Brett and Sheri MacLean

About Us › Our Family › Locate a Worker

Prayer Letter/Ministry Update

***If you would like our full letters with pictures, please email us to be added to our email list (brettandsheri@gmail.com)

JUNE 2011
DIAGNOSING AND EDUCATING DIABETICS LIVING IN POVERTY
Over the past 3 months we have diagnosed our first 2 juvenile (insulin dependent) diabetics. Childhood-onset diabetes is an illness that requires extreme precision. Diet must be controlled, precise quantities of refrigerated insulin injected at least twice a day, and blood sugars analyzed and interpreted for necessary adjustments to be made to the doses of insulin. Now imagine that scenario taking place in one of the poorest countries of the world where precision does not exist, where patients and their relatives are illiterate, where electricity is rare and where quantity of food available depends on the time of the year in relation to the harvest.

Fourteen year old Fatoumata arrived in rough shape. She was living about 4 hours from our hospital in neighboring Burkina Faso and was wasting away despite constantly eating and drinking. She didn’t have any strength to get out of bed except to go to the bathroom hourly. Fatoumata asked to return back to Mali to see her mother and die in her homeland. Fatoumata’s mother, Awa, had never been able to have any children except for her and brought her to our hospital in desperation. Thankfully, we were able to diagnose her diabetes and within a few days of starting her insulin, life returned to her face. Over the last 4 months she has been hospitalized so that she could learn how to read, how to give herself insulin shots, and how she can check, using urine strips, to see if her blood sugar is elevated.

During this time Fatoumata has interacted with our staff who are all followers of Christ, and she desires to follow Him as well. She even wants to change her name from Fatoumata to Elizabeth as an outward sign of her inward change. :) In case you are wondering about the finances, we asked the family to pay the first $100 as an investment in the care of Fatoumata, and then we would cover the rest of her future expenses through our work fund.

Jara came in the following month and will prove to be even more challenging as she is only 8 years old and doesn’t have a family member available to stay with her and help her learn her diabetic regimen. I would be amazed if we could let her go home even within the first 6 months of her hospitalization. Our heartfelt thanks goes to you for your giving to the Great Commission Fund as well as those of you who give to the hospital poor fund that allows us to give these children quality care instead of sending them home to die from their diabetes.

WALKING WITHOUT LEGS
Chaka came to us extremely malnourished after barely surviving malaria at another hospital. Unfortunately his fingers and feet had lost circulation at one point and were black. They came to us hoping that we could save his legs. We confirmed to them that amputations were necessary and began good nutrition to help with his healing. Thankfully, we were able to get measurements of Chaka’s extremities and our partner and prosthetist Louis Brown of Raleigh, NC made artificial legs. Then, through Skype, Louis was able to help us adjust them properly which is now allowing Chaka to learn how to walk!

MOUTH WIDE OPEN
Can you imagine spending 6 months only able to open your mouth enough for oatmeal to pass? Maimouna’s [My-e-moon-ah] jaw had become infected and scarred shut. Although the infection was healed, she could no longer open her mouth. Thankfully her father heard about our hospital, and we were able to provide them with muscle relaxers and other medications in addition to simple plastic tongue blades to one by one begin dilating her jaw. See her now proudly showing off how wide she can open her mouth!

JACQUES FROM IVORY COAST
Although this occurred last year, I haven’t had the space in these update letters to write about Jacques but can’t hold off any longer telling his amazing story. Jacques is of Malian heritage but lives on the very southern tip of Ivory Coast on the Atlantic Ocean. Last year, as his abdomen grew more and more distended and the rest of his body wasted away despite seeing numerous doctors and trying multiple medicines, Jacques came back to his parents’ homeland of Mali. When he arrived at our hospital, he was in the horrific state that you see here and was no longer able to walk. After a couple of months at our hospital and wisdom that only God could give, we were able to diagnose him with a spontaneous biliary tract perforation. After a drain was placed for a month, the tract healed and bile no longer leaked into his abdomen. During this long hospitalization, Jacques made a decision to follow Christ and began asking me to help him get to our morning chapel meetings. A few months after his discharge we were astounded to see how healthy he was and how much weight he had gained. Praise God!

CANCER UPDATE
Our 2 leukemia patients, Kadia and Fran�ois are doing great. Despite some close calls where we let them go back to their home villages for a week and they returned almost dead, they are in remission and progressing well. Soon they will start their less intense 2 year maintenance therapy (once a month injections as opposed to weekly) and will be able to go home. Over these last 6 months since their diagnosis we have so enjoyed getting to know these kids and their sweet families. Both of these kids are from Christ-following families and heard about our hospital through their churches.

In addition, we continue to see more and more cancer which in children is, thankfully, often curable. This is Moussa (Bambara for Moses) who came to us with a childhood kidney cancer. Our visiting surgeon, Dr Dan Kim from Atlanta, was able to remove the kidney but unfortunately the cancer had already metastasized to his liver and throughout his abdomen. We were discouraged but after starting chemotherapy his residual masses have been quickly shrinking! Again, we cannot say enough how appreciative we are for your giving to the Great Commission Fund and to those of you who give to the hospital cancer fund which enables us to purchase chemotherapy and treat these kids!

JASON THE PEDIATRICIAN
I am so thankful that Jason Foster, my fellow pediatrician has started working Tuesday and Thursday mornings while he is studying Bambara as well. These breaks allow me much needed time for rest and other administrative duties. Let’s pray for a long and successful career in Mali for Jason!

STILL FEEDING BABIES
Thank you for your giving which provides milk for our many babies with deceased mothers and for our cleft lip and palate patients who are able to live and grow to get big enough for their corrective facial surgery. Word has gotten out that we give free formula to these exceptional cases and we get a new baby to feed almost every week. To the left is Samba and in case you can’t tell he’s smiling! :)

GREAT COMMISSION FUND
Thank you for your investment in us and our ministry! The primary investment vehicle to support our work is the Great Commission Fund. Contributions can be made through a local Alliance church, on line at http://www.cmalliance.org/give/ or by sending a check to the C&MA, PO Box 35000, Colorado Springs, CO 80935-3500. You may designate your gift to support us by writing “for the support of Brett, Sheri MacLean” on the memo line. This personalizes your gift and helps us be here and carry out our ministry.

Thank you for taking the time to read about our work, and we greatly value your prayer for this difficult assignment God has called us to. We so appreciate you!

Peace,
Brett, Sheri, Dawson, Kenan, and Silas

Prayer Requests/Answers to Prayer

PRAISES
For Fatoumata’s desire to follow Christ. Pray that her childlike faith will grow.

We had a great vacation in the States in April when Sheri’s friend got married.

More people are joining our team. We have a new ObGYN and his wife is a dental hygienist trained in other dental procedures . We thank God for them!

For Jason starting to work in Pediatrics

Dawson finished kindergarten well! Thankful for Brian and Julie O'Neill who came to teach for the year.

PRAYER REQUESTS
For our diabetics to miraculously make it in this difficult country.

Malaria season is beginning. Pray for strength during this busy time, protection for the people of Mali, and that an efficacious vaccine would be implemented throughout Africa.

Mamine, a girl we sent home with untreatable cancer will soon die. Pray for peace and that she and her family will turn to the Lord

Balance in our lives in and out of the hospital and opportunities to reach out to our neighbors

Mali

Share

• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
•