NEWSLETTER: FEBRUARY, 2009


Eric getting a haircut at age 12 ...

Eric and his mother were just two of a blur of people I passed while walking back across the dirt road to my car to get the medicine bag I forgot. When I returned I happened to notice Eric standing with his mother. He was a little hard to recognize at age seventeen; thin, with a bald head and hood part way over his head. He didn't look like a kid anymore. Often, older teens that used to be part of our program stop by and say "Hi", sometimes with their girlfriends or wives or even to show us their babies. Our big shower days seem to form lasting bonds.

I greeted Eric thinking he was giving us an "old times sake" visit. I said "Hi" to his mom, shook his hand and greeted him, he gave me a weak smile. I headed on up the line of boys to get to work. Something didn't seem right with Eric and his mother.

Aaron works with the teen boys at Trinchi. Later I asked him about Eric, "Aaron, Eric looks pretty thin and what's the deal with his bald head?"

I just hadn't got the word.


Eric in early January, 2009 ...

Weeks before, Aaron was with him when they were doing a TB test and found several large malignant tumors in Eric's lungs. He's on Chemo. Spectrum has helped on lab tests and medication. This tragedy has opened the door for Aaron and I to talk to Eric about the Lord and the brevity of life.

Yesterday afternoon Aaron and I visited Eric in the Tijuana hospital for the poor. As we entered his grey unheated room, Eric was sitting on a chair by his bed being hooked up to an IV. Looking up at us he smiled weakly. His eyes showed fear. The chemo is off for now as they try and deal with other complications. His mother, looking tired, stays by his side day and night; she's hanging on the best she can. At night she sleeps on the chair. She's hoping and praying her young son might live.

I don't write often about our medical focus, however working with hundreds of poor kids we too often come into a crisis situation. We thought Ricardo, a young teen by now, was cured after weeks of chemo and then remission for several years but the cancers back again trying to claim him. The family is poor. Father walks around selling brooms and cleaning items for a living. We'll have to take the tab for chemo and food.

Whether it's a child with pneumonia, a kid with a hernia or teen with cancer, our relationship with these people commits us to help. We can't make excuses or turn a blind eye. We can't say wait.


Our doctor at work ...

Our doctor is kept busy during these cold wet winter months. There are lot's of kids with coughs and pneumonia. On Fridays, she works in a remote area where the eighty kids from Tribo Jesus orphanage live.

Many thanks! Your financial help and prayers are so important. Your love helps little Pepe, and badly burned Josue, cancerous Ricardo and Eric along with a bunch of sick children ... each one struggling to make it in their cruel world. Von, for all of us working in Tijuana.

P.S Our new Comendante in the CMI has instituted "prison rules" that no longer allow us to mingle with the teen inmates. The new rules only allow us to speak to them as a group for a short time. This reduces our ministry by about 2/3rds. A real blow. Pray that we be allowed the freedom to interact with the kids. He's determined but God can over rule!