Loretta le Roux writes
It is amazing how many opportunities God gives us to help the community! During December the community had no water. We were able to take drinking water to them in 25L cans. Thankfully their pump is fixed now. A few days ago it was the birthday of a girl whose Mother is terminally sick, and busy dying. We baked her a cake and gave her a present and some sweets. Now, this is a story about a little horse. We have two pieces of Lucerne which we grow for our animals.
The community has a few horses that grazes all around Onseepkans. We have a big drought at the moment and there is no food on the grazing fields. The horses discovered that if they walk through the canal, they can graze on fresh green Lucerne mixed with green juicy grass! I think we cannot blame the horses that they choose this in contrast with dry yellow stumps where there should be grass! Recently my father and some of my brothers and sisters as well as a granny from the community went to visit Kwasizabantu Mission in Kwa Zulu Natal for two weeks. It was the first time that the granny flew in an airplane!
We had to look after the mission while they were gone. One Sunday morning [while they were gone] we woke up and found the horses in the Lucerne. Usually we chase out the horses, otherwise, we do not have Lucerne left to cut for our animals. This morning, my mother, two brothers and I went to chase out the horses. While we were chasing them, we found that a little horse which had been born two weeks ago was there with his mother. When we took a closer look at him we saw that he was born with loose ligaments. So, in other words, his hooves was bent to the back. Now don’t get a fright if you read further! He was not walking on the skin! He was walking on raw flesh! You could almost see the bone!
We realized that we had to do something about it! We chased out the big horses, and my brother and I carried the little horse home. We laid him down in the pen and gave him 1L of fresh goat milk to drink. Now we had to attend to the wounds! The wounds had a bad smell on them, and a yellow substance was oozing out of them! We sprayed salt water on it, and cleaned it properly!
We put ointment on it and closed it with clean bandages.
[Someone recently donated us a box of fabric that we cut into bandages.]
We communicated with a vet in Cape Town, and he sent us some medicine with my father for free. We started to clean the wounds twice a day. We realized that it is a huge responsibility to treat those wounds till it is healthy again. We trusted the Lord to heal it that His name will be glorified. We also splinted the legs so that he won’t walk on the wounds.
It was wonderful to see how the wounds started to heal! While we doctor the wounds the little horse laid perfectly still! He seems to understand that we are helping him to get better! Then the owner came to see his little horse. We asked him what happened, and he told us the following story. ‘’I was out looking for work. I paid some boys to look after the little horse and his mother, but they didn’t do it. I also explained to them how they must split the legs, but they didn’t do it right. I am so thankful that you are helping my little horse! If you had not helped me the legs would have rotten ’’ We won his heart, and now he has a soft spirit toward us. He brings the mother twice a day so that the little horse can drink her milk. He even helps us to clean the wounds, and put ointment on! He is very thankful. He went away for four days and left the mother here with us. He trusts us, and know that we will look well after his horse and her fowl. Sometimes the Lord uses strange ways to reach the hearts of the people, and all we must do is to be obedient.
