PLEASE PRAY!

We have yet another URGENT prayer request for you! You may remember about a month ago when we asked you to pray for our dear friend Hourey. If you kept up with all of the updates, you would've seen that she did go home from the hospital but it was against the doctor's orders & also against our concerns. She & her mother & her little girl were ready to be out of the hospital & back to "normal" & they ignored our pleadings for them to stay. Ultimately, the decision was theirs & we could not keep them "prisoner" in a hospital. Hourey's mom promised to bring her back to full health when they returned home to Ayorou.

Fast forward a few weeks & here's the latest ... Hourey is not back to health. She is the worst she's ever been. We've been in constant contact with Ibrahim (her husband) for days & we have begged & pleaded to have them send her back here to Niamey so we can get her in a hospital. Hourey & her mom do not want to return to the hospital here & so we offered to send them to one closer to Ayorou. They refused.

We, for one, cannot even begin to understand the African mentality when it comes to health & death. Therefore, we cannot even begin to communicate it to you. Death is such a normal part of life to them. They don't try to fight it. They don't have the resources to do it. Oh, they may try & get medicine or see a doctor when they are sick but they ultimately believe "what will be, will be." As privileged Americans, if a medicine doesn't work for us or if we don't agree with a doctor's diagnosis, we fight it. We try a new medicine. We find a new doctor. We do not let death take us that easy.

It's not that way for Africans. I guess, somehow, in Hourey's mom's mind, they've tried all they could (although, we do not agree). Hourey's mom is calling the shots right now. She says that Hourey is going to die & they are just waiting. Hourey cannot talk. She cannot walk. She has not eaten in 3 days. If you saw her before she left the hospital, you would know that she could not afford to go one day without eating.

Ibrahim does not want his wife & the mother of his children to die. He wants her to see a doctor but his pleadings are falling on deaf ears. He seems to have also accepted Hourey's fate. He did say that he knows when she dies she will be with God & has a peace of her spending eternity with Jesus. He said that he knew the only way she could get better is if God performed a miracle & healed her.

We are asking & BEGGING you to pray for Hourey. Pray that God would MIRACULOUSLY heal her. Pray that her health would be transformed right before the very eyes of all those who are waiting for her to die. PRAY that she would NOT die! Please, please, please pray!

We are packing up & heading to Ayorou tomorrow. We do not know what we will find. We are praying that she'll still be alive. We do not want to say goodbye to her. Please pray that we won't have to.