Gwandambi, a 13-year-old Simbari boy, has been fighting a bone infection in his leg since August 2012. For the last 10 months he has been in a hospital a few hours away where there is a bone specialist on staff. Finally his condition started to improve. A framework of metal rods was attached to his bones and slowly stretched to facilitate regrowth of approximately 6mm of lost bone. After that the framework was left in place for many months in order for the bones to become strong enough to remove the metal rods.
On Monday, April 13th the metal rods were surgically removed and two days later we received a call from Gwandambi’s father saying that they had been discharged and asking us to come pick them up. We don’t have a vehicle of our own and the mission vehicles were already booked out but another missionary friend graciously offered his own vehicle for the trip. So Shari and I (David) took the SUV and picked up Gwandambi’s mother and sister in town and we headed up the highlands highway for the 5 hour roadtrip to the hospital and back. A good portion of the “highway” is pretty rugged four-wheel drive terrain.
At the hospital many patients and staff workers surrounded Gwandambi’s family to say their goodbyes. This family has been there a long time and through all the hardships have demonstrated an unshakeable faith in the love of God. After the goodbyes we all packed into the vehicle and travelled back down the highway enjoying sweet fellowship the whole way. Gwandambi has a cast on his leg and will need to go back to the hospital in a month for a follow-up and we are not sure how they plan on addressing his physical therapy when the cast is removed. But for the meantime he will be staying at our mission guest house and enjoying being out of the hospital. We are thankful for special gifts from some donors that have helped pay for the medical and living expenses of Gwandambi while he has been out of the tribe for treatment. (Thanks to the Grace Baptist VBS kids for their special offering gift as well)
Thanks for your continued prayers for Gwandambi and his family!