As you can see, we decided that if we cannot get to the Harvest Festival at the church, then we would have our own!!!
Having our own Dress up Party!!!!!
As you can see, we decided that if we cannot get to the Harvest Festival at the church, then we would have our own!!!
Bran in the toy shop
Brans Nurse From Ethiopia
Bran is Smiles better
Branos Doc in Ethiopia Rick Hodes
The Israel Connetion
The Doc who sent Brano
Video of Ric Hodes in Ethiopia
If his patients require sophisticated medication, he hunts it down. He arranges free surgeries abroad. He moves kids who need special care into his own modest home (three bedrooms inside, three in an outbuilding) or another that he rents nearby. "Whenever half a mattress is free," he says, "I take in someone new." Some are abandoned kids who live on the streets; others come from families who can't feed them. In addition to providing medical treatment, he oversees the children's education, lining up donors to pay for both.
Most striking of all, Hodes, who is single, has adopted five Ethiopian children, the maximum allowed. He started in 2001 to put two orphans—Semegn, now 19, and Dejene, 15—on his insurance plan so they could have surgery in Texas. "It was kind of a scary decision, so I thought about it for a few days," Hodes recalls. "The answer that came to me was, God is offering you an opportunity to help these boys. Don't say no."
A specialist in cancer, heart disease, and spinal conditions, Hodes first went to Ethiopia as a relief worker during the 1984 famine. He returned there on a Fulbright fellowship and in 1990 was hired by the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee (JDC), a humanitarian group, as medical director for the country, overseeing the health of Ethiopian Jews who planned to immigrate to Israel. He discovered Mother Teresa's Mission while searching for a teenager he'd been treating for heart disease. When the boy disappeared from the hospital because he couldn't pay, Hodes tracked him down at the mission. Hodes became a volunteer and was soon spending as much time there as at his salaried job.
Until two years ago, he financed his mission work out of his paycheck or by begging aid wherever he could find it. Now the JDC helps with fund-raising, but Hodes still digs into his own pocket when a patient needs bus fare or a meal. He buys shoe polish for boys who support themselves by shining shoes. He pays the rent for a widow whose daughter is undergoing multiple spine surgeries.
"Rick could have done very well for himself practicing in the United States, but he chose to do something so much harder," says Irving Fish, MD, director of pediatric neurology at New York University Medical School, who visited the mission recently. "He's totally selfless. I've really never met anyone like him."
Hodes does without comforts most Americans take for granted, like hot water and reliable electricity. He has all but given up on finding a partner with whom to share his life and work. But to him, these aren't sacrifices. To quote his favorite passage from the Talmud, an ancient book of Jewish law: "Saving one life is like saving an entire world."
Readers Digest on Doc Rick Hodes
Tuesday Night
Time is 9.40pm and I am in the RMH and feeling really happy and settled tonight. Berhanu is sleeping as I left PICU.
From The Ground in Ethiopia.....
Please give me your mailing address, I will burn you a CD and mail it to you.
In short, I am based at a Catholic facility xxxxxxxxxxxxx xxxxx xxx
though the nuns don't like to have that name in print) and I work in 3
areas: heart disease (congenital and rheumatic), spine disease (TB of
the spine and severe scoliosis), and I treat kids for cancer. People
come from all over the country to be treated by me.
In the past few years, I have sent 50 spine patients overseas for
surgery, 24 heart patients, and treated over 20 cancer patients.
Besides my normal, very busy clinic which is completely free.
My mom lives in Laguna Niguel, and I have a brother in Laguna Beach.
Internet here is very slow.
Getting containers cleared from customs here is almost impossible.
I am employed by the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee, www.jdc.org
a 95 year old NGO based in NYC which passes 100% of donations on to
us. It is very well run and highly respected, no problem with the tax
part. And though I am a Jew (based in a Catholic mission), the
patients are all religions and ethnicities. My program was recently
examined very closely by a team from the Ministry of Health here, who
gave us a fantastic evaluation.
I see my role here as helping people that nobody else is interested
in. You can see some pics on the Reader's Digest website, just type
Hodes into the search engine.
Contributions can be made by check (AJJDC, 711 3rd Ave, 10th floor,
NY, NY 10017, att: Will Recant - checks should be marked "for
Ethiopian project"), or via the JDC website.
The website you cite is blocked here, i will be happy to see it next
time I'm in the USA.
My life is financially poor, otherwise rich, quite chaotic and
stressful, but ultimately very happy.
Berhanu has an uncle in the village but he has not called me. Nobody
has asked for any pics. Social worker? It' only me!
thanks.
rick
Operation Complete Bran In ICU
Angels at work- Op begins 7.30am
Its 5.30 am and it time for Branahue to have his last part of surgery.
The Hospital is a buzz with constant activity and action.Bran. is aware of whats happening -the nurse on our floor who speaks Ahmeric has explained all that is to be done.
He is aware he is heading for another bout of sever pain as the surgeons move the spine into its final location and secure the final titanium steelwork to straighten his spine.The process involves cutting some ribs out and removing some segments from the ribs to form a new rib cage.
At time of typing I am in the Cafe in the basement of the building awaiting a call from the doctors .
I am amazed at the quantity of children who are in surgery,The pre op area was like a space station preparing all of the children with tubes monitors and sensors......so many Doctors and nurses working on Children simultaneously.
Dr Skaggs came and asked me if I had any questions - I said yes can I have a bit of the temporary steelwork in Brans back after the final operation- he said it may be a bio Hazard but he would get it cleared and then would give me a titanium rod that has been in his back for the last week...
I believe these men are doing the work of God.For some they are God - but for me they simply are the hands of the master surgeon.
Why does God not just speak the healing words and repair the children the way Jesus is documented in Jewish and Roman History.
I just don;t know -but I do know we have a responsibility to do all we can for humanity ....The ways,the timing of God will one day be clear..........amidst all this pain and agony .it's hard.
Branhue Heptu ...........the meekest man I have ever met........so helpless yet receiving so much help.
Dear God , please heal this child may he stand Strong stand tall and enjoy the wealth of a healthy life. God I am your child so blessed .please share the blessing with Bran .make him whole.
Amen and amen.
Your pal
jim
Piano Player CHLA Sun 11pm
I stopped for a moment and just filmed a lovely poignant moment as a Young man played on the piano............amidst a sea of Human suffering his music was so peaceful and so refreshing.
It is so so hard to be in a place where the tears of the children bleed out through the walls.One night in CHLA is like being on the front line of human suffering and illness.Choppers land on the roof they deposit the critically ill children from LA.Car accidents and trauma cases.The hospital is so busy.
As one child leaves- a space another arrives-In the last week Brano has shared a room with 4 different children.
My sadness is overwhelming at times...........The question comes to mind how can God allow such suffering-how can there be justice in a 4 month old child born with tumour.How can a Father be comforted when his two children are both suffering severe spinal injury when a drunk driver hits them from behind and their lives are on the line.where is God.?
I believe just as I have tears -God cries also......Jesus wept at the loss of his Friend.
My how we have wandered away from the original design for man in the Garden.
How we have changed the lifestyle God had planned......how soon God will come back and wipe away the tears and end the suffering of the innocent and the pure in heart....
Where is God - He can be found in the hearts and the conscience of every man woman boy and girl......Where is he in the suffering child's situation......listening answering prayers and considering when all this Hell on earth for suffering children will end.
I don't have all the answers -I have many questions...............surly God will wipe all these tears away........
jim
Sunday Morning lie in
Sunday Morning Lie in!!!!!!
Saturday Morning
The Prayers of the pure in heart
Psalm 121:1 A PSALM of Hope
. I will lift up my eyes to the hills— From whence comes my help? 2 My help comes from the Lord, Who made heaven and earth. 3 He will not allow your foot to be moved; He who keeps you will not slumber. 4 Behold, He who keeps Israel Shall neither slumber nor sleep. 5 The Lord is your keeper; The Lord is your shade at your right hand. 6 The sun shall not strike you by day, Nor the moon by night. 7 The Lord shall preserve you from all evil; He shall preserve your soul. 8 The Lord shall preserve your going out and your coming in From this time forth, and even forevermore.
The operation in 3D- The technology is incredible
Watch Branos LA Doc in action
CH LA ICU The day Poverty and Mercy Clashed
CH LA ICU The day Poverty and Mercy Clashed
Rev 21:4
……God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain………..
My! How this child has affected us, as a family has been immense.
The petty little problems of life are so small compared to the plight of millions of children across the world, in deep need!
I was cut to the heart on Wednesday night as I arrived at ICU –CHLA around 10pm.I was taken into an area where Angels were in operation as Nurses and Doctors gave intense treatment to some really sick children.
The love, the devotion and the care I witnessed in CHLA was incredible. Surrounded by a sea of monitors, sensors screens and wires it was like being in a space station where every breath and every move made is checked rechecked and monitored by NASA.
Amidst the technology …there lays a little child grasping for life and panting for air, eyes swollen and whimpering on the edge of a fine balance of Morphine and pain.
Brano (we will settle on Brano- I wanted to call him Bono but somebody else has that name)
He lies on his side just able to open his eyes and clasp Caroline's finger, he whimpers as I speak and say a few words in Amharic.
He has not said much since he came- he has a lot to say now, to hear a child in Amharic in pain and be unable to understand is ……it’s just hard.
The love I feel for this child - is immense, he has only been in my life for around two weeks and yet he has changed my life forever.
Brano Heptu is poverty in high definition-no parents, a 7 year old sister 8 Km away form school being raised by an uncle, the average life span age in Addis is 40-45…. life is so hard. The child has nothing. The only possession he had when he came was a bag of mending kid's clothes, and a little black cross.
This is a divine moment where a people from CA can bless one who has so little with so much, In essence two cultures have met, and poverty and mercy have clashed at a junction brokered by mending kids.
This is the least we can do, to love a helpless child who really needs help.
Where is God in all this suffering?
My how we have wandered away from the original design for the Garden of Eden. I understand how people can Question the existence of God when they see such pain and suffering in innocent Children.
I also understand that this was not Gods design or his plan for mankind. I believe this suffering will end and one day God will wipe away every tear of every innocent child, a day comes when there will be no more suffering.
Understanding why it’s allowed to continue at all is hard; the limits of the human intellect blur at Gods timetable his plans his ways.
My friends this is not the time to debate it’s the time to do.
Our lives our church has been impacted we will never be the same, one of my life’s missions is now to get resource and foster families for Mending kids………mending kids is not words it the real deal its action…!
I type with a heavy heart. I have just dropped Beth off at school; our house is empty without Carrie she just fills up our lives with everything.
I went home last night and the dogs were loading up the Car to leave and move out. Chris and I are walking them but they miss the buzz around the house.
I need to finish and get back to work.
Two things I need to say.
The People of Ocean Hills Church are superb.
I have seen people write checks to mending kids-I have seen the Karen's and the Patti’s travel with Caroline-the toys and the presents, the clothes the kindness The Ethiopian interpreters that have came to the surface…………the Ocean of compassion has engulfed Brano……….he is drowning in stuffed animals and gifts
Ocean hills-what a community of people to be sick in quilts, food cards, not words real people, babysitters. …Real people who really care…
Our pals Gus and Kelly. As I entered ICU there were four beds, Brano with Caroline and in the corner to my left our friend Kelly holding a baby called Mia, Major facial issues, her mother from India exasperated very young and finding it hard to cope –she left went back to Ron Macdon,……Kelly left holding the baby.
Such love such friendship such dedication, just the automatic reaction to hold and to cleave those who are sick…
Gus and Kelly you are symbolic of the heart of Ocean.
We’ll get by with a little help form our friends.
Your pal
Jim