The Fight for Life – Is it Easier Just to Die? #1
Written May 2nd 2008
My name is Benjamin. I have a twin brother and his name is Yohana or John in English. Those are our new names, traditionally we are just called Kulwa and Doto meaning First and Second for the first six months. Real names are not given for fear that one or both of us will not live. We were born just about 5 weeks ago. Our mother is quite sick and she has not been able to feed us or take care of us. Our father died in July last year so he is not around either.
Mother has no family here; we were born in a house that has basically completely collapsed. The day we were born we were left on the mud floor wrapped in rags for the first hours until morning because mother had no energy to help us or feed us and no one was there to help. My mother only has one arm, not sure how she lost it. Not only that; she only has one breast so she is unable to feed us both anyway.
Mother basically had to choose between my brother and I, she choose my brother because he seemed more likely to survive so he was always given first milk. Even at that, there was not enough for my brother so I rarely got any.
I remember the cold nights; we did not have enough clothes or blankets to keep us warm. I do not know how we are even alive. I have slipped in and out of death so many times it is hard to count. My eyes continually have this white film over them and they seem to roll back and close even when I try to keep them open.
Neither my brother nor I have much energy, so even to cry is difficult. How and why I keep holding on to life I do not know, it must be supernatural. Our hands look as though they are already 80 years old. Nothing but skin hanging loosely over our bones.
When we were only a month old some missionaries came to our collapsed house to see us. They talked about us and what they should do with us. The missionary lady is a nurse and she was quite concerned and something had to be done right now or death was sure to take us both that very night. In the end it was decided because our mother was not able to take care of us that they would take us to their house. The road was terrible and we were covered in blankets and even the heat was turned on to keep our frail 1.5 kilo (2lb) bodies warm.
Through a lot of stress and the fear of death lingering in the car we did arrive to their home. The spirit of death was everywhere that night and tried several times to take us both.
So we now have white parents, dad is really tall. They already have 4 kids and they are from
I learned a new word today, malnourished. A lady doctor said that we were both malnourished, but especially me, we’re like 6 levels below the death point of malnutrition. The doctor could not understand how we were even alive, a true miracle it must be.
Now we are all wrapped up in blankets to keep our body heat in, lights are turned on around our bed to keep heat around us. Our bodies have no heat, very little blood flow and we can hardly move. We are now fed every two hours and it seems to take an hour just to eat, which for me means to drink two or three teaspoons of milk, I hardly know how to swallow anymore. My body does not know what to do with real milk.
I could hear the doctor say that my brother Yohana is doing a lot better since he came here but for me Benjamin there is still a lot of concern that I will even live another day.
I also heard that even if things all go well it would take at least 6 months before we could be normal in weight.
There is another lady that comes from time to time; she gives us her milk twice a day, which she generally gives to her own baby Naomi. The doctor said I am the one who needs to get that milk. I hear my tall dad often say that “I am not out of the woods yet”. Not sure what that means but I wish that this feeling of death would leave me be. So many times a day I want to just let death have its way but something keeps me alive, it is not me - it must be those who are praying.
------------Greetings, dear friends,
Even at this very moment as you read; Benjamin and also Yohana are on the verge of death. Together a group of people have rallied around these twins to fight for their very lives. A big thanks to the Lloyd-Jones family for their hours of day and night dedicated to these boys.
I have been taking milk over a couple times a day and hearing their report. There is not much that I can do physically but there is one thing that I can do and this is why I write this letter to you my readers, I ask that you become an intercessor for these twins.
Intercession is standing on behalf of another person(s) in prayer, standing in the gap. In this particular situation it is standing between life and death for these boys. It is very hard to communicate the emotions and the pressure of death surrounding these twins. I would ask that you and/or family intercede for these two boys.
The same Spirit that raised Christ from the dead lives in You and this is where we get our authority over death itself. You do not have to pray long but pray with boldness and faith, speaking life into these boys. We all know that the prayer of a righteous man avails much. Who will stand as an intercessor for these twins?
Thinking through this today how many thousands of babies through out the world that do not have an intercessor? The thousands of babies born on the heaps of garbage pits of the world, A hard question to ask but I ask myself sometimes if it is not better that they die, rather than growing up in utmost poverty, sickness and a life of hell. I have seen it all in different parts of the world. It is not possible to describe in words what conditions people live in.
It is very common in these parts of the world that the stronger one of a set of twins is chosen to live. How does a mother come to this decision? Also in these parts, one of the twins and even both of them are considered a curse and left to die in the fields just moments after birth. How deception has stolen life itself from millions.
Please stand with us now in intercession on behalf of Benjamin and Yohana. I will let you know of their condition in some days.
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