Dear friends,
I'm just back from a late-night trip to the Gaza hospital to see a baby boy born today--so new that he hadn't yet been named. The child came out blue and remained blue, and his family was stunned and frightened to learn from an urgent echocardiogram that the great arteries leading from his heart are switched. He's now in an incubator with his eyes screwed shut, breathing 100 percent oxygen.
The father works as a garbage collector for the city and earns NIS 1000 per month (about $250). He has six other children, several of whom I saw tonight sleeping together on the floor of their one-room, asbestos-roofed home.
We've learned from experience with other children in recent months that this condition can be fully corrected if surgery is done in the first days of life. When I first heard about this boy late this afternoon, I telephoned to the Israeli hospital, wondering about their response as they already have a house full of children undergoing surgery. "Have him here early tomorrow morning," they said.
Thank God for the continuing opportunity to rescue these little ones. Please pray with us for the medical team and the family, and that God will be glorified through the redemption of this life.
Your servant for Messiah's sake,
Jonathan Miles
Coordinator
Light to the Nations
POB 46
Ashkelon 78100
Tel. 050-402535
Fax 07-2131095
e-mail: lttn@netvision.net.il
PS Late news: the baby's name will be Mohammed.
