Author: Layne

Meet My Friend

A Layne Post

I’d like to introduce you to Carlotta.

Carlotta is a friend of mine, an albino woman in the Oncology ward. I’ve visited with her for months, giving her a special place in my heart. She currently has a tumor coming out of her eye, which causes a lot of pain all day, every day. She is a young mom to a precious little girl, Bernacia, her pride and joy. Because Carlotta comes from the north, the time she spends in the hospital is time away from her quickly growing daughter.

Last month she was able to make a quick trip home between treatments, which was such a blessing. She didn’t have a cell phone, so it was her first contact with Bernacia in months. Being so young, Bernacia didn’t understand the large bandage on her mommy’s eye and continued to ask her to remove it. Now Carlotta has a phone, so she may get to check on her daughter every once and a while.

I always wonder if mommies will come back to finish their treatment after returning home. How hard it must be to leave, not only once, but twice, this time knowing how horrific the hospital is.

Carlotta returned last week.

She seems weaker. Thinner. Oh, she is so thin. Her pain seems stronger now… like it is spreading into the left side of her brain. Her body twitches from the knife like pain every few minutes. All I know to do is sit next to her and pray.

Carlotta had some money to buy juice, but she explained that she cannot walk to the store to get it. That was something I could do. I could walk just fine. Marcelino, a dear boy from Oncology, who was currently not on treatment, walked with me and showed me where I could get the juice. (I would have been so lost without him!)

Arriving back at the hospital, Carlotta was so grateful and quickly wanted to sip on her cold orange juice. I think I would have chugged it, but she drank a little and had to stop. A few minutes later I helped her as she vomited in her hospital alloted bucket.

If you can remember, pray for Carlotta this week; she seems to be struggling more.

September 11, 2010

Layne

Hospital Ministry, Mozambique

10 comments

A Special Time of Life

We had the exciting opportunity of being able to see our little one again with an ultrasound. Perhaps I shouldn’t have eaten candy before going, because the little booger was full of energy, bouncing all around in every direction. And while it was fun to watch, we could hardly hear the heartbeat or get a great picture. I left the doctor’s office giggling with the biggest grin. This little life is such a miracle.

Baby Heller!

Our other little, or not so little, one (Gasher) has become such a handful. In honesty, he is a great puppy; however, lately he has developed a few irrational puppy fears. As of yesterday, he is afraid of the grass. This is just dandy for potty time. Ha! He demands lots of attention and has begun to train us in the area of “lack of sleep”. We keep telling ourselves it is good preparation for baby as laziness is ripped out.

In other news, which is very exciting news, the Oncology department is close to moving into the new ward! Hopefully early this week the move will be complete. The new ward is said to have cold and hot water, which is such an added blessing. Technically I believe there are only supposed to be five patients per room, instead of the current situation of all the women in one room, all the men in another room, and all the children and moms in another. Certain things I will believe as I see them, though the new building will, without a doubt, be a huge improvement to where they have been living.

To marry the topics here…

I had the fun opportunity to take my new ultrasound pictures up to the hospital to share with our friends. Many women never get an ultrasound, and most of the children have never seen one. It was so special to share our excitement and even a little education for the kids. Some of the women did not know I was pregnant, making it a fun surprise for them. As my tummy grows, they are just overjoyed. We laugh and say that this baby will be Mozambican. One little boy insists it isn’t possible because it will be white. =)

This is such a special time of life; I want to soak it all up.

We love you. Thanks for your constant love and support. Your presence is felt here with us.

August 29, 2010

Layne

Hospital Ministry, Mozambique, Personal

2 comments

A Light-hearted Look Into Our Lives

A Layne Post

I decided this week to give you guys a little look at some of our favorite ‘spots’ near the house.

: At the end of our street

At the end of our street there is this little striped trailer. I love it. Without it, we would have missed our street a hundred times. I told Jon, “They can never move it!” In the mornings, when we can, we like to walk along the beach, admire God’s creation, observe some of the Mozambican life, hold hands, and talk about life and the future. There is a grocery store with a great bakery down the beach where they make fabulous cheap bread. We grab some fresh bread and walk along the beach back to the house.

: Waiting for a hot dog

At ‘Game’, a store a few minutes from our house that is like a Wal-mart, they have a hot dog stand outside. We were here a couple months, and every time we went there we would see and smell the hot dogs cooking and Jon would say, “Someday I want to try one of those!” One day we did, and they are good! Now it is a nice cheap little treat.

: Jon and Hot-dog man

Go ahead… you can laugh. I felt like a tourist taking this pic, but we love Hot-dog man!

: Take Out Pizza

This is a restaurant a couple minutes down the road, which has changed names a couple of times, but the food has remained the same. I noticed a sign across the street that advertised ‘take away pizza’. Turns out they have decent little pizzas! I especially like the Hawaiian. These days I can eat a whole one by myself! Ha!

: Date Night

And I thought I’d leave you with a recent picture of us.

We went on a date a week or so ago to a little restaurant called ‘Spicy Thai’. Yum! It was probably the fanciest we’ve dressed up since we’ve been in Africa, which was fun! We were definitely the nicest dressed at the restaurant, but I didn’t mind. It was a special night just for us.

Anyways, I hope you enjoyed a little light-hearted look into our lives and our town.

We love you!

August 8, 2010

Layne

Mozambique, Personal

6 comments

This Week

A Layne Post

A big part of our week:

This past week a container from Portugal arrived for our partners Jorge and Alice. It was full of wonderful donations of clothes and shoes, both old a new, mattresses, bed frames, etc. for the hospital and local churches. While it is all such a blessing, I do not think anyone could have imagined just how much stuff was coming. After unloading the truck, we all stood amazed and a little speechless. Some has been taken to be stored in other locations, but for now, because we have extra room at our house, we are happy to be a holding place.

Some of the stuff... not all!

Where is Jon?

As for the rest of the week…

It was difficult weeks in the women’s ward this week, as three ladies died. I was not terribly close with any, however, it changes the mood and dynamic of each individual in the room. The fear lingers in the air like a dark ugly cloud, as they all wonder, “Am I next?” And quite possibly, one of them is… It is a hard place to live.

There was one woman named Adeleina. She was one that died this week. I had visited with her twice, this precious woman. The first time I chatted with her, I had no clue how sick she was. She had a beautiful blue headdress on and seemed so upbeat. I was thinking she would be one of my favorites.

The second visit was so different… only a couple days later. She was in so much pain. I held her a bucket for her as she vomited multiple times, little actually coming out. I poured water in her mouth as she would pound on her chest trying to make a little go down, spitting most out a minute later. I helped her get her toothbrush and tooth paste, so she could ferociously scrub the nasty taste out of her mouth, only gagging the whole time. It was hard to watch.

After some time it seemed like the spell passed and peace came to her stomach. Maybe the Lord looked down, heard my prayers, and had compassion on her. She wanted to call someone, but we didn’t have enough credit for a call, only a text. I tried to teach her how to write a text message. I smile now thinking about it. She was a trooper, but I ended up writing the short message for her.

I probably should have visited her more. She wanted juice. I had bought her some, but I never had the opportunity to give it to her. Schedules are hard sometimes. Laziness is ugly sometimes. Nausea is annoying sometimes.

Being pregnant, I am not always feeling good. You know what is funny though? Normally, once I get to the hospital and start visiting, I don’t notice it. The smells that I remember while at home and fear gagging in front of them, yeah, they don’t bother me. When I am there.

The Lord is so good.

He equips us to do His work.

Get up, and trust Him.

July 25, 2010

Layne

Hospital Ministry, Mozambique

6 comments

World Cup Ends

A Layne Post

The past couple of weeks Jon and I both had some pretty bad colds, first him, then me. Because the patients at the hospital are on Chemo, it is better for Jon and me not to risk passing on our little sickness. Jon missed a couple days, and then I missed all of last week. I realized that I really do miss the sweet people there, and my heart was warmed that they asked for and missed me as well!

The World Cup is over. Congratulations Spain! Now that it has ended, our lives and schedules are about to shift. Due to visiting hours and coordinating with other volunteers, Jon and I can only be visiting in the Oncology Ward on our usual Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays for 2-3 hours at a time. At this point, we are not positive what we are going to do with the rest of our time.

There are some options, and Jon and I are in prayer about these. We do not want to “do” just to “do”, but we want to be passionate and obedient to the Lord. We also want to be faithful stewards of our time and your support. We desire to fill our days with service and love for the community. At this point, finding the best ways to do that may take some time. Please feel free to ask us any questions or raise any concerns.

We still want to get our house ready to have people stay, however, there are many steps to take before we can do that, which you guys can pray with us about. I’ll list them to make it a bit easier:

We need to obtain permission from our landlord. Due to the nature of what we are asking, essentially to allow people to come and die here, we feel it is best to speak with him in person. Because he lives in South Africa, the next time we can do that will be the beginning of September. We want to be smart and not rush things because of our passion, and we believe that waiting will better our chances of success.

We need a partnership with the hospital staff. We want to work hand-in-hand as a support and help to them.

We need some legal backing and possibly some permits. If people die here, we need to be above board and not run the risk of being ‘blamed’.

There are certain cultural ‘rules’ we have to take into consideration. (Paying for funerals and whatnot.)

So that is where we are at. Tuesday we are heading to South Africa, again, to try and obtain our resident visa. The resident visa allows us to apply for our resident permit here in Mozambique. If all goes well, we will apply later this week.

We put a new video in our “Some of Our Stories” tab. Click here to watch it or click on the “Gas and Visa in Africa” in the column on the right.

We love you guys!