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When we opened the first House of Moses Crisis Nursery in 1998, we had no idea how God was going to expand our vision and ministry to care for children, especially tiny, premature infants. One afternoon, a phone call came in from the nurse in charge of the neo-natal unit of the University Teaching Hospital. The hospital had been described by international media as a scene out of hell with the cross infection rate at nearly 50%. Posted signs even warned visitors to beware! “We have four babies at the hospital to send to the House of Martha Crisis Nursery” our Director was told. “You must pick them up at the hospital today or they may die here from infection.”
The largest of the babies was a boy who had been found wrapped in a plastic bag at the bus station, weighing less than 4 pounds. The three little girls were barely half that size. “You must take them,” pleaded the nurse. “The only other ward is for infectious cases; if we are forced to put them there, they will not survive.” The House of Martha Crisis Nursery was not equipped for the intensive care these infants required, but they could not be left to die, so with grave concerns, the babies were received.
June in Zambia is very cold. As a precaution, the babies were bundled up in warm blankets and placed into the office of the house mother to keep them together. Then, without warning, the electricity went off, and the engineers reported that it would take more than a month to repair. Charcoal braziers were started to keep the babies warm, but it was not enough. Two weeks later, the little boy was suffering from pneumoniaand one of the girls was very dehydrated and had to be readmitted to the hospital. With no other place to care for the other two babies, one of the two tiny bedrooms of the Alliance for Children Everywhere mission home was converted into an intensive nursery. 24-hour help was found at local churches to help care for the infants. The two little girls began to improve. Sadly, the two that had to return to the hospital did not. The little boy was the first to go, followed by the girl just days later.
Then we received word of another child in danger. A cardboard box, carefully lined with foam rubber was found two blocks from the mission home at the Mother Teresa hospital. The box, left in the middle of the night was found by the Sisters early the next cold morning. The box had baby clothes carefully folded beside a baby boy. The Sisters took him to the University Teaching Hospital and the nurses named him “Moses” because of the “basket” in which he had been placed.
Because the baby was not “sick” he was admitted to the orthopedic ward. We visited Moses the next day and were impressed by his health and his dimples. As long as we held him we were rewarded with smiles and coos. He protested loudly when we left. Surely, we would be bringing this baby home very soon. But, a week later, Moses died. Within three weeks, three babies had been buried, but two others who had been close to the same fate were living. We felt God say, “We must not despair those who die, but celebrate those who are able to live” and knew we had to prepare “room” for others like them.
Less than six months later, a grant through The Outreach Foundation of the Presbyterian Church USA was received to establish a home for pre-mature and high risk infants in need of critical care. In honor of the children who live only days, and in celebration of those who will have a full life we dedicated House of Moses in memory of our little Moses with the dimples and big smile.
We invite you to provide a safety net of prayer and provision for a child like Moses.
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