URGENT heart surgery needed

This week we hosted our 3^rd Annual “Camp Canaan” with 115 of our big kids (ages 3-7) and the theme was “Created by God.  Built for a purpose” The supporting bible verse is “For I know the plans I have for you says the Lord.”  Jeremiah 29:11

The children had a blast learning about all the how God created us all differently and that was underscored by each station, the favorite being face painting. 

I sat beside my friend and co-worker, Lisa Borders, and pointed to one child and said, “Do you remember his story? The Doctors in SA told us he wouldn’t live and just to make him comfortable in hospice.”  That child was at the front leading the choir.

Then I pointed at a sweet girl in the back and reminded reminisced that we didn’t think she would ever sit, walk or see, but there she was singing and dancing to one of her favorite songs.

Then there was the little one found as a newborn in a plastic bag under a tree – burned from the hot plastic against her bare skin. She knew all the hand movements, dance moves and sang about how God created her.

Last week I shared with you that we have a little girl named Dinah and my heart has been very heavy this week because Dinah need heart surgery urgently.  Dinah is 22-months old and cannot stand, doesn’t crawl, doesn’t smile, doesn’t talk. Her favorite place is sitting with her head on someone’s chest, and honestly that’s about all the energy she has because of her heart problem.

God made Dinah, and He made her heart, and it needs to be fixed.  It seems to me that the creator of the Universe, the one who created the heart in the first place could/should just fix it?  So why isn’t He?  That left me perplexed as I watched our children on stage jumping, singing, clapping and dancing.

Without heart surgery (or divine healing), Dinah will never be on that stage dancing and singing.

As you may recall, Dinah arrived when she was 18-months old and only weighed 15 pounds. She was in and out of hospital for much of her short life, being treated for malnutrition, but sadly, no one noticed that she had an enlarged heart and a significant heart murmur.  Last week we took Dinah to South Africa to see a pediatric cardiologist and were told that she needs to have surgery as soon as possible.  For the medical people reading this wanting to know the details she has a large PDA (8mm), enlargement of LV and LA, no VSD or ASD, left to right PDA shunt gradient of 45mmHg (suggests moderate elevation of PA pressures).  I don’t completely understand it all, but I know some of you want to know that details.

The cost for the heart surgery, including a 10-day hospital stay (due to her body condition from malnutrition) is $21,000 USD, but the good news is that it can be done at an excellent Pediatric Cardiology hospital in Johannesburg.  This surgery should have been done days or weeks after her birth, but it was undetected until now, so now is the time.

Maybe you have been reading this blog for a long time and watching from a distance. Maybe you have cried with us, laughed with us, prayed with us and celebrated with us, but have never gotten involved.  Maybe you have been very involved from the beginning, but now it’s time to step in again.

I am inviting the thousands of people who will read this blog to PLEASE consider helping us save Dinah’s life, by providing the funding for her life-saving surgery.

Will you help us today?

In the US please click here.

In Canada please click here.

Live from Swaziland … I am thankful that God created Dinah for a purpose.

Janine