Jean Marc in 1999.
Jean Marc in 2004.
BOTOBABADY Jeunner Jean Marc Lewis. He’s been at Betikara
for more than five years. He’s a bright and well behaved boy.
He does well in school not only on paper but in sports too. He runs
and jumps and plays soccer with the best of them. He’s a good helper
at Betikara and he never complains. We had already begun to forget
about his posture problem.
When he first came to Betikara we were very concerned that he
couldn’t hold his head up straight. We took him to several doctors
and inquired. The answer was always the same. He was born that
way, and no one suggested any kind of corrective treatment. It wasn’t
long before we saw that Jean Marc’s neck problem in no way curbed his activities
and so we dropped the inquiries and didn’t give it much more thought.
It took a visitor to Madagascar to look at Jean Marc with the
compassion we had forgotten. Roland Mohsen, minister to the Deodat
congregation in Paris, put his compassion into action. He insisted
on taking Jean Marc to visit an organization called Medicins Sans Frontiers.
The French doctor at Medicins Sans Frontiers immediately referred Roland
and Jean Marc to a Malagasy orthopedic specialist who gave Jean Marc an
initial examination.
In the course of the examination, Jean Marc insisted that he
was not born that way, but fell when he was five years old and was never
able to straighten his neck after that. The doctor was confident.
He claimed that a short operation followed by a few weeks in a cast would
straighten Jean Marc’s neck.
Roland and Jean Marc were ecstatic at the news and returned to
Betikara full of confidence and wearing broad smiles. Their joy was
contagious. We all have high hopes that Jean Marc can be helped.
Roland has since returned to Paris. Jean Marc has had several
additional doctor’s appointments, an x-ray, and a preliminary blood test.
We still have high hopes but we have reservations too. This is the
third world and medical care here is just not like medical care in the
good ole US of A or Europe.
Doctors are not as well trained. Medicine is always in
short supply. Hospitals are over-crowded, under-staffed, and not
nearly as clean as they should be. Many Malagasy use hospitals as
only a last resort and are convinced they go there to die. Our least
fear is that we will put Jean Marc through all this with no visible results,
and our greatest fear is that more harm than good may be accomplished.
We share our hopes and our fears with you because we know that
through it all, in spite of doctor’s lack of training or poor hospitals,
God will do what is best for Jean Marc if only we ask. Please join us in
prayer as we pursue this chance of helping Jean Marc to walk into his future
a little more comfortably.
The Big Move . . .
to the new home is scheduled for August 16th. I stopped into
the house in town yesterday. Tsiry walked up to greet me. He
told me he was sad.
“Why?” I asked.
“We’re sad because
we are going to miss this house in town. Can we move Saturday instead
of Monday?” he replied with a twinkle in his eye. The
lambs are excited, the new workers are ready, the new house is finished.
We’d like to thank you for your part in it. Without you we couldn’t
have done it. Thank you for serving us as you served the Savior.
We love you and appreciate you help.
BUT! Your
part is not over yet. We still need your prayers. The lambs
will have to make a terrific adjustment from inner city living to country
living. They are changing schools and schedules. They have
to learn new rules and new chores. As always, none of us will be
able to do it without your prayers and the help of the One who has made
this all possible.
Please pray.
Thanks. |
