Bits & Pieces

Last Wednesday evening as I went into the church for prayermeeting, I saw a dozen or so kids sitting in the cry room singing Deep & Wide. Some more children were already sitting in the church itself, looking very pleased with themselves! I must admit I was glad to see them there, but a little nervous about how they were going to behave, since they're only just learning to sit in Sunday School. The committee men decided to let the older ones stay but send the little ones home (there were some 2 or 3 year olds there -- with no adults in sight of course!!) They didn't do too badly, to be fair to them. A couple had to be put outside (and then of course they stood and made faces through the windows because we don't have curtains yet!). There was a little chatter and bustle but altogether I was pretty proud of them!
We had already planned to have a meeting about the Sunday School work after the prayer time. As we discussed the work and the children, we felt that it would be good to have a mid-week meeting for them as well as the Sunday School. So, Lord willing, we will have our first Bible Club meeting this Wednesday at 3pm. Please pray for this meeting, and for the kids who attend!
I'm planning to take a little girl to see an orthopaedic specialist tomorrow. She's 11 or 12 years old, and she broke her wrist in November or December. Sadly, at that point, she was taken to see an herbalist (practicing traditional medicine) and a cast was put on without the arm ever being x-rayed. She's had pain, swelling, and loss of function ever since -- she's missed a lot of school, she can't grip things properly, etc. She finally got an x-ray two weeks ago, and her grandfather (a man in our church) brought it, and the child, to me on Saturday. Now I'm terrible at reading x-rays, but even I can see that there's definitely something wrong here! It looks like the whole head of her ulna was broken off and pushed up in between the radius and ulna a little farther up the arm. It may not be that, but there's definitely a big lump on her arm, and that's my guess as to what happened from looking at the x-ray. So we have an appointment tomorrow -- pray that something can be done for her here in Liberia. It's so sad that she's suffered all this time.
By the way, if you ever have an emergency in Liberia, don't ring 911! Nobody answers. (even though that's supposed to be the emergency number). I was in the city centre last week, and a man was having a seizure on the sidewalk. A few people were standing around looking at him, but most folks were just walking on past. I ran and got gloves from my car, and by the time I got back, the seizure had stopped. The shopkeeper next door said he had tried to call 911 but no answer -- and I tried again but it just rang out. It seems the man lives on the streets, and some of his buddies told me that he has seizures now and then. We stayed with him for a while --- he came round quite quickly, and his friends said they would keep an eye on him. So I went on my way -- but now I know there's no-one to call in an emergency! (I had been told this by Rev. DiCanio, and now I believe him! :-) Someone told me afterwards that there is a number for the police, but it takes a long time for them to answer and to be honest, from my experiences with them, I can't see them doing much to help.