A Miracle for Mphatso

Yesterday a miracle trip began for Mphatso!  Read his story below:

The above picture is of Mphatso and his family.  They live in a village about 2 hours off the paved road outside of Lilongwe.  Mphatso is sitting in his father's lap.  He was born with a severe cleft palate and cleft lip.  When he was born the people of Mphatso's village tried to get the parents to kill the child.  They said he was a curse on the family and would always bring bad tidings to the family unless he was killed.  Mphatso's parents are Christians, however.  They said that the Lord gave this child life and the Lord could take the life away, but only the Lord should have power over life and death.  

Mphatso's parents are very loving and caring parents who try to give their children the best they can.  When they heard about ConnectMed International coming to Lilongwe last May they brought Mphatso to see if the doctors could help.  Dr. Gosman was able to repair Mphatso's cleft palate during the surgery week.  However his cleft lip required more complex surgery and would need to be repaired in a more advanced medical setting.

Dr. Gosman and some members of her team also work with another nonprofit out of San Diego, CA called Fresh Start Surgical Gifts.  Fresh Start's goal is to provide disadvantaged children who suffer from physical deformities the gift of reconstructive surgery.  They are the organization that allowed for Dr. Gosman to perform our son's cleft palate repair just a year ago.  Praise God that through those connections we are able to see more and more children receiving the life saving gift of reconstructive surgery!  

Jeremy, Dr. Gosman, and Fresh Start have been working tirelessly to get a few different children from Malawi over to San Diego to receive surgery.  Mphatso and his guardian, Justice, are the first to go.  For more on the story of Mphatso and Justice please see this previous blog.  Justice is giving up his home and life for two months to travel with Mphatso as his guardian.  Although they had never met the connection between the two was immediate.  They are already close friends.  

So yesterday was the big day!  Mphatso's family had traveled a couple of days earlier to Lilongwe to stay in town while waiting on the flight.  The day before they left Justice and Jeremy along with Mphatso and his dad went around gathering up some supplies that they would need for the journey.  We were able to supply Mphatso with some clothes and some toiletries.  And Justice took Mphatso shopping for some shoes!  Jeremy even took them all out for pizza.  Mphatso ate half of a large pizza!  It was the first time he or his father had ever had pizza.  Justice correctly commented that as long as Mphatso loves pizza he'll get along just fine in America!

Yesterday morning we met up with the family to take Justice and Mphatso to the airport.  Mphatso's baby sister is severely sick with sepsis so she and Mphatso's mother weren't able to travel to the airport. But Mphatso's father was excited to make the trip and he couldn't stop smiling as he watched the planes land and take off.  None of them had ever been to the airport or even seen an airplane before. 

Jeremy getting Justice all checked in and giving some last minute advice on airports and customs, etc. 

Mphatso and Justice with tickets in hand!

Jeremy, Mphatso, and Justice

To watch this miracle unfold is quite a humbling experience.  The steps that have been taken by so many people to get this precious child the help that he needs is nothing that could have been accomplished without the hand of God!  We have been blessed to be just a small part of the mighty work that the Lord is doing in the life of this child.  Mphatso's mother kept praising God for His miracle and she prays that this act will change her village.  She prays that through this story they will come to know Christ as their savior and realize how precious each and every life is.  God has used a 6 year old boy and his birth defect to change our life and the lives of so many others.  He has shown that "all things work for the good of those who love him, those who are called according to his purpose." (Romans 8:28)  To God be the Glory!   

Meet Mphatso and Justice!

If you received our newsletter that we emailed out yesterday you may recall an announcement about a very special child, Mphatso.  Mphatso is from a small village outside of Lilongwe.  He had a cleft palate and an extreme bilateral cleft lip.  This past February when ConnectMed International came to Malawi to perform cleft palate/cleft lip repair Mphatso came to be evaluated for surgery.  That's where we first met him.

ConnectMed was able to repair Mphatso's cleft palate but his bilateral cleft lip would require more extensive surgery.  That's where Fresh Start Surgical Gifts came in.  Fresh Start performs corrective surgeries on children from all over the world 6 times a year at Rady's Children's Hospital in San Diego.  Fresh Start is the organization who repaired our baby J's cleft palate a year ago this past month.  See that story here.  One of the directors with Fresh Start was here, in Malawi,  with ConnectMed back in February.  She saw Mphatso (as well as three other children who we're working with) and began working to see if he was a good fit for Fresh Start.

The first hurdle to be conquered was making sure that Mphatso was medically able to travel and have surgery in San Diego.  Many doctors visits, appointments, and trips into town from their village were made by Mphatso and his father.  Mphatso's father owns a bicycle and works during the day as a bike taxi.  So each day spent with Mphatso in the doctor was a day without work for Mphatso's family.  Of course it was well worth it.  Praise God that all medical clearances were received and the Fresh Start board approved Mphatso as a patient!

Another hurdle was finding someone who could travel with Mphatso to the States for about two months.  This person would need to drop everything and care for a child that he did not know.  He would need to transition to a different culture easily.  He would need to become the legal guardian of a 6 year old child with a medical disability.  He would have to care for the child through at least two separate surgeries.  We understood that this was a lot to ask.  Yet we knew that the Lord would provide for us.  Mphatso is 6 years old and does not speak English.  No one in his family speaks English well enough for international travel.  Understand that going from a village in Malawi to a big city like San Diego will be culture shock to the extreme.  Mphatso needed a guardian who could ease him through the transition (as well as transition himself....), get him to San Diego, get him through international airports, be able to help Mphatso through the surgeries and care afterward that will be required. This is such a huge responsibility and we're thankful that the Lord brought us Justice!

 Justice is a recent graduate of African Bible Colleges and he currently lives in Blantyre (four hours south of Lilongwe).  He gladly came to Lilongwe to meet with Jeremy and Malla, meet with Mphatso, and immediately offered to assist Mphatso with this life changing adventure. Praise God for His provisions!  We now had a guardian for Mphatso! Thank you Justice!

Now the tricky part. With just under two months to go Mphatso needed to get his Malawian birth certificate (most children born in the villages here have no birth certificate), his Malawian passport, and his U.S. visa.  Please understand that the U.S. visa was the least of our worries, honestly.  Getting the birth certificate and passport here usually takes an act of congress (or in Malawi's case an act of Parliament).  But the Lord was with us the entire time and through friends (and friends of friends) we were able to receive all of the documentation and forms necessary for his interview with the U.S. Embassy.  Just this week Justice and Mphatso were interviewed at the Embassy and were granted approval for travel to San Diego and their U.S. visas!  Praise God again for His provisions!

Mphatso still needs some blood work and a couple of other medical tests done in final preparation for his surgery.  Please pray that these tests and all of the details will go smoothly.  Mphatso's first surgery is scheduled for November 9th during Fresh Start's November surgery weekend.  He will receive another surgery a few weeks later to complete the repair to his cleft lip.  We will keep you posted on the progress of Mphatso and Justice and their adventures in San Diego.  Thank you in advance for your prayers!

This is Mphatso at his home with his family and others from his village around him.  Justice has already gotten very close to Mphatso as well as his family.  Jeremy will be traveling to Mphatso's village either today or Monday and we will have more pictures and updates then.  Thank you Justice and thank you Fresh Start for this amazing opportunity!