A living picture of the Gospel

After about six hours of waiting in lines and several heart tests later, we were finally able to see the doctor. Charlita and Ariel know that their son has some kind of problem with his heart, but I could see the shock in Charlita’s face when the doctor told her that Chariel needs surgery to repair his defective heart. She asked him if they could just give him some “gamot” (medicine). The doctor held back a surprised smile and said no. I could tell that she was in deep thought as she stood motionless while trying to grasp what this all meant. Her eyes began to water, but she held back the tears and did her best to compose herself as she listened to the doctor. Dr. Manrique explained the results of the tests that Chariel had taken. His heart has various defects including an obstruction in one of the valves and it is enlarged (I believe because it has been struggling to get more oxygen into his blood).

The good news is that the defects in his heart are not beyond repair, but fixing it is going to require two surgeries. I’m not a doctor, but I will attempt to explain the situation as best I can. If you would rather not read my feeble attempt at describing the technical details about the heart just skip down a few paragraphs.

The heart has four chambers; right and left atrium on the top, and right and left ventricle on the bottom. Normally, (starting from the right ventricle) the blood travels through a valve to the lungs so that it can be oxygenated. Then it returns to the heart through the left atrium, passes through a value and proceeds to the left ventricle. From there it is pumped through another valve to the aorta which distributes the blood to the various parts of the body to deliver oxygen and nutrients. The blood then returns to the right atrium to repeat the process.

In Chariel’s case, some defect is basically allowing some blood to bypass the lungs and go straight to the body without being oxygenated (making his fingers and toes blueish) or unoxygenated blood is mixing with oxygenated blood through a hole in the between the right and left atrium.

I believe the reason Chariel needs two surgeries is that one of his heart valves is too small to handle the increased blood flow that would result from the repairs to normalize his heart. This means that the surgeon will have to first do a temporary shunt to reroute some of the blood flow until the valve grows large enough (in a year or two) to be able to handle the increased blood flow expected to result from the second operation. The second operation will repair the defect in the heart and remove the shunt from the first operation.

We found out that the cost of the first surgery will be about $3000 and the second surgery will be about $7000-$8000. We are applying for government assistance, but we don’t know if they will help us in part, in whole, or at all. If you have read my blog before, then you probably know that Charlita, Ariel, and Chariel are 1 of about 15 families living under a bridge in Manila. They have no running water or electricity. It’s doubtful that Charlita and Ariel could come up with the $10-$11 thousand dollars in their entire lifetime. Ariel told me that he usually only gets work a couple of times a week and often goes weeks without work. Based on that, I estimate that during a good month (one in which when he finds work at least two days every week) he would make about $48 dollars a month. That’s about $1.60 a day for the whole family to live on! While driving home I told them that I don’t know how we will pay for the surgeries, but not to worry, God will provide. I probably would not normally say that, but from some reason I believe He will this time.

When we got back to the bridge several of the families there came to me to find out the latest with Chariel. As I began explaining to them the situation I again saw that Charlita did not fully understand the seriousness of Chariel’s condition. For a second time she appeared to be shocked. This time she was shocked when she heard me tell the others that the doctor said Chariel’s longest life expectancy would probably been in his teens if he did not have these surgeries. They were probably to numb to even being thinking about their little three year hold having his chest opened and having human hands working on his heart.

I think that everyone living at the bridge was shocked when they heard the cost of the operation. I could hear many of them repeating the words, “That’s over a half million pesos!” I could understand the sense of hopelessness that Charlita and Ariel must have felt when they heard what seems to be a price beyond their ability to pay for the life saving operations for their only child. What a powerful way that God has given me to share with them how God is experienced in paying for debts that are beyond our ability to pay. I will use this opportunity to share with them how God paid the penalty of our sins with the life of His only Son. They have heard the gospel through my friend Pastor Sonny and me several times, but now they will get to see a living illustration of it.

My wife Jessica and I were able to cover the 5,000 pesos for the heart tests, but the cost of the surgeries is beyond what we can do on our own. I now plead with you and all who read this to let God use you to show his love for His people at the bridge. Consider proclaiming to this family and community how great God is by making a sacrifice to help Chariel. Lets illustrate the gospel together not only in words, but also in deed.