Last week we had the privelege of meeting Dr Perry Jansen, who runs the medical center at Partners in Hope in Malawi, Africa.  This is the medical center that we are trying to raise funds to buy them a instrument that diagnosis tuberculosis.  Right now, all the diagnosing is done manually and is difficult especially in those people with HIV/AIDS because the disease is less symptomatic.

It was simply an amazing meeting.  Dr. Jansen was very impressive in his understanding of the medical issues, political climate and spiritual needs of those coming to the clinic.  They have many programs underway including one where they send people out to villages to do HIV testing and counseling (over 10,000 tested).  Their HIV treatment is going well about 4100 patients under treatment with only a 6% mortality rate (national average in Malawi 9%).  They are added on to their free clinic 25 beds an curently have 30 patients there (kinda like the ER at Hopkins right now - people in beds in hallways probably). 

Amazingly by God's providence Dr. Jansen has been planning and branistorming with UCLA, NIH and others ways to expand the TB program.  Our gift of the TB diagnostic instrument comes at the perfect time, because it is needed to really progress the program, in some ways it is the cornerstone piece that makes it possible.  We decided to purchase the MGIT 960 (which is a refurb unit, but functionally identical and has 3x more capacity than the one we were going to get) - it may take a few more months to procure, but well worth it and less expensive.  The money we save there can be used to purchase a lab computer to track all of the patient's test data - BD is planning on donating a piece of software ($35K value - can you believe a CD costs that much) for free.  Unbeknowst to me, Dr. Jansen and team have been looking for the past several months for such a product, and providentially I found out yesterday that BD would donate it!   God is great!

To find out more, go to http://www.bp4tb.com/

Yesterday, Brent came home from Home Depot with a gift for the kids: three beautiful big orange balloons.  While David and Charlotte were excited to have them, Laura was ecstatic.  She thought it was the most wonderful gift ever.  And she decided to go outside to run up and down the sidewalk with her new balloon, showing it off to her neighborhood friends.  As she went out the door, we cautioned her to hold on tightly to the string, it would fly away if she let it go, and she gripped the string between her little fingers.

A few minutes later, Laura came sobbing in the door, still gripping the string in her hand.  The string had come untied from the balloon and it had floated off into the sky.  She was crushed!  Gently, I said, "Daddy has something else to give you and it is worth way more than a balloon."  Laura looked up at me expectantly.  "Daddy can hold you in his arms and love on you."

He held her for more than five minutes.  And as they held each other, I though of what I had just read a few days earlier about a child getting hurt:

"The child can rebel against his hurt.  He can throw himself on the floor; he can kick the piece of furniture on which he hurt himself; he can strike out at his mother who is trying to help him.  But then he suffers even more, for his pain remains and now he has to be in it alone -- alone with his frustration.

If he loves his mother, he goes beyond his pain and throws himself into her arms.  She does not take the hurt away, but in holding her child, she bears the hurt with him.

In precisely the same way, we can choose in our pain an attitude that further separates us from the Father or that draws us closer to him.  It all depends on the outer posture of our hands and the inner posture of our hearts."

Brent wasn't making the balloon come back, but he was "bearing the hurt with her".  I had had a few days where things felt difficult, too.  One of our potential donors (one whom we expected to be a match) is not a match.  The dialysis schedule can be weary and keeps us from doing things we want to do and being with friends.  But I sensed God saying to me that he wants to bear the hurt with me, too.  That He holds me like Brent holds Laura and He wants to draw us closer to Him. 

After Laura spent her time being held by her Daddy, she responded out of love by writing him this note:

She lost her balloon, but she was able to receive her Daddy's love.  Then she was able to respond back to him in love, too.  I want to be like that.

Hopefully now that the kids are back in school, I can start doing more regular blogging again to keep everyone informed on us.  Thank you for all you who continue to pray for us and ask about how we are doing.

Brent has had to go through a few tests in the last month to clear him for the kidney transplant.  He had 24 tubes of blood drawn, a liver biopsy, a stress test and he had a colonoscopy last week,  The liver blood tests had been elevated since March and the liver biopsy showed that he has had very slight rejection of his liver.  The doctor said that he was really not too concerned.....he has had to increase his prednisone and he is getting his blood retested tomorrow to see if the blood work is back to normal.

The stress test was normal and amazingly, the colonoscopy looked great, too!  We are still praising God for healing Brent's ulcerative colitis. 

We have three friends who are currently gettiing tested to see if they are a match for donation.  We are still praying for a perfect match and we will keep you updated.  Until then, Brent is continuing to do dialysis five times a week. He usually feels very good and is still working full time.  I am thankful to have friends come in once a week to put the kids to bed and stay with Brent during dialysis so I can go out for a bit.  Charlotte has recently started praying several times a day asking for Daddy to not have to do dialysis anymore.