On our last mission trip in January, we were walking around a small village and visited a family with a boy who is a very good student. The family doesn’t have enough money to pay for school supplies, so we were talking about finding a sponsor to provide educational assistance. While we were talking with the parents outside of their house, Father Hieu decided to walk in through the back door into the kitchen to see what kind of food they had available. In addition to being a priest, Father Hieu is also a doctor; he is always interested in making sure kids have healthy food and providing information on how people can improve their health. While we were talking with the mother about the family’s health, she showed us a wound that her youngest son had for almost a year. It looked similar to a hard scab over his rib cage. Yen and Father Hieu are both doctors so they were very interested in the kid’s ribs and started asking a ton of questions and examining the ribs. Hieu and Yen were having a hard time determining what the wound was and why it was not healing, so Father Hieu called one of his doctor friends in the area to give the kid an X-ray and check him out further.

I have an update from Father Hieu that he wanted us to pass on. The kid had previously broken his rib and a fragment of bone had broken off. This had caused an abscess under the skin. Father Hieu’s doctor friend had found the problem and removed the bone fragment and abscess free of charge! The kid may end up with a small scar, but he’ll have a good story to go with it. We also found donors to sponsor the education of the kid’s older brother, so the family is having a great month! I love stories with happy endings.

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