Allen's Latest Mission of Mercy

Some blog posts are recaps of the latest news and some posts need to come with a big BREAKING NEWS banner scrolling across your computer screen. This is one of those “breaking news” days. Picture a live action news van trailing Allen as he goes out on a mission of mercy.

As you know, this is the time of year when everyone at Sowers4Pastors is out distributing backpacks. This time is important, and not just because the children are receiving necessary school supplies, shoes, etc. It’s also the only opportunity Sowers4Pastors has to see each child in the program and update all of their information at the same time. From an administrative standpoint, this is huge. When they visit the sponsorship centers, they are on the lookout for any special needs that have come up and haven’t been caught before. 

Recently, S4P was visiting a center in Quelacasque with a visiting team from The Well Worship Center in Kansas. One of the team members sponsors a little girl named Yessenia. In visiting with the family, the team member learned that Yessenia fell off a horse and broke her arm about four months ago. Yessenia lives with her very kind and attentive grandparents. The grandparents cared for Yessenia in the best way they knew how by taking her to the local healer. It is normal for each village to have its own healer to deal with illness and injury. In the case of a broken bone, however, a local healer is ill-equipped to provide the necessary treatment. Yessenia’s arm, which was broken a couple of inches below her elbow, was never set. Without surgery, Yessenia would be unable to bend her left arm or use it for more than very light lifting. The sponsor went to Allen and he agreed to do everything he could to help.

Allen already knew that a very large team of gringo doctors was working at the Clinica San Lucas in Gracias this week. He reached out to them last week and was told they could have a look at her, but that all of the surgical spots were filled. Allen begged them to notify him if they had a cancellation. When he took Yessenia to the clinic on Monday, a doctor examined her arm and scheduled the surgery for six months from now, when the next clinic will be held. Even though Yessenia isn’t in pain, this news was disappointing because one of the visiting doctors at this clinic is an orthopedic surgeon who specializes in wrists. Wrist. Elbow. That’s close! Allen had been so hopeful that she would get her surgery sooner rather than later.

Tuesday night, he got word that there was a cancellation. Yessenia could have her surgery if they could get her to the clinic on Wednesday morning. Since this is a surgery requiring general anesthesia, it was important for Allen to get to the family before Yessenia had anything to eat. He left home at 5:30 to tell the family the big news before breakfast. If all has gone as expected, she should be recovering from surgery right now.

The timing of everything has been difficult because there are teams on the ground and Rachel & Kirstin are out of town for a conference - so every pair of hands is needed at the backpack distributions! Allen has made a lot of trips back and forth to Quelacasque to make this happen. One day, he went out to take Yessenia to the clinic and she was already out working in the fields with her grandparents. While all of this was going on, another sponsor said that their sponsored child’s parents needed medical care. Allen also made sure they got to the clinic. We talk a lot about backpacks and nutritious meals, but sponsoring a child goes beyond that. This is the kind of thing Sowers4Pastors tries to do for sponsorship kids whenever the need arises. 

 - posted by Christi

Update from Trish:

Yessenia's surgery went well, though it was very long! She is now recuperating at home, and expectations are that she will regain full use of her arm. Praise God for all the pieces He put into place, to make this possible!