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.