A lady in our church has a younger brother named George. George had been coming to church with us for only a couple of meetings when he began lagging behind us as we walked. We realized that his flip-flop was rubbing a couple of small but quite painful infections on his foot and leg. The sores soon got painful enough that he decided not to go church anymore. We put charcoal on the sores a couple of times, but it didn’t seem to help. I also started to do hot and cold water treatments. But after four days the foot was still swelled up as before so I started him on antibiotics. With that, he cleared up pretty fast.

At the same time, Uli noticed George’s littlest brother had pus running out of his ear from a bad ear infection. So we started him on antibiotics, also. The pus was still coming 11 days later.

Treating George and his little brother took some effort. I had to make sure they got their medicine both morning and evening. When they didn’t show up at our house, I had to chase them down. I was glad when they where finally cured.

When the boys came for their treatments, they brought a few other neighborhood kids who also had sores. Soon I had more than 10 little patients, morning and evening. One little boy, Augustin, had a big open ulcer on his leg. On his first couple of visits, I cleaned the ulcer, but these things are so painful that I taught him to do it himself. He diligently cleaned it twice a day. I also taught him how to do hot-water compresses on it to draw out the pus. He started doing the treatments at home with his mother’s help, and the ulcer started to heal up bit by bit.

Since so many kids came over in the evening and had to wait their turn, I started to entertain them with French Bible story tapes that go along with pictures. I made them clean their own sores most of the time with coaching from me. This way they learned how to clean sores themselves, and it saved a lot of tears.

Finally, because I was getting so many visitors at odd times, I put up a simple white sign with a smiley face on it. If they see the sign they know they can come and knock. If the sign is not out, I am busy or not there.

George’s older brother, Martin, had two small sores that didn’t look bad. But he didn’t come by to give them the attention they needed. When he finally came in for treatment, they were big half-dollar-size ulcers full of pus. I taught him how to put charcoal poultices on them. After a few days, the pus was reduced. Now he comes over every morning and evening to put hot compresses on them. I was gone for five days, but he continued to come over regularly and did the compresses by himself (with Uli’s help). When I got back, the infection was almost gone, but the sores were still just as big and showed no sign of healing so I started him on multivitamins. We pray each time we do the compresses that God will heal his sores.

George’s little five-year-old sister has two sores on her feet that just won’t go away. She has had them for almost three months. Children here don’t get much food. Most of the time, they eat once or maybe twice a day, and that’s usually just corn cereal with a little sauce.

It has been interesting to talk with the kids and hear about their families. George comes from a family of nine children, and one more is on the way. Their father has a second wife who also has a child. Some of the other children live with their father and a lady who isn’t their mother. Their first two mothers ran away. One of the boys has sores on his back from being beaten by one of his parents.

Augustin comes from a family of six boys. Their house looks like it is about to fall down. They don’t often have anything but grain cereal without sauce, but they eat a couple of times a day and are healthy. They each have one ragged set of clothing. Last week Augustin went to church with us in shorts that featured a window in the bottom. We’ve since gotten him some new shorts. (Please don’t send clothes. We can get clothes here much cheaper than you could ever send them.) Please keep Martin in your prayers. He is only 11 years old but he is serious about going to church, reading his Bible, and living the Christian life.

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