October 20, 2009

I am sorry that it has been awhile since I’ve written.  My recent trip to Ouanaminthe in July was a flurry of activity that included hosting a group of medical professionals.  Dr. Juan Padilla, a neurosurgeon and friend of ours from the southern tip of Texas brought a group of almost 30 doctors, nurses and volunteers to perform operations on 70 adults.  While he was there, Juan was also able to see our friend, Dameus.

Many of you will remember that Aslan has been working with Hope For Haiti for over a year now to try and help this wonderful 22-year-old man.  From the moment Dameus first showed up on Danita’s doorstep at church one Sunday in April of 2008, I was compelled to do something to help him.  When he was a little boy Dameus got a cut on his head.  With polluted water and no antibiotic ointment, this simple cut was left untreated and a fungal infection slowly started as the cut healed over.  Over the years, the infection became worse and resulted in a large lump between his skull and skin.  About three years ago, this now huge growth literally broke open into a gaping, open wound.  His mother took him to Haitian doctors who said there was nothing they could do to help.  By the time he came to Danita’s church that day in April of 2008, he was crying himself to sleep every night in excruciating pain.

When we wrote to you about Dameus, many of you responded to help us with this need.  We quickly raised almost $15,000, and Dameus spent several months undergoing radiation and chemotherapy in Santiago, Dominican Republic.  While he was there, his tumor shrank remarkably.  All of our hopes and prayers were that this treatment would heal him.  However, when Joseph and I took Dameus back to the hospital in Santiago a CT Scan confirmed that the cancer had unfortunately spread to other places and through the bone in his skull.  Neither surgery or more radiation and chemo can help him.

As sad as this is, your gifts were not in vain and it is still not “the rest of the story.”  Our friends Karris and Brenda spent time talking to Dameus about his relationship with God.  I had the privilege of seeing him three days after he opened his heart to Jesus’ love, and he was literally not the same person.  When I walked in, Dameus had a look of peace and joy on his face that lit up the room!  And we still have enouth money left to continue helping him.  Every day, a nurse travels to the small hut where Dameus lives with his mother and father to wash the gaping wound on his head.  Danita also regularly provides food for him and his family.

Please continue to pray for this dear young man.  Had we not, with your help, stepped in when we did Dameus would have died soon after we first met him.  However long God desires for him to live on this earth, we know that when Dameus dies he will be in the arms of Jesus.  As Dickens wrote in A Tale of Two Cities, “It is a far, far better rest that I go to, than I have ever known.”

Thanks to all of you who care so much about Aslan’s work in Haiti.

Craig

P.S. Following are pictures of when we first met Dameus and than after he received the treatments in Santiago.  I have included them not to shock you but for one reason only ~ to emphasize how critically important it is for Aslan to build a clinic on our land to serve children who receive no medical care.  Had Dameus been properly treated 15 years ago, this would never have happened.
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