Operation Smile and an Orphanage

Another highlight of our mission took place this week. One of our new projects was to donate funds to feed the patients at this Operation Smile mission for cleft palate repairs. The hospitals here do not provide food for their patients, and because many of the patients had to come from long distances, getting food was a major difficulty. We were thrilled that this project was approved, and more thrilled when we attended the event. We were taken through the entire process, from screening patients to post-op. We were very impressed with the caliber of volunteers (Doctors, anesthesiologists, nurses, etc. from all over the world) who came together to make this work. They LOVE thier work and it shows! We will share some videos about it when we return.

We were allowed to go into the operating room where two patients were being operated on. It was amazing to see the difference in the patient going into surgery and going out of surgery. We feel we were witnessing miracles. We followed these two children into recovery and post-op.

The picture of the man with the raised arms was a father who had just seen his daughter for the first time after surgery. I was there. He took one look at her face (she was a double-cleft, extremely deformed) and first held his hands to his heart, then lifted them to praise God for the miracle he was seeing. You could not keep from crying.

We learned that the reason we haven't seen children with cleft palates around Kinshasa is that their parents hide them. Some feel that these children are 'devil' children and should not be seen. We only saw mothers and fathers who love their little ones and want a normal life for them.

Don't mourn over these children. They now look wonderful!

On an outing to look at a potential project for capturing some springs, we had to walk through this river. The people with us are the contractor, the president and vice-president of the organization that brought the project to us, plus various and assorted other villagers who are always interested in seeing the moondellis. Even though the water looks very dirty, it really felt wonderful and we wanted to go for a swim!

We visited an orphanage recently. That's where Elder B is, holding a sick baby. He's a natural at such things. Several of these children are being adopted by US couples. Some of the children are here at the orphanage because their parents can't afford to care for them. Others do not have parents. One is referred to as the "trash baby" because he was left in the trash. The Hatches, our wonderful office couple, found this place and have asked the rest of the couples to help them build a fence across the front of the property to keep the children's balls and toys from rolling down the hill into the road. Elder B can't wait to get to work and actually get his hands dirty!!

We are so blessed to be doing this work. It is hard, sometimes things are out of control because there are so many different aspects of the work we have to be involved in at the same time, but we love the work and can't imagine doing anything else. There are frustrations, but we are learning how to stay calm. For example, we have one of the Operation Smile nurses staying overnight with us tonight. She just came out to say her bed just broke while she was saying her prayers and the light stopped working at the same time. She is from SL City and this is her 18th Operation Smile mission!! I told her I knew she could handle it. She agreed that as long as she could have running water and a flush toilet, she was A-ok. At least those things are still working.

There are many more pictures we would love to share, but this will have to suffice for now.

We love you and appreciate your prayers.