For over a year now ABC Clinic has been in contact with, been planning, been praying, and been organizing this major medical mission here in Lilongwe. The ConnectMed team, headed by Dr. Amanda Gosman, had a desire to reach out to the people of Malawi and perform free cleft lip/cleft palate repair surgeries. This is life changing! This is amazing! This is what it's all about! Here is where ministry, mission, love, compassion, and Christ really shine through.
Today, and for the rest of this week, we have the opportunity to make a real difference in the lives of dozens and dozens of children and adults. There are over 150 people on the initial sign up list. They will be screened and selected today. The surgeries will begin tomorrow. As a parent of a child who was born with cleft palate I know the heart ache, the trauma, the difficulties associated with these types of deformities. But my child was born into a family with access to amazing health care and "majority world" help. We had a friend bring us cleft palate bottles so that baby J could eat without an NG tube. We had access to email and internet where we could skype with Dr. Gosman and her team and they could follow his progress. We had access to a breast pump and to formula so that I could feed my son even though he couldn't nurse. But these patients that we will see today had none of this. Many children who are born with cleft palate here do not make it. If they can't nurse, then they don't survive. It's the hard bitter truth. And children born with cleft lip are sometimes seen as a curse. They are then treated as such. Another hard bitter truth.
So as this week progresses it's first of all a miracle that these children (and even adults) are still here and healthy and alive. It's also a miracle that a team of medical professionals have given their time, their money, their talents, and taken a couple of weeks off from their own medical practices to come and help people who have no way of repaying them. For the believers, their reward will be in heaven alone. It's a miracle that a venture of this size was able to get through all of the red tape, the forms, the permissions, the security, the lawyers, the airports, etc. Much much prayer and work has gone into this week. And it's only just about to begin.
Now the tents are up. The signs are hung. The equipments is ready. The cribs and beds are in place. The team is here. The patients and their guardians have started to arrive. The registration and consultations begin today. Tomorrow lives start to be changed forever.
To God be the GLORY! Great things HE HAS DONE!
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