Update 2 November. Manahil has improved. I felt led to compose a prayer for Rimsha to use. I also wrote concerning forgiveness. The doctor says she may return home. But the remaining balance of the surgery must be paid first. $1460. I have corrected the balance here. Some other money has come in to me personally. So the total received is more that the $1550 shown.
Update 28 October. Bad news. Manahil is definitely doing poorly. When she cannot drink fluids, she is heading toward death. I pushed Rimsha to really say what she saw this morning. Rimsha, her sister, says:
Her condition is getting worse again. The doctor says she needs to put iv drips in for three to four days in a row, then it will get better.
Asked what she sees and hears, Rimsha responds:
Manahil says “I don't feel like eating or drinking anything. I feel vomiting. And my whole body hurts and my head hurts so much. My heart is crying.”
For us in the West, we think "sure, we can just have them hook up the IV to her blood vessel." But there, it is a lot of dollars per unit. About $250-350 a day for four days. Over a thousand dollars. Prepaid.
Please pray for her. Share the need. For those who can give, thank you so much.
Update 22 October. We praise our Lord. A direct donation arrived and I was able to deposit it for use right away. I adjusted the goal amount accordingly. Since the second craniotomy was completed on 16 October, Manahil has improved. She is able to drink water and eat some soft fruit. Funds were used to address her pressure inside her skull and to prevent other problems with IV treatments. The additional money received today will be used for additional IV fluids and drugs to help prevent infection and potential epileptic seizures. Rimsha is praising God for your help. Manahil still will need a lot of work to improve her speech and returning to walking. She still has her arm in the cast. Her surgery dressings have been redone.Thank you all for your help and prayers.
Update 17 October Unexpectedly I received a separate amount of money directly that allowed me to donate the amount the doctor wanted to start the surgery. I sent it on 15 October. The doctor started surgery at nine am local time the next day. Rimsha has received enough to buy immediately needed medications after brain surgery, some iv fluids, and some other drugs. The doctor wanted her to pay for two units of whole blood. In that place, normal blood banks are not functional. Purchasing blood from a donor is not legal, but is done anyway. I was not able to facilitate that. Nor do I agree with the practice. Please pray for divine help. And for continued guidance. The recovery time in the west is 5 to 14 days. But I do not have any reports about that doctor's plan. Thanks for your concerns and sharing. Please click the pray button with your prayers. It lets the algorithm know that people are engaged.
Update 7 October. Rimsha took Manahil to Lahore to Hameed Latif hospital. There she is being attended by a Christian doctor. She is conscious at times. In a lot of pain. The financial needs are still there. The pastor of Manahil helped get her in there. But the bill is large. Prayer is requested. Donations really still count. Please share. And thank you.
Update 22 September. Rimsha decided to call 1122 to take Manahil to the hospital. It is a government provided ambulance service that works. Grok had said that to return to the hospital where she had the surgery was the best plan. Even though she had no money on hand, she went for it. She forgot to eat before she left. All she knew was that Manahil was unconscious and had been for over a week. Death was coming because of the dehydration.
Grok had a plan. It said that they must take her despite the need for $500 upfront. It said that if she insisted that the refusal must be given in writing that they would cave. Mohammed Soaib refused. He said that he would write the refusal if she paid the $500. We might think that this was a really stupid joke. Nope. I can't say where this was considered reasonable.
I did request the transfer of funds to me and then I will send it to her. It will just cover admittance to a hospital, but no surgery. Quite frankly, the deadline is rapidly approaching.
God can just wake up Manahil. That would allow her to drink and to eat. Intravenous fluids could bridge that gap. But in that place the price for that care is astronomical.
Should she live or should she die? "Isn't that up to God?" one might ask.
What say you? honestly?
Will you pray?
Will you share?
Will you give?
Thanks for listening.
Update 20 September. We have another donation. It is large. But remember, every one counts. To get her the second surgery, we need to raise quite a bit more. Please pray for us today. And tomorrow. And all week. She has not been awake. Just briefly two days ago. Dehydration is setting in. Without the ability to swallow, it will lead to death. Pray that Manahil will awaken. Pray for her pain to be reduced. Pray for outright healing. Pray for wisdom. Rimsha can take her by ambulance to the same hospital again. Technically she could be admitted to the emergency room. But the fee is $500. And nowhere to go for surgery. No funds. Pray for a change of heart for the doctors there. They refused to help write the recommendation for additional surgery. They refused to help to provide records needed to prepare the appeal for federal government help there. Please share this burden. Giving money also helps. I ask you to see if there is some amount that you could spare. Thank you so much for your help. Pray, share, give. As you are able.
UpDate 18 September. Rimsha tried to get the doctor to provide information so that she could apply for aid. The doctor was not willing to do this.
Rimsha hired a taxi to take them home on the 15th. Because there is a severe fuel shortage in their place of residence, the price of fuel has become crazy. It cost almost $200 to get home. Look for the picture of Manahil with her two younger sisters.
Manahil is no longer conscious. So she is unable to drink or eat. My prayer request is for the Holy Spirit to touch her today for her healing to continue with her regaining consciousness. Will you join me in prayer for this? and will you share this prayer request?
Further surgery done quickly would be the answer to prayer through conventional medical means. There has been no money given, so that is not happening. Thanks for reading.
14 September In light of no new donations, I discovered a possible source for funding and I am requesting prayers for Divine Help to get the application done and for God to use it to bring the new operation.
It is called "federal Pakistan Bait-ul-Mal (PBM) Individual Financial Assistance-Medical." And Rimsha is getting pressure to take Manahil home. That will cost about $100 by taxi. And it will close the door on improvement, barring supernatural healing.
One room left that is habitable, and seven people to share it.
A week ago. Manahil has serious complications. Her sister reports "She is not doing well today. When the doctor checked, he said there is a blood clot inside her brain. Sister describes "severe headache, weakness on one side of the body, difficulty speaking."
The doctor recommended additional surgery. $2200. Rimsha is pleading with me for help. But we do not have it to give. So I am turning to you readers to pray, to give any amount that you feel led to give and to share this need now.
Catch up on what went before below. Peace to you.
Please help Manahil, 23, a Christian woman at Allied Hospital in Faisalabad. For two years she and her friend Sabir taught the Bible to poor children. For 11 years she and her mother supported the family because of their father's diabetes. They lived in Toba Tek Singh, Punjab province, Pakistan. Her mother died earlier this year from a heart attack.
After that, she and her sisters were in Lahore a week for Manahil's severe dehydration treatment. When they returned, they found their father had sold the house. The next day the new owner put them out on the street. Sabir's family in Gojra took them in, now down to one room, a bathroom, a hand pump for water.
A faulty solar installation had damaged the roof. While assessing it, Manahil fell, broke her skull, and had a successful craniotomy in Faisalabad. As she became conscious, doctors then found a fractured left arm, causing her excruciating pain. Several hundred dollars more are still needed immediately for her arm treatment, hospital bills, medicine, and recovery, as well as pressing needs for her sister Rimsha and the younger sisters. Doctors will not treat her without prior payment.
I have been helping from California. But my wife and I are unable to do it alone. Any amount helps, especially to build momentum to help others to donate.
Pray for Manahil. This year has been very rough. She longs to go back to helping share her Bible stories and nourishing food with young children who have no one else. Please share this story.
I will receive your donations, less the appropriate fees, to my checking account. I will then send the money to either Sabir's Dad's easypaisa account (there are monthly limits) or via Western Union which has cash pickup. That goes to Sabir Bashir who has the government ID.
I am not a church or a non profit. Perhaps someday I will set one up. But it costs some money.
I have been friends with Sabir and Manahil since Jun 2024. I have supported their sunday school ministry since then. They were teaching and feeding poor children. I set up a website to tell some of those stories last year. WWW.sundayschoolPakistan.org. The link for donating there is dead. The lady who was managing it no longer was able to help. When I can find the password, I can fix that.
I am a member of St. David's in Montrose which meets Sunday afternoons and attend a small Lutheran congregation in the mornings. Married 56 years to Terri and have kids and grandkids.
