A Birthday Opportunity

On Friday was Kevin's birthday. It was a hot day in the 90's and so we decided to go swimming for his birthday. As we were walking into the place to pay, our fellow missionary, Gordon Elliott, received a phone call that the pastor of the church we are now attending, had an apendicitis. He was at the hospital and needed surgery.

We immediatly left the swimming pool parking lot and went to the hospital where we met up with him and his wife. Pastor Ramiro had been suffering from an apendicitis for three days prior and it had gotten so bad that they had taken him into the emergency room. His wife, Edit, is only 21 and was very scared. They had to wait for a bed to open up before they could operate and that meant the possibility of waiting until Monday. To make matters worse, the hospital had already said, he was in a grave condition and they needed to operate soon.

We stayed seven hours praying with Ramiro and Edit as well as making runs to the Pharmacy to pick up more operating supplies. You see, in Bolivia the friends and family are provided prescriptions while the patient is in surgery and they are asked to go and get items like the scalpal, razors, medicine, IV's, everything. Since we and Edit were the only ones there up to the time of the surgery, it was our job to make the runs to the Pharmacy. It managed to get interesting when we were five minutes away from operating time and we couldn't find a Pharmacy with one specific perscription. It was necessary and supposedly only one location was guaranteed to have it in all of Santa Cruz, but they were probably closed for the night. So, the hospital actually managed to locate some for us. We had to pay a higher price but we had the prescription. Kevin ran it in and the surgery started.

Once the surgery was over, the doctor notified us that the apendix had been damaged and probably would have burst very soon. We are so thankful that God allowed us to be there and witness the miracle of Ramiro's surgery. What more is that we have been praying for an opportunity to get to know Ramiro and Edit. With their busy schedules, it had been near impossible to get together with them. This was the opportunity that God provided to break down some barriers and get to know Pastor Ramiro and Edit.

While it may not have been the birthday we had planned for, it was certainly the one that God wanted Kevin to have. Thank you for your prayers as we continue to work with the people in Bolivia. Please also pray for Ramiro as he recovers from his surgery.