'm going to give you some other news in snippets and hope you follow along....

Bertie the landrover has had major heart surgery!! He underwent a total engine transplant as well as much other major rehabilitation - steering box, horn (essential here!), No 1 ball joint, shock absorbers, arm bushes oh and a new wing mirror that had been smashed over 2 years ago now! Despite struggling for 2 weeks without a car, we give thanks for our British Army friend who has been so kind in helping us do all this. He's been a star!

Huw Briscoe of UNFOLD studio (www.unfoldstudio.com) has done a wonderful job of designing our new logo. There has been much discussion with the Exec Board and ETC's team about designs and colours but finally (see top) isn't it great?

Sarah has become more established in working in the communities with Abu and Josephine. She doing a great job of practical training as they spend time together with our children. Driving Bertie has also been a steep learning curve (before Bertie got sick that was!). Finding her way through the back streets of Freetown may take a while longer!

Amara, well, you'll remember from last month that we took him out to an NGO hospital in Makeni hoping for surgery to help straighten his legs. He never had the surgery as it was too complicated, but the hospital were able to help with my suggestion of serial casting to straighten his knees, which I could not do in the community due to the risks involved in leaving him unattended with untrained medical people. Still, he has done so well... standing in his POP casts, then eventually with us working at home again..... WALKING with the help of just 1 crutch!! I am amazed at his progress and his uncle and Grani are all happy to be reunited back in Freetown again. Praise God for this outcome – I really did not think I'd see him walking again, and after 2 + years, here we are. It's been a miraculous journey for him, and all the way through we have been giving Jesus the glory. This Muslim family have seen and experienced much, lets keep praying for them.

The boy who had been beaten badly by his father is doing well. Abu and the team have been visiting regularly and gradually he is learning to trust us. They have helped with teaching the grandfather how to dress some wounds have not been healing, and today they even got smiles out of him as they left him playing with a simple rubber ball – it doesn't take much to please some people.

Two of our children from our community visits have been accepted into the SOS Home for the Physically Challenged, and another 2 girls awaiting. This is a great opportunity for them to get a good education and learn that that can (and in fact have to) participate in normal community life. It builds them into great people of confidence despite their disability.

An update from Abu....
Jamestina's story – it's wonderful news for ~Enable the Children~ and for you our supporters, Jamestina is walking on her own now. We were referred her from the Mercy Ships clinic back in March 2008. She was born with many problems – she had clubfeet and bony problems with her knees, her left hand was dysfunctional, and she was delayed with her development. When we first saw her she was 1 year 3 months old, she could sit alone, but she could not crawl or walk. However with on-going home based care we were able to teach her very dedicated mother the special therapy skills to help her improve. Soon she was crawling in her own style and walking with a frame and special shoes. We were also able to get her some surgery for her feet earlier this year which has meant she can now get them in a better position to stand on. The National Rehab Centre have helped too in making some splints that will keep the position. But the greatest news is that in the last few months she has started walking for herself unaided. A little wobbly on her balance she still has far to go as she lives literally on the side of a steep mountain, but Praise God, she's done so well.

And now for a little news of my own.....
Some of you will already know that my time in Sierra Leone is coming to an end for now. I made the decision earlier in the year to be moving my life back to the UK and now is the time. I have just 3 weeks left here and if I'm honest feel a little frantic about all there still is to be done. I'm so happy that ~Enable the Children~ has come so far in the last few months in establishing itself. I feel the work that has been started here is now protected, and has a great platform to move on from. It has been so hard to get everything done properly, but God has given me the grace to do what I have, and there have been so many helping hands and words of advice along the way. Only our faithful Lord could plan things they way they have worked out. My established team of dedicated workers will continue on in SL, while I will support more from the sideline in the UK. There will be different and new tasks for me there – registering in the UK under an umbrella organisation (Links International), gathering an Advisory Board to support the Exec Board out in SL, publicity and fund raising, clinical support via Skype for those on the field and training other UK therapists to get out to developing countries. As well as all that, I'll go trying to resettle into UK life and culture, which will be hard after nearly 3 years in Sierra Leone. These next few months will be a roller-coaster, but I appreciate you all as my friends and family to help me along gently!!

So please do pray for us: give thanks for the progress of ~Enable the Children~, pray for continued healing and progress with our children, pray for Abu, Sarah, Josephine and Abdul, pray for our stress causing car!!, pray for me as I prepare to Re-Enter another world! God is good, all the time!

That's all for now... THANKS again. I'll be in touch again once I get back to a Christmassy England.

With love from Vez

Mark 5:41
Holding her hand, he (Jesus) said to her,

“Talitha koum” which means “Little girl, get up!”

Abu's Story...

Written by Abu Bangura...

Once upon a time, I met with an international physiotherapist from England. We did not know each other, but our priority to visit the communities in Sierra Leone was to see disabled children for their treatment.

For the first time in my entire life so far, I never knew what it meant to be a physiotherapist. During the first 2 weeks visits I thought that Vez was a children's doctor. I was so admired by her getting down on dirty floors for a session with the children, I wanted to learn. I wouldn't have known about stretches or strengthening or development otherwise.

A few months later, I took interest in the job and started going down on the floor too, while assisting to motivate and facilitate positions of the children. Most of the children and families I interacted with where very pleased for our help and service.

One day Vez noticed that I had patience, encouragement and was committed to the job. She decided to train me as a Rehabilitation Assistant. I agreed to her dream as God have chosen me and called me to learn this job and work with these children.

I have now received a lot of training, about 2 and a half years, while taking internal exams. I normally (though not always! – Vez) score high marks both in the theory and practical.

However, I also had computer email training and diary planning so I can manage and plan more independently. I am now able to assess and treat children with disabilities, I try to explain the problem to the family and often talk and encourage them. I explain how to care for their child and have Jesus' love for their children. I can also design special chairs for those that need them, and I talk to our carpenter to make them. I am also responsible to make phone calls to our families to inform them of our visit or follow up if the child has been sick. This helps the families feel encouraged that we care.

We thank you for supporting this work which enables us to enable them.

October 09 Newsletter

Dear Supporting Friends,

I'm Shocked! That's what a friend of mine continually says sarcastically when he hears of another typical Sierra Leonean happening.

A vehicle rolls along the road and the door falls off, they stop, collect it and carry on. I'm shocked!
Baby strollers are often seen, but never with babies in them, instead, cool boxes full of drinks and snacks. Shocked!
First quote for a car part that I desperately needed (steering box) to allow my car to turn right as well as left, was 800Leones, they were joking, it was actually 800,000Leones. Shockingly, I was not laughing.
Few nights ago we had a storm so bad and rains so hard that I got out of bed to have a look. Standing at the closed window I was shocked to be feeling the rain on my legs, only to discover I was also standing in a puddle of rain! How can rain get through a closed window you might ask? Put it down to the wonderful workmanship when building the house that does not allow for proper sealing of the frames. Shocking! Though I was very thankful to be sleeping in a solid building rather than the corrugated shacks that most of our families live in.
The same storm also knocked out our internet, as well as messed up the power supply in part of the site I live on. Shocked! Literally!
A lorry carrying goods (in this case bags of coal) from the villages to the city can be so overloaded (see picture above), carry boys on the top of the cabin as well as on top of the goods and hanging off the back, and still not get pulled in by the Police. Notice the logo on the front of the lorry – God is Great! I'm shocked!
I met a man who called himself a 'physiotherapist' this week, when I asked where he did his training, it turns out he had shadowed a Rehabilitation Therapist in Freetown for 2 weeks and that qualified him to be working as a physiotherapist. Shockingly worrying.
A cook book I recently flicked through looking for flapjacks, instead presented me with snake stir fry, rat soup, squirrel stew and roast monkey! I'm shocked!

These have happened in the last week and gives you a taster of 'normal' life here! They are all fairly funny stories, where no real harm is done (though potentially some could be lethal).

However, other situations we find ourselves in are both shocking and saddening. I'm reminded this past month how important the role of advocacy is for our disabled children. For some we are fighting against the systems and environments, for others we're trying to give them a voice among their own families.

Khallon, who you might remember was having casting done (by another organisation) for his club feet, sadly where he lives is just too wet with mud and waste water of every description (washing up, bathing, toileting, spitting - a common habit here). His cast soon looked like this and did nothing to hold the correct postion....

So not surprisingly it did not work as well as hoped. However this new brace will hopefully enable us to help him weight bear some more, maybe allowing walking eventually.

A 12 year old boy is beaten so badly over a year ago, rumour has it by his father, that he is recently admitted to hospital for 2 months, the father is arrested, momentarily, but let out on bail to supposedly provide for the boy. The child had been put in a safe place with another NGO, but the father took him back. The boy is now living again with the father, yet still cannot walk independently. It took us over an hour walking in the hot sun to find this boy again having been moved from the safe house he was in. Now we are trying to focus on the boys rehab while involving another NGO to get involved in his social situation.

Some of our other children in the communities were given the opportunity to apply for admission to the SOS Home for the Physically Challenged, where they would be housed and attend the SOS school. However they do not want to accept the children with Cerebral Palsy as they often also have learning difficulties and therefore would bring the exam results of the school down. There are no schools in Sierra Leone which have special units / facilities for any child with any kind of learning difficulty. Recently, Enable the Children were able to direct much funding to the SOS system, however when it has come to wanting to use some of that money for part sponsorship of our disabled children who have been accepted, we have not (??yet??) been given access to the funds. Amara's family are given the opportunity for surgery to release the contractures in his knees (which we have been searching for for the past 6 months) to be paid (by us 300,000 Le plus transport) and we offered to drive him the 3 hours to Makeni as it is hard for a person with a spinal cord injury to travel by public transport. Amara has gained so much active movement back in his legs since completing the treatment for TB spine, that this operation would give him the chance to walk again instead of being wheelchair bound, the state he has been in for over 2 years now. But we had such a battle with his family who could not be bothered to find a relative who could be admitted with Amara to care and cook for him. And they could not even find the money for them to buy food while he was admitted, even though if he were at home they would have to feed him. I'm shocked that it was such a stress and the family did not jump at this once in a lifetime opportunity. We did however win in the end when a kind 'uncle' agreed to take responsibility for Amara. Sadly for the uncle it does probably mean that he may loose his job on return to Freetown, but thank God he was willing to make this sacrifice. You can see on Amara's face on the way to Makeni how much it means to him. They are still in the hospital in Makeni and Amara would have had his surgery today if all went as planned.

There are many many other stories like this that can be told. In fact each child we treat has their own history. So as shocking as it can be to live in this country, still we press on being whatever help we can be in whatever situation we find ourselves in.

Psalm 10:12

Arise, LORD! Lift up your hand, O God. Do not forget the helpless.

For those of you who pray, please consider:

• STOP PRESS – we are having interviews tomorrow (Wednesday 7th) for the new post of Rehabilitation Assistant. This is a huge next step for our work as much training and supervision will be needed of the new person. We have been so blessed with Abu, but finding another person so committed, reliable, trustworthy and willing to break cultural boundaries to work on the floor with disabled children, will not be an easy task.
• Amara - post operatively for good recovery, the rehab process of walking again, and that his family will take good care of him.
• Khallon – that he too would be able to walk on his feet. There is not much else we can do for him now.
• For the boy who had been badly beaten, for the healing of his wounds physically and emotionally. For his safety and for justice to come about.
• Thank God for Sarah's (new British OT) safe arrival and swift settling in. She is enjoying the home visits, working hard with learning Krio, becoming a local at getting public transport and generally doing very well surviving here! Still needs some cockroach and spider killing practice mind!
• For Abu who is also doing well with work. He has been instrumental with many of these difficult patient situations as well as helping Sarah into the work here.
• For the on-going process of Registration of Enable the Children with the SL government. I have been hard at work on Constitutions, Job Descriptions, Policy making etc etc. But things move slowly in Africa, and I don't have much time left!
• And do keep praying for our safety and sanity. Only by God's grace can we continue with these draining situations, but we believe he has directed us to where we are, and we trust he will continue to show us the way.

Thank you once again, without you this team would be a lot smaller.

African Proverb

"The river swells with the contribution of small streams"

With love from Vez

Pioneering... becoming and living the new vision.

I read this morning about what it means to be a PIONEER.
The greek word is ARCHEGOS, a leader who is also a founder: someone who breaks a path and estabilishes a way.

I felt very much when I came out to Sierra Leone in April 07 to start this work with disabled children in their own homes, that I was starting something new - pioneering it.

Breaking new paths has not been easy: knocking on doors for partnerships and being rejected, sometimes scraping for money, searching for patients and it taking time to find them, getting used to new cultures and how relationships interact, trying to 'achieve' in my own world view but that not being the way here, and often feeling lonely and battling on against what feels like everything and everyone.

But I'm inspired by this...

The archegos pioneers the way by becoming and living the new vision, not by 'claiming new ground' or by force.
And that I feel is what I have done... I praise God that by seeking His ways here for this work and having Sierra Leone become my home since the start of this project and before then (during my time working with Mercy Ships), I have had such a living adventure of this dream become a reality.

We discover God revealing himself to us in Jesus as we follow the path and way of Jesus. Wise and prudent people would not have been able to work out, without revelation from God, that it was to be through suffering that Jesus would restore the glorious destiny of humanitiy and all creation.

So despite the road being tough at times, I'm glad I have lived through it, pioneering something that I know is close to Jesus' heart, and as well inspired in me by God. Without Him I am nothing, and without His inspiration I would have done nothing.

Let us all be inspired to DREAM God's BIGGER dream, then go on pioneering His love to the places and people around us - wherever we are.

This is what the CMS community is all about - working together all over the world to discover Jesus and live out the new vision for life he gives. That's truely pioneering.

Inspiration on Pioneering (in green) from Tim Dakin General Secretary Church Mission Society