The Challenge of Weekends

We all look forward to the weekends, right?  The end to a work week.  The entrance into a time of rest.  Time with family, recreation and catching up on projects.   However, around here we find that the weekends come with a special challenge.  Sickness.

We are seeing it happen time and time again where those 64 hours from Friday at 4pm until Monday at 8am can wreck havoc in the physical status of many of the children in the project.  It simply does not take much time for a young child from the poorest of the poor families to go from starting to get a cough to full blown pneumonia or a mild fever to severe dehydration.  What we would consider waiting for a couple of days for our children to see how they fight it off can only wait a matter of hours for these children whose health teeters right on the edge.  Fortunately as the children are become better nourished they are fighting off infections and we are seeing the weekends come and go a bit easier…yet, every weekend still approaches with those hidden dangers.

And it all really simplifies down to the fact that many of these moms struggle to  have the resources over the weekend as their child starts to get sicker to have them get proper medical attention.  Sometimes over the weekend the clinics in the area are closed and to be seen in a hospital typically means that you pay up front before you are seen.  This is true for every test and lab and visit and medicine that needs to be gotten…pre-payment is many times a pre-requisite. The amount of pre-payment would seem insignificant to many of us, yet for these moms it can be upwards of 50% of their monthly income.  Fortunately the moms with the sickest of kids track us down and we can assist them in getting help before Monday morning rolls around.

We have now had Doctors tell us on two different occasions words that are just too close for comfort – “God helped us…if this child had not come in now, he would not have made it until tomorrow.”  That line is much closer for these children than many of us can even begin to comprehend.  I am grateful that in these cases God has sustained these children long enough that we could get medical attention for them.

So, please as the weekends come and go and you are winding down from work and gearing  up for recreation…please pray for these children who at times face significant health issues as the weekend continues on.