Wheezing, Malaria, Burns, & Terrorism

Malaria, Wheezing, Burns, & Terrorism

There is no good place to begin since our last blog entry.  So much has happened.  We are tired, but we are recovering.  Many readers may have received email prayer requests and so this may be redundant but bear with me.

Not long after our last entry on 9/3/13 our youngest began to have significant wheezing (significant as defined by his parents in a rural African town).  We were on the phone with a dear doctor friend at home and with some medical folks from our company.  After several days of pretty heavy treatments nothing was getting better.  On the fifth day our company decided to fly Benny and me to Nairobi to see an allergist and try and get things under control.  We were in Nairobi one week waiting on Benny to improve with new medication.  Two days before we returned home, Sarah called me with news that Nehemiah and come down with Malaria.  They visited the hospital to confirm with blood work and he began treatments that day.

We finally were able to go back to our family in Iringa on a Friday.  We arrived in the morning, had a great lunch with our whole family and decided to visit a friend’s house out on the edge of town.  It was here that Nehemiah (our 3 year old) stumbled in a dark room and fell into or over a small charcoal stove that had a pot of boiling water on it (We, nor our host, realized that an adult sister was in the room cooking with this small charcoal stove).  That night, while he laid on my chest with burns on his backside, he took his final malaria treatment.  Poor little guy was having a rough go of it.

He suffered 2^nd degree burns on his bottom, the back of his thighs and on one foot.  We rushed him to the local hospital and then the next day by the Lord’s provision we flew back to Nairobi with the entire family for Nehemiah to receive proper care for his burns.  We are 14 days past the accident now and Nehemiah is doing better each day.  He is eager to bust outside and burn some energy but we are trying to keep the reigns on him a little longer. 

We are so thankful for the Lord’s healing and the hundreds that have been praying for him.  We will be in Nairobi for a few more days as we make sure we are all rested and NLD is totally healed before we head back to Iringa for language training again.

Roughly one-mile away terrorists attacked a shopping mall and murdered over 60 people.  Sarah and her mom (Susan, Sarah’s sister Kelly, and a dear friend Martha Hester came to Nairobi to love on us and encourage us as we dealt with another trial) were getting in the cab headed over to Westgate (the mall attacked) when the taxi driver said he had heard there was shooting there and he took them to another mall with grocery store.  Again, we are thankful for the Lord’s timing and protection for our family, though our hearts hurt for the many that were slaughtered by the radical Islamic terrorists.   It has been surreal to have something to terrible to happen so close by.  We could see the black smoke billowing up from the explosions in the mall from our yard. 

So, boring our journey has not been!  It has been quite a ride so far in Africa.  Adventure would be a gross understatement, but through it all we are thankful to God that is has not been worse and that he has been our protector.  We are committed to our service and we look forward to what lies ahead.  We do thank many of you that have sent notes, emails, and prayers our way.  It has made all the difference.

Hoping October holds better days for our family and East Africa,

The Dinkins