Two Very Special People

These two beautiful people are Regina and Brian.

(Photo credit: Brandi Silva)

Regina is originally from northern Uganda. Leaving her husband behind, she made the rather 'expensive' journey and grueling six plus hour bus ride to visit family in Namatala a little over six months ago. Shortly after arriving in Namatala, she fell sick of what they assumed to be malaria. And for the past six months, precious Brian has been doing his best to take care of Regina.

When we first met Regina, she was slowly crawling out of her hut using as much of the little strength that she had. Someone had brought us to her to pray healing and peace over her. Everyday, we would go back to visit these two precious people praying that God would remove the malaria and bring her back to full strength. At the time, we had no idea she had been sick for six months, and at the time, we thought, oh it's just malaria, she'll be healed shortly.

Two weeks later, she was a lot worse off than before. She could hardly move and had no strength at all to even sit up. So I investigated. I got the facts of her sickness to try to figure out what it really was that was affecting her. And this is when I found out that everyday for the past six months she had been fighting this sickness. And this is when I realized, there's no way this could be malaria.

You see, because malaria is so prevalent in Uganda every one's automatic conclusion when anyone is sick is that they have malaria. So they go to the doctor (if they can afford it) and ask for medicine for malaria without even knowing the real diagnosis to their sickness. And when they don't respond to the medicine, they still think it's malaria and the medicine just isn't working for them this time.

I informed Regina that she most certainly didn't have malaria because none of her symptoms matched those of malaria. In fact, she was severely dehydrated and completely starving. We learned that Brian would go to the trash piles everyday looking for food to eat or something that he could sell in order to buy food. Anything that he would find would go straight to Regina. Now, in Namatala this is a very common thing. A lot of kids go digging through the rubbish pits looking for anything for them and their families to survive on.

Ok now I just want you to stop for a second and put yourself in Regina's shoes. You're sick and have been for months. You have no food, no water and absolutely no way of getting any. Your seven year old son goes to the trash piles everyday and digs for something, anything, for you to eat. When he finds something, which is rare, he brings it home for you, not keeping anything for himself. You're starving and so is he, but he won't stop trying to take care of you. Your his responsibility now.         Can you even imagine??

Please pray for Regina and Brian. Regina is still sick but is now a child of God. Praise the Lord! Brian is still faithfully taking care of Regina and goes to church every Sunday with a beautiful smile on his face. They both need strength and the love of God to carry on. God is a God of miracles and I know he can help and heal these two. Your prayers are huge!