It was 1:30 A.M. when the bell rang at our house. We heard Jean and Phoebe talking outside our gate. Knowing they wouldn’t call at this hour unless it was something urgent, I stumbled to the door, opened it, and invited them in. They were very glad to see me and proceeded to explain their situation.

Jean and Phoebe run an orphanage, and just a few days before, they had taken in two orphaned newborn twins—a girl and a boy. The twins were both very weak. That evening, both had started to moan. Jean and Phoebe became worried. They prayed and decided to go into town for help. Their motorcycle is very old and often doesn’t start. Though they are both in their sixties, they ran and walked as fast as they could toward town, praying all the way. At the bottom of their hill, God impressed them to come to our house.

We live in the part of town where there are lots of places to buy traditional beer, and there are lots of drunks around, so we don’t open our door after 9 P.M. unless we know for sure who is out there. Jean and Phoebe knew this, so they prayed that we would wake up and recognize them. Phoebe told Jean, “Since you are tall, stretch yourself up so they can see your face over the gate, and we will both talk so they can hear our voices. Praise the Lord, I did recognize their voices!

I grabbed a medical book, some water, mosquito repellant, and a jar of peanuts for breakfast, and off we went in our truck to the orphanage to get the twins and take them to the hospital.

Before arriving at Jean and Phoebe’s, the twins had been living on watery corn-flour cereal. They were in such bad shape that all the other orphanages in town had refused them. Both had bad infections.
When I arrived at the orphanage, I found the little boy was having difficulty breathing. He had vomited and inhaled the vomit, but he was too weak to cough it up. At the hospital, the nurse started both of them on IVs, though she had a very hard time finding their veins.
By the next day, they both seemed to be doing better, but the boy still was having lung trouble. Since there was no respirator at the hospital, he died on the third day. However, the little girl pulled through. She’d had more weight when she arrived. Five days later, she was able to go home, and she is still doing well.

Some time ago, I suggested to Phoebethat they add oil to the cereal the children eat each day to increase the calories. They also started to give the babies who are six months and older pâte, which is basically thicker corn cereal with a leafy green sauce. Later, I visited the orphanage again and was very happy to see a big improvement in the weight of the babies. They are also now getting vitamins, iron, and folic acid.

About a month ago, we were praying for rain and wondering why it didn’t come. Then Jean and Phoebe told us they had been praying that God would hold back the rain until they finished the roofs of their new kitchen and mill! The buildings were built of unfired mud bricks. Without a roof to keep the rain off them, they would turn to mud and the building would collapse. I was able to help them finish the roofs, and we all praised God for answering their prayers.

Jean and Phoebe have also planted about 50 of the moringa trees I started in plastic bags. Moringa leaves are very nutritious and will greatly improve the diet of the orphans.

I thank all of you who sent money to help this orphanage. Jean and Phoebe are truly people of prayer—they pray about everything! They have total confidence in God that He will take care of their needs.
Last week, Phoebe told me that their baby milk had run out. Well, just that morning, I had been at the market and found a lady who was selling some baby formula from Holland. I had gotten two cans to give to them to make sure the babies would accept it before buying more. When I gave Phoebe the cans of formula, she thanked God. He had worked before they had even asked.

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