"Each of you should use whatever gift you have received to serve others, as faithful stewards of God’s grace in its various forms. If anyone speaks, they should do so as one who speaks the very words of God. If anyone serves, they should do so with the strength God provides, so that in all things God may be praised through Jesus Christ. To him be the glory and the power for ever and ever. Amen."
1 Peter 4:10-11 (NIV)

New technology, new contacts and donations

Chris and I attended a national prosthetic and orthotic conference held in San Antonio earlier this month. #1, it was great to spend some time with Chris...we went to dinner a few nights too! We also attended lots of lectures and saw some awesome new technology. 

There are several things I'm excited about from the conference, but to just highlight a few...

We saw a new above knee socket design that will be incredibly helpful in fitting patients in Zambia. This socket design can be fit on the patient in one visit. Right now, we see patients for casting and then they have to come back for fitting. This is especially difficult for the patients who travel great distances or have lack of transportation. The Socket-less Socket will be awesome for us to use. The prosthetist who designed this, Jay Martin, did a seminar on the new socket design, and we were able to talk with him afterwards about us using this in Zambia. It was a truly awesome conversation with a fellow Christian to see how we can use his technology to help others in Zambia. 
The Socket-less Socket. www.martinbionics.com

Another new product is the AT prosthetic knee, which is waterproof and very durable. I was able to speak with the CEO of LegWorks, which is the company that makes this prosthetic knee. We had a great discussion about us using this knee in Zambia. They have tested this knee in 10 different countries in various conditions, so we know it will be super durable for the conditions our patients in Zambia encounter. 


Also, I got to see lots of other practitioners I know at the conference, and it was great to visit and catch up with them. I talked about Prosthetic Promises with so many different people and found a few prosthetists who are interested in joining us for a future trip to Zambia! Several manufacturers of prosthetic components are making donations of parts for our upcoming trip. Yay!!!

We are definitely in planning mode right now for our upcoming Spring 2016 trip. Buying parts and supplies, purchasing doors and equipment for our future clinic to be shipped over to Zambia and overall just getting really excited! 


Backyard Benefit for Prosthetic Promises

I'm a little behind on reporting such exciting news, but I've been at a conference the past week (which is a whole other post to come soon). 

Hope Overturf, board member of Prosthetic Promises, instigated and helped organize a Backyard Benefit fundraiser for PPIHN to raise funds for our future multipurpose clinic. We are so thankful to Hope for starting this conversation, Dr. David and Geri Ann Webster, Dr. Dacen and Netsy DeLaPaz, and Dave and Marilyn White for organizing and hosting the wonderful event on October 3rd. Over $5,000 was raised for Prosthetic Promises' future clinic in Zambia, Africa. It is so awesome to see God's provisions and where He is leading PPIHN for His purpose. 





There were lots of items from Africa in the silent auction.





Me-"Let me take a pretty picture of you, Chris" 
Chris- "I don't take pretty pictures"
She is beautiful, and awesome, and I am so fortunate to call her friend, mentor and mission partner.

Live music for the evening.

We had a powerpoint going of patients we saw on our trips.

A beautiful evening with lots of people and visiting. We had the opportunity to meet so many new people.

The homes that the event was hosted at are gorgeous. I loved the outdoor lighting and backyard.

Over the Plate gourmet food truck served DELICIOUS tacos for dinner. Read more about Over the Plate here.

Again, we are so thankful to all who made this fundraising event possible. We are gearing up for Prosthetic Promises' trip for 2016. Stay tuned for preparation updates. 


Solar Energy

Prosthetic Promises loves New Day Orphanage. New Day Orphanage needs solar energy. SO...we want to help New Day get a solar energy system!

Prosthetic Promises partners with New Day Orphanage in Zambia to make our yearly trips happen. We stay at the orphanage, and they coordinate people in need of prosthetic services for us to see when we're there. If you haven't checked out their website, please do. New Day is wonderful! They have so much love for these kids. It's so awesome to witness what God is doing at this orphanage in rural Zambia. Please pray for the leaders and staff as they pour into the lives of these children, teaching them--loving them--showing them Christ. And as they impact the community around New Day Orphanage.

Scene
Back story: Lake Kariba is the world's largest man-made lake and reservoir by volume. The dam supplies hydropower for both Zambia and Zimbabwe. The water level of Lake Kariba is very low right now, which has resulted in Zambia curbing energy use to preserve water levels. Read more here

What does this mean?? This means New Day Orphanage is experiencing 8 hours a day without electricity. Electricity out this long makes food storage difficult in refrigerators and freezers, and makes it difficult for the water pump to fill the water towers, and means there's no lights on. This is a BIG impact.

Rainy season will start within the next month so the water level of Lake Kariba will be replenished, BUT electricity outages at New Day are common. We have experienced some of these power outages on our prosthetic trips with the power out for as little as 10 minutes to up to several hours. And that was just after the rainy season stopped. 

Solar energy will give New Day the ability to have back-up power for these electricity outages. The initial design will be to keep the basics going like freezers and refrigerators, the water pump and some lights. The design will have the availability to add more solar panels and battery storage later on as New Day continues to grow. This will also give our future clinic solar energy availability when the power goes out. 

The cost of the initial set up will be around $15,000. Prosthetic Promises is doing a raffle to help raise some of the funds needed for the solar energy system. Please contact me if you'd like to buy raffle tickets or donate towards this cause. katie.b.brinkley@gmail.com is my email.

The raffle drawing is November 21, 2015. This is a short time, but the solar energy system needs to be purchased before December in order to go on a shipping container scheduled to leave for New Day. 

This Brinkley is on a mission===> Let's get New Day Orphanage solar energy!!!