Back Home Safe from the Jordan Screening

All the families made it across into Jordan; I had faith that they would, but it would have been quite a feat by earthly standards. 60 people without visas, crossing a militarized border, it's just unheard of. Not only was everyone allowed to cross, but the border guard brought our Jordan coordinator a gourmet coffee while he waited,..wow.

To recap, the screening in Jordan is done once a year for the potential Iraqi patients. Jordan is more or less a neutral ground. We coordinate the entire trip and get them to Amman to be screened by an Israeli cardiologist who determines if and when a surgery is necessary or possible for each child.

Read all about the screening here: http://shevet.org/screening/

As for my personal involvement, I drove to the border from Jerusalem with the rest of the staff in tow at around 6:30 Monday morning, made good time to the border, and even better getting through (not having a bunch of Iraqi's with you helps). We made it to Amman in time to drop our stuff off where we would be sleeping and get to the screening site in a very nice modern church. We spent the evening briefing the families on what would be happening, sharing some encouraging words, meeting them, eating a meal together with them all, and prepping the facility for the screening in the morning.

We made it back to the place we were staying around 11pm and went straight to bed for the big day which would begin at 5:45am for me. I couldn't get to sleep because of the combination of heat and tormenting mosquitoes; my options were to sleep uncovered and be eaten alive, or cover my whole body and sweat out the night. I chose the latter, and found myself finally dozing around 2:30am when the air finally cooled. Needless to say it was a rough start getting going on the big day.

My duties involved doing all the photo documentation for each child so we would have something better than a lineup photo to present to potential sponsors, as well as pacifying/entertaining the families while they waited (usually hours) to be seen. This was no easy task given the number of children with separate handicaps, including violent behavioral issues and mental retardation. Despite this I managed to create some meaningful bonds with many of the children.

We finished the screening at around 1am on Wednesday, about 19 hours of consecutive work later. I've worked exceedingly long days before, but the amount of energy required for this, in addition to the lack of sleep, countless nagging bug bites (I'd estimate around 30), and a spontaneous fit of allergies that had me blowing my nose every 10 minutes for 15 hours, made it pretty grueling. It was all worth it in the end. 21 children were invited to surgery in Israel, as well as another 3 that are possibly savable, 4 children who need no surgery, and 3 were found to have no medical hope for treatment. We should have 5 with us in Israel within a couple weeks.

Wednesday was nearly as long as the Tuesday screening. Wednesday we collected all the families at their hotel, informed them of when they would be coming to Israel, and got them all packed and off to the airport once again. I spent a few precious hours playing with the children, and praying for the terminal ones, before seeing them off. After finishing the remaining work, and packing everything up, we left for home and made it back to Jerusalem around 1am Thursday.

Since I was the photographer, I have all the pictures of the children at the screening cataloged and named here for you. Just click below, and please keep them in your prayers.

Jordan Screening 2009

Basic Info about Shevet and What I Will Be Doing There

shevet.org

Shevet Achim is a Christian organization founded in 1994 and is based in the oldest children’s hospital in the Middle East. Shevet Achim (“Brothers Together” if you have trouble with Hebrew) is taken from the Hebrew of Psalm 133, “How good and how pleasant for brothers to dwell together in unity...for there the LORD commanded the blessing—life forevermore.” To live this out we seek to "go and do likewise" as the Good Samaritan, who crossed lines of division to show that an enemy is in fact a neighbor also loved by God. About one in 200 children are born with congenital heart defects and in recent decades surgical advances have been made which make most of these problems completely fixable. However few places in the Middle East have access to the specialized centers which can perform open heart surgery. With liaisons across the Middle East Shevet Achim seeks out children in the region who need life-saving heart surgery, regardless of their background, and brings them to the advanced medical centers of Israel. Places such as the Gaza Strip, Iraq, and the West Bank which are unstable do not have access to the same medical aid that the Western World takes for granted and without the aid of Shevet Achim and treatment available in Israel they will certainly die. Once in Israel, Israeli doctors and hospitals are willing to rescue these children, and in most cases bear a majority of the expense themselves. Shevet Achim’s role is to find the children, transport them to Israel, and raise financial support as needed. In one of the most hostile regions of the world a Christian organization is working with Jewish doctors to help save the lives of Muslim children, supported by donations from around the world.

While what each worker does at Shevet Achim is always contingent on what the needs are at that period of time, this is my present understanding of what I personally will be doing. I will be one of a couple people that lives on site with the children and families at Shevet Achim who are available 24 hours a day for whatever needs they may have. This can take the form of administering medications, driving kids to and from the hospital, comforting family members during these difficult times, assisting with transporting people to and from the borders of Gaza, the West Bank and Iraq, updating the blogs of the children daily, and certainly many more tasks. For what this ministry does, this role is absolutely key and bears a great deal of responsibility. This position will certainly give me many opportunities to exercise my gifts and strengths, the very same that you my community have been nurturing in me. I am so incredibly excited to be able to jump right in to the heart of what this ministry is about!