Hope to Walk Again

When she came in to Hospitals of Hope, Gabriela* was convinced she’d never walk again. A year before, she’d been in an accident that had left her leg badly broken. She had been treated at another hospital, which had put an external fixator on her leg to hold the bone in place while it healed. Whether from lack of money or improper treatment, the external fixator remained in place a year later, and Gabriela still had no use of her leg.

When Gabriela came to Hospitals of Hope, staff and volunteers discovered that a section of bone in her leg had completely dissolved. Through surgery, they were able to remove a portion of her hip and use it and a metal rod to replace the missing section of bone.

A few days after surgery, when the doctor came in and told Gabriela that they were going to try to help her to stand, she didn’t believe him. She had given up on the possibility of using her leg. When hospital staff helped Gabriela to her feet and she was able to stand with the help of a walker, her entire countenance changed. Her face lit up as she realized the possibility that she would one day walk again.

People like Gabriela are the reason we do the work that we do. So many times, situations like Gabriela’s leave people in despair. But we serve a good God, one who has good plans—plans for hope and a future (Jeremiah 29:11), both for this life and the life to come.

*Name changed.

Christmas in April?

“Papa Noel! Papa Noel!” This is how my dad was greeted as he entered an orphanage in Cochabamba, box of goodies in hand. It wasn’t Christmas time, and my dad doesn’t really look very much like Santa Claus, but, to those kids, he might as well have been Saint Nick himself.

My dad was in Bolivia for a little over 2 weeks, supervising physician assistant and medical students on rotation at the hospital. Judging from his stories and the pictures I’ve seen, visiting area orphanages was his favorite part. He and the students did check ups on the kids, many of whom had untreated health problems. It’s not that the orphanages don’t do a good job, he explained; there are just too many kids and not enough resources.

He told me about one little boy with degenerative retinal disease, who is slowly going blind. The orphanage where he lives has 2 caretakers for something like 40 boys; with that ratio, no one had even noticed that he was losing his eyesight. There is nothing to do to reverse the process, Dad says, but at least now that he’s been diagnosed, they’re taking him to the school for the blind.

It’s easy to become discouraged by need like this. There are so many who need care, and what we can do is so limited. But we believe that, even when we feel discouraged and as if the need is too great, our actions have eternal value.

As Mother Teresa once said, “The success of love is in the loving - it is not in the result of loving. Of course it is natural in love to want the best for the other person, but whether it turns out that way or not does not determine the value of what we have done.”

Our volunteers and the staff members at these orphanages will continue to work to make a difference in the lives of these children. We don’t know how our efforts will turn out, but we will continue to show them love in the best way we can. We hope and pray that perhaps, through our efforts, these fatherless children will come to know their Heavenly Father. That is the best gift we can offer.

Dios le Bendiga

It never ceases to amaze me how beautifully people pray in Spanish. I just finished reading a letter from Nestor Hugo, our staff pastor in Bolivia, and he greeted me with these words:

“It is my petition in prayer, that our Eternal Heavenly Father bless you, guide you, and prosper you in all of your activities every day. May the grace and peace of our Triune God be with you.”

Wow. I feel blessed by simply knowing that someone is praying that for me.

Lately, we at the Hospitals of Hope office have been desiring to give prayer a bigger place in our ministry. We want to make sure that we’re praying more regularly as a staff, and we want to enlist more prayer support for our work. We want to develop a group of people who will commit to praying regularly for our ministry, with whom we can share our specific prayer concerns. Jeanie Tidwell, one of our faithful local volunteers, has agreed to coordinate our prayer team, communicating our prayer needs and celebrating the answers.

Would you consider being a part of that team?

If so, please let me know by email, at leta@hospitalsofhope.org, or by phone, at 316.262.0964.

In the words of Nestor Hugo, “May our merciful and compassionate God bless you.”