Spring Of Life | Miles In Missions

Archive for the ‘Spring Of Life’ Category

Eye Drops

Posted: December 6, 2016 by Patrice Miles in AIDS, C.A.R.E. Africa, Egbe, Miles In Missions, Missionaries, Nigeria, Patrice Miles, People of Egbe, SIM, Spring Of Life

Meet Mosun. If you have ever visited the Spring of Life HIV/AIDS Center in Egbe, you would have gone and prayed with Mosun. She is an HIV patient that has been on ARV therapy for 5 years now. She is doing great, but unfortunately the sickness left her blind in both eyes. She has two small children, Faith and Eniope. They are currently enrolled in C.A.R.E. Africa and sponsored by Rick and Martha Bradford, two SIM missionaries in Egbe.

Pastor Alabi continues to encourage Mosun through nutritional support, picking her up on Wednesdays for the caretaker meeting at C.A.R.E. Africa, and by delivering her ARV drugs. Through some recent donations that SOL has received, Pastor Alabi and I talked about how we could empower some of his patients. Mosun was top of the list. Pastor Alabi knew she had sold charcoal before. He was able to help her buy several large bags of charcoal, which she will break down, and sell in small quantities. She is very excited and grateful for this.

When I recently visited her to see how the charcoal business was going, she expressed her need for eye drops. Vision First is an eye drop that was subscribed for her. These drops she said have really helped with one of her eyes. It has allowed her a little bit of vision in the one eye. The costs is n4,000 for a two month supply. That is $50 a year for her eye drops. I wish she would make n4,000 from the charcoal sales, but she will only make about n400 per large bag she sells.

I am praying that someone out there reading this blog would like to buy Mosun a year supply of eye drops for Christmas. Please consider donating $50 as a one-time donation to Spring Of Life. You can put in the memo “eye drops” so we know it is for Mosun. Thanks so much!

Do you like coffee?

Posted: October 12, 2016 by Patrice Miles in AIDS, Egbe, Egbe Hosptial, SIM, Spring Of Life

I am so excited to announce Spring of Life HIV/AIDS clinic partnership with Charity Beans.

If you like coffee, you can now purchase through charity beans and 50% of the proceeds will go to help HIV/AIDS patient care, education and community outreach in Egbe. If you like coffee….try a bag and tell us what you think!!

Please share this with everyone you know. The direct link is www.springoflife.charitybeans.com or click on the picture below.

I am HIV Positive.

Posted: May 19, 2016 by Patrice Miles in AIDS, Egbe, Egbe Hosptial, Egbe Nigeria, HIV, Miles In Missions, Nigeria, Orphans, Spring Of Life

We had only been in Nigeria a few months and a boy named Samson showed up to play. I just assumed he was a compound kid like the other Nigerian kids. One day Cason told me he saw Samson begging at the hospital gate. The next time he came I asked him questions and found out his mom was in the hospital and had been there for three months. Samson took me to the far back corner of the ward to meet his mom. When I asked about her I found out she had HIV positive. She had defaulted on her drugs and had gotten very sick. She was better now and was unable to pay her hospital bill to be released. The benevolent fund was able to get her bill paid and she was released. I sent them with transport money, a Bible, a picture of Samson and Cason and my phone number. I always wonder where they are and how they are doing?

God put the epidemic of HIV/AIDS on my heart back in 2014 though Samson. Over time I got to know the Spring of Life ministry at Egbe Hospital that assisted me with Samson’s mom. I learned a lot about the stigma that Nigeria has about HIV/AIDS patients. I found out why Samson’s mom was in the back corner and not with the rest of the patients. I found out that so many people have this virus but due to lack of education, religious beliefs and culture practices, they never seek treatment. In addition, they continue to infect others out of their denial. Ultimately they get sick and once they make it to Egbe Hospital, it is too late.

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I continued to pray and ask God for guidance on how I could help. C.A.R.E. Africa started and I saw orphan after orphan from AIDS. It is thought that 2 million children in Nigeria are currently orphaned by AIDS. I continued to feel a burden on my heart for the ministry, Spring of Life. As I investigated I found out that we currently had around 300 patients that are on the ARV drugs and that the ministry had almost closed its doors several times due to lack of funds.

My business and marketing mind of course started to run and I saw this challenge before me. I love challenges but this would be the biggest one yet. I have absolutely no experience in the medical field. I didn’t even know the difference between HIV and AIDS. As I started to do my research and found out about NACA, PEPFAR, ART, ARV, HIV, AIDS and many more acronyms I started to think that I was out of my mind. There is no way I could help this ministry unless God showed up and showed me what to do.

Well God showed up and through a lot of prayer and with consultation of SIM and the Egbe Hospital Revitalization team, I have taken on as Project Manager for the Spring of Life Project. What does this mean? Well ultimately my goal is to find a way for this ministry to sustain itself until God call us home. More to come in future blogs. Pray for me as I take on something much bigger than me. I look forward to watching God work as I am truly just a vessel for him to use at Spring of Life Egbe.