One Day, Two Broken Arm Surgeries

As crazy as it might sound, Agape had to take two of its own for surgeries on their left arms yesterday.

Daudi & Ted

Daudi's Case:  Daudi is one of our reintegrated boys, and during a home visit two weeks ago, our staff member found out that Daudi had dislocated and fractured his arm after falling out of a tree.  To make matters worse, his family decided to use traditional African medicine to attempt to treat the injury.  A local healer cut his arm in different places and rubbed herbs into the cuts.  By the time our Agape team member found Daudi, a week had passed and his arm was badly infected from the cuts, still dislocated, and still fractured.  We immediately took Daudi to Jal Aram Hospital where they began to treat Daudi.  For the past two weeks, the hospital has been treating the infection so that they could operate, yesterday being the day of surgery.

Ted's Case:  On Tuesday, one of our vehicles ended up in the ditch outside of Agape's front gate.  A tow rope was tied to the truck in the ditch, and as the truck was being pulled out Ted, one of my managers, made the mistake of trying to push the truck from behind.  The truck shifted, pinning his left arm to a tree and snapping both bones in his left forearm.  Pretty nasty!  The surgeon had to put a plate in each bone of his forearm yesterday evening.

We praise the Lord that Daudi and Ted made it through their surgeries well.  Both will remain in the hospital for a few days as they recover from surgery.  Please keep both in your prayers as they recover!

The Reverse Milk Carton Experiment: Do You Know Me?

Growing up in the US, we all used to see pictures of missing children placed on the back of milk cartons with the statement "Have You Seen Me?"  Well, we have the opposite problem at times when dealing with Kenyan street children.  We have the child, but we have no clue where the family is located.  Ian is a great example.

Do you know this boy?  He went missing from Maseno District in 2006.  If you know him, please call:  0725588316.

When Ian was small (we're guessing 5 or 6), his parents took him for a visit to his grandparents' house.  In the middle of the night, Ian began missing his father, and decided to go look for him.  The local police found him wandering the streets of Maseno about an hour outside of Kisumu.  Instead of taking Ian to the local chief to attempt to find his family, the police chose to take him to Kisumu and placed him Children's Remand Home, the equivalent of Juvenile Hall in the US. 

While at Remand, the local government forgot about him, and Ian spent four or five years sitting in this government home.  In early 2010, Remand approached Agape and asked if we would be willing to care for Ian because they lacked the resources and structure to attempt to locate his family.  Agape agreed, and in March 2010, Ian became an Agape boy. 

Over the past three years, Agape has attempted to locate Ian's family in Maseno but has been unsuccessful thus far . . . an unusual experience for our Kenyan team, who in the past five years have located over 1,000 children's families.  Ian and another boy named Willis are the only two boys in five years who we have yet to find their families.

Hence, the "Reverse Milk Carton" experiment; over the next few weeks we are planning to canvas the Maseno area delivering flyers not asking "Have You Seen Me?" but instead asking "Do You Know Me?"  We plan to leave flyers with local schools, churches, and with local government offices.  We also plan to leave the flyers with local chiefs and village elders who can share the flyer with their constituents during community meetings called "barazas."

Please pray that through these efforts someone will recognize Ian so that we can reunite him with his family after 7 years!!!