Pray for our continuing efforts to help Emanuel

As you know, last February we helped to bring Emanuel from Mexico to Oregon to save his life.  He was very close to death when Jon brought him over the boarder at Tijuana and took him to an emergency room.  After three days in intensive care and another week in the hospital he and his father Juan went to live with Luis and Jessie Zavala (our daughter and son in law).  Since March we have been transporting Emanuel to Portland three times every week for dialysis.

We thought in the beginning that it would be no problem getting special permission for Emanuel’s mother to come up from Mexico to be with him and care for him.  Unfortunately, such permission is only granted for very short periods of time and her history as a former illegal alien made it impossible.  Fortunately, Emanuel’s father, Juan, had applied for his wife to get legal papers almost 15 years ago and her long wait in line is finally over.  The law also says that in order to get legal papers, an illegal alien must be out of the U.S. for 10 years.  Vicki’s 10 years are now over and she can come legally to the U.S.

The problem is that it costs a lot of money to do so.  Please click on the following link to read more of this story and pray that God would help us raise the necessary funds.  Ask God what he would have you do to help.  Please post the link to your Facebook page.  Another think you can do is Email the link to your friends, allowing them the opportunity to participate as well.  As of this writing, we only have 10% of the necessary funds to bring Emanuel’s mother and siblings to the U.S.

The link is: https://www.gofundme.com/x4cwnrdc

New Evangelistic Home Bible Studies

This weekend we just completed a 3 day training seminar on how to use Bible Storying in evangelistic home Bible studies.  Jon did the teaching and our primary students were three couples from our churches in Jefferson and Salem.  Our plan is for Jon to teach three Bible studies – one in Salem, one in Jefferson, and one in Albany – with one of the three couples involved in each one.  The idea is that after teaching them how, they could watch him do it in a real life situation.  As weeks pass they will have opportunity to teach parts of the Bible study until, by the end of a 37 week progression of Bible stories they will be well equipped to lead Bible studies on their own.

Our goal is to teach the same seminar in 10 months, next time with each of these three couples having their own learners watch them as they lead new Bible studies.  Hopefully, next year we will be able to identify 6 new couples that want to teach Bible studies.  We can take three couples and our current three couples can take one couple each under their wings.  That is the plan now.  We will see how God leads and blesses.

Right now we are in the process of finding homes to have these new Bible studies.  Two new studies are on the calendar.  On Wednesdays we will be in Albany with co-leaders Juan and Remedios.  On Sunday evenings we will be in Jefferson with co-leaders Baltazar and Herlinda.  We want to find two more homes to have Bible studies in.  We want one in Salem with co-leaders Luis and Jessie.  We also want one more in Albany or Lebanon that Juan and Remedios will teach on their own.  Juan and Remedios were in a Bible study Jon taught for a year and a half in Lebanon and Juan also taught that Bible study when Jon was not available.  So… we actually want 4 new Bible studies.  Jon will teach three and Juan will teach one.

In the next few days, Juan will be visiting prospects in Lebanon and Albany and Jon will be visiting prospects in Salem.  Pray that we can arrange these two Bible studies quickly.  Pray for us as we teach them; and pray for the people that are going to be attending these studies.  If you would like to pray for these people by name Email Jon at sousaj@bauercom.net as we do not want to share their names here for privacy reasons.

Just a brief note on Emanuel’s condition (see previous posts):  We have been taking Emanuel to dialysis three times a week.  He is slowly getting better as he is learning to eat the right kinds of foods.  Emanuel has had to spend a night in the hospital from time to time because of high blood pressure.

Latest Update on Emanuel

Things have moved along with Emanuel’s care that we can now give you a full update.  Emanuel spent three days in ICU in San Diego and another three days in a regular room.  He received another blood transfusion and 5 dialysis treatments in 5 days.  On Thursday afternoon, I took Juan and Emanuel to the San Diego airport.  They flew directly to Portland, Oregon where our daughter Julie picked them up and took them to OHSU where Emanuel was direct admitted to Doernbecher Children’s Hospital.  

At Doernbecher doctors are continuing to monitor Emanuel’s situation.  He is now on a schedule of receiving dialysis Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.  Meanwhile, on Sunday at our Salem church we discussed Juan and Emanuel’s situation.  They needed a place to stay where Emanuel can be monitored while Juan goes to work.  Emanuel needs transportation to Portland (the only place where pediatric dialysis is available in Oregon) three times a week.  In the end, Luis and Jessie (our son-in-law and daughter) decided that they could host Juan and Emanuel for now.  Jon, Jerilyn, and Esperanza are available for transportation to Portland.  The doctor and social worker at Doernbecher agreed to the arrangements and so Emanuel will be released from the hospital on Wednesday afternoon after his dialysis treatment.

There are still two other arrangements we have to make and then the hard work of Emanuel’s regular care begins.  I am already in communication with an immigration lawyer looking into what it will take to bring Emanuel’s mother and sister and brother up here.  Having mom as a caregiver is much preferred to anyone else.  A few years ago Juan applied for legal papers for Vicki so she is already in the process.  What we need to do now is hurry up that process.  Pray that Vicki can come up sooner rather than later. 

The final detail is schooling.  How does a straight-A student continue his education when he can only attend school Tuesdays and Thursdays?  On Thursday I will be taking Juan to the local middle school and seeing what they have to offer.  Fortunately, there are tutors available during dialysis to help students with their school work.

Thank you very much for praying.  If it were not for quick action by everyone involved this BLOG would be about a memorial service rather than a medical treatment plan.  God is good.  Pray for Emanuel’s extended family.  They do not know Jesus and they believe that the saints are punishing Juan and Vicki for leaving the worship of the saints.  Juan’s faith is very strong.  He has been through a lot since he gave his life to Jesus.

Update on Emanuel

God is certainly taking care of Emanuel and answering your prayers.  The boarder crossing was faster than I ever thought possible.  I called ahead and talked to two supervisors who later met me at the door and led me into the facility.  When we got word that Juan and Emanuel were close I went out to meet them and brought them past the extremely long line to the supervisors who took us to the exit and passed us through so fast that I was amazed that we didn't get a speeding ticket.  They also had a wheelchair waiting for them and both supervisors stood with them while I went to get my car.  Talk about VIP treatment.  The President doesn't get over the boarder faster than that. 

Emanuel's doctor in Portland had called me and strongly urged me to take him immediately to an emergency room in San Diego.  We are very thankful that we did that.  From the emergency room at UCSD he was transported by ambulance to Rady’s Children’s Hospital where he spent the night in the Intensive Care Unit.  This morning the nephrologist (kidney doctor) told us that he was in very serious condition.  While he looked pretty good on the outside his blood was so messed up on the inside that he literally could have dropped dead of a heart failure at any moment.

Emanuel has received a blood transfusion and other treatments.  Today he will have surgery to put a catheter (not a port) in his chest to facilitate dialysis.  When he gets to Portland they will start looking for a transplant donor.

Speaking of donors, today we received the good news that someone is donating the money to fly Juan and Emanuel to Portland so that they will arrive quickly at OHSU and so that they will not have to suffer my driving for two days.  I and my car, unfortunately, still have to suffer my driving.

Pray for the ability to fly to Portland sooner rather than later.

Pray for Emanuel’s health and eventual kidney transplant.

Pray that Emanuel’s mother will be able to get a visa to come and care for her son while dad gets back to work.

Pray for Emanuel and his Family

Emanuel Herrera was diagnosed with a serious kidney problem when he was just a couple years old.  In December of 2005, the doctors at Oregon Health Sciences University (OHSU) told his parents that his kidneys would eventually fail but that they would give him medicine that would postpone that failure as long as possible.  Faced with this prognosis and the possibility of a cure in Mexico, the family moved back to their home in Oaxaca in early 2006.

Emanuel showed good progress and about two years later his father, Juan, told me that the doctors thought that he was cured.  Emanuel had regular check-ups through the years, but about a couple years ago he again started showing symptoms.  His situation has gotten worse and this last Monday the doctor told Emanuel’s mother Vicki that his kidneys were failing and that there was nothing more he could do for Emanuel.

Vicki immediately called Juan, and Juan immediately called Jon, and Jon immediately told Juan he needed to go back to Mexico (immediately) and bring Emanuel back to OHSU.  We bought Juan a plane ticket and he flew do Oaxaca on Tuesday.  On Wednesday he visited the US consulate in Oaxaca and they promised to give him a Passport for Emanuel Thursday morning at 9:00 am.  Unfortunately, Juan was told that he would be able to fly himself because his own Mexican passport had expired.

So… the plan is that on Friday Juan and Emanuel will fly to Tijuana, Mexico.  They will take a taxi to the border and walk across where Jon will meet them and drive them back to Oregon.  The Mexican passport is only needed to fly internationally.  Juan’s permanent resident card is sufficient for a boarder crossing.

Please pray for:

      Emanuel’s health

      Peace for the whole family, especially Juan and Vicki

      No problems getting the passport

      Safe travels all the way to Oregon.

If you would like to help with the transportation expenses, you can send a donation to: ICDV, PO Box 240, Jefferson, OR  97352.  Juan has spent all his money on treatment for Emanuel so we are paying for this entire trip, trusting that God will provide the funds.

Thank you for praying for Juan

In my last update I asked you to pray for Juan Alvarez who has CML (Chronic Myeloid Leukemia).  There is no cure short of a bone marrow transplant but there is medicine that will keep CML in remission.  The problem is that the medicine costs $6,000 a month.  Our prayer request is that Juan could get aid to provide the medicine he needs.  

Thank you for praying!  This week Juan received his first month’s supply and is taking the medicine.  He has experienced no side affects which is great.  For the first three months Juan will be getting monthly blood draws to see if the medicine is working.  After that, assuming that it is, he will be getting blood draws every three months.  We just saw the doctor today and Juan’s next appointment is in April.

Juan wanted me to pass on his gratitude to you for your prayers.

One piece of bad news that the doctor gave us today: this medicine does not work in about 20% of all patients that receive it.  On the other side of news is the good news.  In a very small percentage of the people who receive this medicine the disease actually goes away over time.  So now you know what you can continue to pray for.