The following blog was written by Allison Bustrak, a short-term missionary.
Catherine, one of our much loved volunteers, left last week to go to another Iris mission in Madagascar.  Before she left we were able to have a special tea with the older girls.  Many of the lady missionaries and the four oldest girls were able to sit down in the conference room and enjoy tea and Belgian style crepes together. Everyone enjoyed putting their own combination of butter, pomegranates, apple slices, cinnamon, and sugar on top before rolling their crepes and eating them.

When we were finished eating, Catherine asked the girls how she could be praying for them (although the purpose of the tea we was to pray for her)!  The girls began sharing all about their hopes and dreams.  One girl wants to be a teacher, one a social worker or a nurse, another a doctor, and the other a gospel singer with her own album.  We told her that she should start writing songs for her album.  Gloriously, she has already written a wonderful praise song since then!  Please pray with us for these girls, that they follow hard after God as they seek their dreams, and that they get the building blocks and skills they need to get there.  It was wonderful to be able to join the girls in praying for Catherine, for her to go out and let God’s love flow through her to another area that needs to receive His perfect love.

At MCV, we are privileged to see many miracles take place in the lives of children! One of the most dramatic transformations has happened before our eyes in the past 3 months.  In early January, we received an extremely sick and malnourished boy from a local government hospital.  We cannot use his real name online, so we will call him Boy Wonder.  When he arrived at MCV, he was a little skeleton.  Boy Wonder had just endured months in the hospital and was just beginning the ARTs (the HIV treatment which is extremely hard on the body).   He was on over 10 different medicines for HIV+, mild lymphopenia, anemia, latent TB, and some strange skin fungus….

Within weeks we saw amazing advancement with Boy Wonder!  He quickly began to gain weight and strength.  Within weeks, he was running about MCV playing with the other children and bossing around the little ones:)  Eating everything in sight, we could not make food fast enough.

However in early February, his health took a dramatic negative turn.  He started retaining water at an alarming rate which bloated his poor body and created such tension breathing became difficult.  Our medical intern, Catherine, spent countless days at the local hospitals following up his tests, abdominal CT scan, and blood work.  The doctors believed he had a blockage in his gall bladder, an enlarged right kidney, and enlarged liver…

Late one Friday, Boy Wonder went into mild respiratory distress while spiking a high fever.  We rushed him to the local hospital and sent out an urgent prayer request to the global MCV family.

Within hours of the request going out, Boy Wonder stabilized.  The doctors put him on oxygen to strengthen blood/lungs and then sent him home!  After a good night sleep, he woke up like nothing happened the day before.  He was laughing and playing with the other kids all weekend.

During the ultrasound a week later, the doctors were surprised and amazed to find his kidneys completely normal size!  And there was no blockage in the bile ducts!!!  GLORY!!!   No surprise here.  We know our Heavenly Daddy’s promise and plan is just beginning…

Please keep praying!  His liver is still oversized and causing stress on his small body.  Pray against some other causes like cirrhosis or Hepatitis.  Also pray with us for his new liver friendly diet.  He can be quite emotional when we deny him some of his favorite fatty foods.  Pray he can embrace and love the diet changes!  And pray for his little heart as he says goodbye to one of favorite people….

The MCV family wants to send out a huge thank you to Catherine Restiu, our medical intern, who left us last week to serve in Madagascar.  Catherine was scheduled to leave a few days after Boy Wonder arrived, but the Holy Spirit led her to stay on to help assist in his medical care.  She has been huge a huge blessing to MCV and especially our little miracle in the making.  Catherine has truly stopped for the one and we are praying God’s best blessings for her.