Dear friends,
Little Mohammed from Gaza, now 15 days old, is getting stronger in the
ICU in Israel. He's taking less medication and his blood pressure is better,
but after five days on dialysis he's still not urinating. We continue
to pray for the restoration of life and function to his kidneys.
Elia visited the hospital and found that Mohammed's father has been waiting
nearly 30 years to have a child; after his first wife proved childless
he married a second wife, and Mohammed is their first child together.
(Note: this photo of Mohammed is corrected from a previous e-mail, which
inadvertently pictured another child from Gaza also hospitalized in Israel
for heart surgery.)
Meanwhile, newborn Juma is still hospitalized in the Makassed Hospital
on the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem, after an intensive week of blood
tests, DNA analysis, muscle and skin biopsy, aimed at identifying the
metabolic disorder which took his three older brothers in their first
weeks of life, and now threatens to take him. Juma is receiving intravenous
nutritional and vitamin support, but doctors have not yet identified any
treatable condition.
Phil was in the hospital this morning, and reported that for the first
time the mother smiled and seemed pleased to see his familiar face; but
after listening to the doctors pessimistically discussing Juma's prognosis
with Phil, she broke down and cried.
Let's keep interceding for these two babies and their families, asking
that their lives will be an occasion for revealing the grace of God, and
the love that Jesus asks for between neighbors.
Jonathan Miles
