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Ghana- Sad News [1]

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Date: 2023-11-13

I thought I should post this update for those who have been following my diaries about John in Ghana and the mission work he is doing there.

Things are not going well. John’s health is very bad. He seems to be growing weaker every day. The last photos that he has been sending of himself are grim. His face looks like nothing more than skin pulled over the skull of death. He has been spending his medicine money on those who come to him asking for help (foolish, but that’s John) and his health continues to deteriorate.

I don’t like to talk about myself but I am not in much better shape. I honestly didn’t think I would make it through the year and I have six weeks yet to go so we shall see. I am spending most of my time in bed, not in pain or suffering but simply from weakness and lack of energy. I can do what I have to do. Fortunately I don’t have to do much.

The work we have been doing together in Ghana has accomplished some good things and I am proud of that. Some people are alive who would otherwise be dead. Some children were born who would have died and their mothers made it through, too, so that is a good thing. But both mothers and children are still in need. We often say on this site that it is not enough to care about children before birth, you have to care for them afterward too. But that takes resources that are strained more and more with each new child.

We have been getting along on a very tight budget but it is at the breaking point. The Nigerian girl with no health insurance has been a terrible strain. People here very kindly helped or she would have died in childbirth but the final bill was much more than we expected and both mother and child are still not fully well. The baby was to be taken in last week for a checkup and circumcision (which is important there) but we simply did not have the money. In fact John gave his medicine money to the girl for food, which is one reason why he is in the situation he’s in.

Among other things, two of the teenage boy dancers John has been mentoring had serious health problems this month. One almost died of a urinary tract infection. We managed to get that taken care of. Another is now suffering from a hideous skin disease on his legs. John sent me the photos and I will not post them because they are not the kind of thing normal people want to see. This boy we simply do not have the funds to help.

And that is really the bottom line. John and I have been working on a very limited budget and trying to be pragmatic about it. We can do only so much each month and we help who we can but this month we have been overwhelmed. And of course as more people know that John helps people they come asking for help and it is hard for John to turn anyone away.

We are simply overextended and struggling, so at least for now there is no way to keep going.

My biggest concern here is Anabel, our abandoned four year old orphan. We have been paying for her to stay in a care center but they require that she be enrolled in school and that has doubled the fees we have been paying for her. And beyond the basic tuition there are continuing fees for school supplies, meals, etc, and we are falling further and further behind.

If we don’t keep her fees paid they will reject her and take her to John to take her off their hands. John has been very careful not to take in girls for obvious reasons (the laws there on child trafficking are very strict, as they should be) and his health, as I said, is not good. So I am not sure what might happen. I don’t want Anabel to be homeless on the street at four years of age. Though she wouldn’t be the only one, there.

I know these diaries have been getting less and less attention, if recommends are anything to go by, and I understand that. They tend to be mostly sad stories and anyway, who wants to read the same thing over and over?

I just thought people should know the situation. If we can pull this together of course we will keep trying to help people but right now there is not much we can do.

I wish I had better news.

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