Helping needy Malagasy kids to become 

Jesus’ kids!

February 2008                 Volume 11, Number 2

"A generous man will himself be blessed, for he shares his food with the poor."         Proverbs 22:9

Andry

            Andry came to Betikara back in August of 2000. In the November 2000 newsletter we wrote,

        We’ve passed one hurdle at Betikara concerning Andry, the child who was brought to the capital city by parents and dropped in the streets. A month long search for family by police, radio, and television produced no results.
      Andry has been at Betikara for three months now. This past week, Andry was finally approved by the court system to stay on at Betikara. We still face another court session so the judge can assign him a birth date and award him official identification papers.
      Of all the children at Betikara, Andry is the child who needs your prayers most. He has a not so happy past to overcome, he is still adjusting to life in the capital city, and he still needs to change some inappropriate behavior patterns. Andry is also dealing with being a rather large, approximately 11 year old boy who can’t read yet. In school he is placed with children much smaller than he in an attempt to try to get him reading and functioning more like children of his own age.

            More than 7 years have past since the writing of that newsletter. Many things have changed in Andry’s life. Due to Andry being left on the streets of the capital city by his family, Andry did not have an official birth certificate. Upon going to the courts to file papers so that Andry could stay at Betikara it was required to give Andry a birth date for all of the official government paperwork. This birth date also allowed us to register Andry to study in the local school system. We knew that Andry was at least 14 years old, maybe 16 years old when he came to Betikara. However, in order for Andry to attend school, which he had never attended before in his life, Andry was given a birth date, by the court system, and according to official government paperwork Andry became an 8 year old child. If Andry had been any older the schools would not have accepted him.

            Andry was not able to pass primary school and move on to junior high, but he has accomplished being able to read and write which he could not do when he first arrived at Betikara. Andry went from a child who was deeply troubled emotionally, breaking windows constantly at school and at the Betikara home, to a child who has now accepted his Savior in baptism and who just this last week led the worship service for the Ambohimarina congregation. Andry has turned into a caring and thoughtful young man.

            However, as we wrote in the November 2000 Betikara newsletter, Andry is still “the child who needs your prayers most”. Andry no longer has the spiritual and emotional baggage that troubled him when he first arrived at Betikara. Andry’s problems are now medical.

            We continue to pray while trying to help Andry. These days helping Andry has become an impossible task. We continue to take Andry to the doctor only to see his blood pressure continue to climb. Just this week alone Andry’s blood pressure rose from 170 to over 240. This is with medication that was increased three times in the past month. The doctor is concerned and stated that our top priority is getting Andry’s blood pressure lowered and stabilized. However, Andry’s blood pressure is just the “tip of the iceberg” as the expression goes.

            After extensive scans, blood tests and uncountable times of poking and prodding by doctors and finally a heart specialist, we were told that Andry has two major problems to add to his uncontrollable high blood pressure. First, Andry was diagnosed with the early stages of kidney failure, which right now is being treated with medication.  Several areas of Andry’s blood test results show elevated levels. Second, x-rays and listening to Andry’s heart confirm that Andry’s heart is enlarged and he has a heart murmur.

            Upon conferring with several doctors (who all have the same opinion) the only thing we can do right now is pray and wait. We were told that Andry will eventually need dialysis and a heart valve replacement. But, for the time being we are struggling to keep Andry’s blood pressure stabilized. Once his blood pressure is stabilized we still have several hurdles to overcome.

            First, once Andry is a candidate for dialysis we will have to either take Andry out of Madagascar for treatment or find a way to import a dialysis machine into Madagascar. All of the clinics or hospitals that have machines presently are overbooked with patients that need dialysis.

If Betikara can have a machine imported and donate the machine to a clinic or hospital then Andry will be given priority for his dialysis treatments.

            Second, we were told that Andry definitely needs a heart valve replacement. However, this kind of surgery is not done in Madagascar. All candidates for heart valve replacement are referred to doctors outside of Madagascar. This would not only entail a large expense for travel, but it would also entail the need for money to cover the heart valve replacement operation and future medical intervention and checkups.

            All of Andry’s medical problems seem insurmountable to us. However, we know that God is able to do all things. Please join with us in pray on the behalf of Andry. Pray that the doctors here can stabilize his blood pressure. Pray that they will be able to guide us and refer us to the proper doctors that will be able to properly treat Andry’s medical needs. Pray that God will provide a way for all of the things that we see as insurmountable to be taken care of, and for Andry to have a portion of health as he begins to serve his Savior.

  Indiana Church of Christ 
  225 East Pike Rd. 
  Indiana, PA  15701 

“He who is kind to the poor lends to the LORD, and he will reward him for what he has done.” 
                           Proverbs 19:17