Dear Friends,

Summer is Gone

Though fall is a beautiful time of the year, there is a sadness about it. It is a time of saying goodbye to warm evenings, gentle breezes and all the joys of summer. And yet the starkness of winter is needed. When our landscape is stripped of its foliage, we see more clearly.

 Trip to Kosovo

In July, I traveled to Kosovo with Dr. Ayaz Malik, a neurosurgeon from Baylor-Garland Hospital. Two of our eight days were spent seeing patients, many with whom we had been conversing for months. Most had already received treatment but needed further attention.

Each of the first three patients Dr. Malik saw had a severed spinal cord. None had been told.  The pain of telling them, especially the very young, and explaining they would never walk again still makes my heart ache.

The greatest gift Dr. Malik gave these patients was honesty. After all, if we don’t know what is going on with our own body, how do we proceed?

 Agnon’s Story

The last patient that came to see Dr. Malik was Agnon, a young man I had met in January of last year. His hope at that time was that the shrapnel fragments in his head could be surgically removed. However, every doctor we consulted agreed this would not be possible. All that we could promise Agnon was that Dr. Malik would see him during his visit to Kosovo.

Now that time had come. After Agnon explained his symptoms, Dr. Malik was astounded that with so much brain damage he had not experienced more adverse effects. I listened to the exchange for quite a while and finally shared with Agnon the importance of gratitude even when we have lost so much. Certainly, it seemed, he had many things to be grateful for that he might not have considered.

Agnon began to smile as if he were seeing things more clearly than ever before. “I haven’t told you what happened when I was injured,” he began. “I was near the Albanian border and they thought I was dead, so they took me to a morgue in Albania. They returned after four days to record the names of the bodies when someone noticed I was alive.” 

We were speechless - can you imagine! We all began to laugh. Dr. Malik finally said, “Agnon, you need to go home and hug your wife and kids.”  I added, “And ask God why you have been so blessed.” We left the hospital that day with a sense of amazement.

Kosovo Patients

Rajmonda Krasniqi is a 12 year old that arrived here with her mother in March this year. She has profound hearing loss and was fitted with digital hearing aids right away. We are hoping that she will have a cochlear implant next year. Rajmonda is an exceptional child and has amazed her teachers and us by how quickly she has learned. She is in both a class for the hearing impaired and in classes with hearing children.

Waiting to Come

For weeks after returning from Kosovo in July, I had trouble sleeping. There are so many people who need treatment. And even when we are able to arrange all the needed resources, bringing them here is a painfully slow process.

Ryve lost her arm above the elbow in the 1999 accidental NATO bombing of a caravan of people fleeing Kosovo. She lost six family members that day and later four brothers. Prosthetics for upper extremities are not available in Kosovo.

Avni was a carefree, happy-go-lucky young man before a bullet severed his spinal cord in 1999. Bajram Krasniqi, one of our past patients, took me to visit Avni’s family. They were very gracious, but their situation is extremely difficult. In spite of every possible effort, no one in Avni’s family is employed. We believe that Avni’s physical condition can be improved by his coming here for rehabilitation.

Ryve and Avni are two of the several patients we are hoping to bring to Dallas for treatment. However, many things are needed before we can bring another patient. If you have an interest in helping with this, please call us.

Containers

It took four months, but the container of clothes and shoes finally arrived in Uganda. It was distributed at a Sudanese refugee camp. Dallas Christian School students, parents and faculty made incredible contributions of time and effort in order to make this possible. Clayton Whalley coordinated that part of the effort.

Magi gifts, children’s shoes and clothes were part of the container that left this month for Croatia. Containers will go next month to Chihuahua, Mexico and to Kosovo.

Conclusion

 It is important from time to time to back away from our crazy world of ‘me and mine’ and consider reality. Life is pure gift. We had nothing to do with where, when or to whom we were born. In our foolishness, sometimes we think we have something to do with our death. In reality we have little to do with that as well.

Why, then, do we not live in gratitude for every gift of life, taking time to care for our neighbor who is deprived of food and basic health care? Unless we guard against the ‘me and mine’ mentality that spoils all that it touches, we too will choose to stay safe and comfortable while our neighbor suffers.

            Thank you for all the ways you help us help others.           

In gratitude,  

Rae England