LUCAS

So alot has happened since we last were on here. Some of it isn't so good but God is still at work. Lucas, a night guard that works for Bernadette was told last week just after arriving at work that one of his children had meningitis and needed to go to the hospital asap.

This will begin to show you the amount of need in Mocuba. The system set up at the moment means that you have to apply by letter for the hospital to send you out an ambulance. It was a shocking thing for us to hear so we knew we had to help Lucas and his family asap. We tried to arrange transport for him to get home to get his child and then to be taken to the hospital. This proved to be very difficult. Lucas lived and hour and a half away from where he was and we had no car to take him anywhere. Operation Mobalisation have a base across the road from O.W.Y so we thought we'd check if their car was working. When we got there the car had a flat tyre.

It took over an hour to find and replace another tyre, so as time was passing we were getting more and more worried because every minute counts when it's an illness as serious as this. We eventually got the car up and running and Lucas was on his way to get his son. At this stage he didn't know what to expect when he arrived home as he had no phone to contact his wife.

They reached the hospital at about 2am after running out of petrol along the way but unfortunately his son died shortly after reaching the hospital. His son was 4 years old. We don't even know if he recieved the right treatment or if any treatment was even given to the child. This is because in the hospital in Mocuba there is no doctor. The hospital serves a 4 hour radius with only one ambulance. This can begin to show you the need there is here in Mocuba and the importance of the work of O.W.Y setting up a medical clinic.

Lucas is one of those African men you just instantly love without even talking to him. Our Potgugese is limited so it's hard to get to know someone terribly well but he's got the biggest smile you're probably ever gonna see. He was only off for 4 days and as soon as he came back he was straight back into work with that big smile and willingness to help. He's an amazing man and it would be great if you could pray for him, his family, the hospital in Mocuba and the work of O.W.Y.

Love,

Jonny/Emma