Living in Stride with God- ETC Newsletter

Hello everyone!

Our founder asked me to write an Enable the Children Newsletter for the year and it has given me the time to reflect on the past ten months. I also have pink eye so I have a bit of time off from Community work- don't want to spread this to the kiddos!

 Isaiah 42:16 I will lead the blind by ways they have not known, along unfamiliar paths I will guide them; I will turn the darkness into light before them and make the rough places smooth. These are the things I will do; I will not forsake them.

God has been engineering our circumstances. Enable the Children is a small team of just 5 community workers- 2 of us from the West and 3 Sierra Leoneans. Our desire is to use a passion that we each have in us to spread God's love and hope to children with disabilities and their families. 

As you read our newsletter I pray you will see what God is doing. We are privileged that He has given us the gifts and that we have the opportunity to use them to teach and preach for His Glory!

ETC 2013 Newsletter

Had an encouraging day with Enable the Children today as I was greeted clearly by one of our Autistic children who use to not talk, a little girl who couldn’t sit now can, and one of our Cerebral Palsy boys who had poor balance is not enjoying playing football with his friends.- April 23^rd2013

We told one of our 7 years today in the program we were going to make her a desk and chair to help her practice writing- her smile was HUGE! -October 1^st 2013

It has been an amazing year with Enable the Children. I came in January to join the small team reaching out to nearly 300 kids and their families! Abu our faithful team leader and Rehab Therapist and Ambrose, Rehab Therapist Assistant and Morlai, ETC Driver, were holding together the team since Sara and Katie left mid-2012. Anna, a physiotherapist, came out a week before me and then we were 5. With the ever increasing case load and the desire to give our children quality visits at least once a month we have been working towards splitting the team into two groups. We have created this year a Family Support Team and hired Mariama, Support Worker Trainee. Mariama is in

her second month of training and is full of love for the kids and enthusiasm for the work. The work for Mariama and me will consist of in home counsel, teaching, advocating, creating support groups and focusing on activities to promote the children’s independence. The others will continue in the home based therapy care to allow children to reach their full potential while also supporting and teaching families. We are excited to work together towards bringing hope and joy into the lives of these families in different ways.

We have been able to continue our partnerships with Cottage, the only pediatric hospital in the Country, and with Aberdeen Women’s Centre Children’s Clinic (formally Mercy Ships). Through these two sources we see as many as ten new patients a week and have the opportunity to share our knowledge and give them the hope of Jesus through our services. We have recently started working with an enthusiastic pediatric surgeon who is willing to assist us (for free) with our children who need surgery! We have had two children (the first two in the Country from what we are told) successfully have feeding tubes placed for better nutrition management; both are doing great 6 months after the placements! Over 70 pieces of equipment have been given out- supportive chairs, standing frames, gaiters, and stability boots! 27 children have been discharged for successful therapy and no longer needing our services. We have seen parents who were nearly driven from their home and now when we visit their home is so crowded with neighbors who are excited to tell us the child can now sit by herself! Though there are some valleys among the amazing work that Enable the Children is doing we trust God to see us through and to teach us from every child and family we meet along this journey!

I love in my job that I can be silly sticking my tongue out and making faces and say its speech therapy. I love that I can teach a pre-teen how to brush her own teeth and clean up her family’s floor and make it fun and at the same time be teaching independence. I love that I can put together fun coloring books teaching about nutrition, that I can see the joy on a granny’s face when her child’s able to do something for the first time by herself. I love that we can pray with each and every family we see a day to encourage them and open up conversations about God. I am so blessed to have such fun at what I do, have so much love and joy in it and rely upon a God who continues to equip me to keep on experiencing and sharing his love in this way.- July 16^th2013