Helping Out, Matequenia (what's that?)

Opportunity to Help Out A Faithful Local Worker

The man to the right in the picture is Gazani. He one of the original people who helped out with the work at the center last year. He’s filled with the Spirit and has a heart for our center’s vision. When the other workers left, he opted to stay because he enjoys the Lord’s work here. He helps with construction, and also helps translate during church because he speaks English. He doesn’t have a bicycle and usually has to spend a lot of time walking to visit his family or going into the city when he’s not working at our center. We’d love to bless Him with a bicycle before the end of this month. The bottom line ones are about $75 U.S. Please let us know if the Lord speaks to your heart concerning this, and if you’d like to send a donation specifically for this purpose.

Matequenia

What is that? That’s a little, tiny worm that borrows into your skin, (possibly eats away at some of your flesh), gets cozy in your skin and starts laying eggs. After some days, there’s itching and a little pain as it moves around and does its thing. As it grows, the egg sack also gets bigger and so does the hole it makes in your skin. To remove it, you cut off the dead skin around the sack and remove the sack of eggs (and the worm that usually lives in the sack) without breaking it. If it’s broken, then you have to use a razor or pin head to remove the eggs from your flesh or else you’re face many problems later on. Also, sometimes the worm will try to escape by leaving the sack and borrowing through your skin. In that case, people quickly cut into the healthy, sensitive skin to get it out. Ouch! The worm will continue to grow and lay more eggs if not removed. When the eggs hatch the worms will spread to other parts of your body. When the sack is removed a small hole is left in your skin which usually stops hurting after a few days as it begins to heal.

Without clean band-aids or good antiseptic, the open wound is most likely to get infected. Or at least, it leaves more chances for another worm to borrow into one’s body. These worms are mostly contracted in and around rainy season. They live in the dirt and (I was told) they are usually in areas where there are chickens. Many people in the villages get these, especially the children who play in the dirt. Since most people can not afford shoes (they only wear flip-flops), it’s quite common.

For some reason, Tiffany and Amerel had one in their feet, and I had one in my hand. We were told that the ones Tiffany and I had must have been there for a while. Take a look at the picture of my hand. Tiffany most likely got hers while wearing flip flops in-doors. In any case, this is just one of those attacks that we worship and whistle through. I’m serious. I was fine knowing the worm was in my hand. Then, suddenly this feeling of helplessness and despair tried to come over me. I knew who is was from (not the Lord, of course), and as I prayed the Holy Spirit kept my mind and heart fixed, although I felt a physical feeling of pity come over me.

Unfortunately, after removing one on Amerel’s toe, we saw another one underneath it. Several people saw it along with us. But, it was impossible to remove it, because we’d have to dig around her raw flesh (where we just removed the first one). Having someone numb her toe with an injection was out of the question since that’s just as painful (so we were told). There was no way to remove it without inflicting Amerel with lots of pain. Then, we all had enough of putting Amerel in more pain. Tiffany, Amerel and I cried out unto the Lord. You should have seen Amerel’s earnest praying. I’m sure the pain involved in removing the first worm encouraged her (she mainly had pain because the person removing it slipped with the razor blade and cut her toe a little bit more than what was needed). Amerel kept saying, “Daddy, we prayed to the Lord so He will remove it, right? Since we asked Him, He has to remove it.” Then, she repeated the words I always tell her about believing in prayer and trusting in the Lord when we pray. She even put in the words, “You said…God answers…so He’ll remove it right?” I’ll tell you the truth about what I told my daughter. I told her that we prayed and we’ll believe God to remove it, but we’ll have to check it to make sure it’s gone. I’ve never heard of anyone praying matequenia away. We didn’t have a choice. We couldn’t remove the second one. Tiffany prayed for Amerel with the same heart she did during the time when the Lord miraculously killed the bed bugs after she asked Him to kill them. The next day, Monday, 4/7/2008, I removed the skin over the hole in Amerel’s toe to check for matequenia. Amazingly, the white little sac with the black spot in the center was clearly gone, and her flesh in the whole was a pretty, red color. THE LORD CAN AND DID REMOVE MATEQUENIA!!! But, I’m sure you already knew what the outcome was going to be. Pray for us and for Lichinga. We commonly see the miraculous in own family, but we want to see it as we pray for the people in villages who suffer more frequently and with worse things than these.