"Miguel"

Is this really mi vida????  I found myself thinking today as I pulled up to an abandoned, halfway built concrete house with a fellow missionary (Jim) at 7am and we headed down the mountain with my newest Haitian patient to an HIV specialist.

"Miguel" is homeless, has a past history of drug abuse and theft.  He has been in and out of prison multiple times and has been known to deceive and con those closest to him.  And, he's 19.  Only.

Being Haitian alone places "Miguel" at risk; but a known law offender does not help his cause.  Despite being placed in difficult situations with "Miguel" over the past year Jim has not given up on his life and has continued to encourage, love, mentor and guide him.

And finally, after a traumatic jail experience in February, "Miguel" opened his heart to the Lord.

He left prison a changed man.  

If only his exterior matched his new heart as there are many people in Jarabacoa (including fellow church members and police men) that need to be proven otherwise.

So why would a PA be thrown into the mix?

When "Miguel" was discharged from prison he found out that he is HIV positive.  And when he found this out...so did everyone around him.  Leaving "Miguel" without a job, a home or friends.  On top of this, his Mom died of heart disease in Haiti leaving him an orphan.

All this after he accepted Christ as his savior.

Welcome to our challenge of walking with a new believer and helping him to see the blessings of God amidst the repercussions he is suffering, as he walks through depression and suicidal ideation and attempts.

I have spent the last month meeting with Jim and "Miguel" on a regular basis and in the mean time trying my best to find him help.  Free HIV treatment exists in this country but how do I find information when I live in a remote mountain community without resources and things are just not organized and well advertised?

As I was pondering this question last week at my clinic in Corocito in walks a patient with well controlled HIV. Thank you Lord.  I cautiously breeched patient confidentiality (which doesn't exist) and found her incredibly willing to help "Miguel", including going with him to La Vega if needed.

Meanwhile time is ticking and "Miguel" is wandering the streets without food, family or even soap to bathe.  It would be so easy for him to slip into old ways to get money...stealing or robbing.  Yet he has restrained.  He is changed.

We made our first journey to the free public hospital in La Vega at the bottom of the mountain Tuesday afternoon and were disappointed to find that the HIV clinic is only open in the morning.  But thats ok, I think Jim and I both prepared ourselves for "un proceso."

Today we made the journey again.  And amidst the confusion and lack of organization, God provided an angel in the form of a happy Dominican woman with tinted red hair who has worked at the hospital for twenty years and took mercy on her two rubios and an Americano (if you can figure out which each of us is, I'd be greatly obliged!).

With Rosa's help we were given all the papers needed, taken to 4 different offices, quickly saw a referring doctor and were given an appointment with a specialist and for blood work next Friday.  All this before 10 am.  Gracias a Dios.

Jim and I found ourselves sitting with "Miguel" after returning to Jarabacoa in my office thanking the Lord.  For direction.  For help.  For an appointment.  For hope.  But mostly for "Miguel's" continued growth.

We than made an accountability plan.  If we are going to help "Miguel" with his medications and transportation he needs to meet us half way.  And so, today "Miguel's" life plan began.  We need to see church attendance.  Better hygiene.  Efforts to find a job.  It's time to live for a real life filled with a future and not just walking the line between life and death.

So join me.  Let's pray for "Miguel."  Pray that he won't stray from the Lord in his vulnerable state but continue to see the life he can have with Christ.  Pray that we can control his HIV.  That he can find a job and a house and his friends will no longer see him as a leper.  I want to see the change in him that I have had the opportunity to see in so many others; physically and spiritually.

I believe in a God who can work miracles.  Do you?

On Monday I received the call that Milagros was finally home from the hospital in Santo Domingo...2 weeks post-surgery.  The next day Mary Ellen (missionary in charge of hospitality at the base and Milagros's supervisor) and I loaded into my car and headed to her house.

I was surprised by how close Milagros lives; only a short drive up a dirt road behind the base....but it truly felt like a different world far more similar to the remote communities I visit in the mountains (like Angosto or Mata De Platano).

I am around poverty all the time.  My favorite patients live in scrap wood houses with cockroaches, lizards and rats scurrying in and out.  So, I was shocked at my internal reaction to her living conditions.

Milagros lives in a tiny house the size of an American living room partitioned into three spaces for a kitchen and two bedrooms.  The walls are made of moldy wood and plywood, the floors are hardened dirt and most of the time she has no electricity or running water.  A small outhouse is positioned behind her casa.

When Mary Ellen and I stepped out from my car; no bigger smile could have been seen. It was a little crooked with a large suture line at the posterior aspect of Milagros's cheek and tears flowing from her eyes as her tear ducts were affected by the surgery.  But nonetheless her cheeks were symmetrical...at last!!!  And that smile was so full of joy.  Her surgery was a success! Praise Jesus!

We sat with her in broken plastic chairs outside of her house amidst plantain trees and listened to her experience.  Milagros has been a very challenging patient since the beginning but The Lord has filled my heart with such overwhelming love for her.

Milagros stayed with her half brother in the capital.  He is quite poor and everyday looks for enough work to live.  Because of his quest for survival, Milagros was alone the day of surgery, while in the overcrowded hospital and while taking a taxi back to his house several days later.  Not one person visited her.

And now, here she is in her own small, hot house recuperating yet again alone.  She is not married, her two children work and the rest of her family are unsupportive.  How very different her experience looks than when most of us have surgery in a comfortable hospital with attentive nurses, supportive family and friends who cook and clean and transport us and then a comfortable house and bed to recuperate in.

Milagros fought for her surgery and she won.  She is doing great and she was able to get enough governmental assistance to afford her surgery.  But, the injustices of poverty in her situation are so overwhelming to me.  Does she not deserve the same as me?  Or you?  What is the difference in who we are? Our birth place? 

I am so thankful for all of your prayers for Milagros.  May you continue to pray for her healing and her next surgery as she also requires a full hysterectomy due to uterine fibroids that we're hoping will take place in August.

While I'm grateful for this small success, as I continue to be surrounded by innumerable injustices my quest for good health care, community development and that everyone may know the love and hope of Christ continues.  And don't you worry, I will be regularly visiting Milagros.